Militarization and Modernization in Petrine Russia
In the eighteenth century, the political, economic, and socio-cultural fabric of Russian life underwent important changes. Generally speaking, these changes were indicative of a transition from an isolated position of Muscovite Russia still ingrained with a mentality characteristic of the Middle Ages to a new consciousness of modernization and increased westernization. This major shift in Russian history was the product of broad, deliberate reform, accredited to the reign of Peter the Great (1694-1725), which ushered in European art, literature, philosophy, and ideas of political organization and administration. Willingly accepted or not, large-scale government intervention was evident in almost all aspects of life; the Petrine reforms were therefore extensive and multi-faceted. Nevertheless, we can gain important insights by focusing on particular aspects of reform, which, for the purpose of this essay, will be military developments. A primary goal herein, therefore, will be the focused examination of this particular component of reform in the context of the broader picture painted by historians of eighteenth century Russian history. That is, through the lens of military reform, we can gain a critical understanding of both the beneficial and the problematic aspects of the traditional macro-historical narrative of Russia’s transition from the Muscovy era.
Peter the Great’s military reforms and their import was met with opposition as well as approval. The Old Believers held the conviction, and ingeniously crafted justification, that Peter was the AntiChrist with one of the reasons that “the coming of AntiChrist meant war and destruction, and therefore it was fitting that Pete...
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...aken from every male regardless of stature, reduced masses of peasants to serfs because landlords were no longer held accountable to make a differentiation between the two when reporting their holdings to the state.
Peter’s military reform and ambitions thus had interesting outcomes and influences; Russia did indeed become recognized as a western state due to its strong military force but the necessary support systems that were set up to achieve this success did not always benefit Russian life. Because westernization did not reach the depths of all social classes a threatening chasm in social structure emerged. Military reform therefore became one of the most visible and effective embodiments of westernization. Because it was not an ideal, mannerism, or structure, but rather, a concrete impetus of an autonomous state, the military can be defined as truly western.
Though the book has no footnotes, it was researched methodically through documents and the work of other scholars. It is very detailed and specific for such a short book. The information about the foreign policy of Russia under Catherine’s rule, and her various wars and military maneuvers, helped explain some of the issues Russian is currently undergoing today in Crimea, the Ukraine and with Turkey. The central theme of reform was also examined in depth, and given the time in which she ruled, and the size of the country, it astonishes me the undertaking Catherine had in front of her. It could take 18 months for an imperial order to reach the far eastern side of Russia, then 18 more months for a reply to get back to her at the
Peter the Great, the Russian Czar, inherited his absolutist power from his brother, Ivan V. Born in aristocracy, Peter’s dad was the Czar, and later his brother, and after his brother’s death, him. He was a firm believer in the possible benefits from the control of a single leader to make decisions for the people, and he exercised this divine right to create many renouned institutions. At the beginning of Peter’s reign, Russia was in a poor condition: many rejected modernization from the Renaissance, and large spending from his brother’s reign caused economic droughts. He took advantage of his absolutist power to help ameliorate Russia’s situation and first decided to minimalize power from the other aristocrats. The subduction of the rich allowed
Moss, W., 2014. A History of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. 1st ed. London, England: Anthem Press London, pp.112-113.
While most of Europe had develop strong central governments and weakened the power of the nobles, Russia had lagged behind the times and still had serfs as late as 1861. The economic development that followed the emancipation of peasants in the rest of Europe created strong industrial and tax bases in those nations. Russian monarchs had attempted some level of reforms to address this inequality for almost a century before, and were indeed on their way to “economic maturity” (32) on par with the rest of Europe. But they overextended themselves and the crushing defeats of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and the First World War in 1917 lost them the necessary support from their subjects and created “high prices and scarcity” which were by far “the most obvious factors in the general tension”
Peter redefined the duty of the Russian autocracy by binding together the notion of an autocrat who rules over the populace without any limitations and the notion of the autocrat who reforms society for the benefit of the populace (Whittaker, 1992, p. 78). Catherine wanted to become the enlightened and reforming despot that Peter the Great was, but she also realized the flaws that he possessed that she saw in herself. She criticized Peter for moving the capital to St Petersburg as opposed to moving it elsewhere and Peter’s failure to change the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 (Rasmussen, 1974, p. 56). However, Catherine was also unsuccessful in changing the Russian legal code as the Legislative Commission was a failure because it had not accomplished its task and she realized that this showed she herself had shortcomings much like Peter did (Rasmussen, 1974, p. 59). Nevertheless, Catherine had a vast amount of respect toward Peter and she used his image to her advantage as a political device. She used his image to overthrow Peter III and gain power over the throne. She realized that this was a necessity because “her claim to power was shaky and she worked to buttress it by projecting the image of a reforming tsar […]” (Whittaker, 1992, p. 92). Catherine did not ascend to the throne by legal right, but she had ascended to it because she had usurped her husband in order to claim power. Therefore, she
Peter the Great would come to be one of Russia’s most influential and powerful rulers by implementing easily the greatest amount of reforms a Russian ruler has ever attempted and altering the course of Roman history for good. The Tsar’s many reforms brought Russia out of archaic times and into a more Europeanized modern age where not only was the entire structure of government changed but so too were extensive reforms brought onto late 17th century and early 18th century Russia’s industry, commerce, technology, military, and culture among other things. Peter the Great’s legacy brought Russia to the height of her power and is one that has inspired many Russians and historians alike through the centuries since his death.
Peter the Great became tsar of Russia in 1682 and instituted many comprehensive changes designed to modernize and develop Russia during his reign. In The Revolution of Peter the Great, James Cracraft portrays the tsar as an ambitious and pivotal leader who sought to create a modern and powerful state by emulating Western European nations. The author insists that Peter inspired a revolution in Russia by establishing new bureaucratic, civil, and educational institutions. Cracraft argues that although all of Peter’s modifications had social and economic consequences, it was the cultural revolution that had the greatest impact on Russia. Cracraft describes Peter the Great as the most essential and historic figure in all of Russian history, and thus claims Peter as one of the most significant figures in all of modern history.
...udy of Russian history has been the actual significance of the Peter's reforms. To some scholars, these reforms simply cannot be overemphasized; to others, their importance has been greatly exaggerated. Most scholars who study that period conclude that, while some of Peter's reforms were relatively limited in their impact, the impact of his economic and military policies in particular was decisive. Peter the Great's military reforms effectively modernized Russia’s Army and Navy. By his death in 1725, Russia's military was a force to be reckoned with.
(6) K. D. Kavelin, "Vzgliad na iuridichevkii byt drevnei Rossii," in Nash umstvennyi stroi: stat. i po filosofii russkoi istorii i kul. tury ["A View of the Legal Life of Old Russia," in Our State of Mind. Articles on the Philosophy of Russian History and Culture] (Moscow: Pravda, 1989) 15.
The 19th century was a highly turbulent time in Russia’s history. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France, Western ideas and philosophy crept into Russian culture. As a result, Russian nobles split into two schools of thought. Slavophiles valued Russia’s traditional Orthodox Church, and did not want to Westernize and secede to the supposed superiority of Western culture. Conversely, Westernizers were a group of nobles who were against the traditional Russian values, and believed that the only way forward was to look to Europe. The Westernizers and the Slavophiles disagreed on a deep level about the direction Russia needed to take in the future. Russian thinkers were split between the Westernizer and the Slavophile point of view; both sides disagreed about the true nature of the country as well as its relation with the West.
Peter was only ten years old when the Kremlin saw an open and violent struggle of power between the Naryshkins and Miloslavskys. He had witnessed killings including his mother’s former guardian. These vicious and unnecessary killings created a deep hatred in Peter for the streltsy and revulsion against the Kremlin and its politics. Peter had spent the next seven years in the village of Preobrazhenskoe and his mother whom now served as a head of state. Peter then used his own devices to familiarize himself which in fact were military matters and Western technology. His mother’s death in 1694 and Ivan the Terrible’s death in 1696 made Peter the sole ruler of Russia. (Gupta, 2006) Despite the fact that he had no formal or complete education, Peter was beyond his years physically and mentally. He gained knowledge from mostly foreigners when it came to technical skills who worked for Russian service that had lived nearby. He spent a majority of his time in the German quarter in Moscow learning from the scholars from the German University. (Hutchinson, 2011) A new revolt of the streltsy took place in...
Wood, A. (1986). The Russian Revolution. Seminar Studies in History. (2) Longman, p 1-98. ISBSN 0582355591, 9780582355590
8Sites Richard, ‘The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, 1900-1945’, in Michael Howard and William Roger Louis, The Oxford history of the twentieth century, New York, 1998, p. 117-27.
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.
The need to modernise in Russia was a problem that the tsar had to face between the years, at the time in question, Russia was very backwards in the way that it farmed its lands, its economy was behind that of the rest of Europe, this meant that action had to be taken, in this area the tsar did have some successes.