ИСТИНА

The rule of Peter the Great was marked by many symbolic events, some of which symbolize an important transformation of the country into its new imperial form. Partly this transformation was related to (re)establishment of its western and eastern borders. The first was a result of the military victory in the Northern War, when the Russian State opened its way to the Baltic sea joining territories populated with very different in religion and culture peoples. Their integration created a serious political problem. The expansion eastwards faced problems of very different nature. Besides uncivilized tribes in Siberia the Russian State encountered in this direction with another powerful state, which also was seeking to redefine its imperial identity, the Qing Empire. Even though, in the difference to the victorious move westwards, in the East the Russian diplomacy and military forces were defeated, because of which they had to give up their claim for vast territory around the Amur River, the existence itself of the border in this region was important for the further imperial construction. The main thesis of this paper is that the astronomy and geography were more important here than diplomacy or army. Peter the Great clearly understood this, and if his first ‘Great Embassy’ was aimed on importation of western technologies, his second on was aimed on science, astronomy and geography in the first raw.