Peter's transformations 1 years. Political reforms of Peter I

All state activity of Peter I can be conditionally divided into two periods: 1695-1715 and 1715-1725.

The peculiarity of the first stage was the haste and not always thoughtful nature, which was explained by the conduct of the Northern War. The reforms were aimed primarily at raising funds for warfare, were carried out by force and often did not lead to the desired result. In addition to state reforms, extensive reforms were carried out at the first stage in order to modernize the way of life.

In the second period, the reforms were more lightning-fast and ill-conceived and aimed at the internal arrangement of the state.

In general, Peter's reforms were aimed at strengthening the Russian state and familiarizing the ruling stratum with Western European culture while strengthening the absolute monarchy. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great, a powerful Russian empire was created, headed by the emperor, who had absolute power. In the course of the reforms, the technical and economic backwardness of Russia from a number of other European states was overcome, access to the Baltic Sea was won, and transformations were carried out in all spheres of life in Russian society. At the same time, the people's forces were extremely exhausted, the bureaucratic apparatus grew, the prerequisites (Decree of Succession) were created for the crisis of the supreme power, which led to the era of "palace coups".

Public Administration Reforms

At first, Peter I did not have a clear program of reforms in the sphere of public administration. The emergence of a new state institution or a change in the administrative-territorial administration of the country was dictated by the conduct of wars, which required significant financial resources and the mobilization of the population. The system of power inherited by Peter I did not allow collecting enough funds to reorganize and increase the army, build a fleet, build fortresses and St. Petersburg.

From the first years of Peter's reign, there was a tendency to reduce the role of the ineffective Boyar Duma in government. In 1699, the Near Chancellery, or Council (Council) of Ministers, which consisted of 8 trusted persons who controlled individual orders. It was a prototype of the future Governing Senate, formed on February 22, 1711. The last mention of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. A certain mode of operation was established in the Council: each minister had special powers, reports and minutes of meetings appear. In 1711, instead of the Boyar Duma and the Council that replaced it, the Senate was established. Peter formulated the main task of the Senate as follows: Look at the entire state spending, and set aside unnecessary, and especially vain. Collect as much money as possible, because money is the artery of war.»

Created by Peter for the current administration of the state during the absence of the tsar (at that time the tsar went on the Prut campaign), the Senate, consisting of 9 people, turned from a temporary into a permanent higher government institution, which was enshrined in the Decree of 1722. He controlled justice, was in charge of trade, fees and expenses of the state, oversaw the serviceability of serving military service by the nobles, he was transferred to the functions of the Discharge and Ambassadorial orders.

Decisions in the Senate were taken collectively, at a general meeting and supported by the signatures of all members of the highest state body. If one of the 9 senators refused to sign the decision, then the decision was considered invalid. Thus, Peter I delegated part of his powers to the Senate, but at the same time placed personal responsibility on its members.

Simultaneously with the Senate, the post of fiscals appeared. The duty of the Chief Fiscal in the Senate and the Fiscals in the provinces was to secretly supervise the activities of institutions: they identified cases of violation of decrees and abuses and reported to the Senate and the Tsar. Since 1715, the work of the Senate was supervised by the Auditor General, from 1718 renamed the Chief Secretary. Since 1722, the control over the Senate has been carried out by the Prosecutor General and the Chief Prosecutor, to whom the prosecutors of all other institutions were subordinate. No decision of the Senate was valid without the consent and signature of the Attorney General. The Prosecutor General and his Deputy Chief Prosecutor reported directly to the sovereign.

The Senate, as a government, could make decisions, but their implementation required an administrative apparatus. In the years 1717-1721, a reform of the executive bodies of government was carried out, as a result of which the system of orders with their vague functions was replaced according to the Swedish model by 11 colleges - the predecessors of future ministries. In contrast to orders, the functions and spheres of activity of each collegium were strictly delimited, and relations within the collegium itself were based on the principle of collective decisions. Were introduced:

Collegium of Foreign (Foreign) Affairs.
Military board - recruiting, armament, equipment and training of the land army.
Admiralty Board - naval affairs, fleet.
Chamber College - collection of state revenues.
State-offices-collegium - was in charge of the state's expenses,
Revision Board - control of the collection and spending of public funds.
Commerce College - issues of shipping, customs and foreign trade.
Berg College - mining and metallurgical business.
Manufactory College - light industry.
The College of Justice was in charge of civil proceedings (the Serf Office operated under it: it registered various acts - bills of sale, on the sale of estates, spiritual wills, debt obligations).
Theological Board - managed church affairs (later the Most Holy Governing Synod).

In 1721, the Estates College was formed - it was in charge of noble land ownership (land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, and the investigation of fugitives were considered).
In 1720, as a collegium, the Chief Magistrate was formed to manage the urban population.
In 1721, the Spiritual College or Synod was established - the affairs of the church were considered.
On February 28, 1720, the General Regulations introduced a single system of office work in the state apparatus for the whole country. According to the regulations, the collegium consisted of the president, 4-5 advisers and 4 assessors.
In addition, the Preobrazhensky Prikaz (political investigation), the Salt Office, the Copper Department, and the Land Survey Office operated.
The "first" colleges were called the Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs.
On the rights of colleges there were two institutions: the Synod and the Chief Magistrate.
The colleges were subordinate to the Senate, and to them - the provincial, provincial and county administration.

Regional reform

In 1708-1715, a regional reform was carried out in order to strengthen the vertical of power in the field and better provide the army with supplies and recruits. In 1708, the country was divided into 8 provinces headed by governors endowed with full judicial and administrative power: Moscow, Ingermanland (later St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Azov, Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Siberia. The Moscow province gave more than a third of the proceeds to the treasury, followed by the Kazan province.

The governors were also in charge of the troops located on the territory of the province. In 1710, new administrative units appeared - shares, uniting 5536 households. The first regional reform did not solve the set tasks, but only significantly increased the number of civil servants and the cost of their maintenance.

In 1719-1720, the second regional reform was carried out, which eliminated the shares. The provinces began to be divided into 50 provinces headed by governors, and the provinces into districts headed by zemstvo commissars appointed by the Chamber Collegium. Only military and judicial matters remained under the jurisdiction of the governor.

As a result of public administration reforms, the formation of an absolute monarchy, as well as the bureaucratic system on which the emperor relied, ended.

Control over the activities of civil servants

To control the execution of decisions on the ground and reduce rampant corruption, since 1711, the position of fiscals was established, who were supposed to “secretly visit, denounce and denounce” all abuses, both higher and lower officials, pursue embezzlement, bribery, and accept denunciations from private individuals . At the head of the fiscals was the chief fiscal, appointed by the king and subordinate to him. The Chief Fiscal was a member of the Senate and maintained contact with subordinate fiscals through the fiscal desk of the Senate Chancellery. Denunciations were considered and monthly reported to the Senate by the Punishment Chamber - a special judicial presence of four judges and two senators (existed in 1712-1719).

In 1719-1723. the fiscals were subordinate to the College of Justice, with the establishment in January 1722 of the post of prosecutor general were supervised by him. Since 1723, the chief fiscal was the general fiscal, appointed by the sovereign, his assistant was the chief fiscal, appointed by the Senate. In this regard, the fiscal service withdrew from the subordination of the College of Justice and regained departmental independence. The vertical of fiscal control was brought to the city level.

Reforms of the army and navy

Upon entering the kingdom, Peter received at his disposal a permanent archery army, prone to anarchy and rebellion, unable to fight with Western armies. The Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments, which grew out of the children's fun of the young tsar, became the first regiments of the new Russian army, built with the help of foreigners according to the European model. The reform of the army and the creation of the navy became necessary conditions for victory in the Northern War of 1700-1721.

Preparing for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to make a general recruitment and start training soldiers according to the model established by the Preobrazhenians and Semyonovites. This first recruitment gave 29 infantry regiments and two dragoons. In 1705, every 20 yards had to put up for life one recruit, a single guy aged 15 to 20 years. Subsequently, recruits began to be taken from a certain number of male souls among the peasants. Recruitment to the fleet, as well as to the army, was carried out from recruits.

If at first among the officers there were mainly foreign specialists, then after the start of the navigation, artillery, engineering schools, the growth of the army was satisfied by Russian officers from the nobility. In 1715, the Naval Academy was opened in St. Petersburg. In 1716, the Military Charter was issued, which strictly defined the service, rights and duties of the military.

As a result of the transformations, a strong regular army and a powerful navy were created, which Russia simply did not have before. By the end of Peter's reign, the number of regular ground troops reached 210 thousand (of which there were 2600 in the guard, 41 550 in the cavalry, 75 thousand in the infantry, 74 thousand in the garrisons) and up to 110 thousand irregular troops. The fleet consisted of 48 battleships; galleys and other vessels 787; there were almost 30 thousand people on all the ships.

Church reform

One of the transformations of Peter I was the reform of church administration he carried out, aimed at eliminating church jurisdiction autonomous from the state and subordinating the Russian hierarchy to the Emperor. In 1700, after the death of Patriarch Adrian, Peter I, instead of convening a council to elect a new patriarch, temporarily appointed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan as the head of the clergy, who received the new title of Custodian of the Patriarchal Throne or "Exarch".

In 1701, a series of decrees was issued to reform the administration of church and monastery estates and the organization of monastic life. The most important were the decrees of January 24 and 31, 1701.

In 1721, Peter approved the Spiritual Regulations, the drafting of which was entrusted to the Pskov bishop, Feofan Prokopovich, an approximate tsar, Little Russian. As a result, a radical reform of the church took place, which eliminated the autonomy of the clergy and completely subordinated it to the state.

In Russia, the patriarchate was abolished and the Spiritual College was established, soon renamed the Holy Synod, which was recognized by the Eastern patriarchs as equal in honor to the patriarch. All members of the Synod were appointed by the Emperor and took an oath of allegiance to him upon taking office.

Wartime stimulated the removal of valuables from the monastic vaults. Peter did not go for the complete secularization of church and monastery possessions, which was carried out much later, at the beginning of the reign of Catherine II.

Religious politics

The age of Peter was marked by a trend towards greater religious tolerance. Peter terminated the “12 Articles” adopted by Sophia, according to which the Old Believers who refused to renounce the “schism” were to be burned at the stake. The "schismatics" were allowed to practice their faith, subject to the recognition of the existing state order and the payment of double taxes. Complete freedom of belief was granted to foreigners who came to Russia, restrictions were lifted on the communication of Orthodox Christians with Christians of other faiths (in particular, interfaith marriages were allowed).

financial reform

The Azov campaigns, and then the Northern War of 1700-1721, required huge funds, which were collected by financial reforms.

At the first stage, it all came down to finding new sources of funds. To the traditional customs and tavern fees were added fees and benefits from the monopolization of the sale of certain goods (salt, alcohol, tar, bristles, etc.), indirect taxes (bath, fish, horse taxes, tax on oak coffins, etc.) , obligatory use of stamped paper, minting coins of smaller weight (damage).

In 1704, Peter carried out a monetary reform, as a result of which the main monetary unit was not money, but a penny. From now on, it began to equal not ½ money, but 2 money, and this word first appeared on coins. At the same time, the fiat ruble was also abolished, which had been a conditional monetary unit since the 15th century, equated to 68 grams of pure silver and used as a standard in exchange transactions. The most important measure in the course of the financial reform was the introduction of a poll tax instead of the prior taxation. In 1710, a "household" census was carried out, which showed a decrease in the number of households. One of the reasons for this decrease was that, in order to reduce taxes, several households were surrounded by one wattle fence, and one gate was made (this was considered one household during the census). Due to these shortcomings, it was decided to switch to a poll tax. In 1718-1724, a second census of the population was carried out in parallel with the revision of the population (revision of the census), which began in 1722. According to this revision, there were 5,967,313 people in the taxable state.

Based on the data obtained, the government divided by the population the amount of money needed to maintain the army and navy.

As a result, the size of the per capita tax was determined: serf landowners paid the state 74 kopecks, state peasants - 1 ruble 14 kopecks (since they did not pay dues), the urban population - 1 ruble 20 kopecks. Only men were taxed, regardless of age. The nobility, clergy, as well as soldiers and Cossacks were exempted from the poll tax. The soul was countable - between revisions, the dead were not excluded from tax lists, newborns were not included, as a result, the tax burden was unevenly distributed.

As a result of the tax reform, the size of the treasury was significantly increased by spreading the tax burden not only on the peasantry, but also on their landowners. If in 1710 income extended to 3,134,000 rubles; then in 1725 there were 10,186,707 rubles. (according to foreign sources - up to 7,859,833 rubles).

Transformations in industry and commerce

Realizing during the Great Embassy the technical backwardness of Russia, Peter could not ignore the problem of reforming Russian industry. One of the main problems was the lack of qualified craftsmen. The tsar solved this problem by attracting foreigners to the Russian service on favorable terms, by sending Russian nobles to study in Western Europe. Manufacturers received great privileges: they were exempted from military service with their children and craftsmen, they were subject only to the court of the Manufacture Collegium, they got rid of taxes and internal duties, they could bring the tools and materials they needed from abroad duty-free, their houses were freed from military quarters.

In 1704 Russia's first silver-smelting plant was built near Nerchinsk in Siberia. The following year he gave the first silver.

Significant measures have been taken on the exploration of minerals in Russia. Previously, the Russian state was completely dependent on foreign countries for raw materials, primarily Sweden (iron was transported from there), but after the discovery of deposits of iron ore and other minerals in the Urals, the need to purchase iron disappeared. In the Urals, in 1723, the largest ironworks in Russia was founded, from which the city of Yekaterinburg developed. Under Peter, Nevyansk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Nizhny Tagil were founded. Arms factories (cannon yards, arsenals) appear in the Olonets region, Sestroretsk and Tula, gunpowder factories - in St. Petersburg and near Moscow, the leather and textile industries develop - in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan and the Left-Bank Ukraine, which was conditioned by the need to produce equipment and uniforms for the Russian troops, silk weaving, the production of paper, cement, a sugar factory and a trellis factory appear.

In 1719, the “Berg Privilege” was issued, according to which everyone was given the right to search, melt, boil and clean metals and minerals everywhere, subject to the payment of a “mountain tax” of 1/10 of the cost of production and 32 shares in favor of the owner of that land where ore deposits are found. For hiding ore and trying to prevent mining, the owner was threatened with confiscation of land, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty "through the fault of looking."

The main problem in the Russian manufactories of that time was the shortage of labor. The problem was solved by violent measures: entire villages and villages were assigned to manufactories, the peasants of which worked out their taxes to the state at manufactories (such peasants will be called ascribed), criminals and beggars were sent to the factories. In 1721, a decree followed, which allowed "merchant people" to buy villages, the peasants of which could be relocated to manufactories (such peasants would be called sessional).

Trade has been further developed. With the construction of St. Petersburg, the role of the main port of the country passed from Arkhangelsk to the future capital. River channels were built.

In general, Peter's policy in trade can be described as a policy of protectionism, which consists in supporting domestic production and establishing increased duties on imported products (this corresponded to the idea of mercantilism). In 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced - high duties on foreign goods that could be manufactured or already produced by domestic enterprises.

Thus, under Peter, the foundation of Russian industry was laid, as a result of which, in the middle of the 18th century, Russia came out on top in the world in metal production. The number of factories and plants at the end of Peter's reign reached 233.

Social politics

The main goal pursued by Peter I in social policy is the legal registration of class rights and obligations of each category of the Russian population. As a result, a new structure of society developed, in which the class character was more clearly formed. The rights and duties of the nobility were expanded, and, at the same time, the serfdom of the peasants was strengthened.

Nobility

Key milestones:

Decree on education of 1706: Boyar children must receive either primary school or home education without fail.
Decree on estates of 1704: noble and boyar estates are not divided and are equated to each other.
Decree of Uniform Succession of 1714: a landowner with sons could bequeath all his real estate to only one of their choice. The rest were required to serve. The decree marked the final merger of the noble estate and the boyar estate, thereby finally erasing the difference between the two estates of feudal lords.
"Table of Ranks" 1721 (1722) of the year: the division of military, civil and court service into 14 ranks. Upon reaching the eighth grade, any official or military man could receive the status of hereditary nobility. Thus, a person's career depended primarily not on his origin, but on achievements in public service.
Decree on succession to the throne February 5, 1722: due to the absence of an heir, Peter I decides to issue an order on succession to the throne, in which he reserves the right to appoint his heir (the coronation ceremony of Peter's wife Ekaterina Alekseevna)

Peter's legislative measures, without significantly expanding the class rights of the nobility, significantly changed his duties. Military affairs, which in Moscow times was the duty of a narrow class of service people, is now becoming the duty of all sections of the population. The nobleman of the time of Peter the Great still has the exclusive right to land ownership, but as a result of the decrees on uniform inheritance and on revision, he is responsible to the state for the tax serviceability of his peasants. The nobility is obliged to study in order to prepare for the service.

Peter destroyed the former isolation of the service class, opening, through the length of service through the Table of Ranks, access to the environment of the gentry to people of other classes. On the other hand, by the law of single inheritance, he opened the exit from the nobility to merchants and the clergy to those who wanted it. The nobility of Russia becomes a military-bureaucratic estate, whose rights are created and hereditarily determined by public service, and not by birth.

Peasantry

State. peasants in the 18th century had the rights of personally free people (they could own property, act as one of the parties in court, elect representatives to estate bodies, etc.), but were limited in movement and could be (until the beginning of the 19th century, when this category is finally approved as free people) were transferred by the monarch to the category of serfs.

Legislative acts relating to the serfs proper were contradictory. Thus, the interference of landlords in the marriage of serfs was limited (decree of 1724), it was forbidden to put serfs in their place as defendants in court and keep them on the right for the debts of the owner. Also, the norm was confirmed on the transfer of the estates of the landlords who ruined their peasants to the guardianship, and the peasants were given the opportunity to enlist in the soldiers, which freed them from serfdom (by the decree of Empress Elizabeth on July 2, 1742, the peasants lost this opportunity).

At the same time, measures against fugitive peasants were significantly tightened, large masses of palace peasants were distributed to private individuals, and landowners were allowed to recruit serfs. The taxation of serfs (that is, personal servants without land) with a poll tax led to the merging of serfs with serfs. The church peasants were subordinated to the monastic order and removed from the power of the monasteries.

Under Peter, a new category of dependent farmers was created - peasants assigned to manufactories. These peasants in the 18th century were called possessive. By decree of 1721, nobles and merchants-manufacturers were allowed to buy peasants to manufactories to work for them. The peasants bought to the factory were not considered the property of its owners, but were attached to production, so that the owner of the factory could neither sell nor mortgage the peasants separately from the manufactory. Posessional peasants received a fixed salary and performed a fixed amount of work.

An important measure for the peasantry was the decree of May 11, 1721, which introduced the Lithuanian scythe into the practice of reaping grain, instead of the sickle traditionally used in Russia. To spread this innovation throughout the provinces, samples of "Lithuanian women" were sent, along with instructors from German and Latvian peasants. Since the scythe gave tenfold labor savings during harvesting, this innovation became widespread in a short time and became part of the ordinary peasant economy. Other measures taken by Peter to develop agriculture included the distribution of new breeds of livestock among landowners - Dutch cows, merino sheep from Spain, and the creation of horse factories. On the southern outskirts of the country, measures were taken to plant vineyards and plantations of mulberry trees.

Urban population

The social policy of Peter the Great, concerning the urban population, pursued the provision of the payment of the poll tax. To do this, the population was divided into two categories: regular (industrialists, merchants, artisans of workshops) and irregular citizens (everyone else). The difference between an urban regular citizen at the end of Peter's reign and an irregular one was that a regular citizen participated in city government by electing members of the magistrate, was enrolled in a guild and workshop, or carried a monetary duty in the share that fell on him according to the social layout.

In 1722, craft workshops appeared according to the Western European model. The main purpose of their creation was the unification of disparate craftsmen to produce products needed by the army. However, the guild structure in Russia did not take root.

During the reign of Peter, the system of city administration changed. The governors appointed by the king were replaced by elected city magistrates, subordinate to the Chief Magistrate. These measures meant the emergence of city self-government.

Transformations in the field of culture

Peter I changed the beginning of the chronology from the so-called Byzantine era (“from the creation of Adam”) to “from the Nativity of Christ”. The year 7208 of the Byzantine era became the year 1700 from the birth of Christ. However, this reform did not affect the Julian calendar as such - only the year numbers changed.

After returning from the Great Embassy, Peter I led the fight against outward manifestations of an outdated lifestyle (the most famous ban on beards), but no less paid attention to the introduction of the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, translations of many books into Russian appeared. Success in the service of Peter made the nobles dependent on education.

Under Peter in 1703 the first book appeared in Russian with Arabic numerals. Until that date, they were designated by letters with titles (wavy lines). In 1710, Peter approved a new alphabet with a simplified type of letters (the Church Slavonic font remained for printing church literature), the two letters "xi" and "psi" were excluded. Peter created new printing houses, in which 1312 titles of books were printed in 1700-1725 (twice as many as in the entire previous history of Russian book printing). Thanks to the rise of printing, paper consumption increased from 4,000 to 8,000 sheets at the end of the 17th century to 50,000 sheets in 1719. There have been changes in the Russian language, which included 4.5 thousand new words borrowed from European languages.

In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the Academy of Sciences being organized (opened in 1725 after his death).

Of particular importance was the construction of stone Petersburg, in which foreign architects took part and which was carried out according to the plan developed by the tsar. He created a new urban environment with previously unfamiliar forms of life and pastime (theatre, masquerades). The interior decoration of houses, the way of life, the composition of food, etc. have changed.

The reforms carried out by Peter I affected not only politics, economics, but also art. Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study "arts" abroad, mainly to Holland and Italy. In the second quarter of the XVIII century. "Peter's pensioners" began to return to Russia, bringing with them new artistic experience and acquired skills.

Gradually, a different system of values, worldview, and aesthetic ideas took shape in the ruling environment.

Education

Peter was clearly aware of the need for enlightenment, and took a number of decisive measures to this end.

On January 14, 1700, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow. In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories. In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened. The goals of mass education were to be served by the digital schools created by decree of 1714 in provincial cities, called " to teach children of all ranks literacy, numbers and geometry". It was supposed to create two such schools in each province, where education was supposed to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was created in 1721 to train priests.

According to the Hanoverian Weber, during the reign of Peter several thousand Russians were sent to study abroad.

Peter's decrees introduced compulsory education for nobles and clergy, but a similar measure for the urban population met with fierce resistance and was canceled. Peter's attempt to create an all-estate elementary school failed (the creation of a network of schools ceased after his death, most of the digital schools under his successors were redesigned into class schools for the training of the clergy), but nevertheless, during his reign, the foundations were laid for the spread of education in Russia.

Social (estate) reforms of Peter I - briefly

As a result of the social reforms of Peter I, the position of the three main Russian estates - nobles, peasants and urban residents - has changed dramatically.

service estate, nobles , after the reforms of Peter I, they began to perform military service not with local militias recruited by them themselves, but in regular regiments. The service of the nobles now (in theory) began with the same lower ranks as the common people. Natives of non-noble estates, along with the nobles, could rise to the highest ranks. The order of passing official degrees was determined from the time of the reforms of Peter I, no longer by generosity and not by customs like localism, but published in 1722 " Table of ranks". She established 14 ranks of the army and civilian service.

To prepare for the service, Peter I also obliged the nobles to undergo initial training in literacy, numbers and geometry. A nobleman who did not pass the established exam was deprived of the right to marry and receive an officer's rank.

It should be noted that the landlord class, even after the reforms of Peter I, still had quite important service advantages over the ignoble people. The noblemen who entered the military service, as a rule, were not assigned to ordinary army regiments, but to the privileged guards - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky, quartered in St. Petersburg.

major social change peasants was associated with the tax reform of Peter I. It was carried out in 1718 and replaced the previous homestead(from each peasant household) method of taxation per capita(from the heart). According to the results of the 1718 census, poll tax.

This purely financial, at first glance, reform had, however, an important social content. The new poll tax was ordered to be equally collected not only from the peasants, but also from the privately owned serfs who had not previously paid state taxes. This prescription of Peter I brought the social position of the peasantry closer to that of the disenfranchised servile. It predetermined the evolution of the view of serfs by the end of the 18th century not as sovereign heavy people(which they were considered before), but how on complete master's slaves.

Cities : the reforms of Peter I were aimed at organizing city government according to European models. In 1699, Peter I granted Russian cities the right to self-government in the person of elected Burmisters, which were to be town hall. The townspeople were now divided into "regular" and "irregular", as well as into guilds and workshops by occupation. By the end of the reign of Peter I, the town halls were transformed into magistrates, which had more rights than town halls, but were elected in a less democratic way - only from "first-class" citizens. At the head of all the magistrates was (since 1720) the Metropolitan Chief Magistrate, who was considered a special collegium.

Peter I. Portrait by P. Delaroche, 1838

Military reform of Peter I - briefly

Administrative and state reforms of Peter I - briefly

Financial reforms of Peter I - briefly

Economic reforms of Peter I - briefly

Like most European figures of the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries, Peter I followed the principles of mercantilism in economic policy. Applying them to life, he tried in every possible way to develop industry, built factories with state funds, encouraged such construction by private entrepreneurs through broad benefits, attributed serfs to factories and manufactories. By the end of the reign of Peter I, there were already 233 factories in Russia.

In foreign trade, the mercantilist policy of Peter I led to strict protectionism (high duties were imposed on imported products to prevent them from competing with Russian products). State regulation of the economy was widely used. Peter I contributed to the laying of canals, roads and other means of communication, the exploration of minerals. A powerful impetus to the Russian economy was given by the development of the mineral wealth of the Urals.

Church reform of Peter I - briefly

As a result of the church reform of Peter I, the Russian church, which had previously been quite independent, became completely dependent on the state. After the death of Patriarch Adrian (1700), the king prescribed not elect new patriarch, and the Russian clergy then did not have him until the council of 1917. Instead was appointed king"locum tenens of the patriarchal throne" - Ukrainian Stefan Yavorsky.

This "uncertain" state of affairs persisted until the final reform of church administration was carried out in 1721, developed with the active participation of Feofan Prokopovich. According to this church reform of Peter I, the patriarchate was finally abolished and replaced by a "spiritual college" - Holy Synod. Its members were not elected by the clergy, but appointed by the tsar - the church has now legally become completely dependent on the secular authorities.

In 1701 the church's land holdings were transferred to the control of the secular Monastic order. After the synodal reform of 1721, they were formally returned to the clergy, but since the latter now completely submitted to the state, this return was of little importance. Peter the Great also placed monasteries under strict state control.

The reforms of Peter I are transformations in state and public life carried out during the reign of Peter I in Russia. All state activity of Peter I can be conditionally divided into two periods: 1696-1715 and 1715-1725.

A number of historians, such as V.O. Klyuchevsky, pointed out that the reforms of Peter I were not something fundamentally new, but were only a continuation of those transformations that were carried out during the 17th century. Other historians (for example, Sergei Solovyov), on the contrary, emphasized the revolutionary nature of Peter's transformations.

Historians who have analyzed Peter's reforms hold different views on his personal participation in them. One group believes that Peter did not play the main role (which was attributed to him as king) both in drawing up the program of reforms and in the process of their implementation. Another group of historians, on the contrary, writes about the great personal role of Peter I in carrying out certain reforms.

Public Administration Reforms

See also: Senate (Russia) and Colleges (Russian Empire)

From the first years of Peter's reign, there was a tendency to reduce the role of the ineffective Boyar Duma in government. In 1699, the Near Office, or the Council (Council) of Ministers, was organized under the tsar, consisting of 8 trusted persons who controlled individual orders. It was a prototype of the future Governing Senate, formed on February 22, 1711. The last mention of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. A certain mode of operation was established in the Council: each minister had special powers, reports and minutes of meetings appear. In 1711, instead of the Boyar Duma and the Council that replaced it, the Senate was established. Peter formulated the main task of the Senate in this way: “Look at the expenses throughout the state, and set aside unnecessary, and especially vain. Collect money as possible, because money is the artery of war.

Created by Peter for the current administration of the state during the absence of the tsar (at that time the tsar went on the Prut campaign), the Senate, consisting of 9 people (presidents of the collegiums), gradually turned from a temporary into a permanent higher government institution, which was enshrined in the Decree of 1722. He controlled justice, was in charge of trade, fees and expenses of the state, oversaw the serviceability of serving military service by the nobles, he was transferred to the functions of the Discharge and Ambassadorial orders.

Simultaneously with the Senate, the post of fiscals appeared. The duty of the Chief Fiscal in the Senate and the Fiscals in the provinces was to secretly supervise the activities of institutions: they identified cases of violation of decrees and abuses and reported to the Senate and the Tsar. Since 1715, the work of the Senate was monitored by the Auditor General, from 1718 renamed the Chief Secretary. Since 1722, the control over the Senate has been carried out by the Prosecutor General and the Chief Prosecutor, to whom the prosecutors of all other institutions were subordinate. No decision of the Senate was valid without the consent and signature of the Attorney General. The Prosecutor General and his Deputy Chief Prosecutor reported directly to the sovereign.

The Senate, as a government, could make decisions, but their implementation required an administrative apparatus. In the years 1717-1721, a reform of the executive bodies of government was carried out, as a result of which, in parallel with the system of orders with their vague functions, 12 colleges were created according to the Swedish model - the predecessors of future ministries. In contrast to orders, the functions and spheres of activity of each collegium were strictly delimited, and relations within the collegium itself were based on the principle of collective decisions. Were introduced:

· Collegium of foreign (foreign) affairs - replaced the Ambassadorial Order, that is, it was in charge of foreign policy.

· Military Collegium (Military) - staffing, weapons, equipment and training of the land army.

· Admiralty Board - naval affairs, fleet.

· The patrimonial collegium - replaced the Local Order, that is, it was in charge of noble land ownership (land litigation, transactions for the purchase and sale of land and peasants, the investigation of fugitives were considered). Founded in 1721.

· Board of Chambers - collection of state revenues.

The state-offices-collegium - was in charge of the state's expenses,

· Revision Board - control of the collection and spending of public funds.

· Commerce Board - issues of shipping, customs and foreign trade.

· Berg College - mining and metallurgical business (mining and plant industry).

Manufactory College - light industry (manufactories, that is, enterprises based on the division of manual labor).

· Justice Collegium - was in charge of civil legal proceedings (the Serf Office operated under it: it registered various acts - bills of sale, on the sale of estates, spiritual testaments, debt obligations). Worked in civil and criminal litigation.

· The Spiritual College or the Most Holy Governing Synod - managed (a) church affairs, replaced (a) the patriarch. Founded in 1721. This collegium/Synod included representatives of the higher clergy. Since their appointment was carried out by the tsar, and the decisions were approved by him, we can say that the Russian emperor became the de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The actions of the Synod on behalf of the highest secular power were controlled by the chief prosecutor - a civil official appointed by the tsar. By a special decree, Peter I (Peter I) ordered the priests to carry out an enlightening mission among the peasants: to read sermons and instructions to them, to teach children prayers, to instill in them reverence for the tsar and the church.

· The Little Russian Collegium - exercised control over the actions of the hetman, who owned power in Ukraine, because there was a special regime of local government. After the death in 1722 of Hetman I. I. Skoropadsky, new elections of hetman were prohibited, and the hetman was appointed for the first time by royal decree. The collegium was headed by a tsarist officer.

On February 28, 1720, the General Regulations introduced a single system of office work in the state apparatus for the whole country. According to the regulations, the collegium consisted of the president, 4-5 advisers and 4 assessors.

The central place in the management system was occupied by the secret police: the Preobrazhensky order (in charge of cases of state crimes) and the Secret Chancellery. These institutions were under the jurisdiction of the emperor himself.

In addition, there were the Salt Office, the Copper Department, and the Land Survey Office.

The "first" colleges were called the Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs.

On the rights of colleges there were two institutions: the Synod and the Chief Magistrate.

The colleges were subordinate to the Senate, and to them - the provincial, provincial and county administration.

The results of the management reform of Peter I are ambiguously considered by historians.

Regional reform

Main article: Regional reform of Peter I

In 1719-1720, the second regional reform was carried out, which eliminated the shares. The provinces began to be divided into 50 provinces headed by governors, and the provinces were superdistricts headed by zemstvo commissars appointed by the Chamber Collegium. Only military and judicial matters remained under the jurisdiction of the governor.

Judicial reform

Under Peter, the judicial system underwent radical changes. The functions of the Supreme Court were given to the Senate and the College of Justice. Below them were: in the provinces - gofgerichts or court courts of appeal in large cities, and provincial collegiate lower courts. The provincial courts conducted civil and criminal cases of all categories of peasants except for the monastic ones, as well as townspeople not included in the settlement. Since 1721, the magistrate conducted the court cases of the townspeople included in the settlement. In other cases, the so-called one-man court acted (cases were decided solely by a zemstvo or city judge). However, in 1722 the lower courts were replaced by provincial courts headed by a voivode. Also, Peter I was the first person to carry out judicial reform, regardless of the state of the country.

Control over the activities of civil servants

To control the execution of decisions on the ground and reduce rampant corruption, since 1711, the position of fiscals was established, who were supposed to “secretly visit, denounce and denounce” all abuses, both higher and lower officials, pursue embezzlement, bribery, and accept denunciations from private individuals . At the head of the fiscals was the chief fiscal, appointed by the emperor and subordinate to him. The Chief Fiscal was a member of the Senate and maintained contact with subordinate fiscals through the fiscal desk of the Senate Chancellery. Denunciations were considered and monthly reported to the Senate by the Punishment Chamber - a special judicial presence of four judges and two senators (existed in 1712-1719).

Military reform

Army reform: in particular, the introduction of regiments of a new order, reformed according to a foreign model, was begun long before Peter I, even under Alexei I. However, the combat effectiveness of this army was low. Reforming the army and creating a fleet became necessary conditions for victory in the Northern War of 1700-1721 years. Preparing for the war with Sweden, Peter ordered in 1699 to make a general recruitment and start training soldiers according to the model established by the Preobrazhenians and Semyonovites. This first recruitment gave 29 infantry regiments and two dragoons. In 1705, every 20 yards had to put up one recruit for life service. Subsequently, recruits began to be taken from a certain number of male souls among the peasants. Recruitment to the fleet, as well as to the army, was carried out from recruits.

Church reform

One of the transformations of Peter I was the reform of church administration he carried out, aimed at eliminating church jurisdiction autonomous from the state and subordinating the Russian church hierarchy to the Emperor. In 1700, after the death of Patriarch Adrian, Peter I, instead of convening a council to elect a new patriarch, temporarily placed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky at the head of the clergy, who received the new title of Custodian of the Patriarchal Throne or "Exarch".

To manage the property of the patriarchal and episcopal houses, as well as monasteries, including the peasants belonging to them (approximately 795 thousand), the Monastic order was restored, headed by I. A. Musin-Pushkin, who again became in charge of the trial of the monastic peasants and control income from church and monastic land holdings. In 1701, a series of decrees was issued to reform the management of church and monastery possessions and the organization of monastic life; the most important were the decrees of January 24 and 31, 1701.

In 1721, Peter approved the Spiritual Regulations, the drafting of which was entrusted to the Pskov bishop, Ukrainian tsar's close associate Feofan Prokopovich. As a result, a radical reform of the church took place, which eliminated the autonomy of the clergy and completely subordinated it to the state. In Russia, the patriarchate was abolished and the Spiritual College was established, soon renamed the Holy Synod, which was recognized by the Eastern patriarchs as equal in honor to the patriarch. All members of the Synod were appointed by the Emperor and took an oath of allegiance to him upon taking office. Wartime stimulated the removal of valuables from the monastic vaults. Peter did not go for the complete secularization of church and monastery possessions, which was carried out much later, at the beginning of the reign of Catherine II.

financial reform

The Azov campaigns, the Northern War of 1700-1721 and the maintenance of a permanent recruit army created by Peter I required huge funds, which were collected by financial reforms.

Based on the data obtained, the government divided by the population the amount of money needed to maintain the army and navy.

As a result, the size of the per capita tax was determined: the serf landowners paid the state 74 kopecks, the state peasants - 1 ruble 14 kopecks (since they did not pay dues), the urban population - 1 ruble 20 kopecks. Only men were taxed, regardless of age. The nobility, clergy, as well as soldiers and Cossacks were exempted from the poll tax. The soul was countable - between revisions, the dead were not excluded from tax lists, newborns were not included, as a result, the tax burden was unevenly distributed.

As a result of the tax reform, the size of the treasury was significantly increased. If in 1710 income extended to 3,134,000 rubles; then in 1725 there were 10,186,707 rubles. (according to foreign sources - up to 7,859,833 rubles).

Transformations in industry and commerce

Main article: Industry and trade under Peter I

Realizing during the Great Embassy the technical backwardness of Russia, Peter could not ignore the problem of reforming Russian industry. In addition, the creation of their own industry was dictated by military needs, as indicated by a number of historians. Having started the Northern War with Sweden in order to gain access to the sea and proclaiming as a task the construction of a modern fleet in the Baltic (and even earlier - in Azov), Peter was forced to build manufactories designed to meet the sharply increased needs of the army and navy.

One of the main problems was the lack of qualified craftsmen. The tsar solved this problem by attracting foreigners to the Russian service on favorable terms, by sending Russian nobles to study in Western Europe. Manufacturers received great privileges: they were exempted from military service with their children and craftsmen, they were subject only to the court of the Manufacture Collegium, they got rid of taxes and internal duties, they could bring the tools and materials they needed from abroad duty-free, their houses were freed from military quarters.

Significant measures have been taken on the exploration of minerals in Russia. Previously, the Russian state was completely dependent on foreign countries for raw materials, primarily Sweden (iron was transported from there), but after the discovery of deposits of iron ore and other minerals in the Urals, the need for iron purchases disappeared. In the Urals, in 1723, the largest ironworks in Russia was founded, from which the city of Yekaterinburg developed. Under Peter, Nevyansk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Nizhny Tagil were founded. Arms factories (cannon yards, arsenals) appear in the Olonets region, Sestroretsk and Tula, gunpowder factories - in St. Petersburg and near Moscow, the leather and textile industries develop - in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan and the Left-Bank Ukraine, which was conditioned by the need to produce equipment and uniforms for the Russian troops, silk weaving, the production of paper, cement, a sugar factory and a trellis factory appear.

The main problem in the Russian manufactories of that time was the shortage of labor. The problem was solved by violent measures: entire villages and villages were assigned to manufactories, the peasants of which worked out their taxes to the state at manufactories (such peasants will be called ascribed), criminals and beggars were sent to the factories. In 1721, a decree followed, which allowed "merchant people" to buy villages, the peasants of which could be resettled for manufactories (such peasants would be called sessional).

Trade has been further developed. With the construction of St. Petersburg, the role of the main port of the country passed from Arkhangelsk to the future capital. River channels were built.

In particular, Vyshnevolotsky (Vyshnevolotsk water system) and Obvodny canals were built. At the same time, two attempts to build the Volga-Don Canal ended in failure (although 24 locks were built), while tens of thousands of people worked on its construction, working conditions were difficult, and mortality was very high.

Some historians characterize Peter's policy in trade as a policy of protectionism, which consists in supporting domestic production and imposing higher duties on imported products (this corresponded to the idea of mercantilism). So, in 1724, a protective customs tariff was introduced - high duties on foreign goods that could be manufactured or already produced by domestic enterprises.

The number of factories and plants at the end of Peter's reign reached 233, of which about 90 were large manufactories.

autocracy reform

Before Peter, the order of succession to the throne in Russia was in no way regulated by law, and was entirely determined by tradition. Peter in 1722 issued a decree on the order of succession to the throne, according to which the reigning monarch during his lifetime appoints himself a successor, and the emperor can make anyone his heir (it was assumed that the king would appoint “the most worthy” as his successor). This law was in effect until the reign of Paul I. Peter himself did not use the law of succession to the throne, since he died without indicating a successor.

estate policy

Nobility

1. Decree on education of 1706: Boyar children must receive either primary school or home education without fail.

2. Decree on estates of 1704: noble and boyar estates are not divided and are equated to each other.

3. Decree of the same inheritance of 1714: a landowner with sons could bequeath all his real estate to only one of them of his choice. The rest were required to serve. The decree marked the final merger of the noble estate and the boyar estate, thereby finally erasing the differences between them.

4. Division of military, civil and court service into 14 ranks. Upon reaching the eighth grade, any official or military man could receive the status of a personal nobleman. Thus, a person's career depended primarily not on his origin, but on achievements in public service.

The place of the former boyars was taken by the “generals”, consisting of the ranks of the first four classes of the “Table of Ranks”. Personal service mixed the representatives of the former tribal nobility with people raised by the service. Peter's legislative measures, without significantly expanding the class rights of the nobility, significantly changed his duties. Military affairs, which in Moscow times was the duty of a narrow class of service people, is now becoming the duty of all sections of the population. The nobleman of the time of Peter the Great still has the exclusive right to land ownership, but as a result of the decrees on uniform inheritance and on revision, he is responsible to the state for the tax serviceability of his peasants. The nobility is obliged to study in order to prepare for the service. Peter destroyed the former isolation of the service class, opening, through the length of service through the Table of Ranks, access to the environment of the gentry to people of other classes. On the other hand, by the law of single inheritance, he opened the exit from the nobility to merchants and the clergy to those who wanted it. The nobility of Russia becomes a military-bureaucratic estate, whose rights are created and hereditarily determined by public service, and not by birth.

Peasantry

Peter's reforms changed the position of the peasants. From different categories of peasants who were not in serfdom from the landlords or the church (black-eared peasants of the north, non-Russian nationalities, etc.), a new single category of state peasants was formed - personally free, but paying dues to the state. The opinion that this measure “destroyed the remnants of the free peasantry” is incorrect, since the population groups that made up the state peasants were not considered free in the pre-Petrine period - they were attached to the land (Council Code of 1649) and could be granted by the tsar to private individuals and the church as fortresses. State. peasants in the 18th century had the rights of personally free people (they could own property, act as one of the parties in court, elect representatives to estate bodies, etc.), but were limited in movement and could be (until the beginning of the 19th century, when this category is finally approved as free people) were transferred by the monarch to the category of serfs. Legislative acts relating to the serfs proper were contradictory. Thus, the intervention of landlords in the marriage of serfs was limited (decree of 1724), it was forbidden to put serfs in their place as defendants in court and keep them on the right for the debts of the owners. The rule was also confirmed on the transfer of the estates of the landowners who ruined their peasants to custody, and the serfs were given the opportunity to enroll in soldiers, which freed them from serfdom (by decree of Empress Elizabeth on July 2, 1742, the serfs lost this opportunity). By the decree of 1699 and the verdict of the Town Hall in 1700, peasants engaged in trade or handicraft were granted the right to move into the settlements, freeing themselves from serfdom (if the peasant was in one). At the same time, measures against fugitive peasants were significantly tightened, large masses of palace peasants were distributed to private individuals, and landowners were allowed to recruit serfs. A decree on 7 April 1690 was allowed to yield, for the unpaid debts of "local" serfs, which was effectively a form of serf trading. The taxation of serfs (that is, personal servants without land) with a poll tax led to the merging of serfs with serfs. The church peasants were subordinated to the monastic order and removed from the power of the monasteries. Under Peter, a new category of dependent farmers was created - peasants assigned to manufactories. These peasants in the 18th century were called possessive. By decree of 1721, nobles and merchants-manufacturers were allowed to buy peasants to manufactories to work for them. The peasants bought to the factory were not considered the property of its owners, but were attached to production, so that the owner of the factory could neither sell nor mortgage the peasants separately from the manufactory. Posessional peasants received a fixed salary and performed a fixed amount of work.

Transformations in the field of culture

Peter I changed the beginning of the chronology from the so-called Byzantine era (“from the creation of Adam”) to “from the Nativity of Christ”. The year 7208 of the Byzantine era became the year 1700 from the Nativity of Christ, and the New Year began to be celebrated on January 1. In addition, the uniform use of the Julian calendar was introduced under Peter.

After returning from the Great Embassy, Peter I led the fight against the external manifestations of the "outdated" way of life (the most famous ban on beards), but no less paid attention to the introduction of the nobility to education and secular Europeanized culture. Secular educational institutions began to appear, the first Russian newspaper was founded, translations of many books into Russian appeared. Success in the service of Peter made the nobles dependent on education.

Under Peter in 1703 the first book appeared in Russian with Arabic numerals. Until that date, they were designated by letters with titles (wavy lines). In 1708, Peter approved a new alphabet with a simplified type of letters (the Church Slavonic font remained for printing church literature), the two letters "xi" and "psi" were excluded.

Peter created new printing houses, in which 1312 titles of books were printed in 1700-1725 (twice as many as in the entire previous history of Russian book printing). Thanks to the rise of printing, paper consumption increased from 4,000 to 8,000 sheets at the end of the 17th century to 50,000 sheets in 1719.

There have been changes in the Russian language, which included 4.5 thousand new words borrowed from European languages.

In 1724, Peter approved the charter of the Academy of Sciences being organized (opened in 1725 after his death).

By a special decree of the tsar in 1718, assemblies were introduced, representing a new form of communication between people in Russia. At the assemblies, the nobles danced and mingled freely, unlike earlier feasts and feasts. The reforms carried out by Peter I affected not only politics, economics, but also art. Peter invited foreign artists to Russia and at the same time sent talented young people to study "arts" abroad, mainly to Holland and Italy. In the second quarter of the XVIII century. "Peter's pensioners" began to return to Russia, bringing with them new artistic experience and acquired skills.

On December 30, 1701 (January 10, 1702), Peter issued a decree ordering to write full names in petitions and other documents instead of derogatory half-names (Ivashka, Senka, etc.), do not fall on your knees in front of the king, wear a hat in the cold in winter in front of the house where the king is, do not shoot. He explained the need for these innovations in this way: “Less baseness, more zeal for service and loyalty to me and the state - this honor is characteristic of the king ...”

Peter tried to change the position of women in Russian society. He by special decrees (1700, 1702 and 1724) forbade forced marriage and marriage. It was prescribed that there should be at least six weeks between the betrothal and the wedding, "so that the bride and groom could recognize each other." If during this time, the decree said, “the bridegroom does not want to take the bride, or the bride does not want to marry the groom,” no matter how the parents insisted, “there is freedom.” Since 1702, the bride herself (and not just her relatives) was given the formal right to terminate the betrothal and upset the arranged marriage, and neither side had the right to “beat with a forehead for a penalty”. Legislative prescriptions 1696-1704 about public festivities introduced the obligation to participate in the celebrations and festivities of all Russians, including "female".

Gradually, among the nobility, a different system of values, worldview, aesthetic ideas took shape, which was fundamentally different from the values and worldview of most representatives of other estates.

Education

On January 14, 1700, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened in Moscow. In 1701-1721, artillery, engineering and medical schools were opened in Moscow, an engineering school and a naval academy in St. Petersburg, mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories. In 1705, the first gymnasium in Russia was opened. The goals of mass education were to be served, created by decree of 1714, by digital schools in provincial cities, called upon "to teach children of all ranks to read and write, numbers and geometry." It was supposed to create two such schools in each province, where education was supposed to be free. Garrison schools were opened for soldiers' children, and a network of theological schools was established to train priests in 1721.

According to the Hanoverian Weber, during the reign of Peter several thousand Russians were sent to study abroad.

Started in the second half of the 17th century. transformations found their logical conclusion in the reign of Peter I (son of Alexei Mikhailovich).

Peter was proclaimed king in 1682 BC, but in reality there was a so-called “triarchal government”, i.e. together with his brother Ivan and Princess Sophia, who concentrated all power in her hands. Peter and his mother lived in the villages of Preobrazhensky, Kolomensky, Semenovsky near Moscow.

AT 1689 Mr. Peter, with the support of many boyars, nobles, and even the Moscow Patriarch, deprived Sophia of power, imprisoning her in a monastery. Until 1696 (until his death), Ivan remained a “ceremonial king”, i.e. formally shared power with Peter.

From the 90s of the XVII century. a new era begins, associated with the transformations of Peter I, which affected all aspects of the life of Russian society. As the ardent admirers of Peter figuratively noted, in fact the 18th century began before the grandiose fireworks arranged in Moscow on January 1, 1700 on the occasion of the new century.

Military reforms

The reforms of Peter I were guided by the conditions of his time. This king did not know the world, he fought all his life: first with his sister Sophia, then with Turkey, Sweden. Not only to defeat the enemy, but also to take a worthy place in the world, Peter I began his transformations. The starting point for the reforms was Azov campaigns (1695-1696).

In 1695, Russian troops besieged Azov (a Turkish fortress at the mouth of the Don), but due to a lack of weapons and a lack of a fleet, they failed to take Azov. Realizing this, Peter, with his characteristic energy, set about building a fleet. It was decided to organize the Kumpanstvo, which would be engaged in the construction of ships. A single Kumpanstvo, which consisted of merchants and townspeople, was obliged to build 14 ships; Admiralty - 16 ships; one ship - an obligation from every 10,000 landlord peasants and 8,000 monastery peasants. The fleet was built on the Voronezh River at its confluence with the Don. In 1696, the Russian naval forces won their first victory - Azov was taken. The following year, Peter sends to Europe the so-called Great Embassy of 250 people. In its composition, under the name of the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment, Peter Mikhailov, was the tsar himself. The embassy visited Holland, England, Vienna. As he believed, the idea of \u200b\u200btraveling abroad (the Great Embassy) arose from Peter I as a result of the transformations that had begun. For knowledge and experience, the king went to Europe in 1697-1698. Researcher A.G. Brikner, on the contrary, believed that it was after a trip to Europe that Peter I came up with a reform plan.

In the summer of 1698, the trip was interrupted due to the received report about the rebellion of the archers. The king took a personal part in the executions, Sophia was tonsured a nun. The Streltsy army was to be disbanded. The king began to reorganize the army and continued building the fleet. It is interesting to note that in addition to general leadership, Peter was directly involved in the creation of the fleet. The tsar himself, without the help of foreign specialists, built the 58-gun ship "Predestination" ("God's foresight"). Back in 1694, during a sea campaign arranged by the tsar, the Russian white-blue-red flag was raised for the first time.

With the outbreak of war with Sweden, the construction of the fleet was also started in the Baltic. By 1725, the fleet in the Baltic consisted of 32 ships of the line armed with 50 to 96 guns each, 16 frigates, 85 galleys, and many other smaller vessels. The total number of Russian military sailors was about 30 thousand. Peter personally compiled Marine charter, where it was written "Only that sovereign has both hands, who has both the land army and the fleet."

Peter I chose a new principle for manning the army: recruiting kits. From 1699 to 1725 53 recruits were carried out, giving the army and navy more than 280 thousand people. Recruits underwent military training, received state-owned weapons and uniforms. The army also recruited "eager people" from free peasants with a salary of 11 rubles a year.

Already in 1699, Peter formed, in addition to two guards regiments - Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky - 29 infantry and 2 dragoons. By the end of his reign, the total number of the Russian army was 318 thousand people.

Peter strictly obliged all the nobles to carry out military service, starting with the soldier's rank. In 1716 was published Military charter, which regulated the order in the army in wartime and peacetime. Training of officers was carried out in two military schools - Bombardier (artillery) and Preobrazhenskaya (infantry). Subsequently, Peter opened naval, engineering, medical and other military schools, which allowed him at the end of his reign to completely refuse to invite foreign officers to the Russian service.

Public Administration Reform

Of all the transformations of Peter I, the central place is occupied by the reform of public administration, the reorganization of all its links.

The main goal of this period was to provide a solution to the most important problem - victory in. Already in the first years of the war, it became clear that the old state mechanism of government, the main elements of which were orders and counties, did not provide for the growing needs of the autocracy. This was manifested in the lack of money, provisions, and various supplies for the army and navy. Peter hoped to radically solve this problem with the help of regional reform- creation of new administrative formations - provinces, uniting several counties. AT 1708. was formed 8 provinces: Moscow, Ingermanland (St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Smolensk, Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Azov, Siberian.

The main goal of this reform was to provide the army with everything necessary: a direct connection was established between the provinces and the regiments of the armies, which were distributed among the provinces. Communication was carried out through a specially created institution of krieg commissars (the so-called military commissars).

An extensive hierarchical network of bureaucratic institutions with a large staff of officials was created on the ground. The former system "order - county" was doubled: "order (or office) - province - province - county".

AT 1711 Senate was created. The autocracy, which had grown considerably in the second half of the 17th century, no longer needed institutions of representation and self-government.

At the beginning of the XVIII century. in fact, the meetings of the Boyar Duma are stopped, the control of the central and local state apparatus is transferred to the so-called “Consilia of Ministers” - a temporary council of the heads of the most important government departments.

Particularly important was the reform of the Senate, which occupied a key position in the state system of Peter. The Senate concentrated judicial, administrative and legislative functions, was in charge of colleges and provinces, appointed and approved officials. The unofficial head of the Senate, consisting of the first dignitaries, was prosecutor general, endowed with special powers and subordinate only to the monarch. The creation of the post of Prosecutor General laid the foundation for a whole institution of the Prosecutor's Office, the model for which was the French administrative experience.

AT 1718 - 1721. the system of command administration of the country was transformed. was established 10 colleges, each of which was in charge of a strictly defined industry. For example, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs - with foreign relations, the Military - with ground armed forces, the Admiralty - with the fleet, the Collegium of Chambers - with the collection of income, the Collegium of State Offices - with state expenditures, the Collegium of Commerce - with trade.

Church reform

It became a kind of board Synod, or the Spiritual College, established in 1721 The destruction of the patriarchate reflected the desire of Peter I to eliminate the “princely” system of church authority, unthinkable under the autocracy of Peter the Great. By declaring himself the de facto head of the church, Peter destroyed its autonomy. Moreover, he made extensive use of the institutions of the church to carry out his policies.

Supervision of the activities of the Synod was entrusted to a special state official - chief prosecutor.

Social politics

Social policy was pro-noble and feudal in nature. Decree of 1714 on uniform inheritance established the same order of inheritance of immovable estates, without distinction between estates and estates. The merging of two forms of feudal landownership - patrimonial and local - completed the process of consolidating the class of feudal lords into a single class - estate nobles and strengthened its dominant position (often in the Polish manner, the nobility was called the gentry).

In order to force the nobles to think of service as the main source of wealth, they introduced primogeniture- It was forbidden to sell and mortgage land holdings, including ancestral ones. The new principle reflected in Tables of ranks 1722. strengthened the nobility due to the influx of people from other classes. With the help of the principle of personal service, strictly stipulated conditions for promotion up the ladder of ranks, Peter turned the mass of servicemen into a military-bureaucratic corps, completely subordinate to him and dependent only on him. The table of ranks divided the military, civil and court services. All posts were divided into 14 ranks. An official who reached the eighth grade (collegiate assessor) or an officer received hereditary nobility.

urban reform

Significant was the reform in relation to the inhabitants of cities. Peter decided to unify the social structure of the city by introducing Western European institutions into it: magistrates, guilds and guilds. These institutions, which had deep roots in the history of the development of a Western European medieval city, were brought into Russian reality by force, by administrative means. The chief magistrate supervised the magistrates of other cities.

The townspeople were divided into two guilds: the first was made up of the “first class”, which included the top tenants, rich merchants, artisans, citizens of intelligent professions, and in second guild included small shopkeepers and artisans, who, in addition, were united in workshops on a professional basis. All other townspeople who were not included in the guilds were subject to verification in order to identify runaway peasants among them and return them to their former places of residence.

tax reform

The war absorbed 90% of government spending, peasants and townspeople bore numerous duties. In 1718 - 1724. A head-to-head census of the male population was carried out. Landlords and monasteries were ordered to submit "tales" (information) about their peasants. The government instructed the guards officers to revise the submitted statements. Since then, censuses have been called audits, and the “soul” has become the unit of taxation instead of the peasant household. The entire male population had to pay poll tax.

Development of industry and trade

As a result of the transformations of Peter I, manufactory production began to actively develop, and industry was created. By the end of the XVII century. there were about 30 manufactories in the country. During the years of Peter's reign, there were more than 100 of them. A movement began in the direction of overcoming the technical and economic backwardness of Russia. Large-scale industry is growing in the country, especially metallurgical (in the Urals), textile and leather (in the center of the country), new industries are emerging: shipbuilding (Petersburg, Voronezh, Arkhangelsk), glass and earthenware, paper production (Petersburg, Moscow).

Russian industry was created in conditions of serfdom. Worked in factories sessional(bought by breeders) and ascribed(paying taxes to the state not with money, but with work at the factory) peasants. Russian manufactory was in fact like a serf estate.

The development of industrial and handicraft production contributed to the development of trade. The country was in the process of creating an all-Russian market. In order to encourage the merchants, in 1724 the first trade tariff was introduced, which taxed the export of Russian goods abroad.

Reforms of Peter I :

Reform

Description (characterization) of Peter's reforms

Control system

January 30, 1699 Peter issued a decree on the self-government of cities and the election of mayors. The main Burmister Chamber (Town Hall), subordinate to the tsar, was in Moscow and was in charge of all the elected people in the cities of Russia.

Along with new orders, some offices arose. The Transfiguration Order is a detective and punitive body.

(the administrative institution that existed in 1695-1729 and was in charge of cases of state crimes is the Preobrazhensky Prikaz)

Provincial reform of 1708-1710. The country was divided into 8 provinces. At the head of the provinces were governors-general and governors, they had assistants - vice-governors, chief commandants (in charge of military affairs), chief commissars and chief provisions masters (money and grain collections were in their hands), as well as landrichters, in whose hands were justice.

In 1713-1714. 3 more provinces appeared. Since 1712 provinces began to be divided into provinces, and from 1715. The provinces were no longer divided into counties, but into "shares" headed by the Landrat.

1711 - the creation of the Senate, almost simultaneously Peter I founded a new control and revision institute of the so-called fiscals. Fiscals sent all their observations to the Punishment Chamber, from where cases were sent to the Senate. In 1718-1722. The Senate was reformed: all presidents of the collegiums became its members, the post of prosecutor general was introduced. Established by Peter I in 1711, the Governing Senate replaced ...
Boyar Duma, whose activities are gradually fading.

Gradually, such a form of government as a collegium made its way. A total of 11 collegiums were established. The command system was cumbersome and clumsy. Chamber College - collection of taxes and other revenues to the treasury.

During the reign of Peter I, the state administration
engaged in the collection of taxes and other revenues to the treasury, called
"Chambers ... - collegium."

"statz-kontor - collegium" - public spending

"Revision Board" - control over finances

In 1721 Petersburg, the Chief Magistrate and city magistrates were recreated as a central institution.

Finally, in addition to the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, the Secret Chancellery was established to deal with cases of political investigation in St. Petersburg.

Decree On the Succession to the Throne In 1722, Peter I adopted the Decree on the Succession to the Throne: the emperor himself could appoint his heir, based on the interests of the state. He could reverse the decision if the heir did not live up to expectations.

Legislative act of Peter I on the reform of church administration and
subordination of the church to the state was called. "Spiritual regulations" .. (1721)

The reforms of the state system carried out by Peter I led to ...

strengthening the unlimited power of the king and absolutism.

Taxation, financial system.

In 1700 the owners of the territories of Torzhkov were deprived of the right to collect duties, archaic tarkhans were abolished. In 1704 all inns were taken to the treasury (as well as income from them).

By decree of the king from March 1700. instead of surrogates, they introduced copper money, half-dollars and semi-half-dollars. Since 1700 large gold and silver coins began to enter into circulation. For 1700-1702. the money supply in the country increased sharply, the inevitable depreciation of the coin began.

The policy of protectionism, a policy aimed at the accumulation of wealth within the country, mainly the predominance of exports over imports - an increased customs duty on foreign merchants.

1718-1727 - the first revision census of the population.

1724 - introduction of the poll tax.

. Agriculture

Introduction into the practice of reaping bread instead of the traditional sickle - the Lithuanian scythe.

Persistent and persistent introduction of new breeds of cattle (cattle from Holland). Since 1722 government sheepfolds began to be transferred to private hands.

The treasury energetically organized horse factories.

The first attempts at state protection of forests were made. In 1722 the post of Waldmeister was introduced in areas of large forests.

Industrial transformation

The most important direction of the reforms was the accelerated construction of ironworks by the treasury. Construction was especially active in the Urals.

Creation of large shipyards in St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Moscow, Arkhangelsk.

In 1719 a Manufactory Collegium was created to manage the industry, and a special Berg Collegium was created for the mining industry.

Creation of the Admiralty sailing factory in Moscow. In the 20s. 18th century the number of textile manufactories reached 40.

. Social structure transformations

Table of ranks 1722 - gave the opportunity to ignoble people to participate in public service, improve social status, introduced 14 ranks in total. The last 14th grade is a collegiate registrar.

General Regulations, a new system of ranks in civil, court and military services.

Elimination of serfs as a separate class, boyars as a separate class.

Decree on single inheritance of 1714 allowed the nobles to transfer real estate only to the eldest in the family, the difference between local and patrimonial land ownership was eliminated.

Regular army

In total, for the period from 1699 to 1725, 53 sets were made (284,187 people). Military service at that time was lifelong. By 1725 after the end of the Northern War, the field army consisted of only 73 regiments. In addition to the field army, a system of military garrisons stationed in the villages was created in the country, intended for internal purposes of protecting peace and order. The Russian army has become one of the strongest in Europe.

An impressive Azov fleet was created. Russia had the most powerful fleet in the Baltic. The creation of the Caspian Fleet took place already in the 20s. 18th century

In 1701 The first large artillery school was opened in Moscow in 1712. - In Petersburg. In 1715 The St. Petersburg Naval Academy of Officers began to operate.

Church transformations

1721 - the formation of the Synod headed by the President.

Destroyed the patriarchate

Establishment of a special "board of church affairs"

Establishment of the post of Chief Prosecutor of the Synod.

Europeanization of culture

German settlement

Portal for the student. Self-training

Public Administration Reforms

Regional reform

Control over the activities of civil servants

Reforms of the army and navy

Church reform

Religious politics

financial reform

Transformations in industry and commerce

Social politics

Nobility

Peasantry

Urban population

Transformations in the field of culture

Education

Military reform of Peter I - briefly

Administrative and state reforms of Peter I - briefly

Financial reforms of Peter I - briefly

Economic reforms of Peter I - briefly

Church reform of Peter I - briefly

Military reforms

Public Administration Reform

Church reform

Social politics

urban reform

tax reform

Development of industry and trade

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