Absolute Monarchy
in Russia
Chapter 4 Section 5
pp. 129-133
Peter the Great
• Peter was just 10 years old when he claimed the throne
• Took control of government in 1689
• Not very educated
• Very curious
• Spent hours in “German Quarter”
• Moscow suburb where Dutch, Scottish, English, and other
foreign artisans and soldiers lived
• Heard of the advanced technology in Western Europe
Journey to the West
• 1697- Peter sent out to study western technology
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Spent hours walking the streets of European cities
Visited factories and art galleries
Learned anatomy
A dentist taught him how to pull teeth
• Peter was impressed by England’s parliament
• Peter brought back a group of technical experts, teachers,
and soldiers back to Russia
• Embarked on policy of westernization
• Russians weren’t easily persuaded
• Peter became the most autocratic of Europe’s absolute
monarchs
Autocrat and Reformer
• Peter pursued several related goals
• Wanted to strengthen the military
• Expand Russian borders
• Centralized royal power
• To achieve his goals, he brought all Russian institutions
under his control
• Including the Russian Orthodox Church
• Forced boyars to serve the state in civilian or military
jobs
Autocrat and Reformer cont.
• Serfdom spread long after it had died out in Western
Europe
• Peter pushed through social and economic reforms
• Imported western technology
• Improved education
• Simplified science and engineering
• To pay for reforms, he adopted mercantilist policies
• Like encouraging exports
• Improved water-ways and canals, developed mining and
textile manufacturing, backed new trading companies
Autocrat and Reformer cont.
• Changes had symbolic meaning
• Peter insisted boyars shave their beards
• Forced them to replace their old-fashioned robes with Western
European clothes
• Ended the practice of secluding upper-class women in
separate quarters
• Held grand parties where women and men were expected to dace
together
• Russian nobles resisted the radical mixing of men and women in
public
• Peter had no mercy for those you resisted
• Over 1,000 rebels were tortured and executed when elite
palace guards revolted
• As an example of his power, he left the rotting corpses outside the
palace walls for months
Expansion Under Peter
• Peter worked to build Russian’s military power
• Created the largest standing army in Europe
• Set out to extend Russian borders to the west and south
Search for a Warm-Water
Port
• Russian seaports were frozen during the winter
• Located in the Arctic Ocean
• Peter wanted a warm-water port to increase Russia’s ability
to trade with the West
• Nearest warm-water port was located along the Black Sea
• To gain control of this territory, he had to push through powerful
Ottoman empire
• Peter was unable to defeat them in the end
• A later Russian monarch, Catherine the Great, would achieve that
goal before the century ended
War With Sweden
• 1700- Peter began a long war against the kingdom of
Sweden
• Sweden dominated the Baltic region
• Swedish force had only 8,000 men and defeated the
Russian force which was five times its size
• Peter rebuilt the army along western lines
• 1709- he defeated Swedes and won land to the Baltic Sea
Peter’s City
• Peter built magnificent capital city on land won from
Sweden
• Called St. Petersburg
• Located the city on the swampy shores of the Neva River
near the Baltic coast
• Wanted to open a window on the West
• Forced tens of thousands of serfs to drain the swamps
• Many died, but Peter got his city
• Peter then invited Italian architects and artisans to
design palaces in western style
• St. Petersburg became a symbol of Peter’s desire to forge
a modern Russia
Toward the Pacific
• Russian traders and raiders crossed the plains and rivers of
Siberia toward the Pacific
• Russia sign a treaty with Qing China defining their common
border in the east
• Treaty recognized Russia’s right to lands north of Manchuria
• Early 1700s- Peter hired the Danish navigator, Vitus Bering, to
explore what was later known as the Bering Strait between
Siberia and Alaska
• Russian pioneers crossed into Alaska and migrated as far
south as California
• Not many Russians moved east of the Ural Mountains
• Russia was already the largest country in the world, and still is
Legacy of Peter the Great
• Peter died in 1725
• Left behind a mixed legacy
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He expanded Russian territory
Gained ports on the Baltic Sea
Created a better army
Ended Russia’s long period of isolation
• From the 1700s on, Russia was increasingly involved in affairs
of Western Europe
• Many of his reforms died with him
• Nobles soon ignored his policy of service to the state
• Peter the Great brandished terror to enforce his power
• Polices contributed to the growth of serfdom
• Widened the gap between Russia and the West the Peter had sought
to narrow
Catherine the Great
• Peter died without naming a successor
• Set off power struggles
• Catherine the Great took the throne
• She was a German princess by birth
• Came to Russia at 15 to wed the heir to the Russian throne
• She learned Russian, embraced the Russian Orthodox faith,
and won the loyalty of the people
• 1762- her mentally unstable husband, Czar Peter III, was
murdered by a group of Russian army officers
An Efficient Ruler
• Catherine proved to be an efficient and energetic empress
• Reorganized the provincial government, codified laws, and
began state-sponsored education for both girls and boys
• She embraced western ideas
• Encouraged French language and customs at court
• Wrote histories and plays
• Organized court performances
• She was a serious student of the French thinkers who led
the intellectual movement
• Known as Enlightenment
A Ruthless Absolute Monarch
• Catherine granted a charter to the boyars outlining rights
• Such as exemption from taxes
• When peasants rebelled, she took firm action to repress
them
• As a result, conditions grew worse for Russian peasants
• Catherine was determined to expand Russia’s borders
• Achieved Peter’s dream of a warm-water port on the Black
Sea after a war against the Ottoman empire
• Took steps to seize territory from Poland
Partition of Poland
• Polish rulers were unable to centralize their power
• The divided Polish government was ill prepared to stand
up to Russia, Prussia, and Austria
• 1770’s- Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, and
Emperor Joseph II of Austria agreed to partition Poland
• 1772- Catherine took part of eastern Poland
• Many Russians and Ukrainians lived there
• Frederick and Joseph got lands to the west
Partition of Poland cont.
• 1793- Poland was partitioned again and for a third time
in 1795
• By that time Austria, Prussia, and Russia had taken the land
they wanted
• Poland had vanished from the map
• 1919- Free Polish state would reappear
Looking Ahead
• Mid-1700s- Absolute monarchs ruled four of the five
leading powers in Europe
• Britain was the only exception
• The five nations often ended up fighting to maintain the
balance of power
• Radical changes soon shattered the French monarchy,
upset the balance of power, and revolutionized European
societies
Vocabulary
• Westernization- Adoption of Western Europe’s ideals
and technology, as in Russia
• Boyar- Russian Nobles
• Warm-Water Port- Port free of ice all year long, Russia
longed for this
• Partitioned- to be Split Up
Review Questions
• What Russian Czar was 7ft tall? Peter the Great
• What spread in Russia dealing with low class people that
had been all but abolished in Europe? Serfdom
• What was Peter the Greats new capital city? St.
Petersburg
• Who became the leader of Russia after her husband Peter
III was assassinated? Catherine the Great
• By the mid 1700s what was the only major country in
Europe not ruled by an Absolute Monarch? Great
Britain/England