Really. Peter the Great built a building dedicated to collecting all the jewels in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg where he lived. They are all rare treasures, and the world calls them the diamond library. Peter the Great, born in 1682, is an extraordinary monarch in Russian history. In order to make Russia catch up with the civilization and progress of Europe at that time, he challenged hundreds of years of ignorance and isolation, promoted great changes, dragged millions of people out of the dark ages, expanded Russia's territory and pushed Russia into the modern world.