The last years of Peter's life 1. Russian Tsar Peter the Great. The reign and reforms of Peter the Great. Biography of Peter the Great. Developments after the death of Emperor Peter I
Peter I Alekseevich - the last Tsar of All Rus' and the first All-Russian Emperor, one of the most outstanding rulers Russian Empire. He was a true patriot of his state and did everything possible for its prosperity.
From his youth, Peter I showed great interest in various things, and was the first of the Russian tsars to make a long journey through European countries.
Thanks to this, he was able to accumulate a wealth of experience and carry out many important reforms that determined the direction of development in the 18th century.
In this article we will take a closer look at the characteristics of Peter the Great, and pay attention to his personality traits, as well as his successes in the political arena.
Biography of Peter 1
Peter 1 Alekseevich Romanov was born on May 30, 1672 in. His father, Alexei Mikhailovich, was the Tsar of the Russian Empire, and ruled it for 31 years.
Mother, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, was the daughter of a small nobleman. Interestingly, Peter was the 14th son of his father and the first of his mother.
Childhood and youth of Peter I
When the future emperor was 4 years old, his father Alexei Mikhailovich died, and Peter’s older brother, Fyodor 3 Alekseevich, took the throne.
The new tsar began raising little Peter, ordering him to be taught various sciences. Since at that time there was a struggle against foreign influence, his teachers were Russian clerks who did not have deep knowledge.
As a result, the boy was unable to receive a proper education, and until the end of his days he wrote with errors.
However, it is worth noting that Peter 1 managed to compensate for the shortcomings of basic education with rich practical training. Moreover, the biography of Peter I is notable precisely for his fantastic practice, and not for his theory.
History of Peter 1
Six years later, Fedor 3 died, and his son Ivan was to ascend to the Russian throne. However, the legal heir turned out to be a very sick and weak child.
Taking advantage of this, the Naryshkin family, in fact, organized a coup d'etat. Having secured the support of Patriarch Joachim, the Naryshkins made young Peter king the very next day.
26-year-old Peter I. The portrait by Kneller was presented by Peter in 1698 to the English king However, the Miloslavskys, relatives of Tsarevich Ivan, declared the illegality of such a transfer of power and the infringement of their own rights.
As a result, the famous Streletsky revolt took place in 1682, as a result of which two kings were on the throne at the same time - Ivan and Peter.
From that moment on, many significant events occurred in the biography of the young autocrat.
It is worth emphasizing here that from an early age the boy was interested in military affairs. On his orders, fortifications were built, and real military equipment was used in staged battles.
Peter 1 put uniforms on his peers and marched with them along the city streets. Interestingly, he himself acted as a drummer, walking in front of his regiment.
After the formation of his own artillery, the king created a small “fleet”. Even then he wanted to dominate the sea and lead his ships into battle.
Tsar Peter 1
As a teenager, Peter 1 was not yet able to fully govern the state, so his half-sister Sofya Alekseevna, and then his mother Natalya Naryshkina, became his regent.
In 1689, Tsar Ivan officially transferred all power to his brother, as a result of which Peter 1 became the only full-fledged head of state.
After the death of his mother, his relatives, the Naryshkins, helped him manage the empire. However, the autocrat soon freed himself from their influence and began to independently rule the empire.
Reign of Peter 1
From that time on, Peter 1 stopped playing war games, and instead began to develop real plans for future military campaigns. He continued to wage war in Crimea against, and also repeatedly organized the Azov campaigns.
As a result of this, he managed to take the Azov fortress, which became one of the first military successes in his biography. Then Peter 1 began building the port of Taganrog, although there was still no fleet as such in the state.
From that time on, the emperor set out to create a strong fleet at all costs in order to have influence on the sea. To do this, he made sure that young nobles could study ship craft in European countries.
It is worth noting that Peter I himself also learned to build ships, working as an ordinary carpenter. Thanks to this, he gained great respect among ordinary people who watched him work for the good of Russia.
Even then, Peter the Great saw many shortcomings in the state system and was preparing for serious reforms that would forever inscribe his name in.
He studied government system major European countries, trying to adopt the best from them.
During this period of biography, a conspiracy was drawn up against Peter 1, as a result of which a Streltsy uprising was supposed to occur. However, the king managed to suppress the rebellion in time and punish all the conspirators.
After a long confrontation with the Ottoman Empire, Peter the Great decided to sign a peace agreement with it. After that, he started a war with.
He managed to capture several fortresses at the mouth of the Neva River, on which the glorious city of Peter the Great would be built in the future.
Wars of Peter the Great
After a series of successful military campaigns, Peter 1 managed to open access to what would later be called the “window to Europe.”
Meanwhile, the military power of the Russian Empire was constantly increasing, and the glory of Peter the Great spread throughout Europe. Soon the Eastern Baltic states were annexed to Russia.
In 1709, the famous battle took place, in which the Swedish and Russian armies fought. As a result, the Swedes were completely defeated, and the remnants of the troops were taken prisoner.
By the way, this battle was superbly described in the famous poem “Poltava”. Here's a snippet:
There was that troubled time
When Russia is young,
Straining strength in struggles,
She dated the genius of Peter.
It is worth noting that Peter 1 himself took part in battles, showing courage and bravery in battle. By his example he inspired Russian army, which was ready to fight for the emperor to the last drop of blood.
Studying Peter's relationship with the soldiers, one cannot help but recall the famous story about a careless soldier. Read more about this.
An interesting fact is that at the height of the Battle of Poltava, an enemy bullet shot through Peter I’s hat, passing just a few centimeters from his head. This once again proved the fact that the autocrat was not afraid to risk his life to defeat the enemy.
However, numerous military campaigns not only took the lives of valiant warriors, but also depleted the country's military resources. Things got to the point that the Russian Empire found itself in a situation where it was necessary to fight on 3 fronts simultaneously.
This forced Peter 1 to reconsider his views on foreign policy and make a number of important decisions.
He signed a peace agreement with the Turks, agreeing to give them back the fortress of Azov. By making such a sacrifice, he was able to save many human lives and military equipment.
After some time, Peter the Great began organizing campaigns to the east. Their result was the annexation of such cities as Semipalatinsk and to Russia.
Interestingly, he even wanted to organize military expeditions to North America and India, but these plans were never destined to come true.
But Peter the Great was able to brilliantly carry out the Caspian campaign against Persia, conquering Derbent, Astrabad and many fortresses.
After his death, most of the conquered territories were lost, since their maintenance was not profitable for the state.
Reforms of Peter 1
Throughout his biography, Peter 1 implemented many reforms aimed at the benefit of the state. Interestingly, he became the first Russian ruler who began to call himself emperor.
The most important reforms concerned military affairs. In addition, it was during the reign of Peter 1 that the church began to submit to the state, which had never happened before.
The reforms of Peter the Great promoted development and trade, as well as a departure from an outdated way of life.
For example, he imposed a tax on wearing a beard, wanting to impose European standards on the boyars appearance. And although this caused a wave of discontent on the part of the Russian nobility, they still obeyed all his decrees.
Every year, medical, maritime, engineering and other schools were opened in the country, in which not only the children of officials, but also ordinary peasants could study. Peter 1 introduced the new Julian calendar, which is still used today.
While in Europe, the king saw many beautiful paintings that captured his imagination. As a result, upon arriving home, he began to provide financial support to artists in order to stimulate the development of Russian culture.
To be fair, it must be said that Peter 1 was often criticized for the violent method of implementing these reforms. Essentially, he forced people to change their thinking and also to carry out the projects he had in mind.
One of the most striking examples of this is the construction of St. Petersburg, which was carried out under difficult conditions. Many people could not withstand such stress and ran away.
Then the families of the fugitives were put in prison and remained there until the culprits returned back to the construction site.
Peter I Soon Peter 1 formed a body of political investigation and court, which was transformed into the Secret Chancellery. Any person was prohibited from writing in closed rooms.
If anyone knew about such a violation and did not report it to the king, he was subject to the death penalty. Using such harsh methods, Peter tried to fight anti-government conspiracies.
Personal life of Peter 1
In his youth, Peter 1 loved to be in the German settlement, enjoying foreign society. It was there that he first saw the German Anna Mons, with whom he immediately fell in love.
His mother was against his relationship with a German woman, so she insisted that he marry Evdokia Lopukhina. An interesting fact is that Peter did not contradict his mother and took Lopukhina as his wife.
Of course, in this forced marriage, their family life could not be called happy. They had two boys: Alexey and Alexander, the latter of whom died in early childhood.
Alexei was to become the legal heir to the throne after Peter 1. However, due to the fact that Evdokia tried to overthrow her husband from the throne and transfer power to her son, everything turned out completely differently.
Lopukhina was imprisoned in a monastery, and Alexei had to flee abroad. It is worth noting that Alexei himself never approved of his father’s reforms, and even called him a despot.
Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei. Ge N. N., 1871 In 1717, Alexei was found and arrested, and then sentenced to death for participating in a conspiracy. However, he died in prison, and under very mysterious circumstances.
Having divorced his wife, in 1703 Peter the Great became interested in 19-year-old Katerina (nee Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya). A whirlwind romance began between them, which lasted for many years.
Over time, they got married, but even before her marriage she gave birth to daughters Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709) from the emperor. Elizabeth later became empress (reigned 1741-1761)
Katerina was a very smart and insightful girl. She alone managed, with the help of affection and patience, to calm the king when he had acute attacks of headache.
Peter I with the sign of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on a blue St. Andrew's ribbon and a star on his chest. J.-M. Nattier, 1717 They officially got married only in 1712. After that, they had 9 more children, most of whom died at an early age.
Peter the Great truly loved Katerina. The Order of St. Catherine was established in her honor and a city in the Urals was named. The Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (built under her daughter Elizaveta Petrovna) also bears the name of Catherine I.
Soon, another woman, Maria Cantemir, appeared in the biography of Peter 1, who remained the emperor’s favorite until the end of his life.
It is worth noting that Peter the Great was very tall - 203 cm. At that time, he was considered a real giant, and was head and shoulders taller than everyone else.
However, the size of his feet did not correspond to his height at all. The autocrat wore size 39 shoes and had very narrow shoulders. As an additional support, he always carried a cane with him on which he could lean.
Death of Peter
Despite the fact that outwardly Peter 1 seemed to be a very strong and healthy person, in fact he suffered from migraine attacks throughout his life.
In the last years of his life, he also began to suffer from kidney stones, which he tried to ignore.
At the beginning of 1725, the pain became so severe that he could no longer get out of bed. His health condition worsened every day, and his suffering became unbearable.
Peter 1 Alekseevich Romanov died on January 28, 1725 in the Winter Palace. The official cause of his death was pneumonia.
The Bronze Horseman is a monument to Peter I on Senate Square in St. Petersburg However, an autopsy showed that death was due to inflammation of the bladder, which soon developed into gangrene.
Peter the Great was buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, and his wife Catherine 1 became the heir to the Russian throne.
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Peter 1 (born May 30 (June 9), 1672 - death January 28 (February 8), 1725) - first Russian Emperor, from . He died in the Winter Palace, he was 52 years old. There were many legends about the death of Peter 1.
On the eve of death
1725, January 27 - the imperial palace in St. Petersburg was surrounded by reinforced security. The first Russian Emperor Peter 1 was dying in terrible agony. During the last 10 days, convulsions gave way to deep fainting and delirium, and in those minutes when the sovereign regained consciousness, he screamed terribly from unbearable pain.
Over the past week, in moments of short-term relief, the emperor took communion three times. According to his order, all arrested debtors were released from prison and their debts were covered from the royal sums. All churches, including those of other faiths, held prayer services for him. Relief did not come...
Possible causes of death of Peter 1
The emperor's stormy life made itself felt. By the age of 50, he had a bunch of ailments. Uremia bothered him more than other diseases. In the last year of his life, the sovereign, on the advice of doctors, went to mineral waters for treatment, however, even during treatment, from time to time he was engaged in heavy physical labor. So, in June 1724, at the Ugoda factories of the Mellers, he forged several strips of iron with his own hands, in August he was at the launching of a frigate, and then set off on a long and tiring journey along the route: Shlisselburg - Olonetsk - Novgorod - Staraya Russa - Ladoga Canal.
Catherine's betrayal
There is a version that the sovereign was poisoned by people from his inner circle. This is how they could react to the loss of royal favor. A few months before Peter's death, the Tsar's relationship with his wife Catherine completely fell apart.
Returning home from a trip, the tsar, according to one common version, received evidence of adultery between his wife Catherine and 30-year-old Willie Mons, the brother of the emperor's former favorite. Mons was accused of bribery and theft and, according to the court verdict, his head was cut off. As soon as Catherine hinted at a pardon, the sovereign in anger broke a mirror of fine workmanship, in an expensive frame. “This is the most beautiful decoration of my palace. I want it and I will destroy it!” The wife realized that her husband’s angry words contained a hint of her own fate, but she asked restrainedly: “Does this make your palace better?” The Emperor nevertheless subjected Catherine to a difficult test - he took her to look at the severed head of Mons...
Catherine understood well that the best she could now count on was a dull old age in a monastery. Unless... Unless the husband dies suddenly without writing a will. Then she, as the empress crowned in 1724, can take the throne by law.
Kaznokrad Menshikov
The well-known embezzler, His Serene Highness, was under investigation for more than 10 years. The control commission was able to discover that he had stolen more than a million state rubles, so that, as the Prussian envoy Axel von Mardefeld noted in his notes: “The prince... out of fear and in anticipation of the outcome of the matter, became completely haggard and even fell ill.” And then, as if on purpose, in November 1724, new financial frauds of the prince surfaced - food supplies to the army at inflated prices. They themselves were relatively modest (compared to previous years), but Menshikov transferred this profit to a bank in Amsterdam. “Yeah, I’ve decided to run away abroad!” - the sovereign decided.
The fate of the son of the court groom Alexander Danilovich Menshikov...
A special investigation was launched, which was entrusted to one of the tsar’s most trusted representatives - Fiscal General Alexei Myakinin. Moreover, it was completely inopportune that it became known about the papers of Mons, with whom His Serene Highness was in correspondence, seeking Catherine’s intercession. In his letters, Menshikov assured the German “of eternal friendship and devotion,” which infuriated Peter. As a result, Peter excommunicated Menshikov from himself: he forbade him to appear in the palace, and deprived him of the presidency of the Military Collegium. In fact, he found himself under house arrest in his palace.
People who were mean to him, accused of even much less significant fraud, have already been severely punished. “Most likely,” according to Doctor of Historical Sciences Nikolai Pavlenko, “Menshikov could share the fate of all embezzlers, especially since his main intercessor Catherine, due to her adultery, lost influence on the sovereign.” So Prince Menshikov became an involuntary ally of Ekaterina Alekseevna - the early death of the emperor was salvation for him too.
Kidney disease. Cold
1721 - in Astrakhan, during a campaign in Persia, the king first experienced attacks of urinary retention. 1723, winter - these attacks intensified. The court doctors had a very difficult job with the royal patient, since he could not follow the strict diet prescribed to him for a long time. The pain became more and more frequent.
1724, summer and autumn - the emperor felt very bad and, willy-nilly, did not part with medications, but there was not much help from them. In the summer of 1724, the disease took on an inflammatory character. The sovereign was treated by Lavrenty Blumentrost and the surgeon Paulson. 1724, September - the king began to recover and gave hope for recovery.
1724, November - while participating in the rescue of soldiers and sailors drowning in the Gulf of Finland from a boat that ran aground near Lakhta, he caught a bad cold.
1725, January 6 - being in severe frost at the Baptism ceremony, he caught an even worse cold and on January 16 became hopeless. January 16 brought deterioration, “severe chills” appeared, and the emperor took to bed. As the historian E.F. put it. Shmurlo, “death knocked on the royal doors.”
Acute urinary retention occurred. The attacks followed one after another. The king experienced terrible torment. But some doctors did not lose hope of salvation and made attempts to instill hope in those around them. Thus, a doctor from Italy, Azzariti, who practiced in St. Petersburg, assured the courtiers that the disease was completely curable and the tsar would soon be able to take up state affairs again. Indeed, the night from January 20 to 21 was calm, the fever went away, and “the cleansing became more correct.”
At first, Anna was Lefort’s mistress, until she exchanged her favorite for Peter 1...
By January 22, the fever had subsided, but the patient suffered from general bodily weakness and a sharp headache. On January 23, an “operation” (maybe a puncture or high section of the bladder) was performed, as a result of which about 2 pounds of purulent urine were removed. The pain during the attacks these days was so strong that the king’s screams were heard not only in the palace, but throughout the entire area, then the pain became so strong that the patient only moaned dully, biting the pillow. The “attacks” mentioned by contemporaries may have been episodes of acute urinary dysfunction due to stricture (narrowing) of the urethra.
On January 25, during catheterization of the bladder, about a liter of purulent, foul-smelling urine was removed. Exhausted by the painful procedure, the patient fell asleep for a short time, but soon he “fainted.” The next day, a new attack of fever began, accompanied by convulsions, during which the sovereign lost consciousness. On January 26, having cheered up, the Tsar asked for food, but while eating he suddenly had a convulsive attack, he lost consciousness for more than two hours, after which Peter 1 lost the ability to speak and control his right limbs.
Syphilis
One of the versions of the death of Peter 1 is described by Kazimir Waliszewski. The historian in the book “Peter the Great” states: “On September 8, 1724, the diagnosis of the disease was finally revealed: it was sand in the urine, complicated by the return of a poorly treated venereal disease.”
The Soviet historian M. Pokrovsky seized on this version and ruled out kidney disease, leaving only syphilis. “Peter died, as is known, from the consequences of syphilis, which he apparently received in Holland and was poorly treated by the doctors of that time,” he wrote.
Later, Doctor Azzariti, whom Peter summoned, confirmed that the sovereign actually had a long-standing venereal disease, which was not completely cured.
After the death of Peter 1, Campredon reported that “the source of the disease was old and poorly cured syphilis.”
It should be noted that only one diplomat of all those accredited at the Russian court reported this diagnosis to the tsar. It’s unlikely that others would have missed such juicy information.
Death
His body remained unburied for 40 days. And all this time, Catherine, proclaimed empress, cried twice a day over her husband’s body.
Doctors' opinion. Our days
Commented doctor of medicine Sciences, Professor L.L. Khundanov.
– Of course, it’s quite difficult to make a diagnosis after several centuries...
And yet, taking into account the testimony of contemporaries and written sources, we can try to reconstruct the history of Peter the Great’s illness. Perhaps the fact that the sovereign suffered from urethral stricture should be considered proven. It is known that the king, who loved to boast of his knowledge of medicine, found it possible to apply it to himself. The silver catheters with which he independently drilled the urethra have been preserved...
Hypothermia and alcohol could certainly cause an exacerbation of the chronic process. I don’t want to evaluate the actions of the doctors who treated the Tsar, but it seems that not all possible means were used, even at that time. In case of multi-day urinary retention, catheterization was performed only once. Maybe we should have thought about cystotomy - an operation widely practiced by surgeons of the 18th century. Although it is quite possible to assume that the emperor could have opposed this operation, and the doctors were unable or were afraid to convince him.
In our days, resolving the issue of the possible poisoning of Peter 1, without having any test results or examinations, is a very frivolous matter. Although some of the symptoms throughout the disease do not quite fit into the clinical picture of ascending pyelonephritis and urosepsis. Also A.S. Pushkin in his “History of Peter” writes about convulsions, paralysis of his left arm, and loss of speech. “Burning in the stomach” can also be considered a sign of poisoning with some kind of poison. Such symptoms, if desired, can be classified as arsenic poisoning. But it should be noted right away that in early XVIII centuries, arsenic and mercury preparations were widely used in the treatment of many ailments, and a patient with kidney damage could easily experience an overdose, causing a clinical picture similar to poisoning.
At the end of November 1724, Peter the Great fell fatally ill
Recently, students asked me at a lecture whether it was true that Peter the Great died of syphilis. No it is not true. But how tenacious is the old gossip! For almost three hundred years it has been exciting the imagination of ignorant ordinary people.
The nonsense was launched into the “broad masses” by the glib author of novels about the intimate lives of Russian monarchs, the Polish historian Kazimir Waliszewski. In the book “Peter the Great” he wrote: “On September 8, 1724, the diagnosis of the disease was finally clarified: it was sand in the urine, complicated by the return of a poorly treated venereal disease.” The founder of the Soviet school of historical falsification, the “red professor” Mikhail Pokrovsky “developed” Valishevsky, excluding kidney disease from the diagnosis and leaving only syphilis in him: “The death of the converter was a worthy finale to this feast during the plague. Peter died, as is known, from the consequences of syphilis, which he received, in all likelihood, in Holland and was poorly treated by the doctors of that time.” Pokrovsky has no references to sources, and the methods of introducing dirty gossip (“as is known,” “in all likelihood”) are typical of any falsifier.
The first to tell the world about Peter's venous disease as the cause of his death was the French ambassador to the Russian court, Count Campredon. In his report to Versailles in January 1725, he reported that a “knowledgeable Italian doctor” had told him, Campredon, in great confidence that the urinary retention that the king was suffering from “was a consequence of an old venereal disease,” namely, “poorly cured syphilis.” .
The “knowledgeable Italian” to whom Campredon referred was a certain Azarini, one of many who tried to treat the dying Peter and did not succeed. Academician Pavlenko, who analyzed in detail the history of the death of Peter the Great, noted that the arrogant physician was confident in the ability to “completely cure” the Tsar four days before his death, “if only his advice was taken advantage of.” They were used and Peter died. From which we can draw certain conclusions about the degree of medical knowledge of Azarini. Those close to Tsar Peter - chamber cadet Buchholz, Feofan Prokopovich, data from the “Marching Journal”, which recorded Peter’s every step, speak of the death of the emperor from inflammation of the bladder. The same opinion was shared by historians of medicine who touched upon the death of the Russian transformer in their writings - V. Richter, N. Kupriyanov. But we have at our disposal data of a completely different degree of reliability - the conclusion of the Central Dermatovenerological Institute in Moscow, made in 1970. A unique case for this kind of gossip - the government of the USSR and the Academy of Sciences, concerned about the negative impact of dirty gossip on the image of the country, entrusted the luminaries of venereology to figure out in private what the truth is.
All available documents and sources about the illness and death of Tsar Peter were presented to the doctors for consideration, including Campredon’s reports to Versailles. A commission consisting of professors A.A. Studnitsyn, N.S. Smelov, Doctor of Medical Sciences T.V. Vasilyev and Candidate of Medical Sciences O.I. Nikonov came to the unequivocal conclusion: “Peter I did not die from the consequences of syphilis. "According to the available data, it can be concluded that he suffered from a malignant disease of the prostate gland, or bladder, or urolithiasis."
It is clear that with such a diagnosis, Peter the Great, who in November 1724 rushed into the icy water to save a stranded boat with soldiers, women and children near Lahti, received severe inflammation and was no longer able to recover from it. The gossip has burst - instead of a libertine, deservedly punished for his sins, we see Pushkin’s “now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter,” who fell ill while saving “lower ranks” on stormy Ladoga. We can close the story by stating that Peter the Great has enough merits and sins against Russia to hang all sorts of dirt on him. But the question remains - why are such “stories” so tenacious?
If you put all the historical gossip together, it turns out that almost all outstanding historical characters are moral monsters or perverts, or alcoholics and generally degenerates. In particular, besides Peter, Ivan the Terrible, Lenin, Cortes and Hitler were “buried” from syphilis (in all cases the diagnosis is equally “true”). The nature of the crowd’s craving for savoring dirty details “from the lives of the great” was revealed by A.S. Pushkin: “The crowd greedily reads confessions... because in its meanness it rejoices at the humiliation of the high, the weaknesses of the mighty. At the discovery of any abomination, she is delighted. He is small, like us, he is vile, like us! You’re lying, scoundrels: he’s small and vile – not like you – otherwise.”
Peter I Alekseevich the Great. Born May 30 (June 9), 1672 - died January 28 (February 8), 1725. The last Tsar of All Rus' (since 1682) and the first Emperor of All Russia (since 1721).
As a representative of the Romanov dynasty, Peter was proclaimed tsar at the age of 10 and began to rule independently in 1689. Peter's formal co-ruler was his brother Ivan (until his death in 1696).
From a young age, showing interest in science and foreign lifestyles, Peter was the first of the Russian tsars to make a long trip to the countries of Western Europe. Upon returning from it, in 1698, Peter launched large-scale reforms Russian state and social order.
One of Peter’s main achievements was the solution to the task posed in the 16th century: the expansion of Russian territories in the Baltic region after the victory in the Great Northern War, which allowed him to accept the title of Russian Emperor in 1721.
In historical science and in public opinion from the end of the 18th century to the present day, there have been diametrically opposed assessments of both the personality of Peter I and his role in the history of Russia.
In official Russian historiography, Peter was considered one of the most outstanding statesmen who determined the direction of Russia's development in the 18th century. However, many historians, including N.M. Karamzin, V.O. Klyuchevsky, P.N. Milyukov and others, expressed sharply critical assessments.
Peter I the Great (documentary)
Peter was born on the night of May 30 (June 9), 1672 (in 7180 according to the then-accepted chronology “from the creation of the world”): “In the current year of May 180, on the 30th day, for the prayers of the holy Fathers, God forgave Our and Great Queen Princess Natalia Kirillovna, and gave birth to Us a son, the blessed Tsarevich and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich of all Great, Little and White Russia, and his name day is June 29th.”
The exact place of Peter's birth is unknown. Some historians indicated the Kremlin's Terem Palace as his birthplace, and according to folk tales, Peter was born in the village of Kolomenskoye, and Izmailovo was also indicated.
The father, the Tsar, had numerous offspring: Peter I was the 14th child, but the first from his second wife, Tsarina Natalya Naryshkina.
June 29, St. Day Apostles Peter and Paul, the prince was baptized in the Miracle Monastery (according to other sources in the Church of Gregory of Neocaesarea, in Derbitsy), by Archpriest Andrei Savinov and named Peter. The reason why he received the name "Peter" is not clear, perhaps as a euphonic correspondence to his older brother's name, since he was born on the same day as . It was not found among either the Romanovs or the Naryshkins. The last representative of the Moscow Rurik dynasty with that name was Pyotr Dmitrievich, who died in 1428.
After spending a year with the queen, he was given to nannies to raise. In the 4th year of Peter’s life, in 1676, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich died. The Tsarevich's guardian was his half-brother, godfather and new Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. Peter received a poor education, and until the end of his life he wrote with errors, using a poor vocabulary. This was due to the fact that the then Patriarch of Moscow, Joachim, as part of the fight against “Latinization” and “foreign influence”, removed from the royal court the students of Simeon of Polotsk, who taught Peter’s older brothers, and insisted that less educated clerks would teach Peter. N. M. Zotov and A. Nesterov.
In addition, Peter did not have the opportunity to receive an education from a university graduate or a high school teacher, since neither universities nor secondary schools existed in the Russian kingdom during Peter’s childhood, and among the classes of Russian society only clerks, clerks and higher clergy were taught to read and write.
The clerks taught Peter to read and write from 1676 to 1680. Peter was later able to compensate for the shortcomings of his basic education with rich practical training.
The death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the accession of his eldest son Fyodor (from Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna, née Miloslavskaya) pushed Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna and her relatives, the Naryshkins, into the background. Queen Natalya was forced to go to the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow.
Streltsy riot of 1682. Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna
On April 27 (May 7), 1682, after 6 years of reign, the sickly Tsar Fedor III Alekseevich died. The question arose of who should inherit the throne: the older, sickly Ivan, according to custom, or the young Peter.
Having secured the support of Patriarch Joachim, the Naryshkins and their supporters enthroned Peter on April 27 (May 7), 1682. In fact, the Naryshkin clan came to power and Artamon Matveev, summoned from exile, was declared the “great guardian.”
It was difficult for supporters to support their candidate, who could not reign due to extremely poor health. The organizers of the de facto palace coup announced a version of the hand-written transfer of the “scepter” by the dying Fyodor Alekseevich to his younger brother Peter, but no reliable evidence of this was presented.
The Miloslavskys, relatives of Tsarevich Ivan and by their mother, saw in the proclamation of Peter as tsar an infringement of their interests. The Streltsy, of whom there were more than 20 thousand in Moscow, had long shown discontent and waywardness. Apparently, incited by the Miloslavskys, on May 15 (25), 1682, they came out openly: shouting that the Naryshkins had strangled Tsarevich Ivan, they moved towards the Kremlin.
Natalya Kirillovna, hoping to calm the rioters, together with the patriarch and boyars, led Peter and his brother to the Red Porch. However, the uprising did not end. In the first hours, the boyars Artamon Matveev and Mikhail Dolgoruky were killed, then other supporters of Queen Natalia, including her two brothers Naryshkin.
On May 26, elected officials from the Streltsy regiments came to the palace and demanded that the elder Ivan be recognized as the first tsar, and the younger Peter as the second. Fearing a repetition of the pogrom, the boyars agreed, and Patriarch Joachim immediately performed a solemn prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral for the health of the two named kings. On June 25, he crowned them kings.
On May 29, the archers insisted that Princess Sofya Alekseevna take over control of the state due to the minor age of her brothers. Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna was supposed to, together with her son Peter - the second Tsar - retire from the court to a palace near Moscow in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. In the Kremlin Armory, a two-seat throne for young kings with a small window in the back was preserved, through which Princess Sophia and her entourage told them how to behave and what to say during palace ceremonies.
Funny shelves
All free time Peter spent time away from the palace - in the villages of Vorobyovo and Preobrazhenskoye. Every year his interest in military affairs increased. Peter dressed and armed his “amusing” army, which consisted of peers from boyhood games.
In 1685, his “amusing” men, dressed in foreign caftans, marched in regimental formation through Moscow from Preobrazhenskoye to the village of Vorobyovo to the beat of drums. Peter himself served as a drummer.
In 1686, 14-year-old Peter started artillery with his “amusing” ones. Gunsmith Fyodor Zommer showed the Tsar grenade and firearms work. 16 guns were delivered from the Pushkarsky order. To control the heavy guns, the tsar took from the Stable Prikaz adult servants who were keen on military affairs, who were dressed in foreign-style uniforms and designated as amusing gunners. Sergei Bukhvostov was the first to put on a foreign uniform. Subsequently, Peter ordered a bronze bust of this first Russian soldier, as he called Bukhvostov. The amusing regiment began to be called Preobrazhensky, after its quartering place - the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow.
In Preobrazhenskoye, opposite the palace, on the banks of the Yauza, an “amusing town” was built. During the construction of the fortress, Peter himself worked actively, helping to cut logs and install cannons.
The building created by Peter was also stationed here. “The most humorous, the most drunken and the most extravagant Council”- a parody of the Orthodox Church. The fortress itself was named Presburg, probably after the famous at that time Austrian fortress Presburg (now Bratislava - the capital of Slovakia), which he heard about from Captain Sommer.
At the same time, in 1686, the first amusing ships appeared near Preshburg on the Yauza - a large shnyak and a plow with boats. During these years, Peter became interested in all the sciences that were related to military affairs. Under the guidance of the Dutchman Timmerman, he studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences.
One day, walking with Timmerman through the village of Izmailovo, Peter entered the Linen Yard, in the barn of which he found an English boot.
In 1688, he instructed the Dutchman Karsten Brandt to repair, arm and equip this boat, and then lower it to the Yauza River. However, the Yauza and Prosyanoy Pond turned out to be too small for the ship, so Peter went to Pereslavl-Zalessky, to Lake Pleshcheevo, where he founded the first shipyard for the construction of ships.
There were already two “Amusing” regiments: Semenovsky, located in the village of Semenovskoye, was added to Preobrazhensky. Preshburg already looked like a real fortress. To command regiments and study military science, knowledgeable and experienced people were needed. But there were no such people among the Russian courtiers. This is how Peter appeared in the German settlement.
First marriage of Peter I
The German settlement was the closest “neighbor” of the village of Preobrazhenskoye, and Peter had been looking at its life with curiosity for a long time. More and more large quantity foreigners at the court of Tsar Peter, such as Franz Timmermann and Karsten Brandt, came from the German Settlement. All this imperceptibly led to the fact that the tsar became a frequent visitor to the settlement, where he soon turned out to be a big fan of relaxed foreign life.
Peter lit a German pipe, began attending German parties with dancing and drinking, met Patrick Gordon, Franz Lefort- future associates of Peter, started an affair with Anna Mons. Peter's mother strictly opposed this.
To bring her 17-year-old son to reason, Natalya Kirillovna decided to marry him Evdokia Lopukhina, daughter of a okolnichy.
Peter did not contradict his mother, and on January 27, 1689, the wedding of the “junior” tsar took place. However, less than a month later, Peter left his wife and went to Lake Pleshcheyevo for several days.
From this marriage, Peter had two sons: the eldest, Alexei, was heir to the throne until 1718, the youngest, Alexander, died in infancy.
Accession of Peter I
Peter's activity greatly worried Princess Sophia, who understood that with the coming of age of her half-brother, she would have to give up power. At one time, supporters of the princess hatched a coronation plan, but Patriarch Joachim was categorically against it.
Hiking Crimean Tatars, carried out in 1687 and 1689 by the princess’s favorite, Prince Vasily Golitsyn, were not very successful, but were presented as major and generously rewarded victories, which caused discontent among many.
On July 8, 1689, on the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the first public conflict occurred between the matured Peter and the Ruler.
On that day, according to custom, procession from the Kremlin to the Kazan Cathedral. At the end of the mass, Peter approached his sister and announced that she should not dare to go along with the men in the procession. Sophia accepted the challenge: she took the image of the Most Holy Theotokos in her hands and went to get the crosses and banners. Unprepared for such an outcome, Peter left the move.
On August 7, 1689, unexpectedly for everyone, a decisive event occurred. On this day, Princess Sophia ordered the chief of the archers, Fyodor Shaklovity, to send more of his people to the Kremlin, as if to escort them to the Donskoy Monastery on a pilgrimage. At the same time, a rumor spread about a letter with the news that Tsar Peter at night decided to occupy the Kremlin with his “amusing” regiments, kill the princess, Tsar Ivan’s brother, and seize power.
Shaklovity gathered the Streltsy regiments to march in a “great assembly” to Preobrazhenskoye and beat all of Peter’s supporters for their intention to kill Princess Sophia. Then they sent three horsemen to observe what was happening in Preobrazhenskoe with the task of immediately reporting if Tsar Peter went anywhere alone or with regiments.
Peter's supporters among the archers sent two like-minded people to Preobrazhenskoye. After the report, Peter with a small retinue galloped in alarm to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The consequence of the horrors of the Streltsy demonstrations was Peter's illness: with strong excitement, he began to have convulsive facial movements.
On August 8, both queens, Natalya and Evdokia, arrived at the monastery, followed by “amusing” regiments with artillery.
On August 16, a letter came from Peter, ordering commanders and 10 privates from all regiments to be sent to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Princess Sophia strictly forbade the fulfillment of this command on pain of the death penalty, and a letter was sent to Tsar Peter informing him that it was impossible to fulfill his request.
On August 27, a new letter from Tsar Peter arrived - all regiments should go to Trinity. Most of the troops obeyed the legitimate king, and Princess Sophia had to admit defeat. She herself went to the Trinity Monastery, but in the village of Vozdvizhenskoye she was met by Peter’s envoys with orders to return to Moscow.
Soon Sophia was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent under strict supervision.
On October 7, Fyodor Shaklovity was captured and then executed. The elder brother, Tsar Ivan (or John), met Peter at the Assumption Cathedral and actually gave him all power.
Since 1689, he did not take part in the reign, although until his death on January 29 (February 8), 1696, he nominally continued to be a co-tsar.
After the overthrow of Princess Sophia, power passed into the hands of people who rallied around Queen Natalya Kirillovna. She tried to accustom her son to public administration, entrusting him with private affairs, which Peter found boring.
The most important decisions (declaration of war, election of the Patriarch, etc.) were made without taking into account the opinion of the young king. This led to conflicts. For example, at the beginning of 1692, offended by the fact that, contrary to his will, the Moscow government refused to resume the war with the Ottoman Empire, the tsar did not want to return from Pereyaslavl to meet the Persian ambassador, and the top officials of Natalya Kirillovna’s government (L.K. Naryshkin with B.A. Golitsyn) were forced to personally go after him.
The “installation” of N. M. Zotov in “all Yauza and all Kokui as patriarchs”, which took place on January 1, 1692, by the will of Peter I in Preobrazhenskoe, became the tsar’s response to the installation of Patriarch Adrian, which was accomplished against his will. After the death of Natalya Kirillovna, the tsar did not displace the government of L.K. Naryshkin - B.A. Golitsyn, formed by his mother, but ensured that it strictly carried out his will.
Azov campaigns of 1695 and 1696
The priority of Peter I's activities in the first years of autocracy was the continuation of the war with the Ottoman Empire and Crimea. Peter I decided, instead of campaigning against the Crimea, undertaken during the reign of Princess Sophia, to strike at the Turkish fortress of Azov, located at the confluence of the Don River into the Sea of Azov.
The first Azov campaign, which began in the spring of 1695, ended unsuccessfully in September of the same year due to the lack of a fleet and the unwillingness of the Russian army to operate far from supply bases. However, already in the fall of 1695, preparations for a new campaign began. The construction of a Russian rowing flotilla began in Voronezh.
In a short time, a flotilla of different ships was built, led by the 36-gun ship Apostle Peter.
In May 1696, a 40,000-strong Russian army under the command of Generalissimo Shein again besieged Azov, only this time the Russian flotilla blocked the fortress from the sea. Peter I took part in the siege with the rank of captain on a galley. Without waiting for the assault, on July 19, 1696, the fortress surrendered. Thus, Russia's first access to the southern seas was opened.
The result of the Azov campaigns was the capture of the Azov fortress and the beginning of construction of the port of Taganrog, the possibility of an attack on the Crimean peninsula from the sea, which significantly secured the southern borders of Russia. However, Peter failed to gain access to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait: he remained under control Ottoman Empire. Russia did not yet have the forces for a war with Turkey, as well as a full-fledged navy.
To finance the construction of the fleet, new types of taxes were introduced: landowners were united into so-called kumpanstvos of 10 thousand households, each of which had to build a ship with their own money. At this time, the first signs of dissatisfaction with Peter's activities appear. The conspiracy of Tsikler, who was trying to organize a Streltsy uprising, was uncovered.
In the summer of 1699, the first large Russian ship “Fortress” (46-gun) took the Russian ambassador to Constantinople for peace negotiations. The very existence of such a ship persuaded the Sultan to conclude peace in July 1700, which left the Azov fortress behind Russia.
During the construction of the fleet and the reorganization of the army, Peter was forced to rely on foreign specialists. Having completed the Azov campaigns, he decides to send young nobles to study abroad, and soon he himself sets off on his first trip to Europe.
The Great Embassy of 1697-1698
In March 1697, the Grand Embassy was sent to Western Europe through Livonia, the main purpose of which was to find allies against the Ottoman Empire. Admiral General F. Ya. Lefort, General F. A. Golovin, and Head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz P. B. Voznitsyn were appointed great ambassadors plenipotentiary.
In total, up to 250 people entered the embassy, among whom, under the name of the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Peter Mikhailov, was Tsar Peter I himself. For the first time, a Russian Tsar undertook a trip outside the borders of his state.
Peter visited Riga, Koenigsberg, Brandenburg, Holland, England, Austria, and a visit to Venice and the Pope was planned.
The embassy recruited several hundred shipbuilding specialists to Russia and purchased military and other equipment.
In addition to negotiations, Peter devoted a lot of time to studying shipbuilding, military affairs and other sciences. Peter worked as a carpenter at the shipyards of the East India Company, and with the participation of the Tsar, the ship “Peter and Paul” was built.
In England, he visited a foundry, an arsenal, parliament, Oxford University, the Greenwich Observatory and the Mint, of which Isaac Newton was the caretaker at that time. He was primarily interested in the technical achievements of Western countries, and not in the legal system.
They say that having visited the Palace of Westminster, Peter saw there “legalists”, that is, barristers, in their robes and wigs. He asked: “What kind of people are these and what are they doing here?” They answered him: “These are all lawyers, Your Majesty.” “Lawists! - Peter was surprised. - What are they for? In my entire kingdom there are only two lawyers, and I plan to hang one of them when I return home.”
True, having visited the English Parliament incognito, where the speeches of the deputies before King William III were translated for him, the Tsar said: “It’s fun to hear when the sons of the patronymic tell the king the obvious truth, this is something we should learn from the English.”
The Grand Embassy did not achieve its main goal: it was not possible to create a coalition against the Ottoman Empire due to the preparation of a number of European powers for the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). However, thanks to this war, favorable conditions developed for Russia’s struggle for the Baltic. Thus, there was a reorientation of Russian foreign policy from the southern to the northern direction.
Peter in Russia
In July 1698, the Grand Embassy was interrupted by news of a new Streltsy rebellion in Moscow, which was suppressed even before Peter’s arrival. Upon the arrival of the Tsar in Moscow (August 25), a search and investigation began, the result of which was a one-time execution of about 800 archers(except for those executed during the suppression of the riot), and subsequently several hundred more until the spring of 1699.
Princess Sophia was tonsured as a nun under the name of Susanna and sent to the Novodevichy Convent, where she spent the rest of her life. The same fate befell Peter's unloved wife - Evdokia Lopukhina, who was forcibly sent to the Suzdal Monastery even against the will of the clergy.
During his 15 months abroad, Peter saw a lot and learned a lot. After the return of the tsar on August 25, 1698, his transformative activities began, first aimed at changing the external signs that distinguished the Old Slavic way of life from the Western European one.
In the Preobrazhensky Palace, Peter suddenly began to cut the beards of nobles, and already on August 29, 1698, the famous decree “On wearing German dress, on shaving beards and mustaches, on schismatics walking in the attire specified for them” was issued, which prohibited the wearing of beards from September 1.
“I wish to transform the secular goats, that is, citizens, and the clergy, that is, monks and priests. The first, so that without beards they would resemble the Europeans in kindness, and the others, so that they, although with beards, would teach parishioners Christian virtues in churches the way I have seen and heard pastors teaching in Germany.”.
The new year 7208 according to the Russian-Byzantine calendar (“from the creation of the world”) became the 1700th year according to the Julian calendar. Peter also introduced the celebration of the New Year on January 1, and not on the day of the autumnal equinox, as was previously celebrated.
His special decree stated: “Since people in Russia count the New Year differently, from now on, stop fooling people and count the New Year everywhere from the first of January. And as a sign of good beginnings and fun, congratulate each other on the New Year, wishing prosperity in business and in the family. In honor of the New Year, make decorations from fir trees, amuse children, and ride down the mountains on sleds. But adults shouldn’t indulge in drunkenness and massacres—there are plenty of other days for that.”.
Northern War 1700-1721
The Kozhukhov maneuvers (1694) showed Peter the advantage of the regiments of the “foreign system” over the archers. The Azov campaigns, in which four regular regiments took part (Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky, Lefortovo and Butyrsky regiments), finally convinced Peter of the low suitability of the troops of the old organization.
Therefore, in 1698, the old army was disbanded, except for 4 regular regiments, which became the basis of the new army.
In preparation for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to carry out a general recruitment and begin training of recruits according to the model established by the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovtsy. At the same time, a large number of foreign officers were recruited.
The war was supposed to begin with the siege of Narva, so the main attention was paid to organizing the infantry. There was simply not enough time to create all the necessary military structures. There were legends about the tsar’s impatience; he was impatient to enter the war and test his army in action. Management, a combat support service, and a strong, well-equipped rear had yet to be created.
After returning from the Great Embassy, the tsar began to prepare for a war with Sweden for access to the Baltic Sea.
In 1699, the Northern Alliance was created against the Swedish king Charles XII, which, in addition to Russia, included Denmark, Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by the Saxon elector and the Polish king Augustus II. The driving force behind the union was the desire of Augustus II to take Livonia from Sweden. For help, he promised Russia the return of lands that previously belonged to the Russians (Ingria and Karelia).
To enter the war, Russia needed to make peace with the Ottoman Empire. After reaching a truce with the Turkish Sultan for a period of 30 years Russia declared war on Sweden on August 19, 1700 under the pretext of revenge for the insult shown to Tsar Peter in Riga.
In turn, Charles XII's plan was to defeat his opponents one by one. Soon after the bombing of Copenhagen, Denmark withdrew from the war on August 8, 1700, even before Russia entered it. Augustus II's attempts to capture Riga ended unsuccessfully. After this, Charles XII turned against Russia.
The beginning of the war for Peter was discouraging: the newly recruited army, handed over to the Saxon field marshal Duke de Croix, was defeated near Narva on November 19 (30), 1700. This defeat showed that everything had to start all over again.
Considering that Russia was sufficiently weakened, Charles XII went to Livonia to direct all his forces against Augustus II.
However, Peter, continuing the reforms of the army according to the European model, resumed hostilities. Already in the fall of 1702, the Russian army, in the presence of the tsar, captured the Noteburg fortress (renamed Shlisselburg), and in the spring of 1703, the Nyenschanz fortress at the mouth of the Neva.
On May 10 (21), 1703, for the bold capture of two Swedish ships at the mouth of the Neva, Peter (then held the rank of captain of the Bombardier Company of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment) received his own approved Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
Here On May 16 (27), 1703, the construction of St. Petersburg began, and on the island of Kotlin the base of the Russian fleet was located - the Kronshlot fortress (later Kronstadt). The exit to the Baltic Sea was breached.
In 1704, after the capture of Dorpat and Narva, Russia gained a foothold in the Eastern Baltic. Peter I’s offer to make peace was refused.
After the deposition of Augustus II in 1706 and his replacement by the Polish king Stanislav Leszczynski, Charles XII began his fatal campaign against Russia. Having passed through the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the king did not dare to continue the attack on Smolensk. Enlisting the support of the Little Russian Hetman, Charles moved his troops south for food reasons and with the intention of strengthening the army with Mazepa’s supporters. In the Battle of Lesnaya on September 28 (October 9), 1708, Peter personally led the corvolant and defeated the Swedish corps of Levenhaupt, who was marching to join the army of Charles XII from Livonia. The Swedish army lost reinforcements and a convoy with military supplies. Peter later celebrated the anniversary of this battle as a turning point in the Northern War.
In the Battle of Poltava on June 27 (July 8), 1709, in which the army of Charles XII was completely defeated, Peter again commanded on the battlefield. Peter's hat was shot through. After the victory, he received the rank of first lieutenant general and schoutbenacht from the blue flag.
In 1710, Türkiye intervened in the war. After the defeat in the Prut campaign of 1711, Russia returned Azov to Turkey and destroyed Taganrog, but due to this it was possible to conclude another truce with the Turks.
Peter again focused on the war with the Swedes; in 1713, the Swedes were defeated in Pomerania and lost all their possessions in continental Europe. However, thanks to Sweden's dominance at sea North War dragged on. The Baltic Fleet was just being created by Russia, but managed to win its first victory in the Battle of Gangut in the summer of 1714.
In 1716, Peter led a united fleet from Russia, England, Denmark and Holland, but due to disagreements in the Allied camp, it was not possible to organize an attack on Sweden.
As Russia's Baltic Fleet strengthened, Sweden felt the danger of an invasion of its lands. In 1718, peace negotiations began, interrupted by the sudden death of Charles XII. The Swedish queen Ulrika Eleonora resumed the war, hoping for help from England.
The devastating Russian landings on the Swedish coast in 1720 prompted Sweden to resume negotiations. On August 30 (September 10), 1721, a treaty was concluded between Russia and Sweden Nystadt Peace, ending the 21-year war.
Russia gained access to the Baltic Sea, annexed the territory of Ingria, part of Karelia, Estland and Livonia. Russia became a great European power, in commemoration of which on October 22 (November 2), 1721 Peter, at the request of the senators, accepted the title of Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia, Peter the Great: "... we thought, from the example of the ancients, especially the Roman and Greek peoples, to have the courage to accept, on the day of celebration and the announcement of the glorious and prosperous world concluded by these centuries through the labors of all Russia, after reading its treatise in the church, according to our with the most submissive gratitude for the intercession of this peace, to bring my petition to you publicly, so that you deign to accept from us, as from your faithful subjects, in gratitude the title of Father of the Fatherland, Emperor of All Russia, Peter the Great, as usual from the Roman Senate for the noble deeds of emperors their such titles publicly presented to them as a gift and signed on statutes for memory for eternal generations"(Petition of senators to Tsar Peter I. October 22, 1721).
Russian-Turkish War 1710-1713. Prut campaign
After the defeat in the Battle of Poltava, the Swedish king Charles XII took refuge in the possessions of the Ottoman Empire, the city of Bendery. Peter I concluded an agreement with Turkey on the expulsion of Charles XII from Turkish territory, but then the Swedish king was allowed to stay and create a threat to the southern border of Russia with the help of part of the Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars.
Seeking the expulsion of Charles XII, Peter I began to threaten war with Turkey, but in response, on November 20, 1710, the Sultan himself declared war on Russia. The real cause of the war was the capture of Azov by Russian troops in 1696 and the appearance of the Russian fleet in the Sea of Azov.
The war on Turkey's part was limited to the winter raid of the Crimean Tatars, vassals of the Ottoman Empire, on Ukraine. Russia waged a war on 3 fronts: troops made campaigns against the Tatars in the Crimea and Kuban, Peter I himself, relying on the help of the rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia, decided to make a deep campaign to the Danube, where he hoped to raise the Christian vassals of the Ottoman Empire to fight the Turks.
On March 6 (17), 1711, Peter I left Moscow to join the troops with his faithful girlfriend Ekaterina Alekseevna, whom he ordered to be considered his wife and queen (even before the official wedding, which took place in 1712).
The army crossed the border of Moldova in June 1711, but already on July 20, 1711, 190 thousand Turks and Crimean Tatars pressed the 38 thousand Russian army to the right bank of the Prut River, completely surrounding it. In a seemingly hopeless situation, Peter managed to conclude the Prut Peace Treaty with the Grand Vizier, according to which the army and the Tsar himself escaped capture, but in return Russia gave Azov to Turkey and lost access to the Sea of Azov.
There had been no hostilities since August 1711, although during the process of agreeing on the final treaty, Turkey threatened several times to resume the war. Only in June 1713 was the Treaty of Adrianople concluded, which generally confirmed the terms of the Prut Agreement. Russia received the opportunity to continue the Northern War without a 2nd front, although it lost the gains of the Azov campaigns.
Russia's expansion to the east under Peter I did not stop. In 1716, Buchholz's expedition founded Omsk at the confluence of the Irtysh and Om rivers., upstream the Irtysh: Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk and other fortresses.
In 1716-1717, a detachment of Bekovich-Cherkassky was sent to Central Asia with the goal of persuading the Khiva Khan to become a citizen and to scout out the route to India. However, the Russian detachment was destroyed by the khan. During the reign of Peter I, Kamchatka was annexed to Russia. Peter planned an expedition across the Pacific Ocean to America (intending to establish Russian colonies there), but did not have time to carry out his plan.
Caspian campaign 1722-1723
Peter's largest foreign policy event after the Northern War was the Caspian (or Persian) campaign in 1722-1724. The conditions for the campaign were created as a result of Persian civil strife and the actual collapse of the once powerful state.
On July 18, 1722, after the son of the Persian Shah Tokhmas Mirza asked for help, a 22,000-strong Russian detachment sailed from Astrakhan along the Caspian Sea. In August, Derbent surrendered, after which the Russians returned to Astrakhan due to problems with supplies.
The following year, 1723, the western shore of the Caspian Sea with the fortresses of Baku, Rasht, and Astrabad was conquered. Further progress was stopped by the threat of the Ottoman Empire entering the war, which captured western and central Transcaucasia.
On September 12, 1723, the Treaty of St. Petersburg was concluded with Persia, according to which the western and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku and the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad were included in the Russian Empire. Russia and Persia also concluded a defensive alliance against Turkey, which, however, turned out to be ineffective.
According to the Treaty of Constantinople of June 12, 1724, Turkey recognized all Russian acquisitions in the western part of the Caspian Sea and renounced further claims to Persia. The junction of the borders between Russia, Turkey and Persia was established at the confluence of the Araks and Kura rivers. Troubles continued in Persia, and Türkiye challenged the provisions of the Treaty of Constantinople before the border was clearly established. It should be noted that soon after the death of Peter, these possessions were lost due to high losses of garrisons from disease, and, in the opinion of Tsarina Anna Ioannovna, the lack of prospects for the region.
Russian Empire under Peter I
After the victory in the Northern War and the conclusion of the Peace of Nystadt in September 1721, the Senate and Synod decided to present Peter with the title of Emperor of All Russia with the following wording: “as usual, from the Roman Senate, for the noble deeds of their emperors, such titles were publicly presented to them as a gift and signed on statutes for memory for eternal generations”.
On October 22 (November 2), 1721, Peter I accepted the title, not just honorary, but testifying to new role Russia in international affairs. Prussia and Holland immediately recognized the new title of the Russian Tsar, Sweden in 1723, Turkey in 1739, England and Austria in 1742, France and Spain in 1745, and finally Poland in 1764.
Secretary of the Prussian embassy in Russia in 1717-1733, I.-G. Fokkerodt, at the request of someone who was working on the history of Peter's reign, wrote memoirs about Russia under Peter. Fokkerodt tried to estimate the population of the Russian Empire by the end of the reign of Peter I. According to his information, the number of people in the tax-paying class was 5 million 198 thousand people, from which the number of peasants and townspeople, including women, was estimated at approximately 10 million.
Many souls were hidden by the landowners; the repeated audit increased the number of tax-paying souls to almost 6 million people.
There were up to 500 thousand Russian nobles and families, up to 200 thousand officials and up to 300 thousand clergy and families.
The inhabitants of the conquered regions, who were not subject to universal taxes, were estimated to number from 500 to 600 thousand souls. Cossacks with families in Ukraine, on the Don and Yaik and in border cities were considered to number from 700 to 800 thousand souls. Number Siberian peoples was unknown, but Fokkerodt put it up to a million people.
Thus, the population of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great amounted to up to 15 million subjects and was second in number in Europe only to France (about 20 million).
According to the calculations of the Soviet historian Yaroslav Vodarsky, the number of men and male children grew from 1678 to 1719 from 5.6 to 7.8 million. Thus, taking the number of women approximately equal to the number of men, the total population of Russia during this period increased from 11.2 to 15.6 million
Reforms of Peter I
All of Peter’s internal state activities can be divided into two periods: 1695-1715 and 1715-1725.
The peculiarity of the first stage was haste and not always thought out, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for the war, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to government reforms, at the first stage, extensive reforms were carried out with the aim of modernizing the way of life. In the second period, reforms were more systematic.
A number of historians, for example V. O. Klyuchevsky, pointed out that the reforms of Peter I were not something fundamentally new, but were only a continuation of those transformations that were carried out during the 17th century. Other historians (for example, Sergei Solovyov), on the contrary, emphasized the revolutionary nature of Peter’s transformations.
Peter carried out a reform of government administration, transformations in the army, a navy was created, and a reform of church government was carried out in the spirit of Caesaropapism, aimed at eliminating the church jurisdiction autonomous from the state and subordinating the Russian church hierarchy to the emperor.
Financial reform was also carried out, and measures were taken to develop industry and trade.
After returning from the Great Embassy, Peter I waged a struggle against the external manifestations of an “outdated” way of life (the ban on beards is most famous), but no less paid attention to introducing the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular people began to appear educational establishments, the first Russian newspaper was founded, translations of many books into Russian appeared. Peter made success in service for the nobles dependent on education.
Peter was clearly aware of the need for enlightenment, and took a number of decisive measures to this end.
On January 14 (25), 1701, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow.
In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, and mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories.
In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened.
The goals of mass education were to be served by digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, designed to “teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry.”
It was planned to create two such schools in each province, where education was to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was created to train priests starting in 1721.
Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met fierce resistance and was cancelled.
Peter's attempt to create an all-estate primary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death; most of the digital schools under his successors were repurposed as estate schools for training the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.
Peter created new printing houses, in which 1312 book titles were printed between 1700 and 1725 (twice as many as in the entire previous history of Russian book printing). Thanks to the rise of printing, paper consumption increased from 4-8 thousand sheets at the end of the 17th century to 50 thousand sheets in 1719.
There have been changes in the Russian language, which included 4.5 thousand new words borrowed from European languages.
In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the newly founded Academy of Sciences (opened a few months after his death).
Of particular importance was the construction of stone St. Petersburg, in which foreign architects took part and which was carried out according to the plan developed by the Tsar. He created a new urban environment with previously unfamiliar forms of life and pastime (theater, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, the way of life, the composition of food, etc. changed. By a special decree of the tsar in 1718, assemblies were introduced, representing a new form of communication between people for Russia. At the assemblies, the nobles danced and communicated freely, unlike previous feasts and feasts.
The reforms carried out by Peter I affected not only politics, economics, but also art. Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study “art” abroad. In the second quarter of the 18th century. “Peter’s pensioners” began to return to Russia, bringing with them new artistic experience and acquired skills.
On December 30, 1701 (January 10, 1702) Peter issued a decree, which ordered that full names should be written in petitions and other documents instead of derogatory half-names (Ivashka, Senka, etc.), not to fall on your knees before the Tsar, and a hat in winter in the cold Do not take pictures in front of the house where the king is. He explained the need for these innovations as follows: “Less baseness, more zeal for service and loyalty to me and the state - this honor is characteristic of a king...”.
Peter tried to change the position of women in Russian society. By special decrees (1700, 1702 and 1724) he prohibited forced marriage.
It was prescribed that there should be a period of at least six weeks between betrothal and wedding, “so that the bride and groom can recognize each other”. If during this time, the decree said, “The groom doesn’t want to take the bride, or the bride doesn’t want to marry the groom”, no matter how parents insist on it, “there is freedom in that”.
Since 1702, the bride herself (and not just her relatives) was given the formal right to dissolve the betrothal and upset the arranged marriage, and neither party had the right to “beat the forfeit.”
Legislative regulations 1696-1704 on public celebrations, mandatory participation in celebrations and festivities was introduced for all Russians, including the “female sex.”
From the “old” in the structure of the nobility under Peter, the former enslavement of the service class through the personal service of each service person to the state remained unchanged. But in this enslavement its form has changed somewhat. They were now obliged to serve in the regular regiments and in the navy, as well as in the civil service in all those administrative and judicial institutions that were transformed from the old ones and arose again.
The Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714 regulated the legal status of the nobility and secured the legal merger of such forms of land ownership as patrimony and estate.
From the reign of Peter I, peasants began to be divided into serf (landowner), monastic and state peasants. All three categories were recorded in the revision tales and subject to a poll tax.
Since 1724, landowner peasants could leave their villages to earn money and for other needs only with the written permission of the master, certified by the zemstvo commissar and the colonel of the regiment that was stationed in the area. Thus, the landowner's power over the personality of the peasants received even more opportunities to strengthen, taking into its unaccountable disposal both the personality and property of the privately owned peasant. From now on, this new state of the rural worker receives the name “serf” or “revision” soul.
In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the state and introducing the elite to European culture while simultaneously strengthening absolutism. During the reforms, the technical and economic lag of Russia from a number of other European countries was overcome, access to the Baltic Sea was won, and transformations were carried out in many spheres of life of Russian society.
Gradually, a different system of values, worldview, and aesthetic ideas emerged among the nobility, which was radically different from the values and worldview of the majority of representatives of other classes. At the same time, the popular forces were extremely exhausted, the preconditions were created (Decree on Succession to the Throne) for a crisis of supreme power, which led to the “era of palace coups.”
Having set himself the goal of equipping the economy with the best Western production technologies, Peter reorganized all sectors of the national economy.
During the Great Embassy, the tsar studied various aspects of European life, including technology. He learned the basics of the then prevailing economic theory- mercantilism.
The mercantilists based their economic teaching on two principles: first, every nation, in order not to become poor, must produce everything it needs itself, without turning to the help of other people's labor, the labor of other peoples; secondly, in order to get rich, every nation must export manufactured products from its country as much as possible and import foreign products as little as possible.
Under Peter, the development of geological exploration begins, thanks to which metal ore deposits are found in the Urals. In the Urals alone, no less than 27 metallurgical plants were built under Peter. Gunpowder factories, sawmills, and glass factories were founded in Moscow, Tula, and St. Petersburg. In Astrakhan, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, the production of potash, sulfur, and saltpeter was established, and sailing, linen and cloth factories were created. This made it possible to begin a gradual phase-out of imports.
By the end of the reign of Peter I, there were already 233 factories, including more than 90 large manufactories built during his reign.
The largest were shipyards (the St. Petersburg shipyard alone employed 3.5 thousand people), sailing manufactories and mining and metallurgical plants (9 Ural factories employed 25 thousand workers); there were a number of other enterprises employing from 500 to 1000 people. To supply the new capital.
The first canals in Russia were dug
Peter's reforms were achieved through violence against the population, its complete subordination to the will of the monarch, and the eradication of all dissent. Even Pushkin, who sincerely admired Peter, wrote that many of his decrees were “cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip,” as if “snatched from an impatient, autocratic landowner.”
Klyuchevsky points out that the triumph of the absolute monarchy, which sought to forcefully drag its subjects from the Middle Ages into modern times, contained a fundamental contradiction: “Peter’s reform was a struggle of despotism with the people, with their inertia. He hoped, with the threat of power, to provoke independent activity in an enslaved society and through the slave-owning nobility to introduce European science in Russia... wanted the slave, while remaining a slave, to act consciously and freely."
The construction of St. Petersburg from 1704 to 1717 was mainly carried out by “working people” mobilized as part of natural labor service. They felled forests, filled in swamps, built embankments, etc.
The factory workers of Peter the Great's time came from a wide variety of strata of the population: runaway serfs, vagabonds, beggars, even criminals - all of them, according to strict orders, were picked up and sent “to work” in the factories.
Peter could not stand “walking” people who were not assigned to any business; he was ordered to seize them, not even sparing the monastic rank, and send them to factories. There were frequent cases when, in order to supply factories, and especially factories, with workers, villages and villages of peasants were assigned to factories and factories, as was still practiced in the 17th century. Those assigned to the factory worked for it and in it by order of the owner.
In November 1702 a decree was issued which stated: “From now on, in Moscow and in the Moscow court order, there will be people of whatever ranks, or from the cities, governors and clerks, and from the monasteries, they will send authorities, and the landowners and patrimonial owners will bring their people and peasants, and those people and peasants will begin to say after themselves, “ the sovereign’s word and deed,” and without questioning those people in the Moscow court order, send them to the Preobrazhensky order to the steward, Prince Fyodor Yuryevich Romodanovsky. And in the cities, governors and officials send people who learn to follow them “the sovereign’s word and deed” to Moscow without asking questions.”.
In 1718, the Secret Chancellery was created to investigate the case of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, then other political matters of extreme importance were transferred to her.
On August 18, 1718, a decree was issued, which, under threat of death penalty, prohibited “writing while locked up.” The person who failed to inform about this was also entitled the death penalty. This decree was aimed at combating anti-government “nominal letters”.
The decree of Peter I, issued in 1702, proclaimed religious tolerance one of the main state principles.
“We must deal with those who oppose the church with meekness and reason,” said Peter. “The Lord gave kings power over the nations, but Christ alone has power over the conscience of people.” But this decree was not applied to the Old Believers.
In 1716, to facilitate their accounting, they were given the opportunity to live semi-legally, on the condition that they pay “double all payments for this split.” At the same time, control and punishment of those who evaded registration and payment of double tax were strengthened.
Those who did not confess and did not pay double tax were ordered to be fined, each time increasing the fine rate, and even sent to hard labor. For seduction into schism (any Old Believer worship service or performance of religious services was considered seduction), as before Peter I, the death penalty was imposed, which was confirmed in 1722.
Old Believer priests were declared either schismatic teachers, if they were Old Believer mentors, or traitors to Orthodoxy, if they had previously been priests, and were punished for both. The schismatic monasteries and chapels were ruined. Through torture, whipping, tearing out nostrils, threats of executions and exile, Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Pitirim managed to return a considerable number of Old Believers to the fold of the official church, but the majority of them soon “fell into schism” again. Deacon Alexander Pitirim, who led the Kerzhen Old Believers, forced him to renounce the Old Believers, shackling him and threatening him with beatings, as a result of which the deacon “feared from him, from the bishop, great torment, and exile, and the tearing of the nostrils, as inflicted on others.”
When Alexander complained in a letter to Peter I about the actions of Pitirim, he was subjected to terrible torture and was executed on May 21, 1720.
The adoption of the imperial title by Peter I, as the Old Believers believed, indicated that he was the Antichrist, since this emphasized the continuity of state power from Catholic Rome. The Antichrist essence of Peter, according to the Old Believers, was also evidenced by the calendar changes made during his reign and the population census he introduced for per capita wages.
Family of Peter I
For the first time, Peter married at the age of 17, at the insistence of his mother, to Evdokia Lopukhina in 1689. A year later, Tsarevich Alexei was born to them, who was raised by his mother in concepts alien to Peter’s reform activities. The remaining children of Peter and Evdokia died soon after birth. In 1698, Evdokia Lopukhina became involved in the Streltsy revolt, the purpose of which was to elevate her son to the kingdom, and was exiled to a monastery.
Alexei Petrovich, the official heir to the Russian throne, condemned his father's reforms, and eventually fled to Vienna under the patronage of his wife's relative (Charlotte of Brunswick), Emperor Charles VI, where he sought support in the overthrow of Peter I. In 1717, the prince was persuaded to return home, where he was taken into custody.
On June 24 (July 5), 1718, the Supreme Court, consisting of 127 people, sentenced Alexei to death, finding him guilty of treason.
On June 26 (July 7), 1718, the prince, without waiting for the sentence to be carried out, died in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The true cause of the death of Tsarevich Alexei has not yet been reliably established. From his marriage to Princess Charlotte of Brunswick, Tsarevich Alexei left a son, Peter Alekseevich (1715-1730), who became Emperor Peter II in 1727, and a daughter, Natalya Alekseevna (1714-1728). In 1703, Peter I met 19-year-old Katerina, whose maiden name was Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya
(the widow of dragoon Johann Kruse), captured by Russian troops as booty during the capture of the Swedish fortress of Marienburg.
Peter took a former maid from the Baltic peasants from Alexander Menshikov and made her his mistress. In 1704, Katerina gave birth to her first child, named Peter, and the following year, Paul (both died soon after). Even before her legal marriage to Peter, Katerina gave birth to daughters Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709). Elizabeth later became empress (reigned 1741-1761).
Katerina alone could cope with the king in his fits of anger; she knew how to calm Peter’s attacks of convulsive headaches with affection and patient attention. The sound of Katerina's voice calmed Peter. Then she “sat him down and took him, caressing him, by the head, which she lightly scratched. This had a magical effect on him; he fell asleep within a few minutes. So as not to disturb his sleep, she held his head on her chest, sitting motionless for two or three hours. After that, he woke up completely fresh and cheerful.”
The official wedding of Peter I and Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on February 19, 1712, shortly after returning from the Prut campaign.
In 1724 Peter crowned Catherine as empress and co-regent.
Ekaterina Alekseevna bore her husband 11 children, but most of them died in childhood, except for Anna and Elizaveta.
After Peter's death in January 1725, Ekaterina Alekseevna, with the support of the serving nobility and guards regiments, became the first ruling Russian empress, but she did not rule for long and died in 1727, vacating the throne for Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich. The first wife of Peter the Great, Evdokia Lopukhina, outlived her lucky rival and died in 1731, having managed to see the reign of her grandson Peter Alekseevich.
Children of Peter I:
Alexey Petrovich 02/18/1690 - 06/26/1718. He was considered the official heir to the throne before his arrest. He was married in 1711 to Princess Sophia Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbittel, sister of Elizabeth, wife of Emperor Charles VI. Children: Natalya (1714-28) and Peter (1715-30), later Emperor Peter II.
Alexander 03.10.1691 14.05.1692
Alexander Petrovich died in 1692.
Paul 1693 - 1693
He was born and died in 1693, which is why the existence of a third son from Evdokia Lopukhina is sometimes called into question.
With Ekaterina:
Catherine 1707-1708.
Illegitimate, died in infancy.
Anna Petrovna 02/07/1708 - 05/15/1728. In 1725 she married the German Duke Karl Friedrich. She left for Kiel, where she gave birth to her son Karl Peter Ulrich (later Russian Emperor Peter III).
Elizaveta Petrovna 12/29/1709 - 01/05/1762. Empress since 1741. In 1744 she entered into a secret marriage with A.G. Razumovsky, from whom, according to contemporaries, she gave birth to several children.
Natalya 03/03/1713 - 05/27/1715
Margarita 09/03/1714 - 07/27/1715
Peter 10/29/1715 - 04/25/1719 Considered the official heir to the crown from 06/26/1718 until his death.
Pavel 01/02/1717 - 01/03/1717
Natalya 08/31/1718 - 03/15/1725.
Decree of Peter I on succession to the throne
In the last years of the reign of Peter the Great, the question of succession to the throne arose: who would take the throne after the death of the emperor.
Tsarevich Pyotr Petrovich (1715-1719, son of Ekaterina Alekseevna), declared heir to the throne upon the abdication of Alexei Petrovich, died in childhood.
The direct heir was the son of Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Charlotte, Pyotr Alekseevich. However, if you follow the custom and declare the son of the disgraced Alexei as the heir, then the hopes of opponents of the reforms to return to the old order were aroused, and on the other hand, fears arose among Peter’s comrades, who voted for the execution of Alexei.
On February 5 (16), 1722, Peter issued a Decree on Succession to the Throne (cancelled by Paul I 75 years later), in which he abolished the ancient custom of transferring the throne to direct descendants in the male line, but allowed the appointment of any worthy person as heir at the will of the monarch. The text of this important decree justified the need for this measure: “Why did they decide to make this charter, so that it would always be in the will of the ruling sovereign, whoever he wants, to determine the inheritance, and to a certain one, seeing what obscenity, he will cancel it, so that the children and descendants do not fall into such anger as is written above, having this bridle on myself".
The decree was so unusual for Russian society that it had to be explained and consent was required from the subjects under oath. The schismatics were indignant: “He took a Swede for himself, and that queen will not give birth to children, and he made a decree to kiss the cross for the future sovereign, and they kiss the cross for the Swede. Of course the Swede will reign.”
Peter Alekseevich was removed from the throne, but the question of succession to the throne remained open. Many believed that the throne would be taken by either Anna or Elizabeth, Peter’s daughter from his marriage to Ekaterina Alekseevna.
But in 1724, Anna renounced any claims to the Russian throne after she became engaged to the Duke of Holstein, Karl Friedrich. If the throne had been taken by the youngest daughter Elizabeth, who was 15 years old (in 1724), then the Duke of Holstein would have ruled instead, who dreamed of returning the lands conquered by the Danes with the help of Russia.
Peter and his nieces, the daughters of his elder brother Ivan, were not satisfied: Anna of Courland, Ekaterina of Mecklenburg and Praskovya Ioannovna.
There was only one candidate left - Peter's wife, Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna. Peter needed a person who would continue the work he had started, his transformation.
On May 7, 1724, Peter crowned Catherine empress and co-ruler, but a short time later he suspected her of adultery (the Mons affair). The decree of 1722 violated the usual structure of succession to the throne, but Peter did not have time to appoint an heir before his death.
Death of Peter I
In the last years of his reign, Peter was very ill (presumably from kidney stones complicated by uremia).
In the summer of 1724, his illness intensified; in September he felt better, but after a while the attacks intensified. In October, Peter went to inspect the Ladoga Canal, contrary to the advice of his physician Blumentrost. From Olonets, Peter traveled to Staraya Russa and in November traveled by water to St. Petersburg.
On January 27 (February 7), all those sentenced to death or hard labor (excluding murderers and those convicted of repeated robbery) were amnestied. On the same day, at the end of the second hour, Peter demanded paper, began to write, but the pen fell out of his hands, and only two words could be made out from what was written: “Give everything up...”.
The Tsar then ordered his daughter Anna Petrovna to be called so that she could write under his dictation, but when she arrived, Peter had already fallen into oblivion. The story about Peter’s words “Give up everything...” and the order to call Anna is known only from the notes of the Holstein Privy Councilor G.F. Bassevich. According to N.I. Pavlenko and V.P. Kozlov, it is a tendentious fiction aimed at hinting at the rights of Anna Petrovna, the wife of the Holstein Duke Karl Friedrich, to the Russian throne.
When it became obvious that the emperor was dying, the question arose as to who would take Peter's place. The Senate, the Synod and the generals - all institutions that did not have the formal right to control the fate of the throne, even before the death of Peter, gathered on the night of January 27 (February 7) to January 28 (February 8) to resolve the issue of Peter the Great's successor.
Guards officers entered the meeting room, two guards regiments entered the square, and to the drumbeat of troops withdrawn by the party of Ekaterina Alekseevna and Menshikov, the Senate made a unanimous decision by 4 a.m. on January 28 (February 8). By decision of the Senate, the throne was inherited by Peter's wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna, who became the first Russian empress on January 28 (February 8), 1725 under the name Catherine I.
At the beginning of six o'clock in the morning on January 28 (February 8), 1725, Peter the Great died in terrible agony in his Winter Palace near the Winter Canal, according to the official version, from pneumonia. He was buried in the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. The autopsy showed the following: “a sharp narrowing in the posterior part of the urethra, hardening of the bladder neck and Antonov fire.” Death followed from inflammation of the bladder, which turned into gangrene due to urinary retention caused by narrowing of the urethra.
The famous court icon painter Simon Ushakov painted an image of the Life-Giving Trinity and the Apostle Peter on a cypress board. After the death of Peter I, this icon was installed above the imperial tombstone.
01-01-1998
Alexey Mikhailovich “The Quietest” has great service to the fatherland: he was the father of Peter the Great. True, for this he had to work hard: from his two marriages (with Miloslavskaya and Naryshkina) 14 children were born, Peter was the first son from his second marriage (with Naryshkina).
Over the 300 years of the House of Romanov, and the previous Rurikovichs, due to simple probability, it would be necessary for at least one outstanding king to appear. That’s what Peter became. This is a man of outstanding abilities, and according to S.M. Solovyov, a genius.
At first, real power was not with the boy Peter, but with his half-sister Sophia (from Miloslavskaya), although Peter was considered a king together with his co-ruler Ivan Y (also from Miloslavskaya). Sophia and all the Miloslavsky relatives fought for power with the Naryshkins, their boyars and nobles, inciting the archers to riot - such a small repetition of the Time of Troubles. At the age of 10, Peter was faced with anger and hatred, with a night invasion of a crowd of archers raising objectionable boyars to spears - in general, Khovanshchina. Finally, after early death his co-ruler Ivan, Peter the Great became king.
Peter really stood out sharply against the “general royal background,” starting with his appearance. His height is 2m 4cm, large round eyes, slightly cat-like expression. Huge physical strength- he bent the nickels and rolled silver plates into a tube. Tireless in movement - he walked so fast that his companions had to run alongside him. He was, according to Klyuchevsky, a kind man (unlike the sadist Ivan the Terrible) and, if his activities led to great casualties during the wars and the construction of St. Petersburg, it was not because of his personal evil ambitions, but for the sake of serving the cause and Russia , as he understood it. The benefit of a state, according to Peter, is the size of its territory (the larger the better), a full treasury, and a positive balance in foreign trade. And the fact that this is achieved at the cost of the death of many, the further enslavement of the peasants is the tenth thing. But still, Peter understood that serfdom was savagery and in one of his last decrees he advised to somehow stop at least retail trade peasants. Sorry, I was just giving advice.
And so - just a modest hero of our days. No excesses in his personal life - he often dressed in old clothes, did not have his own luxurious ride, traveled in some kind of gig that even a merchant would be ashamed of, for special occasions he borrowed a carriage from the famous dandy Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky. Unpretentious on the road and food. True, he was an immoderate drinker. However, he drank not so much himself as he treated others, but he did it to his heart's content. People were afraid to visit him; there was a fine of 50 rubles for evading drinking - a lot of money at that time (at the current exchange rate - at least ten thousand rubles or 1666 dollars). But, on the other hand, how can you not go? After all, you will be in disgrace.
But of course, this is not where his talent manifested itself. Let me start with the fact that Peter instantly grasped any craft. He himself had an excellent command of 14 craft specialties. According to the recognition of foreign masters, he was one of the best shipbuilders in Europe and the best in Russia. Moreover, he was a shipbuilder not in a figurative sense, but in a literal one - he could build a ship or yacht from start to finish with his own hands. He was also one of the best turners of his time, his hands were always in some kind of work and after him there was a huge number of boxes, boats, dishes, snuff boxes and other trinkets he made. He even mastered dentistry and willingly pulled the teeth of his associates. His passion for any kind of work directly amazed his contemporaries. If he didn’t drink or party, he was sure to do something - wrote rescripts, planned campaigns, organized factories, built ships... And, out of absolutely nothing else to do, he made trinkets. S.M. Soloviev began his speech on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter as follows: “If we were pagans, then Peter would become for us a deity - the patron saint of labor.”
But this is not even his main talent. The main one is reformist talent and military genius. This military genius was associated with some kind of intuitive understanding of what is ethically possible and what is not in big politics. I'll give you one example, not well covered, yes.
same with Solovyov and Klyuchevsky. We are talking about the famous Battle of Poltava, Peter’s victory over the Swedes near Poltava in 1709. Everything was leading to the fact that Peter, like the previous ones, would lose this battle to Charles XII. Karl went to Smolensk in 1708 with an excellent army of 44 thousand and the intention of further taking Moscow. In the meantime, he took Mogilev and stopped there, waiting for an army of almost the same size as his general Levengaupt, who was bringing supplies to Charles. At that time, in Peter’s rear, the uprising of Bulavin (Cossacks again!) and the Bashkirs was blazing. Peter took off most troops and sent him to suppress the uprising, left alone with the superior forces of the Swedes. It would seem that he is doomed. But something amazing happened - Karl suddenly turned to Little Russia to the traitor Hetman Mazepa. Klyuchevsky writes: “Karl remained true to his rule - to help Peter out in difficult times: these were two enemies, in love with each other.” Let us reveal the secret of this “fall in love”. It’s just that Karl was brought up in already outdated ideas about military honor and valor. He believed that it was inappropriate to attack Peter’s army when his worthless subjects and servants rebelled in his rear - it would not be chivalrous. Let Peter settle his household affairs, punish his impudent servants, then we will fight fairly. That’s why he went to Mazepa for the winter, without even thinking about what would happen to Levengaupt. He probably counted on Peter's courteousness in return. But when Levenhaupt found himself not far from Peter, where Karl had already left, Peter did not even think of engaging in medieval curtsies and waiting for Levenhaupt to unite with Karl. Modern war is speed, onslaught, surprise, military cunning, and not following mossy medieval ideas about honor. Levenhaupt was completely defeated near Lesnaya in the fall of 1708, and soon the same fate befell Charles himself near Poltava.
In addition, Peter turned out to be an excellent psychologist. It was enough for him to look at a person’s reaction, at his facial expression, and he immediately determined who was capable of what. But how can you look here when all the men have beards and their movements are constrained by long-skirted clothes? As you know, Peter turned out to be an excellent barber in addition to everything - he ordered the elimination of the boyar beards, which became the banner of the reactionary old Rus', and decided to cut off their “long-term problems” of caftans just as radically - cutting off all their short hair. Better yet, dress the boyar children in European-cut camisoles that did not restrict movement.
It cannot be said that all this was easy for Peter - the boyars, nobles and even the common people showed terrible resistance. And Peter already had a hot temper. If his wife (second) Catherine (the future Empress Catherine I) was nearby, then Peter’s outburst of anger was easily extinguished. They quickly called Ekaterina, she sat her husband down and began scratching his head. Peter fell asleep and an hour later there was no trace left of the flash. But sometimes these outbreaks ended badly. His son Alexey from his first marriage to Lopukhina also fell under one of them, in whom Peter hoped to see the successor of his business, but alas... The son turned out to be not like his father. Quite lazy, he also fell under the influence of the “old regime” boyars, who in their dreams saw the death of Peter and the return of Russia to a sleepy and bearded state. But the main events of the reform took place before 1718, when the greatness of the accomplished reforms was clear not only to Peter. Things got to the point where Peter prepared for his son to abdicate the future throne. And he, incited by the boyars, took it and disappeared abroad, as if leading the anti-Petrine resistance in the eyes of the boyars. After he was lured out of there (this was done by the cunning Count Tolstoy), the trial of treason against Alexei and the boyars close to him began. Peter personally conducted some of the interrogations of his son. Solovyov, who idolizes Peter, writes that “the secret of his (Alexey’s) death has not been revealed by history,” that is, it is unknown for what reason Alexey died. It's very well known. During one of the interrogations, Peter went into a rage, lost control of himself and began to whip Alexei, who was hanging on the rack, until he lost consciousness. Catherine was not nearby. The next day Alexey died. That is, in some way, Peter, like Ivan the Terrible before him, killed his son.
And yet Peter was in no way cruel - this should be emphasized again. Here is a typical episode. In 1698, the archers once again rebelled and marched from near Azov, neglecting their military duty, to take Moscow. Young Peter, leaving his affairs, rushes to Moscow from abroad. What to do with this inert force that threatens him and his cause with destruction? Mass executions of Streltsy begin (remember “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution” by Surikov?). But even here, Peter restrains his righteous anger and offers, right on the execution site, to all the archers the preservation of life and freedom - you just need to come up and obey the king. But few people bought life at such an easy price, and one archer even approached Peter and pushed him aside with the words: “Move aside, sir! It is I who must lie here.” And he laid his head on the chopping block. Peter told General Gordon about this in the presence of the secretary of the embassy of Emperor Leopold I, Johann Korb, from whose diaries we know about this.
It is a pity that Peter lived so short - only 53 years. By the way, as much as Ivan the Terrible. But he lived too long. Peter died from an old “bad illness”, which he received during the days of his young debauchery with his friend Aleksashka Menshikov. Many years of treatment preserved the disease, but did not get rid of it. But here's an interesting detail. It would seem that with such an illness, his name should be tossed around all the gateways. But no. The Old Believers called him the Antichrist. The boyars whispered angrily in the corners, reproaching him for the destruction of primordial Rus'. The nobles, dismissed for inability, scolded the Tsar for his injustice. But there were no dirty rumors and conversations. Compare with Lenin. He is known to have died from severe cerebral atherosclerosis, the symptoms of which (progressive paralysis) resemble the last stage of the same disease. They are just a reminder, but even now many are sure that the leader of the proletariat was sick with “this very thing,” although in fact he was not sick. What's the matter? I think the greatness of Peter’s deeds and his very grandiose figure as a reformer and, in the words of Solovyov, a great teacher of the people, protected Peter from obscenities.
Peter's Reforms The famous reforms of Peter the Great, without any doubt, promoted Russia towards Europe in a general civilizational direction. Another thing is that these reforms came exclusively from above; Peter himself and the entourage he selected were the brain and engine of the reforms. So to speak, the people's initiative "from below" almost did not make its way. This is the tragedy of the figure of Peter and the explanation why many of Peter’s reforms disappeared into the sand after his death, but the bureaucratic apparatus created to carry out the reforms, on the contrary, remained and grew.
It would take too long to even list the reforms, so I will limit myself to naming the main ones. Peter 1 created a fleet that did not exist before (do not count as a fleet the only ship "Eagle" built under Alexei Mikhailovich by Dutch masters, sailed only once along the Oka and Volga and burned in Astrakhan by Stenka Razin). Created a regular army. He created the Academy of Sciences and founded a lot of different schools - “navigation”, fortification, ship and just schools. He introduced the governing Senate, which governed the country in the absence of Peter, and served as an advisory body under him. He completed the church reform by abolishing the patriarchate and establishing a Synod. Introduced a civil font and carried out calendar reform. He created industry in Russia, establishing approximately 200 factories and production facilities, which, like the fleet, simply did not exist before. He carried out administrative reform, dividing the country into 8 governorates. Founded the first newspaper in Russia, Vedomosti...
What can I say, entire volumes of research have been written about Peter’s reforms. I will not repeat them, but will touch only on those whose discussions directly correspond to our topic or allow us to talk about little-known things.
Another outstanding political reform of Peter was the division of the oath into two: to the king personally and to the state. Moreover, he swore allegiance to the state himself. Thus, for the first time, the concepts of king and state were separated in the popular consciousness. It became clear that this is not the same thing and that, for example, the authorities and even the tsar can act against the benefit of the state. This incredibly awakened the political thinking of the top, resulting in free-thinking.
Peter was not at all afraid to borrow innovations from the West, even, moreover, from his enemies. For example, he took the Senate and the administrative division of the country from Sweden. But in all his reforms one can observe a certain ambivalence, that is, there was always both a positive and a negative side. The same Senate, unlike its Swedish model, did not have legislative functions; the regular army was built not on mercenary troops receiving payment for it, but on lifelong conscription recruited from serfs. The organization of factories and factories is excellent, but the peasants attached to the factories became the workers there, that is, along with the serfs, serf workers also appeared. Or, let’s say, his idea is to show the people that the main thing is not external piety, but that true religiosity lies in honest service to the fatherland. Peter organizes for this purpose the “Crazy, most humorous and most drunken council” headed by the “prince-papa”, his former teacher Nikita Zotov, and 12 “cardinals”, notorious drunkards and gluttons. This “most drunken cathedral” organized mocking processions through the streets, riding on pigs and goats, wearing sheepskin coats turned inside out. They parodied church rituals, the “prince-papa” baptized with a chibouk, instead of “do you believe?”, asked “do you drink?”, they drank, burped, used foul language, in modern terms, and insulted the feelings of believers in every possible way. That is why among the people, especially among the Old Believers, the opinion became stronger that Peter was none other than the Antichrist. And so, look - Peter needs every worker, every person registered (the population then did not exceed 10 million in a vast territory), he orders not to pay attention to the religious characteristics of the Old Believers, not to interfere with them in anything. As long as they pay taxes and let them live as they want. But, come on, just as an army captain and his team are approaching the monastery to register the taxes of the Old Believers living there, notifying in advance: “Pay taxes and be baptized as you wish,” when, seeing the captain, the elder of the Old Believers shouts: “Don’t listen to him, brothers ! Let's not give in to the Antichrist. Rock it, guys! And the monastery, which had been lined with gunpowder in advance, bursts into flames, and several dozen Russian peasants with women and children are gone. In a short time, about 10 thousand people perished in the “fiery font”!
Or, let’s say, let’s take an institution such as fiscals. At that time, this word meant a financial official (financial inspector), who was supposed to audit institutions and write reports about it. This word, however, came to mean over time “informer.” As for their role in suppressing extortion and bribery, they became the first bribe-takers. More controllers had to be placed over them, but they... As a result, Peter ordered the execution of the eldest of them, Oberfiscal Nesterov, but this did not change the situation much. One day, Peter decided to eradicate embezzlement and theft in Rus', and ordered Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky to issue an order to hang anyone who stole even the price of a piece of rope. Yaguzhinsky ironically asked: “Does the sovereign want to be left without subjects?” Peter laughed, waved his hand and canceled the order. Nevertheless, at the end of his life, after the execution of the famous bribery Governor-General of Siberia, Prince Gagarin, Peter gave the order, regardless of person, to bring all state thieves to severe responsibility. The same Yaguzhinsky asked: “Should we limit ourselves to cutting off branches or put an ax at the very root?” Peter replied: “Cut them all to the roots.” Yes, many eminent families would have lost their heads if not for the imminent death of Peter.
There was one important gap in Peter’s reforms: for some reason the tsar believed that the main thing was to adopt advanced technical techniques from the West, teach them to the Russians, study the sciences, and then everything would go like clockwork. He did not see at all the connection between, for example, morality and science, between laws and social structure and technical power. That’s why they drank and rowded “across Europe” - once for a drunken riot in Amsterdam, the treasury paid 5 thousand rubles - a huge amount. Or, let’s say, he placed generals and officers at the head of the Synod, and the priests were ordered to report the secret of confession to their superiors. But this did not add to the authority of the church and did not improve public morality. According to Foreign Minister Osterman, Peter used to say: “We need Europe for several decades, and then we will turn our backs on it.”
Nevertheless, many, many things were accomplished by Peter. Russia grew, the long and very difficult Northern War was won. Estland (Estonia), Livonia (Latvia), Karelia were annexed, Russia now has access to the Baltic Sea. Peter builds a new capital - St. Petersburg, which is called so not at all in honor of the king, but by the name of his patron, the patronym of the holy Apostle Peter. But here too - construction was carried out from stone, but on this occasion it was prohibited throughout Russia stone construction. Peter dissociated himself from bearded old Rus'. Everything will be new - including on the symbolic level, on the linguistic level. There was a capital, Moscow - it will become St. Petersburg, there were orders - there will be ministries, there was a patriarchate - there will be a Synod, there were voivodships - there will be governorates. The country was almost entirely illiterate, even among the boyars and nobles and clergy - it has become learned and literate. There was a king - an emperor appeared. And he decided to devalue the word tsar, and for this purpose he appointed Prince Fyodor Romodanovsky even earlier as the gaming “tsar”. There was some kind of Asian and shabby Russia, which few people in Europe knew, a world power arose. And, by the way, the population did not fall, but increased. In 1721, after the signing of the victorious Peace of Nystadt with Sweden, Russia received the name of the empire, and Peter received the title of emperor, at the same time he was given the title “Great” and “Father of the Fatherland.” He himself finally saw that he had really accomplished something unprecedented. And before that there was no time to think about everything - each time I solved the next problem, there was no specially conceived plan for long-term reforms.
But I didn’t manage to do much, I couldn’t do much. Shortly before his death he said: “What should I do if I’m the only one dragging uphill, and millions downhill?” And I didn’t have time to think about the laws of succession to the throne. After all, there were still no laws on this matter! Everything is the old fashioned way, according to the will, according to the spiritual, and whoever the will of the king refuses will be on the throne. Peter did not have time with the laws of succession to the throne. The weakening hand began to write “Leave everything...” and fell powerlessly, without finishing writing - to whom. The Father of the Fatherland, Emperor Peter the Great, died.
The philosophy of Russian history under Peter The immediate and visible consequence of his reforms to Peter himself was that Peter’s traditional enemy Sweden ceased to be a great power, and Russia, on the contrary, seemed to take its place and became a great world power. In 1972, the 300th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great was widely celebrated. True, not in Russia, but in Sweden. At the anniversary meeting of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the President of the Academy spoke something like this: “The Swedes are very grateful to Peter for his victory at Poltava over Charles X11. After this, Sweden abandoned its ambitions of being a world power, stopped interfering in all European affairs and took up internal problems. Thanks to this, Sweden now has one of the highest living standards in the world. Thanks to Peter the Great for this."
There have never been high living standards in Russia, but real History, with a capital H, took place there. We know the history of the Normans, they sing about their raids in operas and make films, but who will be interested in their distant descendants - the prosperous Danes who roll like cheese in butter? Exactly according to the words of the poet Nikolai Glazkov:
I look at the world from behind the table,
The twentieth century is an extraordinary century,
Why are you more interesting to a historian?
That makes it even sadder for a contemporary.
There is darkness in the history of Russia that is interesting. The fact that something significant was happening in Peter’s Russia was understood by most of Peter’s contemporaries. Lord of Moldavia and close associate Petra Dmitry Cantemir decided to create a new historiosophical scheme in which the role of Russia would be presented in all its splendor. True, it turned out to be not so new. He took the well-known biblical scheme of four worlds, successively replacing each other (let me remind you - the Assyro-Babylonian kingdom, the Persian, Macedonian, Roman) and somewhat modernized it. The fact is that within the framework of this movement along the four kingdoms, Russia does not have its own place (however, like all other New European countries), because all the countries of Europe are considered in it as a continuation of the Roman kingdom. But within the framework of existence within the Roman kingdom, one or the other country comes forward and leads for some time. Something like how it looks in a team cyclist race, when one or another athlete comes forward and takes on the difficult role of leader, cutting through the air, and then, tired, goes back. The time has come for Russian leadership. Cantemir, there was little temporary leadership. Therefore, he worked out the biblical chronology as follows: all eastern countries united into one (omitting Babylon for some reason) called the East, called the Macedonian kingdom the Midday (southern) kingdom, and the Roman kingdom the Western. The North remained vacant, and Russia took its place. The result is a charming diagram of a certain cycle of history, when, due to the natural course of things, events, starting in the East (from there the Sun rises), pass through all the countries of the world, ending in the North. Why in the North, and not, say, in the West, where the Sun sets - Cantemir does not have this explanation. But, in any case, it turned out that Russian civilization was equivalent to the three great worlds of antiquity and history seemed to end there. After the natural “rotary” movement of history, it will reach its full development in Russia. There, according to Cantemir, “mercy and truth will meet, truth and peace will kiss, truth will shine from the earth, truth will penetrate from heaven and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”
It is interesting that the idea of a natural transition to Russian leadership was known and welcomed by the famous mathematician and philosopher Leibniz. In general, he was closely connected with Russia: he was accepted into Russian service as a consultant to Peter I and Leibniz met with him several times. Peter knew that Leibniz supported the idea of Russian leadership and the new philosophy of the “circle of countries” and was even going to introduce it as a state doctrine and a compulsory subject in schools, but did not have time.
Peter invited to Russia, in addition to many other foreign specialists, many famous European mathematicians besides Leibniz - such as Bernoulli and Euler. Russia was on the way to world civilization.
Not all philosophers viewed Russia so favorably. It is well known that in addition to the home-grown zealots of pre-Petrine antiquity, who could not stand his reforms, Petrine reforms continued to be very strongly criticized even after more than a hundred years by all the Slavophiles (Khomyakov, Kireevsky, Aksakov), believing that they led Russia away from its destined path and identity . Already in the 20th century, Spengler expressed his condemnation of Peter’s reforms very figuratively. In his famous “The Decline of Europe” (in the second book) he introduced the term “pseudomorphism”. This term is taken from geology and means the following. Let’s say that a certain mineral once froze and acquired its characteristic shape. Thousands of years passed, the mineral was washed out with water and then, in another era, another melt with different properties took its form. But he is forced to freeze in an already prepared alien niche, forcibly taking on a form unusual for him. According to Spengler, Peter's reforms are a cultural pseudomorphism. He writes that the Russian folk character and Russian national culture had already taken shape before Peter, and Peter began to forcibly squeeze and pour inappropriate European filling into this Russian form. As a result, they say, Russian primordial culture has suffered and European culture feels uncomfortable. What can I say? Spengler was a well-known supporter of cultural isolates and believed that national cultures are something like biological species of animals that can live nearby, even together, but which never interbreed and do not produce common offspring. It must be said that this point of view captures something true (for example, the ancient Egyptian culture was unable to assimilate Hellenism and died a natural death). And yet culture is amenable to change, there are borrowings and, in general, it is capable of transformation. Otherwise, one must assume that, say, science is contraindicated in Russian culture and there was no point in inculcating it.
There is also a point of view that there is no need to impose anything, especially by force. If there is any need, then it will easily and naturally make its way. This was the opinion, for example, of the famous lady Dashkova (an active participant in the coup that brought Catherine II to the throne), who lived shortly after the Peter the Great era and was the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences during the time of Catherine II. In her diaries, she wrote that Peter tried in vain - he forcibly brought to Russian soil something that would have arisen in the natural course of events. Doubtful. You can think that it’s natural to go to Holland or Germany and take a course in science there, but you can think that it’s even more natural to lie on the stove at home and say: our fathers and grandfathers lived, didn’t go anywhere, and we’ll somehow survive. This is exactly what the noble and boyar children reasoned when they were hiding from going abroad to study, and at a government expense! So Peter had to issue strict decrees on compulsory teaching, and then on compulsory service. And for evasion there was a threat of punishment, quite severe at that - in peacetime, batogs and even confiscation of property, and in wartime for evasion of service - the death penalty. Or even worse - such a person was declared an outlaw and then anyone could kill him, and the one who indicated the place where the “dodger” was hiding received his property, even if he was the slave of this nobleman.
Russian historians unanimously give the highest assessment to Peter I. He was especially praised by S.M. Soloviev, who devoted not only a lot of space to him in his multi-volume “History of Russia since Ancient Times,” but also special “Public Readings about Peter the Great.” And even earlier, Derzhavin asked: “Didn’t God come down from heaven?”, and in another place: “Like God, with great providence He looked around everything.” In general, comparing Peter with God was common in the 18th century. But Pushkin in the 19th century also valued Peter very highly and wrote a historical study about him!
Now an academician, now a hero,
Either a sailor or a carpenter,
He is an all-encompassing soul
The eternal worker was on the throne.
Even Soviet historians almost praised him. True, they were in a difficult situation. After all, from a class point of view, he should have been condemned for the suppression of revolts ("popular uprisings"), for the use of serf labor in factories, for the difficult construction of St. Petersburg... And from a state point of view, he should have been praised for building a strong state, for the fact that under Peter, the budget deficit disappeared for the first time, Russia came out on top in the world in iron trade with the famous sable on the brand (and not just furs, hemp and flax as before), especially should have been praised for the expansion of the territory of Russia, for the annexation of Azov, the Baltic states, for access to the Baltic Sea. It turned out that, on the one hand, Russia is a prison of nations and this is very bad, but, on the other hand, it, this prison, is expanding and this is very good. What's good about expanding the prison? As we see, class and state approaches are incompatible and one must choose one. Russian pre-revolutionary historians chose a state approach.
The fact that Peter’s time has not been forgotten in our time is evidenced by an anecdote from the times of stagnation. It says that the entire history of Russia is divided into three parts: pre-Petrine Russia, Petrine Russia and, finally, Dnepropetrovsk Russia. For young readers, let me remind you that all of Brezhnev’s entourage and he himself were from Dnepropetrovsk.
