Peter the Great and sexually transmitted diseases.

Shortly after syphilis appeared in Europe at the time of Columbus' voyage to the New World, the big pox, as it was often known, became a serious issue in Russia for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Members of the Russian royal family were made aware of the disease from adolescence onward. Czar Peter the Great had many sexual contacts and could have contracted any number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that were quite common in his era. Nevertheless, contributions analyzed from available sources by his contemporary doctors, and later from medical analyses, reveal no evidence that he had contracted syphilis or any other STD. Most likely, he died from acute renal failure due to urinary tract obstruction.