Contemporaries were amazed by the very appearance of Peter. His height was 2 meters 4 centimeters. He had enormous physical strength: he could straighten a horseshoe with his hands.
The young Tsar Peter I had “non-royal manners.” He did not act majestically, as all the kings before him did, but walked with a swift gait, made sudden movements, and spoke in a loud voice. He did not like slowness not only in gestures, but also in deeds.
In the German Settlement, the tsar became acquainted with European customs and way of life.
Russian tsars almost never left the capital, much less the country. And if they left, it was only in connection with military affairs or trips on pilgrimage.
Peter, in the words of V. O. Klyuchevsky, “grew up and matured on the road.” For a year and a half he went abroad to study and get acquainted with Europe.
Monuments to Peter I
As a great ruler, monarch, commander leading the country, Peter I is depicted in two monuments in St. Petersburg. Material from the site
Painting “Peter I” (V. Serov)
Artist of the early 20th century. V. Serov in the painting “Peter I” depicted a resolutely and quickly walking tsar against the backdrop of the semi-desert city of St. Petersburg under construction. The figure of the king inspires confidence that everything he plans will come true. He doesn't look back, but he knows he's not alone. Behind him, barely keeping up with his sweeping gait, overcoming gusts of wind, his entourage almost runs. The picture demonstrates the impulse, impatience and conviction of the king in the rightness of his cause, his actions.
Painting “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei” (N. N. Ge)
The painting by N. N. Ge “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei” is full of drama. The action takes place in Peterhof, the Tsar's country residence. The picture conveys the tragedy of mutual misunderstanding between the two closest people - father and son. They are on opposite sides of the table. And don’t connect with them. The downcast gaze of Tsarevich Alexei, who was very afraid of his father-monarch, was gloomy and stubborn. Peter's sad and angry look - his son, his heir, his hope for continuing what he started does not accept his father's work, not his comrade-in-arms and successor!
The most famous ruler from the Romanov dynasty is Peter I. He did a lot of useful things for Russia, but there were also disadvantages in his reign. Historians perceive Peter's personality differently, for example, Moritz Saxony called Peter the greatest man of his century, N.I. Pavlenko believed that Peter's transformations were a major step along the road to progress. Outstanding Soviet historians largely agree with him: E.V. Tarle, N.N. Molchanov, V.I. Buganov. There are also historians who evaluate Peter's activities negatively. A.M. Burovsky calls Peter I, following the Old Believers, the “Tsar-Antichrist,” as well as a “possessed sadist” and a “bloody monster,” arguing that his activities ruined and bled Russia. According to him, everything good that is attributed to Peter was known long before him, and Russia before him was much more developed and free than after.
In foreign policy, Peter achieved considerable success. From 1695 to 1696 he made Azov campaigns. The first Azov campaign, which began in the spring of 1695, ended unsuccessfully in September of the same year due to the lack of a fleet and the unwillingness of the Russian army to operate far from supply bases. However, already in the fall of 1695-1696, preparations for a new campaign began. The construction of a Russian rowing flotilla began in Voronezh. In a short time, a flotilla of different ships was built, led by the 36-gun ship "Apostle Peter". In May 1696, a 40,000-strong Russian army under the command of Generalissimo Shein again besieged Azov, only this time the Russian flotilla blocked the fortress from the sea. Peter I took part in the siege with the rank of captain on a galley. Without waiting for the assault, on July 19, 1696, the fortress surrendered. Thus, Russia's first access to the southern seas was opened. The result of the Azov campaigns was the capture of the Azov fortress, the beginning of construction of the port of Taganrog, the possibility of an attack on the Crimean peninsula from the sea, which significantly secured the southern borders of Russia. However, Peter failed to gain access to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait: he remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Russia did not yet have the forces for a war with Turkey, as well as a full-fledged navy. In March 1697, the Grand Embassy was sent to Western Europe through Livonia, the main purpose of which was to find allies against the Ottoman Empire. For the first time, the Russian Tsar undertook a trip outside his state. The embassy recruited several hundred shipbuilding specialists to Russia and purchased military and other equipment. In addition to negotiations, Peter devoted a lot of time to studying shipbuilding, military affairs and other sciences. Peter worked as a carpenter at the shipyards of the East India Company, with the participation of the Tsar the ship “Peter and Paul” was built. In England, he visited a foundry, an arsenal, parliament, Oxford University, the Greenwich Observatory and the Mint, of which Isaac Newton was the keeper at that time.
The Grand Embassy did not achieve its main goal due to the preparation of a number of European powers for the War of the Spanish Succession. However, thanks to this war, favorable conditions developed for Russia’s struggle for the Baltic. Thus, there was a reorientation of Russian foreign policy from the southern to the northern direction. As they say, Peter cut a window to Europe, but it was not easy for him. After the return of the Great Embassy, Peter began to prepare for the Northern War against Sweden.
He concluded the Northern Alliance against Charles XII, which included Russia itself, Denmark and Saxony. Peter's main goal was to achieve access to the Baltic Sea, but also to return Ingria, the Gulf of Finland, increase international authority and become a maritime power. In August 1700 Russia declared war on Sweden. Russian troops moved towards Narva. By that time, Saxony and Denmark were already fighting the Swedes. Karl was not at a loss, he did not chase the Danes, but unexpectedly landed with a 15,000-strong detachment near the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Not having enough soldiers at hand, the Danish King Frederick IV made peace with Sweden and left the Northern Alliance. Despite the surrender of Denmark, Russian troops besieged Narva, but not successfully. Meanwhile, Peter developed feverish activity. They continued to build the fleet. A permanent, professional army was created, which was called regular. In 1722 A “Table of Ranks” was created, which equalized the rights of people of different classes to perform public and military service from 14 to 1st rank, reaching 8th rank, any person received nobility. Since Russia lost many people, the Russian army needed people. Peter acted very wisely, he created a decree “On Single Inheritance”, it said that the inheritance could only be transferred to the eldest heir, which means that the children of nobles who did not receive the inheritance are forced to go into military service. Factories and officer schools were also built, and artillery was created.
Having recovered from the defeat, Russia began to win its first victories. 1701-1703 victories in the Baltic states, 1703 - Nyenschanz was taken, 1703 - St. Petersburg was founded, 1704 - the capture of Derp and Narva and in 1705. Peter creates the Admiralty shipyard. In 1706, the Northern Alliance collapses, and Russia begins to fight Sweden alone. And in 1708, Charles XII invades Russia, and the Battle of Lesnaya takes place. This battle is called the “Mother of the Battle of Poltava” and already in 1709 the Battle of Poltava took place and was won. After the defeat in the Battle of Poltava, the Swedish king Charles XII took refuge in the possessions of the Ottoman Empire, the city of Bendery. Peter I concluded an agreement with Turkey on the expulsion of Charles XII from Turkish territory, but then the Swedish king was allowed to stay and create a threat to the southern border of Russia with the help of part of the Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars. Seeking the expulsion of Charles XII, Peter I began to threaten war with Turkey, but in response, on November 20, 1710, the Sultan himself declared war on Russia. The real cause of the war was the capture of Azov by Russian troops in 1696 and the appearance of the Russian fleet in the Sea of Azov.
peter the great reign king
And already on July 20, 1711, 190 thousand Turks and Crimean Tatars pressed the 38 thousand Russian army to the right bank of the Prut River, completely surrounding it. In a seemingly hopeless situation, Peter managed to conclude the Prut Peace Treaty with the Grand Vizier, according to which the army and the Tsar himself escaped capture, but in return Russia gave Azov to Turkey and lost access to the Sea of Azov. But the Swedish fleet no longer dominated the Baltic Sea after Russian victories at Cape Gangut in 1714 and at Grengam Island in 1720. In 1721, Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Nystad. Russia returned Finland, but received access to the Baltic Sea, lands and a sharp increase in status in the world. But Russia not only pushed its borders to the north, but also to the east. Under Peter, Kamchatka was annexed. In addition to the war and the expansion of borders, Peter carried out enormous reforms. In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the Russian state and introducing the ruling stratum to European culture while simultaneously strengthening the absolute monarchy. During his 15 months abroad, Peter saw a lot and learned a lot. After the return of the tsar on August 25, 1698, his transformative activities began, first aimed at changing the external signs that distinguished the Old Slavic way of life from the Western European one. In the Preobrazhensky Palace, Peter suddenly began to cut the beards of nobles, and already on August 29, 1698, the famous decree “On wearing German dress, on shaving beards and mustaches, on schismatics walking in the attire specified for them” was issued, which prohibited the wearing of beards from September 1. “I want to transform the secular goats, that is, citizens, and the clergy, that is, monks and priests. The first, so that without beards they would resemble Europeans in goodness, and the others, so that, although with beards, in churches they would teach parishioners Christian virtues like this as I have seen and heard of pastors teaching in Germany." The new year 7208 according to the Russian-Byzantine calendar (“from the creation of the world”) became the 1700th year according to the Julian calendar. Peter also introduced the celebration on January 1 of the New Year, and not on the day of the autumn equinox, as was previously celebrated. Public administration was also changed. The Boyar Duma was replaced by the Senate, the Zemsky Sobor no longer functioned, the illuminated cathedral was replaced by a synod, headed by the chief prosecutor, orders were renamed collegiums, and there were much fewer of them, governors became governors, and fiscals were also invented - a control body. Peter I introduced assemblies - balls, to which men had to come with their wives. But since they gathered at the assemblies not only for entertainment, but also to talk about some important matters, at first people felt awkward. The Emperor also developed science. So in 1702 an observatory was opened in Moscow, in 1725 the Academy of Sciences was opened.
And so, thanks to Peter I, Russia moved its borders to the north and east, returned the lands lost during the Time of Troubles, gained access to the Baltic Sea, as a result of the transformations, a strong regular army and a powerful fleet were created, which the state simply did not have before, as well for the first time, after the victory in the Northern War, Russia is proclaimed an empire, and Peter takes the title of All-Russian Emperor.
In addition to high-profile victories, there were also disadvantages in Peter's reign. The Russian people disliked Peter and thought that he was the Antichrist, because when Peter ordered the bells from churches to be removed to melt down the cannons, people were shocked. Of course, this action was not very correct, but the circumstances required it. But during the Northern War, not only churches were destroyed, but also the entire people. Peter changed taxation, people used to pay a household tax, but now they started paying a capitation tax. Taxes increased and new levies were constantly introduced. There was a tax on boots, on smoke... Under Peter, serfdom was strengthened. Possessed and assigned peasants appear. They had double work: they had to work in the factory and for the owner. Regarding Europeanization, Peter was too harsh. He very quickly changed the way of life of people and their foundations, so riots broke out. For example, the Astrakhan riot, people rebelled not happy with barbering because it is a man's dignity, and with the shortening of dresses. The uprising was suppressed. The Bashkir uprising was outraged by the fact that profit-makers collected very large taxes and committed outrages. The Russian army suppressed the riot. In addition to barbering, Peter ordered men to wear men's tights and wigs. I think it was excess.
Thus, the 18th century became great in the history of Russia. From a backward country, which Europe is accustomed to disregard, Russia has become a huge strong power, stretching from the White Sea to the Black Sea, from the Baltic shores to the distant Pacific Ocean. Many new cities grew up. The new capital is St. Petersburg. As long as Russia is alive, the debate about Peter the Great, begun by his contemporaries, will not cease. There is no unambiguous assessment of the emperor’s personality, as well as his transformations. Nevertheless, it was under Peter the Great that many reforms were carried out, many events happened. On January 28, 1725, the first Russian emperor, Peter Alekseevich Romanov, died. “...Who are we burying? We are burying Peter the Great. The “sun of the Russian land” has set!” - these words were spoken by Feofan Prokopovich, one of Peter’s most devoted associates. “The sun of the Russian land” is the highest rating. But already during his lifetime, completely different judgments were expressed: there were people who considered the tsar to be the culprit of many of Russia’s troubles. Indeed, we must not forget that “at the cost of ruining the country, Russia was elevated to the rank of a European power.”
History has repeatedly confirmed that personality is one of the determining factors in the development of the state. This was especially evident in monarchical states, where the fate of an entire nation often depended on the will of one person. Speaking about a personality in the history of Russia, one cannot help but recall one of the most unusual and most famous Russian emperors - Peter I.
We call his reforms revolutionary, his approach to solving government problems unprecedented. In many ways, the merits of this figure are determined by Peter’s character traits. On the one hand, he was rude, sometimes cruel and unscrupulous in his means, overly emotional and hot-tempered... On the other, he established himself as an energetic king, aware of his duty to the fatherland and not sparing himself or others in the name of achieving the goals of the state.
Peter's entourage played a major role in the formation of such contradictory qualities. Being the youngest son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, he was left in Kolomenskoye near Moscow, where he spent most of his childhood. Unlike his ancestors, he spent his time not in the dark halls of the Kremlin under the supervision of teachers, but in the fresh air, practically unrestricted in anything.
Hence the social circle of the future king, which consisted mostly of humble people, but talented and interesting to the king. In the German settlement, where Peter visited almost every day, he met talented Western masters who had left Europe and settled in Russia. They could teach the inquisitive Peter a lot, and he enjoyed spending time in their company.
This developed curiosity in the king and made him extremely receptive to any craft - by the time he ascended the throne, he had perfectly mastered more than a dozen professions. But communication with people of low rank and having fun became the reason for the rudeness that later manifested itself in the king.
The events of his childhood also played a major role in the development of Peter’s character. The horrors of the Streltsy riots left their mark on the emotional king, and in subsequent years this was reflected in his personality. Until the end of his life, Peter could not tolerate everything old Russian, everything that could remind him of his childhood experiences.
During his reign, the boyar duma will cease to exist, and the Streltsy army will be abolished. Even in Moscow, which served as the capital of Russian sovereigns since ancient times, Peter did not want to stay and ordered the construction of a new capital - St. Petersburg.
Childhood impressions became the reason for Peter's strong hostility towards Russian antiquity, which he sought to eradicate by all means, not stopping at any means - he himself cut off the heads of the archers in 1698, and he himself conquered lands in the Baltic from the Swedes in order to found a new capital there in 1703 ...
He was not afraid of responsibility and was always ready to make important decisions, never hesitated or delayed matters. Peter I became an example of a decisive statesman who did not stop at any difficulties and, perhaps, very close to the ideal of the ruler of a powerful and strong Russian Empire.
The personality of Peter the Great is not as simple as we used to imagine. What immediately caught the eye in this person was Peter’s penchant for physical work, his practical acumen and dexterity.
It is interesting and instructive to fully understand this man, who from childhood made a strong impression on all of us with his gigantic height (less than two inches a fathom!), with his extraordinary strength, cruelty, and with all his proud and majestic bearing.
Already from his very birth (on the night of May 30, 1672), Peter promised to be a physically outstanding person: the newborn child turned out to be a giant - 11 inches long and 3 inches wide. He took after neither his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nor his paternal grandfather. Peter inherited the external and internal characteristics of his mother's family. The Naryshkin family had a large reserve of health, a lot of mobility, energy and perseverance.
Peter inherited not only the positive, but also the negative traits of the Naryshkins. The child got to his feet amazingly quickly, starting to walk when he was only six months old. The toys and amusements that surrounded Peter's early childhood developed predominantly military tastes in him, and this is not surprising, not only due to the boy's natural inclination to play with soldiers. The soldiers of young Peter I were his peers assigned to them. These earliest games were seeds that fell on very fertile soil.
The little prince was not interested in any fun other than military ones. With his early physical and mental development, he apparently was significantly ahead of his peers - he was soon bored with the “robotic kids”, and they had to be replaced by adult “robotic kids”, from which, by order of the tsar, a regiment with a banner, in a green uniform, was recruited armed with a real gun and named “Petrov Regiment”, after the name of its warlike colonel, 4 years old. Already from early childhood, in Peter’s upbringing, which consisted of military fun and training, there were those elements that were later attributed exclusively to the influence of the German Settlement: military affairs and foreigners. True, later, during the period of Peter’s communication with the German Settlement, these elements in his life were presented in an intensified and even exaggerated form, but they were outlined back at the time when little Peter was under the affectionate care of his father. Peter's brother, Tsar Fedor, without depriving him of military training, added literacy training to it; but the undoubted fact is worthy of attention that the child became acquainted with military exercises earlier than with the primer. Learning to read and write began when Peter reached his 5th year (March 12, 1677). An unusually sharp memory allowed the prince to very quickly and easily go through the uninteresting path of the then “science of book learning,” where the primer, the Apostle, and the Gospel were some kind of motionless obstacles. Peter's acquaintance with Russian history was carried out using a book with illustrations specially prepared for this purpose, using the “royal book in faces.” Thus, we see that the beginning of that boundless curiosity that amazed everyone in Peter (in particular, his interest in Russian history) was also laid during his early childhood. Peter’s education, with the means of pedagogy of that time, in general began correctly, but it quickly ended, and therefore the youngest son of Tsar Alexei, if he “acutely read” “by heart or memory” “the entire Gospel and the Apostle,” then in relation to the letter that required much more time to assimilate, remained a dropout. Military affairs, which began before the teaching of literacy, gave more lasting results until 1682 than the lessons of Zotov. Peter developed in a way that ordinary people do not develop, both physically and mentally. The 10-year-old boy seemed like a 15- to 16-year-old youth, who involuntarily attracted everyone's attention with his appearance. He was a curly, black-haired youth, looking older, with sparkling natural intelligence and large eyes.
Indeed, even in early childhood, some haste and impatience were noticed in his behavior. The child’s extraordinary liveliness and mobility once amazed Natalya Kirillovna, who was watching the embassy reception ceremony through a small hole in the door. Based on such stories, the inner artistic truth of which can hardly be doubted, it would be enough to say that Peter by nature had an extremely lively, but at the same time very nervous, extremely quickly perceiving the impression of being, temperament. If this is so, then one can easily imagine the impression that the bloody scenes that played out in front of him during the Streltsy rebellion made on 10-year-old Peter, when he again stood next to his mother, this time on the Red Porch. Then he learned to be afraid. This is what we have to think, taking into account Peter’s later attitude towards the brutal massacre of the archers with people close to him and, above all, with his kind grandfather Matveev, who spoiled him with gifts. Never during his entire life could Peter forget these nightmarish minutes; having implanted in his soul a sensitivity to fear.
One way or another, the whole dark side of his activities is related to Peter’s stated mood. The vindictiveness that Peter showed during the massacre of the Streltsy, not disdaining to take on the responsibility of the executioner and blasphemously staining the blood of those being executed, the remains of the old breeder of the Streltsy Troubles, Ivan Mikh. Miloslavsky, whose seed Peter so radically destroyed; the vindictiveness that he showed in the affairs of his first and second wife, and most importantly his unfortunate son, shows firsthand how far the damage to the personality of Peter the Great went, which began in childhood, continued in his youth and ultimately deposited such a thick crust on Peter’s psyche cruelty, intemperance and all sorts of vices, that only the people closest to him did not doubt his ability for good, humane impulses, and the rest, who stood further from Peter, ranked him among the repulsive type of despots and tormentors - like Ivan the Terrible.
Peter's mind is rightly considered genius, but it seems that they do not sufficiently determine what this genius actually consisted of. The amazing, extremely rare ability to move from habitual mental associations to new ones, unusual for the same cultural environment, to instantly get a taste for these new associations, to make them your own and to independently create new series and combinations of associations from them - that’s what was the genius of Peter's mind.
Of course, the early rejection of the usual “rank” of royal life and Peter’s familiarization with people of “every rank” and with foreigners with other concepts, as diverse as the ethnographic composition of the German Settlement, contributed to that mental freedom that sharply distinguishes Peter from his predecessors ; but this indication cannot exhaust the explanation: the main part of it must fall to the share of tenacity, rapid intelligence and the constantly excited power of Peter’s mind. Only with the noted properties of the mind and the genius ability to transform by leaps and bounds from a “Muscovite” - into a European not only in appearance, but in the very way of thinking and mental emotions - could Peter emerge as such a transformer of Russia as he came out.
The personality of Peter the Great is not as simple as we are accustomed to imagine it. What immediately caught the eye in this person was really simple - Peter’s penchant for physical work, his practical ingenuity and dexterity, his gaiety, apparent directness and purely spontaneous impulses in expressing affection and anger, this man’s inclination towards simple life and rough noisy pleasures, close communication with ordinary people - all this in the tsar, which declared itself too loudly and openly, greatly simplified the image of the one who is called the transformer of Russia. And in our imagination, the idea of Peter as a “tsar-carpenter”, a “master”, as a “sailor” with a “sailor’s appetite”, which was somehow more suitable for his unusual behavior for a tsar, and in general, the whole the simple living environment of this sovereign. It is interesting and instructive to fully understand this man, who from childhood made a strong impression on all of us with his gigantic height, his extraordinary strength, cruelty, all his proud and majestic posture, the commanding stern expression of his beautiful, but slightly rough round face, framed by thick, curly hair thrown back hair...
Already from his very birth (on the night of May 30, 1672), Peter promised to be a physically outstanding person: the newborn child turned out to be a giant - 11 inches long and 3 inches wide. He took after neither his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nor his paternal grandfather - people who were not distinguished by good health and generally represented a different type of personality. The toys and amusements that surrounded Peter's early childhood developed his predominantly military tastes. These earliest toys and games were seeds that fell on very fertile soil: they sprouted the first and very viable shoots of Peter’s extraordinary love specifically for military craft; according to contemporary Krekshin, the little prince was not interested in any fun other than military ones. With his early physical and mental development, he apparently was significantly ahead of his peers, who soon became boring to him, and they had to be replaced by adults, from which, by order of the Tsar, a regiment with a banner, in a green uniform, armed with a real gun and called the “Petrov Regiment” was recruited ", named after his warlike colonel, 4 years old. peter state reform
Since childhood, Peter had such qualities as haste, hard work, impatience, self-development, curiosity, wit, and interest in innovation.
Peter's mind is rightly considered genius, but it seems that they do not sufficiently determine what this genius actually consisted of. The amazing, extremely rare, ability to move from familiar mental associations to new ones - unusual for the same cultural environment, to instantly get a taste for these new associations, make them your own and independently create new series and combinations of associations from them - that’s what was the genius of Peter's mind. In Peter's mind, despite his enormous sensitivity and immediacy, there was a lot of independence based on strong common sense, on a purely Russian “on your own.”
The interests of Russia and the Russian people were exclusive for Peter, the only interests for which he lived and worked “by the sweat of his brow,” “tirelessly.”
Peter the Great did a lot for the development and prosperity of his state and people, which causes many contradictions.
