If you want to understand why Russia is still at the centre of European politics in 2026, don't look at Putin. Look at the man who created the very idea that Russia should be part of Europe in the first place - Peter the Great, the ruler who from 1696 to 1725 transformed a peripheral, fenced-off country into a serious European player.

Peter inherited a state on the brink of collapse. Internal wars, factionalism, a tsar cut off from trade routes. When he came to the throne at 24, he made three radical choices: access to the sea, modernising the army, and integration with European culture. All three lead to one symbol - Saint Petersburg, built right at the gateway to Europe in 1703.

The Great Northern War (1700-1721) delivered the results. Russia defeated Sweden and took the Baltic territories, fundamentally redistributing power in the region. The battle of Poltava in 1709 sealed the outcome - but not on the battlefield. It was sealed in the Swedish winter camps, where the cold killed troops before the weapons could. A lesson Napoleon and Hitler later had to relearn - the Russian winter is a tank made of snow.

What Peter did after the war is more interesting for the modern viewer. He reorganised the administration on a Western model, sent the Russian aristocracy to study in Holland and Britain, and ordered the boyars at court to shave their beards so they would look European. Not all the changes were peaceful - much of it happened by force and coercion. But the end result was inevitable: Russia was no longer a passive periphery. It became an active power on the European chessboard.

Every great Russian leader who came after - Catherine the Great, Alexander I, Stalin - built their politics on Peter's foundations. "Without him, the discussion of great Russian historical figures would never have happened," is the argument here. Translated: if Peter hadn't made those three radical choices at the start of the 18th century, Russia wouldn't be the actor everyone today is either trying to control, or trying to defend themselves against.

For the Balkan viewer, Peter is also a reminder of something else. Small nations - Macedonians, Serbs, Croats - often wait to be "noticed" in European politics. Peter didn't wait. He went in by force, by investment, by reform - and by purging anyone who resisted. This is not a recommendation about method (slapping boyars around isn't replicable). But it is a recommendation about direction: if you want to be part of European history, you have to make a conscious decision, not wait for Brussels to register your existence. Peter the Great showed this 320 years ago.