Throughout history, almost every ruler had there own achievement or belief that they accomplished or tried to accomplish that could either benefit or bring misfortune to themselves and the people around them. Within this essay I will discus the positive and negative affects of Peter the Great and Ivan the terrible. In 1533, Ivan IV came to throne as a child, him and landowning nobles had disputes about power with in Russia. With in his years as a child nobles tried controlling him until he took full control of his powers as king. From 1547 – 1560 was Ivans good period when he won many victories for Russia and added to his land. But his bad period began 1560 when his wife died. He believed that nobles poisoned her so Ivan constructed a malicious police force with the objective of killing people Ivan considered traitors. Many nobles and the people associated them died. Eventually Ivan and his oldest son had fough, he killed his oldest son and heir. Three year later when Ivan died his weak son took the throne and brought Russia into turmoil. The result of all of these tragedies gave Ivan his new name as Ivan the terrible. From 1613- 1917 the Romanov dystany fix the mess that Ivan the terrible and his weak son made, and helped the new absolute ruler Peter I, shape Russia into a great powerful nation. Peter believed that the future of Russia was to have a warm water port like Europe so Russia could compete with Western Europe’s modern states. At the age of 24 Peter took a long visit to Western Europe known as the “Grand Embassy”. His trip to Europe inspired him to compete with Europe on a military and commercial level. He sought to westernize Russia bout he knew that he would go through struggles doing so because many of his people believed Russia did not need changing. As a result Peter Increased his power as an absolute ruler, he put the Russian orthodox churches understate control and replace the patriarch with the Holy Synod to