Peter the Great went down in the history of the Russian State as the Greatest reformer.
The transformations carried out by him touched all aspects of the life of a huge state and covered all areas of domestic and foreign policy.
In the first years of his reign, Peter, by his decree, stopped the replenishment of the Boyar Duma with new members.
Thus, it was doomed to"extinction".
The team of the tsar's closest associates began to make important state decisions.
In 1699, the first administrative reform was carried out – a special department of cities was established, self government was introduced for the urban merchants, as well as for the population of Pomeranian cities.
Thus, the power of the once all powerful voivodes was abolished.
The court and the collection of taxes from that moment were in charge of the burmasters, whose position was elective.
At the head of the newly formed bodies was the Moscow City Hall, which was chosen by Moscow merchants.
The competence of the Town Hall, headed by the chief inspector, included the main receipts of state revenues from cities, as well as supervision of the actions of all self government institutions.
However, with the growth of public spending, Peter gradually lost confidence in the financial capabilities of the Town Hall.
Then he decided to move the bulk of the management to the places, since "it is difficult for a person to understand and rule everything for the eyes."
Such a measure ensured greater satisfaction of the financial needs of the state.
In addition, after the end of the protracted Northern War, this reform was supposed to simplify the process of deploying and providing regular troops.
At the end of 1707, the implementation of a new provincial reform began, and in 1708 the creation of eight provinces (subdivided into provinces)was announced: Moscow, Ingermanland (later St. Petersburg), Kiev, Smolensk, Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Azov and Siberian.
The heads of the border provinces were governors general, the rest were governors.
Under the governors and voivodes there was a zemstvo chancellery an institution that executes all orders and orders.
Then, from 1710, the voivodes were renamed county commandants.
The governors were subordinate to the vice governors( deputies), landrichters in fact, judges, proviantmasters and many other officials.
As a result of the provincial reform, the Moscow City Hall actually turned from a national into a provincial apparatus, which abolished the reform of 1699.
Also in 1710, a household census of the country's population was carried out, as a result of which a special payment unit of 5,536 households was determined, which was supposed to provide one "share" of the funds necessary to cover military expenses.
Instead of the abolished commandantships, new "shares" were created, headed by landrats: in large provinces, 12, in medium - 10, in smaller - 8.
It was assumed that, in accordance with the number of "dol", each province would take a certain number of regiments for maintenance.
But, since the Northern War dragged on, and it was not necessary to place regiments assigned to them in the provinces, this reform turned out to be impractical.
There was still not enough money, which created fertile ground for corruption.
All power was still concentrated in the hands of a" team "of people close to Peter, which was called either the" near office "or the"council of ministers".
On March 2, 1711, the tsar's decree proclaimed the creation of a new state authority - the Senate.
The formal reason was Peter's departure for the war with Turkey.
The decree read:
A decree on what to do after our departure
1.
To have a hypocritical court and punish unrighteous judges by taking away their honor and all their possessions, and let a sneak follow;
2. Look at the entire state of expenses and unnecessary and especially in vain, set aside;
3. Money, as possible, to take, because money is the essence of the idea of war;
4. A fellow nobleman is young for a reserve in afitsery, and especially those who are hidden, to find; so a thousand people are literate boyar people for that;
5. Fix bills of exchange and keep them in one place;
6. Goods that are on the payroll or in the offices and provinces, to inspect and witness;
7. About the salt of the prospector to give up and the potschitsa of the profit from it;
8. Bargain Chinese, having made a good company, give;
9. To multiply the Persian bargain and the Armenians, as much as possible, to caress and deceive, in what is decent, so that they will give a hunt for the Bolsheviks to their arrival.
Immediately after its establishment, the Senate consisted of nine closest employees of the tsar, who insisted on recognizing the Senate as the highest state body.
All persons and institutions, according to Peter, had to obey the Senate as the sovereign himself.
Constantly being in search of measures of strict control over the administration, Peter I established a fiscal system in 1711.
The fiscal officers were charged with the duty to inform the Senate and the tsar about all the abuses and unseemly acts of officials.
The fiscal officers themselves were practically unpunished, but if their denunciation was confirmed, they received half of the guilty person's property.
At the next stage of administrative reforms, Peter decided to form colleges on the Swedish model.
On March 23, 1715, Peter in his note designated six colleges without deciphering their duties: Justice, Foreign Affairs, Admiralty, Military, Chamber and Commercial colleges.
In 1717-1718.
Peter drew up a kind of program for the upcoming transformations: he determined the number and competencies of the colleges, as well as staffed them with senior staff.
By a decree of December 15, 1717, the tsar appointed the presidents and vice presidents of the colleges.
The final stage of the formation of the colleges was the adoption in 1720 of the General Regulations, a document that defined the staff of the colleges and delimited their competence, tasks and functions.
The collegial system operated for almost a century - from 1717 to 1802.
In 1719-1720, another reform of the local administrative and territorial structure began, as a result of which the "shares" and positions of landrats were abolished.
Now the provinces were divided into provinces, and those into districts, headed by Zemstvo commissars appointed by the Chamber Board.
The position of burmasters in the cities was abolished.
The entire population was divided into three parts:
- 1st guild (rich merchants and owners of craft workshops);
- 2nd guild (small traders, wealthy artisans);
- "vile people", who made up the vast majority of the city
the population.
Only representatives of the 1st guild could be elected to the new bodies of city self government magistrates.
The activities of the city magistrates were controlled by the Chief Magistrate created in 1720.
In 1722, a set of laws on the order of public service was adopted – the Table of Ranks, which was the result of the administrative reforms of Peter the Great.
The table of ranks established 14 ranks in three types: military (army and naval), civilian and court.
The report card obliged all nobles to serve and declared service the only way to obtain any state rank, and opportunities for promotion opened up for people from the "vile people", and the achievement of the eighth rank meant the assignment of the nobility (which was a well known democratization of the management system).
A special place among the transformations of Peter the Great is occupied by military reforms.
Their main idea was to eliminate the noble militias and create a permanent combat ready army with a uniform structure, weapons, uniforms, discipline and regulations.
The tasks of creating an army and a navy occupied the young Peter long before he became a sovereign sovereign.
Military reforms were also extremely important because they had a huge, often decisive, impact on all aspects of the life of the state.
Their course was largely determined by constant wars (for the 36 year period of the reign of Peter I, only a few peaceful years can be counted).
In accordance with the recruitment system introduced in 1705, the soldiers of the field army and garrison troops were formed from peasants and other taxable estates, and the officer corps was exclusively made up of nobles.
The 130 thousandth Russian army consisted of three types of troops: infantry, artillery and cavalry.
In addition, the garrison troops numbered about 70 thousand people, the militia 6 thousand, and 105 thousand – Cossack and other irregular units.
Special institutions were opened for the training of soldiers and officers, including the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg.
In addition to the creation of a regular army, the construction of a navy was carried out in the south and north of the country.
The Baltic Fleet in the 30s of the 18th century became the most powerful Russian fleet.
In total, the fleet consisted of 48 ships of the line, about 787 galleys and small vessels.
In 1716, the Military Charter of Peter I was published, which consisted of 68 chapters and defined the order of military service, the rules of relations between military personnel, the military criminal system, the system of military ranks, the judicial system and many other issues.
The creation of a powerful army and navy contributed to an increase in the costs of their maintenance: by 1725, about 2/3 of the state budget was spent on military needs.
In the era of Peter the Great, the Russian economy rose to a new stage of development, making a truly gigantic leap.
First of all, this affected industry, especially those industries that worked for the needs of the army and navy: metallurgy, weapons, shipbuilding, cloth, linen, leather.
In 1723, the largest iron making plant in Russia was built in the Urals, from which the city of Yekaterinburg later developed.
The cities of Nevyansk, Kamensk Uralsky, Nizhny Tagil were founded for industrial purposes.
In Tula and Sestroretsk, weapons factories started working, in St. Petersburg and near Moscow - gunpowder factories.
In the economic sphere, Peter used commanding and protectionist methods.
Entrepreneurs received privileges, subsidies, equipment and raw materials.
According to the Berg Privilege published in 1719, everyone was given the right to search everywhere, melt, cook and clean metals and minerals, provided that the "mining tax" was paid.
The fee was 1/10 of the cost of mining and 32 x shares in favor of the owner of the land where the ore deposits were found.
Under Peter the Great, about 200 new manufactories were founded in various industries: glass, papermaking, canvas, linen, silk weaving, cloth, leather, rope, hat, colorful, sawmilling and many others.
The tsar strongly encouraged their creation.
By right of ownership, they were divided into state owned, merchant and landowner.
The main problem at the manufactories was the lack of labor.
Peter also showed rigidity here, using violent measures: entire villages and villages were attributed to the manufactories, whose peasants earned their taxes to the state at the manufactories; criminals and beggars were sent to the factories.
Thus, during the reign of Peter the Great, Russia's dependence on imports (depending on the industry) either significantly decreased or stopped altogether.
In 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced — high duties on foreign goods if their analogues were produced at domestic enterprises.
Moreover, Peter sought to ensure that the export of goods from Russia exceeded the import from other countries.
This happened by the end of his reign – the export of Russian products was twice as much as the import.
As a result, the tsar managed to create a developed diversified industry with centers in St. Petersburg, Moscow and the Urals.
Unlike industry, agriculture under Peter developed slowly, mainly in an extensive way, due to the further development of fertile lands.
The tsar strongly encouraged the cultivation of flax, hemp, tobacco, grapes and mulberry trees, as well as the development of horse breeding and sheep breeding.
New lands were being developed in the south and east, in the Middle Volga region and Siberia, where peasants moved in search of a better life.
Financial transformations at the first stage were mainly reduced to the search for new sources of funds, mainly for military needs.
To the already existing customs and tavern levies were added fees and benefits from monopolizing the sale of certain goods (salt, alcohol, tar, bristles, etc.), as well as indirect taxes (bath, fish, horse, tax on oak coffins, etc.).
There were up to 40 types of indirect fees in total.
At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I carried out a monetary reform.
An important measure in its implementation was the introduction of a poll tax a tax instead of a household tax.
The census (revision) conducted in 1710 found a sharp decrease in the population due to the flight of peasants from burdensome taxes.
The landowners were also interested in underestimating the number of payers.
For this reason, a second census was conducted in 1718-1724.
The data obtained allowed the government to determine the amount of the poll tax by simply comparing the money needed to maintain the army and navy and the population.
Only men were taxed, regardless of age.
The nobility, clergy, soldiers and Cossacks were exempt from the poll tax.
The result of this reform was a significant increase in the treasury, about four times, which was extremely important for the state in the conditions of constant wars.
By the end of the 17th century, the church was the largest feudal lord in Russia and still maintained political independence, incompatible with the doctrine of absolutism, which was professed by Peter I.
On January 25, 1721, he began a radical reform aimed at eliminating the truly "princely" autonomy of the church.
The Patriarchate in Russia was abolished, and the Most Holy Governing Synod was created to govern the church, appointed by the tsar and taking an oath to him personally.
The Synod also served as a spiritual court.
All the subjects were insisted on regularly, under pain of huge fines, to appear to the priests for confession.
Those, in turn, had to inform the authorities about everything illegal that became known in confession.
From among the officers close to him, Peter appointed the chief prosecutor, who was supposed to oversee the activities of the Synod.
Thus, the church, having completely submitted to the power of the monarch, turned into an integral part of the bureaucratic apparatus of the absolutist state.
* Reforms in the field of education and science*
The tsar's reforms in all areas of state activity required the reform of education.
In 1699, the Pushkin School was founded in Moscow, and in 1701 the "school of Mathematical and navigational Sciences", or simply the Navigation School, was opened in the building of the Sukharev Tower, which became not only the first higher educational institution in Russia, but also was the predecessor of the Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg, founded in 1715.
During the same period, in 1707, a Medical school was opened, followed by shipbuilding, navigation, engineering, mining and craft schools.
Primary education in the province was carried out in three types of schools: diocesan, training priests, digital - for the training of local officials, and in garrison schools - for the training of soldiers ' children.
A special school, the gymnasium, began its work in Moscow, where they taught mainly foreign languages.
The country needed new textbooks, so the publishing business began to develop very quickly.
In 1708, Peter I introduced a new civil font with a simplified lettering, replacing the old Cyrillic half post.
During the reign of Peter, a large number of printing houses were created, which published about 600 titles of books, including textbooks.
In 1714, the first state public library was opened in St. Petersburg.
In Peter's time, numerous expeditions were equipped to Siberia, Central Asia and the Far East.
The bowels of the earth were studied, mineral resources were searched.
Russian hydrographers made a huge contribution to the compilation of maps of the Azov, Caspian, Baltic and White Seas.
The Academy of Sciences, opened in St. Petersburg in 1725 after the death of Peter the Great, but by his decree of January 28, 1724, became a kind of personification of all the achievements of the era of Peter in the field of science and education.
