After a major victory over Sweden in the Northern War, Tsar Peter I took the title of "emperor." If before that the country was called Moscow Russia, Moscow kingdom, Russian land or Russia, then from now on it was symbolically transformed into an "empire." Did this mean that there was some fundamental change in the development of the country? And if so, what exactly has changed? Didn't the empire exist before in the perception of the state elite? And what did the contemporaries of Peter I and his successors understand under the "empire"? Did this understanding lay the foundation for the imperial consciousness that exists today?