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60 free Peter the Great trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Peter the Great trivia quiz covers the tsar who dragged Russia into Europe by the beard, sometimes literally. The easy questions are the ones most people know: the city he founded on the Neva, the country he fought for two decades, his famous height, the tax on beards and the title he took in 1721. From there it moves through his strange upbringing as a boy co-tsar with a hole cut in the throne so his mother could whisper instructions, the toy army, the sister who ruled as regent, and the English boat he found on an estate. The harder end covers the Grand Embassy in detail: the fake name that fooled nobody, the four months in a Dutch East India Company shipyard, the stay in John Evelyn's house at Deptford, the monkey and the dwarfs he brought to London, and the Streltsy revolt that cut the trip short. It also goes into the Great Northern War, the disaster at Narva, the church bells melted for cannon, the Turkish nickname 'Mad Peter', the Governing Senate, the Table of Ranks, the drunken mock synod, his two wives and the death of his son Alexei. Every answer was checked against Peter's encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Catherine the Great and Russia quizzes carry the story on.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Peter the Great was the first ruler of Russia to hold which title, from 1721?
Emperor
Some proposed 'Emperor of the East', but he refused; only Poland, Prussia and Sweden recognised the new title at first.
Q 02With which half-brother did Peter reign jointly until 1696?
Ivan V
Ivan was acclaimed the senior tsar though he was weak-minded and nearly blind.
Q 03How old was Peter when the Boyar Duma chose him as tsar in 1682?
10
His mother was regent, and a hole was cut in the back of the throne so she could whisper to the boys.
Q 04What was cut into the back of the double throne used by the two boy tsars?
A hole, so their mother could whisper to them
She was literally behind the scenes.
Q 05Which half-sister ruled Russia as regent for seven years after the 1682 military revolt?
Sophia
Peter overthrew her in 1689 and forced her into a convent, where she gave up her name.
Q 06Which elite military corps rose in revolt in 1682, murdering some of Peter's relatives before his eyes?
The Streltsy
He disbanded them after a second uprising in 1698 and had 1,182 tortured and executed.
Q 07What did 16-year-old Peter discover on the Preobrazhenskoye estate that began his lifelong obsession with sailing?
An English boat
He had it restored and learned to sail; he also received a sextant he did not know how to use.
Q 08In which part of Moscow did the young Peter go looking for foreign experts and befriend Dutch carpenters?
The German Quarter
There he met Anna Mons, his mistress for over a decade, and Andrew Vinius, who taught him Dutch.
Q 09To whom did Peter's mother marry him off in 1689?
Eudoxia Lopukhina
Ten years later he forced her into a convent; she was later publicly flogged after their son's treason trial.
Q 10To which monastery did Peter flee by night in 1689 when warned of his half-sister's plot?
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
He gathered adherents there until the regent was overthrown.
Q 11How tall was Peter the Great reportedly?
6 ft 8 in
Contemporaries called him a second Goliath; on his incognito trip abroad, his height gave him away.
Q 12Peter worked his way up the naval ranks starting from which lowest rank in 1695?
Bombardier
He made captain in 1696, vice-admiral in 1714 and admiral in 1721, setting an example of service.
Q 13Which Ottoman fortress near the Don did Peter capture in July 1696 with his new Voronezh navy?
Azov
He had failed the previous summer; the fleet of about thirty ships made the difference.
What was the name of Peter's 18-month incognito journey to Western Europe from 1697?
Q 21King William III gave Peter a schooner with a full crew in exchange for what?
An English monopoly on the Russian tobacco trade
Peter also visited the Royal Mint four times, though it is unclear whether he met its warden, Isaac Newton.
Q 22How much was the annual tax Peter imposed on boyars who wished to keep their beards?
100 rubles
He also ordered courtiers to wear European clothing instead of caftans, outraging the Old Believers.
Q 23On 12 September 1698, Peter founded Russia's first naval base at which town on the Sea of Azov?
Taganrog
The Grand Embassy
He was the first tsar to leave Russia in more than a century.
Q 15Why did Peter's incognito disguise on his 1697 journey west fool nobody?
He was far taller than everyone else
The fake name mainly let him escape formal diplomatic events.
Q 16In which Dutch town did Peter arrive in 1697 to study shipbuilding, leaving after a week when recognised?
Zaandam
The log cabin he rented survives as the Czar Peter House.
Q 17For four months in Amsterdam, Peter worked in a shipyard belonging to which organisation?
The Dutch East India Company
He helped build an East Indiaman named Peter and Paul, laid down specially for him.
Q 18Which Delft microscopist gave Peter an 'eel viewer' in October 1697?
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
Peter also visited the anatomist Frederik Ruysch, who taught him to catch and preserve butterflies.
Q 19Peter's London entourage in 1698 included four dwarfs and what animal he had bought in Amsterdam?
A monkey
He also brought two clock makers, six trumpeters, a cook, a priest and 70 soldiers.
Q 20For three months in England, Peter stayed at Sayes Court in Deptford as the guest of which diarist?
John Evelyn
He also watched Parliament from a rooftop window and had an affair with the actress Letitia Cross.
That same year he sent a delegation to Malta to study the Knights' fleet.
Q 24When Peter adopted the Julian calendar in 1699, what year was it under the old Russian reckoning?
7207
He also moved New Year's Day from 1 September to 1 January.
Q 25When the office of Patriarch of Moscow fell vacant in 1700, what did Peter do?
Refused to name a replacement
In 1721 he abolished the patriarchate altogether and replaced it with a Holy Synod under a state procurator.
Q 26Peter's first attempt to seize the Baltic coast ended in disaster at which 1700 battle?
Narva
The Swedish king attacked immediately in a blinding snowstorm rather than laying siege.
Q 27After the defeat at Narva, what did Peter order melted down to make cannons and mortars?
Church bells
The Old Believers already regarded him as the Antichrist for his calendar changes.
Q 28Where exactly did Peter found Saint Petersburg on 29 June 1703?
Hare Island
He lived in a three-room log cabin while the city rose, and banned stone building elsewhere so all masons would work there.
Q 29To ensure enough stonemasons for his new capital, what did Peter forbid?
Stone buildings anywhere else in Russia
The first structures were a shipyard at the Admiralty, Kronstadt and the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Q 30Which Italian writer famously called Saint Petersburg the 'window to the West'?
Francesco Algarotti
The capital moved there from Moscow in 1712 and stayed until 1918.