Peter decrees the establishment of the Saint Petersburg State University on January 28, 1724.
He also establishes in this year the St. Petersburg Mint, which will centralize coinage in Russia and begin to produce different kinds of badges and medals used for decorating.
The campaign along the parched shores of the Caspian had obviously put a great strain on Peter's health, already undermined by enormous exertions and also by the excesses in which he occasionally indulged himself.
Peter, whose overall health has never been never robust, had earlier this winter begun having problems with his urinary tract and bladder.
A team of doctors in the summer of 1724 performs the necessary surgery releasing upwards of four pounds of blocked urine.
Peter remains bedridden until late autumn.
Restless and certain he is cured in the first week of October, he begins a lengthy inspection tour of various projects.
Peter has his second wife, Catherine, crowned as Empress, although he remains Russia's actual ruler.
All of Peter's male children have died—the eldest son, Alexei, had been tortured and killed on Peter's orders in 1718 because he had disobeyed his father and opposed official policies.
Alexei's mother Eudoxia had also been punished; she had been dragged from her home and tried on false charges of adultery.
A similar fate had befallen Peter's beautiful Dutch mistress, Anna Mons, in 1704.
Peter and Catherine have an estrangement over her support of William Mons (the handsome brother of Peter's former mistress and secretary to Catherine) and his sister Matryona Balk, one of Catherine's ladies in waiting.
Peter has fought his entire life a somewhat hopeless battle to clear up corruption in Russia.
Catherine has a great deal of influence on who can gain access to her husband.
Mons is promoted to the rank of imperial chamberlain on Catherine’s crowning, and he and his sister have begun selling their influence to those who want access to Catherine and through her Peter.
Apparently this is overlooked by Catherine, who is fond of them both.
Peter finds out, has Mons apprehended on charges of peculation (embezzlement) and betrayal of trust and, after a brief and brutal inquest by Pyotr Tolstoy, the head of the Secret Chancellery, has him publicly drawn and quartered on November 16.
His sister, who had been publicly flogged during her brother's trial, is exiled.
Peter and Catherine will not speak for several months.
Rumors fly that she and Mons had had an affair, but there is no evidence to support this.
