Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1889)

13 -A/PTDericiiLx:.

AVILL OF PETER THE GREAT, FATHER OF RUSSIAN SHIP-

BUILDING.

The following is an authentic copy of the Will of Peter the Great, the first Emperor of Russia. This will is the supreme foundation and law of

Russian politics, since his time, and was confidentially deposited in the hands of the Abbe de Bervis, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1757, and also in those of Louis XV. A copy is also to be found in the diplomatic archives of

France, from which this translation is derived :

THE WILL.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

In the name of the most Holy and Indivisible Trinity, we, Peter, the

First Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, etc., to all our descendants and successors to the throne and government of the Russian nation :

God, from whom we derive our existence, and to whom we owe our crown, having constantly enlightened us by His spirit, and sustained us by

His Divine help, allow us to look on the Russian people as called upon here- after to hold sway over Europe. My reason for thus thinking is, that the

European nations have mostly reached a state of old age, bordering upon imbecility, or they are rapidly approaching it: naturally, then, they will be easily and indubitably conquered by a people strong in youth and vigor especially when this latter shall have attained its full strength and power.

I look on the future invasion of the Eastern and Western countries by the

North as a periodical movement ordained by Providence, who, in a like manner, regenerated the Russian nation by barbarian invasion. These emi j grations of men from the North are as the reflux of the Nile, which, at cer- tain periods comes to fertilize the impoverished lands of Egypt by its deposit.

I found Russia as a rivulet, I leave it a river : my successors will make of it a large sea, destined to fertilize the impoverished lands of Europe, and its waters will overflow, in spite of imposing dams erected by weak hands, if ou descendants only know how to direct its course. This is the reason I leave them the following instructions. I give those countries to their watchfulness and care, as Moses gave the Tables of the Law to the Jewish people.