On 11 September 1703, Prince Menshikov founded the settlement of Petrovskaya Sloboda ("Petrine Sloboda"). He did so at the behest of Tsar Peter the Great, who needed a new iron foundry to manufacture cannons and anchors for the Baltic Fleet at the time of the Great Northern War (1700–1721). At first the foundry used the name "Shuysky zavod" (literally, "factory at the Shuya River"), but a decade later it became "Petrovsky zavod" ("Petrine factory"), after the name of the reigning monarch. From this form the present name of the city derives.