Global 9: Crowley/Manganiello
Name _______________________
In the early 1600's, Russia was still a medieval state. It was untouched by the
Renaissance and largely isolated from Western Europe. Foreign invasions had plunged it into a period of disorder. The election of the first Romanov czar in 1613 restored a measure of order. Not until 1682, however, did a czar emerge who was strong enough to regain the absolute power. His name was Peter the Great. He pushed Russia along the road to becoming a great modern power.
Peter was just 10 years old when he came to the throne in 1682.
He took control of the government in 1689, at age 17. The young czar was a striking figure, nearly seven feet tall, with a booming laugh and a furious temper. Though he was not well educated,
Peter was immensely curious.
He spent hours in the "German Quarter", the Moscow suburb where many Dutch, Scottish, English and other foreign artisans and soldiers lived. There, he heard of the advanced technology that was helping European monarch forge, or make, powerful empires.
When Peter the Great came to power, Russia was still a land of boyars (Russian landowning nobles) and serfs. Serfdom lasted in Russia until the mid-1800's, much longer than it did in
Western Europe. Most boyars knew little of western Europe. In the Middle Ages, Russia had looked to Constantinople, not to Rome, for leadership. Religious differences, too, widened the gap between western Europe and Russia. The Russians had adopted the Eastern Orthodox brand of Christianity. Western Europeans were mostly Catholics or Protestants, and the
Russians viewed them as heretics and basically avoided them.

In 1697, Peter set out to study western technology for himself. He spent hours walking the streets of European cities, noting the manners and homes of the people. He visited factories and art galleries, learned anatomy from a doctor, and had a dentist teach him how to pull teeth. Disguised in shabby clothes, he even worked for a time as a carpenter in a Dutch shipyard. In England, Peter was impressed by Parliament. "It is good", he said, "to hear subjects speaking truthfully and openly to their king."
Returning to Russia, Peter brought along a group of technical experts, teachers, soldiers, and nobles he had recruited in the West. He then began to reshape Russia, but convincing fellow Russians to modernize proved difficult. To impose his will, Peter became the most autocratic of Europe's absolute rulers.
Centralize
Peter was determined to centralize royal power and westernize Russia.
 He brought all Russians under his control, including the Russian
Power!!!
Orthodox Church
 He forced the snobby boyars to serve in the government by working in civilian or military jobs. This encouraged the spread of serfdom because someone had to work the boyars' land when they were away from home working for government. He forced some serfs to become soldiers or labor on roads, canals or other projects.
 Peter forced social and economic reforms. He imported western technology, improved education, simplified the Russian alphabet and set up academics for the study of mathematics, science and engineering.
 To modernize his army, he hired European officers who drilled his soldiers in
European tactics with European weapons. Being a soldier became a lifetime job. By the time of his death, the Russian army numbered 200,000 men.
How did Peter the Great pay for all this?
 He imposed heavy taxes. He adopted mercantilist policies and encouraged exports.
He improved the waterways and canals, developed mining and textiles and supported new trading companies.
Some changes had a symbolic meaning. After returning from the West,
Peter insisted that noblemen shave their beards and replace their old-fashioned robes with
Western European clothes. To end the practice of secluding women, he held grand parties at which upper class women and men were expected to dance together. Russian nobles resisted this radical mixing of the genders in public. Peter also had no mercy for anyone who resisted the new order. For example, when elite palace guards revolted, he had over 1,000 tortured and executed.
As an example of his power, he left their rotting corpses outside the palace walls for months.
He also started Russia's first newspaper and advanced education by opening up a school of navigation and introducing schools for the arts and sciences. Peter believed that education was a key to Russia's progress.

From his earliest days as czar, Peter worked to build Russian military power. He created the largest standing army in Europe and set out to extend Russian borders. One of his main goals was to find a warm-water port.
In 1700, Peter began a long war against Sweden, Russia's neighbor to the northwest. He eventually won. However, the seaports along the Baltic Sea were frozen over in the winter. Peter therefore turned south, seeking a warm water port that would allow Russia to trade with the west all year long.
The nearest warm water coast was that of the Black Sea. Peter fought the Ottoman
Turks. Although he failed in this effort, a later Russian empress succeeded.
WAR!
Peter's City
The great symbol of Peter's desire to forge a modern Russia was his new capital city, St.
Petersburg. Seeking to open a "window to the West", he invited Italian architects and artists to design great palaces in western style.
Until the late 17th century, culture and art were dominated by the Church and religious attitudes, but during the early 18th century a new secular culture appeared, partly under the influence of the
European artists and scholars whom Peter invited to Russia to work and to train Russians.
View of gardens in St. Petersburg
Under Peter the Great, Russia became the largest country in the world, as it still is today.
When Peter died in 1725, he left a mixed legacy. He had expanded Russian territory, gained ports on the Baltic Sea and created a mighty army. Yet many reforms died with him. Nobles, for example, soon ignored his policy of service to the state.
Like earlier czars, Peter the great had brandished terror to enforce his absolute power.
His policies contributed to the growth of serfdom, which only served to widen the gap between Russia and the West that Peter had so desperately sought to narrow.


Questions:
1.
List three goals of Peter the Great and explain one reform that Peter took to achieve each: a.
________________________________________________________________________ b.
_______________________________________________________________________ c.
_______________________________________________________________________
2.
Why did Peter the Great believe that Russia's future depended on having a warm-water port?
__________________________________________________________________________
3. Which class of Russian society did not benefit from Russia's reforms? Why? ___________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Why do you think Peter disguised himself when he traveled and worked in Europe?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. From information found in the reading, create a chart that lists the positive and negative components of Peter the Great's reign:
+ POSITIVE + - NEGATIVE -