Peter ascended to the throne at the age of 10 in 1682; he ruled jointly with his half-brother Ivan V. After Ivan's death in 1696, Peter started his series of sweeping reforms. At first he intended these reforms to support the Great Northern War of 1700-1721; later, more systematic reforms significantly changed the internal structure and administration of the state.
Background
During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), which dominated most of Peter's reign, Russia, along with a host of allies, seized control of the Baltic Sea from Sweden and gained considerable influence in Central and Eastern Europe. The war, one of history's costliest at the time, consumed significant financial and economic resources, and the administrative system Peter had inherited from his predecessors strained to gather and manage resources.[1] During his Grand Embassy (Russian: Великое посольство, Velikoye posol′stvo), Peter conducted negotiations with a number of European powers to strengthen his position against Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, and his exposure to the more developed nations of Western Europe motivated him to take steps toward turning Russia into an industrial economy. Despite Russia's vast size and considerable natural resources, a number of factors, including corruption and inefficiency, hampered economic growth. Peter believed that targeted reform could not only strengthen his hold on power, but increase the efficiency of the government, and thus better the lot of his people.
Another major goal of Peter's reform was reducing the influence of the Boyars, Russia's elite nobility, who stressed Slavic supremacy and opposed European influence. While their influence 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 backward, standing in the way of Europeanization and reform. He specifically targeted the boyars with numerous taxes and obligatory services, including a tax on beards.
Like most of Russia's legal system at the time, Peter's reforms were codified and articulated in a series of royal decrees (Russian: указ, ukaz, literally "imposition"), issued chiefly between 1700 and 1721.
Administrative reform
Prior to Peter's rule, Russia's administrative system was relatively antiquated compared to that in many Western European nations. The state was divided into uyezds, which mostly consisted of cities and their immediate surrounding areas; this system divided the population unevenly and was extremely clumsy to manage. In 1708, Peter abolished these old national subdivisions and established in their place eight governorates (guberniyas): Moscow, Ingermanland, Kiev, Smolensk, Archangelgorod, Kazan, Azov, and Siberian.[2] Another decree in 1713 established Landrats (from the German word for "national council") in each of the governorates, staffed by between eight and twelve professional civil servants, who assisted a royally-appointed governor.
Peter's distrust of the elitist and anti-reformist Boyars culminated in 1722 with the creation of the Table of Ranks (Russian: Табель о рангах; Tabel' o rangakh), a formal list of ranks in the Russian military, government, and royal court. The Table of Ranks established a complex system of titles and honorifics, each classed with a number (I to XIV) denoting a specific level of service or loyalty to the Tsar. The origins of the Table of Ranks lie in Russia's military ranking system, which was also significantly modified and revised under Peter's rule.
The establishment of the Table of Ranks was among the most audacious of Peter's reforms, a direct blow to the power of the Boyars which changed Russian society significantly. Previously, high-ranking state positions were hereditary, but with the establishment of the Table of Ranks, anyone, including a commoner, could work their way up to the bureaucratic hierarchy with sufficient hard work and skill. A new generation of technocrats soon supplanted the old Boyar class and dominated the civil service in Russia. With minimal modifications, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Finance and trade
Fighting the Great Northern War required unprecedented economic resources, and Russia's yawning budget deficit and aging infrastructure meant that the state could not effectively allocate resources and money in wartime. Peter's government was constantly in dire need of money, and at first it responded by monopolizing certain strategic industries, such as salt, vodka, oak, and tar. Peter also taxed many Russian cultural customs (such as bathing, fishing, beekeeping, and wearing beards) and issued tax stamps for paper goods.[3] However, with each new tax came new loopholes and new ways to avoid them, and so it became clear that tax reform was simply not enough.
The solution was a sweeping new poll tax, which replaced a household tax on cultivated land. Previously, peasants had skirted the tax by combining several households into one estate; now, however, each peasant was assessed individually for a tax of 70 kopeks, paid in cash. This was significantly heavier than the taxes it replaced, and it enabled the Russian state to expand its treasury almost sixfold between 1680 and 1724.[4] Peter also pursued proto-protectionist trade policies, placing heavy tariffs on imports and trade to maintain a favorable environment for Russian-made goods.
Monetary reform
Peter also instituted a monetary reform that introduced copper coinage to Russia and reduced the amount of silver in a ruble from 40 grams (1.3ozt) to 28 grams (0.90ozt). This devalued ruble was equivalent to the contemporary thalers used in other European nations at the time.[5] Five Moscow mints — four controlled by the Grand Treasury[ru] and one by the Naval Chancellery[ru] — produced the new coinage in the first decade of the 1700s.[6] Fully in place by 1704, the reformed system expressed traditional Russian accounting values in actual coins: polushka (1/4 kopek), denga (1/2 kopek), altyn (3 kopeks), grivna (10 kopeks), poltina (50 kopeks) and ruble (100 kopeks).[7] With the revaluation of the ruble, Russia saw the value of its currency cut in half when trading with other nations. For example, in 1707, British envoy Charles Whitworth noted that 110 kopeks was equivalent to 1 British crown (or 5 shillings) where previously 1 ruble was worth 10 shillings.[8]
Class structure
Peter's reign deepened the subjugation of serfs to the will of landowners. He firmly enforced class divisions, believing that "just as the landowner was to be tied to service, the townsman to his trade or handicraft, so the peasant was tied to the land."[9] Peter endowed estate-owners to broad new rights, including a requirement that no serf leave his master's estate without written permission. Furthermore, Peter's new tax code significantly expanded the number of taxable workers, shifting an even heavier burden onto the shoulders of the working class.
A handful of Peter's slightly more progressive reforms imitated Enlightenment ideals; he did, for example, create a new class of serfs, known as state peasants, who had broader rights than ordinary serfs, but paid dues to the state. He also created state-sanctioned handicraft shops in large cities, inspired by similar shops he had observed in the Netherlands, to provide products for the army. Evidence even suggests that Peter's advisers recommended the abolition of serfdom and the creation of a form of "limited freedom" (a reality that did not come to pass until two centuries later).[10] Nevertheless, the gap between slaves and serfs shrank considerably under Peter, and by the end of his reign the two were basically indistinguishable.
On the 22 February 1711 a new state body was established by ukaz—The Governing Senate (Russian: Правительствующий сенат). All its members were appointed by Tsar Peter I from among his own associates and originally consisted of 10 people. All appointments and resignations of senators occurred by personal imperial decrees. The senate did not interrupt the activity and was the permanent operating state body.
On 12 December 1717 Peter I established nine collegia or boards which replaced old Prikazs. Each collegium had a President and Vice-President, but some Vice-Presidents were never appointed.
Peter's reforms set him apart from the Tsars that preceded him. In Muscovite Russia, the state's functions were limited mostly to military defense, collection of taxes, and enforcement of class divisions. In contrast, legislation under Peter's rule covered every aspect of life in Russia with exhaustive detail, and they significantly affected the everyday lives of nearly every Russian citizen.[12] The success of reform contributed greatly to Russia's success in the Great Northern War; the increase in revenue and productivity increased the strength of the Russian war machine. More importantly, however, Peter created a "well-ordered police state"[13] that further legitimized and strengthened authoritarian rule in Russia. A testament to this lasting influence are the many public institutions in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, such as Moscow State University, which trace their origins back to Peter's rule.
Catherine II, most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. Under her long reign, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Russia experienced a renaissance of culture and sciences, which led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.
Peter I, commonly known as Peter the Great, was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter was an absolute monarch who remained the ultimate authority. His methods were often harsh and autocratic.
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Moldavia and Wallachia, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were second only to the ruling princes, grand princes or tsars from the 10th to the 17th centuries.
A duma is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.
Alexei Mikhailovich, also known as Alexis, was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676.
The Table of Ranks was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in 1722 while engaged in a struggle with the existing hereditary nobility, or boyars. The Table of Ranks was formally abolished on 11 November 1917 by the newly established Bolshevik government. During the Vladimir Putin presidency a similar formalized structure has been reintroduced into many governmental departments, combined with formal uniforms and insignia: Local Government, Diplomatic Service, Prosecution Service, Investigative Committee.
The oprichnina was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia between 1565 and 1572. The policy included mass repression of the boyars, including public executions and confiscation of their land and property. In this context it can also refer to:
History of Russia (1721–96) is the history of Russia during the Era of Russian palace revolutions and the Age of Catherine the Great. It began with creation of Russian Empire in 1721, the rule of Catherine I in 1725, and ended with the short rule of Peter III of Russia.
The Russian nobility or dvoryanstvo arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members in the Russian Empire.
Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773–1775 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in the Russian Empire after Catherine II seized power in 1762. It began as an organized insurrection of Yaik Cossacks headed by Yemelyan Pugachev, a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army, against a background of profound peasant unrest and war with the Ottoman Empire. After initial success, Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the late Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom. This organized leadership presented a challenge to the imperial administration of Catherine II.
The Moscow uprising of 1648, sometimes known as the salt riot, started because of the government's replacement of different taxes with a universal salt tax for the purpose of replenishing the state treasury after the Time of Troubles. This drove up the price of salt, leading to violent riots in the streets of Moscow. The riot was an early challenge to the reign of Alexei I, eventually resulting in the exile of Alexei's advisor Boris Morozov.
The Sobornoe Ulozhenie was a legal code promulgated in 1649 by the Zemsky Sobor under Alexis of Russia as a replacement for the Sudebnik of 1550 introduced by Ivan IV of Russia. The code survived well into the 19th century, when its articles were revised under the direction of Mikhail Speransky.
Count, then Prince Nikolay Ivanovich Saltykov, a member of the Saltykov noble family, was a Russian Imperial Field Marshal and courtier best known as the tutor of the eventual Tsar Paul I of Russia and his two sons, Constantine and Alexander.
The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721.
A beard tax is a governmental policy that requires men to pay for the privilege of wearing a beard. The most well documented beard tax was in place in Russia during the 18th century.
The Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia, also translated as Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, was the official title of the Russian monarch from 1721 to 1917.
Collegium of Little Russia was an administrative body of the Russian Empire in the Hetmanate created for the first time by the ukase of Peter the Great on May 27, 1722 in place of the Little Russia Prikase.
Peter the Great became the new Tsar of Russia in 1682 and ruled until 1725. During his rule, Peter brought many reforms in order to open the window to Europe for Russia. Economic reforms played an important role in the transformation of Russia. With these economic reforms, Russia achieved a good standing among the European countries in areas such as manufacturing, trade, and military. These economic reforms would boost Russia well into the 18th century, which were aimed to provide highly positive benefits for the Russian population.
Odnodvortsy was a social group of the Russian gentry in the late 17th — mid-19th centuries. Those of this group who failed to prove nobility or regain it through the Table of Ranks were ranked with the state peasantry.
The Uprising of Bolotnikov, in Russian historiography called the Peasant War under the Leadership of Ivan Bolotnikov (Peasant Uprising), was a major peasant, Cossack, and noble uprising of 1606–1607 led by Ivan Bolotnikov and several other leaders. At the time of the highest point of the uprising (the Siege of Moscow in 1606), more than 70 cities in the south and center of Russia were under the control of the rebels.
Cracraft, James. The Revolution of Peter the Great. (Harvard University Press, 2003)
Hughes, Lindsey. Russia in the Age of Peter the Great (Yale University Press, 1998)
Raeff, Marc.Peter the Great Changes Russia, 2nd edition. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1972
Raeff, Marc. Problems in European Civilization: Peter the Great, Reformer or Revolutionary? Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1963.
Riasonovsky, Nicholas. A History of Russia, 8th edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Sumner, B.H. Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire. Hamden: Archon Books, 1965
Sumner, B.H. Peter the Great and the Emergence of Russia. London: English Universities Press, 1960
Vernadsky, George. Political & Diplomatic History of Russia. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1936.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
