In what year were the reforms of Peter 1. Reform of public administration of Peter I
Reforms of Peter I
Reforms of Peter I- transformations in state and public life carried out during the reign of Peter I in Russia. All state activities of Peter I can be divided into two periods: -1715 and -.
A feature of the first stage was haste and not always thought out, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for the war, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to government reforms, at the first stage, extensive reforms were carried out with the aim of modernizing the way of life. In the second period, reforms were more systematic.
Decisions in the Senate were made collegially, at a general meeting, and were supported by the signatures of all members of the highest state body. If one of the 9 senators refused to sign the decision, the decision was considered invalid. Thus, Peter I delegated part of his powers to the Senate, but at the same time imposed personal responsibility on its members.
Simultaneously with the Senate, the position of fiscals appeared. The duty of the chief fiscal under the Senate and the fiscals in the provinces was to secretly supervise the activities of institutions: cases of violation of decrees and abuses were identified and reported to the Senate and the Tsar. Since 1715, the work of the Senate was monitored by the Auditor General, who was renamed Chief Secretary. Since 1722, control over the Senate has been exercised by the Prosecutor General and Chief Prosecutor, to whom the prosecutors of all other institutions were subordinate. No decision of the Senate was valid without the consent and signature of the Prosecutor General. The Prosecutor General and his deputy Chief Prosecutor reported directly to the sovereign.
The Senate, as a government, could make decisions, but required an administrative apparatus to carry them out. In -1721, a reform of the executive bodies of government was carried out, as a result of which, in parallel with the system of orders with their vague functions, 12 colleges were created according to the Swedish model - the predecessors of future ministries. In contrast to orders, the functions and spheres of activity of each board were strictly demarcated, and relations within the board itself were built on the principle of collegiality of decisions. The following were introduced:
- The Collegium of Foreign Affairs replaced the Ambassadorial Prikaz, that is, it was in charge of foreign policy.
- Military Collegium (Military) - recruitment, armament, equipment and training of the ground army.
- Admiralty Board - naval affairs, fleet.
- The Patrimonial Collegium - replaced the Local Order, that is, it was in charge of noble land ownership (land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, and the search for fugitives were considered). Founded in 1721.
- The chamber board is the collection of state revenues.
- The State Board of Directors was in charge of state expenditures,
- The Audit Board controls the collection and expenditure of government funds.
- Commerce Board - issues of shipping, customs and foreign trade.
- Berg College - mining and metallurgy (mining industry).
- Manufactory Collegium - light industry (manufactures, that is, enterprises based on the division of manual labor).
- The College of Justice was in charge of issues of civil proceedings (the Serfdom Office operated under it: it registered various acts - bills of sale, the sale of estates, spiritual wills, debt obligations). She worked in civil and criminal court.
- The Spiritual College or the Holy Governing Synod - managed church affairs, replaced the patriarch. Founded in 1721. This board/Synod included representatives of the highest clergy. Since their appointment was carried out by the tsar, and his decisions were approved by him, we can say that the Russian emperor became the de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The actions of the Synod on behalf of the highest secular authority were controlled by the chief prosecutor - a civil official appointed by the tsar. By a special decree, Peter I (Peter I) ordered the priests to carry out an educational mission among the peasants: read sermons and instructions to them, teach children prayers, and instill in them respect for the king and the church.
- The Little Russian Collegium exercised control over the actions of the hetman, who held power in Ukraine, because there was a special regime of local government. After the death of Hetman I. I. Skoropadsky in 1722, new elections of a hetman were prohibited, and the hetman was appointed for the first time by royal decree. The board was headed by a tsarist officer.
The central place in the management system was occupied by the secret police: the Preobrazhensky Prikaz (in charge of cases of state crimes) and the Secret Chancellery. These institutions were administered by the emperor himself.
In addition, there was a Salt Office, a Copper Department, and a Land Survey Office.
Control over the activities of civil servants
To monitor the implementation of local decisions and reduce endemic corruption, since 1711, the position of fiscals was established, who were supposed to “secretly inspect, report and expose” all abuses of both high and low officials, pursue embezzlement, bribery, and accept denunciations from private individuals . At the head of the fiscals was the chief fiscal, appointed by the king and subordinate to him. The chief fiscal was part of the Senate and maintained contact with subordinate fiscals through the fiscal desk of the Senate office. Denunciations were considered and reported monthly to the Senate by the Execution Chamber - a special judicial presence of four judges and two senators (existed in 1712-1719).
In 1719-1723 The fiscals were subordinate to the College of Justice, and with the establishment in January 1722, the positions of the Prosecutor General were supervised by him. Since 1723, the chief fiscal officer was the fiscal general, appointed by the sovereign, and his assistant was the chief fiscal, appointed by the Senate. In this regard, the fiscal service withdrew from the subordination of the Justice College and regained departmental independence. The vertical of fiscal control was brought to the city level.
Ordinary archers in 1674. Lithograph from a 19th century book.
Army and Navy reforms
Army reform: in particular, the introduction of regiments of a new system, reformed according to foreign models, began long before Peter I, even under Alexei I. However, the combat effectiveness of this army was low. Reforming the army and creating a fleet became necessary conditions for victory in the Northern War of 1721. In preparation for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to carry out a general recruitment and begin training soldiers according to the model established by the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovtsy. This first conscription yielded 29 infantry regiments and two dragoons. In 1705, every 20 households were required to send one recruit to lifelong service. Subsequently, recruits began to be taken from a certain number of male souls among the peasants. Recruitment into the navy, as into the army, was carried out from recruits.
Private army infantry. regiment in 1720-32 Lithograph from a 19th century book.
If at first among the officers there were mainly foreign specialists, then after the start of the work of the navigation, artillery, and engineering schools, the growth of the army was satisfied by Russian officers from the noble class. In 1715, the Maritime Academy was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1716, the Military Regulations were published, which strictly defined the service, rights and responsibilities of the military. - As a result of the transformations, a strong regular army and a powerful navy were created, which Russia simply did not have before. By the end of Peter's reign, the number of regular ground forces reached 210 thousand (of which 2,600 were in the guard, 41,560 in cavalry, 75 thousand in infantry, 14 thousand in garrisons) and up to 110 thousand irregular troops. The fleet consisted of 48 battleships; 787 galleys and other vessels; There were almost 30 thousand people on all ships.
Church reform
Religious politics
The era of Peter was marked by a trend toward greater religious tolerance. Peter terminated the “12 Articles” adopted by Sophia, according to which Old Believers who refused to renounce the “schism” were subject to burning at the stake. The “schismatics” were allowed to practice their faith, subject to recognition of the existing state order and payment of double taxes. Complete freedom of faith was granted to foreigners coming to Russia, and restrictions on communication between Orthodox Christians and Christians of other faiths were lifted (in particular, interfaith marriages were allowed).
Financial reform
Some historians characterize Peter's trade policy as a policy of protectionism, consisting of supporting domestic production and imposing increased duties on imported products (this was consistent with the idea of mercantilism). Thus, in 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced - high duties on foreign goods that could be produced or were already produced by domestic enterprises.
The number of factories and factories at the end of Peter's reign extended to, including about 90 that were large manufactories.
Autocracy reform
Before Peter, the order of succession to the throne in Russia was not regulated by law in any way, and was entirely determined by tradition. In 1722, Peter issued a decree on the order of succession to the throne, according to which the reigning monarch appoints a successor during his lifetime, and the emperor can make anyone his heir (it was assumed that the king would appoint “the most worthy” as his successor). This law was in force until the reign of Paul I. Peter himself did not take advantage of the law on succession to the throne, since he died without specifying a successor.
Class politics
The main goal pursued by Peter I in social policy is the legal registration of class rights and obligations of each category of the population of Russia. As a result, a new structure of society emerged, in which the class character was more clearly formed. The rights of the nobility were expanded and the responsibilities of the nobility were defined, and, at the same time, the serfdom of the peasants was strengthened.
Nobility
Key milestones:
- Decree on Education of 1706: boyar children must receive either primary school or home education.
- Decree on estates of 1704: noble and boyar estates are not divided and are equated to each other.
- Decree on sole inheritance of 1714: a landowner with sons could bequeath all his real estate to only one of them of his choice. The rest were obliged to serve. The decree marked the final merger of the noble estate and the boyar estate, thereby finally erasing the difference between the two classes of feudal lords.
- “Table of Ranks” () of the year: division of military, civil and court service into 14 ranks. Upon reaching the eighth grade, any official or military man could receive the status of hereditary nobility. Thus, a person’s career depended primarily not on his origin, but on his achievements in public service.
The place of the former boyars was taken by the “generals”, consisting of ranks of the first four classes of the “Table of Ranks”. Personal service mixed up representatives of the former family nobility with people raised by service. Peter's legislative measures, without significantly expanding the class rights of the nobility, significantly changed its responsibilities. Military affairs, which in Moscow times was the duty of a narrow class of service people, is now becoming the duty of all segments of the population. The nobleman of Peter the Great's times still has the exclusive right of land ownership, but as a result of the decrees on single inheritance and audit, he is made responsible to the state for the tax service of his peasants. The nobility is obliged to study in preparation for service. Peter destroyed the former isolation of the service class, opening access to the environment of the nobility to people of other classes through length of service through the Table of Ranks. On the other hand, with the law on single inheritance, he opened the way out of the nobility into merchants and clergy for those who wanted it. The nobility of Russia is becoming a military-bureaucratic class, whose rights are created and hereditarily determined by public service, and not by birth.
Peasantry
Peter's reforms changed the situation of the peasants. From different categories of peasants who were not in serfdom from the landowners or the church (black-growing peasants of the north, non-Russian nationalities, etc.), a new unified category of state peasants was formed - personally free, but paying rent to the state. The opinion that this measure “destroyed the remnants of the free peasantry” is incorrect, since the population groups that made up the state peasants were not considered free in the pre-Petrine period - they were attached to the land (the Council Code of 1649) and could be granted by the tsar to private individuals and the church as serfs. State peasants in the 18th century had the rights of personally free people (they could own property, act in court as one of the parties, elect representatives to class bodies, etc.), but were limited in movement and could be (until the beginning of the 19th century, when this category is finally approved as free people) transferred by the monarch to the category of serfs. Legislative acts concerning the serf peasantry themselves were of a contradictory nature. Thus, the intervention of landowners in the marriage of serfs was limited (a decree of 1724), it was forbidden to present serfs as defendants in court and to hold them on the right for the debts of the owner. The norm was also confirmed about the transfer into custody of the estates of landowners who ruined their peasants, and serfs were given the opportunity to enroll as soldiers, which freed them from serfdom (by decree of Emperor Elizabeth on July 2, 1742, serfs were deprived of this opportunity). By the decree of 1699 and the verdict of the Town Hall in 1700, peasants engaged in trade or craft were given the right to move to posads, freed from serfdom (if the peasant was in one). At the same time, measures against runaway peasants were significantly tightened, large masses of palace peasants were distributed to private individuals, and landowners were allowed to recruit serfs. By decree of April 7, 1690, it was allowed to cede for unpaid debts of “manorial” serfs, which was in fact a form of serf trade. The imposition of a capitation tax on serfs (that is, personal servants without land) led to the merging of serfs with serfs. Church peasants were subordinated to the monastic order and removed from the authority of the monasteries. Under Peter, a new category of dependent farmers was created - peasants assigned to manufactories. These peasants in the 18th century were called possessions. A decree of 1721 allowed nobles and merchant manufacturers to buy peasants to manufactories to work for them. The peasants bought for the factory were not considered the property of its owners, but were attached to production, so that the owner of the factory could neither sell nor mortgage the peasants separately from the manufacture. Possession peasants received a fixed salary and performed a fixed amount of work.
Urban population
The urban population in the era of Peter I was very small: about 3% of the country's population. The only large city was Moscow, which was the capital before the reign of Peter the Great. Although Russia was much inferior to Western Europe in terms of urban and industrial development, during the 17th century. there was a gradual increase. The social policy of Peter the Great concerning the urban population was aimed at ensuring the payment of the poll tax. For this purpose, the population was divided into two categories: regular (industrialists, merchants, craftsmen) and irregular citizens (all others). The difference between the urban regular citizen of the end of Peter's reign and the irregular one was that the regular citizen participated in city government by electing members of the magistrate, was enrolled in the guild and workshop, or bore a monetary obligation in the share that fell on him according to the social layout.
Transformations in the sphere of culture
Peter I changed the beginning of the chronology from the so-called Byzantine era (“from the creation of Adam”) to “from the Nativity of Christ.” The year 7208 according to the Byzantine era became 1700 from the Nativity of Christ, and the New Year began to be celebrated on January 1. In addition, under Peter, uniform application of the Julian calendar was introduced.
After returning from the Great Embassy, Peter I waged a struggle against the external manifestations of an “outdated” way of life (the ban on beards is most famous), but no less paid attention to introducing the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, and translations of many books into Russian appeared. Peter made success in service for the nobles dependent on education.
There have been changes in the Russian language, which included 4.5 thousand new words borrowed from European languages.
Peter tried to change the position of women in Russian society. By special decrees (1700, 1702 and 1724) he prohibited forced marriage. It was prescribed that there should be at least a six-week period between betrothal and wedding, “so that the bride and groom can recognize each other.” If during this time, the decree said, “the groom does not want to take the bride, or the bride does not want to marry the groom,” no matter how the parents insist on it, “there will be freedom.” Since 1702, the bride herself (and not just her relatives) was given the formal right to dissolve the betrothal and upset the arranged marriage, and neither party had the right to “beat the forfeit.” Legislative regulations 1696-1704. on public celebrations, mandatory participation in celebrations and festivities was introduced for all Russians, including the “female sex.”
Gradually, a different system of values, worldview, and aesthetic ideas took shape among the nobility, which was radically different from the values and worldview of the majority of representatives of other classes.
Peter I in 1709. Drawing from the mid-19th century.
Education
Peter clearly recognized the need for enlightenment, and took a number of decisive measures to this end.
According to the Hanoverian Weber, during the reign of Peter the Great, several thousand Russians were sent to study abroad.
Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met fierce resistance and was cancelled. Peter's attempt to create an all-estate primary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death; most of the digital schools under his successors were repurposed as estate schools for training the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.
Bibliographic description:
Nesterov A.K. Reforms of Peter I [Electronic resource] // Educational encyclopedia website
The reforms of Peter the Great are a topic of extreme importance today. Peter is a symbol of the urgent social need for change, and for drastic, fast and at the same time successful changes. Such a need, even a necessity, still exists today. And the experience of the transformations of those years may turn out to be invaluable for today's reformers in Russia. They can avoid the excesses that Peter made in an effort to lift the country off its knees.
The significance of Peter the Great's reforms
The personality of the first emperor of Russia, his transformations and their results are an exceptional example for all generations.
In the history of every state there are turning points, after which the country rises to a qualitatively new stage of development. There were three such periods in Russia: the reforms of Peter the Great, the Great October Socialist Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Petrine reforms carried out three centuries ago had a huge impact on the imperial era, which lasted for almost two centuries; Unlike most tsars, Peter was not forgotten in Soviet times.
In the last twenty-five years, the reforms of the first quarter of the eighteenth century are also of current importance, because today, just as at that time, reforms are needed that can put our country on a par with Western states.
As a result of Peter's reforms, a new strong state was created, capable of competing with the leading powers of Europe. If it were not for Peter, then having no access to strategically important seas, unable to trade under new conditions, uneducated Muscovy would have become a province of Sweden or Turkey. To win, we had to learn from the Europeans. All civilizations adopted the experience of others, only two developed almost independently: India and China. Muscovy, which absorbed many positive and negative features of Asian culture during the Mongol yoke, combined them with the remnants of Byzantine culture, with a certain share of European culture penetrating the country through a few trade connections. This indicates the absence of any originality even before Peter. Peter, having separated everything negative, outdated, and progressive, completely destroyed the first and multiplied the latter many times over.
Peter the Great forced the country to take such a huge step forward in a quarter of a century as other countries had done in several centuries.
But we must not forget at what cost this was done, what the Russian people sacrificed in their efforts to enter the European arena. The issue of violence in reforms is very controversial. Peter forced everyone to submit to his will, forced him with rods and sticks, and everyone submitted to his will. But on the other hand, there were also government orders that were regularly paid for. Without one or the other, such a tremendous success would have been unattainable. To the question about the possibility of avoiding violence in reform activities, one can answer that without it the Russian peasant and the Russian boyar would not have been raised from the bench. The rigidity of Muscovy was the main obstacle to any reforms. It could only be overcome by force, and harsh and cruel force at that.
Chronological table of the main reforms of Peter I
Reforms of Peter I |
Description of reforms |
|
---|---|---|
Fleet construction Formation of the regular army Urban reform The first reform of Russian life |
The fleet was built in Voronezh and the surrounding area for a campaign against Azov. Trade unions were organized from peasants, landowners, clergy, townspeople and black sowing population, living room and cloth merchants. 16 ships and 60 brigantines were built. Calling up for service all those who wish from among the non-enslaved people, the salary is 2 times higher than that of the archers. A recruitment system has been introduced. The city reform transferred the townspeople to the jurisdiction of the Burmister Chamber, the role of the Boyar Duma was reduced, and Peter sent Russians to study in European countries to train specialists. The first reform of Russian life concerned the ban on wearing a beard; those who wanted to keep a beard paid a tax to the treasury (except for the clergy), peasants with a beard paid a fee when entering the city. |
|
Beginning of military reform |
Liquidation of the Streltsy army in 1698, formation of regiments with foreign officers, which turned out to be insolvent. Formation of a new army based on conscription after the defeat at Narva. |
|
Military reform |
The obligation for nobles to carry out military service from the rank of soldier. Creation of 50 military schools. Shipbuilding was moved to St. Petersburg. |
|
Start of construction of manufactories |
Construction of iron factories in the Urals and Olonets region. |
|
Mint reform |
The monetary system was based on the decimal principle: ruble – kopeck – kopeck. This was an advanced division, unparalleled in many Western countries. State monopoly on coinage and a ban on the export of gold and silver from the country. The ruble is equal in weight to the thaler. |
|
Foreign trade reform |
Protectionist policy. High duties on the export of raw materials. Foreign trade is concentrated in the hands of the state. |
|
Administrative reform |
The establishment of 8 provinces, the creation of the Senate, the introduction of the position of prosecutor general of the Senate to control the activities of the Senate, the abolition of orders and the creation of collegiums. In 1714, a decree on unified inheritance was issued to strengthen the absolute monarchy. In 1721 the Holy Synod was formed, the church became a state institution. |
|
Education reform |
Many schools were opened, textbooks appeared, applied disciplines were put in first place, civil script and Arabic numerals were introduced, the first library was created, which became the basis for the library of the Academy of Sciences, the first newspaper appeared, the Kunstkamera was opened - the first museum in Russia. |
|
Changes in Russian life |
Long-skirted Russian clothes were banned, drinking tea and coffee was prescribed, assemblies were introduced, and the seclusion of Russian women was put to an end. The life of nobles and merchants changed so much that they began to seem like foreigners to the peasants. The changes practically did not affect the life of the peasants. |
|
Change of chronology |
The transition to the Julian calendar has been completed. |
|
The emergence of public Russian theater |
"Comedy dance" on Red Square in Moscow. Later, the theater of the Slavic-Greco-Roman Academy appeared. |
|
Changes in culture |
Portraits appeared. The genre of “history” appeared in literature. The secular principle prevailed over the church. |
Prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I
French historians consider the Great French Revolution to be the most important milestone in the history of France. As an analogue in the history of Russia, we can cite Peter’s reforms. But one cannot think that the transformations began under Peter the Great, that all the credit for carrying them out belongs only to him. The transformations began before him, he just found the means, opportunities and very timely completed everything that he inherited. By the time Peter ascended the throne, all the necessary prerequisites existed for reforms.
Russia at that time was the largest state in the Old World. Its territory extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian Sea, from the Dnieper to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, but the population was only 14 million people, concentrated mainly in the center and north of European Russia. The unique geographical location of the country determined the duality in the economic and political development of Russia: it aspired to Europe, but it also had significant interests in the east. To become the main intermediary in Europe's trade with Asia, Russia had to be able to conduct business in a European way. But the state had neither a merchant nor a military fleet until the end of the seventeenth century, since there was no access to strategically important seas, and Russian merchants could not compete with foreigners. The Swedes, whose merchant fleet numbered 800 ships by the end of the seventeenth century, dominated the shores of the Baltic, and Turkey and the Crimean Khanate owned the entire Black Sea coast.
Foreign trade was conducted only through two ports: Astrakhan and Arkhangelsk. But trade through Astrakhan went only with the East, and the path to the White Sea was very long, difficult, dangerous and open only in the summer. Merchants from other countries used it reluctantly, and upon arrival in Arkhangelsk they lowered the price of goods, and the Russians refused to sell at a price other than the one they had set themselves. As a result, the goods spoiled right in the warehouses. Therefore, the priority task for the country was to gain access to the Baltic and Black Sea. Karl Marx, not inclined to approve of the crowned heads of absolute monarchies, examined Russian foreign policy and proved that Peter's territorial acquisitions were historically justified by the objective needs of Russian development. Although Peter was not the initiator of these areas of foreign policy: attempts to recapture access to the seas were made before Peter: the Livonian War of Ivan the Terrible and the campaigns to Crimea of Prince V.V. Golitsyn with Princess Sophia.
The level of development of Western countries was so superior to Russia’s that it threatened to enslave the country and turn it into one of the colonies. In order to avoid this threat and eliminate backwardness in Russia, it was necessary to carry out a number of economic, military, administrative and political reforms. All the economic prerequisites for their implementation had already taken shape in the seventeenth century: growth in production, expansion of the range of agricultural products, development of handicraft production, the emergence of manufactories, development of trade. The political prerequisites for reforms were a significant strengthening of the autocracy, which contributed to the rapid implementation of reforms, the growing economic role of merchants, and the desire for reforms on the part of the landed nobility. By the end of the seventeenth century, the trend toward the emergence of absolutism was becoming more and more clearly observed in the country. The Zemsky Sobors ceased their activities, the Boyar Duma lost its role, and along with it the Tsar’s personal office appeared, which received the name of the Order of Secret Affairs.
To wage war with Sweden, which had the strongest army in Europe, a well-organized and experienced army was needed. The main striking force of the Russian army remained the noble cavalry, the Streltsy troops were not a regular army, only during the war an army was assembled that was more reminiscent of a people's militia, small mercenary regiments of the “new system” were not widespread. To reform the army, good economic and administrative support was needed. Again, neither one nor the other existed in Russia. Therefore, transformations had to be carried out in all three areas simultaneously.
The impetus for the start of reforms was the participation of Peter the Great in the Great Embassy, during which the young tsar became acquainted with the economic, cultural and technical achievements of Europe. The reason for the start of major transformations was the defeat near Narva at the very beginning of the Northern War, in November 1700. After him, military reform began, followed by economic reform.
The first transformations of Peter the Great
The first transformations began after the first Azov campaign in 1695, during which it was not possible to take the fortress at the mouth of the Don due to the lack of a fleet among the Russian troops. The Turks had free access to the fortress from the sea and supplied the besieged with supplies and weapons, and it was impossible to prevent them from doing this without the presence of a fleet. Peter, who personally took part in the siege, did not give up after the defeat. He entrusts the command of all ground forces to Generalissimo A.S. Shein, and the fleet, which still needed to be built, to Admiral Lefort. The decree on the construction of the fleet was issued in January 1696. The future fleet was to be built in Voronezh and surrounding areas. This choice was not made by chance: flat-bottomed river vessels - plows - had long been built here, and during the Chigirin and Crimean campaigns, sea vessels were also built here; Good ship pines grew around Voronezh. At the end of May 1696, the Russian army again approached Azov. Thanks to the built fleet, she was successful: the Turkish garrison capitulated.
The fleet was to be built by the so-called kumpanships, the principle of organization of which was quite simple: from ten thousand peasants it was necessary to launch one ship. Large landowners built ships alone, while the rest gathered into a company in such a way that all its members had a total of ten thousand peasants. Church soul owners had to launch a ship with eight thousand peasants, otherwise the principle remained the same. In total, 42 secular and 19 spiritual kumpants were formed. The Posad and Chernososhny population, as well as the merchants of the living room and cloth hundreds, were united into one merchant, obliged to build 14 ships and headed by a commission of five guests. Another builder of the Voronezh fleet was the treasury. The Admiralty built ships with money collected from secular and spiritual owners, who had less than a hundred peasants. As a result, he built 16 ships and 60 brigantines.
Decrees of November 8 and 17, 1699 laid the foundation for the formation of a new regular army. The first one called up everyone from among the non-enslaved people who wanted to serve, and the salary was 2 times more than that of the archers and amounted to 11 rubles per year. The Danish ambassador Paul Gaines wrote to Copenhagen: “Now he (Peter) is completely devoted to organizing his army; he wants to bring his infantry to 50,000, cavalry to 25,000.” The second decree meant the beginning of the recruitment system. From a certain number of peasant and townsman households, one recruit was called up; depending on the needs of the army, the number of households was constantly changing.
The urban reform of 1699 had financial, economic and administrative significance at the same time: the townspeople were removed from the administration of the voivode and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Burmister Chamber, which exercised judicial functions over the population and became the responsible collector of direct and indirect taxes. An important change occurred in the Boyar Duma: its role practically disappeared, and an unborn element began to penetrate into it. The first person present in the Duma was F.Yu. Romodanovsky, who had only the rank of steward. Having no schools to train specialists, Peter sent Russian people to study abroad to acquire practical skills in shipbuilding and ship management.
Changes also affected appearance: after returning from abroad, Peter personally trimmed the beards of some boyars. Those who wished to keep a beard had to pay a tax for wearing it. Moreover, the size of the tax was determined by the social status of its owner: merchants paid the most, followed by service people and prominent representatives of the townspeople, followed by the nobility, and ordinary townspeople and boyar serfs paid the least. Only the clergy and peasants were allowed to keep beards, but the latter had to pay one kopeck upon entering the city. As a result, the staunch bearded men suffered, and the royal treasury won.
The transformations were just beginning; they had not yet affected the essential foundations of the Russian state, but they were already quite noticeable to the people and noticeable from the outside. The Danish ambassador Paul Gaines wrote to Copenhagen: “The Tsar has performed a number of miracles recently... Compare his Russia with the old one - the difference is the same as between day and night.”
Military reform of Peter I
One of the most significant and important transformations of Peter the Great can be considered the military reform, which made it possible to create an army that met all military standards of that time. At first, Russian troops defeated the enemy with superior numbers, then equal numbers, and finally fewer. Moreover, the enemy was one of the best armies in Europe at that time. As a result of the reform, the noble cavalry with marching courtyard people and the regiments of the foreign system, raised by Peter's predecessors, were transformed by him into a regular army, which, as a result of a long war, itself became permanent. The Streltsy army was destroyed after the rebellion of 1698. But it was destroyed not only for political reasons; by the end of the century, the Streltsy no longer represented a real military force capable of resisting well-armed regular enemy troops. They were reluctant to go to war, since many had their own shops, the archers were much more comfortable with civilian occupations, and besides, salaries for their service were not paid regularly.
In 1698 – 1700 Several regiments were hastily formed, led by foreigners who sometimes did not even know the Russian language. These regiments showed their complete incompetence during the siege of Narva in 1700. Partly due to lack of experience, partly due to the betrayal of foreign officers, among whom were Swedes. After the defeat, a new army was recruited and trained, which near Poltava showed itself at the level of the army of any European country. At the same time, conscription was used for the first time in Russia. This system of forming regiments ensured greater efficiency in recruiting troops. In total, until 1725, 53 recruitments were carried out, according to which more than 280 thousand people were mobilized into the army and navy. Initially, one recruit was taken into the army from 20 households, and from 1724 they began to be recruited in accordance with the principles underlying the poll tax. Recruits underwent military training, received uniforms and weapons, whereas until the eighteenth century, warriors - both nobles and peasants - had to report for service in full equipment. Unlike other European monarchs, Peter did not use mercenaries, preferring Russian soldiers to them.
Fuseler (infantryman) of the army infantry regiment 1720
A distinctive feature of the new army was the obligation of nobles to carry out military service from the rank of soldier. Since 1714, nobles were prohibited from being promoted to officers unless they were soldiers. The most capable nobles were sent to study abroad, especially in maritime affairs. But training was also carried out in domestic schools: Bombardirskaya, Preobrazhenskaya, Navigatskaya. By the end of Peter's reign, 50 schools were opened to train non-commissioned officers.
Much attention was paid to the fleet: at the end of the seventeenth century, ships were built in Voronezh and Arkhangelsk, and after the founding of St. Petersburg, military shipbuilding moved to the Baltic coast. The Admiralty and shipyards were founded in the future capital. Sailors for the fleet were also recruited through conscription.
The need to maintain a new army, which required significant expenses, forced Peter to modernize the economy and finances.
Economic reforms of Peter the Great
The first military failures forced Peter to think seriously about creating a domestic industry that could meet the needs of wartime. Before this, almost all iron and copper were imported from Sweden. Naturally, with the outbreak of the war, supplies stopped. The existing Russian metallurgy was not enough to successfully conduct the war. Creating conditions for its rapid development has become a vital task.
In the first decade of the Northern War, iron factories were built at the expense of the tsar's treasury in the Urals and in the Olonets region. Transfer of state-owned enterprises into private hands began to be practiced. Sometimes they were even transmitted to foreigners. Certain benefits were provided to those industries that provided the army and navy. The main competitor of manufactories remained handicraft production, but the state stood on the side of large industry and forbade artisans to produce cloth, iron smelted in hand furnaces, etc. A distinctive feature of state-owned manufactories was that the government initially assigned entire villages and villages to enterprises only for the autumn-winter period, when there was no need to work in the fields, but soon villages and villages were assigned to manufactories forever. The labor of serfs was used in patrimonial manufactories. In addition, there were possession manufactories, the owners of which, from 1721, were allowed to buy serfs for their factories. This was caused by the government’s desire to help industrialists assign workers to enterprises, due to the absence of a large labor market under serfdom.
There were no good roads in the country; trade routes turned into real swamps in the fall and spring. Therefore, in order to improve trade, Peter decided to use the rivers, which were available in sufficient quantities, as trade routes. But the rivers needed to be connected, and the government began building canals. For 1703–1709 To connect St. Petersburg with the Volga, the Vyshnevolotsky Canal was built, construction began on the Mariinsky water system, the Ladoga Canal, completed after the death of Peter.
Trade was also constrained by the existing monetary system: mostly small copper money was in use, and the silver penny was a fairly large coin and was cut into pieces, each of which made its own trade route. In 1700–1704 The mint was reformed. As a result, the monetary system was based on the decimal principle: ruble – kopeck – kopeck. Many Western countries came to this division much later. To facilitate foreign trade payments, the ruble was equal in weight to the thaler, which was in circulation in a number of European countries.
The monopoly on the minting of money belonged to the state, and the export of gold and silver from the country was prohibited by a special decree of Peter the Great.
In foreign trade, following the teachings of the mercantilists, Peter achieved the predominance of exports over imports, which also contributed to the strengthening of trade. Peter pursued a protectionist policy towards the young domestic industry, imposing high duties on imported goods and low duties on exported ones. To prevent the export abroad of raw materials necessary for Russian industry, Peter imposed high duties on them. Almost all foreign trade was in the hands of the state, using monopoly trading companies for this.
The poll tax, introduced after the population census of 1718–1724, instead of the previous household tax, required landowner peasants to pay 74 kopecks per year and state peasants 1 ruble 14 kopecks. The poll tax was a progressive tax; it abolished all previously existing small taxes, and the peasant always knew the amount of taxes, since it did not depend on the amount of harvest. The poll tax also began to be imposed on the black-growing peasants of the northern regions, Siberia, the peoples of the middle Volga, townspeople and townspeople. The poll tax, which supplied the treasury with the majority of its income (4,656,000 in 1725), gave direct taxes a significant advantage in the budget over other sources of income. The entire amount of the poll tax went to the maintenance of the land army and artillery; the fleet was supported by customs and drinking taxes.
In parallel with the economic reforms of Peter I, private construction of factories began to develop. Among private entrepreneurs, Tula breeder Nikita Demidov stands out, whom the Petrine government provided with great benefits and privileges.
Nikida Demidov
The Nevyansk plant “with all the buildings and supplies” and land for 30 miles in all directions was given to Demidov on very favorable terms for the manufacturer. Demidov did not pay anything upon receiving the plant. Only later was he entrusted with the obligation to return to the treasury its expenses for the construction of the plant: “although not suddenly, but depending on the weather.” This was motivated by the fact that “a great profitable source came from those factories, and from one blast furnace, with two outputs of pig iron per day, a little of 400 poods will be born, and in a year, if both blast furnaces are allowed to blow without interference throughout the year, it will come out at a lower rate 260,000 poods."
At the same time, the government, transferring the plant to Demidov, provided the breeder with government orders. He was obliged to supply the treasury with iron, cannons, mortars, fuses, stays, cutlasses, broadswords, spears, armor, cones, wire, steel and other gear. Government orders were paid to Demidov very generously.
In addition, the treasury provided Demidov with free or almost free labor.
In 1703, Peter I ordered: “For the increase of iron and other factories and sovereign supplies... Nikita Demidov should be assigned to the work and given to the Verkhoturye district of Aetskaya, Krasnopolskaya settlement and the monastery Pokrovskoye village with villages and with all the peasants with children and brothers and nephews with land and all kinds of land." Soon followed by a decree on the new registration of peasants. With these decrees, Peter I gave Demidov about 2,500 peasants of both sexes to the Nevyansk plant. The breeder was only obliged to pay taxes to the treasury for the peasants.
Demidov's exploitation of the labor of assigned peasants had no limits. Already in 1708, Nevyansk peasants complained about Demidov. The peasants pointed out that for their hard work they did not receive money from the factory owner “for some unknown reason”, as a result of which they “from his, Akinfiev’s, taxes and exorbitant expulsion became impoverished and completely ruined”, “and many brother peasants scattered to God knows where... and those who are tired of him will scatter."
Thus, Peter’s government laid the foundation for the “Demidov Urals” with its boundless cruelty, serfdom and immense exploitation of peasants and workers.
Other entrepreneurs also began to build factories in the Urals: Osokin, Stroganov, Tryapitsyn, Turchaninov, Vyazemsky, Nebogatov.
Brutally exploiting the assigned peasants and factory workers, serfs and civilians, Demidov quickly became rich and expanded his power and importance.
In the Urals, along with the Stroganovs, a new feudal lord is rising, menacing and cruel to his workers and peasants, greedy and predatory towards the treasury and neighbors.
Peter also clearly saw the need to reform the administrative management of the country. This reform finally consolidated the position of absolute power in Russia, destroying the order system, the Boyar Duma. Without it, the further development of the country under the new developing capitalist relations would be impossible.
Administrative reforms of Peter I
At the end of 1708, Peter began carrying out provincial reform. A decree of December 18 announced the tsar’s intention “to create eight provinces and add cities to them for the benefit of the whole people.” As a result of the reform, the provinces were divided into provinces, and the provinces into counties. At the head of the province was the governor, who had full judicial, administrative, police and financial power. The responsibilities of the governors included collecting taxes, searching for runaway serfs, recruiting, and providing army regiments with provisions and fodder. The order system received a serious blow after this reform: many orders ceased to exist, since their functions and responsibilities were transferred to the provincial administration.
As a result of the second reform, the power of the governor extended only to the province of the provincial city; in the remaining provinces, power was exercised by the governors, who were subordinate to the governors in military and judicial matters.
On February 22, 1711, before going to Turkey, Peter issues a decree on the creation of the Senate. The decree also reflects the reason for the creation of this body: “the Governing Senate was determined to be for our absences for governance.” The Senate was supposed to replace the sovereign in his absence, therefore everyone was obliged to obey the decrees of the Senate, as well as the decrees of Peter himself, under pain of death for disobedience. The Senate initially consisted of nine people who decided cases unanimously, without which the verdict of the Senate could not have valid force. In 1722, the position of Attorney General of the Senate was created to supervise the activities of the Senate. Prosecutors subordinate to him were appointed to all government institutions. In 1717–1721 11 boards were created according to the Swedish model, replacing the previously existing orders. The peculiarity of the collegiums was that they had a national level and controlled clearly defined aspects of public administration. This provided a higher level of centralization. The Chief Magistrate and the Holy Synod also acted as collegiums. The board was headed by the president, decisions were made by a majority vote, and in the event of a tie, the president's vote was counted as two. Collaborative deliberation was a hallmark of collegial management.
After the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, Peter did not allow the election of a new patriarch, but introduced the position of locum tenens of the patriarchal throne. In 1721, the Holy Synod was formed, headed by a secular official - the chief prosecutor. So the church became a state institution, the priests took an oath of what they were obliged to convey if they learned in confession about any anti-state intentions. Violation of the oath was punishable by death.
The Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714 supported the interests of the local nobility, which supported the course towards strengthening the absolute monarchy. According to the decree, the final merger of the two types of property - patrimony and estate - took place into a single legal concept of "real property", they became equal in all respects. The estate became hereditary possession. Estates could not be divided among heirs; they were usually transferred to the eldest son, and the rest had to pursue a career in the military or civil field: sons who did not receive real estate “will be forced to seek their bread through service, teaching, trading” or other useful activities.
The “Table of Ranks” was a natural continuation of this decree. All military and civil service positions were divided into 14 ranks. The report card introduced the principle of personal service and finally abolished localism, which was abolished in 1682. Now the nobles could work their way up to higher positions and actually become involved in government. Moreover, this happened only due to the personal qualities of the person, which did not allow people incapable of this to manage.
Enormous successes in the economic, military and administrative fields would have been impossible without a sufficient number of highly educated specialists. But it would be irrational to send Russians to study abroad all the time; in Russia it was necessary to create its own educational system.
Education reform under Peter the Great
Before Peter, the nobles received education almost exclusively at home, but only elementary literacy and arithmetic were studied. Concern for education permeates the entire reign of Peter the Great. Already in 1698, the first group of nobles was sent to study abroad, a practice that continued in subsequent years. Upon their return, the nobles faced a strict examination. Peter himself more than once acted as an examiner.
- The navigation school was opened already in 1701,
- in 1707 – Medical School,
- in 1712 – Engineering school.
42 digital schools were opened for provincial nobles. Since the nobles were reluctant to study, Peter forbade them to marry before graduating from the digital school. Schools appeared for the children of artisans, mountain workers, and garrison soldiers. The very concept of education has changed significantly: theological subjects faded into the background, mathematics, astronomy, engineering and other practical knowledge took first place. New textbooks have appeared, for example, “Arithmetic” by L.F. Magnitsky. Studying during Peter's time was equated with public service. This time was also characterized by the rapid development of book printing. At the end of the first decade of the century, the civil script and Arabic numerals were introduced.
In 1714, the first state library was created, which became the basis for the library of the Academy of Sciences, opened after the death of the emperor, but conceived by him himself.
One of the biggest events of that period was the emergence of the first newspaper in the country. Vedomosti reported on events in the country and abroad.
In 1719, the Kunstkamera, the first Russian museum, was opened.
Reforms of Peter the Great in the sphere of culture and Russian life
Under Peter the Great, modernization even affected everyday life, that is, the external side of Russian life. Peter the Great, who sought to bring Russia closer to Europe, tried to eliminate even the external differences between Russian people and Europeans. In addition to the ban on beards, it was forbidden to wear long Russian dresses. German, Hungarian or French toilets, which were completely indecent in the minds of old Moscow people, were also worn by noble wives and daughters. In order to educate Russians in the European spirit, Peter ordered his subjects to drink tea and coffee and smoke tobacco, which not all nobles of the “old school” liked. Peter forcibly introduced new forms of leisure - assemblies, that is, receptions of guests in noble houses. They appeared with their wives and daughters. This meant the end of the chamber seclusion of Russian women. The assemblies required the study of foreign languages, gallant manners, called "polites" in a foreign manner, and the ability to dance. The life of the nobility and the elite of the merchant class was seriously changing.
Transformations in everyday life did not at all affect the mass of the urban population, much less the peasantry. The lifestyle of the nobility began to differ so much from the lifestyle of the common people that the nobleman, and subsequently any educated person, began to seem like a foreigner to the peasant.
Along with the introduction of a new way of life, professions began to appear that served the new needs of the nobility, merchants and wealthy citizens. These were hairdressers, barbers and other professions that came with Peter from the Great Embassy.
The transition to a new calendar also had something to do with the change in the external aspect of Russian life. At the end of 1699, Peter ordered chronology not from the creation of the world, but from the Nativity of Christ, but the transition was made not to the Gregorian calendar, but to the Julian calendar, which already had significant differences. In addition, Peter issued a decree on celebrating the New Year on January 1, and as a sign of a good undertaking, celebrate this holiday by firing cannons and fireworks.
Under Peter, the first publicly accessible Russian theater appeared. In 1702, German actors began performing plays by foreign authors in the “comedy hall” on Red Square in Moscow. Later, the theater of the Slavic-Greco-Roman Academy appeared, which had a Russian troupe and staged plays on modern themes. Under Peter, the first portraits appeared, which, unlike parsuns, were completely free from the church canon and realistically depicted specific people. A new genre has appeared in literature - history, the hero of which is an educated person who strives to see the world, travel to distant countries and always achieves success. Such a motif was absolutely unthinkable for works of the Moscow period.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the secular principle finally triumphed over the church in Russian culture. The main merit in this, undoubtedly, belongs to Peter, although the “secularization” of culture began before him, and attempts to bring European innovations to the country were made under his predecessors, but they did not take root.
Conclusion
At the turn of the XVII–XVIII centuries. Peter the Great carried out a number of reforms in the economic, military, political, administrative and cultural fields. This allowed Russia to enter the European political system and take a serious position in it. Peter forced the Western powers to take into account the interests of the young empire. He brought the country to a new level of development, which allowed it to stand on a par with European powers. But the reforms themselves, the methods by which they were carried out, still cause mixed assessments of his activities.
Literature
- Anisimov E.V. The time of Peter’s reforms - M.: Mysl, 1989.
- Karamzin N.M. A note on ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relation - M.: Mysl, 1991.
- Klyuchevsky V.O. A short guide to Russian history - M.: Terra, 1996.
- Molchanov N.N. Diplomacy of Peter the Great - M.: International Relations, 1986.
- Pavlenko N.I. Peter the Great - M.: Mysl, 1990.
- Peter the Great: PRO ET CONTRA. The personality and deeds of Peter I in the assessment of Russian thinkers and researchers. Anthology - St. Petersburg: RKhGI, 2001.
- Timoshina T.M. Economic history of Russia - M.: Information and Publishing House "Filin", 2000.
- Shmurlo E.F. History of Russia (9th–20th centuries) - M.: Agraf, 1999.
- Sakharov A.N., Bokhanov A.N., Shestakov V.A. History of Russia from ancient times to the present day. – M.: Prospekt, 2012.
- Zuev M.N. Russian history. – M.: Yurayt, 2012.
- Kirillov V.V. Russian history. – M.: Yurayt, 2012.
- Matyukhin A.V., Davydova Yu.A., Ushakov A.I., Azizbaeva R.E. National history. – M.: Synergy, 2012.
- Nekrasova M.B. National history. – M.: Yurayt, 2012.
- Orlov A.S. Russian history. – M.: Prospekt, 2012.
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History table: Reforms of Emperor Peter I
Peter I is one of the most prominent rulers of the Russian state, ruling from 1682 to 1721. During his reign, reforms were carried out in many areas, many wars were won, and the foundation for the future greatness of the Russian empire was laid!
Table navigation: Reforms of Peter 1:
Reforms in the field: | Reform date: | Reform name: | The essence of the reform: | Results and significance of the reform: |
In the field of army and navy: | 1. Creation of a regular army | Creation of a professional army, replacing the local militia and streltsy troops. Formation based on conscription | Russia became a great military and naval power and won the Northern War, gaining access to the Baltic Sea | |
2. Construction of the first Russian fleet | A regular navy appears | |||
3. Training of personnel and officials abroad | Training of military and sailors from foreign professionals | |||
In the economic sphere: | 1. Militarization of the economy | State support for the construction of metallurgical plants in the Urals. During times of military difficulties, bells were melted down to make cannons. | An economic basis for conducting military operations has been created - strengthening the defense capability of the state | |
2. Development of manufactories | Creation of many new manufactories Registration of peasants to enterprises (registered peasants) | Industry growth. The number of manufactories increased 7 times. Russia is becoming one of the leading industrial powers in Europe. Many industries are being created and modernized. | ||
3. Trade reform | 1. Protectionism - support for your manufacturer; export more goods than import; high customs duties on the import of foreign goods. 1724 – Customs tariff 2. Construction of canals 3. Search for new trade routes | Growth of industry and flourishing trade | ||
4. Craft | Association of artisans into workshops | Improving the quality and productivity of artisans | ||
1724 | 5. Tax reform | A poll tax was introduced (levied on males) instead of a household tax. | Budget growth. Increasing the tax burden on the population | |
Reforms in the field of state and local self-government: | 1711 | 1. Creation of the Governing Senate | 10 people who made up the king’s inner circle. Helped the Tsar in state affairs and replaced the Tsar during his absence | Improving the efficiency of government bodies. Strengthening royal power |
1718-1720 | 2. Creation of boards | 11 boards replaced many orders. The cumbersome and confusing system of executive power has been put in order. | ||
1721 | 3. Peter's acceptance of the imperial title | Increasing the authority of Peter 1 abroad. Discontent of the Old Believers. | ||
1714 | 4. Decree on unified inheritance | He equated estates with estates, nobles with boyars. Only one son inherited the property | Elimination of the division between boyars and nobles. The emergence of landless nobility (due to the ban on the division of land between heirs) After the death of Peter 1, it was cancelled. | |
1722 | 5. Adoption of the Table of Ranks | There are 14 ranks established for officials and military personnel. Having reached the 8th rank, the official became a hereditary nobleman | Opportunities for career growth opened up for everyone, regardless of background | |
1708 | 6. Regional reform | The country was divided into eight provinces | Strengthening the authority of local authorities. Putting things in order | |
1699 | Urban reform | An elected Burmister Chamber was created | Development of local government | |
Church reforms: | 1700 | 1. Liquidation of the patriarchate | The Emperor became the de facto head of the Orthodox Church | |
1721 | 2. Creation of the Synod | Replaced the Patriarch, the composition of the Synod was appointed by the Tsar | ||
In the sphere of folk culture and everyday life: | 1. Introduction of European style | Compulsory wearing of European clothes and shaving of beards - payment of a tax was introduced for refusal. | Many were dissatisfied, the king was called the Antichrist | |
2. Introduction of a new calendar | The chronology from the Nativity of Christ replaced the chronology “from the creation of the world.” The start of the year has been moved from September to January. | Instead of 7208, the year 1700 came. The chronology has survived to this day. | ||
3. Introduction of the civil alphabet | ||||
4. Transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg | Peter did not like Moscow with its “inveterate antiquity”; he built a new capital near the sea | A “window to Europe” has been cut. High mortality rate among city builders | ||
In the field of education and science: | 1. Education reform | Training of specialists abroad Creation of schools in Russia Support of book publishing | Improving the quality of education and the number of educated people. Training of specialists. Serfs could not attend public schools | |
1710 | 2. Introduction of the civil alphabet | Replaced the old Church Slavonic alphabet | ||
3.Creation of the first Russian Museum of Kunstkamera | ||||
1724 | 4. Decree on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences | It was created after the death of Peter 1 |
The Northern War with Sweden required metal and gunpowder for cannons, cloth and lye for uniforms, timber and canvas for the fleet. This encouraged Peter to take a closer look at industry and trade, although his concerns about the economic development of Russia and the elimination of its technical backwardness were determined not only by military needs.
In the Russian economy of the first quarter of the 18th century. a leap occurred, equal in its significance and in its consequences to the Stalinist industrialization of the 30s. A feature of this economic recovery was the strengthening of the role of the state in all spheres of the economy. If in the 17th century. While in Russia there were only 30 manufactories, by the end of Peter’s reign there were about 100 of them. Entire industries appeared - mining, metallurgy, textiles. If in the 17th century. Russia bought metal from Sweden, then by the end of Peter’s reign it exported it. And in the middle of the 18th century. our country has taken first place in the world in metal production, surpassing even England.
By decree of Peter I, the development of mineral resources began. In a short time, an entire metallurgical complex was created in the Urals, the Nevyansky, Alapatevsky, Nizhny Tagil, and Uktus plants were built.
In Peter's times, metallurgical plants were built in Lipetsk and Petrozavodsk, and weapons factories were built in Tula and Sestroretsk. A silver smelter was built in distant Nerchinsk.
All factories were built at the expense of the state budget, since Russian merchants and entrepreneurs did not have the necessary capital. In Peter's Russia there was no freedom of enterprise. All industrial development was regulated and controlled by the state, government bodies: the Berg College and the Manufactory College. They issued permits for the construction of industrial enterprises, they set prices for their products. They exercised judicial and administrative power over entrepreneurs and working people, i.e. The main and leading role in the formation and development of Russian industry was played not by entrepreneurs, but by bureaucratic officials.
In the era of Peter the Great, many manufactories appeared that produced cloth, sailing cloth, gauze, rope, hats - everything necessary for the army and navy. The development of the textile industry required wool, flax, and hemp. Peter's decree of 1715 ordered the cultivation of hemp and flax in all provinces, and in the old flax-growing areas to double the area under cultivation. Peter I took care of the development of sheep breeding and the improvement of sheep breeds, since the army needed sheepskin coats. The development of sheep farming accelerated especially noticeably in Ukraine, where large sheep farms were created with purebred sheep exported from Spain and Saxony. According to Peter's decrees, stud farms began to be created, since the cavalry needed horses. Peter took care of the protection of forests, especially ship forests, necessary for the fleet.
Labor in factories and manufactories was predominantly serf work, since there were not enough civilian workers. Peter's decree of 1721 allowed the owners of entire villages to buy serfs. The decree legalized serf labor in industry and stopped the process of formation of the Russian bourgeoisie that had begun.
The further development of internal trade was facilitated by the construction of canals: Vyshnevolotsky, Mariana system and others. With the conquest of access to the Baltic Sea, foreign trade also expanded. But the development of free trade was hampered by the state monopoly on tobacco, bread, salt, timber, flax, leather, etc. The state monopoly was profitable for the treasury, but ruinous for the people. Thus, the introduction of a monopoly on salt doubled the price of it, and 8 times for tobacco.
Like entrepreneurs, Russian merchants also suffered from government regulation and control. The government of Peter I forced them to create companies and move to St. Petersburg, which was under construction. Merchants were told which goods could be traded in which port, at what prices the goods could be sold to the state, etc.
So, the economic transformations of Peter I, despite the fact that they were carried out on a serfdom basis, gave a strong impetus to the development of productive forces. As a result, their Russia became a strong European state and largely overcame its technical and economic backwardness.
Administrative reforms
The old system of governing Russia through the Boyar Duma and orders did not correspond to the new tasks. It did not provide the army with food and weapons, and did not collect taxes from the population in full. Orders often duplicated each other, creating confusion in management and slowness in decision-making. The old system of managing counties from the center did not provide an effective fight against the flight of peasants and could not prevent the Bulavinsky and Astrakhan uprisings.
The first step in reorganizing the country's governance system was the restructuring of local authorities. In 1708 the whole country was divided into 8 provinces: Moscow, Ingria, Smolensk, Kiev. Azov, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Siberian. The provinces were headed by governors appointed by the tsar. All executive and judicial power was concentrated in their hands. The governor was also the commander-in-chief of the troops located on the territory entrusted to him. The provinces were divided into 50 provinces, and the provinces into districts. The districts and provinces were headed by voivodes. The local government reform responded to the needs of strengthening the autocracy and contributed to the further growth and strengthening of the bureaucracy.
Following the local government, the central government was also reformed. In 1711 By decree of Peter, the Senate was created - the highest government institution, replacing the Boyar Duma. The Boyar Duma was a numerous, cumbersome body. At the end of the 17th century. its composition reached 120 people, although in fact 1/3 or even 1/6 of the Duma members participated in the work. The most aristocratic boyars were included in the Duma.
The composition of the Senate was limited to 9 members, they were appointed by the king. In this case, it was not the noble, aristocratic origin that was taken into account, but exclusively the business qualities of the applicants and their personal devotion to Peter. A member of the Senate was an official and could lose his title at any time. The Senate was in charge of justice, treasury, trade, and taxes. He supervised the work of the boards and governors. Decision-making by the Senate was carried out collegiately, by majority vote. Under the Senate, an office was immediately created with numerous departmental offices, which indicated the strengthening of bureaucratic methods of management.
Simultaneously with the organization of the Senate, the institution of fiscals was introduced in the country (fiscal - informer, earpiece, spy). Their duty was to secretly oversee the activities of government agencies.
Fiscals controlled government expenditures and revenues, and the work of the judiciary. They were required to report all cases of violation of laws by government officials. Crime prevention was not their responsibility. In all segments of the population, fiscals enjoyed a far from flattering reputation.
In 1717-1722. Collegiums replaced the old orders. Unlike orders, they established a collective, joint principle of considering and resolving all issues.
Each board consisted of a presence and an office. The presence included the president of the board, the vice-president, 4 advisers and 4 assessors. The office did not resolve any issues. Scribes worked there, they copied documents. Each board was in charge of a specific branch of management throughout the country. The collegial system was based on a high degree of centralization of management.
At first, 9 boards were created. The military board, headed by A.D. Menshikov, was in charge of all issues related to the army: its formation, training, supplies, uniforms, weapons, etc.
The Admiralty Board headed by F.M. Apraksin resolved all issues related to the fleet in the same way. The Collegium of Foreign Affairs replaced the Ambassadorial Order. Financial issues were resolved by 3 boards: the chamber board, the state board, and the audit board. The Commerce Collegium was in charge of trade, the light industry was in charge of the manufacturing college, and the mining and metallurgical college was in charge of the berg college. Later, 3 more collegiums were created: patrimonial, Synod (Spiritual Collegium) and justice college. Peter I introduced a passport system and police protection.
As a result of Peter's administrative reforms in Russia, the establishment of an absolute monarchy was completed. The king was given the opportunity to rule the country unlimitedly and uncontrollably with the help of officials completely dependent on him. The most important signs of absolutism include the bureaucratization of the administrative apparatus and its centralization.
Church reform
Peter I abolished the patriarchate (it was established in 1589 by B. Godunov) and completely subordinated the church to the state. The patriarch in Russia had exceptionally great authority and was largely independent of the tsar. Peter I after the death of Patriarch Andrian in 1700. did not allow the election of his successor. The monarch-emperor was declared the head of the church, and the management of church affairs was entrusted to officials who sat in the Spiritual Collegium (Synod). The Synod's complete dependence on the state was expressed not only in the salaries received, but also in the oath taken by its members. The clergy were also assigned police functions: they were allowed to neglect the secret of confession and report to the authorities about acts planned against them. All believers were required to confess twice a year. Those who did not do this voluntarily were forced: they sent police officers and initiated criminal proceedings.
Peter's church reform meant the enslavement of the Russian Orthodox Church by the autocracy. This was a brutal submission of spiritual power to secular power. As a result of the church reform, the spiritual guidelines of the nation were largely lost. In the 19th century. a type of “seeking” intellectual has appeared, who has lost the faith of his fathers and is trying to quench his spiritual thirst from foreign sources (Freemasonry, Kantianism, etc.)
Classes and estates under Peter I
Peter not only kept the serfdom intact, but also significantly strengthened it. The main classes of society were consolidated by merging individual small class groups. The peasantry was divided into 2 groups - serfs and state ones. Serfs were classified as serfs. The government obliged state peasants to pay 40 kopecks in addition to the per capita tax to the treasury. quitrent. This meant the inclusion of state peasants in the sphere of feudal exploitation.
Peter I replaced the household tax with a poll tax, which made it possible to significantly increase taxes. The response of the peasants to such a policy of soaring was mass exodus and uprisings, in particular the Bulavinsky and Astrakhan.
Posad people were divided into merchants and artisans. Merchants were distributed into guilds, artisans were united into guilds. Under Peter I, the Chief and City Magistrates were established - state institutions through which merchants and artisans were subordinated to the state. The nobility underwent the most changes. All groups of service people were united into this class: boyars, okolnichy, Duma nobles, Duma clerks, stewards, solicitors, Moscow nobles, elected nobles, nobles and boyar children. By decree of 1714 on sole inheritance, estates were equalized with estates. The nobles were obliged to enroll in military service from a young age and serve for life. Peter obliged the nobles to study, illiterate nobles were forbidden to marry, the educational institutions created by Peter resembled barracks, and the students resembled recruits.
The contingent of students was often recruited forcibly. Often young nobles were sent to study abroad, often to the screams of their parents. But as a reward for good service, the nobles received lands with peasants, new titles (barons and counts), orders and medals, and power.
Peter abolished the previous ranks, which depended largely on the origin of the serving people. Published by him in 1722. The “Table of Ranks” divided the entire mass of civil servants into 14 ranks, i.e. ranks through which every military man or civil official had to move. Now the first place was placed not on aristocratic origin, but on a person’s personal abilities, education and practical skills. The “Table of Ranks” opened up access to the highest positions in the state for representatives of the small and middle nobility, and provided the opportunity to receive noble ranks for people from other classes: upon receiving the 8th rank in service, they became hereditary nobles. As a result, by the end of the Northern War, every fifth officer in Peter’s army was not a nobleman by birth.
The result of Peter's social policy was the strengthening of the influence of the state, which roughly subjugated natural social and class processes.
Assessment of Peter's personality and activities.
Both the personality and activities of Peter were met with contradictory and directly opposite assessments by both his contemporaries and descendants. Some of his contemporaries, who knew Peter closely and worked with him, praised him to the skies, calling him “earthly god.” Others, who did not know Peter personally, but felt the hardships he imposed on the people, considered him a “world-eater” or an impostor with whom the Germans replaced the real king during his trip abroad. The schismatics considered Peter the Antichrist.
In the 19th century. “Westerners” sang enthusiastic praise to Peter, and “Slavophiles” condemned him for distorting Russian original principles and damaging the national character of Holy Rus'. According to the “Slavophile” K.S. Aksakov, Russia under Peter I strangely and forcibly leaves its native road and adjoins the western one. And the historian M.S. Solovyov, a “Westernizer,” argued that Peter’s transformations were natural and naturally followed from the historical development of Russia. Who is right?
Indeed, Peter I devoted his entire life to serving the state and the Russian people. He served as a soldier and a general, a sailor and an admiral, a ship's carpenter and a legislator. He led the development of industry, entering into the organizational and technical details of production. While serving himself, Peter demanded from all his subordinates conscientious and diligent service to the Russian state.
In public administration, he sought to introduce and strengthen the principle of legality. Peter introduced a form of oath of “allegiance to the sovereign and the entire state” and constantly instilled in his officials the need to comply with laws and care for the interests of the state. He severely punished for bribes, embezzlement and official abuses, including the death penalty, of such high officials as the Siberian governor Prince Gagarin and Chief Fiscal Nesterov.
Peter experienced many failures and disappointments; the sacrifices he demanded from his people were great, but his achievements were also great. He opened sea routes for Russia for relations with other nations and introduced it to the number of European countries. By creating a first-class army and navy, he made Russia a great power. He created a government apparatus that was far from perfect, but still more suitable than the outdated, complex and confusing system of orders. By creating the mining and metallurgical industry, he turned Russia into an economically independent country. He laid the foundations of secular Russian culture, which bore abundant fruit in the 19th century.
But Peter's transformations also had negative sides. The Europeanization he carried out was violent, hasty, little thought out and therefore largely superficial. It tore the nobility and bureaucrats away from the masses and destroyed the religious, moral and social unity of the people that existed in pre-Petrine Rus'. The cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus created by Peter contributed to the strengthening and conservation of feudal-serf relations. The price of Peter's reforms was prohibitively high: in carrying out them, the tsar did not take into account the sacrifices made on the altar of the fatherland, nor with national traditions, nor with the memory of ancestors. At the cost of ruining the country, Russia was elevated to the rank of a European power.
All state activities of Peter I can be conditionally divided into two periods: 1695-1715 and 1715-1725.
The peculiarity of the first stage was haste and not always thought out, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for the war, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to government reforms, at the first stage, extensive reforms were carried out with the aim of modernizing the way of life.
In the second period, the reforms were more lightning-fast and ill-conceived and aimed at the internal development of the state.
In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the Russian state and introducing the ruling stratum to Western European culture while simultaneously strengthening the absolute monarchy. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great, a powerful Russian Empire was created, headed by an emperor who had absolute power. During the reforms, the technical and economic lag of Russia from a number of other European states was overcome, access to the Baltic Sea was won, and transformations were carried out in all spheres of life of Russian society. At the same time, the popular forces were extremely exhausted, the bureaucratic apparatus grew, and the preconditions were created (Decree on Succession to the Throne) for a crisis of supreme power, which led to the era of “palace coups.”
Public Administration Reforms
At first, Peter I did not have a clear program of reforms in the sphere of government. The emergence of a new government institution or a change in the administrative-territorial management of the country was dictated by the conduct of wars, which required significant financial resources and mobilization of the population. The system of power inherited by Peter I did not allow raising enough funds to reorganize and increase the army, build a fleet, build fortresses and St. Petersburg.
From the first years of Peter's reign, there was a tendency to reduce the role of the ineffective Boyar Duma in government. In 1699, under the king, the Near Chancellery, or Consilium (Council) of Ministers, consisting of 8 proxies who managed individual orders. This was the prototype of the future Governing Senate, formed on February 22, 1711. The last mention of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. A certain mode of work was established in the Consilium: each minister had special powers, reports and minutes of meetings appeared. In 1711, instead of the Boyar Duma and the Council that replaced it, the Senate was established. Peter formulated the main task of the Senate this way: “ Look at all state expenses, and set aside unnecessary, and especially wasteful ones. How can it be possible to collect money, since money is the artery of war.»
Created by Peter for the current administration of the state during the tsar’s absence (at that time the tsar was setting off on the Prut campaign), the Senate, consisting of 9 people, turned from a temporary to a permanent highest government institution, which was enshrined in the Decree of 1722. He controlled justice, was in charge of trade, fees and expenses of the state, monitored the orderly performance of military service by the nobles, and the functions of the Rank and Ambassadorial orders were transferred to him.
Decisions in the Senate were made collegially, at a general meeting, and were supported by the signatures of all members of the highest state body. If one of the 9 senators refused to sign the decision, the decision was considered invalid. Thus, Peter I delegated part of his powers to the Senate, but at the same time imposed personal responsibility on its members.
Simultaneously with the Senate, the position of fiscals appeared. The duty of the chief fiscal under the Senate and the fiscals in the provinces was to secretly supervise the activities of institutions: cases of violation of decrees and abuses were identified and reported to the Senate and the Tsar. Since 1715, the work of the Senate was supervised by the Auditor General, who in 1718 was renamed Chief Secretary. Since 1722, control over the Senate has been exercised by the Prosecutor General and Chief Prosecutor, to whom the prosecutors of all other institutions were subordinate. No decision of the Senate was valid without the consent and signature of the Prosecutor General. The Prosecutor General and his deputy Chief Prosecutor reported directly to the sovereign.
The Senate, as a government, could make decisions, but required an administrative apparatus to carry them out. In 1717-1721, a reform of the executive bodies of government was carried out, as a result of which the system of orders with their vague functions was replaced, according to the Swedish model, by 11 boards - the predecessors of future ministries. In contrast to orders, the functions and spheres of activity of each board were strictly demarcated, and relations within the board itself were built on the principle of collegiality of decisions. The following were introduced:
- Collegium of foreign (foreign) affairs.
- Military Collegium - recruitment, armament, equipment and training of the ground army.
- Admiralty Collegium - naval affairs, fleet.
- Kamor Collegium - collection of state revenues.
- The State Board of Directors was in charge of state expenditures,
- The Audit Board controls the collection and expenditure of government funds.
- Commerce Board - issues of shipping, customs and foreign trade.
- Berg College - mining and metallurgy.
- Manufactory Collegium - light industry.
- The College of Justice was in charge of issues of civil proceedings (the Serfdom Office operated under it: it registered various acts - bills of sale, the sale of estates, spiritual wills, debt obligations).
- The Spiritual College - managed church affairs (later the Holy Governing Synod).
In 1721, the Patrimonial Collegium was formed - it was in charge of noble land ownership (land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, and the search for fugitives were considered).
In 1720, the Chief Magistrate was formed as a collegium to govern the city population.
In 1721, the Spiritual Collegium or Synod was established to consider the affairs of the church.
On February 28, 1720, the General Regulations introduced a uniform system of office work in the state apparatus for the entire country. According to the regulations, the board consisted of a president, 4-5 advisers and 4 assessors.
In addition, there were the Preobrazhensky Prikaz (political investigation), the Salt Office, the Copper Department, and the Land Survey Office.
The “first” collegiums were called the Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs.
There were two institutions with the rights of collegiums: the Synod and the Chief Magistrate.
The boards were subordinate to the Senate, and to them were the provincial, provincial and district administrations.
Regional reform
In 1708-1715, a regional reform was carried out with the aim of strengthening the vertical of power at the local level and better providing the army with supplies and recruits. In 1708, the country was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors vested with full judicial and administrative power: Moscow, Ingria (later St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Azov, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Siberian. The Moscow province provided more than a third of revenues to the treasury, followed by the Kazan province.
Governors were also in charge of the troops stationed on the territory of the province. In 1710, new administrative units appeared - shares, uniting 5,536 households. The first regional reform did not solve the set tasks, but only significantly increased the number of civil servants and the costs of their maintenance.
In 1719-1720, a second regional reform was carried out, eliminating shares. The provinces began to be divided into 50 provinces headed by governors, and the provinces into districts headed by zemstvo commissars appointed by the Chamber Board. Only military and judicial matters remained under the governor's jurisdiction.
As a result of public administration reforms, the establishment of an absolute monarchy, as well as the bureaucratic system on which the emperor relied, ended.
Control over the activities of civil servants
To monitor the implementation of local decisions and reduce endemic corruption, the position of fiscals was established in 1711, who were supposed to “secretly inspect, report and expose” all abuses of both high and low officials, pursue embezzlement, bribery, and accept denunciations from private individuals. . At the head of the fiscals was the chief fiscal, appointed by the king and subordinate to him. The chief fiscal was part of the Senate and maintained contact with subordinate fiscals through the fiscal desk of the Senate office. Denunciations were considered and reported monthly to the Senate by the Execution Chamber - a special judicial presence of four judges and two senators (existed in 1712-1719).
In 1719-1723 The fiscals were subordinate to the College of Justice, and with the establishment in January 1722, the positions of the Prosecutor General were supervised by him. Since 1723, the chief fiscal officer was the fiscal general, appointed by the sovereign, and his assistant was the chief fiscal, appointed by the Senate. In this regard, the fiscal service withdrew from the subordination of the Justice College and regained departmental independence. The vertical of fiscal control was brought to the city level.
Army and Navy reforms
Upon his accession to the kingdom, Peter received at his disposal a permanent Streltsy army, prone to anarchy and rebellion, unable to fight Western armies. The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, which grew out of the childhood fun of the young tsar, became the first regiments of the new Russian army, built with the help of foreigners according to the European model. Reforming the army and creating a navy became necessary conditions for victory in the Northern War of 1700-1721.
In preparation for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to carry out a general recruitment and begin training soldiers according to the model established by the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovtsy. This first recruitment yielded 29 infantry regiments and two dragoons. In 1705, every 20 households had to put up one recruit, a single guy between 15 and 20 years old, for lifelong service. Subsequently, recruits began to be taken from a certain number of male souls among the peasants. Recruitment into the navy, as into the army, was carried out from recruits.
If at first among the officers there were mainly foreign specialists, then after the start of the work of the navigation, artillery, and engineering schools, the growth of the army was satisfied by Russian officers from the noble class. In 1715, the Maritime Academy was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1716, the Military Regulations were published, which strictly defined the service, rights and responsibilities of the military.
As a result of the transformations, a strong regular army and a powerful navy were created, which Russia simply did not have before. By the end of Peter's reign, the number of regular ground forces reached 210 thousand (of which 2,600 were in the guard, 41,550 in cavalry, 75 thousand in infantry, 74 thousand in garrisons) and up to 110 thousand irregular troops. The fleet consisted of 48 battleships; galleys and other vessels 787; There were almost 30 thousand people on all ships.
Church reform
One of the transformations of Peter I was the reform of church administration that he carried out, aimed at eliminating the church jurisdiction autonomous from the state and subordinating the Russian hierarchy to the Emperor. In 1700, after the death of Patriarch Adrian, Peter I, instead of convening a council to elect a new patriarch, temporarily placed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan at the head of the clergy, who received the new title of Guardian of the Patriarchal Throne or “Exarch”.
To manage the property of the patriarchal and bishop's houses, as well as monasteries, including the peasants belonging to them (approximately 795 thousand), the Monastic Order was restored, headed by I. A. Musin-Pushkin, who again began to be in charge of the trial of the monastic peasants and control income from church and monastic landholdings.
In 1701, a series of decrees were issued to reform the management of church and monastic estates and the organization of monastic life. The most important were the decrees of January 24 and 31, 1701.
In 1721, Peter approved the Spiritual Regulations, the drafting of which was entrusted to the Pskov bishop, the Tsar's close Little Russian Feofan Prokopovich. As a result, a radical reform of the church took place, eliminating the autonomy of the clergy and completely subordinating it to the state.
In Russia, the patriarchate was abolished and the Theological College was established, soon renamed the Holy Synod, which was recognized by the Eastern patriarchs as equal in honor to the patriarch. All members of the Synod were appointed by the Emperor and took an oath of allegiance to him upon taking office.
Wartime stimulated the removal of valuables from monastery storages. Peter did not go for the complete secularization of church and monastic properties, which was carried out much later, at the beginning of the reign of Catherine II.
Religious politics
The era of Peter was marked by a trend toward greater religious tolerance. Peter terminated the “12 Articles” adopted by Sophia, according to which Old Believers who refused to renounce the “schism” were subject to burning at the stake. The “schismatics” were allowed to practice their faith, subject to recognition of the existing state order and payment of double taxes. Complete freedom of faith was granted to foreigners coming to Russia, and restrictions on communication between Orthodox Christians and Christians of other faiths were lifted (in particular, interfaith marriages were allowed).
Financial reform
The Azov campaigns, and then the Northern War of 1700-1721, required huge funds, the collection of which was aimed at collecting financial reforms.
At the first stage, it all came down to finding new sources of funds. To the traditional customs and tavern levies were added fees and benefits from the monopolization of the sale of certain goods (salt, alcohol, tar, bristles, etc.), indirect taxes (bath, fish, horse taxes, tax on oak coffins, etc.) , mandatory use of stamp paper, minting coins of lesser weight (damage).
In 1704, Peter carried out a monetary reform, as a result of which the main monetary unit became not money, but a penny. From now on it began to be equal not to ½ money, but to 2 money, and this word first appeared on coins. At the same time, the fiat ruble, which had been a conventional monetary unit since the 15th century, equated to 68 grams of pure silver and used as a standard in exchange transactions, was also abolished. The most important measure during the financial reform was the introduction of a poll tax instead of the previously existing household taxation. In 1710, a “household” census was carried out, which showed a decrease in the number of households. One of the reasons for this decrease was that, in order to reduce taxes, several households were surrounded by one fence and one gate was made (this was considered one yard during the census). Due to these shortcomings, it was decided to switch to the poll tax. In 1718-1724, a repeat census was carried out in parallel with the population audit (revision of the census), which began in 1722. According to this audit, there were 5,967,313 people in taxable status.
Based on the data obtained, the government divided the amount of money needed to maintain the army and navy by the population.
As a result, the size of the per capita tax was determined: the serfs of the landowners paid the state 74 kopecks, state peasants - 1 ruble 14 kopecks (since they did not pay quitrent), the urban population - 1 ruble 20 kopecks. Only men were subject to tax, regardless of age. The nobility, clergy, as well as soldiers and Cossacks were exempt from the poll tax. The soul was countable - between audits, the dead were not excluded from the tax lists, newborns were not included, as a result, the tax burden was distributed unevenly.
As a result of the tax reform, the size of the treasury was significantly increased by extending the tax burden not only to the peasantry, but also to their landowners. If in 1710 incomes extended to 3,134,000 rubles; then in 1725 there were 10,186,707 rubles. (according to foreign sources - up to 7,859,833 rubles).
Transformations in industry and trade
Having realized Russia's technical backwardness during the Grand Embassy, Peter could not ignore the problem of reforming Russian industry. One of the main problems was the lack of qualified craftsmen. The Tsar solved this problem by attracting foreigners to the Russian service on favorable terms and by sending Russian nobles to study in Western Europe. Manufacturers received great privileges: they were exempt from military service with their children and craftsmen, they were subject only to the court of the Manufacture Collegium, they were freed from taxes and internal duties, they could import the tools and materials they needed from abroad duty-free, their houses were freed from military billets.
The first silver smelter in Russia was built near Nerchinsk in Siberia in 1704. The following year he gave the first silver.
Significant measures have been taken for geological exploration of mineral resources in Russia. Previously, the Russian state was completely dependent on foreign countries for raw materials, primarily Sweden (iron was brought from there), but after the discovery of deposits of iron ore and other minerals in the Urals, the need for purchasing iron disappeared. In the Urals, in 1723, the largest ironworks in Russia was founded, from which the city of Yekaterinburg developed. Under Peter, Nevyansk, Kamensk-Uralsky, and Nizhny Tagil were founded. Weapons factories (cannon yards, arsenals) appeared in the Olonetsky region, Sestroretsk and Tula, gunpowder factories - in St. Petersburg and near Moscow, leather and textile industries developed - in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan and on the Left Bank of Ukraine, which was determined by the need for the production of equipment and uniforms for Russian troops, silk spinning, paper production, cement production, a sugar factory and a trellis factory appeared.
In 1719, the “Berg Privilege” was issued, according to which everyone was given the right to search, smelt, cook and clean metals and minerals everywhere, subject to payment of a “mining tax” of 1/10 of the cost of production and 32 shares in favor of the owner of that land where ore deposits were found. For concealing ore and attempting to interfere with mining, the owner was threatened with confiscation of land, corporal punishment and even the death penalty “depending on guilt.”
The main problem in Russian manufactories of that time was the shortage of labor. The problem was solved by violent measures: entire villages and villages were assigned to manufactories, whose peasants worked off their taxes to the state in manufactories (such peasants would be called assigned), criminals and beggars were sent to factories. In 1721, a decree followed, which allowed “merchant people” to buy villages, the peasants of which could be resettled in manufactories (such peasants would be called possessions).
Trade developed further. With the construction of St. Petersburg, the role of the country's main port passed from Arkhangelsk to the future capital. River canals were built.
In general, Peter's policy in trade can be characterized as a policy of protectionism, consisting of supporting domestic production and imposing increased duties on imported products (this was consistent with the idea of mercantilism). In 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced - high duties on foreign goods that could be produced or were already produced by domestic enterprises.
Thus, under Peter, the foundation of Russian industry was laid, as a result of which in the middle of the 18th century Russia came out on top in the world in metal production. The number of factories and factories at the end of Peter's reign extended to 233.
Social politics
The main goal pursued by Peter I in social policy was the legal registration of class rights and obligations of each category of the population of Russia. As a result, a new structure of society emerged, in which the class character was more clearly formed. The rights of the nobility were expanded and the responsibilities of the nobility were defined, and, at the same time, the serfdom of the peasants was strengthened.
Nobility
Key milestones:
- Decree on Education of 1706: boyar children must receive either primary school or home education.
- Decree on estates of 1704: noble and boyar estates are not divided and are equated to each other.
- Decree on sole inheritance of 1714: a landowner with sons could bequeath all his real estate to only one of them at his choice. The rest were obliged to serve. The decree marked the final merger of the noble estate and the boyar estate, thereby finally erasing the difference between the two classes of feudal lords.
- “Table of Ranks” 1721 (1722): division of military, civil and court service into 14 ranks. Upon reaching the eighth grade, any official or military man could receive the status of hereditary nobility. Thus, a person’s career depended primarily not on his origin, but on his achievements in public service.
- Decree on succession to the throne on February 5, 1722: due to the absence of an heir, Peter I decides to issue an order on succession to the throne, in which he reserves the right to appoint an heir for himself (coronation ceremony of Peter’s wife Ekaterina Alekseevna)
The place of the former boyars was taken by the “generals”, consisting of ranks of the first four classes of the “Table of Ranks”. Personal service mixed up representatives of the former family nobility with people raised by service.
Peter's legislative measures, without significantly expanding the class rights of the nobility, significantly changed its responsibilities. Military affairs, which in Moscow times was the duty of a narrow class of service people, is now becoming the duty of all segments of the population. The nobleman of Peter the Great's times still has the exclusive right of land ownership, but as a result of the decrees on single inheritance and audit, he is made responsible to the state for the tax service of his peasants. The nobility is obliged to study in preparation for service.
Peter destroyed the former isolation of the service class, opening access to the environment of the nobility to people of other classes through length of service through the Table of Ranks. On the other hand, with the law on single inheritance, he opened the way out of the nobility into merchants and clergy for those who wanted it. The nobility of Russia is becoming a military-bureaucratic class, whose rights are created and hereditarily determined by public service, and not by birth.
Peasantry
Peter's reforms changed the situation of the peasants. From different categories of peasants who were not in serfdom from the landowners or the church (black-growing peasants of the north, non-Russian nationalities, etc.), a new unified category of state peasants was formed - personally free, but paying rent to the state. The opinion that this measure “destroyed the remnants of the free peasantry” is incorrect, since the population groups that made up the state peasants were not considered free in the pre-Petrine period - they were attached to the land (the Council Code of 1649) and could be granted by the tsar to private individuals and the church as serfs.
State peasants in the 18th century had the rights of personally free people (they could own property, act in court as one of the parties, elect representatives to class bodies, etc.), but were limited in movement and could be (until the beginning of the 19th century, when this category is finally approved as free people) transferred by the monarch to the category of serfs.
Legislative acts concerning the serf peasantry themselves were of a contradictory nature. Thus, the intervention of landowners in the marriage of serfs was limited (decree of 1724), it was forbidden to present serfs as defendants in court and to hold them on the right for the debts of the owner. The rule was also confirmed that the estates of landowners who had ruined their peasants should be transferred into the custody of the estates, and the peasants were given the opportunity to enroll as soldiers, which freed them from serfdom (by a decree of Emperor Elizabeth on July 2, 1742, the peasants were deprived of this opportunity).
At the same time, measures against runaway peasants were significantly tightened, large masses of palace peasants were distributed to private individuals, and landowners were allowed to recruit serfs. The imposition of a capitation tax on serfs (that is, personal servants without land) led to the merging of serfs with serfs. Church peasants were subordinated to the monastic order and removed from the authority of the monasteries.
Under Peter, a new category of dependent farmers was created - peasants assigned to manufactories. In the 18th century, these peasants were called possession farmers. A decree of 1721 allowed nobles and merchant manufacturers to buy peasants to manufactories to work for them. The peasants bought for the factory were not considered the property of its owners, but were attached to production, so that the owner of the factory could neither sell nor mortgage the peasants separately from the manufacture. Possession peasants received a fixed salary and performed a fixed amount of work.
An important measure taken by Peter for the peasantry was the decree of May 11, 1721, which introduced the Lithuanian scythe into the practice of grain harvesting, instead of the sickle traditionally used in Russia. To spread this innovation, samples of “Lithuanian women” were sent throughout the provinces, along with instructors from German and Latvian peasants. Since the scythe provided tenfold labor savings during harvesting, this innovation became widespread in a short time and became part of ordinary peasant farming. Peter's other measures to develop agriculture included the distribution of new breeds of livestock among landowners - Dutch cows, merino sheep from Spain, and the creation of stud farms. On the southern outskirts of the country, measures were taken to plant vineyards and mulberry plantations.
Urban population
The social policy of Peter the Great concerning the urban population was aimed at ensuring the payment of the poll tax. For this purpose, the population was divided into two categories: regular (industrialists, merchants, craftsmen) and irregular citizens (all others). The difference between the urban regular citizen of the end of Peter's reign and the irregular one was that the regular citizen participated in city government by electing members of the magistrate, was enrolled in the guild and workshop, or bore a monetary obligation in the share that fell on him according to the social layout.
In 1722, craft workshops based on Western European models appeared. The main purpose of their creation was to unite disparate craftsmen to produce products needed by the army. However, the guild structure did not take root in Rus'.
During the reign of Peter, the system of city management changed. The governors appointed by the king were replaced by elected City Magistrates, subordinate to the Chief Magistrate. These measures meant the emergence of city government.
Transformations in the sphere of culture
Peter I changed the beginning of the chronology from the so-called Byzantine era (“from the creation of Adam”) to “from the Nativity of Christ.” The year 7208 in the Byzantine era became 1700 AD. However, this reform did not affect the Julian calendar as such - only the year numbers changed.
After returning from the Great Embassy, Peter I waged a struggle against the external manifestations of an outdated way of life (the ban on beards is most famous), but no less paid attention to introducing the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, and translations of many books into Russian appeared. Peter made success in service for the nobles dependent on education.
Under Peter the first book in Russian with Arabic numerals appeared in 1703. Before that, numbers were designated by letters with titles (wavy lines). In 1710, Peter approved a new alphabet with a simplified style of letters (the Church Slavonic font remained for printing church literature), two letters “xi” and “psi” were excluded. Peter created new printing houses, in which 1,312 book titles were printed between 1700 and 1725 (twice as many as in the entire previous history of Russian book printing). Thanks to the rise of printing, paper consumption increased from 4-8 thousand sheets at the end of the 17th century to 50 thousand sheets in 1719. There have been changes in the Russian language, which included 4.5 thousand new words borrowed from European languages.
In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the organized Academy of Sciences (opened in 1725 after his death).
Of particular importance was the construction of stone Petersburg, in which foreign architects took part and which was carried out according to the plan developed by the Tsar. He created a new urban environment with previously unfamiliar forms of life and pastime (theater, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, lifestyle, food composition, etc. have changed.
By a special decree of the tsar in 1718, assemblies were introduced, representing a new form of communication between people in Russia. At the assemblies, the nobles danced and communicated freely, unlike previous feasts and feasts. Thus, noble women were able to join cultural leisure and public life for the first time.
The reforms carried out by Peter I affected not only politics, economics, but also art. Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study “art” abroad, mainly to Holland and Italy. In the second quarter of the 18th century. “Peter’s pensioners” began to return to Russia, bringing with them new artistic experience and acquired skills.
Gradually, a different system of values, worldview, and aesthetic ideas took shape in the ruling environment.
Education
Peter clearly recognized the need for enlightenment, and took a number of decisive measures to this end.
On January 14, 1700, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow. In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, and mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories. In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened. The goals of mass education were to be served by digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, designed to “ teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry" It was planned to create two such schools in each province, where education was to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was created in 1721 to train priests.
According to the Hanoverian Weber, during the reign of Peter the Great, several thousand Russians were sent to study abroad.
Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met fierce resistance and was cancelled. Peter's attempt to create an all-estate primary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death; most of the digital schools under his successors were repurposed as estate schools for training the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.