Incidents in the Navy During the Time of Peter the Great Through the Eyes of a Younger Contemporary (Using the Example of the Anonymous “Glorious History of the Northern War and the Life of Peter the Great”

Introduction. Handwritten collections of the 18th century, with historical content, provide rich material for a wide variety of studies of the Petrine era but remain insufficiently studied. Methods and materials. Among the narrative sources describing the history of the Russian fleet during the time of Peter the Great, a special place is occupied by the anonymous story entitled “The Glorious Northern War and the Life of Peter the Great.” The work is dated 1749 and, until recently, was known as a single list. The author of the article was able to discover a second list of anonymous histories. Analysis. Studying the text of this story made it possible to establish that it is a compilation, the main sources of which are “History of the Sveian War”, “Life of Peter the Great” by A. Katiforo, and “Discourse on the Causes of the Sveian War” by P.P. Shafirova. Moreover, the essay also contains the author’s text. Analysis of the author’s text allowed us to put forward the hypothesis that the author’s personality should be identified with a famous writer of the first half of the 18th century, P.N. Krekshin. Some of the stories contained in the history contain little-known details of extraordinary incidents in the Baltic Fleet during the Northern War. Result. The unknown history of P.N. Krekshin is given particular value by the fact that, in a number of cases, he was a direct witness to the administrative practice of Peter the Great’s time and sometimes even an executor of the orders of Tsar Peter. The article introduces for the first time into scientific circulation little-known and unknown data about the history of the Baltic Fleet during the time of Peter the Great.