Moss, W., 2014. A History of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. 1st ed. London, England: Anthem Press London, pp.112-113.
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
The main driving force behind Peter I’s consolidation of power and reformation of Russia was the goal of ultimately enhancing military efficiency, allowing Russia to become a world power. Throughout his reign, war raged on and became a huge part of daily life. Compulsory lifetime military
...d from the samurai ethic and now are very important to success in business' in Japan.
The Late-Tsarist period in Russia is popular in the state’s history in that it was during this time that serfdom was abolished, that is around the early 1860s. Before this era, serfdom was legal and practiced in the traditional Russian systems. Serfdom was an ideology of the late 1640s which gave to landowners the power to override the lives of their peasant serfs (workers) as long as they lived on their land. Serfdom’s legal powers included denial of movement from the landlord’s place, and freedom in acquiring as much service as a landlord could demand. Thus defined, it can be concluded that it was a form of slavery. It is for these reasons that the following study text will evaluate the aftereffects of the 1861 emancipation, and what Russia became after it.
Peter the Great revolutionized the Russian Empire into a European Superpower during his reign by defeating the Swedish Empire in the Great Northern War and modernizing Russian relations with the rest of Europe. Peter the Great became Tsar of Russia after the death of his brother Ivan. He inherited a nation that was severely underdeveloped compared to European countries, which were prospering both culturally and economically, as the Renaissance and the Reformation had just occurred in Europe (“Bio.com”). At first, he did not seek to improve conditions in Russia; he sought to expand its borders by taking over the Bl...
Peter was only ten years old when the Kremlin saw an open and violent struggle of power between the Naryshkins and Miloslavskys. He had witnessed killings including his mother’s former guardian. These vicious and unnecessary killings created a deep hatred in Peter for the streltsy and revulsion against the Kremlin and its politics. Peter had spent the next seven years in the village of Preobrazhenskoe and his mother whom now served as a head of state. Peter then used his own devices to familiarize himself which in fact were military matters and Western technology. His mother’s death in 1694 and Ivan the Terrible’s death in 1696 made Peter the sole ruler of Russia. (Gupta, 2006) Despite the fact that he had no formal or complete education, Peter was beyond his years physically and mentally. He gained knowledge from mostly foreigners when it came to technical skills who worked for Russian service that had lived nearby. He spent a majority of his time in the German quarter in Moscow learning from the scholars from the German University. (Hutchinson, 2011) A new revolt of the streltsy took place in...
Peter the Great, the most influential czar and military leader in Russian history, transformed his country from an almost medieval backwater region into one of the world's great powers at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Peter combined Western ideas with Russian tradition to modernize his country and to create a powerful army and navy. Born the only child of Czar Alexis and his second wife, Natalya Naryshkin, on June 9, 1672, in Moscow, Peter struggled with his half brothers and sisters for power after the czar's death. In 1689, following a series of political and military movements, Peter, at age seventeen, became the sole Russian authority. While celebrated mostly for his "Westernization" of Russia, Peter put most of his energy into achievements that related directly to the military and warfare. His reign of more than thirty-five years saw peace prevail for only a single year. During his first decade of rule, Peter grew from a gangly teenager into a formidable, robust figure at six and a half feet tall - a physical -development prelude of the growth and presence he would bring to Russia. Possessing a keen interest in military history and theories, Peter established two personal guard regiments to experiment with drills and to develop war games, enabling him to better understand his studies. The young Peter realized that land power alone could not establish Russian military might, and so he began an upgrade of his navy. In 1696, Peter, at only twenty-four years of age, launched an offensive against the Turks at Azov. That victory provided Russia access to the Black Sea. Despite this success, Peter knew that neither his armed forces nor his country as a whole compared favorable with the other European powers. Having assumed the throne of a country that had missed both the Renaissance and the Reformation, which left it nearly a century behind the rest of Europe in cultural and scientific developments, Peter was determined to understand how and why the Russians lagged behind their neighbors.In 1697-98, Peter traveled throughout Europe under a pseudonym and without his courtly trappings. He studied shipbuilding in Holland and England and observed gunnery practice in Prussia. Along the way he visited military and civilian schools, factories, and museums as well as military arsenals and installations. When Peter returned to Russia, he brought along Western educators, businessmen, and military personnel to serve as advisers.
Catherine the Great was born into the royal German house of Anhalt-Zerbst. She was selected by the Russian Empress Elisabeth to be the wife of the Russian prince Grand Duke Peter at the tender age of fourteen. Peter and Catherine were both German, and they were also cousins. Peter and Catherine were always at each others throats, and often had affairs with secret lovers. Catherine gave up her German name and religious beliefs, and began to take on everything Russian. After the death of Empress Elisabeth, Peter claimed the throne. Peter loved his German roots, and hated the Russian way of life. Peter began to abuse his power, doing everything he could to influence his German roots in Russia. He removed Russian icons from the church. This caused the uprising of a military revolt. Among the people who planned to take over Peter was Catherines lover, Grigory Orlov. She made sure to place herself at the front of this rebellion, and crowned herself empress.
One of the first actions Louis did when he came to power was revoke the Edict of Nantes which originally allowed protestants to worship in many towns. With the revocation Huguenot churches and schools were closed and Huguenot pastors that did not renounce their faith were sent to exile. However, besides the Edict of Nantes, Louis did not have many other laws that directly changed the way people lived compared with Peter, who had many. Peter wanted to modernize, and therefore, ‘westernize’ Russia. Peter also used St. Petersburg to modernize Russia. The new capital was designed to reflect modern urban planning with new features such as wider avenues and aline buildings. He prohibited men from having beards and had them taxed if they did so. He also changed men and women’s clothing to be more like France and England’s styles. Furthermore, he changed the way Russians entertained; now, both men and women would be in the same hall during celebrations and parties. When Peter’s social changes resulted in more modernization for Russia, Louis’ social changes resulted in international prestige for France. By the end of Louis’ reign, France was a country that all other countries looked up to and French replaced Latin as the common language. The French language and French customs became a symbol for the wealthy and
Russian society before Peter’s rule was in a problematic situation because, their army was failing as well as their economy. When Peter the Great came to rule Russia, he used absolutism as a way to increase his country and his own power. During his reign, Peter was building a strong army, expanding his territory and Westernizing Russia. In an effort to Westernize Russia, Peter adapted new ideas from Europe. As a result, Peter had an overall positive impact on Russia.
Before Peter the Great took control of Russia, it differed drastically from the states and societies that lye further west. During the seventeenth century, Russia was a highly firm and restricted society; one in which people did not have rights and/or control of their own lives. Around the area of Moscow, Peter inherited a huge territorial aggregation. At the time, Western Europe was sparsely populated, and the level of economic development was too low for European standards. It was practically impossible to give an accurate approximation of what the population in Russia actually was, but it was estimated to be around 10 to 12 million during the late seventeenth century. The government prior to Peter the Great was in effect of promising the landlords a secure supply of peasants by the extension of serfdom.
By observing the Russian colossus; European nations were anxious. Russia was the largest and most populated European nations in 1815. Soldier, explores and traders expanded Russia beyond Siberia. Russia had a rigid social structure, nobles dominated the Russian society and rejected any kind of changes. The domination of noble made the middle class weaker. Most of the people were peasants or serfs. But I knew, in Russia, their system of government was wrong and things had to change. Serfs or peasants shouldn’t need to look elsewhere to making living after emancipation. Alexander II created zemstvos; responsible for road repairs schools and agriculture also introduced great legal reforms, but his ideas didn’t made him popular or influenced anyone.
Prior to World War One, Russia lost their naval port, Vladivostok, to the Japanese during the Russian Japanese war; putting a huge strain on the already struggling government. During this time, Nicholas II ruled as a Czar of Russia. During his reign, Russia’s rich prevailed greatly, while the poor starved and went to war. The rich believed “The people have the need for potatoes but not for the least of the constitution” they stood strong in the belief that the illiterate agriculturalists should have no say in their government, but also strongly considered that “Russia could not be ruled effectively unless the tsar took at least a part of the nation into partnership.” In 1904, the prices of basic good increased, while the real wages declined a little over twenty percent. Within the...
The need to modernise in Russia was a problem that the tsar had to face between the years, at the time in question, Russia was very backwards in the way that it farmed its lands, its economy was behind that of the rest of Europe, this meant that action had to be taken, in this area the tsar did have some successes.