Nicolaus Copernicus

Copernicus was honoured by Poland when the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, established 1945, was named after him.
. Copernicus:.
. Goethe:. The Russian communists consider the modern era as beginning with Peter's reign, and being surpassed by the contemporary era with the October revolution. His reasons for doing so lay in his dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of the geocentric model, in his strong belief in the truth of the solution to the problem that he developed, its elegance and relative simplicity, and its coincidence with observation and with the classical ideals to which he had subscribed since his youth. His project for a canal to link the Baltic and the White Seas for both commercial and naval use was carried out under Stalin, for example, though in a haphazard manner with great loss of life and resulting in a militarily useless canal.

Although not holding ordained office within the Catholic Church, Copernicus was devout and unwilling to be openly defiant of the Church's teaching, but, in common with supporters of the Reformation, Copernicus was criticizing orthodox theory and belief. They looked to Peter the Great as a model to surpass, for they wanted to over-complete the modernization of Russia. Neo-Platonic and classical ideas formed the intellectual environment in which Copernicus worked. In the twentieth century, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union took it as its point of honor to surpass in every regard anything that any Tsar had ever done. In this discussion of Copernicus' reasons for discarding such a long-held belief as the geocentric cosmology of Ptolemy, we can see that the Copernican revolution was simmering against a background revolution of theological thought — the Reformation. No child would simply and directly succeed his or her parent until Paul followed Catherine the Great in 1796, over seventy years after Peter had died.
. His reverence for the sun can be seen in the most famous passage of de Revolutionibus:. Thereafter, inheritance of the Throne was generally chaotic—the next two monarchs were descendants of Peter I's half brother Ivan V, but the Throne was restored to Peter's own descendants through a coup d'état in 1741.

As far as Copernicus was concerned, the Sun, a distinctive element in classical thought, held the central and most important position in the universe, gave added credence to his cosmology. Upon her death in 1727, the Empress Catherine was succeeded by Aleksei's son, Peter II, bringing the direct male line of Romanov monarchs to an end. They might not have been ready to change to an understanding of the Bible as a source only of moral and spiritual, rather than scientific, wisdom. The lack of clear succession rules led to many succession conflicts in the subsequent "era of palace revolutions." Peter was succeeded by his wife Catherine, who had the aid of the imperial guards. For orthodox Catholics, the Copernican model of the universe might have seemed too radically different from the geocentric model, sustained as it was by its agreement with many scriptural references. A law of 1722 had allowed Peter to choose his own successor, but he failed to take advantage of it before he died from an illness in 1725. However, the lenient attitudes in Chelmno, where Copernicus carried out much of his work, began to change and might have contributed to Copernicus' isolation in the last years of his life. Peterhof (Dutch for "Peter's Court") was a grand residence, becoming known as the "Russian Versailles" (after the great French Palace of Versailles).

Both preferred, at least initially, to promote tolerance of differing views within the church rather than open discord, and both encouraged Copernicus' publication of his scientific beliefs. In 1725, construction of Peterhof, a palace near St Petersburg, was completed. Copernicus seems to have been benefited from the attitude of the bishops who were his superiors in the church - Johann Dantiscus and Tiedmann Giese. Aleksei's friends had also been tortured. "Mathematics", he says, "is written for mathematicians". Aleksei's mother Eudoxia had also been punished; she was dragged from her home and tried on false charges of adultery. In his own preface to his work, dedicated to Pope Paul III, Copernicus took care to point out that his motives for developing a cosmology that included a moving, rather than a stationary, Earth, were inspired by his dissatisfaction with the mathematical and astronomical descriptions of the geocentric model, and were not intended to defy the written Word. All of Peter's male children had died—the eldest son, Aleksei, had been tortured and killed on Peter's orders in 1718 because he had disobeyed his father and opposed official policies.

Not much more than a century later, Kepler had certainly despatched the circular orbits of the planets and replaced them with ellipses, but the Copernican heliocentric universe was still intact. In 1724, Peter had his second wife, Catherine, crowned as Empress, although he continued to remain Russia's actual ruler. However, its consistency with the observed behaviour of the universe in a time before the telescope made more detailed observation and the gathering of more accurate measurements practicable, gave the Copernican model its strongest support. The taxes on land on households were payable only by individuals who owned property or maintained families; the new head taxes, however, were payable by serfs and paupers. In his unauthorized and anonymous preface to de Revolutionibus, Andreas Osiander was technically correct when he made reference to "the hypothesis of this work". He abolished the land tax and household tax, and replaced them with a capitation. Until 1543, the year that Copernicus died, and the year in which his de Revolutionibus was published, and for many years afterwards, Copernicus' description of the motion of the Earth was not ratified by empirical evidence. Peter also introduced new taxes to fund improvements in Saint Petersburg.

Copernicus used the eccentrics, epicycles, and equants of Ptolemaic cosmology, but added three kinds of motion to describe the observed behaviour of the Earth:. The Table of Ranks continued to remain in effect until the Russian monarchy was overthrown in 1917. Elegance was a consequence of the overall simplicity of Copernicus' cosmology and much of this seeming simplicity resulted from his retention of circular orbits for the planets around the central Sun. In order to deprive the Boyars of their high positions, Peter directed that precedence should be determined by merit and service to the Emperor. Heraclides' description of the revolutions of Mercury and Venus around the Sun might have led Copernicus to consider that the other planets, including the Earth, did the same. Formerly, precedence had been determined by birth. Aristarchus (3rd century BC) proposed an openly heliocentric model of the universe. In 1722, Peter created a new order of precedence, known as the Table of Ranks.

Some of the ideas expressed by Philolaus (5th century BC) and Heraclides (4th century BC), proposed cosmological models in which the Earth moved. In 1721, he followed an advise of Feofan Prokopovich and erected the Holy Synod, a council of ten clergymen, to take the place of the Patriarch and Coadjutor. He was acquainted with ideas espoused by other classical authors. In 1700, when the office fell vacant, Peter had refused to name a replacement, allowing the Patriarch's Coadjutor (or deputy) to discharge the duties of the office. Copernicus' mathematical experience engendered in his thought a desire for a simpler and more elegant model of the universe. The traditional leader of the Church was the Patriarch of Moscow. His heliocentric universe theory accomplished this by dispensing with individual explanations for the motion of each planet, and replacing them with a description that applied to all the planets, including the Earth. Peter also reformed the government of the Orthodox Church.

In Copernicus' view, Ptolemy's explanation failed to provide an accurate mathematical description of the universe. Several rulers feared that Peter would claim authority over them, just as the Holy Roman Emperor had once claimed suzerainty over all Christian nations. This characteristic of the Earth's movement is apparent only with observation over long periods of time. In the minds of many, the word "Emperor" connoted superiority or pre-eminence over mere Kings. Precession is the phenomenon by which the Earth's axis "wobbles". (Some proposed that he take the title "Emperor of the East," but he refused.) His imperial title was recognized by Augustus II of Poland, Frederick William I of Prussia and Frederick I of Sweden, but not by the other European monarchs. Nor did the Ptolemaic model explain precession. In 1721, soon after peace was made with Sweden, he was acclaimed Emperor of All Russia.

The Ptolemaic geocentric model was complicated and inconsistent in Copernicus' estimations and observations, including one in 1497 of the star Aldebaran, that did not coincide with predictions made by Ptolemy. Peter's last marked by further reforms in Russia. The mathematical confusion that Copernicus said caused him to develop an alternative to the geocentric model derived from an inadequate reconciliation of the Aristotelian model and amendments to it by Ptolemy. The Tsar was, however, permitted to retain some Finnish lands close to Saint Petersburg, which he had made his capital in 1712. An accurate calculation of the astronomical year was important to a clergyman, like Copernicus, allowing him to forecast properly the various festivals that comprised the liturgical calendar. In turn, Russia paid two million Riksdaler and surrendered most of Finland. It maintained that all planetary motion, and the motion of the Moon, the Sun, and the stars was circular, around a stationary Earth. Russia acquired Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and a substantial portion of Karelia.

Ptolemy's model explained each planet's circular motion individually and was the first model of the universe to explain some of the eccentric behaviour of the planets. In 1721, the Treaty of Nystad ended what became known as the Great Northern War. The Earth-centered Ptolemaic cosmology had been the accepted model of the universe since the 2nd century BC. Sweden made peace with all powers but Russia by 1720. There is evidence that his interest in these subjects continued after he had left Kraków. Still, Charles refused to yield, and not until his death in battle in 1718 did peace become feasible. At the University of Kraków, which he attended in 1491 and 1492, Copernicus studied both mathematics and astronomy in common with all university students of that time. Peter also obtained the assistance of Hanover and the Kingdom of Prussia.

He was well educated. The Tsar's navy was so powerful that the Russians could penetrate Sweden. Copernicus' lived in early 16th century Prussia and Poland, and was influenced by the cultural, religious, and social contexts of life at the time. Most of Finland was occupied by the Russians in 1714. More recent philosophers also have found Copernicanism to remain valid and retain valuable philosophical meaning. Peter's northern armies took the Swedish province of Livonia (the northern half of modern Latvia, and the southern half of modern Estonia), driving the Swedes back into Finland. Immanuel Kant, for instance, caught the symbolic character of Copernicus' revolution (of which he put in evidence the transcendental rationalism) postulating that human rationality was the real legislator of observed phenomena. In return, the Sultan expelled Charles XII from his territory.

Some say "the" revolution [1]. Peter's campaign in the Ottoman Empire was disastrous; in the ensuing peace treaty, Peter was forced to return the Black Sea ports he had seized in 1697. Copernicus' innovation was a scientific revolution. Peter, however, mistrusted the Boyars; he abolished the Duma and created a Senate of ten members. This contrasts with Aristotle's system, which placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses. Normally, the Boyar Duma would have exercised power during his absence. One of the consequences of Copernicanism is that scientific laws must not necessarily coincide with appearance. Peter foolishly attacked the Ottomans in 1711.

Accordingly some find that Copernicanism demolished the foundations of mediaeval science and metaphysics. Charles fled to the then-neutral Ottoman Empire, where he tried to convince the Sultan, Ahmed III, to help him in a renewed campaign. Immanentism also leads into subjectivism: the theory that perception creates reality, and that there is no underlying, true, reality that exists independent of perception. In Poland, August II was restored as King. However, Copernicanism also opened a way to immanence, the view that the divine force, or the divine being, pervades through all things that exist, which has been developed further in modern philosophy. Peter reaped the benefits of years of work on improvements to the Russian army, inflicting almost ten thousand casualties and afterwards capturing what remained of the Swedish army. When his work was published, it contradicted then accepted religious dogma: the suggestion being that there is no need for an entity (God) that from outside could give a soul, a power and a life to the World and to Human beings when science can explain everything attributed to Him. Charles then found Peter much more aggressive, and the battle both yearned for took place at Poltava on 27 June.

His academic standing is often compared with Galileo Galilei. In the summer of 1709, they nevertheless resumed their efforts to capture Ukraine. His work cut across science and religion, dogmatism and freedom of scientific investigation. Thus, the Swedes became incapable of capturing Russian supplies, and suffered in the bitterly cold winter of 1708–1709. Many meanings have been seen in his theory, quite apart from its scientific value. Skillfully, Peter withdrew southward, destroying any Russian property that could assist the Swedes along the way. Many authors suggest that only Euclid's geometry, Darwin's Evolution, or Newton's physics could have a similar influence on human culture in general and on science in particular. Charles refused to retreat to Poland or back to Sweden, instead invading Ukraine.

Copernicus' theories have an extraordinary relevance in the history of human knowledge. Deprived of this aid, Charles was forced to abandon his proposed march on Moscow. The fifth and the sixth books contain the concrete exposition of the new system. In the Battle of Lesnaya, however, Charles suffered his first ever loss after Peter crushed a group of Swedish reinforcements marching from Riga. The fourth book contains a similar description of the Moon and its orbital movements. After crossing into Russia, Charles defeated Peter at Golovchin in July. The third book is mainly dedicated to the apparent movements of the Sun and to related phenomena. Charles XII turned his attention to Russia, invading it in 1708.

The second book is mainly theoretical and reports the principles of spherical astronomy and a list of stars (as a basis for the arguments developed in the following books). Following several defeats, the Polish King August II abdicated in 1706. The first book contains a general vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his idea on the World. Martha converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Catherine, allegedly marrying Peter in secret in 1707. It was dedicated to Pope Paul III, and is divided into 6 books. He also took Martha Skavronskaya as a mistress. The major work of Copernicus, "On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres" (1543), is the result of decades of labor. He forbade the building of stone edifices outside Saint Petersburg — which he wanted to become Russia's capital — so that all the stonemasons could participate in the construction of the new city.

Main article: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.. As the Poles and Swedes fought each other, Peter founded the great city of Saint Petersburg (named for Saint Peter the Apostle) in Ingria (which he had captured from Sweden) in 1703. These propositions represent the exact contrary of what the dominant geocentric propositions stated. Confident he could beat Peter at his leisure, Charles ignored these campaigns, and continued to wage war primarily in Poland and Saxony. The Copernican system can be summarized in seven propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them in a Compendium of De revolutionibus that was found and published in 1878:. Peter improved his own army, conquering modern Estonia. Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus produced, however, the first observational evidence for Copernicus' theory. Russia could not meaningfully participate for years, and Charles meanwhile concentrated on Poland and Saxony.

The system nevertheless had a large influence on scientists such as Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler, who adopted, championed and (especially in Kepler's case) improved the model. Russia turned out to be ill-prepared to fight the well-trained Swedes, and their first attempt at seizing the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva in 1700. Furthermore, he badly underestimated the size of the solar system, like most of the astronomers of the time. Sweden was also opposed by Denmark, Norway, Saxony and Poland. Unfortunately, uniform circular motion is not what happens in the solar system, which runs on elliptical orbits; and this model was no more precise in predicting ephemerides than the then current tables based on Ptolemy's model. Peter declared war on Sweden, which was at the time led by the sixteen-year old King Charles XII. With this change his system had only uniform circular motions, correcting what seemed to be a defect in Ptolemy's system. He sought to acquire control of the Baltic Sea, which had been taken by Sweden a half-century earlier.

This is the main source of the statement that his system had even more epicycles than Ptolemy's. Peter made peace with the Ottoman Empire and turned his attention to Russian maritime supremacy. He also replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with epicycles. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the purported creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ. He added another motion to the Earth, by which the axis is kept pointed throughout the year at the same place in the heavens; from the time of Galileo it has been recognized that for it not to point to the same place would be a motion. In 1699, Peter also abolished the traditional Russian calendar, in which the year began on 1 September, in favor of the Julian calendar, in which the year began on 1 January. He also gave a clear account of the cause of the seasons: that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. Boyars who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual tax of one hundred rubles.

He arrived at the correct order of the known planets and explained the precession of the equinoxes correctly by a slow change in the position of the Earth's rotational axis. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to cut off their long beards and wear European clothing. Copernicus held that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed sun once a year, and turning on its axis once a day. Peter's visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. This book marks the beginning of the shift from a geocentric (and anthropocentric) universe with the Earth at its center. [1]. Copernicus' major theory was published in the book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in the year of his death 1543, even though he had arrived at it several decades earlier. Sheremetyev also investigated the possiblity of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base.

See also discussion about Copernicus' nationality. In 1698, Peter sent a delegation to Malta under boyar Boris Petrovich Sheremetyev, to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet. The search for the body of Copernicus will continue in 2005. The Tsaritsa had borne Peter three children, although only one—the Tsarevich Aleksei—had survived past his childhood. They found, however, several interesting graves from various time periods. He divorced the Tsaritsa, Eudoxia Lopukhina, whom he had deserted long earlier. However, a group of archaeologists searching for the body of Copernicus in 2004 failed to find the corpse of the astronomer. Also, upon his return from his European tour, Peter sought to end his unhappy marriage.

Copernicus was buried in the Frombork Cathedral. The streltsy were disbanded, and the individual they sought to put on the Throne—Peter's half-sister Sophia—was forced to become a nun. He allegedly awoke from his stroke induced coma, looked at his book, and died peacefully. Over 1200 of them were tortured and executed, with Peter acting as one of the executioners. Legend says that the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was put in Copernicus's hands the same day of his death, so that he could say goodbye to his opus vitae. Peter nevertheless acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers. Under the strong pressure from Rheticus, and having seen that the first general reception of his work had not been favorable, Copernicus finally agreed to give the book to his close friend Tiedemann Giese, (the bishop of Kulmerland Chelmno Land, to be delivered to Rheticus for printing at Nuremberg. The rebellion was, however, easily crushed before Peter returned; of the Tsar's troops, only one was killed.

In 1542, in the name of Copernicus, Rheticus published a treatise on trigonometry (later included in the second book of De revolutionibus). His visit was cut short in 1698, when he was forced to rush home by a rebellion of the streltsy. Rheticus became a disciple of Copernicus' and stayed with him for two years, in which he wrote a book, Narratio prima, in which he included the essence of the theory. He studied shipbuilding in Deptford and Amsterdam, and artillery in Königsberg. Philipp Melanchthon had arranged with several astronomers for Rheticus to visit and study with them. In visiting England, the Holy Roman Empire and France, Peter learnt much about Western culture. Copernicus was still completing his work (even if he was not convinced to publish it), when in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus, a great mathematician at Wittenberg, directly arrived in Frauenburg. The Grand Embassy, although failing to complete the mission of creating an anti-Ottoman alliance, still continued to travel across Europe.

The cardinal Nicola Schoenberg of Capua wrote him asking him to communicate his ideas more widely and requested a copy for himself; "Therefore, learned man, without wishing to be inopportune, I beg you most emphatically to communicate your discovery to the learned world, and to send me as soon as possible your theories about the Universe, together with the tables and whatever else you have pertaining to the subject." Some have proposed that this note may have made Copernicus nervous of publication whereas others have suggested that the church wanted to ensure that his ideas were published. Peter, furthermore, had chosen the most inopportune moment; the Europeans at the time were more concerned about who would succeed the childless Spanish King Charles II than about fighting the Ottoman Sultan. From many parts of the continent, Copernicus received invitations to publish it, but he felt quite apprehensive of persecution for his revolutionary work by the establishment of the time. Peter's hopes were dashed; France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman Sultan, and Austria was eager to maintain peace in the east whilst conducting its own wars in the west. In 1536 his work was already in a definitive form, and some rumours about his theory had reached the scientists of all Europe. In 1697, he traveled to Europe along with a large delegation of advisors—the "Grand Embassy"—to seek the aid of the European monarchs. In 1533 Albert Widmanstadt delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. Peter knew that Russia could not face the mighty Ottoman Empire alone.

During the war between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland (1519–1524) Copernicus successfully defended Allenstein (Olsztyn) on the head of royal troops besieged by the troops of Albert of Brandenburg. He launched about thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year. From there he continued gathering evidence for a more detailed work. Peter returned to Moscow in November of that year, and promptly began building a large navy. In 1514 he made his "Commentariolus"—a short, handwritten text describing his ideas about the heliocentric hypothesis—available to his friends. In the summer of 1695, Peter organized the Azov campaigns in order to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure. During these years he also travelled extensively on government business and as a diplomat, on the behalf of the Prince-Bishop of Warmia. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov, near the Don River.

It was at this time that Copernicus came up with one of the earliest iterations of the theory now known as Gresham's Law. He was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Copernicus worked for years with Prussian diet on monetary reform and published some studies about the value of money; as a governor of Ermland, he administered taxes and dealt out justice. Peter instead attempted to acquire control of the Caspian Sea, but to do so he would have to expel the Tatars from the surrounding areas. Throughout his lifetime he made astronomical observations and calculations, but always in his spare time and never as a profession. The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden. Some time before his return to Warmia, he had received a position at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław, Silesia, which he held for many years until he resigned a few years prior to his death, when he progressively became ill. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea.

Having left Italy at the end of his studies, he came to live and work in Frombork. To improve his nation's position on the seas, Peter sought to gain more maritime outlets. His collection of observations and ideas on the theory started in 1504. He faced much opposition to these policies at home, but brutally suppressed any and all rebellions against his authority. It has been supposed that it was in Padua that he gained access to those passages of Cicero and Plato about the opinion of Ancients on the movement of the Earth, having the first intuition of his theory. Heavily influenced by his western advisors, Peter reorganized the Russian army along European lines and dreamt of making Russia a maritime power. As soon as he reached this town, he asked and obtained permission to return to Italy to complete his studies in Padua (with Guarico and Fracastoro) and in Ferrara (with Bianchini), where in 1503 received his doctoral degree in canon law. Early in his reign, Peter implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernising Russia.

He would have then visited Frombork only in 1501. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696. Copernicus went to Rome, where he could observe a lunar eclipse and where he gave some lessons of astronomy or mathematics (unfortunately, nothing of this remains to us). Formally, Ivan V remained a co-ruler with Peter, although he was still ineffective. In 1497 his uncle was ordained the bishop of Warmia and Copernicus was named a canon in the Frombork cathedral, but he waited in Italy for the great Jubilee of 1500. It was only when Nataliya died in 1694 that Peter became truly independent. The first observation Copernicus made in 1497 together with Domenico Novara, are recorded in De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Power was instead exercised by his mother, Nataliya Naryshkina.

He followed his lessons and became a disciple and assistant. Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. However, while studying canon and civil law at Ferrara, he met his teacher Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, a famous astronomer. She was therefore overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-Tsars. His uncle financed his education and wished for him to become a bishop as well. Unfortunately for Sophia, a rival faction of the streltsy had already been plotting against her. After four years and a brief stay in Toruń, he moved to Italy, where he studied law and medicine at the universities of Bologna and Padua. When she learnt of his designs, Sophia began to conspire with the leaders of the streltsy.

This science soon fascinated him, as his books (stolen by Swedes during The Deluge, and now in the Uppsala University Library) show. By the summer of 1689, Peter had planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by the unsuccessful campaigns in The Crimea. In 1491 Copernicus entered the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and here he encountered astronomy for the first time, thanks to his teacher Albert Brudzewski. The marriage was an utter failure, and ten years later Peter forced her to become a nun and thus freed himself from the marriage. A sister, Barbara, became a Benedictine nun and the other sister, Katharina, married a businessman and city councillor, Barthel Gertner. Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt a less unconventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689. His brother Andrew became canon in Frombork (German: Frauenburg). The ships he built were used during mock battles.

His maternal uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a church canon and later the Prince-Bishop governor of Warmia (German: Ermland ), raised him and his three other siblings after the death of Copernicus' father. He engaged in such pastimes as ship-building and sailing. Little is known of his mother, Barbara Watzenrode, but she appears to have predeceased her husband. Peter, meanwhile, was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his own name. He was ten years of age when his father, a wealthy businessman and copper trader, died. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. His father Nikolas, a citizen of Cracow (at that time the capital of Poland), moved there in 1460 and became a respected citizen of Toruń as well, once the war with the Teutonic Knights was over. Sophia acted as Regent during the minority of the two Sovereigns and exercised all power.

Copernicus was born in 1473 in the city of Toruń (German: Thorn) in Polish Royal Prussia. Sophia insisted that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint Tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as the senior of the two. . The memory of this violence may have caused trauma during Peter's later years. His theory affected many other aspects of human life as well, opening the door to young astronomers everywhere to challenge the dogmas and never take anything at face value. In the subsequent conflict, many of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered—Peter even witnessed the butchery of one of his uncles by a mob. His theory about the Sun as the center of the solar system, turning over the traditional geocentric theory (that placed Earth at the center of the Universe), is considered one of the most important discoveries ever, and is the fundamental starting point of modern astronomy and modern science itself (it inaugurated the scientific revolution). But one of Aleksei's daughters by his first marriage, Sophia Alekseyevna, led a rebellion of the Streltsy (Russia's élite military corps).

Astronomy was actually a byproduct, a hobby of his. Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the ten-year old Peter to become Tsar, his mother becoming regent. His main occupations and services rendered were in Royal Prussia as church canon, governor and administrator, jurist, astrologer and as a doctor. Properly, Ivan was next in the line of succession, but he was an invalid and of infirm mind. Nicolaus Copernicus (in Latin; Polish Mikołaj Kopernik, German Nikolaus Kopernikus); February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory of the solar system in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful. Fyodor III's uneventful reign ended within six years; as Fyodor did not leave any children, a dispute over the succession between the Naryshkin and Miloslavskyi families broke out. Precession — the axial wobble mentioned earlier that explains why the position of the fixed stars seems to change over long periods of time. Fyodor is a more proper rendition of the name--though the variant "Feodor" often appears--the Russian Cyrillic equivalent being Фёдор, the second letter of which [ё] takes the sound "yo." (It should be noted passim that one very rarely sees the form ё in print, the dieresis almost always being omitted--leaving a bare e--unless the vehicle is a primer with a target audience of young children who have not yet learned to read.).

Daily rotation — the motion around a tilted axis that results in day and night. (Note the confusion in this article--in the vein of the preceding [since corrected] misspelling of Alekseyevich in Russian Cyrillic characters--over spelling conventions. Annual motion — the yearly orbit around the Sun. Aleksei I went on to have two further daughters by Nataliya Naryshkina--Anna, who died in her twenties, and Elizabeth, who took the throne of Russia 1741-1761, before dying in 1676, to be succeeded by his eldest surviving son, who became Fyodor III. These movements of the Earth and of the other planets around the Sun, can explain the stations, and all the particular characteristics of the planets' movements. Alexei I had previously married Maria Miloslavskaya, having five sons and eight daughters by her, although only two of the sons—Feodor and Ivan—were alive when Peter was born. The Earth (together with its Moon, and just like the other planets) moves around the Sun, so the movements that the Sun seems to be making (its apparent moving during daytime, and its annual moving through the Zodiac) are nothing else than effects of the Earth's real movements. Peter, the son of Aleksei Mikhailovich of Russia and his second wife, Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, was born in Moscow.

The daytime movement of the Sun is only apparent, and represents the effect of a rotation that the Earth makes every 24 hours around its axis, always parallel to itself. . The distance between the Earth and the Sun, compared with the distance between the Earth and the fixed stars, is very small. Peter was an extraordinarily tall and powerful man, at six foot seven inches (2.04 meters), with large, green and ambitious eyes that showed his desire and desperation to turn Russia into the great modern Empire that it once was. (Copernicus was never certain whether the Sun moved or not, claiming that the center of the World is 'in the Sun, or near it.'). Senate Chancellor Golovkin added "the Great, Father of His Country, Emperor of All the Russias" to Peter's traditional title Tsar following a speech by the archbishop of Pskov in 1721. All the planets move along orbits whose center is the Sun, therefore the Sun is the center of the World. Peter carried out a policy of "Westernization" and expansion that transformed Russia into a major European power.

The center of the Earth is not the center of the Universe, but only the center of the Earth's mass and of the lunar orbit. Peter then ruled alone until 1724, whenceforth he ruled jointly with his wife, Yekaterina I. Orbits and celestial spheres do not have a unique, common, center. Known as Peter the Great (Пётр Великий, Pyotr Velikiy), he was at first a joint ruler with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V, who died in 1696. Peter I (Пётр I Алексейевич in Russian, or Pyotr I Alexeyevich) (10 June 1672–8 February 1725 [30 May 1672– 28 January 1725] O.S.¹]) ruled Russia from 7 May (27 April O.S.) 1682 until his death. Caesaropapism.

Peter the Great and the Russian Empire. Peterhof - Peter the Great's summer palace.