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The most contentious aspect of Peter’s legacy, however, is
not the question of his motivation in launching
Europeanization, but the question of the effects of
his Reform on Russia. Were they, for example, revolutionary,
signifying a complete break with the Muscovite past?
Or were they merely a continuation of changes already set in
motion by Peter’s predecessors, in particular by his father,
tsar Alexis (reigned 1645-1676 )? |
The
extent of Peter’s radicalism and innovation can be measured by
setting his reforms within the context of the Muscovite past and
trying to assess to what degree they represented the
continuation of the previous trends and to what extent they
signified a break in the continuity with the earlier Muscovite
Russia. Stephen Lee has grouped Peter’s policies in categories
according to the degree of their continuity with the previous
trends.
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At one
end of the spectrum is a group of policies which represents a clear
continuation of the trends and practices of the traditional
Muscovite Russia. The best example of the continuity between Peter
and his predecessor was the tightening of the control by the State
and the nobility over the serfs and the intensification of the
economic and social burdens on the Russian masses. This group is
represented by such policies as the levying of the soul tax on all
males from the ‘tax-paying’ classes (i.e. the entire non-noble
population), the introduction of compulsory military service for
most of the Russian male population and the extension of
conscription for construction projects (such as, for instance, the
building of St Petersburg). |
At the other
end of the spectrum are a few policies which might be called
revolutionary in the sense that they signaled a complete change of
direction and had no precedents in previous reigns. One obvious
example was creation of a modern navy. Peter was the first tsar not
only to establish a powerful navy but also to set up a Russian
ship-building industry, which transformed Russia from a land-locked
military state into one of Europe’s largest naval powers. At the
close of his reign, Russia had almost fifty major war vessels and a
navy of nearly thirty thousand.
The bulk of
Peter’s innovations occupy the middle ground between examples of
clear continuity and totally new departures. These were the policies
that had to some extent been anticipated in the past but which were
now more fully implemented as a result of more conscious imitation
of the West. The word ‘revolutionary’ may still be applied to some
of them, but in the sense of a revolutionary acceleration of past
trends rather than of a complete change of direction. This group
includes measures such as the creation of a modern army, a radical
administrative reform, active efforts to develop the country’s
industrial capacity and the promotion of secular culture and
education.
Grouping the
reforms into categories helps to see the extent of Peter’s
radicalism and innovation in respect to his predecessors. However,
it does not necessarily explain why the radical acceleration of the
previous processes and the introduction of entirely new policies
happened when it did - in the era of Peter the Great. In order to
understand deeper causes of his Reform, it is necessary to put it
into a broader comparative and historical perspective and define
its place not simply in relation to the Muscovite Russia, but also
in the context of European history and contemporary worldwide
developments.
