[4] Having graduated from the Artillery and Engineering school in Moscow, he took part in the 1700–1721 Great Northern War with Sweden.

In the service of Peter the Great he gained a prominent post in the Foreign Office, which he used to oppose the policies of the Supreme Privy Council and support Anna's ascension to the Russian throne in 1730.

Feeling that the Russian historiography had been neglected, he discovered and published several legal monuments of great interest, e.g., Russkaya Pravda and Sudebnik of 1550.

[5] However, American historian Edward C. Thaden (1986) said this criticism was somewhat exaggerated, given his knowledge of German and Polish, but poor understanding of French and Latin; nevertheless, his military and administrative training and experience did bring him some expertise in those fields.

[5] Russian historian Nikolay Karamzin (1766–1826) called all unsourced or poorly sourced claims by Tatishchev "inventions" and "fantasies".

[3] It is also true that he could never tell a genuine work from a fake,[citation needed] and some incidents inserted in his history could have been products of his own fancy.