Question

Before Peter the Great, why was Russia more an Asian than a European nation? Give at least TWO examples of how Peter tried to westernize Russia. Name at least one territory he gained for Russia.

Answer 1

Peter introduced autocracy and played a major role in bringing his country to the European state system in an attempt to modernize Russia, the largest state in the world but one that was economically and socially lagging behind. His Western experiences impressed upon him the impression that European customs were superior to Russian practices in many respects. Highly influenced by his Western-European advisors, he reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power.

One of the most audacious aims of Peter was to the the power of boyars, or of the class of feudal elite. He did so by imposing taxes and services on them, and by implementing sweeping administrative changes that opened up the public sector to the commoners. And sharp inequalities of classes, including the already tragic fate of serfs, only deepened.Tax and trade reforms allowed the Russian state to close to sixfold increase its treasury between 1680 and 1724. Legislation under Peter's rule encompasses every aspect of Russia's life and his reform has significantly contributed to Russia's military victories and improved revenue and productivity.

Peter regained Ingria and Finnish Karelia with his victory over Sweden in the Second Northern War, and captured Estonia and Livonia with the ports of Narva, Revel (Tallinn), and Riga. The price of success on the Baltic was a defeat on the Black Sea: in 1711 the Azov and Taganrog regions taken over from Turkey in 1696 had to be surrendered. Both parts of the neighboring Zaporozhye district (the jurisdiction over the Dnieper's left bank and the protectorate over the right bank) were also lost to Turkey, and in 1709 the Zaporozhian Sich, a Cossack fortification on the lower Dnieper, was razed.