Peter the Great

Peter I accepts the title Emperor of All Russia

The peace treaty was read aloud first. Then the Senate asked Peter to accept three new titles, and the cannon answered.

2 November 1721: a thanksgiving service at Trinity Cathedral

At Trinity Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 2 November 1721, the Treaty of Nystad was read aloud during a thanksgiving celebration, after which Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich preached a sermon praising Peter's reign and his wartime leadership.

Russian records date the ceremony 22 October 1721, under the Julian calendar then in use. 2 November is the Gregorian equivalent of the same day.

The Senate's request

Chancellor Gavriil Golovkin, speaking for the Governing Senate and the estates of the realm, formally asked Peter to accept the titles Father of the Fatherland, Peter the Great, and Emperor of All Russia.

Peter accepted. He did not proclaim himself: the Senate and Holy Synod had jointly decided to offer the titles and petitioned him to take them.

Vivat, and then the guns

The Senate and the crowd acclaimed him with three cries of "Vivat", answered by trumpets, drums, cannon and musket fire. The official account says 125 galleys joined the salute.

The imperial title and the corresponding name Russian Empire replaced the state's former tsardom-era styling. Foreign recognition of Peter's new rank remained incomplete.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1721-11-02.

What the sources leave uncertain

Russian records date the ceremony 22 October 1721 under the Julian calendar then used in Russia. That corresponds to 2 November 1721 in the Gregorian calendar.
English translations vary between “Emperor of All Russia,” “Emperor of All the Russias” and “All-Russian Emperor.”