Date post: | 02-Jan-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | annabella-nelson |
View: | 216 times |
Download: | 1 times |
Peter I, 1672-1725
Childhood (1672-1689):
• Violent struggle among relatives
• Sophia’s reign gave him time and western exposure
• Focused on the West
Images of European Monarchs
Kneller’s Peter I, 1698 Kneller’s James II, 1684
Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, b. 1629, r. 1645-1676
Nikitin’s Peter I, 1715Alexis I, 1670s
The empire expands, 1533-1894
Peter’s Grand Embassy, 1697-1698• Initial goal: to widen and
strengthen Holy League against the Ottoman Empire.
• Also to hire foreign skilled workers and soldiers.
• Bring back new technology.• “Peter Mikhailov”
– Loathed formality– Security– absence
Moscow Streltsy Revolt of 1698
Peter’s reforms• The West (more Northwest) impressed Peter• Ordered nobles to cut off beards (or 100 ruble
beard tax) and wear West European clothes.• Called for end to arranged marriages.• The year 7207 declared to be 1700 (Julian
calendar).• Westernized much of the former Muscovite
state – goal: a well regulated state: – Boyar council to Senate– Prikaz to Kollegii
Peter’s reforms1722: Table of Ranks• Followed Prussian, Danish, and Swedish
examples.• Only service rank gave eminence in society,
regardless of origins.• Attempted to encourage promotion by merit, but
not merit alone.• “Boyars” continued to dominate the upper-ranks.• Privileged military rank.• Ordered a growing bureaucracy and army.
Peter’s religious reforms• Not anti-religious, equally suspicious of monks
and the godless.• Brought the church under state control, but in
the name of the faith.• 1721: Created the “Most Holy Governing
Synod,” “for better administration.”
The Great Northern War, 1700-1721
• Russia, Denmark-Norway, Polish-Lithuania and Saxony against Sweden
• Prize: control of Baltic Sea region• A very long war, 29 set battles• Charles XII (b. 1682, r. 1697-1718) and his army
dominated early.• Battle of Poltava, 1709: key victory, but did not end
the war; dragged on and on…• Concluded by Treaty of Nystadt, 1721: Russia gained
southeast Finland and the Baltic region (Baltic Germans).
Peter’s City• Founded in 1703 at Ingria (former Swedish
province).• Saint Petersburg, “Piter”• Imperial capital, 1713–1728, 1732–1918• Conscripted serfs and Swedish prisoners of
war to build the city.
Map of St. Petersburg
The Bronze Horseman
Петру перьвому Екатерина вторая, лето 1782 (From Catherine the Second to Peter the First, summer 1782)
Alexei Petrovich, 1690-1718• Born 1690, son of Peter’s first wife: Eudoxia• Estranged from Peter, but western education.• 1703: ordered as army private to war
(bombardier).• Peter demanded he become the first servant of
Russia• 1711: Married Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-
Lüneburg (sister-in-law of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI)
• Charlotte bore Natalia and then Peter (1715), died shortly after the latter’s birth.
• 1716 fled to Vienna; 1718 convinced to return to Moscow.
• Tortured, confessed, knouted to death.• Peter: “For my fatherland and people I have
never spared my life and do not spare it now, so how can I spare a vile creature like you?”
Alexei Petrovich, 1690-1718
Peter’s legacy (died 1725)• Fought many battles, but
gained little.• Inspired some innovation• Increased state order,
though still lots of chaos.• Made peasants’ situations
worse (legally more than economically).
• Turned the empire resolutely West.
• Created schizophrenic “Russian” mind: Western but not Western.