I | INTRODUCTION |
Peter the
Great or Peter I (1672-1725), tsar and,
later, emperor of Russia (1682-1725), who is linked with the Westernization of
Russia and its rise as a great power.
II | EARLY LIFE |
Peter was born in Moscow of the second
marriage of his father, Alexis I, who ruled Russia from 1645 to 1676. Alexis’s
first marriage, to Maria Miloslavsky, had produced 13 children, but only two of
the sons, Fyodor and Ivan, both of them sickly, survived their father. After
Maria died in 1669 Alexis married Natalia Naryshkin in 1671, and Peter, a strong
and healthy child, was born the next year. Fyodor III succeeded his father as
tsar, but died without an heir in 1682. A bitter struggle for the throne between
the two families, the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins, ensued. The Naryshkins
gained an early victory: Supported by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox
Church, a majority in the boyar duma (Russia’s council of nobles),
and a gathering of the gentry (untitled landowners), nine-year-old Peter
was proclaimed tsar in April of 1682. Because of his youth, his mother became
regent, while her relatives and friends secured leading positions in the state.
However, as early as May, the Miloslavsky party, led by Alexis's able and
strong-willed daughter Sofia, Peter's half-sister, inspired a rebellion of the
streltsy, musketeers who made up Russia’s top military corps. The
streltsy in Moscow murdered leading members of the Naryshkin clique—Peter
witnessed some of these murders—and the Miloslavskys seized power. At the
request of the streltsy, the boyar duma declared Ivan senior tsar and allowed
Peter to be junior tsar. A little later, Sofia was made regent with the
justification that the sickly and feeble-minded Ivan was unable to rule.
From 1682 to 1689 Sofia and her associates
governed Muscovy, as the Russian state was then known, with Peter I, together
with the Naryshkin party, kept away from state affairs at the village of
Preobrazhenskoye. Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the regent's favorite, played a
particularly important role in Sofia’s government. An enlightened and humane
person who spoke several languages and arranged his own home and life in a
Western manner, Golitsyn cherished vast projects of improvement and reform,
including the abolition of serfdom (a system that bound agricultural laborers to
the land they worked) and the development of education on a large scale. He did
liberalize the Muscovite penal code, even if he failed to implement his more
ambitious schemes. But two disastrous campaigns against the Crimean Tatars, in
1687 and 1689, together with other accumulated tensions, proved to be his and
Sofia's downfall.
III | ACCESSION TO THE THRONE AND EARLY REIGN |
A new rebellion of the streltsy, this time
against Sofia’s regency, inspired a final confrontation between the Miloslavsky
and Naryshkin parties in August 1689. The rally in support of Peter was such
that Sofia capitulated to her brother. There were a few executions, Sofia was
sent to live in a convent, and Golitsyn and some of his associates suffered
exile. Peter, who had spent his early teen years away from the capital playing
at soldiering and learning about boatbuilding, was acknowledged as the real
ruler of Russia, although Ivan retained his position as co-tsar. Still, at 17,
Peter left state affairs to his mother and her rather reactionary clique.
Natalia Naryshkin's death in 1694 marked the true beginning of Peter's reign. In
1696 Ivan V died, and Peter formally became the sole occupant of the Muscovite
throne.
Very tall, tremendously strong,
fantastically energetic, and an intellectually precocious child, Peter received
no extensive systematic education, barely being taught to read and write.
Instead, from an early age he began to absorb information on his own and to
pursue a variety of interests. The quarter for foreigners in Moscow became his
favorite locale. There he learned from a variety of specialists what he wanted
to know most about military and naval matters, geometry, and the erection of
fortifications. There too, in a busy, informal, and unrestrained atmosphere, the
tsar apparently felt much more at ease than in the conservative, tradition-bound
palace environment, which he never accepted as his own. The smoking, drinking,
lovemaking, rough good humor, and conglomeration of languages that he first
discovered in the foreign quarter in Moscow became an enduring part of Peter's
life. He would always judge people not by their background, but by what they
knew and what they were able to do. As a result, throughout his reign his
assistants constituted a remarkably diverse group, ranging socially from the
old, established Russian aristocracy to able newcomers from lower classes and
including a great variety of foreigners.
The war games of Peter's childhood developed
over a period of years into a serious military undertaking. He had formed two
disciplined regiments of soldiers, known as the guards, from among his friends
while at Preobrazhenskoye. The guards would later become the elite core of a
new, modernized army. Similarly, the young tsar began building small vessels on
a nearby body of water, and as early as 1694 he had established a dockyard in
Arkhangel’sk and personally constructed a large ship there. A Russian navy was
being created literally from scratch. The determined attempt of Peter's mother
to make him change his ways in a more conventional direction by marrying him to
Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689 failed completely.
The first years of Peter's effective rule
brought more military surprises. Peter declared war against the Ottoman Empire
in 1695. After failing to capture the key fortress of Azov near the mouth of the
Don River by land, Peter built in one winter a fleet at Voronezh, a settlement
up the Don. Working indefatigably himself and ruthlessly driving everyone around
him, from foreign experts to Russian peasants, he managed to bring 30 seagoing
vessels and about 1000 transport barges to Azov in May 1696. Besieged by sea as
well as by land, the Ottomans surrendered Azov in July.
IV | THE GRAND EMBASSY |
Next, Peter organized a large delegation—the
so-called Grand Embassy—to visit a number of European countries. He was spurred
by the desire to form a mighty coalition against the Ottoman Empire, but also by
his intense interest in the West. In a most unusual act for a Muscovite ruler,
Peter traveled with the Grand Embassy himself. The party of approximately 250
men set out in March 1697. It was headed by Peter’s close Swiss friend and
associate, Franz Lefort, while the tsar himself journeyed incognito under the
name of Peter Mikhailov. His identity, however, was easy to discover, and it
remained no secret to the rulers and officials of the countries he visited or
even to the crowds that frequently gathered around him. The tsar engaged in a
number of important talks on diplomatic and other state matters.
Above all Peter tried to learn as much as
possible from the West. He seemed most concerned with navigation, but he also
tried to absorb other technical skills and crafts, together with the ways,
manners, and entire way of life of Europe as he saw it. As the Grand Embassy
progressed across the continent Peter also took trips of his own, most notably
to the British Isles, and obtained firsthand knowledge of Prussia, Holland,
England, the Habsburg Empire, and the Baltic provinces of Sweden. From Vienna
the tsar intended to go to Italy, but instead he rushed back to Moscow in the
fall of 1698 at news of a rebellion of the streltsy. During his 18-month trip
abroad, Peter recruited more than 750 foreigners, especially Dutchmen, to serve
in Russia. Experts in their fields, these artisans, doctors, and soldiers
continued their careers while training the Russians.
The streltsy, who had made a bid to depose
Peter in favor of Sofia, were defeated before Peter's return, but the tsar acted
with exceptional violence and severity. After investigation and torture, more
than 1000 streltsy were executed, with Peter himself performing as one of the
executioners. Their mangled bodies were displayed publicly as a salutary lesson,
and the streltsy were disbanded. Sofia was forced to become a nun, as was
Peter's wife, Eudoxia, who had sympathized with the rebels. Also, after
returning home the tsar demanded that courtiers, officials, and the military
conform to Western standards of appearance, ordering them to cut their beards
and wear Western-style clothing. With the beginning of the new century, Peter
changed the old Russian calendar to the Julian calendar used in the West;
henceforth years were to be counted from the birth of Christ, not the creation
of the world, and they were to commence on the first of January, not the first
of September.
V | LATER REIGN |
Before long, however, these and other reform
measures had to cede center stage to the prosecution of the Great Northern War
(1700-1721) against Sweden. Peter’s journey west did not result in a great
alliance against the Ottomans, but it led to one against Sweden. Russia fought
together with Denmark and the union of Poland and Saxony against Sweden to win
the Baltic coastline, the 'window into Europe,' and to break Swedish dominance
over the northern part of the continent. At the time, Sweden was considered to
have the best army in Europe and was led by the most famous commander, the
youthful King Charles XII. Thus, the war required utmost exertion from backward
Russia. It has been described both as the reason for Peter’s reforms and as
their main burden and limitation.
Crushed by the Swedes at Narva in 1700, Peter
modernized and transformed the Russian army, and the tide turned in the war. By
1703 the Russians had scored important victories against Sweden, and Peter
founded Saint Petersburg at the site of a former Swedish fortress on the eastern
shore of the Gulf of Finland. Russia destroyed invading Swedish forces at
Poltava on July 8, 1709, and, although the war lasted many more years, the
Swedes could not reverse its course. By 1714 Russian troops occupied most of
Finland, then a Swedish duchy. The new Russian Baltic navy, under Peter's direct
command, joined the army to defeat the Swedish fleet off Hangö and to carry the
war into Sweden itself. The Treaty of Nystad, concluded on August 30, 1721, gave
Russia Livonia, Estonia, Latvia, Ingria, part of Karelia, and certain islands,
although Russia returned the bulk of Finland and paid 2 million Swedish
rix-dollars. Russia obtained the Finnish borderlands located strategically next
to Saint Petersburg as well. At a solemn celebration of the peace settlement,
the Senate, which had been recently created to assist the tsar in governing the
country, prevailed upon Peter to accept the titles of Great, Father of the
Fatherland, and Emperor. His acceptance of the last title marked the official
inauguration of the Russian Empire.
During the Great Northern War, Peter also
mounted a rash campaign against the Ottoman Empire near the Prut River in 1711.
He was fortunate to make peace and extricate himself and his army at the cost of
abandoning Azov, some other southern gains, and his southern fleet to the
Ottomans.
VI | REFORMS UNDER PETER |
Internal reforms under Peter were generally
enacted under the pressure of war, usually in an ad hoc, disjointed manner.
Often the confusion they were designed to fix was made worse. Still, Peter's
reforming of Russia was by no means limited to hectic measures to bolster the
war efforts. Rather, he wanted to Westernize and modernize the entire Russian
government, society, and culture. Peter literally moved the capital west, from
Moscow to Saint Petersburg, in 1712. Even if he failed to overhaul all of
Russia, changes pointed more and more away from backward Muscovy and toward
borrowing from the West. Peter the Great was not a theoretician, but he had the
makings of a visionary.
Of the reforms, the modernization of the army
and the creation of the navy were among the most successful. In 1711, before
leaving on the Ottoman campaign, Peter created a Senate of 10 (later 11) members
to supervise all judicial, financial, and administrative affairs in his absence.
Upon his return it became a permanent institution, with a special high official,
the ober-procurator, serving as the link between the Senate and the
monarch, or, in Peter’s own words, as 'the sovereign's eye.'
In 1717 and the years immediately following,
Peter replaced Muscovy’s numerous and unwieldy governmental departments with new
agencies, called colleges. Originally nine in number, the colleges were councils
that served as the main agencies of the newly structured government, dealing
with such matters as foreign affairs, justice, and commerce. The group
leadership of each agency was meant to provide a variety of opinion and to deter
corruption. Town government also underwent major reform. In 1699 control of the
cities was shifted from appointed governors to locally elected officials.
Intended to stimulate the initiative and activity of the townspeople, the reform
failed in practice because of local inertia and ignorance. An even greater
failure was provincial reform, again very progressive and ambitious but totally
unrealistic. Peter divided the country into 50 gubernias (provinces), for
which he established a vast bureaucracy. A governor headed each gubernia and
answered to the Senate. The system provided more uniformity, but corruption and
confusion thrived within the new bureaucracy.
Peter was more effective at changing the
structure of the Russian Orthodox Church. His reforms were influenced especially
by church-state arrangements in the Lutheran states of Northern Europe. In 1721
a Holy Synod, or religious college, of 10, and later 12, clerics replaced the
patriarch at the head of the Orthodox Church. A secular official, the
ober-procurator, was appointed to supervise the synod for the ruler. Although
the emperor acquired no authority on questions of faith, the reform enabled the
government to exercise control over church organization, possessions, and
policies.
On the whole Peter had to accept Russian
society as it was, with serfdom and the economic and social dominance of the
gentry; he did not produce any revolutionary changes in the Russian economy.
However, Peter’s tremendous effort to make that society and economy serve his
purposes brought some lasting social results. To fund the wars and the building
of Saint Petersburg, taxation became extremely oppressive, with new taxes of
every conceivable kind proliferating. After a census was ordered in the early
1720s, a head, or poll, tax replaced the household tax and the tax on cultivated
land. Serfs and eventually even vagrants—individuals who had previously escaped
taxation because they did not own land or were not part of a household—were
subject to the new tax.
Under Peter, members of the service gentry,
landowners who held property in return for their service to the state, were
divided into classes. In 1722, Peter promulgated a system of ranks that
classified the gentry according to their level of service. This system, called
the Table of Ranks, listed in hierarchic order the 14 ranks to be attained in
the military, civil, and imperial court service. Promotion now depended on
ability and service to the state, not birth, which historically determined how
far one rose in Russian society. The Table of Ranks served as the foundation of
the imperial Russian bureaucracy and lasted, with modification, until 1917.
Peter’s war endeavors provided a strong
stimulus to the Russian economy, from mining and metallurgy, which supplied
armaments and ships for the army and navy, to the new textile industry. But
perhaps his most significant impact was in the broad field of education and
culture, where the Western orientation could never again be reversed. This
orientation began before Peter’s reforms, but it was Peter who made it state
policy and thus transformed an optional and slow process into a compulsory
official drive. In a sense, the Academy of Sciences, planned by the emperor and
inaugurated shortly after his death, remained his most appropriate
monument.
Peter died in February 1725 after a brief
illness, without using a new law, issued in 1722, giving him the right to
appoint a successor. His only son to grow to maturity, Alexis, had died in 1718
in prison in tragic and unclear circumstances after having been condemned to
death for treason against his father, whose views he never shared. The
reformer's semiliterate second wife ascended the throne as Empress Catherine I,
sponsored especially by Peter's most prominent assistant, Aleksandr Menshikov,
and the guards.
VII | EVALUATION |
Peter the Great was virtually
unconditionally admired, almost worshiped, in his native country by the educated
public during the Age of Enlightenment, which followed after his death and which
he had done so much to introduce. He then became a subject of argument in the
first half of the 19th century among such ideologists as the Westernizers, who
applauded Peter’s accomplishments, and the Slavophiles, who claimed he had
betrayed his country’s traditions with his reforms.
While historical studies provided a more
realistic context for understanding Peter the Great and his significance, his
figure remained immense in Russian literature and culture. Even Soviet Marxist
writing after the Russian Revolution of 1917 applauded the emperor. Soviet
historians de-emphasized the role of personality in history and stressed the
oppressive feudal nature of Peter’s reign, but they glorified his creation of
the navy, his military reform and victories, and the emergence of Russia as a
great world power. All Soviet schoolchildren were brought up on that dual, even
contradictory, interpretation. With the collapse of the Soviet state in 1991,
Peter the Great again became a magnet for a variety of different
evaluations.
No comments:
Post a Comment