Also known as Peter the Great, Peter I ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire 1682 until his death in 1725, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother. Through a number of successful wars, he expanded the Tsardom into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, westernized and based on the Enlightenment. Peter’s reforms made a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of Russian government trace their origins to his reign.