Peter’s reforms did not
limit itself to administration, government, and military and turning them into
the pillar of a Russia in a state of war. He made also numerous peaceful
reforms. He dealt with education, culture, religion, and society as well.
Education Reforms
Education was one of
Peter’s endeavors. As a child, Peter did not attended a school but he developed
an inquisitive active mind that led him to learn new skills and knowledge.
Nevertheless, he wanted institutions to teach modern sciences and technology to
serve as the driving force of Russia’s modernization. In 1701, he founded a
school for mathematics and navigation. Between 1711 and 1712, with the help of
the famous mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, Peter founded the Academy of
Sciences. In 1712, he approved the charter of a school for engineering. And in
1716, he established a school for mining.
Other than specialized
institutions, basic schools sprung out across Russia. By 1722, 40 new schools
operated in Russia. When children of the nobles took for granted their birth
right and neglected education. Peter took a serious step to enforce a law to
prohibit aristocrat fathers from passing their inheritance to their heirs if
they failed to complete their education.
Peter also approved
projects that aimed to shed to light new knowledge. Geography had been one of
Peter’s passions. In the 1720’s, he approved the expedition of Vitus Bering to
Eastern Russia to discover what laid between Asia and the Americas. Peter’s
steps in promoting education was the foundation which his successors built
upon.
Cultural Reforms
Russian culture
transformed significantly under Peter. Because of his exposure to European
customs and culture in the German Suburbs during his childhood, Peter liked anything
western. This included preference for western clothing, practices,
architecture, music, and dances. The Grand Embassy further strengthen Peter’s
desire to "Europinize" his country. Upon his return, he started his
Europinization of Russia. He began by banning beards to any nobles, violating
the tradition of keeping it so as not to deface the image that God had given
man. Anyone who refused to shave their beards must pay the infamous "Beard
Tax." But Peter fell short in cutting the beards of all Russian when
clerics as well as peasants were exempted from the new beard policy.
Following the issue on
beards, he continued cutting out old tradition. He cut the long-sleeve coats of
the Boyars called the Caftans. And later he even made nobles disregard wearing
it in favor of more comfortable and easy-to-wear western clothing.
Women fashion also
underwent changed. Peter made women to abandon their close dresses and to adopt
more revealing western dresses. Russian women discreetly complained about
vulgarity of European dress.
Other than appearances,
Peter dragged on with transformations by adopting Arabic numeral and publishing
the first newspaper in Russia.
In 1699, Peter decided
to change the Russian calendar. He moved the New Year from September 1 to
January 1 to synchronize with the rest of Europe. He also changed how Russia
counted the years, from the supposed year of the creation of the world to the
year of the birth of Christ. Hence, the Russian years changed from 7208 to
1700. Peter made one step forward by changing the years and the day of the New
Year, however, he held back one step. Instead of adopting the Gregorian
calendar that the rest of Europe used, he adopted the obsolete and late Julian
calendar. Thus, Peter had been credited why Russian history books had two dates
in it, one based on the Julian and another based on the Gregorian.
Peter issued numerous
decrees that changed the daily lives of many Russian. They varied from the
coffin to be used in funerals to the simple music and dance entertainments.
Indeed, Peter the Great used his autocratic powers to the fullest in order to
align his people’s way of life to that of European.
Religious Reforms
Peter also reformed the
church in order to weaken its power to oppose his reforms. As a lover of
European ideas, Peter also adopted secularism, where the church had less
influence in daily lives and the matters of state. Peter saw the church as a
hindrance to his reforms. They held a great deal of influence to the nobility
and to countless of Russians. Especially, when the Russian Orthodox
Church dictated what Russians considered moral and immoral. Because of this,
Peter wanted to reduce the powers and influence of the church by placing its
authority under the state or in other words his powers.
In 1700, when the ruling
Patriarch Adrian passed away in 1700, Peter took the chance to place the Church
under his control. He prevented the election of a new Patriarch and in
its place, established the Holy Governing Synod It composed of 11 clergymen
under the leadership of Stefan Iavorsky.
When Stefan Iavorsky and
Peter had disagreement over the pace of the reforms, a falling
out occurred. Stefan disagreed to Peter’s intention to increase government
control over the Church, as well as the Tsar’s tendency to be
tolerant of other religions, such as the Protestants, Catholics, and even
the stigmatize and marginalized Old Believers from the Raskol. In the end,
Peter looked for another way to control the church further.
He then placed the
responsibility of finding a way to Feofan Prokopovich. Prokopovich studied how
Sweden handled the Lutheran Church. His studies formed the basis of Peter’s
reform of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Finally, in 1722, Peter
created the office of the Oberprokurator
to head the Holy Governing Synod. The Oberprokurator
reported directly to the Tsar. The position lasted until the fall of the
Tsarist regime in 1917. Peter’s reform of the church led to the decline of the
influence and power of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian politics. It gave
Peter and his successor a more welcoming atmosphere for reforms and change.
Social Reforms
Peter made an impact in
Russian society. For instance, the ancient boyars disappeared in the face of
Peter’s reform.
In 1722, Peter
instituted the Table of Ranks. It was composed of fourteen ranks within the
army, bureaucracy, and court. It allowed commoners and peasants to rise up in
the social ladder by gaining promotion within the position stated in the Table.
It improved social mobility and challenged birthright as a basis of attaining a
position in the three areas. And so, many more men like Alexander Menshikov, who did not
came from aristocratic family, rose up in status in Russia. The Table of Ranks
brought a positive change.
But for serfs life
became harder. They took the burden of taxation as well as faced abuses from
their landlords. Serf living in the state lands suffered equally if not worst
compare to other private serfs. The State Serfs had been coined by Peter
himself in 1724. Previously, he had utilized them as a source for manpower for
the army or for government mines and factories. He made male state serfs to
choose between military service and state labor. Either way, life in both
fields proved to be difficult. State serfs drafted in the military served for
life. Hence, some men never returned to their hometowns. Choosing mines,
however, proved to be even more unbearable and difficult than a soldier. In
working in mines they faced abuses, hard labor, terrible treatment, abuses, and
occupational hazard in unsafe mines or quarries. Some even commented that life
as a soldier was easier than the life of a laboring serf. State serfs, however,
also faced a threat of becoming privately owned serf. This happened when the
Tsar, gave a state land with state serfs to a distinguished individual. Once
the individual took control of the state land, the state serfs in the granted
area then became privately owned serfs. So for commoners, society improved
under Peter the Great. But for serfs, life continued to be difficult if not
downright hellish.
St. Petersburg – the Embodiment of Peter’s Reign
The greatest testament
of Peter the Great’s reforms was embodied in the city that bears his name – St.
Petersburg. Peter established St. Petersburg as a testament to his vision as
well as victory. He wanted a city that serves as Russia’s window to the west. A
city that displayed a westernized Russia.
The city where St.
Petersburg stood had been seen as a desolate marsh that held no possibility of
being a metropolis. The river froze for 5 months each year and floods
frequently submerge the surrounding areas. The place had a swampy mosquito
ridden terrain and it had an awful unhealthy cold damp climate.
The area of the mouth of
the Neva River was a prize for Tsar Peter in 1703 upon his invasion of Ingria.
In 1704, Peter decided to found a new city to cement Russia’s control over the
region. He then build a fortress – the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress. To further
enhance the defense of the city, few kilometers away he established a naval
base in the island of Kronstadt. Peter then invited architects to work in
designing the city. He wanted it to resemble the city he adored so much –
Amsterdam. He dreamt St. Petersburg to be recognized as the Amsterdam of the
East. He wanted it to have canals, streets, and houses and buildings that
displayed Dutch and other European designs.
Building of a city from
a wasteland, however, proved to be costly. 10,000 to 30,000 draft laborers
began to work in the city in 1704. Much to the horror of the workers, they
lacked the suitable tools like shovel or picks to dig canals and foundation and
so they used their own hands. Day and night they labored on the new city. Many
perished due to burdens of labor. Many more died due to exposure to the
terrible climate, disease caused by mosquitos, and hunger because of lack of
supplies. Estimates showed that 100,000 workers fell during the construction of
St. Petersburg. Hence, it became known as the “City Built on Bones.”
The notoriety of St.
Petersburg’s construction made the people see the place as hell. But for Peter,
he saw it as a paradise, a city where he belonged. When St. Petersburg became
suitable for building houses, few nobles did so. So Peter forced his
aristocrats and his people to live in St. Petersburg. In 1712, he made St.
Petersburg the new capital of Russia. He then decreed that merchants and nobles
had to live in the city and build stone houses based on European designs.
However, the city lacked stone masons to work because masons did not want to
work in the infamous city. Peter then decreed in 1714 to ban building of stone
houses across Russia except in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg grew to
become a new major city in Russia. By 1725, the city boasted a population of
40,000. The city displayed anything what Peter stood for. It had European
clothing, houses, music, and parties. It also became a center of military
operations in the Baltic, when St. Petersburg opened its Admiralty Shipyard. It
produced new warships for Russia’s new Baltic Fleet. In effect, St. Petersburg
became a capital fit for the new Russian Empire that Peter had forged.
Effects of Reforms
The effects of Peter the
Great’s reform in Russia created a lasting effect that went beyond his reign or
that of the Romanovs. Basically, he opened Russia to Europe and even made it
more aligned to Europe than Asia. His reforms led his country’s victory in the
Great Northern War, and earned the status as a major power. It also moved
Russia away from the obscure conservative views of the old and allowed Russia
to modernize and to welcome sciences and technology and new ideas such as that
of the growing movement called the Enlightenment. He allowed social mobility
and meritocracy to rule his ranks, allowing men from humble background to rise
up in the social ladder.
But to be fair, Peter
the Great did have reforms that brought negative impact. For instance, Peter’s
financial reforms brought hardship to numerous peasants and serfs. He did not
promote better conditions to those who served the state as a result of his
draft policies. His St. Petersburg, which today dazzled millions of tourist,
had been built from sweat, blood, toil, and bodied of countless laborers that
built its foundations.
His reforms aligned
Russia to modernity as well as Europe, but it did went without noise with
Russians. Peter had been autocratic and intimidating, but some strongly voiced
their opposition to his reform, which they considered as an act of the
Anti-Christ.
Explore Also:
Bibliography:
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Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Boterbloem, Kess. A
History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin.
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2014.
Bucher, Greta. Daily
Life in Imperial Russia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Buskovitch, Paul. A
Concise History of Russia. New York, New York: Cambridge University Press,
2012.
Gilbert, Adrian. Encyclopedia
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Kort, Michael. A
Brief History of Russia. New York, New York: Facts On File, 2008.
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History of Russia Volume I: To 1917. London: Anthem Press, 2005.
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