ABSTRACT
Peter entered the war with high hopes and ambitions. He looked forward in the first place to the partition of the Swedish empire and the permanent gain by Russia of a substantial coastline on the Baltic, in Ingria and Karelia. To these, as territories held by former Russian rulers, he was confident that he had a moral claim. He also seems to have envisaged, at least as a possibility, drastic changes in the form of government in Sweden, forced on it by its enemies to make it less able to contemplate the recovery of its lost territories. The Swedish monarchy, so aggressive and expansionist throughout much of its history, might, he hoped, be abolished and replaced by a republic since ‘republics were less dangerous to their neighbours’. 1 He had already put forward ideas of this kind in his meeting with Augustus at Rawa; and his attitude foreshadowed the policy of systematically weakening both the Swedish and the Polish monarchies which was to be followed by every ruler of Russia, with considerable success, for half a century from about 1720 onwards.
