Biographies Characteristics Analysis

What military reforms did Peter 1 carry out. Judicial reform of Peter I

All state activity of Peter I can be conditionally divided into two periods: 1695-1715 and 1715-1725.

The peculiarity of the first stage was the haste and not always thoughtful nature, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for warfare, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to state reforms, extensive reforms were carried out at the first stage in order to modernize the way of life.

In the second period, the reforms were more lightning-fast and ill-conceived and aimed at the internal arrangement of the state.

In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the Russian state and familiarizing the ruling stratum with Western European culture while strengthening the absolute monarchy. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great, a powerful Russian empire was created, headed by the emperor, who had absolute power. In the course of the reforms, the technical and economic backwardness 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 in Russian society. At the same time, the people's forces were extremely exhausted, the bureaucratic apparatus grew, the prerequisites (Decree of Succession) were created for the crisis of the 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 public administration. The emergence of a new state institution or a change in the administrative-territorial administration of the country was dictated by the conduct of wars, which required significant financial resources and the 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, the Near Chancellery, or Council (Council) of Ministers, which consisted of 8 trusted persons who controlled individual orders. It was a 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 operation was established in the Council: each minister had special powers, reports and minutes of meetings appear. 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 as follows: Look at the entire state spending, and set aside unnecessary, and especially vain. Collect as much money as possible, because money is the artery of war.»

Created by Peter for the current administration of the state during the absence of the tsar (at that time the tsar went on the Prut campaign), the Senate, consisting of 9 people, turned from a temporary into a permanent higher government institution, which was enshrined in the Decree of 1722. He controlled justice, was in charge of trade, fees and expenses of the state, oversaw the serviceability of serving military service by the nobles, he was transferred to the functions of the Discharge and Ambassadorial orders.

Decisions in the Senate were taken collectively, at a general meeting and supported by the signatures of all members of the highest state body. If one of the 9 senators refused to sign the decision, then the decision was considered invalid. Thus, Peter I delegated part of his powers to the Senate, but at the same time placed personal responsibility on its members.

Simultaneously with the Senate, the post of fiscals appeared. The duty of the Chief Fiscal in the Senate and the Fiscals in the provinces was to secretly supervise the activities of institutions: they identified cases of violation of decrees and abuses and reported to the Senate and the Tsar. Since 1715, the work of the Senate was supervised by the auditor general, from 1718 renamed the chief secretary. Since 1722, the control over the Senate has been carried out by the Prosecutor General and the 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 Attorney General. The Prosecutor General and his Deputy Chief Prosecutor reported directly to the sovereign.

The Senate, as a government, could make decisions, but their implementation required an administrative apparatus. In the years 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 colleges - the predecessors of future ministries. In contrast to orders, the functions and spheres of activity of each collegium were strictly delimited, and relations within the collegium itself were based on the principle of collective decisions. Were introduced:

  • Collegium of Foreign (Foreign) Affairs.
  • Military board - recruiting, armament, equipment and training of the land army.
  • Admiralty Board - naval affairs, fleet.
  • Chamber College - collection of state revenues.
  • State-offices-collegium - was in charge of the state's expenses,
  • Revision Board - control of the collection and spending of public funds.
  • Commerce College - issues of shipping, customs and foreign trade.
  • Berg College - mining and metallurgical business.
  • Manufactory College - light industry.
  • The College of Justice was in charge of civil proceedings (the Serf Office operated under it: it registered various acts - bills of sale, on the sale of estates, spiritual wills, debt obligations).
  • Theological Board - managed church affairs (later the Most Holy Governing Synod).

In 1721, the Estates College was formed - it was in charge of noble land ownership (land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, and the investigation of fugitives were considered).
In 1720, as a collegium, the Chief Magistrate was formed to manage the urban population.
In 1721, the Spiritual College or Synod was established - the affairs of the church were considered.
On February 28, 1720, the General Regulations introduced a single system of office work in the state apparatus for the whole country. According to the regulations, the collegium consisted of the president, 4-5 advisers and 4 assessors.
In addition, the Preobrazhensky Prikaz (political investigation), the Salt Office, the Copper Department, and the Land Survey Office operated.
The "first" colleges were called the Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs.
On the rights of colleges there were two institutions: the Synod and the Chief Magistrate.
The colleges were subordinate to the Senate, and to them - the provincial, provincial and county administration.

Regional reform

In 1708-1715, a regional reform was carried out in order to strengthen the vertical of power in the field and better provide the army with supplies and recruits. In 1708, the country was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors endowed with full judicial and administrative power: Moscow, Ingermanland (later St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Azov, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Siberia. The Moscow province gave more than a third of the proceeds to the treasury, followed by the Kazan province.

The governors were also in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province. In 1710, new administrative units appeared - shares, uniting 5536 households. The first regional reform did not solve the set tasks, but only significantly increased the number of civil servants and the cost of their maintenance.

In 1719-1720, the second regional reform was carried out, which eliminated the 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 Collegium. Only military and judicial matters remained under the jurisdiction of the governor.

As a result of public administration reforms, the formation of an absolute monarchy, as well as the bureaucratic system on which the emperor relied, ended.

Control over the activities of civil servants

To control the execution of decisions on the ground and reduce rampant corruption, since 1711, the position of fiscals was established, who were supposed to “secretly visit, denounce and denounce” all abuses, both higher and lower 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 a member of the Senate and maintained contact with subordinate fiscals through the fiscal desk of the Senate Chancellery. Denunciations were considered and monthly reported to the Senate by the Punishment 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, with the establishment in January 1722 of the post of prosecutor general were supervised by him. Since 1723, the chief fiscal was the general fiscal, appointed by the sovereign, his assistant was the chief fiscal, appointed by the Senate. In this regard, the fiscal service withdrew from the subordination of the College of Justice and regained departmental independence. The vertical of fiscal control was brought to the city level.

Reforms of the army and navy

Upon entering the kingdom, Peter received at his disposal a permanent archery army, prone to anarchy and rebellion, unable to fight with Western armies. The Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments, which grew out of the young tsar's childhood fun, became the first regiments of the new Russian army, built with the help of foreigners according to the European model. The reform of the army and the creation of the navy became necessary conditions for victory in the Northern War of 1700-1721.

Preparing for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to make a general recruitment and start training soldiers according to the model established by the Preobrazhenians and Semyonovites. This first recruitment gave 29 infantry regiments and two dragoons. In 1705, every 20 yards had to put up for life one recruit, a single guy aged 15 to 20 years. Subsequently, recruits began to be taken from a certain number of male souls among the peasants. Recruitment to the fleet, as well as to the army, was carried out from recruits.

If at first among the officers there were mainly foreign specialists, then after the start of the navigation, artillery, engineering schools, the growth of the army was satisfied by Russian officers from the nobility. In 1715, the Maritime Academy was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1716, the Military Charter was issued, which strictly defined the service, rights and duties 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 troops reached 210 thousand (of which there were 2600 in the guard, 41 550 in the cavalry, 75 thousand in the infantry, 74 thousand in the 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 the ships.

Church reform

One of the transformations of Peter I was the reform of church administration carried out by him, aimed at eliminating 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 appointed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan as the head of the clergy, who received the new title of Custodian of the Patriarchal Throne or "Exarch".

To manage the property of the patriarchal and episcopal 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 became in charge of the trial of the monastic peasants and control income from church and monastic land holdings.

In 1701, a series of decrees was issued to reform the administration of church and monastery 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, Feofan Prokopovich, an approximate tsar, Little Russian. As a result, a radical reform of the church took place, which eliminated the autonomy of the clergy and completely subordinated it to the state.

In Russia, the patriarchate was abolished and the Spiritual 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 the monastic vaults. Peter did not go for the complete secularization of church and monastery possessions, which was carried out much later, at the beginning of the reign of Catherine II.

Religious politics

The age of Peter was marked by a trend towards greater religious tolerance. Peter terminated the “12 Articles” adopted by Sophia, according to which the Old Believers who refused to renounce the “schism” were to be burned at the stake. The "schismatics" were allowed to practice their faith, subject to the recognition of the existing state order and the payment of double taxes. Complete freedom of belief was granted to foreigners who came to Russia, restrictions were lifted on the communication of Orthodox Christians with Christians of other faiths (in particular, interfaith marriages were allowed).

financial reform

The Azov campaigns, and then the Northern War of 1700-1721, required huge funds, which were collected by financial reforms.

At the first stage, it all came down to finding new sources of funds. To the traditional customs and tavern fees 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.) , obligatory use of stamped paper, minting coins of smaller weight (damage).

In 1704, Peter carried out a monetary reform, as a result of which the main monetary unit was not money, but a penny. From now on, it began to equal not ½ money, but 2 money, and this word first appeared on coins. At the same time, the fiat ruble was also abolished, which had been a conditional monetary unit since the 15th century, equated to 68 grams of pure silver and used as a standard in exchange transactions. The most important measure in the course of the financial reform was the introduction of a poll tax instead of the prior 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 wattle fence, and one gate was made (this was considered one household during the census). Due to these shortcomings, it was decided to switch to a poll tax. In 1718-1724, a second census of the population was carried out in parallel with the revision of the population (revision of the census), which began in 1722. According to this revision, there were 5,967,313 people in the taxable state.

Based on the data obtained, the government divided by the population the amount of money needed to maintain the army and navy.

As a result, the size of the per capita tax was determined: serf landowners paid the state 74 kopecks, state peasants - 1 ruble 14 kopecks (since they did not pay dues), the urban population - 1 ruble 20 kopecks. Only men were taxed, regardless of age. The nobility, clergy, as well as soldiers and Cossacks were exempted from the poll tax. The soul was countable - between revisions, the dead were not excluded from tax lists, newborns were not included, as a result, the tax burden was unevenly distributed.

As a result of the tax reform, the size of the treasury was significantly increased by spreading the tax burden not only on the peasantry, but also on their landlords. If in 1710 income 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 commerce

Realizing during the Great Embassy the technical backwardness of Russia, 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, by sending Russian nobles to study in Western Europe. Manufacturers received great privileges: they were exempted from military service with their children and craftsmen, they were subject only to the court of the Manufactory Collegium, they got rid of taxes and internal duties, they could bring the tools and materials they needed from abroad duty-free, their houses were freed from military quarters.

In 1704 Russia's first silver-smelting plant was built near Nerchinsk in Siberia. The following year he gave the first silver.

Significant measures have been taken on the exploration of minerals in Russia. Previously, the Russian state was completely dependent on foreign countries for raw materials, primarily Sweden (iron was transported from there), but after the discovery of deposits of iron ore and other minerals in the Urals, the need to purchase 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, Nizhny Tagil were founded. Arms factories (cannon yards, arsenals) appear in the Olonets region, Sestroretsk and Tula, gunpowder factories - in St. Petersburg and near Moscow, the leather and textile industries develop - in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan and the Left-Bank Ukraine, which was conditioned by the need to produce equipment and uniforms for the Russian troops, silk weaving, the production of paper, cement, a sugar factory and a trellis factory appear.

In 1719, the “Berg Privilege” was issued, according to which everyone was given the right to search, melt, boil and clean metals and minerals everywhere, subject to the payment of a “mountain tax” of 1/10 of the cost of production and 32 shares in favor of the owner of that land where ore deposits are found. For hiding ore and trying to prevent mining, the owner was threatened with confiscation of land, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty "through the fault of looking."

The main problem in the 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, the peasants of which worked out their taxes to the state at manufactories (such peasants will be called ascribed), criminals and beggars were sent to the factories. In 1721, a decree followed, which allowed "merchant people" to buy villages, the peasants of which could be relocated to manufactories (such peasants would be called sessional).

Trade has been further developed. With the construction of St. Petersburg, the role of the main port of the country passed from Arkhangelsk to the future capital. River channels were built.

In general, Peter's policy in trade can be described as a policy of protectionism, which consists in supporting domestic production and establishing increased duties on imported products (this corresponded to the idea of ​​mercantilism). In 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced - high duties on foreign goods that could be manufactured or 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 plants at the end of Peter's reign reached 233.

Social 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 Russian population. As a result, a new structure of society developed, in which the class character was more clearly formed. The rights and duties of the nobility were expanded, and, at the same time, the serfdom of the peasants was strengthened.

Nobility

Key milestones:

  1. Decree on education of 1706: Boyar children must receive either primary school or home education without fail.
  2. Decree on estates of 1704: noble and boyar estates are not divided and are equated to each other.
  3. Decree of Uniform Succession of 1714: a landowner with sons could bequeath all his real estate to only one of their choice. The rest were required to serve. The decree marked the final merger of the noble estate and the boyar estate, thereby finally erasing the difference between the two estates of feudal lords.
  4. "Table of Ranks" 1721 (1722) of the year: the 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 achievements in public service.
  5. Decree on succession to the throne 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 his heir (the coronation ceremony of Peter's wife Ekaterina Alekseevna)

The place of the former boyars was taken by the “generals”, consisting of the ranks of the first four classes of the “Table of Ranks”. Personal service mixed the representatives of the former tribal nobility with people raised by the service.

Peter's legislative measures, without significantly expanding the class rights of the nobility, significantly changed his duties. Military affairs, which in Moscow times was the duty of a narrow class of service people, is now becoming the duty of all sections of the population. The nobleman of the time of Peter the Great still has the exclusive right to land ownership, but as a result of the decrees on uniform inheritance and on revision, he is responsible to the state for the tax serviceability of his peasants. The nobility is obliged to study in order to prepare for the service.

Peter destroyed the former isolation of the service class, opening, through the length of service through the Table of Ranks, access to the environment of the gentry to people of other classes. On the other hand, by the law of single inheritance, he opened the exit from the nobility to merchants and the clergy to those who wanted it. The nobility of Russia becomes a military-bureaucratic estate, whose rights are created and hereditarily determined by public service, and not by birth.

Peasantry

Peter's reforms changed the position of the peasants. From different categories of peasants who were not in serfdom from the landlords or the church (black-eared peasants of the north, non-Russian nationalities, etc.), a new single category of state peasants was formed - personally free, but paying dues 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 (Council Code of 1649) and could be granted by the tsar to private individuals and the church as fortresses.

State. peasants in the 18th century had the rights of personally free people (they could own property, act as one of the parties in court, elect representatives to estate 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) were transferred by the monarch to the category of serfs.

Legislative acts relating to the serfs proper were contradictory. Thus, the interference of landlords in the marriage of serfs was limited (decree of 1724), it was forbidden to put serfs in their place as defendants in court and keep them on the right for the debts of the owner. The rule was also confirmed on the transfer of landowners' estates to the custody of their peasants, and the peasants were given the opportunity to enroll as soldiers, which freed them from serfdom (by decree of Empress Elizabeth on July 2, 1742, the peasants lost this opportunity).

At the same time, measures against fugitive peasants were significantly tightened, large masses of palace peasants were distributed to private individuals, and landowners were allowed to recruit serfs. The taxation of serfs (that is, personal servants without land) with a poll tax led to the merging of serfs with serfs. The church peasants were subordinated to the monastic order and removed from the power 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 possessive. By decree of 1721, nobles and merchants-manufacturers were allowed to buy peasants to manufactories to work for them. The peasants bought to 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 manufactory. Posessional peasants received a fixed salary and performed a fixed amount of work.

Peter's decree of May 11, 1721, which was important for the peasantry, introduced the Lithuanian scythe into the practice of reaping grain, instead of the sickle traditionally used in Russia. To spread this innovation throughout the provinces, samples of "Lithuanian women" were sent, along with instructors from German and Latvian peasants. Since the scythe gave tenfold labor savings during harvesting, this innovation became widespread in a short time and became part of the ordinary peasant economy. Other measures taken by Peter to develop agriculture included the distribution of new breeds of livestock among landowners - Dutch cows, merino sheep from Spain, and the creation of horse factories. On the southern outskirts of the country, measures were taken to plant vineyards and plantations of mulberry trees.

Urban population

The social policy of Peter the Great, concerning the urban population, pursued the provision of the payment of the poll tax. To do this, the population was divided into two categories: regular (industrialists, merchants, artisans of workshops) and irregular citizens (everyone else). The difference between the urban regular inhabitant of the end of the reign of Peter 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 carried a monetary duty in the share that fell on him according to the social layout.

In 1722, craft workshops appeared according to the Western European model. The main purpose of their creation was the unification of disparate craftsmen to produce products needed by the army. However, the guild structure in Russia did not take root.

During the reign of Peter, the system of city administration 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 self-government.

Transformations in the field 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 of the Byzantine era became the year 1700 from the birth of Christ. However, this reform did not affect the Julian calendar as such - only the year numbers changed.

After returning from the Great Embassy, ​​Peter I led the fight against outward manifestations of an outdated lifestyle (the most famous ban on beards), but no less paid attention to the introduction of the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, translations of many books into Russian appeared. Success in the service of Peter made the nobles dependent on education.

Under Peter in 1703 the first book appeared in Russian with Arabic numerals. Until that date, they were designated by letters with titles (wavy lines). In 1710, Peter approved a new alphabet with a simplified type of letters (the Church Slavonic font remained for printing church literature), the two letters "xi" and "psi" were excluded. Peter created new printing houses, in which 1312 titles of books were printed in 1700-1725 (twice as many as in the entire previous history of Russian book printing). Thanks to the rise of printing, paper consumption increased from 4,000 to 8,000 sheets at the end of the 17th century to 50,000 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 Academy of Sciences being organized (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 (theatre, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, the way of life, the composition of food, 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 mingled freely, unlike earlier feasts and feasts. Thus, noble women were able for the first time to join the cultural leisure and social life.

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 "arts" abroad, mainly to Holland and Italy. In the second quarter of the XVIII 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 was clearly aware of 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, 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 the digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, called " to teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry". It was supposed to create two such schools in each province, where education was supposed 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 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 with fierce resistance and was canceled. Peter's attempt to create an all-estate elementary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death, most of the digital schools under his successors were redesigned into class schools for the training of the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign, the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.

FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

State educational institution

higher professional education

Siberian State Aerospace University

named after academician M.F. Reshetnev"

Institute of Management and Social Technologies

Department of Public Relations

ESSAY in history

Peter's military reforms i

Completed: student gr. FKZ-61
Kvashnin S.A.

Checked by: Petrova O.A.

Ph.D. assistant professor

Krasnoyarsk 2006

Introduction 3

1. Streltsy army reform 4

2. Recruitment kits 5

3. Military training 6

4. Officers of the army 8

5. Organizational structure of the army 8

6. Army Management 11

7. Change of tactics 12

8. Armament and uniforms of the army 13

9. Logistics 14

Conclusion 17

References 18

Introduction

One of the main controversial points on this topic is the question of what was the prerequisites for the military reforms of Peter I. There are many points of view on this issue, but the most well-reasoned are five:

1. Adherents of the first point of view in military historiography are characterized by the belief that military affairs in pre-Petrine Russia were hopelessly backward, obsolete, and by the time of the accession of Peter I was in a state of complete collapse and desolation, the army was disorganized and unfit for combat. And, allegedly, therefore, Peter considered it necessary to completely put an end to the past and, after studying the European experience, to introduce a regular army in Russia.

2. The "Russian military school" opposed such views. Its adherents believe that Russian military art followed an independent path, developed in special conditions - on an exclusively independent basis. In their opinion, it cannot be considered that Peter introduced something fundamentally new, and his army reforms were only a continuation of those transformations that had been started back in the 17th century. Peter's military reforms are only the logical conclusion of the tendencies of the national development of that era.

3. These two extreme views gave rise to the "golden mean", an intermediate point of view, the adherents of which find the truth in the statements of both extreme positions. They argue that the regiments of the new order of Alexei Mikhailovich can rightfully be considered as a prototype of the regular army of Peter, but these regiments were created according to Western models and staffed by foreign officers.

4. According to another point of view, Peter I was inspired in his military reforms not by the traditions of the past and not by foreign models, but, above all, by the practical experience that the Russian army gained during the Northern War. And the transformations are a long chain of changes and improvements based on the analysis of individual specific military operations, until they eventually culminated in the publication of the Military Regulations of 1716, in which the collected experience was systematized and rationalized.

5. The military genius and originality of thinking of Peter I are also put forward as the basis for the reforms carried out. Supporters of this view emphasize that the personality of Peter I, one of the greatest strategists and military organizers in history, left a deep imprint on the transformation of the army. To prove this position, it is customary to rely on the personal archives of the tsar-transformer - his own calculations, drawings of military-technical structures, numerous drafts and drafts of military regulations. If Peter used foreign samples when creating the Charter of 1716, then no more than for their selective, creative and critical processing.

1. Reform of the Streltsy troops

Before the capture of Azov, Peter's innovations in the army were not universal, they did not concern the entire army as a whole. And only from 1698-1699 did a comprehensive full-scale military reform begin directly.

Streltsy participated in both Peter's campaigns against Azov. In the first campaign - 12 archery regiments, in the second - 13 regiments. Archers participated in campaigns before, but then the matter was limited to the summer months, and for the winter they returned to Moscow to their usual activities: trade and crafts. After the capture of Azov, 6 soldier and 4 archery regiments were left in the fortress. The total number of archers: 2659 officers and privates, 8 colonels and lieutenant colonels and 30 captains. They were responsible not only to repel possible attempts by the Ottomans to return the fortress, but also to restore its bastions and build new ones.

In the summer of 1697, the archers, who had wintered in Azov, were ordered to go to Moscow. But already on the way, a new order happened: the regiments were to go to the Polish border in Velikiye Luki. Instead of meeting with families, new trials were coming - to live in a sparsely populated area, endure hunger and need.

There are rumors among the Streltsy that they have been taken out of Moscow forever and that the Streltsy army is in danger of perishing. The archers consider the boyars and foreigners to be the culprits of their troubles (Peter I at that time was in Europe as part of the “Great Embassy”). Sagittarius arbitrarily go to Moscow. But on the way they were met and defeated by regular troops under the command of Shein, Gordon, Koltsov-Mosalsky. Shein then investigates and executes 722 rebels. Then Peter returned to Moscow, more than 1000 archers were executed. Only archers aged 14 to 20 years old were spared their lives - they were beaten with a whip.

This last Streltsy rebellion further intensified Peter's real hatred and fear of the Streltsy. Therefore, the king decides once and for all to destroy the traitors and rebels. In total, more than 1,700 archers were executed for participating in the rebellion, the rest were sent to different cities and recorded in other regiments.

Thus, the once famous name of archers lived for about three more years. And later, the archery regiments loyal to the tsar received new names. The Streltsy army ceased to exist.

Instead, at the end of 1699, 2 divisions were first formed - Avtomon Golovin and Weide (consisting of 18 infantry and 2 dragoon regiments). Later they created another 1 division - under the command of Nikita Repnin. The officers and soldiers of the disbanded companies of the regiments of the new system (mainly the 1st and 2nd Moscow elected regiments) were sent to staff these divisions. They formed the backbone of the divisions being created. The rest of the soldiers were replenished by recruiting.

The very way of life of the archers, who tend to succeed more in household chores than in the military, contributed to their police functions in the capital. But even as a police force, the archers proved to be unreliable because they turned into an instrument of palace intrigues.

A.V. Chernov, who studied the armed forces of Russia in the 17th century, believed that the disbandment of the streltsy army was unlikely to weaken the country's defense capability.

2. Recruitment kits

In 1699-1700, Peter I conducted a centralized recruitment for the infantry. The new system of manning the army was a logical result of the development of the national characteristics of Russian military art.

Legally, the beginning of the regular army of Peter I was laid by the decrees of the tsar of November 8 and 17, 1699, where the sources for the formation of new regiments were determined:

the first source is "eager people"

the second source is “data people”, i.e. the recruits themselves.

As a result, 27 infantry and 2 dragoon regiments were created from hunters and subordinate people, with a total number of 32,000 people. They were reduced to 3 divisions (commanders - Avtomon Golovin, Nikita Repnin, Adam Veide). On June 25, 1700, in the village of Preobrazhensky, a solemn transfer of the first 14 regiments to division commanders took place, this day is accepted by Russian military history as the date of the establishment of the regular army of Russia.

Note that the reform at this stage did not affect the cavalry - it, as before, consisted of a noble militia.

Recruitment was carried out as needed, as announced in special decrees. The number of recruits to be recruited was determined anew each time.

From 1705 to 1713 (the height of the Northern War on land), 10 recruiting sets were carried out, which gave the army 337,196 people, which fully satisfied the needs of the army in the rank and file. Until 1709, recruiting was carried out annually - there was an exhausting Northern War. The extension of military service to the largest stratum of the population, the peasantry, expanded the army's recruiting base enormously. At the same time, the service becomes lifelong and permanent.

The new recruitment system gave the Russian army a great advantage over the Western European ones, based on the recruitment system. It made it possible to create an army with a homogeneous national composition.

Recruitment sets took the best personnel from the national economy, because only healthy men aged 15 to 32 years old, who were not defamed by any crimes, were recruited.

The new recruitment system made it possible during the Northern War to create not only a large regular army, but also to prepare a trained manpower reserve for waging a long bloody war. Thus, before the Battle of Poltava, when Charles XII experienced strong blows from the Russian army, 40,000 recruits were trained in large cities of Russia to replenish regular regiments.

For the leadership of the state and the army, the recruiting system was more convenient than the recruiting system. However, recruitment kits annually irrevocably took away up to 40,000 able-bodied young men.

The fate of the recruits was hard. There was resistance among the people to the recruitment kits. Therefore, recruits were chained in stocks as criminals, stations were built for them (places of concentration of troops, not much different from stage prisons), branded with special tattoos, which the Old Believers called the "seal of the Antichrist."

3. Military training

In the history of the Petrine reforms, researchers distinguish two stages: before and after 1715. At the first stage, the reforms were mostly chaotic and were caused primarily by the military needs of the state associated with the conduct of the Northern War, were carried out mainly by violent methods and were accompanied by active state intervention in economic affairs. Many reforms were ill-conceived, hasty in nature, which was caused both by failures in the war, and by the lack of personnel, experience, and pressure from the old conservative apparatus of power. At the second stage, when hostilities had already been transferred to enemy territory, the transformations became more systematic. There was a further strengthening of the apparatus of power, manufactories not only served military needs, but also produced consumer goods for the population, state regulation of the economy was somewhat weakened, merchants and entrepreneurs were given a certain freedom of action. Basically, the reforms were subordinated not to the interests of individual estates, but to the state as a whole: its prosperity, well-being and familiarization with Western European civilization. The goal of the reforms was to acquire the role of Russia as one of the leading world powers, capable of competing with Western countries militarily and economically. The main instrument of reform was deliberately applied violence.

Military reform

The main content of the military reform was the creation of a regular Russian army and Russian navy, recruited on the basis of recruitment. Previously existing troops were gradually abolished, and their personnel were used for new formations. The army and navy began to be maintained at the expense of the state. To control the armed forces, instead of orders, the Military Collegium and the Admiralty Collegium were established; the post of commander-in-chief (for wartime) was introduced. A unified training system was established in the army and navy, and military educational institutions (navigation, artillery, and engineering schools) were opened. The Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments, as well as a number of newly opened special schools and the Naval Academy, served for the training of officers. The organization of the armed forces, the main issues of training, methods of warfare were legally enshrined in the Military Charter (1716), the Marine Charter Book (1720). In general, the military reforms of Peter I contributed to the development of military art, were one of the factors that determined the success of the Russian army and fleet in the Northern War.

Reforms in the economy covered agriculture, large and small production, craft, trade and financial policy. Agriculture under Peter I developed slowly, mainly in an extensive way. In the economic sphere, the concept of mercantilism dominated - encouraging the development of domestic trade and industry with an active foreign trade balance. The development of industry was dictated solely by the needs of warfare and was a special concern of Peter. During the first quarter of the 18th century 200 manufactories were created. The main attention was paid to metallurgy, the center of which moved to the Urals. The growth of industrial production was accompanied by the intensification of feudal exploitation, the widespread use of forced labor in manufactories: the use of serfs, bought (possession) peasants, as well as the labor of the state (black-eared) peasantry, which was attributed to the plant as a permanent source of labor. In 1711, craft schools were established at the manufactories. By decrees of 1722, a shop device was introduced in the cities. The creation of workshops testified to the patronage of the authorities to the development of crafts and their regulation. In the field of domestic and foreign trade, a large role was played by the state monopoly on the procurement and sale of basic goods (salt, flax, hemp, furs, lard, caviar, bread, etc.), which significantly replenished the treasury. The creation of merchant "kuppanstvo" and the expansion of trade relations with foreign countries were encouraged in every possible way. The government of Peter paid great attention to the development of waterways - the main mode of transport at that time. Active construction of canals was carried out: the Volga-Don, Vyshnevolotsky, Ladoga, work began on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal.

financial policy state during the reign of Peter I was characterized by unprecedented tax oppression. The growth of the state budget, necessary for the conduct of the war, an active domestic and foreign policy, was achieved by expanding indirect and increasing direct taxes. Special "profit-makers" headed by A. Kurbatov sought out new sources of income: bath, fish, honey, horse and other taxes were introduced, up to the tax on beards. In total, by 1724 there were up to 40 types of indirect collections. Along with the specified fees, direct taxes were also introduced: recruitment, dragoon, ship and special "fees". Significant incomes were brought by the minting of coins of lesser weight and a decrease in the content of silver in it. The search for new sources of income led to a radical reform of the entire tax system - the introduction of a poll tax, which replaced household taxation. As a result of this, firstly, the amount of tax revenues from peasants almost doubled. Secondly, the tax reform became an important stage in serfdom in Russia, extending it to those sections of the population that were previously free (“walking people”), or could gain freedom after the death of the master (bonded serfs). Thirdly, the passport system was introduced. Every peasant who went to work more than 30 versts from his place of residence had to have a passport indicating the date of return.

Reorganization of public administration.

The strengthening of the absolute monarchy required a radical restructuring and extreme centralization of the entire system of state administration, its higher, central and local bodies. The king was at the head of the state. In 1721, Peter was proclaimed emperor, which meant a further strengthening of the power of the king himself. In 1711, instead of the Boyar Duma and the Council (Council) of Ministers that replaced it since 1701, the Senate was established. It included nine dignitaries closest to Peter I. The Senate was instructed to develop new laws, monitor the country's finances, and control the activities of the administration. In 1722, the leadership of the work of the senators was entrusted to the prosecutor general, whom Peter I called "the sovereign's eye." In 1718 - 1721, the cumbersome and intricate system of command administration of the country was transformed. Instead of fifty orders, whose functions often coincided and did not have clear boundaries, 11 colleges were established. Each collegium was in charge of a strictly defined branch of government. Collegium of Foreign Affairs - foreign relations, Military - land armed forces, Admiralty - fleet, Chamber Collegium - revenue collection, State Collegium - state expenditures, Votchinnaya - noble land ownership, Manufactory Collegium - industry, except for the metallurgical, which was in charge of the Berg Collegium . In fact, as a collegium, there was a Chief Magistrate who was in charge of Russian cities. In addition, there were the Preobrazhensky Prikaz (political investigation), the Salt Office, the Copper Department, and the Land Survey Office. Along with the strengthening of the central administrative apparatus, the reform of local institutions. Instead of the voivodship administration in 1708 - 1715, the provincial system of government was introduced. Initially, the country was divided into eight provinces: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Kazan, Azov and Siberia. They were headed by governors who were in charge of the troops and administration of subordinate territories. Each province occupied a vast territory and was therefore divided into provinces. There were 50 of them (the governor was at the head). Provinces, in turn, were divided into counties. Thus, a single centralized administrative-bureaucratic system of government was formed for the whole country, in which the monarch, who relied on the nobility, played a decisive role. The number of officials has increased significantly. The cost of maintaining the administrative apparatus has also increased. The General Regulations of 1720 introduced a single system of office work in the state apparatus for the whole country.

The Church and the liquidation of the patriarchate.

After the death in 1700 of Patriarch Adrian, Peter I decided not to appoint a new patriarch. Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan was temporarily placed at the head of the clergy, although he was not vested with patriarchal powers. In 1721, Peter approved the "Spiritual Regulations" developed by his supporter, Bishop Feofan Prokopovich of Pskov. According to the new law, a fundamental church reform was carried out, which eliminated the autonomy of the church and completely subordinated it to the state. The patriarchate in Russia was abolished, and a special Theological College was established to manage the church, which was soon transformed into the Holy Governing Synod to give greater authority. He was in charge of purely church affairs: the interpretation of church dogmas, orders for prayers and church services, censorship of spiritual books, the fight against heresies, the management of educational institutions and the removal of church officials, etc. The synod also had the functions of a spiritual court. All the property and finances of the church, the lands assigned to it and the peasants were under the jurisdiction of the Monastic order, subordinate to the Synod. Thus, it meant the subordination of the church to the state.

Social politics.

In 1714, the “Decree on Single Inheritance” was issued, according to which the noble estate was equalized in rights with the boyar estate. The decree marked the final merger of the two estates of feudal lords. Since that time, secular feudal lords began to be called nobles. The decree on single inheritance ordered the transfer of estates and estates to one of the sons. The rest of the nobles had to carry out compulsory service in the army, navy or in public authorities. In 1722, the publication of the “Table of Ranks” followed, dividing the military, civil and court services. All positions (both civil and military) were divided into 14 ranks. It was possible to occupy each next rank only by passing all the previous ones. An official who reached the eighth grade (collegiate assessor), or an officer received hereditary nobility (until the middle of the 19th century). The rest of the population, excluding the nobility and the clergy, was obliged to pay tax to the state.

Under Peter I, a new structure of society developed, in which the principle of regulation by state legislation is clearly traced. Reforms in the field of education and culture. The policy of the state was aimed at educating society, reorganizing the education system. Enlightenment at the same time acted as a special value, partly opposed to religious values. Theological subjects at school gave way to natural sciences and technical subjects: mathematics, astronomy, geodesy, fortification, and engineering. The Navigation and Artillery schools (1701), the Engineering School (1712), and the Medical School (1707) were the first to appear. To simplify the learning process, the complex Church Slavonic script was replaced with a civil one. The publishing business was developed, printing houses were created in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. The foundations for the development of Russian science were laid. In 1725, the Academy of Sciences was established in St. Petersburg. A great deal of work has begun to study the history, geography and natural resources of Russia. Propaganda of scientific knowledge was carried out by the Kunstkamera, opened in 1719, the first national museum of natural history. On January 1, 1700, a new chronology according to the Julian calendar was introduced in Russia. As a result of the calendar reform, Russia began to live in the same time as Europe. There was a radical break in all traditional ideas about the everyday way of life in Russian society. The tsar, by order of order, introduced fermentation, European clothes, and the obligatory wearing of uniforms for military and civil officials. The behavior of young nobles in society was regulated by Western European norms set forth in the translated book “Youth's Honest Mirror”. In 1718, a Decree appeared on holding assemblies with the obligatory presence of women. Assemblies were held not only for fun and entertainment, but also for business meetings. Peter's transformations in the sphere of culture, life and customs were often introduced by violent methods and were of a pronounced political nature. The main thing in these reforms was the observance of the interests of the state.

Significance of reforms: 1. The reforms of Peter I marked the formation of an absolute monarchy, unlike the classical Western one, not under the influence of the genesis of capitalism, balancing the monarch between the feudal lords and the third estate, but on a serf-noble basis.

2. The new state created by Peter I not only significantly increased the efficiency of public administration, but also served as the main lever for the modernization of the country. 3. Based on some trends emerging in the 17th century. in Russia, Peter I not only developed them, but also brought it to a qualitatively higher level in a minimal historical period of time, turning Russia into a powerful state.

The payment for these radical changes was the further strengthening of serfdom, the temporary inhibition of the formation of capitalist relations, and the strongest tax and tax pressure on the population. The repeated increase in taxes led to the impoverishment and enslavement of the bulk of the population. Various social actions - the rebellion of the archers in Astrakhan (1705 - 1706), the uprising of the Cossacks on the Don under the leadership of Kondraty Bulavin (1707 - 1708), in Ukraine and the Volga region - were directed not so much against the transformations as against the methods and means of their implementation.

21. Reforms of Peter the Great and their significance for Russian history: opinions of historians.

Foreign policy of Peter I. The main goal of Peter I's foreign policy was access to the Baltic Sea, which would provide Russia with a connection with Western Europe. In 1699, Russia, having entered into an alliance with Poland and Denmark, declared war on Sweden. The outcome of the Northern War, which lasted 21 years, was influenced by the victory of the Russians in the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709. and the victory over the Swedish fleet at Gangut on July 27, 1714.

On August 30, 1721, the Treaty of Nystadt was signed, according to which Russia retained the conquered lands of Livonia, Estland, Ingermanland, part of Karelia and all the islands of the Gulf of Finland and Riga. Access to the Baltic Sea was secured.

In commemoration of what was achieved in the Great Northern War, on October 20, 1721, the Senate and the Synod awarded the tsar with the title of Father of the Fatherland, Peter the Great and Emperor of All Russia.

In 1723, after a month and a half of hostilities with Persia, Peter I acquired the western shore of the Caspian Sea.

Simultaneously with the conduct of hostilities, the vigorous activity of Peter I was also aimed at carrying out numerous reforms, the purpose of which was to bring the country closer to European civilization, increase the education of the Russian people, and strengthen the power and international position of Russia. A lot has been done by the great tsar, here are just the main reforms of Peter I.

Peter I

Instead of the Boyar Duma, in 1700 the Council of Ministers was created, which met in the Near Chancellery, and in 1711 - the Senate, which by 1719 had become the highest state body. With the creation of the provinces, numerous Orders ceased their activity, they were replaced by Collegia, which were subordinate to the Senate. The secret police also operated in the management system - the Preobrazhensky order (in charge of state crimes) and the Secret Chancellery. Both institutions were under the jurisdiction of the emperor himself.

Administrative reforms of Peter I

Regional (provincial) reform of Peter I

The largest administrative reform of local government was the creation in 1708 of 8 provinces headed by governors, in 1719 their number increased to 11. The second administrative reform divided the provinces into provinces headed by governors, and the provinces into districts (counties) headed by with zemstvo commissars.

Urban reform (1699-1720)

To manage the city, the Burmister Chamber in Moscow was created, renamed in November 1699 into the City Hall, and magistrates subordinate to the Chief Magistrate in St. Petersburg (1720). The members of the City Hall and the magistrates were elected through elections.

Estate reforms

The main goal of the estate reform of Peter I was to formalize the rights and obligations of each estate - the nobility, the peasantry and the urban population.

Nobility.

    Decree on estates (1704), according to which both boyars and nobles received estates and estates.

    Decree on Education (1706) - all boyar children are required to receive primary education.

    Decree on single inheritance (1714), according to which a nobleman could leave an inheritance only to one of his sons.

Table of Ranks (1721): the service to the sovereign was divided into three departments - the army, the state and the court - each of which was divided into 14 ranks. This document allowed a man of the lower class to curry favor with the nobility.

Peasantry

Most of the peasants were serfs. Kholops could sign up as soldiers, which freed them from serfdom.

Among the free peasants were:

    state, with personal freedom, but limited in the right to move (i.e., by the will of the monarch, they could be transferred to serfs);

    palace, which belonged personally to the king;

    sessional, assigned to manufactories. The owner had no right to sell them.

urban estate

Urban people were divided into "regular" and "irregular". The regular ones were divided into guilds: the 1st guild - the richest, the 2nd guild - small merchants and wealthy artisans. Irregulars, or "mean people", made up the majority of the urban population.

In 1722, workshops appeared that united masters of one craft.

Judicial reform of Peter I

The functions of the Supreme Court were carried out by the Senate and the College of Justice. Courts of appeal and provincial courts headed by governors operated in the provinces. The provincial courts dealt with the cases of peasants (except for monasteries) and townspeople not included in the settlement. Since 1721, the court cases of the townspeople included in the settlement were conducted by the magistrate. In other cases, cases were decided by the Zemstvo or city judge alone.

Church reform of Peter I

Peter I abolished the patriarchate, deprived the church of power, and transferred its funds to the state treasury. Instead of the post of patriarch, the tsar introduced a collegiate supreme administrative church body - the Holy Synod.

Financial reforms of Peter I

The first stage of the financial reform of Peter I was reduced to collecting money for the maintenance of the army and the conduct of wars. Benefits from the monopoly sale of certain types of goods (vodka, salt, etc.) were added, indirect taxes (bath, horse, beard, etc.) were introduced.

In 1704, a monetary reform, according to which the penny became the main monetary unit. The fiat ruble was abolished.

Tax reform of Peter I consisted in the transition from the household taxation to the poll tax. In this regard, the government included in the tax all categories of the peasant and townspeople, who had previously been exempt from tax.

Thus, during tax reform of Peter I a single monetary tax (poll tax) was introduced and the number of taxpayers increased.

Social reforms of Peter I

Education reform of Peter I

In the period from 1700 to 1721. many civilian and military schools were opened in Russia. Among them are the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences; artillery, engineering, medical, mining, garrison, theological schools; digital schools for free education of children of all ranks; Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg.

Peter I created the Academy of Sciences, under which the first Russian university was established, and under it the first gymnasium. But this system began to operate after the death of Peter.

Reforms of Peter I in culture

Peter I introduced a new alphabet, which facilitated literacy and promoted book printing. The first Russian newspaper Vedomosti began to be published, in 1703 the first book in Russian with Arabic numerals appeared.

The tsar developed a plan for the stone construction of St. Petersburg, paying special attention to the beauty of architecture. He invited foreign artists, and also sent talented young people abroad to study "arts". Peter I laid the foundation for the Hermitage.

Socio-economic reforms of Peter I

To boost industrial production and develop trade relations with foreign countries, Peter I invited foreign specialists, but at the same time encouraged the domestic industrialist and merchant. Peter I sought to ensure that more goods were exported from Russia than were imported. During his reign, 200 plants and factories operated on the territory of Russia.

Reforms of Peter I in the army

Peter I introduced annual recruitment sets of young Russians (from 15 to 20 years old) and ordered the training of soldiers to begin. In 1716, the Military Regulations were issued, outlining the service, rights and duties of the military.

As a result military reform of Peter I a powerful regular army and navy was created.

The reform activities of Peter had the support of a wide circle of the nobility, but caused discontent and resistance among the boyars, archers and the clergy, because. transformations entailed the loss of their leading role in public administration. Among the opponents of the reforms of Peter I was his son Alexei.

The results of the reforms of Peter I

    The regime of absolutism is established in Russia. During the years of his reign, Peter created a state with a more advanced system of government, a strong army and navy, and a stable economy. There was a centralization of power.

    Rapid development of foreign and domestic trade.

    The abolition of the patriarchate, the church lost its independence and authority in society.

    Enormous progress has been made in science and culture. A task of national importance was set - the creation of Russian medical education, and the beginning of Russian surgery was laid.

Features of the reforms of Peter I

    The reforms were carried out according to the European model and covered all spheres of activity and life of society.

    Lack of reform system.

    The reforms were carried out mainly through harsh exploitation and coercion.

    Peter, impatient by nature, innovated at a rapid pace.

Reasons for the reforms of Peter I

By the 18th century, Russia was a backward country. It was significantly inferior to Western European countries in terms of industrial output, level of education and culture (even in the ruling circles there were many illiterate people). The boyar aristocracy, which was at the head of the state apparatus, did not meet the needs of the country. The Russian army, which consisted of archers and the noble militia, was poorly armed, untrained and could not cope with its task.

The main result of the totality of the Petrine reforms was the establishment in Russia of the regime of absolutism, the crown of which was the change in 1721. The title of the Russian monarch - Peter declared himself emperor, and the country became

be called the Russian Empire. Thus, what Peter was going for all the years of his reign was formalized - the creation of a state with a coherent system of government, a strong army and navy, a powerful economy that had an impact on international politics. As a result of Peter's reforms, the state was not bound by anything and could use any means to achieve its goals. As a result, Peter came to his ideal state structure - a warship, where everything and everything is subject to the will of one person - the captain, and managed to bring this ship out of the swamp into the stormy waters of the ocean, bypassing all the reefs and shoals. Russia became an autocratic, military-bureaucratic state, the central role in which belonged to the nobility. At the same time, Russia's backwardness was not completely overcome, and the reforms were carried out mainly through the most severe exploitation and coercion. The complexity and inconsistency of Russia's development during this period also determined the inconsistency of Peter's activities and the reforms he carried out. On the one hand, they had great historical significance, since they contributed to the progress of the country and were aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, they were carried out by the feudal lords, using feudal methods, and were aimed at strengthening their dominance. Therefore, the progressive transformations of the time of Peter the Great from the very beginning carried conservative features, which, in the course of the further development of the country, became stronger and could not ensure the elimination of socio-economic backwardness. As a result of Peter's transformations, Russia quickly caught up with those European countries where the dominance of feudal-serf relations was preserved, but it could not catch up with those countries that embarked on the capitalist path of development. , laws, foundations and way of life and way of life. The family of Peter the Great in the history of Russia is difficult to overestimate. No matter how you relate to the methods and style of his reforms, one cannot but admit that Peter the Great is one of the most prominent figures in world history.

Table "Reforms of Peter 1" (briefly). The main reforms of Peter 1: table, summary

The table "Reforms of Peter 1" briefly outlines the features of the transformational activities of the first emperor of Russia. With its help, one can concisely, concisely and clearly outline the main directions of his steps to change all spheres of life in Russian society in the first quarter of the 18th century. Perhaps this is the best way for middle-level students to learn this difficult and rather voluminous material, which is very important for analyzing and correctly understanding the features of the historical process in our country in the following centuries.

Features of the emperor's activities

One of the most complex, difficult and at the same time interesting topics is the "Reforms of Peter 1". Briefly, a table on this topic demonstrates all the data necessary for schoolchildren.

In the introductory lesson, it should immediately be noted that the activities of Pyotr Alekseevich affected all sectors of society and determined the further history of the country. This is the uniqueness of the era of his reign. However, he was a very practical man and innovated based on specific needs.

This can be clearly demonstrated with a more detailed coverage of the topic "Reforms of Peter 1". Briefly, the table on the problem posed clearly shows the wide scope with which the emperor acted. It seemed that he managed to have a hand in everything: he reorganized the army, government bodies, made significant changes in the social structure, economic sphere, diplomacy, and, finally, contributed to the spread of Western European culture and way of life among the Russian nobility.

Transformations in the army

At the middle level, it is very important that schoolchildren learn the basic facts of the topic "Peter 1's Reforms". Briefly, a table on this problem helps students to familiarize themselves with the data and systematize the accumulated material. Almost all of his reign, the emperor waged war with Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea. The need for strong and powerful troops arose with particular urgency at the very beginning of his reign. Therefore, the new ruler immediately began to reorganize the army.

One of the most interesting sections in the topic under study is the “Military reforms of Peter 1”. Briefly, the table can be depicted as follows.

The Importance of Military Innovation

It can be seen from it that the steps of the emperor were dictated by the specific needs of his contemporary time, however, many of his innovations continued to exist for a very long time. The main goal of the reforms was to create a permanent and regular army. The fact is that earlier there was a so-called local system of recruiting troops: i.e. the landowner appeared at the reviews along with several servants who were also supposed to serve with him.

However, by the beginning of the 18th century, this principle had become obsolete. By this time, serfdom had finally taken shape, and the state began to recruit soldiers from the peasants. Another very important measure was the creation of professional military schools for the training of officers and commanders.

Transformations of power structures

Practice shows that one of the most difficult topics is "Peter 1's political reforms." Briefly, the table on this issue clearly demonstrates how deep the transformational activity of the emperor was in the governing bodies. He completely changed the central and local administration. Instead of the Boyar Duma, which had previously performed advisory functions under the tsar, he created the Senate on the model of Western European countries. Instead of orders, colleges were created, each of which performed a specific function in management. Their activities were strictly controlled by the Prosecutor General. In addition, a special secret fiscal body was created to control the bureaucracy.

New administrative division

No less complex is the topic and “State reforms of Peter 1. Briefly, the table on this issue reflects the fundamental changes that have taken place in the organization of local government. Provinces were created, which were in charge of the affairs of a certain area. The provinces were divided into provinces, and those, in turn, into counties. Such a structure was very convenient for management and met the challenges of the time in question. At the head of the provinces was the governor, and at the head of the provinces and counties - the governor.

Changes in industry and commerce

Of particular difficulty is often the study of the topic “Economic reforms of Peter 1. Briefly, the table on this issue reflects the complexity and ambiguity of the emperor’s activities in relation to merchants and merchants, who, on the one hand, sought to create the most favorable conditions for the development of the country’s economy, but at the same time acted almost feudal methods, which could not contribute to the development of market relations in our country. The economic activity of Peter Alekseevich was not as effective as the transformations in other areas. At the same time, this was the first experience in the development of trade according to the Western European model.

Transformations in the social structure

The topic “Social reforms of Peter 1” seems to be simpler. A brief table on this issue clearly demonstrates the fundamental changes that have occurred in Russian society of the studied time. Unlike his predecessors, the emperor introduced the principle of distinction in the military and state spheres, depending not on tribal affiliation, but on personal merit. His famous "Table of Ranks" introduced a new principle of service. From now on, a person, in order to get a promotion or rank, had to achieve any success.

It was under Peter that the social structure of society was finally formalized. The main support of the autocracy was the nobility, which replaced the tribal aristocracy. The emperor's successors also relied on this estate, which indicates the effectiveness of the measures taken.

The study of this problem can be completed by summarizing the results. What was the significance of the reforms of Peter the Great in the history of Russia? A table, a summary on a given topic, can serve as an effective means of summing up. Regarding social transformations, it should be noted that the measures of the ruler corresponded to the demands of his time, when the principle of parochialism became obsolete, and the country needed new personnel who would have the necessary qualities to fulfill the new tasks that the country faced in connection with the Northern War and Russia's entry into the international arena.

The role of the transformational activity of the emperor

The topic “Basic reforms of Peter 1”, a table, a summary of which is an important component in the study of the history of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century, should be divided into several lessons so that students have the opportunity to properly consolidate the material. At the final lesson, it is necessary to summarize the material covered and to indicate what role the transformations of the first emperor played in the future fate of Russia.

The measures taken by the ruler brought our country to the European arena and brought it into the ranks of the leading European states. The topic “The main reforms of Peter 1”, a table, a summary clearly shows how the country reached the world level of development, having received access to the sea and becoming one of the main members of the European concert of powers.

Reforms of Peter 1.

Zhanna Gromova

Public Administration Reform
1699-1721




Judicial reform
1697, 1719, 1722

Military reforms
from 1699

Church reform
1700-1701 ; 1721

Financial reforms

The introduction of many new (including indirect) taxes, the monopolization of the sale of tar, alcohol, salt and other goods. Damage (reduction in weight) of the coin. Kopek became

Tatyana Shcherbakova

Regional reform
In 1708-1715, a regional reform was carried out in order to strengthen the vertical of power in the field and better provide the army with supplies and recruits. In 1708, the country was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors endowed with full judicial and administrative power: Moscow, Ingermandland (later St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Azov, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Siberia. The Moscow province gave more than a third of the proceeds to the treasury, followed by the Kazan province.

The governors were also in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province. In 1710, new administrative units appeared - shares, uniting 5536 households. The first regional reform did not solve the set tasks, but only significantly increased the number of civil servants and the cost of their maintenance.

In 1719-1720, the second regional reform was carried out, which eliminated the 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 Collegium. Only military and judicial matters remained under the jurisdiction of the governor.
Judicial reform
Under Peter, the judicial system underwent radical changes. The functions of the Supreme Court were given to the Senate and the College of Justice. Below them were: provinces - hofgerichts or court courts of appeal in large cities, and provincial collegiate lower courts. The provincial courts conducted civil and criminal cases of all categories of peasants except for the monastic ones, as well as townspeople not included in the settlement. Since 1721, the magistrate conducted the court cases of the townspeople included in the settlement. In other cases, the so-called one-man court acted (cases were decided solely by a zemstvo or city judge). However, in 1722 the lower courts were replaced by provincial courts headed by the voivode
Church reform
One of the transformations of Peter I was the reform of church administration he carried out, aimed at eliminating church jurisdiction autonomous from the state and subordinating the Russian church 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 appointed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan as head of the clergy, who received the new title of Custodian of the Patriarchal Throne or "Exarch".

To manage the property of the patriarchal and episcopal 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 became in charge of the trial of the monastic peasants and control income from church and monastic land holdings. In 1701, a series of decrees was issued to reform the management of church and monastery possessions 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, Feofan Prokopovich, an approximate tsar, Little Russian. As a result, a radical reform of the church took place, which eliminated the autonomy of the clergy and completely subordinated it to the state. In Russia, the patriarchate was abolished and the Spiritual 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 the monastic vaults. Peter did not go for the complete secularization of church and monastery possessions, which was carried out much later, at the beginning of his reign
Reforms of the army and navy
Army reform: in particular, the introduction of regiments of a new order, reformed according to a foreign model, was begun 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 1700-1721 years.

Maxim Lyubov

Public Administration Reform
Of all the transformations of Peter I, the central place is occupied by the reform of public administration, the reorganization of all its links.
The main goal of this period was to provide a solution to the most important problem - victory in the Northern War. Already in the first years of the war, it became clear that the old state mechanism of government, the main elements of which were orders and counties, did not provide for the growing needs of the autocracy. This was manifested in the lack of money, provisions, and various supplies for the army and navy. Peter hoped to radically solve this problem with the help of a regional reform - the creation of new administrative entities - provinces, uniting several counties. In 1708, 8 provinces were formed: Moscow, Ingermanland (St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Azov, Siberian.
The main goal of this reform was to provide the army with everything necessary: ​​a direct connection was established between the provinces and the regiments of the armies, which were distributed among the provinces. Communication was carried out through a specially created institution of krieg commissars (the so-called military commissars).
An extensive hierarchical network of bureaucratic institutions with a large staff of officials was created on the ground. The former system “order - county” was doubled: “order (or office) - province - province - county”.
In 1711 the Senate was created. The autocracy, which had grown considerably in the second half of the 17th century, no longer needed institutions of representation and self-government.
At the beginning of the XVIII century. in fact, the meetings of the Boyar Duma are stopped, the control of the central and local state apparatus is transferred to the so-called “Consilia of Ministers” - a temporary council of heads of the most important government departments.
Particularly important was the reform of the Senate, which occupied a key position in the state system of Peter. The Senate concentrated judicial, administrative and legislative functions, was in charge of colleges and provinces, appointed and approved officials. The unofficial head of the Senate, consisting of the first dignitaries, was the prosecutor general, endowed with special powers and subordinate only to the monarch. The creation of the post of Prosecutor General laid the foundation for a whole institution of the Prosecutor's Office, the model for which was the French administrative experience.
In 1718 - 1721. the system of command administration of the country was transformed. 10 colleges were established, each of which was in charge of a strictly defined industry. For example, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs - with foreign relations, the Military - with ground armed forces, the Admiralty - with the fleet, the Collegium of Chambers - with the collection of revenues, the Collegium of State Offices - with state expenditures, the Collegium of Commerce - with trade.
Church reform
The Synod, or the Spiritual College, established in 1721, became a kind of college. By declaring himself the de facto head of the church, Peter destroyed its autonomy. Moreover, he made extensive use of the institutions of the church to carry out his policies.
Supervision of the activities of the Synod was entrusted to a special state official - the chief prosecutor.
Social politics
Social policy was pro-noble and feudal in nature. The decree of 1714 on uniform inheritance established the same order of inheritance of immovable estates, without distinction between estates and estates. The merging of two forms of feudal landownership - patrimonial and local - completed the process of consolidating the class of feudal lords into a single class - the estate of nobles and strengthened its dominant position (often in the Polish manner the nobility was called gentry).
In order to force the nobles to think of service as the main source of well-being, they introduced primacy - it was forbidden to sell and mortgage land

Oleg Sazonov

Military Board
The military board was established by Peter I instead of a number of military institutions in order to centralize military control. The formation of the Military Collegium began with the appointment in 1717 of the first president, Field Marshal A. D. Menshikov, and vice-president A. A. Veide.
On June 3, 1719, the state of the College was announced. The collegium consisted of a presence, headed by the president (vice-president) and the Chancellery, subdivided into povy-tya, in charge of cavalry and infantry, garrisons, fortifications and artillery, as well as keeping logs of incoming and outgoing documents. The Collegium consisted of a notary, an auditor general and a fiscal general. The legality of decisions was supervised by the prosecutor, who was subordinate to the prosecutor general. The organization of the service of the land army was under the jurisdiction of the Military Collegium.
The Krieg Commissariat and the Provisions General, who were engaged in the clothing and food supply of the army, were formally subordinate to the Military Collegium, but had considerable independence.
In relation to the artillery and engineering departments, headed by the Artillery Chancellery and the Feldzeugmeister General, the Collegium exercised only general leadership.
In the 1720s - 1730s. The military collegium was subjected to reorganization aimed at subordinating to it all branches of military administration.
In 1721, the management of the Don, Yaik and Grebensky Cossacks was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs to the newly created Cossack povyte.
In 1736, the Commissariat, which had existed since 1711 as an independent institution for supplying the army, became part of the Military Collegium. The state of 1736 consolidated the new composition of the Collegium: the presence, the Office, which was in charge of recruiting, organizing, inspecting and serving the troops, as well as cases of fugitives, hiring underage and some other issues, and a number of offices (later renamed expeditions) for branches of management. At the head of the offices were directors who took part in the meetings of the Board. The offices resolved cases on their own, submitting only complex and controversial issues for consideration by the Collegium. During this period, there were the General-Krigs-Commissariat, Ober-Zalmeister, Amunich-naya (Uniform), Provisional, Accounting, Fortification offices and the Artillery Office. The organ of the Collegium in Moscow was the Military Office.
With the accession of Elizabeth there was a return to the decentralization of military administration. In 1742, independent departments were restored - commissariat, provisions, management of artillery and fortification. The counting expedition was abolished. After that, the significance of the Military Collegium as a governing body fell.
The strengthening of the significance of the Military Collegium began in 1763, when its president became Catherine II's personal reporter on military affairs; new states of the College were introduced.
In 1781, the Counting Expedition was restored in the Military Collegium, which exercised control over the expenses of the military department.
In 1791 the Collegium received a new organization. The commissariat, provisions, artillery and engineering departments became part of the Military Collegium as independent expeditions (since 1796 - departments).
In 1798, new states of the College were approved. According to them, it consisted of the Office, divided into expeditions (Army, Garrison, Order, Foreign, Recruitment, School Institution and Repair), independent expeditions (Military, Counting, Inspector, Artillery, Commissariat, Provision, Military Orphanage Institutions) and the General Auditorium.
With the formation of the Ministry of Land Forces in 1802, the Military College became part of it and was finally abolished in 1812. The functions of its expeditions were transferred to the newly formed departments of the Ministry.

Yuri Kek

Public Administration Reform
1699-1721
Creation of the Near Office (or Council of Ministers) in 1699. It was transformed in 1711 into the Governing Senate. Establishment of 12 collegiums with a specific scope of activity and powers.
The system of state administration has become more perfect. The activities of most state bodies became regulated, the collegiums had a clearly defined area of ​​activity. Supervisory bodies were created.

Regional (provincial) reform
1708-1715 and 1719-1720.
At the first stage of the reform, Peter 1 divided Russia into 8 provinces: Moscow, Kyiv, Kazan, Ingermandland (later St. Petersburg), Arkhangelsk, Smolensk, Azov, Siberia. They were ruled by governors who were in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province, and also possessed full administrative and judicial power. At the second stage of the reform, the provinces were divided into 50 provinces ruled by governors, and those were divided into districts led by zemstvo commissars. The governors were stripped of their administrative power and were in charge of judicial and military matters.
There was a centralization of power. Local governments have almost completely lost influence.

Judicial reform
1697, 1719, 1722
Peter 1 formed new judicial bodies: the Senate, the Justic College, the Hofgerichts, and the lower courts. Judicial functions were also performed by all colleagues, except for Foreign. The judges were separated from the administration. The court of kissers (analogous to a jury trial) was canceled, the principle of inviolability of an unconvicted person was lost.
A large number of judicial bodies and persons engaged in judicial activities (the emperor himself, governors, governors, etc.) brought confusion and confusion to the legal proceedings, the introduction of the possibility of "knocking out" testimony under torture created grounds for abuse and bias. At the same time, the adversarial nature of the process was established and the need for the verdict to be based on specific articles of the law corresponding to the case under consideration.

Military reforms
from 1699
The introduction of recruitment, the creation of the navy, the establishment of the Military Collegium, which was in charge of all military affairs. Introduction with the help of the "Table of Ranks" of military ranks, uniform for all of Russia. Creation of military-industrial enterprises, as well as military educational institutions. Introduction of army discipline and military regulations.
With his reforms, Peter 1 created a formidable regular army, numbering up to 212 thousand people by 1725, and a strong navy. Subdivisions were created in the army: regiments, brigades and divisions, in the navy - squadrons. Many military victories were won. These reforms (although ambiguously assessed by different historians) created a springboard for the further success of Russian weapons.

Church reform
1700-1701 ; 1721
After the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, the institution of the patriarchate was actually liquidated. In 1701, the management of church and monastery lands was reformed. Peter 1 restored the Monastic order, which controlled church revenues and the trial of the monastery peasants. In 1721, the Spiritual Regulations were adopted, which actually deprived the church of independence. To replace the patriarchate, the Holy Synod was created, whose members were subordinate to Peter 1, by whom they were appointed. Church property was often taken away and spent on the needs of the emperor.
The church reforms of Peter 1 led to the almost complete subordination of the clergy to secular power. In addition to the elimination of the patriarchate, many bishops and ordinary clergy were persecuted. The church could no longer pursue an independent spiritual policy and partly lost its authority in society.

Financial reforms
Almost the entire reign of Peter 1
The introduction of many new (including indirect) taxes,

Mikhail basmanov

Completing the destruction of the empire of Great Tartaria, he set about military reform in a Western manner. Established a mechanism for obtaining material income from the Christian church. Introduced serfdom, while in Europe they got rid of it. He allowed many foreigners (including the military) into the Russian Empire with privileges. Previously, they were few allowed into the empire. And their theft and corruption. The beginning of a large-scale rewriting of the history of the empire of Great Tartaria.

Olya Kireeva

As you know, Peter I opened a window to Europe, forced the boyars to shave their beards and enlightened the dark Russian people. This emperor was immensely respected in the Soviet period, but in recent history his role in the life of the country is assessed very ambiguously. A relatively objective assessment of what Peter I did for Russia can be seen from his completed reforms.
Under Peter I, the Russian kingdom became the Russian Empire as a result of the victory in the Northern War and gaining access to the Baltic Sea. Since that time (1721), the country has been actively involved in foreign policy games.
The Byzantine chronology was replaced by the era "from the Nativity of Christ", the New Year began to be celebrated on January 1.
The conservative Boyar Duma was replaced by the Governing Senate, to which collegiums (ministries) were subordinate, all document flow was standardized, office work was brought to a single scheme.
The fiscal department was called upon to control the activities of the bureaucratic apparatus.
The territory of the country was divided into 8 provinces, in each of which a local vertical of power was created, and then each province into 50 provinces.
The regular army of the country was replenished first with foreign officers, and then with Russian nobles - graduates of navigation, engineering and artillery schools. A powerful military fleet was created, the Naval Academy was opened.
The church hierarchy was transferred to the complete subordination of the Senate, instead of the patriarch, the Holy Synod, which swore allegiance to the emperor, was in charge of managing the church vertical.
The land and peasants assigned to the estate became the full property of the nobles and landlords, free peasants became the property of the state.
Primary education became compulsory for all children of the boyars.
All representatives of the nobility were obliged to carry out public service.
A “Table of Ranks” appeared, allowing you to build a career regardless of class origin: an official who reached the 8th grade could receive personal nobility.
Instead of household taxes, poll taxes began to be levied; for the first time, a poll census of the population was carried out.
The main currency was the penny.
Petersburg was built (founded in 1703).
233 industrial enterprises were built.

Peter the Great (1672 - 1725) - Russian Tsar, ruled independently from 1689 to 1725. He carried out a large-scale reform of all areas of life in Russia. The artist Valentin Serov, who dedicated a number of works to Peter, described him as follows: “He was terrible: long, on weak, thin legs and with such a small head, in relation to the whole body, that he should have looked more like some kind of stuffed animal with a poorly set head than a living person. There was a constant tic in his face, and he was always "cutting faces": blinking, twitching his mouth, moving his nose and clapping his chin. At the same time, he walked with huge steps, and all his companions were forced to follow him at a run. .

Prerequisites for the reforms of Peter the Great

Peter accepted Russia as a backward country, located on the outskirts of Europe. Muscovy had no access to the sea, with the exception of the White, regular army, navy, developed industry, trade, the state administration system was antediluvian and inefficient, there were no higher educational institutions (the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was opened in Moscow only in 1687), book printing , theater, painting, libraries, not only the people, but many members of the elite: boyars, nobles - did not know the letter. Science did not develop. Serfdom ruled.

Public Administration Reform

- Peter replaced the orders, which did not have clear responsibilities, with collegiums, the prototype of future ministries

  • College of Foreign Affairs
  • Collegium military
  • Maritime College
  • College for commercial affairs
  • College of Justice...

The boards consisted of several officials, the eldest was called the chairman or president. All of them were subordinate to the Governor-General, who was a member of the Senate. There were 12 boards in total.
- In March 1711, Peter created the Governing Senate. At first its function was to govern the country in the absence of the king, then it became a permanent institution. The Senate consisted of presidents of colleges and senators - people appointed by the king.
- In January 1722, Peter issued a "table of ranks" with 14 class ranks from State Chancellor (first rank) to collegiate registrar (fourteenth)
- Peter reorganized the secret police system. Since 1718, the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, which was in charge of political crimes, was transformed into the Secret Investigative Office

Church reform of Peter

Peter abolished the patriarchate, a church organization practically independent of the state, and instead created the Holy Synod, all members of which were appointed by the tsar, thereby eliminating the autonomy of the clergy. Peter pursued a policy of religious tolerance, facilitating the existence of the Old Believers and allowing foreigners to freely profess their faith.

Administrative reform of Peter

Russia was divided into provinces, provinces were divided into provinces, provinces into counties.
Provinces:

  • Moscow
  • Ingrian
  • Kyiv
  • Smolensk
  • Azov
  • Kazanskaya
  • Arkhangelsk
  • Siberian
  • Riga
  • Astrakhan
  • Nizhny Novgorod

Military reform of Peter

Peter replaced the irregular and noble militia with a standing regular army, manned by recruits, recruited one from each of the 20 peasant or petty-bourgeois households in the Great Russian provinces. He built a powerful navy, he wrote the military charter himself, taking the Swedish one as a basis.

Peter turned Russia into one of the strongest maritime powers in the world, with 48 linear and 788 galley and other ships

Economic reform of Peter

The modern army could not exist without a state supply system. To supply the army and navy with weapons, uniforms, food, consumables, it was necessary to create a powerful industrial production. By the end of Peter's reign, about 230 factories and plants operated in Russia. Factories focused on the production of glass products, gunpowder, paper, canvas, linen, cloth, paints, ropes, even hats were created, the metallurgical, sawmilling, and leather industries were organized. In order for the products of Russian craftsmen to be competitive in the market, high customs duties were introduced on European goods. Encouraging entrepreneurial activity, Peter widely used the issuance of loans to create new manufactories and trading companies. The largest enterprises that arose in the era of Peter's reforms were those created in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Urals, Tula, Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, Samara

  • Admiralty shipyard
  • Arsenal
  • Gunpowder factories
  • Metallurgical plants
  • Linen production
  • Production of potash, sulfur, saltpeter

By the end of the reign of Peter I, Russia had 233 factories, including more than 90 large manufactories built during his reign. During the first quarter of the 18th century, 386 different ships were built at the shipyards of St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, at the beginning of the century, about 150 thousand pounds of pig iron were smelted in Russia, in 1725 - more than 800 thousand pounds, Russia caught up with England in iron smelting

Peter's reform in education

The army and navy needed qualified specialists. Therefore, Peter paid great attention to their preparation. During his reign were organized in Moscow and St. Petersburg

  • School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences
  • artillery school
  • engineering school
  • medical school
  • Marine Academy
  • mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories
  • Digital schools for "children of every rank"
  • Garrison schools for children of soldiers
  • spiritual schools
  • Academy of Sciences (opened a few months after the death of the emperor)

Reforms of Peter in the field of culture

  • Publication of the first Russian newspaper "Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti"
  • Ban on boyars wearing beards
  • Establishment of the first Russian museum - Kunskamera
  • Requirement for nobility to wear European dress
  • Creation of assemblies where the nobles were to appear together with their wives
  • Creation of new printing houses and translation into Russian of many European books

Reforms of Peter the Great. Chronology

  • 1690 - The first guards regiments Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky were created
  • 1693 - Creation of a shipyard in Arkhangelsk
  • 1696 - Creation of a shipyard in Voronezh
  • 1696 - Decree on the establishment of an arms factory in Tobolsk
  • 1698 - Decree banning the wearing of beards and ordering the nobles to wear European clothes
  • 1699 - Dissolution of the archery troops
  • 1699 - creation of commercial and industrial enterprises enjoying a monopoly
  • 1699, December 15 - Decree on the reform of the calendar. New Year starts on January 1st
  • 1700 - Creation of the Government Senate
  • 1701 - Decree forbidding kneeling at the sight of the sovereign and taking off his hat in winter, passing by his palace
  • 1701 - Opening of the school of mathematical and navigational sciences in Moscow
  • 1703, January - the first Russian newspaper is published in Moscow
  • 1704 - Replacement of the Boyar Duma with a council of ministers - the Council of Chiefs of Orders
  • 1705 - First recruitment decree
  • 1708 November - Administrative Reform
  • 1710, January 18 - a decree on the official introduction of the Russian civil alphabet instead of the Church Slavonic
  • 1710 - Foundation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg
  • 1711 - instead of the Boyar Duma, a Senate of 9 members and a chief secretary was created. Monetary reform: minting gold, silver and copper coins
  • 1712 - Transfer of the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg
  • 1712 - Decree on the creation of horse breeding farms in the Kazan, Azov and Kyiv provinces
  • 1714, February - Decree on the opening of digital schools for the children of clerks and priests
  • 1714, March 23 - Decree on majorate (single inheritance)
  • 1714 - Foundation of the State Library in St. Petersburg
  • 1715 - Creation of shelters for the poor in all cities of Russia
  • 1715 - Order of the merchant college to organize the training of Russian merchants abroad
  • 1715 - Decree to encourage the cultivation of flax, hemp, tobacco, mulberries for silkworms
  • 1716 - Census of all dissenters for double taxation
  • 1716, March 30 - Adoption of military regulations
  • 1717 - The introduction of free trade in grain, the annulment of some privileges for foreign merchants
  • 1718 - Replacement of Orders by Colleges
  • 1718 - Judicial reform. tax reform
  • 1718 - Beginning of the census (lasted until 1721)
  • 1719, November 26 - Decree on the establishment of assemblies - free meetings for fun and business
  • 1719 - Creation of an engineering school, the establishment of the Berg College to manage the mining industry
  • 1720 - Adopted the Charter of the Sea
  • 1721, January 14 - Decree on the creation of the Theological College (future Holy Synod)

On August 18, 1682, 10-year-old Peter I came to the Russian throne. We remember this ruler as a great reformer. It is up to you to decide negatively or positively about his innovations. We recall the 7 most ambitious reforms of Peter I.

Church is not a state

“The Church is not another state,” Peter I believed, and therefore his church reform was aimed at weakening the political power of the church. Before it, only the church court could judge the clergy (even in criminal cases), and the timid attempts of the predecessors of Peter I to change this met with a stiff rebuff. Along with other classes, the clergy after the reform had to obey the common law for all. Only monks were to live in monasteries, only the sick were to live in almshouses, and everyone else was ordered to be evicted from there.
Peter I is known for tolerance towards other confessions. Under him, foreigners were allowed to freely profess their faith and the marriages of Christians of different denominations. “The Lord gave kings power over the nations, but Christ alone has power over the conscience of the people,” Peter believed. With opponents of the Church, he ordered the bishops to be "meek and reasonable." On the other hand, Peter introduced penalties for those who went to confession less than once a year or misbehaved in the temple during the service.

Bath and beard tax

Large-scale projects for the development of the army, the construction of the fleet required huge financial investments. In order to provide them, Peter I tightened the country's tax system. Now taxes were collected not by household (after all, the peasants immediately began to enclose several households with one fence), but by heart. There were up to 30 different taxes: on fishing, on baths, mills, on confessing the Old Believers and wearing a beard, and even on oak logs for coffins. Beards were ordered to be "chopped down to the very neck", and for those who wore them for a fee, a special token-receipt, the "bearded sign", was introduced. Salt, alcohol, tar, chalk, fish oil could now only be traded by the state. Under Peter, the main monetary unit was not money, but a penny, the weight and composition of the coins were changed, and the fiat ruble ceased to exist. Treasury revenues increased several times, however, due to the impoverishment of the people and not for long.

Army for life

To win the Northern War of 1700-1721, it was necessary to modernize the army. In 1705, each court had to give one recruit for life service. This applied to all estates, except for the nobility. These recruits formed the army and navy. In the military regulations of Peter I, for the first time, not the moral and religious content of criminal acts, but a contradiction to the will of the state, was put in the first place. Peter managed to create the most powerful regular army and navy, which had not been in Russia until now. By the end of his reign, there were 210,000 regular ground troops, 110,000 irregulars, and more than 30,000 men served in the navy.

"Extra" 5508 years

Peter I "cancelled" 5508 years, changing the tradition of chronology: instead of counting the years "from the creation of Adam", Russia began to count the years "from the birth of Christ." The use of the Julian calendar and the celebration of the New Year on January 1 are also Peter's innovations. He also introduced the use of modern Arabic numerals, replacing the old numbers with them - the letters of the Slavic alphabet with titles. The inscription of letters was simplified, the letters "xi" and "psi" "dropped out" of the alphabet. Secular books now had their own font - civil, while liturgical and spiritual books were left with a half charter.
In 1703, the first Russian printed newspaper, Vedomosti, began to appear, and in 1719, the first museum in Russian history, the Kunstkamera with a public library, began to operate.
Under Peter, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences (1701), the Medical and Surgical School (1707) - the future Military Medical Academy, the Naval Academy (1715), the Engineering and Artillery Schools (1719), schools of translators at the colleges.

Learning through strength

All nobles and clergy were now to be educated. The success of a noble career now depended directly on this. Under Peter, new schools were created: garrison schools for the children of soldiers, spiritual schools for the children of priests. Moreover, in each province there should have been digital schools with free education for all classes. Such schools were necessarily supplied with primers in Slavic and Latin, as well as alphabets, psalters, books of hours and arithmetics. The education of the clergy was compulsory, those who opposed it were threatened with military service and taxes, and those who did not complete their studies could not marry. But due to the coercive nature and harsh teaching methods (beating with batogs and chaining), such schools did not last long.

A slave is better than a serf

“Less meanness, more zeal for service and loyalty to me and the state - this honor is characteristic of the tsar ...” - these are the words of Peter I. As a result of this royal position, there were some changes in the relationship between the tsar and the people, which were a curiosity in Russia. For example, in petitions it was no longer allowed to humiliate yourself with the signatures "Grishka" or "Mitka", but it was necessary to put your full name. It was not necessary to take off your hat in the strong Russian frost, passing by the royal residence. It was not supposed to kneel before the king, and the address “slave” was replaced by “slave”, which was not derogatory in those days and was associated with “God's servant”.
There is more freedom for young people who want to get married. The forced marriage of a girl was abolished by three decrees, and the betrothal and wedding now had to be separated in time so that the bride and groom "could recognize each other." Complaints that one of them annulled the engagement were not accepted - because now it became their right.