The Reign of Peter the Great. The newsletter highlights recent selections from the journal and useful tips from our blog. Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines.
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Forgot password? Reset your password ». By Iulia O. Basu-Zharku , Vol. Cite References Print. Endnotes 1. Iulia O. From the Inquiries Journal Blog. Related Reading History » Russian History. History » Russia. Comparing the Tsarist Russian and Soviet Empires. Political Science » Comparative Politics. History » Russian Civil War. Monthly Newsletter Signup The newsletter highlights recent selections from the journal and useful tips from our blog.
Follow us to get updates from Inquiries Journal in your daily feed. This paper examines the peasantry's response to modernization measures taken by Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the pursuit of modernity, the Tsarist Russian and early MORE ». For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat.
Although he was named a co-tsar in , at the age of ten, he did not become an independent and sole ruler until While Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name, his mother sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach. She arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in , but the marriage was a failure.
Ten years later Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union. By the summer of , Peter planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns.
After a power struggle, in which the Streltsy was forced to shift its loyalty, Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Yet Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power was instead exercised by his mother, Natalya Naryshkina. Peter implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia.
Heavily influenced by his advisers from Western Europe, he reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He also implemented social modernization in an absolute manner by introducing French and western dress to his court and requiring courtiers, state officials, and the military to shave their beards and adopt modern clothing styles.
One means of achieving this end was the introduction of taxes for long beards and robes in September The move provoked opposition from the boyars. To do so, he would have to expel the Tatars from the surrounding areas, but the initial attempts ended in failure. However, after the initiative to build a large navy, he officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog Sea of Azov.
Peter knew that Russia could not face the Ottoman Empire alone. In he traveled incognito to Europe on an eighteen-month journey with a large Russian delegatio—the so-called Grand Embassy—to seek the aid of the European monarchs. The mission failed, as Europe was at the time preoccupied with the question of the Spanish succession.
The rebellion was easily crushed, but Peter acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers. Over 1, of the rebels were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators. The Streltsy were disbanded. Although the Grand Embassy failed to complete its political mission of creating an anti-Ottoman alliance, Peter continued the European trip, learning about life in Western Europe.
While visiting the Netherlands, he studied shipbuilding and visited with families of art and coin collectors. From Dutch experts, craftsmen, and artists, Peter learned how to draw teeth, catch butterflies, and paint seascapes.
In England, he also engaged in painting and navy-related activities, as well as visited Manchester in order to learn the techniques of city building that he would later use to great effect at Saint Petersburg. Furthermore, in Peter sent a delegation to Malta to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet. Unlike most of his predecessors and successors, he attempted to follow Western European traditions, fashions, and tastes.
He also sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other. A statue of Peter I working incognito at a Dutch wharf, St. Peter the Great learned the shipbuilding craft in Holland in It was one of many skills that he acquired during his Western European trip. In order to modernize a socially and economically lagging Russia, Peter the Great introduced sweeping social, administrative, and economic reforms that westernized Russia to a certain extent, yet did not alter deeply feudal divisions in the increasingly authoritarian state.
By the time Peter the Great became tsar, Russia was the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast majority of the land was unoccupied, travel was slow, and the majority of the population of 14 million depended on farming. While only a small percentage lived in towns, Russian agriculture, with its short growing season, was ineffective and lagged behind that of Western Europe.
The class of kholops, or feudally dependent persons similar to serfs, but whose status was closest to slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until , when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs in Russia also remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.
Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. His visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He also commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing great upset among boyars , or the feudal elites.
Those who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles. Peter also introduced critical social reform. He sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, seeing the practice as barbaric and leading to domestic violence.
In , he changed the date of the celebration of the new year from September 1 to January 1. Thus, in the year of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was While their clout had declined since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Boyar Duma, an advisory council to the tsar, still wielded considerable political power.
Peter saw them as backwards and as obstacles standing in the way of Europeanization and reform. Early in his reign, Peter the Great managed to establish a foothold in the region with the conquest of the town of Azov on the Don River. However, it would be many decades before Russia could claim dominance of the vital Black Sea.
For current classes, programs, and exhibitions, please visit nypl. Under Peter's rule, Russia became a great European nation. The high taxes that often accompanied his various reforms led to revolts among citizens, which were immediately suppressed by the imposing ruler. Peter married twice and had 11 children, many of whom died in infancy.
The eldest son from his first marriage, Alexis, was convicted of high treason by his father and secretly executed in Peter the Great died on February 8, , without nominating an heir.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Peter III was emperor of Russia for a mere six months in before he was overthrown by his wife, Catherine the Great, and assassinated in
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