Encyclopedia of Russian History
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One of the functions of Peter’s mock institutions was to ridicule the old ways. Peter constantly lamented his subjects’ reluctance to improve themselves on their own initiative. As he wrote in an edict of 1721 to replace sickles with more efficient scythes: “Even though something may be good, if it is new our people will not do it.” He therefore resorted to force. In Russia, where serfdom was made law as recently as 1649, the idea of a servile population was not new, but under Peter servitude was extended and intensified. The army and navy swallowed up tens of thousands of men. State peasants were increasingly requisitioned to work on major projects. Previously free persons were transferred to the status of serfs during the introduction of the poll tax. Peter also believed in the power of rules, regulations, and statutes, devised “in order that everyone knows his duties and no one excuses himself on the grounds of ignorance.” In 1720, for example, he issued the General Regulation, a “regulation of regulations” for the new government apparatus. Not only the peasants, but also the nobles, found life burdensome. They were forced to serve for life and to educate their sons for service.
ASSOCIATES AND OPPONENTS
Despite his harsh methods, Peter was supported by a number of men, drawn from both the old Muscovite elite and from outside it. The most prominent of the newcomers were his favorite, the talented and corrupt Alexander Menshikov (1673-1729), whom he made a prince, and Paul Yaguzhinsky, who became the first Procurator-General. Top men from the traditional elite included General Boris Sheremetev, Chancellor Gavrila Golovkin, Admiral Fyodor Apraksin and Prince Fyodor Romodanov-sky. The chief publicist was the Ukrainian churchman Feofan Prokopovich. It is a misconception that Peter relied on foreigners and commoners.
Religious traditionalists abhorred Peter, identifying him as the Antichrist. The several revolts of his reign all included some elements of antagonism toward foreigners and foreign innovations such as shaving and Western dress, along with more standard and substantive complaints about the encroachment of central authority, high taxes, poor conditions of service, and remuneration. The most serious were the musketeer revolt of 1698, the Astrakhan revolt of 1705, and the rebellion led by the
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Don Cossack Ivan Bulavin in 1707-1708. The disruption that worried Peter most, however, affected his inner circle. Peter was married twice: in 1689 to the noblewoman Yevdokia Lopukhina, whom he banished to a convent in 1699, and in 1712 to Catherine, a former servant girl from Livonia whom he met around 1703. He groomed the surviving son of his first marriage, Alexei Petrovich (1690-1718), as his successor, but they had a troubled relationship. In 1716 Alexei fled abroad. Lured back to Russia in 1718, he was tried and condemned to death for treason, based on unfounded charges of a plot to assassinate his father. Many of Alexei’s associates were executed, and people in leading circles were suspected of sympathy for him. Peter and Catherine had at least ten children (the precise number is unknown), but only two girls reached maturity: Anna and Elizabeth (who reigned as empress from 1741 to 1761). In 1722 Peter issued a new Law of Succession by which the reigning monarch nominated his own successor, but he failed to record his choice before his death (from a bladder infection) in February (January O.S.) 1725. Immediately after Peter’s death, Menshikov and some leading courtiers with guards’ support backed Peter’s widow, who reigned as Catherine I (1725-1727).
VIEWS OF PETER AND HIS REFORMS
The official view in the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth was that Peter had “given birth” to Russia, transforming it from “non-existence” into “being.” Poets represented him as Godlike. The man and his methods were easily accommodated in later eighteenth-century discourses of Enlightened Absolutism. Even during Peter’s lifetime, however, questions were raised about the heavy cost of his schemes and the dangers of abandoning native culture and institutions. As the Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin commented in 1810: “Truly, St. Petersburg is founded on tears and corpses.” He believed that Peter had made Russians citizens of the world, but prevented them from being Russians. Hatred of St. Petersburg as a symbol of alien traditions was an important element in the attitude of nineteenth-century Slavophiles, who believed that only the peasants had retained Russian cultural values. To their Western-izer opponents, however, Peter’s reforms, stopping short of Western freedoms, had not gone far enough. In the later nineteenth century, serious studies of seventeenth-century Muscovy questioned the revolutionary nature of Peter’s reign, underlining that many of Peter’s reforms and policies, such as hiring foreigners, reforming the army, and borrowing Western culture, originated with his predecessors. The last tsars, especially Nicholas II, took a nostalgic view of pre-Petrine Russia, but Petrine values were revered by the imperial court until its demise.
Soviet historians generally took a bipolar view of Peter’s reign. On the one hand, they believed that Russia had to catch up with the West, whatever the cost; hence they regarded institutional and cultural reforms, the new army, navy, factories, and so on as “progressive.” Territorial expansion was approved. On the other hand, Soviet historians were bound to denounce Peter’s exploitation of the peasantry and to praise popular rebels such as Bulavin; moreover, under Stalin, Peter’s cosmopolitanism was treated with suspicion. Cultural historians in particular stressed native achievements over foreign borrowings. In the 1980s-1990s some began to take a more negative view still, characterizing Peter as “the creator of the administrative-command system and the true ancestor of Stalin” (Anisimov, 1993). After the collapse of the USSR, the secession of parts of the former Empire and Union, and the decline of the armed forces and navy, many people looked back to Peter’s reign as a time when Russia was strong and to Peter as an ideal example of a strong leader. The debate continues. See also: ALEXEI PETROVICH; CATHERINE I; ELIZABETH; FYODOR ALEXEYEVICH; MENSHIKOV, ALEXANDER DANILOVICH; PATRIARCHATE; PEASANTRY; SERFDOM; ST. PETERSBURG; TABLE OF RANKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, M. S. (1995). Peter the Great. London: Longman. Anisimov, E. V. (1993). Progress through Coercion: The Reforms of Peter the Great. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Bushkovitch, Paul. (2001). Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671-1725. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Canadian American Slavic Studies. 8 (1974). Issue devoted to Peter’s reign. Cracraft, James. (1971). The Church Reform of Peter the Great. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cracraft, James. (1990). The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cracraft, James. (1997). The Petrine Revolution in Russian Imagery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hughes, Lindsey. (1998). Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
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Hughes, Lindsey, ed. (2000). Peter the Great and the West: New Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Hughes, Lindsey. (2002). Peter the Great: A Biography. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Kliuchevsky, Vasily. (1958). Peter the Great, tr. L. Archibald. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Pososhkov, Ivan. (1987). The Book of Poverty and Wealth, ed., tr. A. P. Vlasto, L. R. Lewitter. London: The Athlone Press. Raeff, Marc. ed. (1972). Peter the Great Changes Russia. Lexington, MA: Heath. Riasanovsky, Nicholas. (1984). The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LINDSEY HUGHES
PETER II
(1715-1730), emperor of Russia, May 1727 to January 1730.
Son of Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich and Princess Charlotte of Wolfenb?ttel, and grandson of Peter I, the future Peter II had an unfortunate start in life. His German mother died soon after his birth, and in 1718 his father died in prison after being tortured and condemned to death for treason. Peter I did not mistreat his grandson, but feared him as a possible rallying point for conservatives. He did not groom him as his heir, and a new Law on Succession (1722) rejected primogeniture and made it possible for the ruler to nominate his successor. During the reign of his step-grandmother, Catherine I (1725-1727), young Peter found himself under the protectio
n of Prince Alexander Menshikov, who betrothed him to his daughter Maria and persuaded Catherine to name him as her successor, in the hope of stealing ground from the old nobility and gaining popularity by restoring the male line. On the day of Catherine’s death, Peter was proclaimed emperor.
For the rest of Peter’s short life it was a question of who could manipulate him before he developed a mind of his own. At first Menshikov kept the emperor under his wing, but, following a bout of illness in the summer of 1727, Menshikov was marginalized then banished by members of the powerful Dolgoruky clan, backed by the emperor’s grandmother, Peter I’s ex-wife Yevdokia. Peter II was crowned in Moscow on March 8 (February 25 O.S.), 1728. His chief adviser was now Prince Alexis Grigorevich Dolgoruky, but the power behind the government was Heinrich Osterman. Both men were members of the Supreme Privy Council. After his coronation Peter stayed in Moscow, where he devoted much of his time to hunting. Portraits show a handsome boy dressed in the latest Western fashion. His short reign has sometimes been associated with a move to reject many of Peter’s reforms, but there is no evidence that Peter II or his circle planned to return to the old ways, even if magnates welcomed the opportunity to spend more time on their Moscow estates. According to one source, young Peter wished to “follow in the steps of his grandfather.” He did not get the chance. In fall 1729 he was betrothed to Prince Dolgoruky’s daughter Catherine, but the wedding never took place. On January 29 (January 18 O.S.), 1730, he died from smallpox, without nominating a successor. The last of the Romanov male line, he was buried in the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow. See also: CATHERINE I; MENSHIKOV, ALEXANDER DANILOVICH; ROMANOV DYNASTY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Raleigh, D. J. (1996). The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Rediscovering the Romanovs. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
LINDSEY HUGHES
PETER III
(1728-1762), emperor of Russia, January 5, 1762, to July 9, 1762.
The future Peter III was born Karl Peter Ulrich in Kiel, Germany, in February 1728, the son of the duke of Holstein and Peter I’s daughter Anna Petro-vna, who died shortly after his birth. His paternal grandmother was a sister of Charles XII of Sweden; this relation gave him a claim to the Swedish throne. In 1742 his aunt, the Empress Elizabeth (reigned 1741-1762 [1761 O.S.]), brought him to Russia to be groomed as her heir. Raised a Lutheran with German as his first language, he received instruction in Russian and the Orthodox religion, to which he converted. In 1745 he was married to the fifteen-year-old German Princess Sophia of Anhalt Zerbst, the future Catherine II (“the Great”). On Christmas Day 1761 (O.S.), Elizabeth died, and Peter succeeded her.
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Emperor Peter III, husband of Catherine the Great. © ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO, S.A./CORBIS
Catherine II’s Memoirs drew a bleak picture of her marriage, recording bizarre details of Peter court-martialing rats, bringing hunting dogs to bed, and spying on Empress Elizabeth through a hole in the wall. Moreover, she hinted strongly that the marriage was never consummated and that her first child, the future Emperor Paul (born 1754), was in fact the son of her lover. Peter was an “absurd husband,” in fact, not a husband at all. Contemporary accounts corroborate the essence, if not all the details, of Catherine’s portrait of her husband. Peter seems to have been immature, impulsive, and unpredictable. He had a keen interest in military affairs, particularly drill and fortification, and played the violin quite well, but he also loved dolls and puppets and enjoyed crude practical jokes and drinking. Surviving portraits indicate an unprepossessing appearance.
But a ruler has never been denied his rightful throne merely on account of being “absurd,” childlike, and plain. On the contrary, powerful courtiers could easily accommodate and even welcomed such monarchs. Although Peter brought a number of Germans from Holstein into his council, influential figures from Elizabeth’s regime such as D. V. Volkov, A. I. Glebov, and members of the Vorontsov clan remained powerful. There was even some support for Peter’s controversial personal decision to make peace with Prussia, “out of compassion for suffering humanity and personal friendship toward the King of Prussia.” The treaty of May 5 (April 24 O.S.) 1762 restored all the territories taken by Russia during the Seven Years War. Peace triggered Peter’s most famous edict, the manifesto releasing the Russian nobility from compulsory state service, issued on February 29 (February 8 O.S.), 1762, which Peter himself probably played little part in drafting. With the prospect of many officers returning from active service, it suited the government to save salaries and re-deploy personnel. The manifesto declared that compulsory service was no longed needed, because “useful knowledge and assiduity in service have increased the number of skillful and brave generals in military affairs, and have put informed and suitable people in civil and political affairs.” But this was not an invitation to wholesale desertion. There were restrictions on immediate release: Nobles must educate their sons and, on receipt of the monarch’s personal decree, rally to service. Those who had never served were to be “despised and scorned” at court.
Other measures issued during Peter’s short reign included a reduction in the salt tax, a temporary ban on the purchase of serfs for factories, and some easing of restrictions on peasants entering and trading in towns. Sanctions were lifted on Old Believers who had fled into Poland. The Secret Chancery was abolished and some of its functions transferred to the Senate. In fulfillment of a decision already made under Elizabeth, the two million peasants on church estates were transferred to the jurisdiction of the state College of Economy, a measure that did not constitute liberation but was regarded as an improvement in the peasants’ status. In conjunction with the emancipation of the nobility, this measure increased speculation that Peter might have been planning to liberate the serfs.
None of these measures saved Peter III. He demoted the Senate, thereby alienating some top officials. Confiscating its peasants alienated the church. The decision to end the war with Prussia suited some influential men, but most opposed Peter’s further plans to win back Schleswig, formerly the possession of his Holstein ancestors, with Prussian support. He disbanded the imperial bodyguard, and there were rumors that he intended to replace the
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existing guards, now required to wear Prussian uniforms, with men from Holstein. His fate was further sealed by his alleged contempt for Orthodoxy. It was rumored that he did not observe fasts and that he intended to convert Russia to Lutheranism. Such accusations were exaggerated by Peter’s opponents, who now focused on replacing him with his more popular wife, who was beginning to fear for her own safety. On July 5 (June 28 O.S.), 1762, Catherine seized power with the support of guards regiments led by her lover Grigory Orlov. “All unanimously agree that Grand Duke Peter Fyo-dorovich is incompetent and Russia has nothing to expect but calamity,” she declared. After vain efforts to rally support, Peter abdicated and was taken to a residence not far from Peterhof palace. On July 16 (July 5 O.S.) he died, officially of colic brought on by hemorrhoids, although rumors hinted at murder by poison, strangulation, suffocation, beating, or shooting. His escort later admitted that an “unfortunate scuffle” had occurred, but nothing was proven and no one charged. Even if Peter was not killed on Catherine’s explicit orders, his death, while not arousing her regret, often came back to haunt her.
The somewhat mysterious circumstances of Peter III’s death and the promising nature of some of his edicts later made his a popular identity for a series of pretenders to the throne, culminating in the Pugachev revolt in 1773 and 1774. Following Catherine II’s death in 1796, Emperor Paul I, who never doubted that Peter was his father, had his parents buried side by side in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. See also: CATHERINE II; ELIZABETH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hughes, Lindsey. (1982). “Peter III.” Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History 27:238-244. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press. Jones, Robert, E. (1973). The Emancipation of the Russian Nobil
ity, 1782-1785. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Leonard, Carol. (1993). Reform and Regicide: The Reign of Peter III of Russia. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Madariaga, Isabel de. (1981). Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Raeff, Marc. (1970). “The Domestic Policies of Peter III and His Overthrow.” American Historical Review 75:1289-1310.
LINDSEY HUGHES
PETER AND PAUL FORTRESS
The Peter and Paul Fortress was established in May 1703, the third year of the Great Northern War with Sweden, which would last until 1721. Having reduced Swedish positions along the Neva River from Lake Ladoga, Peter I needed a fortified point in the Neva estuary to protect Russia’s position on the Gulf of Finland. Some twenty thousand men were conscripted to surround the island with earthen walls and bastions, and by November the fortress of Sankt Piter Burkh-“Saint Peter’s Burg”- was essentially completed. It was named in honor of the Russian Orthodox feast day of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29).
Peter intended the fortress at the center of his city to serve not only a military function, but also as a symbol of his union of state and religious institutions within a new political order in Russia. To implement this reformation in the architecture of Saint Petersburg and its fortress, Dominico Trezzini, the most productive of the Petrine architects, capably served Peter. After the completion of the earthen fortress, Peter ordered a phased rebuilding with masonry walls. In May 1706, the tsar assisted with laying the foundation stone of the Menshikov Bastion, and for the rest of Trezzini’s life (until 1734) the design and building of the Peter-Paul fortress, with its six bastions, would remain one of his primary duties. The major sections of the fortress, including the six bastions- were named either for a leading participant in Peter’s reign, such as Alexander Menshikov, or for a member of the imperial house, not excluding Peter himself.