Absolutism Presentation on Peter the Great

Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725. During his reign of absolutism, he made huge economic contributions to the country, yet also left serious problems on the society. As a highly controversial figure, some people endorsed him for the reforms he made, whereas some people hated him for making Russia vulnerable to European countries and the harm effect of serfdom and bureaucracy. He derived his authority from his elder brother, since he hadn’t left any children.

The major problem Peter the Great faced during his reign was the Great Northern War. As a belligerent leader, he had before fought in various battles with the Turkeys in Russia’s southern boundary. In 1700, the conflicts in the Baltics caused an alliance of Russia, Denmark, and Poland in oppose of Sweden, the supremacy in Northern Europe at the time. To Peter the Great, Sweden’s authority was “a reminder of the territory’s Russia’s past”, and by retrieving the land, he aimed at the power in Baltics and in Europe.

In preparation for the war, Peter the Great resolved lots of problems about his army. Before he came to power, Russia barely had a navy, and not only their arms needed to be modernized, their military leaders lack of experience and strategies. On this concern, in 1698, on his travel to Vienna, Netherlands, and England, Peter the Great knew that a Westernization of not only the techniques and weapons, but also institutions was inevitable. Working as a shipwright himself there, he brought numerous military experts and skillful workers back to Russia, helping develop the metallurgic industry and his armies.

The war began in 1700, and Peter suffered at his greatest defeat a year after at Narva, Estonia. Switching gears northward to Ingria afterwards, the built of St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia now, as a port on Baltics for both economic and military uses was the key turning point of the war. As time went on, his military reform had proved to succeed significantly, as Russia won the Great Northern War after two decades of struggle, becoming the dominant power not only in the region, but influential to Western Europe.

Although Peter’s economic and military reforms had helped him win the war at last, Russian people might not be too happy with its process. Firstly, Peter had imposed lots of burdensome taxes throughout the war, and people are troubled by his constantly increasing demand for recruitment. Secondly, since he had set up various kinds of State industries, from textile to irons to vodka, lots of the peasants, who lived at the bottom of society, are forced to work in factories. They earned little, since the fortune is squeeze by the state to cover its massive military expenses.

By contrast, the landowning class are driven to take high positions in the State services, beginning to believe in a “bureaucratic hierarchy”. This attitude strengthened in the issue of “Table of ranks”, which divided army and navy officers into 14 distinct grades and assigned each to an equivalent in the civil service. As a result, the built of state-controlled institutions indirectly expanded the gap between peasants and landowners, which had profound social impact on Russia thereafter. Therefore, although the war served as a stimulus to Russia’s economic reform, its cost is to inflict suffering to the people.

In relation with the Russian Orthodox Church, Peter the Great had shown his desire of power by a forceful subordination of church administration to secular power. Although he is firm believer in Orthodox, he considered the “intellectual control” of people to be very important. He reorganised the Church by replacing the sole, hereditary Patriarch with the Holy Synod, an assembly of elite bishops led by a secular administrator. Consequently, the Church is controlled almost as an earthly institution under the state, no different than other state services.

To conclude, although arguably Peter the Great had been a heroic reformist figure, his centralized, militaristic reign was very similar to his contemporary European monarchs. Although Russia was undergoing a rapid economic growth, his absolutism practices had left Russia with bureaucracy, aristocracy, and serfdom.

Bibliography

Angold, Michael, ed. “Russian Piety and Culture from Peter the Great to 1917.” The Cambridge History of Christianity. Last modified March 2008. Accessed February 20, 2017. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6E45E54F6263316E8E5AFF36AC1EE1E5/9781139054089c15_p348-370_CBO.pdf/russian-piety-and-culture-from-peter-the-great-to-1917.pdf.

Bromley, J. S., ed. “Chapter XXI – Russia under Peter the Great and the Changed Relations of East and West.” The New Cambridge Modern History. Last modified March 2008. Accessed February 20, 2017. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/400F43AB0FFFCBB1BF8361D2149BC8E5/9781139055826c21_p716-740_CBO.pdf/russia-under-peter-the-great-and-the-changed-relations-of-east-and-west.pdf.

Lieven, Dominic, ed. “Peter the Great and the Northern War.” The Cambridge History of Russia. Last modified March 2008. Accessed February 20, 2017. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/89C953E549E5DD50B8C382EAD0626567/9781139055437c23_p487-503_CBO.pdf/peter-the-great-and-the-northern-war.pdf.