History of Russia
The war ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden sued for peace with Russia. Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, thus securing his coveted access to the sea. There, in 1703, he had already founded the city that was to become Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, as a "window opened upon Europe" to replace Moscow, long Russia's cultural center. Russian intervention in the Commonwealth marked, with the Silent Sejm, the beginning of a 200-year domination of that region by the Russian Empire. In celebration of his conquests, Peter assumed the title of emperor, and the Russian Tsardom officially became the Russian Empire in 1721.
Time of Troubles
Numerous histories have been written, as well. In 2001, Chester Dunning, a specialist in Russian history at Texas A&M University published the nearly 700-page "Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty". Twelve years in the research and writing, his work was a History Book Club selection published by the Pennsylvania State University Press. Dunning's thesis is that modern Russia begins in 1613 with the founding of the Romanov dynasty. He covers the Time of Troubles and their contribution to the founding.