The Great Northern War

As Danielle explained in her post "Motivations for the Holocaust", Hitler was driven to eliminate the Jews by two main forces: his belief that the Jews were truly a lesser race and by his desire to WIN, his desire to demonstrate his power.

Hitler and Peter the Great were in sort of similar situations in terms of the international state of their country, for both Germany and Russia were isolated from the rest of the European powers. While the isolation of Germany was due to WWI and the Treaty of Versailles (1918) and that of Russia was more of a geographical isolation, in both cases, this isolation and consequent feeling of underestimation from the other European powers inspired Hitler and Peter the Great to prove the other European countries wrong and to demonstrate the true power of Germany and Russia (respectively). 

Whereas Hitler chose to demonstrate his power and unite the German people through the Holocaust, Peter the Great demonstrated his international power through the Great Northern War. This war was hugely significant in the reputation of Russia because it demonstrated Russian military power both internally and externally. There is something about a military victory that empowers and unites a country, and I think that, while Peter's military activity was fueled more by the desire to gain a powerful and strong reputation amongst the other European powers than the internal unity that it could provide, the Great Northern War (particularly the Battle of Poltava)  gained a reputation both internally and externally of strength.

The Battle of Poltava was very important in that it truly reflected Russian military and technological strength and ability--it demonstrated Russian modernism. In this battle, the Russians were prepared with more artillery and thus defeated the Swedes and gained the territory that would soon house St. Petersburg which consequently serves as a reminder of this Russian rise to power.