14th of 16 children
Peter the Great was the 14th of his father's 16 children, making him easy to overlook in the political succession.
Snapshot · Fin vs History
The Timeless Comedy of Baking Dwarves Into Pies | Peter The Great
Explore episode
Jul 27, 2026
Where this was said
It's A Whole Team
At 5:49 · chapter starts 3:33
With the banter settled, Horatio sketches the backdrop: when Peter the Great is born in the 1680s, Russia is still called Muscovy — a landlocked, river-linked backwater of fur trappers and slavers, nowhere near the European great powers. The hosts try to place the period chronologically, landing somewhere after the English Restoration but before anyone cares. Horatio drops the fascinating aside that Moscow identifies itself as the Third Rome in Orthodox theology — after Rome itself and Constantinople — explaining why Russian religious culture feels so distinct and so grimly accepting of suffering. Fin crystallises the difference: British stoicism is 'bad things will happen, we'll get through it'; Russian Orthodoxy is 'bad things are happening, brilliant, I love it.' [1] — Fin Taylor "Bad things will happen, we'll get through them. Russia, bad things are happening, brilliant, and I'm fucking loving it. I'm hard for the ba…" 06:54
Russia's early name: Muscovy
When Peter the Great was born, what is now Russia was called Muscovy — a landlocked Viking slave state centred around Moscow.
Moscow: Third Rome concept
Russian Orthodox theology holds that Moscow is the Third Rome, following Rome itself and Constantinople, giving Russia a distinct religious identity from both Catholic and Protestant worlds.
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