Peter the Great was one of the most prominent rulers of Russia. He became ruler of Russia in 1721, at a celebration for the victory of the Northern War. He carried out extensive reforms during his reign, including religious, social and political ones. Some of these fared better than others, and this essay will examine and discuss these reforms in detail, whilst also analysing how impactful they were to the Russian culture under Peter the Great’s rule, but also to the development of Russian culture from this time period.
Peter the Great was born in 1672 into a Russia, which was in many ways awfully disparate from Western Europe. At this time, the country was considered a “rude and barbarous Kingdom”, but which seemed to be open to the new Western ideas. Slowly, Russia began to play a part in world affairs such the First Northern War (1654-60), where it fought Poland and Sweden. By the time Peter became the ruler of this kingdom, there was more interaction between Russia and western Europe. When he rose to power, a “new concept of rulership arose” where he began to be known as a “reforming tsar” who was advancing his kingdom and modernising all aspects of life of his subjects. The goal of his reforms was to create a new culture, and they were “aimed at reeducating society and establishing a new conception of state power”. His reasoning for this was that he saw what was traditional culture at this time in Russia as uninformed and uncivilised.
One of the main social reforms that Peter undertook, was the westernisation of Russia. Yet, it wasn’t him who began this process, as it was started towards the end of the 15th century. However, the westernisation of Russia was advanced by Peter’s many reforms and this was the time that this process really took off in Russia. In a way to introduce Russia to a European state system, he introduced autocracy. He believed that the Western customs were much more admirable to those established in Russia, and was adamant on converting his country’s system to be similar to that in western Europe. Peter the Great “bound the ideas of autocracy and reform into a symbiosis that revolutionised the scope of a ruler’s duty”. There was a change from a “passive” to an “active” autocrat which created the idea of the ‘reforming tsar’ for each generation. There was a new form of conservatism created with this new autocracy. For the next 150 years after Peter’s rule, the autocracy clung to the idea of reform conservatism. This meant that the whilst the state still maintained its fundamental ideologies, it was also “actively pursuing forward-looking goals” which in hand created an autocracy which was both conservative, but also reformist. The idea of the ‘reforming tsar’ was continued well into the 18th century and was immersed into the political culture of Russia.
Not only did Peter’s reforms begin to modernise and westernise Russia, but they also changed the idea of autocratic duty completely. He developed into the “first ruler to seize upon the general political drift toward an enlightened (though still absolute) monarch which called for a redefinition of royal duty in both Russia and in the rest of Europe”. Before his rule, monarchs had absolute power in Europe, whilst in Russia they were seen as a figure which was passive, but still had control over the kingdom. In relation to this, Peter the Great was a turning point in the monarchies throughout Russia and Europe. He seemed to be in the middle of the “glorious absolutism of the latter half of the 17th century” to which he progressed considerably and the “enlightened absolutism of the latter half of the eighteenth century”, to whose rulers he set an example. His idea of having complete control over the state, whist remodelling this state created a new idea of what a monarch should look like and this became a popular way of ruling throughout Europe towards the end of the 18th century. His ideas of how a monarch should rule became popular, and the likes of Voltaire said of him that he “coerced nature in every aspect, in his subjects, in himself, on land and on sea … and Russia was created”. This Russia that Voltaire speaks of, was in fact a newly westernised or europeanised one. Peter’s reforms were revolutionary at this time, and one of the most prominent examples of this is how he changed the idea of autocratic leadership.
Peter’s idea of a modern autocrat was achieved through many reforms. Perhaps the most prominent which helped him achieve the idea of the modern autocrat was his religious reform. This not only changed the idea of autocratic power, but helped europeanise Russia as a whole in relation to other social reforms. As mentioned earlier, the idea of traditional culture was one that Peter wanted to abolish as he modernised and westernised Russia. Traditional culture was associated with religious culture as “ritual and