To What Extent Was Russia Modernised During the Personal Reign of Peter the Great? (1693-1725)

Another way Peter promoted the idea of looking western was through the use of propaganda paintings where he would always be seen as clean shaven and with a more westernised style of clothing. It was supposed to show to other European leaders that Peter was not the barbarian they believed him or Russia to be and it was meant to show the Russian people that this was the best way forward for the Russian people even if it felt Peter

        This links to Peters reforms on education, Lindsey Hughes comments on education in Russia saying that “at the begging of Peters reign, the learning gap was probably the widest” . This quote shows us how poor education was prior to Peters reign, Hughes also says that not only was the worst education in the west but it was also worse than some of its eastern countries. Peter attempted to reform education on several occasions. His first attempt was in 1701, when Peter established the Moscow School of Mathematical Science and Navigation. With the help with foreigners this school was created. Many Russians including those form old noble families were highly against this as traditionally the Russians did not like the help of foreigners. Another reform came in 1715; Peter then then moved the Mathematical Science and Navigation to Moscow where the name was then changed to the “Naval Academy. The people who then came out of these schools went on to become sailors engineers, architects some graduates went on to teach in the provinces. In 1721; these academy’s then expanded and diocese schools where then set up and 42 schools in 6 years. These schools were supposed to encourage the normal people of Russia to get an education. However there were problems with this, most of the academies were mostly filled  with children from Russian noble families and even then the families were not that keen on sending their children to these academies, a problem facing the diocese schools was that the peasants were not prepared to send their children to these schools as they thought it was a waste of time sending their children to them when they would only ever be peasants themselves. Peter also aimed to improve people’s basic maths and literacy with those who live in poorer social backgrounds. There were once again issues with the reforms Peter tried to implement as he introduced in 1706 the Russian grammar book. However more problems faced the schools as the institutions were badly funded and had a lack of teachers which meant most of the teachers were in fact foreigners. In the case of education I would say that peter did make some successful reforms to the education systems however these were not enough to modernise the Russian education system.

One of Peters biggest achievements in terms of culture was the building of St Petersburg. Peters window on the west became a symbol of civilised society and looked very western as Peter took great influences from all over the world, Marshall says that “foreign influence was everywhere” when building St Petersburg.. The construction of St Petersburg took place from 1703, A St Petersburg is built in a strategically place of being close to the river Narva allowing Peter access to the Baltic sea which allowed him to establish new trade routes and encourage merchants to come and live in St Petersburg. As I stated previously Peter took many influences from across Europe in the design of St Petersburg, churches were based upon ones in London and the town houses Peter wanted his nobility to build were based upon merchant houses Peter had seen on his travels in Amsterdam. Peter bought in the Italian architect Domenico Trezzini who had great experience in building on marsh land which St Petersburg was built upon. During construction Trezzini split the workers (all of whom were recruited through the provinces and were made to work on building St Petersburg)    into sections and they in turn worked on one section of St Petersburg. From 1714 onwards any worker outside of St Petersburg was not allowed to use stone, Peter did this to encourage masons to come and live and work in St Petersburg which, would give Peter more skilled workers and then would lead to St Petersburg being completed quicker.  The biggest reasoning as to why St Petersburg is a crucial factor when looking at how far Peter modernised Russia is that it Peters “Window on the west” because a rival to other European cities of culture such as Paris. It became a centre for art in Russia and after Peters reign Catherine the Great turns St Petersburg into one of the culture capitals of the world.

The biggest change in terms of reform when investigating to what extent did Peter modernise Russia is the reforms he made to the church. Religion was important to any Tsar as it meant a communication to his people as religion was a prominent aspect in everyone’s lives. It was the spiritual counter part of the Tsar.  The patriarch who was the head of the Orthodox church had a great amount of influence to which, Peter felt some people, especially those who did not like his westernised ideas would follow the views of the traditional patriarch and ignore Peters wants and aims.  The patriarch was also incredibly wealthy as he looked after nine thousand peasants houses which were built on church land. Peter felts angry that many people joined monasteries as to avoid there compulsory military service. At the end of 1701 Peter put forward the reform that monks could only live on allowance of 10 roubles per year  this came about not only because of many people using this a loop hole as too avoid joining the army but also because of the drunken state of many of these monks. In 1709 Peter decreed that all bishops had a limited income which meant they could only look after their households and no more. This meant Peter now had full control of the church.  Peters also controlled through “The Sub junction if the Church to the State” . In 1700mthe old patriarch died to further establish his power Peter appointed Stefan Yavorski as a “acting” patriarch, this allowed Peter to reduce the control of the patriarch as anything which is acting has considerable less power than those who actually were patriarch.  To further put reforms further 1716 Peter said that all new bishops must take an oath to say that they promised not to interefer.