PETER I, THE GREAT (1672-1725), Tsar of Russia. Document signed ('Petr', in Cyrillic) to the inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia and all Christian peoples, Iavorov, 8 May 1711, in Russian, 38 lines on one page, oblong folio (320 x 380mm), inscribed 'No.2' on verso, papered seal (minor browning and wear).

PETER I, THE GREAT (1672-1725), Tsar of Russia. Document signed (\'Petr\', in Cyrillic) to the inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia and all Christian peoples, Iavorov, 8 May 1711, in Russian, 38 lines on one page, oblong folio (320 x 380mm), inscribed \'No.2\' on verso, papered seal (minor browning and wear).



Having declared war against the Ottomans in the previous year, Peter the Great, accompanying his army south, calls on the lords, hetmans, boiars and other Christians, Greeks, Serbs, Bulgars, Slavs and Albanians, and people of all ranks, to rise up against the oppression of Sultan Ahmet and his new ally \'the heretical Swedish King\', Charles XII. The proclamation lists at length the horrors of the Muslim yoke, the destruction of churches and restrictions on the Christian population, both Orthodox and Catholic, promising that his army will not harm the population, and that his victory will bring them freedom.



After secret negotiations with the Hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia, Peter had decided to invade the Balkan provinces of the Turkish empire, on the pretext of protecting the Christian population, but also to try to capture Charles XII of Sweden, who had found a somewhat restrictive refuge under the Sultan after his defeat by Peter at Poltava in 1709. The campaign was a failure for Peter, ending with a decisive defeat on the River Pruth on 18 July, and under the terms of the peace treaty Charles XII was granted safe passage back to Sweden. Published in The Letters and Papers of Emperor Peter the Great, vol.11 part 1 (Moscow, 1962), no.4440, pp.225-227, from a copy preserved in the Lenin Library, Moscow.