He had a huge impact on Russia, he traveled Europe before his ruling and this influenced his reign. He militarily and culturally modernized Russia, pulling it out of the Medieval era. He centralized the government, and changed much of the administrative system loosely based on the Swedes. Education had a great leap because of him for example, the schools of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Navigation and Maths were founded. Russia’s first newspaper was created, "the Vedomosti".

He created the Russian navy, meaning that Russia was now a maritime power. But Russia had hardly any ports and could not have a sufficient presence on the high seas because of this, with the Baltic blocked by Sweden, the Caspian by the Ottomans and the Black sea by the Crimean Tartars. He secured many ports from the Ottomans, the most famous being "Azov" in 1695, securing many victories to new Navy.
Russia now needed a strong army, not a bunch of Villagers drawn together when Russia needed it.

The creation of the first standing army was credited to him in 1699, a heavily trained fighting force, which became a feared fighting force. The new army won many battles against the Swedish empire and secured Russian holdings in the Baltic coast. After Peter decided a new captial was needed, St. Petersburg was created and became a thriving city.

Basically, he created a series of aggressive political, domestic and foreign reforms which turned Russia from a backwards medieval country into the new superpower in the east.