On December 6, 1696, Peter I, Tsar of Muscovy, decided on a journey to the West. This imperial decision was a revolution for the Russians.
Indeed, under an imperial Ukase, it was forbidden to leave Russia, and anyone who defied this decision faced the death penalty for treason and excommunication pronounced by the Orthodox Church.
Russia was burdened by serfdom and lived in isolation. By this decision, the sovereign became a criminal in the eyes of the State and was in a state of mortal sin according to the church.
Peter I disregarded this and, with an embassy, left Russia on March 10, 1697. The Tsar set out to discover the West. Peter wished to modernize his country by learning from Western techniques, naval construction, architecture, and military art.
This first enlightening journey did not lead him to France yet. It was during a second journey that he went to France in 1717, arriving by sea in Dunkirk in April. The imperial entourage proceeded to Versailles and Paris. France and Russia mutually charmed each other.
Peter I, known as Peter the Great, by overturning a foolish law of isolation, provided his country the means for progress, for which today’s Russians are still grateful. Peter returned to Moscow, transferred his capital to the Neva, and Saint Petersburg would become the Venice of the North, serving as the window opening this vast country to the West.
In May 1782, the tsarevich, son of Catherine the Great, also traveled to France with his wife. The future Paul I met Louis XVI and embarked on a journey across France, possibly the first tourist, as he extensively visited our country and its architectural treasures.
When Alexander I came to us in 1814, he was not a guest; as the victor over Napoleon I, he entered Paris with his army, but tactfully did not behave as an occupier. Alexander I, along with other coalition members, debated the future of France, ultimately restoring the throne to the Bourbons.
Alexander II, invited by Napoleon III, arrived in Strasbourg on June 10, 1867. It was the year of the Universal Exposition.
France had become a republic when Nicholas II arrived in Paris in October 1896. An autocratic Tsar, an absolute ruler, visited a president of the republic. Félix Faure and Nicholas II laid the first stone of the Alexander III Bridge, one of, if not the most beautiful in Paris. Nicholas II would return in 1901, received this time by President Emile Loubet, to seal the Franco-Russian alliance.
Thanks to Peter the Great, who opened his country by breaking this ukase of isolation, Russia would henceforth rank among the world’s major powers.
Thierry Jan.
