Peter the Reformer

[alexander]

One of my history papers dealt with the reforms the czar Peter The Great imposed on the Russian people, sharing is everything, so here you go

Peter Alexeyevich Romanov, was the last son from the second marriage of Alexei Mihailovich Romanov, born in Moscow. When his father died in 1676, young Peter was only 4 years old, his oldest brother Fyodor the third became the successor to the throne for the 6 years to follow. Fyodor did not leave any children, as he died, the fight for the throne between the Miloslawski and Narishkin families broke out only to be settled by the the council of Boyar Duma, which selected, then a 10 year old Peter, to take the throne of the Russian Empire as it proclaimed Peter, Czar, with his mother as a regent. Alexei's daughter, Sophia started a rebellion (of the Streltsy), as a result of much bloodshed, many of Peter's relatives were killed, this was to shape Peter's character for the rest of his life, as well as leaving a traumatic mark in his past.
Sophia ruled as an autocrat in Peter's name for about 7 years, young Peter however did not mind such happening as it gave him time to spend in the German sloboda; a section of Moscow where foreigners could reside, engaged in mock ship battles with his own built ships as well as sailing along the Moscow river. In 1689 Peter overthrew his half-sister, forcing her to reject her position and royal name, and and gave the throne to his mother, Natalya Narishkina, and only after her death in 1694 Peter finally becomes the ruler, and yet not the only czar, as his brother Ivan was still alive, but was incapable of ruling, he however died in 1696, so Peter was left as not only the ruler, but also the czar of the Russian Empire.
Peter knew that he wanted to change Russia; from very early on he saw the advantages of European systems over Russian, heavily influenced by seamen and traders from different European countries, Peter wanted more then anything to reform the Russian army, but with no plans of any kind, and facing many oppositions, he brutally repressed every uprising due to his earlier experiences in life, everyone involved got punished. Peter was beginning to regain czar power and thus further promoting and improving Russian autocracy.
Peter many times traveled outside of Russia and all throughout Europe, he was especially interested in improving the Russian navy. By 1697 Peter sent out many young Russian nobles to study nautical matters in the main ship-building countries in Europe in hopes of bringing back specialists capable of designing and building ships that would rival that of any other navy in the world, as well as teaching them European manners and traditions. To further extend his Europeanization, he changed the calendar from the traditional Russian calendar which began on September 1st and the year enumeration began from the approximated beginning of the world, in favor of the Julian calendar that was used in Europe and starts on January 1st and counts years after the birth of Christ, at the same time as the world was moving to Georgian calendar which is set 13 days forward from the Julian.
After making peace with the Ottoman empire, Peter turns his abrupt attention to the posed problem of finding new trade routes with Europe, Peter needed a so called window to Europe, and he could not find a better spot then the delta of the Neva river, which resided in the newly acquired territory from the Fins. The position of the fort which peter named after St Peter and Paul, was a strategic move, just up the river, near a curve on an island (Hare island), just where the 2 parts of the Neva river that contact the Gulf of Finland come together. To further his Europeanization of Russia, Peter contacts a few architects to propose a plan to build a European city in Russia, eventually Peter settles for a plan proposed by Domenico Trezzini, designed like Venice with broad streets and wide open spaces, combined with the elegance of huge buildings, cathedrals and palaces, as well as an Admiralty, which is to become one of the first Russian naval academies, Peter was building a capital.
The gulf is also a great place to start building ships, surrounded by rich marshlands, there is plenty of wood available for a large scale ship building operation. Peter then furthers his attempt to enlarge his army, by instituting a sort of draft; he passes a law that requires any settlement of over 20 households to send one draftee to the army per 20 households in the settlement. Peter needed further funding for his large scale projects such as St. Petersburg, so he went off to modify Russian tax structure to a per capita system, where taxes were collected per head. The power of the Russian army grew ever stronger, crushing Swedes at Poltava on June 27, 1709, Peter continued driving Swedes back in Ukraine, and later in 1714, Peter captures Livonia (northern part of modern Latvia), Ingria, Estonia, and Russians were already occupying most of Finland, thanks to Peter's now powerful navy, he was able to crush Swedes in the sea, as well as on land. The Northern war was ended at the treaty of Nystad, that made Russia give back most of occupied Finland, except for some parts surrounding the newly proclaimed, in 1712, capital of Russia, Saint Petersburg. On October 22, 1721, Peter was proclaimed and recognized as the Emperor of All Russia, title that finally gave Peter the power of an Absolute Monarch, signifying success of Peter's stride to yet again regain power over all Russian people.
Peter ruled mercilessly, but to explain more about his personality, I should mention Peter's tremendous strength, he was able to roll up metal plates, which he commonly demonstrated at parties he had at the Petergof Palace, he commonly used the nobility to his amusement, after drunken parties in Petergof, he would make them ride semi-domesticated horses with no saddles or stirrups for his own amusement. The Czar also liked to entertain himself with curing soar teeth by pulling them, in fact the bag of teeth he pulled from the nobles and serfs alike is still showcased in the Kunstcamera museum in St. Petersburg.
Peter's reforms did not only touch his power and army, he declined to nominate the new Patriarch of Moscow in 1700, it was not a favorable solution for the church, so after much disputes, and Peter felt that the church took power away from him, so in 1721, following the advise of Fiofan Prokopovich he created the Holy Synod, a selection of ten clergymen who formed a council that was to replace the position of the Patriarch and Coadjutor, who is a Patriarch's deputy. Following his Church reforms, Peter decided to create the order of precedence, that would decide the rank of a person by merit and service to the Emperor, at the same time depriving Boyars of much of their power, this system remained in place until 1918, when monarchy was overthrown by the Bolshevik revolution.
So where, if at all did Peter fail in his reform in Russia. Well, it is hard to decide, as there was no defined plan to begin with, there was just a dream, and to as much as we know, Peter fulfilled most of his goals, not to the extent he might have wanted, but certainly a big push in that direction. His real failure can be summed up in the explanation of the building the capital city.
Peter spent massive efforts on building his city, that was based on the swamp, a city based on small islands at the mouth of the Neva river, his fortress required massive amounts of wooden poles to be driven into the ground to support a massive fortress, with 30-36 foot high and up to 60 feet thick walls with some outer wall sections made of granite. In about 1713 Peter decided that the city was going to build three churches, exchange centers, shops, colleges as well as private houses, that every noble man had to build, depending on his wealth. At one point in time, there was so much stone needed for the construction of the city that Peter disallowed the erection of any stone buildings in the rest of Russia, punishable by banishment. But then one day the czar decided that he would be better off by moving the trade and main settlement to Kronstadt, an island just into the Gulf of Finland, so again, every province had to erect giant stone buildings that nobody lived in and fell into ruins some years later. Then the city was engaged into building the Admiralty and the Summer Garden on the slightly higher ground so that they would be more protected from the flooding of the river, and yet again, nobility back to the city, new places to build homes, and once again, mandatory. In his last years, yet another idea came to Peter's mind, to make another Amsterdam, so all streets needed to be replaced by canals, and the city was moved to the Vasilyev Island, which was in its entirety given to his highnesses right hand, Menshikov. And that failed as nobody dug any real deep canals, so eventually they got polluted filled in with dirt. As Miliukov promptly notes “Peter dies, and the building that had started was abandoned. The houses fell into disrepair and served merely as the butt of jokes: in other countries time creates ruins, but in Russia we build them on purpose...”
That kind of outlines Peter's character in the reforms, there are many, much of them are of intrinsic nature, endless repetition of the destruction and recreation, an never-ending source of life, and inability to fail in his plans as there just aren't any. Acts of extreme wastefulness, both resource and mental are foreshadowed by their creativity and new ways of thinking, merely outline Peter's abilities as an excellent ruler, yet everything, the violence, the random movement, individuality, all had to be there to make this special kind of reform not seem a miracle. In overtaking the power from the Boyars, the members of ancient aristocracy, and suppressing any opposition, Peter, in 25 years reforms every prospect of life for the Russian people.

Bibliography:

A. G. Dickens (Ed.). The Courts of Europe : Politics, Patronage and Royalty 1400-1800. McGraw-Hill, 1977.
P. N. Miliukov, Ocherki po istorii russkoi kul’tury(Outlines of the History of Russian Culture) (Moscow, 1995)
L. A. Nikiforov, Encyclopedia Britannica 2002 edition.
R. Wilde, The Creation of St Petersburg
R. K. Massie, Peter the Great: His Life and World (Knopf, 1980)

[Freddy]

Did Peter force the Orthodox clergy to shave their beards, which caused much dissent? Was this when the controversy over the proper "sign of the Cross" with using two or three fingers erupted? I remember my Russian History professor saying that Russia could not make up its mind whether it was a predominantly European or Asian country. Peter moved Russia far to the west.

[alexander]

Peter didn't much care for the church, he was not a religious person and in fact he liked to make fun of the clergy. However Peter did not make priests or peasants to shave off their beards, infact to this day Russian priests wear long beards and it is still a custom for them to do so.
As to the sign of the cross, while i am not aware of the sign of the cross controversy, well i am, but it was not really as big as other reforms. To this day Russians use both two and three fingers to sign the cross. The split of the Russian religion happened in the middle of the XVII century, those who didn't agree with the reforms of patriarch Nikon. In 1653 beginning with the great fast Nikon, in an effort to more integrate Greek orthodox into the church to make it easier for pagans to switch, cancelled the use of two fingers in the sign and said that now three fingers are to be used for the task. Although that was somewhat controversial, and started a small movement, the separation really didn't happen till after 1654, when Nikon decided that all church texts were going to be changed to be fully similar to old Slavic and Greek books, and that would not have been bad, if the implementation did not happen using newly printed texts from Kiev and Greece. So the church split old beleivers are still called "староверы" [staroveri] and the new beleivers are called "нововеры" [novoveri]. Peter did however push for the new beleiver movement quite hard, he wanted people to change, as he wanted everyone to become more modern...

[Freddy]

Before Peter's reign, in the late 17th century Patriach Nikon made reforms to the Orthodox Church. This resulted in a schism with those rejecting the reforms being called the "Old Believers" and those who embraced the reforms becoming "New Believers". The OB kept the two finger sign of the cross, while the NB used the three finger method. According to my old Russian history professor this was a huge controversy. Nikon also changed the liturgy and the spelling of Jesus' name. I guess some people take their religion way to seriously.

Peter failed to allow the bishops to elect a new patriach when old one died in 1700. Peter appointed his trusted friend and bishop to head the church thus making himself head of the church.

Peter required nobles to shave their beards, although the Boyers could pay 100 rubles to keep their beard.

http://experts.about.com/e/o/ol/Old_Believers.htm

[alexander]

that is about what i said
not only that, peasants and people from outside russia could have beards too, but there was a tax to be paid to get into cities and people were appointed to collect it, referring to the "one kopek" tax. Also however the fact that peter did not allow for the election of a new patriarch is correct, and russia spent something like 20+ years without one, if if am not mistaken Peter was forced to allow for a new patriarch election.
Yes he was in the head of the church... But he was peter, basically if he wanted to do something he would get it done.
Also, I have never taken a course in Russian history in US

[Freddy]

The office of Patriach was abolished by Peter and replaced by a 10 member ruling council.

From Wikipedia:
"In 1700, following Patriarch Adrian's death, Peter the Great prevented a successor from being named, and in 1721, following the advice of Feofan Prokopovich, he established the Holy and Supreme Synod to govern the church instead of a single primate (cf. Caesaropapism). This was the situation until shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917..."

[alexander]

yes, yes i recall, he built the building for synod in St Petersburg. He was being forced to elect a new partiarch, however he chose not to in favor of a governing body for church, the Synod...

Sounds about right now

[nutronjon]

Why is this man called Great? What did he do for the people? It appears to me his ego prevented him from being a great ruler. I think one of the greatest problems the world faces today is a standard that considers men like this great.

Now if he had modernized mining and industry, and built the infrastructure of Russia, he could have manifested wealth, and set his country on the path that would have made it rival the US. He fell far short of a great leader.

[alexander]

First of all it is simply wrong to compare Russia to US, the two countries are so utterly different, it is simply wrong to do so!

There are many reasons the Peter is called Great, the biggest of which is that he was Peter I, and anyone who is the first is the Great by definition, look at tzar Alexander I or Alexander the Macedonian (also called Alexander the Great or alexander the first, though there was no second really), Charles the Great, etc, any ruler that is the "First" is also the "Great"

I have a pong question back at you, following your logic, we should also not call Ivan IV - "the Terrible", Maximillian I - "The Last Knight", Jesus - "God", nor you - "neutronjon".

The thing is that Peter was a great king, perhaps in some aspects not as good as Ivan IV, Napoleon, Stalin or Hitler, but in others surpassing them both, and it seems that you lack the knowledge of Russian history, necessary to understand why indeed he was a good king for Russia at the time. Oh wait i can already hear it coming "Hitler, blah, blah, Nazi, blah, death, Napoleon, blah, blah, killed, blah, conquered, Ivan IV, blah, son, blah, executed, blah" great rulers in all cases, case and point.

If mining is the only reason why you don't see peter as a good ruler, then you are very mistaken, my friend, but do make an argument... (oh um, move it to peter the great thread, i will post a reply there too)

[nutronjon]

I have been listening to a tape about Russian history, so that I might be better informed for this thread. For sure, I do not know enough about the people of Russia. Where do you suggest I get better information? It appears their culture lead them to be very cooperative people. Perhaps their environment caused this?

As I understand, they were invaded by Vikings and then Mongols, but I do not have enough information to understand the effect of these invasions, except they appear to have lead to tolerance of cruel rulers? The conditioning of their environment and cooperative nature, leaving them poorly prepared to fight off invaders who are cruel rulers? Please notice, it is not my intention to argue, but to question and explore.

I am glad you mentioned Hitler because I consider him a great leader, and struggle with this paradox of thinking of someone who is also a terrible leader as a great leader. Think deeply and you realize I am not arguing, but questioning our values when we call these men Great, and I conclude- as long as we think of these men as Great leaders, we will have leaders like Hitler and Bush, and McCain (?) and this means wars, and this is not a good thing. Can we have great leaders who are not also men of war? Is there something in our nature that makes us choose leaders who are apt to lead to us to war? McCain said he doesn't understand economic issues. Bush, boosted he doesn't think much before taking action, and he has proven this. Yet, both men have gotten a lot of support as war leaders. What does this say about us? Like in Russia the leader could kill all opposition, and they had mind boggling power over the people, but in the US we are following war leaders who are economically ignorant and have little understanding of the rest of the world! Why are we calling these men Great?