[3] In 1692 Apraksin was appointed governor of Arkhangelsk, the foremost trade port of Russia at that time, and built ships capable of weathering storms, to the great delight of the tsar.

While Peter was combating Charles XII, Apraksin was constructing fleets, building fortresses and havens in South Russia, notably Tavrov and Taganrog.

Taking this Swedish fortress in June, he was invested with the Order of St. Andrew and appointed governor of the conquered provinces (Estonia, Ingria, and Karelia).

He commanded the Imperial Russian Navy in the taking of Helsinki (1713)—materially assisting the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea[5]—and the great Battle of Gangut (1714).

From 1710 to 1720 he personally conducted the descents upon Sweden, ravaging that country mercilessly, and thus extorting the peace of Nystad, whereby she surrendered the best part of her Baltic provinces to Russia.

Upon Peter's I death in 1725, his wife Catherine invested the ailing admiral with the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky and nominated him to the Supreme Privy Council, an exigence[clarification needed] of the Great Boyars of Russia headed by an influential member of a powerful family, Prince Dmitry Mikhaylovich Galitzine (1665–1737), Ambassador to Turkey and Poland–Lithuania.

These "Six Supreme dignitaries" constituting the initial Supreme Privy Council, namely Alexander Menshikov, Fyodor Apraksin, Gavrila Golovkin, Andrey Osterman, Peter Tolstoy, and Dmitry Galitzine brought about the recognition of Russian Empress Anna Ivanovna for the succession of the unfortunate boy Tsar Peter II, who died in 1730 aged 15 after only 3 years as a Tsar.

Apraksin's last expedition was to Revel in 1726, to cover the town from an anticipated attack by the British government, with whom the relations of Russia at the beginning of the reign of Catherine I were strained.