PETER I Alekseevich (1672-1725) – the Russian tsar (1682), the first Russian emperor (since 1721), an outstanding statesman, commander and diplomat, whose entire activity is associated with radical transformations and reforms aimed at eliminating Russia's lag behind European countries in the early 18th century.
He was born on May 30, 1672 in Moscow.
The only son of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich from his second marriage with Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina, a pupil of the enlightened boyar Artamon Matveev.
The fourteenth child in the family, Peter received a home education under the supervision of" uncle " Nikita Zotov.
He complained that the tsarevich by the age of 11 did not have much time in literacy, history and geography, captured by the "exercises of the soldier's system" - military " fun " at first in S. Vorobyov, then in S. Preobrazhenskoye.
These exercises of the future tsar were attended by specially created detachments of "funny troops" (which later became the guard and the core of the Russian regular army).
Physically strong, mobile, inquisitive, Peter mastered carpentry, weapons, blacksmithing, watchmaking, and printing crafts with the participation of palace masters.
A great influence on the formation of his interests was exerted by foreigners (F. Ya.Lefort, Ya. V. Bruce, P. I. Gordon) – at first teachers in various fields, and later – his associates.
The tsar knew German from childhood, later he studied Dutch, partly English and French.
After the death of his brother Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich in 1682 and as a result of a compromise between the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin clans, Peter was elevated to the Russian throne simultaneously with his half brother Ivan V under the regency of his sister, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseevna (ruled Russia in 1682-1689).
During her reign, Peter lived in c.
Preobrazhensky, where the "funny" regiments created by him, headed by I. I. Buturlin and F. I. Romodanovsky, were located.
There he also met the son of a court groom, Alexander Menshikov, who became his friend and support for life, as well as other "young guys of the simple family".
Peter learned to appreciate not the nobility and gentility, but the abilities of a person, his ingenuity and dedication.
Under the leadership of the Dutchman F.Timmerman and the Russian master R. Kartsev studied shipbuilding in the 1680s, in 1684 he sailed on his boat along the Yauza.
In 1689, Peter's mother forced him to marry the daughter of a small town nobleman E. F. Lopukhina (who gave birth to his son Alexey a year later), but an "honest marriage" between the young people did not work out: the newlywed spent time not with his wife, but with friends in the German settlement.
In the same German settlement, Peter learned a different type of interpersonal relations, a different type of life; there he also awakened a love for the sea, navigation, and an admiration for Dutch culture was born.
There, in 1691, he met the daughter of a German artisan, Anna Mons, who became his lover.
In 1689, having removed his sister from power, Peter became the de facto tsar.
After the untimely death in 1695 of his mother (she was 41 years old), and in 1696 of his brother co ruler Ivan V, he became an autocrat not only in fact, but also legally.
His life's work was to strengthen the military power of Russia.
Having barely established himself on the throne, Peter personally participated in the Azov campaigns against Turkey (1695-1696), which ended with the capture of Azov and access to the shores of the Sea of Azov.
But this did not solve the main foreign policy problem – the establishment of trade and other ties with Europe, which could only be achieved by gaining access to the Baltic Sea and returning the Russian lands seized by Sweden during the years of Troubles.
Under the guise of studying shipbuilding and maritime affairs, he went to Europe as one of 30 volunteers at the Great Embassy of 1697-1698.
There, Pyotr Mikhailov, as the tsar called himself, completed a full course of artillery sciences in Konigsberg and Brandenburg, worked for six months as a carpenter in the shipyards of Amsterdam, studying ship architecture and drawing plans, graduated from a theoretical course in shipbuilding in England.
By his order, books, instruments, weapons were purchased in these countries, foreign masters and scientists were invited.
At the same time, the Great Embassy prepared the creation of a Northern Alliance against Sweden, which was finally formed two years later (1699).
In the summer of 1697, he held talks with the Austrian emperor, intending to visit Venice as well, but after receiving news of the upcoming uprising of the Streltsy in Moscow, to whom Tsarevna Sophia promised a salary increase in the event of Peter's overthrow, he returned to Russia.
Having met in Moscow only with his mistress Mons in the German Settlement, on August 26, 1698, he began a personal investigation into the Streletsky case and did not spare any of the rebels (1182 people were executed, Sophia and her sister Marfa were tonsured as nuns).
In February 1699, he ordered the unreliable Streltsy regiments to be disbanded and the formation of regular soldiers and dragoons to begin, because " until now, this state had no infantry."
Soon he signed decrees, under pain of fines and flogging, ordering men to "cut their beards" (previously considered a symbol of the Orthodox faith), wear European style clothing, and women to open their hair (previously hidden under the whips and whips).
Such measures prepared society for radical changes, undermined the traditional foundations of lifestyle and habits.
Since 1700, he introduced a new calendar with the beginning of the year on January 1 (instead of September 1) and the chronology from the "nativity of Christ", which he also considered as a step in breaking old customs.
European policy did not give grounds to expect that Russia would receive support in the fight against Turkey for access to the south seas, so Peter ordered to continue the construction of the Azov Fleet in Voronezh, which was started during the Azov campaigns, personally checked the shipbuilders.
And yet the Great Embassy forced him to change his foreign policy course from the south to the west.
Having concluded the Peace of Constantinople in 1700 with Turkey, Peter switched all the efforts of the country to the fight against Sweden, which was ruled by 17 year old Charles XII, who, despite his youth, gained a reputation as a talented commander.
The Northern War of 1700-1721 for Russia's access to the Baltic began with the November battle of Narva.
The 40 thousandth untrained and unprepared Russian army lost it to the army of Charles XII.
Russian Russians, Peter called the Swedes "teachers of the Russians" for this, and ordered decisive reforms that could make the Russian army really combat ready.
Having considered Russia defeated after Narva, Charles XII went to fight ("stuck for a long time," according to Peter) in Poland, which gave Peter the necessary respite.
He hoped to change the face of his country, making it similar to the Western one, but preserving autocracy and serfdom.
"Now an academician, then a hero, then a navigator, then a carpenter" (A. S. Pushkin), Peter did not regret and was ready to ignore personal interests in the name of the prosperity of Russia with its innumerable natural resources.
He did not separate himself from the state, believing that only he knows how to overcome Russian backwardness, ignorance and laziness: "our people are like children of unlearned, who will never take up science, if they are not allowed to be from the master."
Peter's reformist activity took place in an acute struggle with the conservative opposition.
The very first, superficial attempts at reform, made at the end of the 17th century, provoked the resistance of the boyars and the clergy (plot AND.Zykler, 1697).
The reformer tsar continued to experience secret opposition to his decrees for many years of the 18th century (the conspiracy of Tsarevich Alexey Petrovich 1718).
But rooting out all sorts of sedition at the root, Peter, with the rigidity of the son of his century ("kind as a man, was rude as a tsar," according to V. O. Klyuchevsky), began a "major overhaul" of Russia.
Needing like minded people and associates, he ordered to send young nobles abroad to study navigation, mechanics, artillery, mathematics and foreign languages.
In 1701, the first Navigation School in the history of the country was founded.
"Captivity drove away laziness, and forced me to hard work and art day and night," he will later write.
The country turned urgent recruitment in army of 100,000 soldiers (after 1705 coined the term "recruits").
Their "was accompanied, as were buried" (Petrine decree, the service life is 25 years), while the existing practice in the soldiers began to send most obstinate and rebellious young people, breaking the traditional norms of peasant behavior.
As a result, it turned out that the new army mainly included people who were energetic, brave, and outstanding.
The officer corps was formed, according to the tsar's plan, from nobles who were obliged to serve in the guards regiments in order to receive a rank.
he called this battle "the mother of the Battle of Poltava" – the decisive battle on June 27, 1709 near the fortress of Poltava, which ended with the complete defeat of the Swedish army.
The famous words of the tsar, who called on the army to fight "not for Peter, but for the Orthodox faith and the Church... so that the Fatherland may live in bliss and glory" inspired the soldiers.
Charles XII was wounded in the battle, but managed to escape to Turkey.
Annexing new lands in the Baltic States to Russia in 1710 (Riga, Revel, Vyborg), personally going at that time on the shnyava (botik) "Munker" as part of Admiral Apraksin's squadron, Peter did not tire of proving that the concept of winning the war by one general battle was outdated.
At that time, it dominated among the military theorists of the West, but it turned out to be refuted by Peter's idea of mobilizing all means and opportunities for conducting a long term war on land and at sea.
The "Trivremennaya school" of the Northern War (21 years) confirmed the validity of Peter's innovation in military strategy, which was far ahead of its time and frightened Western rulers and diplomats who were dissatisfied with the growth of Russian power and tried to prevent a change in the balance of power in northern Europe.
Peter was above their petty intrigues.
He was more interested in the south eastern direction of foreign policy, so successfully outlined in the middle of the 1690s.
But 1711 turned out to be unsuccessful for the tsar commander.
Russian regiments surrounded in Moldavia on the river According to legend, the wife of the autocrat, who accompanied the tsar on all trips and campaigns since 1709, and was declared a "true and legitimate sovereign"before the campaign, saved Prut by the superior forces of the Turks.
Catherine gave the opportunity to start negotiations on peace by handing the Turkish vizier the jewelry he had brought with him and persuading him to sign an agreement.
But the Azov of Turkey still had to be returned, destroying the newly created new base of the Azov Fleet – Taganrog.
Simultaneously with his attempts to move to the south east, Peter continued to reform the state apparatus, eliminate old institutions that were too clumsy and unsuitable for change.
The most important financial institution was the Near Chancery, created back in 1699, and the place of the Boyar Duma in 1711 was taken by the Senate, which was now in charge of legislation and management affairs.
Peter appointed the members of the Senate himself, they made decisions collectively, and the decisions came into force only with general consent.
The course of the meeting, all oral speeches were recorded: "for with this every foolishness will be revealed," the autocrat believed.
In addition, the tsar personally held congresses of generals who received fees for urgent military needs.
The decree on single inheritance of 1714 equalized estates and patrimony, introduced a entail (granting the right to inherit real estate to the eldest of the sons), which was designed to ensure the stable growth of noble land ownership.
In the same year, the Russian fleet won a victory at Cape Gangut, and the Aland Islands became part of Russia.
On September 9, 1714, the tsar, who personally participated in the battle of Gangut, solemnly brought the ships captured from the Swedes to St. Petersburg, presented a report on the victory in the presence of the Senate and assumed the rank of vice admiral in connection with the victories.
The birth of daughters in these years, who received the same names Natalia – in 1713 from the official wife of E. F. Lopukhina (with whom Peter dissolved the marriage in 1712, but the daughter was born after that) and from Marta (Catherine) in 1714 did not bring Peter joy.
The appearance of the grandson of Peter II Alekseevich from his unloved son Alexey, who later became tsar for 3 years (1727-1730), did not become long awaited in 1715.
Domestic affairs not only did not occupy, but rather depressed the reformer tsar.
In addition, his son Alexey showed disagreement with his father's vision of proper management.
Peter tried to influence him with persuasions, then threatened to imprison him in a monastery.
Fleeing from such a fate, Alexey fled to Europe in 1716.
Peter declared his son a traitor, secured his return, imprisoned him in a fortress and in 1718 personally conducted his investigative case, seeking the abdication of Alexey from the throne and the issuance of the names of accomplices.
The "Tsarevich's case" ended with the death sentence of Alexey.
After these events, suspicion, unpredictability and cruelty increased in the tsar's character.
Even Ekaterina and Petrov's favorite Menshikov went under the threat of execution.
Trying to distract himself from suspicions of impending treason, the tsar delved into all the details of administrative, military, tax and many other reforms.
Since 1716, the organization, weapons and equipment, rules of training and tactics, the rights and duties of all ranks of the army and navy began to determine the Military Charter of 1716, in the drafting of which Peter took an active part.
In 1716, as a royal vice admiral, he arrived in the Danish capital, joined a squadron of Russian ships with English, Danish and Dutch, but he failed to achieve more active allied actions against the Swedes.
The attempts of the Senate to organize control over the provinces also ended in failure at this time.
On the orders of the tsar, the government constantly violated the newly established procedures, demanded new "devices" from the governors (increasing income), since expenses did not decrease (they were required by the needs of the Baltic fleet, the construction of a new capital, the defense of southern Russia).
The tasks of increasing tax collection put Peter before the need for decrees on a new population census (1718), and administrative reform required the urgent replacement of obsolete orders by executive institutions of a new type – colleges (1718).
Their control apparatus was represented by fiscal officers who were subordinate to prosecutors headed by the prosecutor general.
Among the colleges, the "first" (Military, Admiralty, Foreign), financial, Economic, judicial collegium stood out, and the Preobrazhensky order, which was in charge of political investigation, also acted as a collegium.
Disagreements with the allies over the fate of the German possessions of Sweden prompted Peter I in 1718 to begin negotiations with Charles XII (the Aland Congress), but the unexpected death of the king during the siege of Fort Frederikshall (Norway) untied the hands of the Russian army, which twice devastated the Swedish coast near Stockholm.
The landing of troops in Sweden itself prompted her to go to a peace agreement.
By this time, Peter, with the rank of vice admiral, had already (since 1719) commanded the entire Baltic Fleet, working on drafting the Naval Charter, sometimes sitting at work for fourteen hours a day.
The result was fixed by law in 1720 and coincided with the victories of the Russian fleet at Gringam.
For two decades, Peter's army finally surpassed the Swedish one both in organization and in armament.
It had a rigid structure (brigades and divisions, strong regimental and battalion artillery, grenadier regiments, dragoon cavalry, le the German corps korvolant with horse artillery), was perfectly equipped with the latest rifles with shock flint locks and bayonets, field and naval guns, ranked by type and caliber.
Children's hobbies "funny regiments" showed an obvious generalship talent, which allowed Peter to remain in history not only as the creator of the Russian regular army and navy, but also as the founder of a special military school, which later gave birth to A.V. Suvorov, F. F. Ushakov, M. I. Kutuzov.
In the same 1720, when he wrote the Maritime Charter, Peter, seeking to consolidate the merchants, completed the reform of the city administration.
The Main Magistrate in the capital (on the rights of a collegium) and magistrates in cities were created according to the European model.
All of them were designed to "multiply" trade and manufactures.
In those years, a significant part of state owned enterprises was transferred to private hands, entrepreneurs were encouraged by subsidies, especially those who participated in the construction of the Vyshnevolotsky, Ladoga bypass and other channels.
Peter himself complained more than once that of all state affairs for him "nothing is more difficult than commerce" and he (according to I. G. Fukerodt) allegedly "could never form a clear idea about this matter in all its connection".
But at the same time he was a talented administrator: by the beginning of the 1720s, Russia was freed from the need to import textile products, since more than 100 manufactories operating in the country met the demand.
Peter's plan to meet the country's needs for metal was implemented in a similar way, and Russian iron was highly valued in Europe for its quality.
Trade from Arkhangelsk was forcibly transferred to the new commercial port (St. Petersburg).
The first artificial water communication routes were designed to connect the capital with central Russia and the East, for which the autocrat personally granted privileges to the organizers of new factories and sent craftsmen from abroad.
In 1721, as a co – author of another "regulation", this time a Spiritual one, Peter spoke out against the preservation of the patriarchate, which was followed by its liquidation and the establishment of a Spiritual board, or Synod, controlled by the government (1721).
At the conclusion of the peace after the long Northern war, the signing of which took place in Nishtadt in 1721, the tsar proved himself a talented diplomat who deeply understood the tasks of Russia's foreign policy, showed the ability to use circumstances and use compromises.
The victory of Russia over Sweden was unconditional and significant ("We are made from non existence into existence," the autocrat exclaimed, referring to the access to the sea and the favorable prerequisites created by it for the development of economic and cultural ties).
According to the agreement, Russia received lands along the Neva River, in Karelia and the Baltic States with the cities of Narva, Revel, Riga, Vyborg, etc.
At the same time, Finland and 2 million rubles in silver were transferred by Peter to the losing side – Sweden – as compensation for the lost territories.
Following the signing of the peace, Russia was declared an empire.
A year later (1722), a table of ranks of all military, state and court official ranks was published, according to which the family nobility could be obtained "for immaculate service to the emperor and the state".
By establishing the order of rank production in the military and civil service, not according to nobility, but according to personal abilities and merits, Peter hoped to consolidate like minded people from among the "educated class" and at the same time expand its composition at the expense of those loyal to him and persons from among the non noble and non noble.
Having forced the Western world to recognize Russia as one of the great European powers, the emperor began to solve urgent problems in the Caucasus.
Peter's Persian campaign of 1722-1723 secured the western coast of the Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku for Russia.
Under Peter the Great, permanent diplomatic missions and consulates were established there for the first time in the history of Russia, and the importance of foreign trade increased.
Soon after the end of the military campaigns, the autocrat indicated to change the tax unit: the household taxation of peasants was replaced by a poll tax (1724).
Realizing the danger of imports for the development of Russian industry, Peter ordered the introduction in the same year of a protective tariff that protected new branches of domestic industry from foreign competition.
During more than 35 years of his reign, Peter managed to carry out many reforms in the field of culture and education.
The main result of them was the appearance of a secular school in Russia, the elimination of the monopoly of the clergy on education.
The School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences (1701), the Medical and Surgical School (1707) – the future Military Medical Academy that still exists today, the Naval Academy (1715), the Engineering and Artillery Schools (1719), the translation schools at the colleges – all this was founded in Peter's time.
In 1719, the first museum in Russian history – the Kunstkamera with a public library began to operate.
Primers, educational maps were published, and in general, a systematic study of the geography of the country and mapping was initiated.
The spread of literacy was promoted by the reform of the alphabet (replacing cursive with a civil font, 1708), the publication of the first Russian printed newspaper Vedomosti (since 1703).
In the era of Peter I, many buildings were erected for state and cultural institutions, the architectural ensemble of Peterhof (Petrodvorets).
Fortresses were built (Kronstadt, Peter and Paul Fortress, etc.), the planned construction of the capital (St. Petersburg) began, which marked the beginning of urban planning and the construction of residential buildings according to standard projects.
The emperor encouraged the activities of scientists, engineers, and artists, seeing in it a way to strengthen the absolutist state and develop ties with Western European culture.
In 1725, the doors of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences opened with a gymnasium and a university, but the emperor was no longer destined to evaluate the results of its activities.
In October 1724, he caught a bad cold when he met a stranded boat on the way and decided to help, standing waist deep in the water, to remove the soldiers from it.
The busy life went on as usual until the end of January 1725, when he decided to resort to the help of doctors.
Pneumonia turned out to be too neglected, and on January 28, 1725, Peter died in St. Petersburg, without having had time to appoint an heir and thereby dispose of the fate of the state.
Later he was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The bearer of the rationalistic idea of the monarch as the first official of the state, the emperor, like many intelligent, strong willed, determined people who do not spare their efforts in the name of the cherished goal, was strict not only to himself, but also to others.
He was sometimes cruel and ruthless, did not take into account the interests and lives of those who were weaker than him.
In his state and military activities, Peter I relied on talented, loyal associates, who were later called "the chicks of Petrov's nest".
Among them were representatives of the well born nobility (B. P. Sheremet, F. Yu.Romodanovsky, P. A. Tolstoy, F. M. Apraksin, F. A. Golovin), and persons of non noble origin (A.D. Menshikov*, * P. P. Shafirov. F.Makarov).
Energetic, purposeful, greedy for new knowledge, Peter was not petty and, for all his inconsistency, went down in history as "raising Russia on its hind legs", who managed to radically change its appearance and the course of history for many centuries.
Many strong willed Russian rulers (from Catherine II to Stalin) admired the" life and deeds " of Peter I.
In the 18th and 20th centuries. numerous monuments were erected to him in St. Petersburg (including"The Bronze Horseman" by E. M. Falcone, 1782; a bronze statue of B. K. Rastrelli, installed in 1743 at the Engineering Castle, a bronze sitting sculpture by M. M. Shemyakin in the Peter and Paul Fortress), Kronstadt (F. Jacques), Arkhangelsk, Taganrog, Petrodvorets (M. M. Antokolsky), Tula, Petrozavodsk (I. N. Schroeder and I. A. Monighetti), Moscow (Z.Tsereteli).
In the 20th century, Peter I memorial house museums were opened in Leningrad, Tallinn, Vologda, Liepaja, Pereslavl Zalessky.
Writers (A. S. Pushkin, A. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Platonov, etc.) addressed the image of the outstanding Russian ruler, his extraordinary appearance was captured by artists (M. V. Lomonosov, V. I. Surikov, V. A. Serov, A. N. Benois, E. E. Lancere).
