** Russian royalty Peter the Great








Peter I (the Great) (1682-1725)


Figure 1.--There are vurtually no oibtings of Pter the Great as a child and none by an artist of any distinction. The Russian court was still very primative at this tgime. Thd artist appears to depict Peter as co-Tsar at 10 years of age (1682). He would no, however, rule in his own with out a co-Tsar until 1696 when Peter was 24 years old. The artist of this painting is unknown.

Peter the Great is commonly considerd to be the greatest of all Russian Tsars. He was was an unlikely Tsar as he was the fourteenth child of Tsar Alexei I. Peter was born from Tsar Alexis his second marriage to Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina (1672). His relatives tried to install Peter as Tsar as a boy, but were bruttaly murdered by the family of Alexis' first wife while the young Peter watched. Peter was made co-Tsar with his retarded brother Ivan, but their sister Sophia served as regent. Peter managed to surplant Sophia as he reached his majority (1689). He was from that point in control of the state, although he was not officially declared sole Sovereign of all Russia until Ivan died (1696). After a celebrated trip to the West, Peter undertook extensive reforms. He created a regular European-style army and navy making Russi a major European power. He reformed the Church, making it subject to the state. He introduced new administrative and territorial divisions of the Empire. He was intrested in science and technology and established Russia's first techvincal schools. He was a talented diplomat and military leader. Under Peter, Russia became a great European power. He proclaimed Russia an Empire and was accorded the title of Emperor of All Russia, Great Father of the Fatherland and "the Great" (1723). He married twice and had 14 children, many of whom died in infancy. Tsarevich Alexei and his mother became the center of the conservative oposition to Peter's reforms. He was convicted of high treason and died under torture (1718). Peter died from a chill (1725), without designating an heir. He was buried in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, the city on the Baltic he founded.

Parents

The Russian secession was often not a sure thing. Peter was the youngest son of Tsar Alexis I, apowerful ruler soverign of an imense country, but backward country. His mother was Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. Alexis' second wife. As the youngest son of a second marriage, Peter's prospects were not bright.

Siblings

Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first wife. Feodor/Fyodor was an invalid. Sophia was a girl and thus not in the line of secession. Ivan was retarded. He has been described as a semi-imbecile. With his second wife, Tsar Alexis had Peter and two younger daughters.

Childhood

Peter was born (1672). His early life seems relatively uneventful, growing up a prince on a great estate--Kolomenskoe. Away from court, he was not as endulged as he might be. His father took little interest in him and he had little to do with his older half brothers and suster.

Education


Secession (1682-98)

Tsar Alexis died (1676). Peter was only 4-years old and hardly knew his father or his half brothers and susters. The secession process woukd be long and traumatic. As exopected, Feodor as the oldest son became Tsar Feodor III. Fedor was an invalid and not healthy. He died (1682). Peter at the time was only 10 years old. The family of Peter's mother engineered Peter's accession over that of his older, but retarded half brother Ivan. Peter was summoned from from the country estate of Kolomenskoe where he wa raised a a child. He was then installed as Tsar in the Kremlin with his mother's relatives as regent. Ivan himself was not capable of challenging Peter's accession, but his powerful family who had assumed that Ivan would be the next Tsar and they would receive all kinds of benefits, were in a position to resist. They managed to gain control over the Kremlin Guard and staged a coup d'etat. The young Peter had to watch the terrible site of his relatives and supporters being thrown down the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the pikes of the Guard. Peter himself was not harmed, but one can only imagine the impact on the boy. The outcome of the coup was a theoretical joint Tsar-ship. Both Peter I and Ivan V were overseen by a new regent, Ivan's elder sister Sophia who was of coursed biased toward her side of the family. Peter as a result of this gave to dislike Moscow, a view that would continue as an adult. Sophie sent Peter back to was sent back to Kolomenskoe which was fine with him. It was at this age that Peter began to develop an interest in war games. It is not clear to what exxtent his terrible experience in Moscow affected this. But of course many boys at this age are interested in games such as cowvoys and Indians, cops, nd rovvers, and war. Not to many boys are Tsars who can endulge their possions. He conducted military drill and siegecraft using uniformed soldiers. He attracted some European soldiers who taught him Western military tactics and strategy. Away from Moscow and causing no problems, Sophia and the Kremlin Guard took little interest in him. Only when Peter was about to come of age does it seem to have dawned on Sophie that Peter was a potential danger and plotting to seize control of the state. Sophia attempted another coup (1689). She and the Kremlin Guard were defeated. Peter had her confined to the austere Novodevichiy Convent. Ivan was relatively oblivious to what was happening. He died (1698). This left Peter in undisputed possession of the throne.

Family

Peter married twice and had 14 children. (We have seen different numbers.) Only three of the the children survived to adulthood. His eldest child and Tsarevich, Alexei, was a child of his first wife. Their relationship was ruined by the way Peter treated his mother. Peter's first wife was Evdokiya Feodorovna Lopukhina (1669-1731). She was from the lesser aristocracy. She was chosen for Peter by his mother Natalia Naryshkina, apparentky because she was related to the famous boyar Fyodor Rtishchev. They married (1689). Peter ws 17 years old and had just seized control from Sophia. Their first child was Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. Their ither two children died as infants. She was also the paternal grandmother of Peter II of Russia. Their relationship was ruined by her conservative family. Peter abandoned her for the Dutch beauty, Anna Mons. Eudoxia wrote pleadung letters to Peter filled with complaints and pleas of unrequited love. Peter during his European tour asked Naryshkin relatives to persuade Eudoxia to enter a monastery (1696). When Peter returned home and began his refirm program, Eudoxia and the Tsarevich became the center of the conservative opposition. Here the Tsarevich does not seem to have been complicit in any actual plot, but was estrauned from his father because if the way he treated hus mother. Peter divorced her and banished her to the Intercession Convent of Suzdal (1698). Peter's second wife ws Catherine. Her origins are disputed, but appear to be of peasant origins and she was illiterate throughout her life. She was, however, was beautiful which attracted the series of several men ho seemed to have owned her. It was in the household of Prince Aleksandr Menshikov, a friend that Peter first saw her and fell in love (1703). They married secretly after her conversion to Orthodioxy (1707). She by all accounts was not only beautiful, but charming and sympathetic. She seems to have been the only person capable of calming Peter in his frequent rages. Doctors would call her to attend Peter during his epileptic seizures. Peter married Catherine and decided to marry her officially. The ceremony took place at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg (1712). There were 12 children both before and after the marriage. Only two survived into adulthood: Anna (1708) and Yelizaveta (1709).

Grand Tour (1696-98)

One might have thought that Peter would have wanted to remain in Moscow and firmly establish his control of the state. But presumably he had accomplished this after removing Sophie and Ivan was not a threat. So hecdecided to embark on a secret Western tour, trveling incognito. For two years he traveled in Europe. It was a Grand Tour unlike any other young royal. He did not just meet other monarchs and conduct diplomacy. He also attempted to acquire technical knowledge that he knew Russia needed. He worked as a carpenter in a Dutch shipyard. And that means he did not just sit around and watch, he worked as an actual carpeter as they built a ship. Because of this and other experiences, he acquired a great deal of technical knowledge about Western technology as well as administrative practices in a modern state. We are not sure precisely what the youthful Peter's plans were for Russia. He must have been impressed with the Western military officers he engaged at Kolomenskoe. But duting his Tour he saw the West first hand. There is no doubt that he developed a passion for modernizing and westernizing Russia based on what he observed. And it was not only the Tsarist state he wanted to reform, but Russian society itself. While still in the West on his Tout, he learned of another rebellion staged by the Kremlin Guard (1698). It is unclear to what extent Sophia was involved, but the goal was to rescue her from the Novodevichiy Covent and replace Peter with her as Tsarina. The rebellion failed even before Peter returned. He ordered mass executions of the rebels. Some were hung outside Sophia's convent window. She is said to have gone made.

Moderizing Reforms

Peter immediately began to personally rule Russia. The Russians had never seen anything like it. The first symbolic step of his plans to modernize Russia along the lines of Western Europe. His first symbolic step was to personally clip the beards of important boyars (nobles). That of course was just the beginning. He not only went after beards, but also clothing, especially the long robes that men wore. He introduced military conscription as the first step in developing a European style army. He was interested in scuience and technology. He established Russia's first technical schools. He also reformed the Church by replacing the existing church patriarchy with a holy synod which he controlled. Oher reforms included: simplifing the alphabet, improving court protocol, and changing the calendar. He also changed his own title from Tsar to Emperor. There were hundreds of other reforms and changes. The most important were military and administrative. Peter did begin the trandormation of Russuia into a major military power. Many of the reforms, however, were cosmetic. And economically the transformation of the peasantry from free persons to serfs accelerated during Peter's reign. Russia remained a very backward country and the German soldiers who moved East into Russia during World war I from Moscow to a new city he began to build on the Baltic Sea (Gulf of Finland)--St. Petersburg.

Great Northern War (1700-21)

The Great Northern War was the first war of the 18th century. It extended over two decades and was fought in different phases as battlefields and beligerants shifted. The phases of the War cnsisted of 1700-06, 1707-09, 1709-14, 1714-18, and 1718-21. The origins of the War began in the 1890s. At the time Sweden was the dominant power in northeastern Europe. A coaltion (Russia, Denmark, and Saxony-Poland) gradually formed to resist Sweden (1697-99). When Charles XII assumed the throne at only age 15, it seemed an opportunity to deal with Sweden which controlled a broad area of northeastern Europe. Charles V of Denmark had designs on Scania and other territories on northern coast of the Baltic that was once Danish territory. Denmark also wanted to seize the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp which Sweden now controlled. Agustus II of Saxony-Poland wanted Livonia on the Baltic. Augustus was known as Augustus the Strong. He was the Elector Frederick Augustus of Saxony within the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected king of Poland (1697). Possession of Livonia would enable Augustus to significant reduce Swedish commercial influence in the Baltic. Augustus saw the potential of combining Saxony's productive know how with Polish raw materials, but Swedish commercial power impaired Augustus' plans. Russia's dynamic young Tsar, Peter I (The Great) had more limited goals. He primarily wanted an outlet on the Baltic. And Sweden possession of Karelia, Ingria and Estonia blocked Peter's westward advancement. The War began in Livonia where by J R von Patkul and other anti-Swedish noblemen ???.

Opposition

Peter's reforms generated opposition during his reign. The reforms touches on many long standing traditions. He upset both the conservative clergy abd the nobiliity. Some of the clergy saw him as the antichrist. And the nobility were not only disturbed by the beard abd clothing rules, but by tgheloss of many long=established privliges. Unfortunately his son Alexis got caught up in the opposition. Here the problem for Alexis was the way Peter treated his mother rather than any desire to replace his father. The story of Alexis is one of the most tragic in Rimanov history.

Secession

Peter died from a chill (1725), without designating an heir. He was buried in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, the city on the Baltic he founded.

Assessment

Peter is generally considered the greatest of the Russian Tsars, arguably the country's greatest leaders. His goal was to modernize Russia and make it a powerful member of the European state system. In this his military and administrative reforms largely suceeded. Many of Peter's reforms like cuttuing beards and changing clothing styles were largely superficial. Russia remained a largely backward agrarian state. Any assessnent of Peter will depend on how one assesses leadership. Many Russians seem to admire string leadership and the generation of state power. That is why even today in Russia, Lennin and Stalin are admired by many. Other historians use other metics such as how the lives of ordinary citizens are affected. And during Peter's rule his reforms do not seem to have had any important improvement in the lives of the Russian people. And the peasantry were increasingly forced into near Feudal serfdom. And politically, Peter strngthened Russia's traditions of absolutism which helped to keep Russia separate from the rest of Europe, aivision which continued to this day. After Peter's death, Russia was ruled by a series of weak tsars until his daughter Elizabeth abnd the Catherine seized control of the state.






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Created: 2:54 AM 5/22/2011
Last updated: 2:54 AM 5/22/2011