“Wherever we look, we always meet with this colossal figure, who casts a long shadow over our entire past...” — historian M. P. Pogodin wrote about Peter I 170 years ago. These words are still relevant today, especially if you add to them: “... and for the present.” For we live in a state, the foundations of which were laid by the first Russian emperor. We are the heirs of the culture, the impetus for the development of which was given by him. He made Russia a first-class military power, set tasks for the country that corresponded to the scale of his personality, and we bear this glory and this gigantic burden. However, the roots of the vices that we face today also go back to Peter’s era, primarily self-serving bureaucracy and corruption. The purpose and meaning of the publication offered to the reader is to give an objective picture of the activities of the great emperor against the backdrop of his era, to present the personality of the transformer in all its diversity, to demonstrate the integrity of the historical process, the connection of times. The book, which continues the series “Statesmen of Russia through the eyes of contemporaries,” includes memoirs, diaries, letters from both Russian contemporaries of Peter and foreigners who visited Russia in different years of his reign. The reader will find here texts that have not been reproduced since the 19th – early 20th centuries. The publication is equipped with an introductory article, notes and a name index.