Peter I - Emperor-reformer Peter I (Peter Alekseevich Romanov) was born on May 30, 1672 in Moscow, his father was Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, his mother was Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. Having lost his father in 1676, Peter was brought up until the age of ten under the supervision of a

Peter the Great is a rather remarkable personality, both from the side of the person and from the side of the ruler. His numerous changes in the country, decrees and an attempt to organize life in a new way were not perceived positively by everyone. However, it cannot be denied that during his reign a new impetus was given to the development of the Russian Empire of that time.

The great Peter the Great introduced innovations that made it possible to reckon with the Russian Empire at the world level. These were not only external achievements, but also internal reforms.

An extraordinary personality in the history of Russia - Tsar Peter the Great

There were a lot of outstanding sovereigns and rulers in the Russian state. Each of them contributed to its development. One of these was Tsar Peter I. His reign was marked by various innovations in various fields, as well as reforms that brought Russia to a new level.

What can be said about the time when Tsar Peter the Great ruled? Briefly, it can be described as a series of changes in the way of life of the Russian people, as well as a new direction in the development of the state itself. Peter after his trip to Europe caught fire with the idea of ​​a full-fledged navy for his country.

In his royal years, Peter the Great changed a lot in the country. He is the first ruler who gave direction to change the culture of Russia towards Europe. So many of his followers continued his undertakings, and this led to the fact that they were not forgotten.

Peter's childhood

If we now talk about whether the childhood years influenced the future fate of the tsar, his behavior in politics, then we can answer that of course. Little Peter was always developed beyond his years, and his remoteness from the royal court allowed him to look at the world in a completely different way. No one hampered him in development, and also did not forbid him to feed his craving for learning everything new and interesting.

The future Tsar Peter the Great was born on June 9, 1672. His mother was Naryshkina Natalya Kirillovna, who was the second wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Until the age of four, he lived at court, loved and spoiled by his mother, who did not have a soul in him. In 1676, his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, died. Fedor Alekseevich, who was Peter's older half-brother, ascended the throne.

From that moment on, a new life began both in the state and in the royal family. By order of the new king (part-time half-brother), Peter began to learn to read and write. Science was given to him quite easily, he was a rather inquisitive child who was interested in a lot of things. The teacher of the future ruler was the clerk Nikita Zotov, who did not scold the restless student too much. Thanks to him, Peter read many wonderful books that Zotov brought him from the armory.

The result of all this was a further genuine interest in history, he even in the future had a dream of a book that would tell about the history of Russia. Peter was also fascinated by the art of war, was interested in geography. At an older age, he compiled a rather easy and simple alphabet to learn. However, if we talk about the systematic acquisition of knowledge, then the king did not have this.

Ascension to the throne

Peter the Great was enthroned when he was ten years old. This happened after the death of his half-brother Fyodor Alekseevich, in 1682. However, it should be noted that there were two contenders for the throne. This is Peter's older half-brother - John, who was rather painful from birth. Perhaps that is why the clergy decided that the younger, but stronger applicant should be the ruler. Due to the fact that Peter was still a minor, the king's mother, Natalya Kirillovna, ruled on his behalf.

However, this was not at all liked by the no less noble relatives of the second contender for the throne - Miloslavsky. All this discontent, and even the suspicion that Tsar John was killed by the Naryshkins, led to an uprising that happened on May 15. This event later became known as the "streltsy revolt". On this day, some boyars, who were Peter's mentors, were killed. What happened made an indelible impression on the young king.

After the Streltsy rebellion, two were married to the kingdom - John and Peter 1, the first had a dominant position. Their older sister Sophia, who was the real ruler, was appointed regent. Peter and his mother again left for Preobrazhenskoye. By the way, many of his relatives and friends were also either exiled or killed.

Life of Peter in Preobrazhensky

Peter's life after the May events of 1682 remained the same solitary. Only occasionally did he come to Moscow when there was a need for his presence at official receptions. The rest of the time he continued to live in the village of Preobrazhensky.

At this time, he became interested in the study of military affairs, which led to the formation of, for the time being, children's, amusing regiments. They recruited guys around his age who wanted to learn the art of war, since all these initial children's games grew into just that. Over time, a small military town is formed in Preobrazhensky, and children's amusing regiments grow into adults and become quite an impressive force to be reckoned with.

It was at this time that the future Tsar Peter the Great had the idea of ​​his own fleet. Once he discovered a broken boat in an old barn, and he got the idea of ​​fixing it. After a while, Peter found the person who fixed it. So, the boat was launched. However, the Yauza River was small for such a vessel, it was dragged to a pond near Izmailovo, which also seemed small for the future ruler.

In the end, Peter's new hobby continued on Lake Pleshchevo, near Pereyaslavl. It was here that the formation of the future fleet of the Russian Empire began. Peter himself not only commanded, but also studied various crafts (blacksmith, joiner, carpenter, studied printing).

Peter at one time did not receive a systematic education, but when the need arose to study arithmetic and geometry, he did it. This knowledge was needed in order to learn how to use the astrolabe.

During these years, when Peter received his knowledge in various fields, he had many associates. These are, for example, Prince Romodanovsky, Fedor Apraksin, Alexei Menshikov. Each of these people played a role in the character of the future reign of Peter the Great.

Peter's family life

Peter's personal life was quite complicated. He was seventeen years old when he got married. This happened at the insistence of the mother. Evdokia Lopukhina became the wife of Peter.

Between the spouses there was never mutual understanding. A year after his marriage, he became interested in Anna Mons, which led to a final quarrel. The first family history of Peter the Great ended with Evdokia Lopukhin being exiled to a monastery. This happened in 1698.

From his first marriage, the tsar had a son - Alexei (born in 1690). It has a rather tragic story. It is not known exactly for what reason, but Peter did not love his own son. Perhaps this happened because he did not at all resemble his father, and also did not at all welcome some of his reformist introductions. Be that as it may, but in 1718 Tsarevich Alexei dies. This episode itself is rather mysterious, as many spoke of torture, as a result of which the son of Peter died. By the way, hostility to Alexei extended to his son (grandson of Peter).

In 1703, Marta Skavronskaya entered the life of the tsar, who later became Catherine I. For a long time she was Peter's mistress, and in 1712 they got married. In 1724, Catherine was crowned empress. Peter the Great, whose biography of family life is truly fascinating, was very attached to his second wife. During their life together, Catherine bore him several children, but only two daughters survived - Elizabeth and Anna.

Peter treated his second wife very well, one might even say he loved her. However, this did not prevent him from sometimes having an affair on the side. Catherine herself did the same. In 1725, she was convicted of having an affair with Willem Mons, who was a chamberlain. It was a scandalous story, as a result of which the lover was executed.

The beginning of the real reign of Peter

For a long time, Peter was only second in line to the throne. Of course, these years were not in vain, he studied a lot, became a full-fledged personality. However, in 1689 a new streltsy uprising took place, which was prepared by his sister Sophia, who was ruling at that time. She did not take into account that Peter is far from being the younger brother he was before. Two personal royal regiments - Preobrazhensky and Streletsky, as well as all the patriarchs of Russia, rose to his defense. The rebellion was suppressed, and Sophia spent the rest of her days in the Novodevichy Convent.

After these events, Peter became more interested in the affairs of the state, but nevertheless shifted most of them onto the shoulders of his relatives. The real reign of Peter the Great began in 1695. In 1696, his brother John dies, and he remains the sole ruler of the country. From that time on, innovations began in the Russian Empire.

Wars of the king

There were several wars in which Peter the Great took part. The biography of the king shows how purposeful he was. This is proved by his first campaign against Azov in 1695. It ended in failure, but this did not stop the young king. After analyzing all the mistakes, Peter carried out a second assault in July 1696, which ended successfully.

After the Azov campaigns, the tsar decided that the country needed its own specialists, both in military affairs and in shipbuilding. He sent several nobles to study, and then he decided to travel around Europe himself. This lasted for a year and a half.

In 1700, Peter begins the Great Northern War, which lasted twenty-one years. The result of this war was the signed Treaty of Nystadt, which opened him access to the Baltic Sea. By the way, it was this event that led to the fact that Tsar Peter I received the title of emperor. The resulting lands formed the Russian Empire.

estate reform

Despite the conduct of the war, the emperor did not forget to pursue the domestic policy of the country. Numerous decrees of Peter the Great affected various spheres of life in Russia and not only.

One of the important reforms was a clear division and consolidation of rights and obligations between nobles, peasants and city dwellers.

Nobles. In this estate, innovations concerned primarily the compulsory literacy education for males. Those who failed to pass the exam were not allowed to receive an officer's rank, and they were also not allowed to marry. A table of ranks was introduced, which allowed even those who by birth did not have the right to receive the nobility.

In 1714, a decree was issued that allowed only one offspring from a noble family to inherit all property.

Peasants. For this class, poll taxes were introduced, instead of household taxes. Also, those serfs who went to serve as soldiers were freed from serfdom.

City. For urban residents, the transformation consisted in the fact that they were divided into “regular” (subdivided into guilds) and “irregular” (other people). Also in 1722, workshops for crafts appeared.

Military and judicial reforms

Peter the Great carried out reforms for the army as well. It was he who began recruiting into the army every year from young people who had reached the age of fifteen. They were sent to military training. This led to the fact that the army became stronger and more experienced. A powerful fleet was created, a judicial reform was carried out. Appellate and provincial courts appeared, which were subordinate to the governors.

Administrative reform

At the time when Peter the Great ruled, the reforms also affected the administration of the state. For example, the ruling king could appoint his successor during his lifetime, which was previously impossible. It could have been absolutely anyone.

Also in 1711, by order of the king, a new state body appeared - the Governing Senate. Anyone could also enter it, it was the king's privilege to appoint its members.

In 1718, instead of Moscow orders, 12 colleges appeared, each of which covered its own field of activity (for example, military, income and expenses, etc.).

At the same time, by decree of Tsar Peter, eight provinces were created (later there were eleven). The provinces were divided into provinces, the latter into counties.

Other reforms

The time of Peter the Great is also rich in other equally important reforms. For example, they affected the Church, which lost its independence and became dependent on the state. Later, the Holy Synod was established, the members of which were appointed by the sovereign.

Great reforms took place in the culture of the Russian people. The king, after returning from a trip to Europe, ordered to cut off the beards and shave the faces of men (this did not apply only to priests). Peter also introduced the wearing of European clothes for the boyars. In addition, balls, other music, as well as tobacco for men, which the king brought from his trip, appeared for the upper class.

An important point was the change in the calendar calculation, as well as the transfer of the beginning of the new year from the first of September to the first of January. This happened in December 1699.

Culture in the country was in a special position. The sovereign founded many schools that gave knowledge about foreign languages, mathematics and other technical sciences. A lot of foreign literature was translated into Russian.

The results of the reign of Peter

Peter the Great, whose reign was full of many changes, led Russia to a new direction in its development. A fairly strong fleet appeared in the country, as well as a regular army. The economy has stabilized.

The reign of Peter the Great also had a positive impact on the social sphere. Medicine began to develop, the number of pharmacies and hospitals increased. Science and culture have reached a new level.

In addition, the state of the economy and finances in the country has improved. Russia has reached a new international level, and has also signed several important agreements.

End of reign and Peter's successor

The king's death is shrouded in mystery and speculation. It is known that he died on January 28, 1725. However, what led him to this?

Many talk about an illness from which he did not fully recover, but went on business to the Ladoga Canal. The king was returning home by sea when he saw a ship in distress. It was late cold and rainy autumn. Peter helped drowning people, but he got very wet and as a result caught a bad cold. He never recovered from all this.

All this time, while Tsar Peter was ill, prayers were held in many churches for the health of the Tsar. Everyone understood that this was indeed a great ruler who had done a lot for the country and could have done so much more.

There was another rumor that the tsar was poisoned, and it could be A. Menshikov close to Peter. Whatever it was, but after his death, Peter the Great did not leave a will. The throne is inherited by Peter's wife Catherine I. There is also a legend about this. They say that before his death, the king wanted to write his will, but he managed to write only a couple of words and died.

The personality of the king in modern cinema

The biography and history of Peter the Great is so entertaining that a dozen films have been made about him, as well as several television series. In addition, there are paintings about individual members of his family (for example, about the deceased son Alexei).

Each of the films reveals the personality of the king in its own way. For example, the television series “Testament” plays on the dying years of the king. Of course, there is truth mixed with fiction. An important point will be that Peter the Great never wrote a will, which will be told about in colors in the film.

Of course, this is one of many pictures. Some were filmed based on works of art (for example, the novel by A. N. Tolstoy “Peter I”). Thus, as we see, the odious personality of Emperor Peter I excites the minds of people today. This great politician and reformer pushed Russia to develop, to learn new things, and also to enter the international arena.

There is a rather interesting story that when the writer Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy was working on his novel Peter the Great, he was faced with the rather unusual fact that the greatest of Russian monarchs, the pride of the Romanov family, has nothing to do with either the family name or Russian nationality in general!

This fact excited the writer extremely, and he, taking advantage of his acquaintance with another great dictator, and remembering the fate of other, careless writers, decided to turn to him for advice, especially since the information was in a sense quite close to the leader.

The information was provocative and ambiguous, Alexei Nikolaevich brought a document to Stalin, namely a certain letter, which clearly indicated that Peter I, by his origin, was not at all Russian, as was previously thought, but a Georgian!

Remarkably, Stalin was not at all surprised by such an unusual incident. Moreover, after reading the documents, he asked Tolstoy to hide this fact in order not to give him the opportunity to become public, arguing his desire quite simply: “Let them leave at least one “Russian” that they can be proud of!”

And recommending that the document inherited by Tolstoy be destroyed. The act, it would seem, is strange, if you remember that Joseph Vissarionovich himself was a Georgian by birth. But if you look, it is absolutely logical from the point of view of the position of the leader of the peoples, since it is known that Stalin considered himself Russian! How else would he call himself the leader of the Russian people?

Information after this meeting, it would seem, should have been buried forever, but no offense to Alexei Nikolaevich, and he, like any writer, was an extremely sociable person, was told to a narrow circle of acquaintances, and there, according to the snowball principle, it was spread like a virus around to all the minds of the intelligentsia of that time.

What was the letter that was supposed to disappear? Most likely, this is a letter from Darya Archilovna Bagration-Mukhranskaya, daughter of the King of Imereti Archil II, to her cousin, the daughter of the Mingrelian prince Dadiani.

The letter refers to a certain prophecy she heard from the Georgian queen: “My mother told me about a certain Matveev, who had a prophetic dream in which Saint George the Victorious appeared to him and said to him: a "KING OF KINGS" must be born who will make it a great empire. He was supposed to be born from the alien Orthodox Tsar of Iberian from that tribe of David, which is the Mother of God. And the daughters of Cyril Naryshkin, pure in heart. Disobeying this command - to be a great pestilence. The will of God is the will."

The prophecy unequivocally hinted at the urgent need for such an event, but another problem could really serve such a turn of events.

The beginning of the end of the Romanov family

To understand the reasons for such a written appeal, it is necessary to turn to history and remember that the Moscow kingdom at that time was a kingdom without a king, and the acting king, the monarch Alexei Mikhailovich, could not cope with the role assigned to him.

In fact, the country was ruled by Prince Miloslavsky, mired in palace intrigues, a swindler and adventurer.

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Matveev's plan was simple: it was necessary to help the tsar get rid of his kinship with the Miloslavskys and put "his" heir on the throne...

So in March 1669, after giving birth, the wife of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, died.

After that, it was Matveev who betrothed Alexei Mikhailovich the Crimean Tatar princess Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, the daughter of the Crimean Tatar murza Ismail Narysh, who at that time lived in Moscow and for convenience wore the name Kirill, quite convenient for the pronunciation of the local nobility.

It remained to resolve the issue with the heir, since the children born from the first wife were as frail as the tsar himself, and, according to Matveev, they were unlikely to pose a threat.

In other words, as soon as the tsar was married to Princess Naryshkina, the question arose of an heir, and since at that time the tsar was seriously ill and physically weak, and his children turned out to be frail, it was decided to find a replacement for him, and that's when the Georgian prince fell into the hands of the conspirators ...

Who is Peter's father?

There are actually two theories, two great Georgian princes from the Bagration family are registered in Peter's fathers, these are:

Archil II (1647-1713) - king of Imereti (1661-1663, 1678-1679, 1690-1691, 1695-1696, 1698) and Kakheti (1664-1675), lyric poet, eldest son of King Vakhtang V of Kartli. One of founders of the Georgian colony in Moscow.

Heraclius I (Nazarali Khan; 1637 or 1642 - 1709) - king of Kartli (1688-1703), king of Kakheti (1703-1709). Son of Prince David (1612-1648) and Elena Diasamidze (d. 1695), grandson of King Teimuraz I of Kartli and Kakheti.

And in fact, after a little investigation, I am forced to bow that it was Heraclius who could become the father, because it was Heraclius who stayed in Moscow at the time suitable for the conception of the king, and Archil moved to Moscow only in 1681.

Tsarevich Irakli was known in Russia under the name Nikolai, which was more convenient for the local people, and his patronymic was Davydovich. Heraclius was close to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and even at the wedding of the Tsar and the Tatar princess, he was appointed thousandth, that is, the main manager of the wedding celebrations.

It is fair to say that the duties of the thousandth also included becoming the godfather of the wedding couple. But by the will of fate, the Georgian prince helped the Tsar of Moscow not only with the choice of a name for the first-born, but also with the conception of it.

At the christening of the future emperor, in 1672, Heraclius fulfilled his duty and named the baby Peter, and in 1674 he left Russia, taking the throne of the principality of Kakheti, however, to receive this title, he had to accept Islam.

Version two, doubtful

According to the second version, the father of the future autocrat in 1671 was the king of Imereti Archil II, who had been visiting the court for several months, fleeing from the pressure of Persia, who was practically forced to visit the princess’s bedroom under pressure, convincing him that, according to divine providence, his participation was necessary in an extremely charitable deed, namely, the conception of "the one who was expected."

Perhaps it was the dream of the practically holy man Matveyev that made the most noble Orthodox tsar enter the young princess.

The fact that the official heir to the Georgian monarch, Prince Alexander, became the first general of the Russian army of Georgian origin, served with Peter in amusing regiments and died for the emperor in Swedish captivity can testify to the relationship of Peter with Archil.

And the other children of Archil: Matvey, David and sister Daria (Dargen) received from Peter such preferences as lands in Russia, and were kindly treated by him in every possible way. In particular, the fact is known that Peter went to celebrate his victory in the village of All Saints, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Sokol, to his sister Daria!

The wave of mass migration of the Georgian elite to Moscow is also connected with this period in the life of the country. As proof of the relationship between the Georgian king Archil II and Peter I, they also cite the fact captured in the letter of the monarch to the Russian princess Naryshkina, in which he writes: “How is our rascal doing?”

Although "our rascal" can be said about Tsarevich Nikolai, and about Peter, as a representative of the Bagration family. The second version is also supported by the fact that Peter I was surprisingly similar to the Imeretian king Archil II. Both were truly gigantic for that time, with identical facial features and characters, although the same version can be used as evidence of the first, since the Georgian princes were in direct relationship.

Everyone knew and everyone was silent

It seems that everyone knew about the relatives of the king at that time. So Princess Sophia wrote to Prince Golitsyn: “You can’t give power to a Basurman!”

Peter's mother, Natalya Naryshkina, was also terribly afraid of what she had done, and repeatedly stated: "He cannot be a king!"

And the tsar himself, at the moment when the Georgian princess was being married to him, declared publicly: “I won’t marry namesakes!”

Visual similarity, no other evidence needed

This must be seen. Remember from history: not a single Moscow tsar was distinguished by either height or Slavic appearance, but Peter is the most special of them.

According to historical documents, Peter I was quite tall even by today's standards, since his height reached two meters, but what is strange is that he wore shoes of size 38, and the size of his clothes was 48! But, nevertheless, it was these features that he inherited from his Georgian relatives, since this description fit the Bagration family with accuracy. Peter was a pure European!

But not even visually, but in character, Peter definitely did not belong to the Romanov family, in all his habits he was a real Caucasian.

Yes, he inherited the unthinkable cruelty of the Moscow tsars, but this feature could have come to him on the maternal side, since their whole family was more Tatar than Slavic, and it was precisely this feature that gave him the opportunity to turn a fragment of the horde into a European state.

Conclusion

Peter I was not Russian, but he was a Russian, because despite his not entirely correct origin, he was still of royal blood, but he did not ascend to the Romanov family, much less to the Ruriks.

Perhaps it was not the Horde origin that made him a reformer and a real emperor, who turned the county Horde principality of Muscovy into the Russian Empire, even though he had to borrow the history of one of the occupied territories, but we will tell about this in the next story.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

The first years of the reign of Peter I.

Azov campaigns and the "Great Embassy".

Industry.

Trade.

Agriculture.

financial policy.

Reorganization of the public administration system.

The Church and the liquidation of the patriarchate.

Creation of a regular army and navy.

Streltsy uprising of 1698

"The case of Tsarevich Alexei".

Astrakhan uprising.

The uprising led by K. Bulavin.

The main directions of foreign policy in the era of Peter I and the Northern War.

Reforms in the field of education and culture.

The first years of the reign of Peter I.

After the August coup in 1689, power in the country passed to the supporters of the seventeen-year-old Tsar Peter Alekseevich (who formally ruled until 1696 together with his brother Ivan) - P.K. Naryshkin, T.N. Streshnev, B.A. Golitsyn and others. A number of important government posts were also occupied by relatives of the first wife of Peter E.F. Lopukhina (the wedding with her took place in January 1689). Having given them the leadership of the country, the young tsar gave all his strength to “Neptune and Mars fun”, for which he actively attracted “serving foreigners” who lived in the German Quarter (Kukuy).

Peter surrounded himself with capable, energetic assistants and specialists, especially the military. Among the foreigners, the following stood out: the closest friend of the tsar F. Lefort, an experienced general P. Gordon, a talented engineer J. Bruce and others. And among the Russians, a close-knit group of associates gradually formed, who subsequently made a brilliant political career: A.M. Golovin, G.I. Golovkin, brothers P.M. and F.M. Apraksina, A.D. Menshikov. With their help, Peter arranged the maneuvers of the "amusing" troops (the future two guards regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky), which were held in the village of Preobrazhensky. Peter paid special attention to the formation of a Russian navigator. Already in May 1692, his first “amusing” ship, built with the participation of the tsar himself, was launched on Lake Pereslavl. In 1693-1694. the first Russian naval ship was built in Arkhangelsk and another one was ordered in Amsterdam. It was on board a Dutch-built ship in July 1694, during a real sea voyage arranged by the tsar, that the Russian red-blue-white flag was first hoisted.

Behind Peter's "military amusements" was a far-reaching goal: the struggle for Russia's access to the sea. Due to the short winter navigation, the Arkhangelsk port could not provide year-round trade. Therefore, the bet was made on access to the Black Sea. Thus, Peter returned to the idea of ​​the Crimean campaigns, in which Prince V.V. Golitsyn. After a three-month siege of Azov (spring - summer 1695), Peter was forced to retreat. Without a fleet, it was impossible to besiege the fortress both from land and from the sea. The first Azov campaign ended in failure. In the winter of 1695/96 preparations began for a second campaign. The construction of the first Russian fleet began in Voronezh. By spring, 2 ships, 23 galleys, 4 firewalls and 1300 plows were ready, on which the 40,000th Russian army in May 1696 again laid siege to Azov. After the blockade from the sea on July 19, the Turkish fortress surrendered. The fleet found a convenient harbor Taganrog, began to build a port. But still, the forces to fight Turkey and the Crimea were clearly not enough. Peter ordered the construction of new ships (52 ships in 2 years) at the expense of landowners and merchants.

At the same time, it was necessary to look for allies in Europe. This is how the idea of ​​the “Great Embassy” was born (March 1697-August 1698). Formally, it was intended to visit the capitals of a number of European states to conclude an alliance against Turkey. General-Admiral F.Ya. Lefort, General F.A. Golovin, head of the Ambassadorial Department, and Duma clerk P.B. Voznitsyn. The embassy included 280 people, including 35 volunteers who went to study crafts and military sciences, among whom, under the name of Peter Mikhailov, was Tsar Peter himself. The main task of the embassy was to get acquainted with the political life of Europe, to study foreign crafts, life, culture, military and other orders. During a year and a half of his stay abroad, Peter visited Courland, Brandenburg, Holland, England and Austria with an embassy, ​​met with sovereign princes and monarchs, studied shipbuilding and other crafts. Came in the summer of 1698. from Moscow, a message about a new uprising of archers forced the tsar to return to Russia.

International relations in Europe at that time were not in favor of continuing the war with Turkey, and soon (January 14, 1699) Russia, like other countries members of the Holy League, had to agree to a truce concluded in Karlovtsy. However, the “Great Embassy” became a real academy for Peter, and he used the experience gained in carrying out reforms both in domestic and foreign policy. It determined for a long period the task of Russia's struggle with Sweden for the possession of the Baltic coast and access to the sea. Reorientation of Russia's foreign policy by the beginning of the 18th century. from the south to the north coincided with the huge transformations that swept the country in all spheres of life from priority diplomatic and military efforts to the Europeanization of everyday life. Preparations for the war with Sweden served as an impetus for deep political and socio-economic reforms, which ultimately determined the appearance of the Petrine era. Some reforms were carried out over the years, others - in a hurry. But in general, they developed into a system of an extremely centralized absolutist state, headed by “an autocratic monarch who, as Peter himself wrote, should not give an answer to anyone in the world.” Transformations were formalized by legislative decrees of the king, and their number for the first quarter of the eighteenth century. amounted to more than 2.5 thousand.

Industry.

Under the accession of Peter the Russian industry, in fact, did not exist, and in Russia there was only one major merchant: the tsar. During the duumvirate of Peter and John, a large reward was promised to the captain of a French ship for the importation into the country of white paper, wine, and some other goods that were difficult to obtain in any other way. At the same time, the first Russian economist Pososhkov wrote a book - his "Testament", where he proclaimed contempt for wealth. Twenty years later, the same author wrote already on white paper made in Russia, “A Discourse on Poverty and Wealth”, where he tries to think of means to increase the wealth of the state and private individuals and, before Smith and Turgot, finds out the advantage of piecework over daily work. Peter did his job.

This matter is very significant. In terms of the intensity of efforts, the variety and ingenuity of the means used, the logical cohesion of the guiding threads, despite some inconsistency, it deserves an honorable place in the history of a brilliant worker. To increase the well-being of private individuals, at the same time strengthening the revenues of the state, to create at the same time new sources of taxation and new sources of production, to replace imported goods with products of domestic industry; arouse the activity of the people and their spirit of enterprise; to force idle people, monks, nuns, beggars to take their places in the ranks of the working population; eliminate the indifference and even hostility of the administration towards the forces of production, make a change in the unsatisfactory justice, eliminate the insufficient development of credit. lack of public security, create a third estate, finally bring Russia into the modern economic movement.

The success of his enterprise was partly spoiled by an unfortunate coincidence and a fundamental mistake. Coincidence - was the war with its consequences and inevitable demands. It turned Peter, a staunch opponent of monopolies, into a creator of new monopolies, destroying with one hand what the other was doing. The mistake was his confidence in the possibility of creating commercial and industrial life, supplying this creation with organs corresponding to its needs, giving it flesh and blood, then controlling its movements, turning it right and left, as regiments being created and commanded; by decrees and under the threat of the stick. Commercial and industrial companies were in 1699 the first attempt of this kind. The Dutch at first were afraid of this, but in the end they began to laugh.

The war demanded money; the maintenance of permanent troops gave impetus to the spirit of mercantilism in the West, and now Peter is a zealous imitator of Colbert. True, the national covenants, too, without having been on the side of Colbert. Already under Alexei Mikhailovich, perhaps even earlier, the right to import was paid at the Russian customs with Hungarian chervonets or Dutch thalers. Peter preserved, strengthening it, this system, which has survived to this day. He forbade the export of precious metals, ignoring the warnings of Baudin and Childe about the dangers of such an admission. Having never read Klock, Schroeder or Decker, Pegr went further than them, forbidding his subjects to accept domestic coinage in payment for their goods. According to Marperger, around 1723, Russia earned several barrels of gold annually by exchanging with foreign countries. Peter also believed in the beneficence of protectionism. The ruler of a country which to this day has remained almost exclusively, in terms of foreign trade, a producer of raw products, forbade the export of some of these products, for example, flax, and so limited the right to export the rest that it was almost a prohibition. In anticipation of being able to dress the entire army in locally made cloth, he himself did not recognize otherwise for his dress and made it obligatory for liveries. When a Frenchman named Mamoron set up a stocking factory in Moscow, Muscovites were forbidden to buy them anywhere else. The industrialists, who were under the patronage of the tsar, hesitated to use the felt they had worked out for hats; a decree appeared that gave them courage: they were allowed to sell their goods only by putting on the market a certain number of headdresses of their own production.

Such perseverance of convictions, such an abundance of incentive and coercive measures, moral and monetary support, gradually did their job. Factories arose, some subsidized, others operated directly by the sovereign, the rest, finally, existing on their own. The Empress maintained a tulle factory and a starch factory in Ekateringof. Peter, who at first limited his activity to the production of items related to navigation: sailing cloth, saltpeter, sulfur, leather, weapons, gradually and partly against his will, also expanded its scope. We see him as a manufacturer of Kolomyanka in St. Petersburg, paper in Duderhof, cloth almost everywhere.

Unfortunately, all these institutions were far from flourishing. In vain did the sovereign sell the kolomyanka at a loss, paying five kopecks for a yard of cloth, which cost him fifteen. But he, as usual, continued to persist, even expanding his business, striving to introduce the production of luxury goods into his state. Russia produced carpets and tapestries without even having a cotton mill! And as always, the tsar did not limit himself to prompting, he struck from the shoulder. In 1718 By decree, it was prescribed to use lard instead of tar when processing yuft. A period of two years was given, “for learning this, after which, if anyone continues to do yuft, he will be exiled to hard labor and deprived of all his property.”

But, scattering in this way in all directions, Peter finally stumbled upon a grateful, immediately productive, inexhaustibly rich soil, and immediately his swiftness, ardor, and creative passion began to work wonders. He took up the mines. Already under Alexei Mikhailovich, a Dutchman and a Dane mined ore and built factories and cast cannons in the vicinity of Moscow. With the intervention of Peter, the matter took on grandiose proportions. Having commanded by decree, from 1697, the construction of ironworks in Verkhotur and Tobolsk, the tsar had in mind exclusively military purposes: he needed guns and guns; but once accepted, he went further and further, and the modern widespread development of the mining industry in Russia owes its appearance to him.

The sovereign began with the extraction and processing of iron ore; , later he was seized by a fever of gold. He got even more carried away, collected all the directions, explored all the paths. True, numerous expeditions organized by him, Bekovich-Cherkassky to Persia in 1717, Likharev to Siberia in 1719, remained without results. Until 1720, the only silver mines were open. But along the way, copper was found, again iron, and in 1722 coal. Thirty-six foundries were set up in the Kazan province and thirty-nine in Moscow.

Private initiative - with the exception of the isolated case of Demidov - was inactive for a long time. The decree issued in 1719 gives characteristic indications in this regard: it declares free and publicly available the exploration and extraction of all kinds of metals on all lands without distinction. The owners of ore-bearing lands have only the right of primacy. So much the worse for them if they were slow to use it. “If they cannot or do not want to, then the right to build factories is given to others, with the payment of a share of the profit to the landowner, so that God's blessing does not remain underground in the tun.” Whoever hides the ore or interferes with its extraction is subject to corporal punishment and the death penalty. In 1723 the legislator took another step; he intended to finally end the crown industrial monopoly system. To the statute worked out by the Manufacture College, he added a manifesto inviting private individuals to replace the state in the operation of institutions of all kinds created by it, offering favorable conditions. And such versatile, persistent efforts did not remain fruitless; the creative movement of life grew and expanded, and domestic industry became a reality.

Trade.

The history of trade under Peter, almost entirely the history of domestic trade. Upon accession to the throne, Peter had a strong desire to renounce his royal rights, which turned him into the largest and even the only major merchant of the state. But he had to submit to the law of war: he remained a merchant in order to earn money, and, doing nothing by halves, he increased the number of his affairs, monopolizing more than before, completely absorbing the entire internal and external market. Creating new branches of trade, he only increased the list of monopolies. A wholesale buyer, a petty trader, he even sold Hungarian wine in Moscow! At one time, absorbed in the concerns of management and disappointed by the uncertainty of income derived from trading enterprises, he decided to rent out the latter. Menshikov took Arkhangelsk fishing, blubber and seal skins. Then the hope for a near peace reduced the sovereign's financial difficulties, and he returned to his natural, liberal aspirations. In 1717 the grain trade was declared free, and in 1719 all monopolies were abolished. At the same time, the College of Commerce, which had existed since 1715, began to show fruitful activity, among other things, engaged in the commercial education of the merchant class, sending dozens of young people abroad, to Holland and Italy, chosen among the sons of large Moscow merchants, whose number was rapidly increasing. increased. The sovereign's diplomacy, in turn, worked to expand international relations. The war had previously led to unfortunate compromises in this respect, such as the sale in 1713 to the city of Lübeck of emergency rights and privileges for thirty-something thousand thalers, and similar conditions with Danzig and Hamburg. Since 1717, Peter has resolutely sought to put an end to these errors, and in the negotiations that began at that time with France, he no longer touched on this issue, just as in the instructions given to the consulates established at the same time in Toulon, Lisbon and London. Sometimes Peter still succumbed to the temptation to control, rather arbitrarily, the destinies of these emerging relationships. The proof of this is the history of the port of St. Petersburg, as well as the uniform battles of the great man with foreign and Russian merchants, who stubbornly preferred the port of Arkhangelsk. When the king has exhausted the means of peace-loving persuasion; when he saw that neither the creation of the vast Gostiny Dvor, nor the special magistracy, made up for the most part of foreigners, nor the labors he had spent to concentrate in his new capital their favorite commodity, hemp, at cheap prices and in abundance, could attract them there , he resolutely resorted to the precepts of his ancestors. He did not carry out a direct forced transportation of the Archangels to Petersburg, as Grand Duke Vasily did with the Pskovites, resettling them in Moscow; but ordered the people of Arkhangelsk to continue to buy or sell hemp only in St. Petersburg.

The measure bore fruit, which was to be expected. The new capital was still a disgusting warehouse. The canal system, designed to connect the Volga with the Neva through Lake Ladoga, was still in the project. The eminent English engineer Perry, who was entrusted with the execution of the work, dissatisfied with the ill treatment he had to endure, abandoned them at the very beginning. The second canal, invented by Peter to avoid dangerous navigation on Lake Ladoga, remained unfinished until 1732. The third system, based on the use of connecting rivers, served only to enrich the miller Serdyukov, who offered and used the concession granted to him too hastily to build up the banks of the Una and Shlina mills and taverns that had nothing to do with the port of St. Petersburg. Therefore, hemp, leather and other goods, since since 1717 two-thirds of all products were necessarily sent to St. Petersburg, were delivered with great difficulty, burdened with enormous transportation costs, and not finding buyers here, piled up in heaps, depreciated due to a large accumulation, and finally spoiled, especially hemp.

By good or by force, Petersburg was to become a trading port. In 1714, only sixteen foreign ships came there, a year later already fifty, one hundred and nineteen in 1722, one hundred and eighty in 1724. Peter laid the foundation for a system of water communications, which his successors, including Catherine II, tried to complete and to improve, and which, connecting the Volga basin with the basins of the Neva and Dvina, that is, the Caspian Sea with the Baltic and White Seas, concluded in the space occupied by canals three hundred and two versts, seventy-six lakes and one hundred and six rivers. There has been an enormous expenditure of wealth, labor, and even human lives; but the strength of Russia and the secret of her fate has always been for the most part in the desire and ability not to think about the victims in order to achieve the intended goal. The long-suffering peasants, buried by the tens of thousands in the Finnish swamps, this time submitted rather resignedly.

Peter did not attach the same importance to the development of land communications, and did not pay any attention to them. He didn't make roads. This is still one of the weaknesses of Russia from an economic point of view, and the too insufficient number of existing highways is exclusively the work of the engineers of the Institute of Communications, founded only in 1809. However, the great husband treated the caravan trade organized by his ancestors with due care. He himself was engaged in it, he bought harvests of Tokay grapes in Hungary; transporting the wine obtained from it to Moscow on hundreds of carts and sending Siberian products back to Hungary. Directing the greatest effort to the Baltic Sea and to the west, he did not lose sight of his southeastern border and trade interests that required his intervention. It is possible that, having reached Bukhara, he would subsequently start trade with India. Separate caravans were already arriving in Astrakhan, bringing not only silk and paper fabrics of Bukhara production, but also goods from India: precious stones, gold and silver items. In any case, Peter managed to first take possession of the course of the Irtysh, the possession of which protected the borders of Siberia from the Kalmyks and Kirghiz, then the Kolyvan mountains, where treasures discovered later fulfilled the Greek fairy tale about gold placers guarded by gnomes. Having stayed in Azov, Peter would also have continued, and perhaps would have achieved the restoration of the ancient trade route of the Venetians and Genoese. Thrown back to the Caspian Sea, he, of course, made an attempt to move this route, directing it from Astrakhan to St. Petersburg. The great expedition of 1722, supposed, and the beginning of the laying of a large city - a storage point - at the mouth of the Kura, where five thousand people of Tatars, Cheremis, Chuvashs worked at the moment of the tsar's death, apparently indicate the existence of such a thought. It can be said that the plan was partly fantastic, even insane, and there was absolutely no calculation of possibilities, distances, transportation costs. But despite the disproportionate courage of the enterprise and the oblivion that its immediate successors betrayed, a well-known result was achieved: the planned path to the markets of Persia and India is part of the heritage, a colossal asset of which Russia continues to enjoy at the present time.

Agriculture.

Such a versatile, almost all-encompassing person could not but be a farmer. And indeed, he was, and even passionate. In the history of Russian agriculture, the reign of Peter also constitutes an epoch. He was not content to teach his peasants how to plant potatoes, as Friedrich later did; with a sickle in his hands, he showed the peasants near Moscow how to harvest bread, near St. Petersburg, how to weave bast shoes. He considered the peasants to be students, and himself to be an educator, forbade them to wear soles lined with large nails, because this spoiled the floors, determined the width of the rough canvas that they wove on their thighs. Having admired in France the garden of a village priest, he immediately upon his return to Russia scolded his clergy: “Why don’t they plant such vegetable gardens in their own country!” He was concerned with the selection of seeds for sowing, the breeding of livestock, the fertilization of fields, and the use of tools and methods of improved farming; tried to plant grapes on the land of the Don Cossacks and took care of his more successful culture in the vicinity of Derbent, where he ordered to try Persian and Hungarian vines. In 1712, the first horse factories were arranged by him; in 1706, the first herds of rams were introduced in the present-day provinces of Kharkov, Poltava and Yekaterinoslav, where rams are now bred in huge numbers. Peter was also the first forester of his homeland. He was the first to defend the forests against the reigning reckless extermination. For this, however, he used methods that are hardly applicable at present even in Russia: along the banks of the Neva and the Gulf of Finland, at five-verst intervals, gallows were set up to edify the devastators. Even within the boundaries of present-day Petersburg, in the place now occupied by customs, a spruce forest then towered. Since the cuttings did not stop in it, Peter ordered a round-up, hang every tenth of the disobedient caught and punish the rest with a whip. In general, on the basis of economic progress, the desire of the reformer ran into a double obstacle: a moral and a political one. Marked March 13, 1706, a decree addressed to the Senate punished by death local merchants who, in keeping with their adopted habit, which their English buyers complained about, mixed spoiled fiber or even stones with hemp bales to increase weight. Raising the moral level of trade and industry, however, remained a task bequeathed to the future. At the end of the reign, the elements of commercial and industrial activity, created, called almost from non-existence by the great creator, were still in a wild state. In 1722, Bestuzhev reported from Stockholm about the arrival of several Russian merchants from Abo and Verel: “They brought a small amount of coarse canvas, wooden spoons, nuts, and they sell these goods through the streets in layers, cooking themselves porridge in the open air; refuse to obey the orders of the police, get drunk, quarrel, fight and present a shameful spectacle of disgusting uncleanliness.

financial policy.

The political obstacle was finances. In the history of the great reign, financial policy is a dark spot. Of all the branches of the creation of Peter, this branch, apparently, was most directly inspired, caused by the war, which was reflected in it. First of all, it does not have a transformative character at all; besides, she is almost always frank and disgusting.

The funds that Peter had at his disposal during his accession to the throne cannot be put in direct parallel with the funds of other European states. According to Golikov, they did not exceed 1,750,000 rubles. Based on such a meager budget, the material existence of the Russian state would, even if only touching the inside, regardless of any efforts directed beyond it, look like an insoluble riddle, if one does not take into account the very special conditions in which it then found itself. First of all, in addition to the maintenance of the army, almost no duties lay on the state itself. It did not pay its employees: they were obliged to serve it in return for the privileges given to them, or received salaries indirectly, by “feeding”. It didn't support roads that didn't exist then, and so on. Take, for example, the budget of expenditures of 1710. It is very instructive in this respect.

artillery ......................... 221,799 r.

fleet .................................. 444.288 r.

garrisons ......................... 977,896 p.

Recruitment costs.............................. 30,000 rubles.

the purchase of weapons .................. 84.104 rubles.

Other expenses (including salary

feldzeugmeisters .................................. 675.775 r.

Before the accession of Peter in 1679, a very important beneficent measure was taken in this primitive organization, namely, the centralization of income in the Order of the Great Treasury, replaced in 1699 by the town hall. The great man, by his intervention, only destroyed everything that had been done. He had too little time to follow a program that promised satisfactory results only over a long period of time. Needing big money and immediately, he acted like the confused sons of wealthy parents. Instead of continuing to centralize and thus gradually destroy the individual in terms of money). At the same time, high customs tariffs (up to 40% in foreign currency) reliably protected the domestic market. The growth of industrial production was accompanied by the intensification of feudal exploitation, the widespread use of forced labor in manufactories: the use of serfs, bought (possession) peasants, as well as the labor of the state (black-eared) peasantry, which was attributed to the plant as a permanent source of labor. The decree of January 18, 1721, and subsequent laws (for example, of May 28, 1723) allowed private manufacturers to buy peasants by entire villages “without restriction, so that those villages would always be at those factories inseparably.”