With his huge wave of reforms and his new gained
prestige, Peter the Great also had detractors who opposed his ways and views.
Explore how the Russians opposed their Tsars and how did Peter the Great lived
his last years of rule.
Peter the Great brought Russia
to the modern world. He gave it a status of great power in international
politics. He aligned its culture, education, administration, and even religion
to Europe. With his energy and his power, he forged a new Russia. But his ways
and the pace of his reforms shocked many to their core. Many priest, nobles,
and even within his own family felt anxious and terrified over their Tsar’s
actions.
Opposition to Peter the Great
Many Russian opposed
Peter the Great’s policies. For instance, the peasantry and the serfs reached
their breaking point over the burden of taxation and obligation demanded by
Peter to finance his projects and war. The clergy of the Russia Orthodox Church
also felt distant to their Tsar. Other nobles became shock over the preference
of Peter to anything European and being forced to them as well. They were
horrified that their Tsar mingled with foreigners who did not follow the same
faith as they were. Some opposition also came from Peter’s own family. Worst,
he had to face his own son Alexei’s dissatisfaction over him.
Rebellions
Rebellions rose up
against Peter because of the obligation he demanded to his people. In 1705, the
Bashkirs rebelled against Peter for the exorbitant taxes he imposed. The
rebellion became deeply rooted and took over six years before being quelled. At
the same time, the Streltsy that
Peter so loathed rebelled once again in the city of Astrakhan in the south. The
Streltsy disagreed to Peter’s policy of increasing taxes as well as Peter’s
liberality towards western culture. Eventually, the rebellion ended a year
later. In 1707, Cossacks in the Don River rebelled as well over the
policy of bringing back runaway serfs, who composed most of them. Kondrati
Bulavin led the revolt and it lasted in a year. But even with
several insurrections, Peter did not stop or reverse his policies.
Opposition
of the Nobility
Nobles also complained over their Tsar’s policies. For instance female nobles felt exposed
and violated by the open and vulgar western dresses that the Tsar prescribed
for them. Even though the Tsar had banned the wearing of their previously long
and thick clothing, many continued to wear them privately. In fact, the long
traditional Russian clothing had practical uses, it protected them from the harsh
cold Russian climate. In addition to complaints about the Tsar's clothing
preferences, many conservative nobles also did not welcome Peter’s openness to
foreigners and abandonment of old tradition. Many even resisted and protested by not moving
to St. Petersburg and only did due to the fact that the Tsar decreed it and
fear of death, imprisonment or dispossession. However, their opposition stood
futile against Peter’s energetic pursuit of change in Russian culture and traditions.
Opposition of the Church
The Church opposed
Peter’s westernization, modernization and secularization and stood as the old
guard of Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church had the belief that followers of
the Russian Orthodox Church should not mingle with foreigners who did not
practice a religion like theirs, which they considered the one and only true
faith. Hence they viewed foreigners and anything foreign with suspicion.
The conservative church
then disliked Peter’s policy of openness to foreign culture, science, and
technology. It also became the reason why Peter surprised them when he
interacted with foreigner and even travel to abroad. But another cause of rip
between the church and Peter had been the issue of control. Previously the
church held a strong position over the Tsars. The Tsars took the advice of the
Patriarchs seriously and the Russian Orthodox religion itself became part of the
essence of being a Russian. But Peter’s western belief of secularization and
toleration caused the influence of the church to wane. The clerics became
horrified when Peter tolerated and open to Christians, Protestants, and even
the marginalized Old Believers of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Peter also wanted to
control the Church in order to change the narrow-mindedness of his people. He
also believed that the Tsar’s power should be the highest in the land, which
meant that he should control the church. In 1700, he prevented the election of
a new Patriarch and placed Stefan Iavorsky in charge of the Church. But even
with his candidate leading the Church, Peter yearned for more. But Iavorsky
refused to surrender any more authority over the church to the Tsar. A conflict
began between the two. Iavorksy began to call Peter the Anti-Christ and
supported any nobles who opposed the Tsar’s policy. The conflict between the
Tsar and the Church inspired opposition within the Tsar’s imperial family.
Opposition within the Imperial Family
The Royal Family of
Russia faced serious problems. Peter married Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689 under
the wishes of his mother, Natalya Naryshkina. But the confident and
enthusiastic Tsar felt bored by his pious, conservative, and quiet wife. He
then looked for other women as company, and found one in form of Anna Mons.
Eudoxia, nevertheless, did her duty by giving birth to Peter’s son Alexei.
Alexei grew up like his
mother - pious and conservative. And because of his upbringing, Alexei feared
his father. But it turned into hatred when Peter sent Eudoxia away from him and
sent to a monastery to take her vows. After which, Peter’s relation with Anna
Mons ended and he found another more trusted companion in a Lithuanian peasant
woman introduced by his friend Alexander Menshikov.
The Lithuanian peasant
girl named Marta Skavronskaya converted to the Russian Orthodoxy and took the
name Catherine Alexseyevna. Peter and Catherine lived well to the horrors of
Alexei. In 1707, Peter secretly married Catherine but married her again openly
in 1712. Catherine proved to be a good wife to Peter, and bore him children.
She also had the talent to calm down the notoriously raging Tsar during
meetings, after which the Tsar slept and woke up fresh. His mother being exile
and his father marrying another women, made Alexei a troubled child.
Alexei proved to be the
greatest opposition to Peter. For Peter, his own flesh and blood opposing him
was unacceptable and humiliating. Peter tried many times to shape up his son to
become like him, but all in vain. The Russian Orthodox Church made the father
and son split worst. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Stefan Iavorsky
instigated Alexei to go against his father. Iavorsky once remarked that Alexei
was their hope from Peter the Great. In the middle of the second decade of the
1700’s, Peter discovered Alexei’s desire, once ascending as Tsar, to abandon
St. Petersburg along with other radical reforms.
Peter then sent him an ultimatum
to shape up or be a monk. In 1716, Alexei chose otherwise. Upon the instigation
of some conservative nobles and Stefan Iavorsky, Alexei escaped his domineering
father. Alexei went to Austria and met with his brother-in-law the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles VI. Alexei asked for an army from Charles VI to invade Russia
and overthrow his father. But the Holy Roman Emperor feared an escapade if he
entrusted an army to the feeble minded Tsarevitch. Instead of giving an army,
the Emperor sent him in hiding in Tirol and then in Naples.
Peter, meanwhile, looked
far and wide for his son. In 1717, he sent his trusted diplomat, Peter Tolstoi,
to search for Alexei in Europe. Soon afterwards, in late 1717, Tolstoi
succeeded and found Alexei in Naples. He convinced Alexei to return home under
a false hope that Peter had already forgave him. And so in January 1718, Prince
Alexei returned home to St. Petersburg. To the terror of the Tsarevitch, His
father had him arrested, tortured, and interrogated in the Sts. Peter and Paul
Fortress. Peter wanted to know who made his son to oppose him directly. Under
intense torturing and beating, he revealed names of influential men like Vasily
Dolgoruky and Stefan Iavorsky. Peter had them exiled and imprisoned. Even
Eudoxia did not escaped Peter’s investigation found herself under arrest. Many
more nobles and clerics who had conservative beliefs also found themselves
under arrest. In June 26, 1718, a death warrant for Alexei Romanov laid in the
Tsar’s table. But before he signed it, news from the prison reported that
Tsarevitch Alexei passed away, most probably due to the immense pain he
received from his torture. The death of Alexei did not stop Peter from pursuing
reform. But it brought grief as well as a dilemma for Peter.
Succession and Later Years
Problem of succession
followed after the death of Alexei. Peter loss his heir to the throne. To solve
the problem of dynastic succession, in 1722, he issued a decree giving him and
future Tsars the right to choose their successors, deviating from the
traditional primogeniture and also giving a chance for a woman to rule the
newly declared Russian Empire.
Peter lived for four
years as Emperor of the new Russian Empire. In 1721, after the signing of the
Treaty of Nystad, the Great Northern War ended. To celebrate Russia’s victory
and new found glory, Peter proclaimed the foundation of the Russian Empire,
with him as its first Emperor. For the next few years he enjoyed his triumphs.
In 1724, however, during
his patrol of the cold icy fringes of the Arctic, they found a Russian ship
sinking. Peter and his ship came to the rescue and the Emperor himself jump off
the ship to rescue sailors. But upon doing so, he caught a chill. By December
he contracted pneumonia. On January 28, 1725 in the Russian calendar and
February 8, 1725 in the Gregorian calendar, Peter Alexeyevich Romanov, Tsar and
Emperor of All Russia, passed away. Before doing so, he named his successor in
vain. His last word were: “Leave it all to…”
Summing Up
Peter the Great is one
of the world’s renowned leaders. But his reign is without controversy. He
succeeded in achieving his vision of a modern and westernized Russia at the
cost of thousands of lives. Depending on perspective, Peter had been viewed as
a great leader and as a tyrant.
For some he ruled
without consideration to the masses. For them Peter was a mad ruler who wanted to fulfill his ambitions at the expense of poor peasants and serfs. This how the
Soviets viewed him an oppressor and a self-serving ruler. For the Peredvizhniki, a group of painters who looked back to traditional
Russian culture, saw Peter as a tyrant and a traitor to his homeland and his
own roots. They opposed his westernization that dispelled the weakening of the
traditional Russian culture.
But there were those who
admired Peter the Great’s rule and looked to him as a model and a champion of
reform. Catherine the Great looked to Peter with magnanimity. She saw him as a
strong role model that brought greatness to Russia. So much so,
Catherine used Peter’s legacy as a backbone of her reign and ordered the erection
of a bronze statue of the Tsar (dubbed as the Bronze Horseman) in St.
Petersburg.
In the end, greatness of
a rule will always be subjective. Some viewed greatness if a ruler cared
towards the masses and the marginalized. Some saw greatness in a ruler’s
open-mindedness and tolerance. But greatness could also be seen in a leader’s
will to take a risk or to do something he believed in would be better for his
country.
Looking at Peter the
Great’s reign, there are some characteristics of a great
leader. He took the risk of initiating reforms to the horrors of the most
powerful and influential. He took the risk of bringing his country to war in
order to strengthen his position as well as that of Russia’s. His greatness
also laid of having a vision and having the energy to pursuit it.
However, anyone who
should looked to Peter should also have caution. Looking at how different
parties saw Peter, the Tsar did have his own misgivings. His war dragged most
of the impoverished into further poverty and hardship. His ambitions cost the
lived of hundreds of thousands of Russians.
As a conclusion, Peter’s
legacy to Russia remains an enigma. If he deserves the title “the Great”
depends on perspective. He made a strong modern country. On that he did well.
But to the cost, he can be criticized. For his desire to achieve his goal, millions
suffered and thousands died, including his own son. He drained money from state
coffers and refilled it with the burden brunt from neediest. His reign created an impact in Russia and directed its direction for the next century or more. Peter the Great
remains a controversial leader that everyone looks upon both with admiration as
well as reservations.
Documentaries on Peter the Great
Peter the Great is one
of the most towering figures in world history. His life and reign is a fascination
and interest to many of his achievements. For this, numerous documentaries were
made that discussed his epic life and reign.
Discovery Channel had a
series titled Conquerors with one of their topic was Peter the Great. Produced
in 1997, this documentary was all made up of reenactments and narration and no commentaries,
which meant people who appeared sharing their comments and opinions. I myself
learned first about Tsar Peter from this documentary.
Another documentary was
produced by National Geographic Channel. It was part of the series titled Icons
of Power and Peter the Great was featured under the title Icons of Power: Wrath
of the Tsar Peter the Great. Its documentary started with the imprisonment of
Peter’s son Alexei in the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress. Each part of the life
and reign of Peter the Great was shown in episodic flashbacks. It had good
experts and writers who commented for documentary and it offered good
reenactments as well.
Explore also:
Bibliography:
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Nolan. Westport, 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
of Warfare: From Earliest Time to the Present Day. London: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 2000.
Kort, Michael. A
Brief History of Russia. New York, New York: Facts On File, 2008.
Moss, Walter. A
History of Russia Volume I: To 1917. London: Anthem Press, 2005.
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