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Biography of Peter the Great - Tsar of Russia
Peter the Great is remembered in Russia during the 43 years he ruled Russia as an absolute monarch, he transformed it from an isolated, backward country, into a major power in Europe. When Peter I became tsar (Russian word for emperor) in 1682, Russia was an underdeveloped country that was isolated from Europe. It was dominated by the conservative Russian Orthodox Church, and the people who lived in Russia were either nobles (boyars) or peasant serfs.
Peter was the first tsar to ever travel outside of Russia. He led a 250 man group called the “Grand Embassy” on a tour across Western Europe to learn as much as he could about how other Europeans worked to use this knowledge to modernize Russia. For example, Peter worked as a carpenter building ships in Amsterdam, studied dentistry and visited workshops in England where they made weapons. He also met other monarchs and learned how they organized and ran their governments. When he returned to Russia, Peter brought with him almost 700 European experts. Peter planned to use these experts to modernize Russia by making it more European. Peter did a lot to reform Russia such as putting Russia on the same calendar as the rest of Europe, publishing the first newspaper, opening the first public theater and translating foreign literature into Russian. He also had 200 factory workshops built and 52 iron works built, making Russia the world’s largest producer of iron.
Peter the Great wanted to help Russia become a more modern country. However, many people in Russia liked the traditional way of doing things and opposed Peter’s plans for modernization. One way Peter tried to modernize Russia was to force Russian men to shave their beards and make everyone wear western style clothes (instead of traditional Russian clothes). This resulted in increasing resentment against “modern ideas” from Europe. However, Peter ignored the complaints and used brute force to accomplish his goals.
Peter fought wars to expand Russia’s territory and make it a major power in Europe. Peter recognized that major powers of Europe all had access to the sea, and that to be a major power Russia also had to develop a navy. This posed a problem since Russia did not have access to the sea. Peter knew that Russia had to expand to gain access to the ocean. This meant Peter had to fight Russia’s southern neighbor, the Ottoman Empire, and its northern neighbor, Sweden. First Peter fought the Ottoman Empire for control of the port of Azov on the Black Sea. Then Peter fought the Great Northern War against Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea. In the war, Peter gained a strip of land on the Baltic Sea that he used to build a new capital city for Russia.
Peter built the city of St. Petersburg on the strip of land he captured on the Baltic Sea to be the symbol of the modern Russia he was creating. Peter began the construction of St. Petersburg in 1703 on a swamp next to the Baltic Sea. Through the will of his personality and brute force, St. Petersburg was built as one of the most modern cities in Europe. Between 30,000 and 100,000 peasants died building the city. He intended the city to be Russia’s “Window to Europe”, which would allow Russians to have closer contact with Europe. Peter hired Italian and French architects to design and oversee the building of the city. He ordered government officials and nobles to build houses and live in the city. Peter built a winter and summer palace (called the Peterhof or “The Russian Versailles”) in the city, as well as museums, libraries and the Academy of Science. In 1712, Peter moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg would remain the capital of Russia until the Russian Revolution in 1918.
Through his reign, his domineering style and powerful mind, Peter began the transformation of Russia into a modern country and a major power in Europe. However, the process of modernization created a problem since it was based on the leader dictating and controlling the change instead of the Russian people taking charge of their own modernization. As a result, many parts of Russia, outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow, remained isolated and poor.
Source # 1 - Map of how Russia expanded under Peter the Great's rule
Source # 2 - Video on the building of St. Petersburg - click here
Source # 3 - Map of St. Petersburg from 1726-27 (Source - National Library of Russia)
Source # 4 - Picture of Peter the Great looking at blueprints and directing the building of St Petersburg (It is unknown when this picture was made)
Source # 5 - Aerial 360 degree view of Peterhoff Palace - click here
Source # 6 - Excerpt was written by Jean Rousset de Missy, a French writer and historian who wrote a biography of Peter the Great, but never actually traveled to Russia or met Peter. He discusses changes made to Russian fashions under Peter’s rule
The tsar labored at the reform of fashions, or, more properly speaking, of dress. Until that time the Russians had always worn long beards, which they cherished and preserved with much care… With these long beards they wore the hair very short… The tsar, in order to reform that custom, ordered that gentlemen, merchants, and other subjects, except priests and peasants, should each pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year if they wished to keep their beards; the commoners had to pay one kopek each. Officials were stationed at the gates of the towns to collect that tax, which the Russians regarded as an enormous sin on the part of the tsar and as a thing which tended to the abolition of their religion.
From the reform in beards we may pass to that of clothes. Their garments, like those of the Orientals, were very long, reaching to the heel. The tsar issued an ordinance abolishing that costume, commanding all the boyars [i.e., the nobles] and all those who had positions at court to dress after the French fashion, and likewise to adorn their clothes with gold or silver according to their means.
A suit of clothes cut according to the new fashion was hung at the gate of the city, with a decree [forcing] all except peasants to have their clothes made on this model, upon penalty of being forced to kneel and have all that part of their garments which fell below the knee cut off, or pay two grives every time they entered the town with clothes in the old style.
Source # 7 - Cartoon of Peter the Great cutting the beard of a boyar (image from the time of Peter the Great)
Source # 8 - Cartoon of mice burying a cat. The cat represents Peter the Great and the mice represent the boyars - (image is from the time of Peter the Great)
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