Introduction

“This monarch compared our fatherland with others, taught us to recognize that we are people; in a word, whatever you look at in Russia, everything has its beginning, and whatever is done in the future, they will draw from this source. "

I. I. Neplyuev

The personality of Peter I (1672 - 1725) rightfully belongs to the galaxy of outstanding historical figures of the world scale. A lot of research and fiction is devoted to the transformations associated with his name. Historians and writers in different ways, sometimes just the opposite, assessed the personality of Peter I and the significance of his reforms. Already the contemporaries of Peter I were divided into two camps: supporters and opponents of his transformations. The controversy continued later. In the XVIII century. MV Lomonosov praised Peter, admired his activities. A little later, the historian Karamzin accused Peter of betraying the "truly Russian" principles of life, and called his reforms "a brilliant mistake."

At the end of the 17th century, when the young Tsar Peter I found himself on the Russian throne, our country was going through a turning point in its history. In Russia, in contrast to the main Western European countries, there were almost no large industrial enterprises capable of providing the country with weapons, fabrics, and agricultural implements. It had no outlet to the seas - neither the Black nor the Baltic, through which it could develop foreign trade. Therefore, Russia did not have its own navy to guard its borders. The land army was built according to outdated principles and consisted mainly of the noble militia. The nobles were reluctant to leave their estates for military campaigns, their weapons and military training lagged behind the advanced European armies. A fierce struggle for power was going on between the old, well-born boyars and the serving people of the nobles. In the country, there were continuous uprisings of the peasants and urban lower classes, who fought against both the nobles and the boyars, since they were all feudal serf-owners. Russia attracted the greedy gaze of neighboring states - Sweden, the Commonwealth, which were not averse to seizing and subjugating the Russian lands. It was necessary to reorganize the army, build a fleet, seize the coast of the sea, create a domestic industry, and rebuild the system of governing the country. For a radical breakdown of the old way of life, Russia needed an intelligent and talented leader, an outstanding person. This turned out to be Peter I. Peter not only comprehended the dictates of the times, but also put into the service of this dictate all his extraordinary talent, the persistence of the possessed, the patience inherent in the Russian people and the ability to give the cause a state scale. Peter imperiously invaded all spheres of the country's life and greatly accelerated the development of the inherited beginnings.

The history of Russia before Peter the Great and after him knew many reforms. The main difference between the Peter's transformations and the reforms of the previous and subsequent times was that the Petrovskys were all-encompassing, covering all aspects of the life of the people, while others introduced innovations that concerned only certain spheres of the life of society and the state. We, people of the end of the XX century, did not we can fully appreciate the explosive effect of Peter's reforms in Russia. People of the past, XIX century perceived them sharper, deeper. Here is what a contemporary of A.S. wrote about the significance of Peter. Pushkin, the historian M.N. Pogodin in 1841, that is, almost a century and a half after the great reforms of the first quarter of the 18th century: "In the hands of (Peter) the ends of all our threads are connected in one knot. Wherever we look, everywhere we meet with this colossal a figure who casts a long shadow from herself on all of our past and even obscures our ancient history, which at the present moment still seems to be holding her hand over us, and which, it seems, we will never lose sight of, no matter how far we go we are into the future. "

Created in Russia by Peter, the generation of M.N. Pogodin, and the next generations. For example, the last recruitment took place in 1874, that is, 170 years after the first (1705). The Senate existed from 1711 to December 1917, that is, 206 years; the synodal structure of the Orthodox Church remained unchanged from 1721 to 1918, that is, for 197 years, the poll tax system was canceled only in 1887, that is, 163 years after its introduction in 1724.In other words, in the history of Russia we we will find a few institutions deliberately created by man that would last so long, having such a strong impact on all aspects of social life. Moreover, some of the principles and stereotypes of political consciousness, developed or finally consolidated under Peter, are still tenacious, sometimes in new verbal clothes they exist as traditional elements of our thinking and social behavior.

1. Historical conditions and prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I

The country was on the eve of great transformations. What were the prerequisites for Peter's reforms?

Russia was a backward country. This backwardness posed a serious danger to the independence of the Russian people.

The structure of industry was feudal, and in terms of production it was significantly inferior to the industry of Western European countries.

The Russian army to a large extent consisted of a backward noble militia and archers, poorly armed and trained. The complex and clumsy ordering state apparatus, headed by the boyar aristocracy, did not meet the needs of the country. Russia also lagged behind in the field of spiritual culture. Enlightenment hardly penetrated the masses, and even in the ruling circles there were many uneducated and completely illiterate people.

Russia of the 17th century by the very course of historical development was faced with the need for radical reforms, since only in this way could it secure a worthy place among the states of the West and the East. It should be noted that by this time in the history of our country there had already been significant shifts in its development. The first industrial enterprises of the manufactory type arose, handicrafts and crafts grew, and trade in agricultural products developed. The social and geographical division of labor - the basis of the established and developing all-Russian market - was continuously growing. The city was separated from the village. The fishing and agricultural areas were distinguished. Domestic and foreign trade developed. In the second half of the 17th century, the nature of the state system in Russia began to change, and absolutism took shape more and more clearly. Russian culture and sciences were further developed: mathematics and mechanics, physics and chemistry, geography and botany, astronomy and "mining". Cossacks explorers discovered a number of new lands in Siberia.

The 17th century was the time when Russia established constant communication with Western Europe, established closer trade and diplomatic ties with it, used its technology and science, and perceived its culture and enlightenment. Learning and borrowing, Russia developed independently, took only what it needed, and only when it was necessary. It was a time of accumulation of the forces of the Russian people, which made it possible to carry out the grandiose reforms of Peter, prepared by the very course of Russia's historical development.

Peter's reform was prepared by the entire previous history of the people, "demanded by the people." Already before Peter, a fairly integral reformatory program was drawn up, which in many respects coincided with the reforms of Peter, otherwise going even further than them. A transformation was being prepared in general, which, given a peaceful course of affairs, could stretch over a number of generations. The reform, as it was carried out by Peter, was his personal affair, an affair unparalleled force and, nevertheless, involuntary and necessary. External dangers of the state outstripped the natural growth of the people, which had become stagnant in their development. The renovation of Russia could not be left to the quiet, gradual work of time, not forced by force. The reforms affected literally all aspects of the life of the Russian state and the Russian people. It should be noted that the main driving force behind Peter's reforms was the war.

2. Military reforms

Military reforms occupy a special place among Peter's reforms. The essence of the military reform consisted in the elimination of the noble militias and the organization of a combat-ready standing army with a uniform structure, weapons, uniforms, discipline, and regulations.

The task of creating a modern combat-ready army and navy occupied the young tsar even before he became sovereign. You can count only a few (according to different historians - in different ways) years of peace during the 36-year reign of Peter. The army and navy have always been the main concern of the emperor. However, military reforms are important not only in themselves, but also because they exerted a very large, often decisive, influence on other aspects of the life of the state. The course of the military reform itself was determined by the war.

"The game of soldiers", to which young Peter devoted all his time, from the end of the 1680s. becomes more and more serious. In 1689, Peter builds on Lake Pleshcheyevo, near Pereslavl-Zalessky, several small ships under the guidance of Dutch craftsmen. In the spring of 1690, the famous "amusing shelves" were created - Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky. Peter begins to conduct real military maneuvers, the "capital city of Preschburg" is being built on the Yauza.

The Semyonovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments became the nucleus of the future permanent (regular) army and showed themselves during the Azov campaigns of 1695-1696. Peter I pays much attention to the fleet, the first baptism of fire of which also falls on this time. The treasury did not have the necessary funds, and the construction of the fleet was entrusted to the so-called "kumpanstva" (companies) - associations of secular and spiritual landowners. With the outbreak of the Northern War, the main focus is shifted to the Baltic, and with the founding of St. Petersburg, the construction of ships is carried out almost exclusively there. By the end of Peter's reign, Russia had become one of the strongest maritime powers in the world, with 48 ships of the line and 788 galley and other ships.

The beginning of the Northern War was the impetus for the final creation of the regular army. Before Peter, the army consisted of two main parts - the noble militia and various semi-regular formations (archers, Cossacks, regiments of a foreign system). A fundamental change was that Peter introduced a new principle of manning the army - the periodic convening of the militia was replaced by systematic recruitment. The basis of the recruiting system was the estate-serf principle. Recruitment kits were extended to the population who paid taxes and carried government duties. In 1699, the first recruitment was made, since 1705, the sets were legalized by a corresponding decree and became annual. From 20 yards, they took one person, single at the age of 15 to 20 (however, during the Northern War, these terms were constantly changing due to the lack of soldiers and sailors). The Russian countryside suffered the most from recruiting. The recruit's service life was practically unlimited. The officer corps of the Russian army was replenished at the expense of nobles who studied in the guards noble regiments or in specially organized schools (gunnery, artillery, navigation, fortification, Naval Academy, etc.). In 1716, the Military was adopted, and in 1720 - the Naval Regulations, a large-scale rearmament of the army was carried out. By the end of the Northern War, Peter had a huge strong army - 200 thousand people (not counting 100 thousand Cossacks), which allowed Russia to win a grueling war that stretched out for almost a quarter of a century.

The main results of the military reforms of Peter the Great are as follows:

the creation of a combat-ready regular army, one of the strongest in the world, which gave Russia the opportunity to fight with its main opponents and defeat them;

the emergence of a whole galaxy of talented generals (Alexander Menshikov, Boris Sheremetev, Fedor Apraksin, Yakov Bruce, etc.);

the creation of a powerful military fleet;

a gigantic increase in military spending and covering them by squeezing money out of the people.

3. Reform of public administration

In the first quarter of the 18th century. the transition to absolutism was accelerated by the Northern War and was completed. It was during Peter's rule that a regular army and a bureaucratic apparatus of state administration were created, and both the actual and legal form of absolutism took place.

An absolute monarchy is characterized by the highest degree of centralization, a developed bureaucratic apparatus completely dependent on the monarch, and a strong regular army. These signs were inherent in Russian absolutism as well.

The army, in addition to its main internal function of suppressing popular unrest and uprisings, performed other functions. Since the time of Peter the Great, it has been widely used in government as a coercive force. The practice of sending military commands to the field has become widespread in order to compel the administration to better comply with government orders and instructions. But sometimes the central institutions were put in the same position, for example, even the activities of the Senate in the first years of its creation were under the control of the Guards officers. Officers and soldiers were also involved in the population census, collection of taxes and arrears. Along with the army, to suppress its political opponents, absolutism also used punitive organs specially created for this purpose - the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, the Secret Chancellery.

In the first quarter of the 18th century. a second pillar of absolute monarchy emerges - the bureaucratic apparatus of state administration.

The central authorities inherited from the past (Boyar Duma, orders) are liquidated, a new system of state institutions appears.

The peculiarity of Russian absolutism was that it coincided with the development of serfdom, while in most European countries an absolute monarchy took shape under the conditions of the development of capitalist relations and the abolition of serfdom.

The old form of government: the tsar with the Boyar Duma - orders - the local administration in the counties, did not meet the new tasks either in providing military needs with material resources, or in collecting monetary taxes from the population. Orders often overlapped functions of each other, creating confusion in management and slowness in decision-making. Counties were of different sizes - from dwarf counties to giant counties, which made it impossible to effectively use their administration to collect taxes. The Boyar Duma with its traditions of unhurried discussion of affairs, representation of the noble nobility, not always competent in state affairs, also did not meet the requirements of Peter.

The establishment of an absolute monarchy in Russia was accompanied by a wide expansion of the state, its invasion into all spheres of public, corporate and private life. Peter I pursued a policy of further enslavement of the peasants, which took the most severe forms at the end of the 18th century. Finally, the strengthening of the role of the state manifested itself in a detailed, thorough regulation of the rights and obligations of individual estates and social groups. Along with this, there was a legal consolidation of the ruling class, from different feudal strata formed an estate of the nobility.

The state, which was formed at the beginning of the 18th century, is called a policeman, not only because it was during this period that a professional police was created, but also because the state sought to intervene in all aspects of life, regulating them.

The transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg also contributed to the administrative transformations. The king wanted to have at hand the necessary levers of control, which he often recreated, guided by momentary needs. As in all his other endeavors, during the reform of state power, Peter did not take into account Russian traditions and widely transferred to Russian soil the structures and methods of management known to him from his Western European voyages. Lacking a clear plan for administrative reforms, the tsar probably still represented the desired image of the state apparatus. This is a strictly centralized and bureaucratic apparatus, clearly and quickly executing the orders of the sovereign, within the limits of its competence, showing reasonable initiative. This is something very similar to the army, where each officer, fulfilling the general order of the commander-in-chief, independently solves his particular and specific tasks. As we will see, the Petrine state machine was far from such an ideal, which was seen only as a tendency, albeit clearly expressed.

In the first quarter of the 18th century. a whole complex of reforms was carried out related to the restructuring of central and local authorities and administration, the areas of culture and everyday life, and a radical reorganization of the armed forces is taking place. Almost all of these changes took place during the reign of Peter I and were of great progressive importance.

Consider the reforms of the highest bodies of power and administration that took place in the first quarter of the 18th century, which are usually divided into three stages:

Stage I - 1699 - 1710 - partial transformations;

Stage II - 1710 - 1719 - the elimination of the former central authorities and administration, the creation of the Senate, the emergence of a new capital;

Stage III - 1719 - 1725 - the formation of new bodies of sectoral management, the implementation of the second regional reform, reform of church government and financial and tax.

3.1. Central government reform

The last mention of the last meeting of the Boyar Duma refers to 1704. The Near Chancellery, which was established in 1699 (an institution that exercised administrative and financial control in the state), acquired paramount importance. Real power was possessed by the Consulate of Ministers, which sat in the building of the Near Chancellery - the council of heads of the most important departments under the tsar, who controlled orders and offices, provided the army and navy with everything necessary, was in charge of finances and construction (after the formation of the Senate, the Near Chancellery (1719) and the Consulate of Ministers (1711) ceased its existence).

The next stage in the reform of the central government was the creation of the Senate. The formal reason was Peter's departure to the war with Turkey. On February 22, 1711, Peter wrote with his own hand a decree on the composition of the Senate, which began with the phrase: "The Governing Senate was appointed to be absent from us". The content of this phrase has given rise to historians to argue until now about what kind of institution Peter saw the Senate: temporary or permanent. On March 2, 1711, the tsar issued several decrees: on the competence of the Senate and justice, on the organization of state revenues, trade and other branches of the state economy. The Senate was instructed to:

"To have an unhypocritical judgment, and to punish unrighteous judges with the deprivation of honor and all property, then let it follow to those who snatched";

"To look all over the state of expenses, and unnecessary, and especially in vain, to leave";

"As possible to collect money, before money is the essence of the artery of war."

The members of the Senate were appointed by the king. Initially, it consisted of only nine people who decided cases collectively. The staffing of the Senate was based not on the principle of nobility, but on competence, length of service and closeness to the king.

From 1718 to 1722 The Senate became the meeting of the presidents of the collegia. In 1722 it was reformed by three decrees of the emperor. The composition has been changed, including both the presidents of the collegia and senators, who are alien to the collegia. By the decree "On the position of the Senate" the Senate received the right to issue its own decrees.

The range of issues that were in his jurisdiction was quite wide: issues of justice, expenditures of the treasury and taxes, trade, control over the administration of different levels. Immediately, the newly created institution received an office with numerous departments - "tables" where clerks worked. The reform of 1722 turned the Senate into the supreme body of central government, which rose above the entire state apparatus.

The peculiarity of the era of Peter the Great's reforms consisted in the strengthening of the organs and means of state control. And to oversee the activities of the administration under the Senate, the post of Ober-fiscal was established, to which the provincial-fiscal should be subordinate (1711). Insufficient reliability of fiscal authority led, in turn, to the emergence in 1715 of the position of the general auditor, or overseer of decrees, under the Senate. The main business of the auditor is "to make everything done." In 1720, a stronger pressure was made on the Senate: it was ordered to observe that here "everything was done decently, and there was no vain talk, shouting, etc." When this did not help, after a year the duties of both the attorney general and
The chief secretary was assigned to the military: one of the army headquarters officers was on duty in the Senate every month to monitor order, and "whoever of the senators cursed or acted impolitely, the officer on duty arrested and took him to the fortress, letting the sovereign know, of course."

Finally, in 1722, these functions were entrusted to a specially appointed Prosecutor General, who "had to look firmly so that the Senate in its rank would act righteously and unhypocritically," state ".

Thus, the tsar-reformer was forced to constantly expand the special system of organized mistrust and denunciations he created, supplementing the existing control bodies with new ones.

However, the creation of the Senate could not complete the management reforms, since there was no intermediate link between the Senate and the provinces, and many orders continued to operate. In 1717 - 1722 to replace 44 orders of the end of the 17th century. the collegiums came. Unlike orders, the collegial system (1717 - 1719) provided for the systematic division of the administration into a certain number of departments, which in itself created a higher level of centralization.

The Senate appointed presidents and vice presidents, determined the states and operating procedures. In addition to the leaders, the collegiums included four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary, a registrar, a translator and a clerk. From 1720, special decrees were prescribed to begin the proceedings of cases with a new order.

In 1721, the Patrimony Collegium was created, replacing the Local Order, which was in charge of the noble land tenure. The collegiums were the Chief Magistrate, who ruled the city estate, and the Most Holy Governing Synod. Its appearance testified to the elimination of the autonomy of the church.

In 1699, in order to improve the receipt of direct taxes in the treasury, the Burmister Chamber, or the Town Hall, was established. By 1708, it had become the central treasury, replacing the Grand Treasury Order. It includes twelve old financial orders. In 1722, from a single Berg-Manufactory-Collegium, the Manufacture-Collegium emerged, which, in addition to the functions of managing industry, was entrusted with the tasks of economic policy and financing. The Berg Collegium retained the functions of mining and coinage.

Unlike the orders, which operated on the basis of custom and precedent, the collegia had to be guided by clear legal norms and job descriptions. The most general legislative act in this area was the General Regulations (1720), which was the charter of the activities of state collegia, chanceries and offices and determined the composition of their members, competence, functions, and procedures. The subsequent development of the principle of bureaucratic, bureaucratic length of service was reflected in Peter's "Table of Ranks" (1722). The new law divided the service into civil and military. It defined 14 classes, or ranks, of officials. Anyone who received the rank of the 8th grade became a hereditary nobleman. Ranks from the 14th to the 9th also gave nobility, but only personal.

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified to the fact that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal dedication and service become determinants of career advancement. A sign of the bureaucracy as a management system is the integration of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and his leadership in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus are professionalism, specialization, normativity; negative features are its complexity, high cost, self-employment, and inflexibility.

3.2. Local government reform

At the beginning of his reign, Peter I tried to use the old system of local government, gradually introducing elective elements of government instead of zemstvo ones. So, by the decree of March 10, 1702, it was prescribed to participate in management with the main traditional administrators (voivods) of the elected representatives of the nobility. In 1705, this order became mandatory and ubiquitous, which should have strengthened control over the old administration.

On December 18, 1708, a decree was issued "On the establishment of provinces and on the painting of cities for them." It was a reform that completely changed the local government system. The main goal of this reform is to provide the army with everything it needs: direct communication of the provinces was established with the army regiments distributed across the provinces through a specially created institute of Kriegscommissars. According to this decree, the entire territory of the country was divided into eight provinces:

Moscow included 39 cities,

Ingermanland (later St. Petersburg) - 29 cities (two more cities of this province - Yam-burg and Koporye were given into the possession of Prince Menshikov),

56 cities were assigned to the Kiev province,

To Smolenskaya - 17 cities,

To Arkhangelsk (later Arkhangelsk) - 20 cities,

Kazanskaya - 71 urban and rural settlements,

The Azov province, in addition to 52 cities, included 25 cities assigned to ship affairs

26 cities were assigned to the Siberian province, "and 4 suburbs to Vyatka."

In 1711, a group of cities in the Azov province, assigned to ship operations in Voronezh, became the Voronezh province. The province became 9. In 1713-1714. the number of provinces increased to 11.

This is how the reform of the regional administration began. In its final form, it was formed only by 1719, on the eve of the second regional reform.

According to the second reform, eleven provinces were divided into 45 provinces, headed by governors, vice-governors or voivods. Provinces were divided into districts - districts. The provincial administration was directly subordinate to the collegia. Four collegia (Kamer, State Office, Justice and Votchinnaya) had their own apparatus in the field of chamberlains, commandants and treasurers. In 1713, a collegial principle was introduced into the regional administration: under the governors, collegia of landrates were established (from 8 to 12 people per province), elected by the local nobility.

The regional reform, responding to the most urgent needs of the autocratic government, was at the same time a consequence of the development of a bureaucratic tendency that was already characteristic of the previous period. It was with the help of strengthening the bureaucratic element in the government that Peter intended to solve all state issues. The reform led not only to the concentration of financial and administrative powers in the hands of several governors - representatives of the central government, but also to the creation of an extensive hierarchical network of bureaucratic institutions with a large staff of officials in the localities. The previous system "order-district" was doubled: "order (or office) - province - province - district".

Four of his direct subordinates were subordinate to the governor:

chief commandant - was in charge of military affairs;

Ober-Commissioner - for fees;

chief praviantmeister - for grain collection;

Landrichter - for court cases.

The province was usually headed by a voivode; in the county, financial and police administration was entrusted to the zemstvo commissars, partly elected by the county nobles, partly appointed from above.

Some of the functions of orders (especially territorial ones) were transferred to the governors, their number was reduced.

The decree on the establishment of provinces completed the first stage of the reform of local government. Provincial administration was carried out by governors and vice-governors, who performed mainly military and financial management functions. However, this division turned out to be too large and did not allow the administration of the provinces in practice, especially with the communications that existed at that time. Therefore, in each province there were big cities, in which the management was carried out by the former city administration.

3.3. Urban Governance Reform

New urban-type settlements appeared around the newly formed industrial enterprises, manufactories, mines, mines and shipyards, in which self-government bodies began to form. Already in 1699, Peter I, wishing to provide the city estate with full self-government like the West, ordered the establishment of the Burmister Chamber. In the cities, self-government bodies began to form: posad assemblies, magistrates. The urban estate began to take shape legally. In 1720, the Chief Magistrate was established in St. Petersburg, who was entrusted with "in charge of the entire urban estate in Russia."

According to the regulations of the Chief Magistrate in 1721, it began to be divided into regular citizens and "vile" people. Regular citizens, in turn, were divided into two guilds:

The first guild - bankers, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, skippers of merchant ships, painters, icon painters and silversmiths.

The second guild is artisans, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, small traders.

Guilds were run by guild assemblies and foremen. The lower stratum of the urban population ("found in hiring, in black jobs, and the like") chose their elders and tenants, who could inform the magistrate about their needs and ask them for satisfaction.

According to the European model, shop organizations were created, which consisted of foremen, apprentices and apprentices, led by foremen. All other townspeople were not included in the guild and were subject to a general check in order to identify fugitive peasants among them and return them to their former places of residence.

The division into guilds turned out to be the purest formality, since the military auditors who conducted it, who were primarily concerned about increasing the number of poll tax payers, arbitrarily included in the members of guilds and persons not related to them. The emergence of guilds and workshops meant that corporate principles were opposed to the feudal principles of economic organization.

3.4. Public administration reform results

As a result of Peter's reforms, by the end of the first quarter
XVIII century the following system of authorities and administration was formed.

All the completeness of legislative, executive, and judicial power was concentrated in the hands of Peter, who, after the end of the Northern War, received the title of emperor. In 1711. a new supreme body of executive and judicial power was created - the Senate, which also had significant legislative functions. It was fundamentally different from its predecessor, the Boyar Duma.

The members of the council were appointed by the emperor. In the exercise of executive power, the Senate issued decrees that had the force of law. In 1722, the Attorney General was put at the head of the Senate, who was entrusted with control over the activities of all government agencies. The Prosecutor General was supposed to perform the functions of the "eye of the state". He exercised this control through prosecutors appointed to all government agencies. In the first quarter of the 18th century. the system of prosecutors was added to the system of fiscal, headed by the ober-fiscal. The fiscal duties included reporting on all abuses of institutions and officials that violated the "state interest".

The order system that had developed under the Boyar Duma did not in any way correspond to the new conditions and tasks. The orders that appeared at different times were very different in nature and function. Orders and edicts of orders often contradicted each other, creating unimaginable confusion and for a long time delaying the solution of urgent issues.

Instead of the outdated system of orders in 1717 - 1718. 12 colleges were created.

The creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, delineation of the spheres of government and competence, uniform standards of activity, concentration of financial management in a single institution - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

Foreign lawyers were involved in the development of the regulations, the experience of government institutions in Sweden and Denmark was taken into account.

The subsequent development of the principle of bureaucratic, bureaucratic length of service was reflected in Peter's "Table of Ranks" (1722).

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified to the fact that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal dedication and service become determinants of career advancement. A sign of the bureaucracy as a management system is the integration of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and his leadership in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus are professionalism, specialization, normativity; negative features are its complexity, high cost, self-employment, and inflexibility.

The training of personnel for the new state apparatus began to be carried out in special schools and academies in Russia and abroad. The degree of qualification was determined not only by rank, but also by education and special training.

In 1708 - 1709 restructuring of local authorities and administration began. The country was divided into 8 provinces, differing in territory and population. At the head of the province was a governor appointed by the king, who concentrated executive and judicial power in his hands. Under the governor, there was a provincial chancellery. But the situation was complicated by the fact that the governor obeyed not only the emperor and the Senate, but also all the colleges, orders and decrees of which often contradicted each other.

The provinces in 1719 were divided into provinces, the number of which was 50. At the head of the province was a voivode with an office under him. The provinces, in turn, were divided into districts (counties) with the voivode and the county office. For some time during the reign of Peter, the district administration was replaced by an elected zemstvo commissar from local nobles or retired officers. Its functions were limited to collecting the poll tax, overseeing the implementation of state duties, and arresting fugitive peasants. Subordinated to the provincial zemstvo commissar. In 1713, the local nobility was allowed to elect 8-12 landrates (advisers from the nobility of the county) to help the governor, and after the introduction of the poll tax, regimental districts were created. The military units quartered in them watched the collection of taxes and suppressed manifestations of discontent and anti-feudal demonstrations.

As a result of administrative transformations in Russia, the registration of the absolute monarchy was completed. The tsar was given the opportunity to rule the country unrestrictedly and uncontrollably with the help of officials completely dependent on him. The unlimited power of the monarch found legislative expression in the 20th article of the Military Regulations and the Spiritual Regulations: the power of monarchs is autocratic, which God himself commands to obey.

The external expression of the absolutism that has taken root in Russia is the adoption
in 1721 by Peter I of the title of emperor and the name "Great".

The most important features of absolutism are the bureaucratization of the administrative apparatus and its centralization. The new state machine as a whole worked much more efficiently than the old one. But a "time bomb" was laid in it - the domestic bureaucracy. E.V. Anisimov in his book "The Time of Peter the Great" writes: "Bureaucracy is a necessary element of the structure of the state of the new era. However, under the conditions of Russian autocracy, when nothing and no one limited the will of the monarch is the only source of law, when an official is not responsible to anyone except his boss , the creation of the bureaucratic machine also became a kind of "bureaucratic revolution", during which the perpetual motion machine of the bureaucracy was launched. "

Reforms of the central and local government created an outwardly harmonious hierarchy of institutions from the Senate in the center to the provincial office in the counties.

4. Reform of the estate system

4.1. Service class

The fight against the Swedes required the organization of a regular army, and Peter gradually transferred all the nobles and service people to regular service. The service for all serving people became the same, they served without exception, indefinitely, and began service with lower ranks.

All the former categories of service people were united together, into one class - the gentry. All the lower ranks (both noble ones and from the "common people") could equally rise to the highest ranks. The order of such length of service was precisely determined by the "Table of Ranks" (1722). In the "Table" all ranks were divided into 14 ranks or "ranks" according to their seniority. Anyone who reached the lowest rank 14 could hope for the highest position and take the highest rank. The Table of Ranks replaced the principle of gentility with the principle of seniority and performance. But Peter made one concession to the natives of the upper old nobility. He allowed noble youth to enroll primarily in his favorite Guards regiments, Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky.

Peter demanded that the nobles must study literacy and mathematics, and deprived untrained nobles of the right to marry and receive an officer's rank. Peter limited the landownership rights of the nobles. He stopped giving them estates from the treasury when they entered the service, and provided them with a monetary salary. He forbade noble estates and estates to be split up when transferred to sons (Law "On Majority", 1714). Peter's measures regarding the nobility aggravated the position of this estate, but did not change its attitude towards the state. The nobility, both before and now, had to pay for the right to land tenure by service. But now the service has become harder, and land ownership is more constrained. The nobility murmured and tried to alleviate their hardships. Peter, on the other hand, severely punished attempts to evade service.

4.2. Urban class (townspeople and city people)

Before Peter, the urban estate was a very small and poor class. Peter wanted to create in Russia an economically strong and active urban class, similar to what he saw in Western Europe. Peter expanded city government. In 1720, a chief magistrate was created to take care of the urban estate. All cities were divided according to the number of inhabitants into classes. Residents of cities were divided into "regular" and "irregular" ("vile") citizens. Regular citizens made up two "guilds": the first included representatives of the capital and the intelligentsia, the second - small traders and artisans. The artisans were divided into "workshops" according to their crafts. The laborers were called irregular people or "mean". The city was governed by a magistrate of burgomasters elected by all regular citizens. In addition, city affairs were discussed at posad meetings or councils of regular citizens. Each city was subordinate to the chief magistrate, bypassing any other local authorities.

Despite all the transformations, the Russian cities remained in the same miserable situation in which they were before. The reason for this is the far from the commercial and industrial system of Russian life and severe wars.

4.3. Peasantry

In the first quarter of the century it became clear that the principle of taxation at home did not bring the expected increase in the collection of taxes.

In order to increase their income, the landlords settled several peasant families in one yard. As a result, during the census in 1710 it became clear that the number of households since 1678 had decreased by 20%. Therefore, a new taxation principle was introduced. In 1718 - 1724 a census of the entire male taxable population is carried out, regardless of age and working capacity. All persons included in these lists ("revision tales") had to pay a poll tax. In the event of the death of the recorded person, the tax continued to be paid until the next revision by the family of the deceased or the community to which he belonged. In addition, all taxable estates, with the exception of the landowners 'peasants, paid the state 40 kopecks of "quitrent", which was supposed to balance their duties with those of the landowners' peasants.

The transition to poll taxation increased the number of direct taxes from 1.8 to 4.6 million, accounting for more than half of the budget revenue (8.5 million). The tax was extended to a number of categories of the population who had not paid it before: slaves, "walking people", one-yard villagers, black-mowed peasants of the North and Siberia, non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, etc. All these categories constituted the estate of state peasants, and the capitation tax for them it was a feudal rent that they paid to the state.

The introduction of the poll tax increased the power of the landowners over the peasants, since the presentation of revision tales and the collection of taxes was entrusted to the landowners.

Finally, in addition to the poll tax, the peasant paid a huge amount of all kinds of taxes and levies designed to replenish the treasury, which was empty as a result of wars, the creation of a cumbersome and expensive apparatus of power and administration, a regular army and navy, the construction of the capital and other expenses. In addition, the state peasants bore duties: road - for the construction and maintenance of roads, Yamskaya - for the transportation of mail, government cargo and officials, etc.

5. Church reform

An important role in the establishment of absolutism was played by the church reform of Peter I. In the second half of the 17th century. the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church were very strong, it retained administrative, financial and judicial autonomy in relation to the tsarist government. The last patriarchs Joachim (1675-1690) and Adrian (1690-1700) pursued a policy aimed at strengthening these positions.

The church policy of Peter, like his policy in other spheres of state life, was aimed, first of all, at the most effective use of the church for the needs of the state, and more specifically, at squeezing money out of the church for state programs, primarily for the construction of the fleet. After Peter's journey as part of the Great Embassy, ​​he was also concerned with the problem of complete subordination of the church to his authority.

The turn to a new policy took place after the death of Patriarch Adrian. Peter orders to conduct an audit for the census of the property of the Patriarchal House. Taking advantage of the information about the revealed abuses, Peter canceled the election of a new patriarch, at the same time entrusting the post of "locum tenens of the patriarchal throne" to Metropolitan Stephen Yavorsky of Ryazan. In 1701, the Monastic Order was formed - a secular institution - to manage the affairs of the church. The church begins to lose its independence from the state, the right to dispose of its property.

Peter, guided by the educational idea of ​​a public good, for which the productive work of all members of society is required, launches an attack on monks and monasteries. In 1701, a royal decree limited the number of monks: now it was necessary to apply to the Monastery Prikaz for permission to tonsure. Subsequently, the king had the idea to use the monasteries as shelters for retired soldiers and beggars. In a decree of 1724, the number of monks in a monastery is made directly dependent on the number of people they look after.

The established relationship between church and government demanded a new legal form. In 1721, Feofan Prokopovich, a prominent figure of the Petrine era, draws up the Spiritual Regulations, which provided for the destruction of the institution of the patriarchate and the formation of a new body - the Spiritual Collegium, which was soon renamed the "Holy Government Synod", officially equalized in rights with the Senate. Stefan Yavorsky became president, Feodosiy Yanovsky and Feofan Prokopovich became vice-presidents. The creation of the Synod was the beginning of the absolutist period of Russian history, since now all power, including the church, was concentrated in the hands of Peter. A contemporary reports that when Russian church leaders tried to protest, Peter pointed out to them the Spiritual Regulations and said: "Here's a spiritual patriarch, and if you don't like him, here's a damask patriarch (throwing a dagger on the table)."

The adoption of the Spiritual Regulations actually turned Russian clergy into government officials, especially since a secular person was appointed to supervise the Synod - the chief prosecutor.

The reform of the church was carried out in parallel with the tax reform, the registration and classification of priests was carried out, and their lower strata were transferred to a capitation salary. According to the consolidated statements of the Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan provinces (formed as a result of the division of the Kazan province), only 3044 priests out of 8709 (35%) were exempted from tax. A violent reaction among the priests was caused by the Resolution of the Synod of May 17, 1722, in which the clergy were charged with violating the secrecy of confession if they had the opportunity to communicate any information important to the state.

As a result of the church reform, the church lost a huge part of its influence and turned into a part of the state apparatus, strictly controlled and governed by the secular authorities.

6. Economic transformation

In the Petrine era, the Russian economy, and above all industry, made a giant leap forward. At the same time, the development of the economy in the first quarter of the 18th century. followed the paths outlined by the previous period. In the Moscow state of the XVI XVII century. there were large industrial enterprises - Cannon yard, Printing yard, arms factories in Tula, a shipyard in Dedinovo. The policy of Peter I regarding economic life was characterized by a high degree of command and protectionist methods.

In agriculture, opportunities for improvement were drawn from the further development of fertile lands, the cultivation of industrial crops that provided raw materials for industry, the development of animal husbandry, the advancement of agriculture to the east and south, as well as the more intensive exploitation of the peasants. The increased demand of the state for raw materials for the Russian industry led to the widespread use of crops such as flax and hemp. The decree of 1715 encouraged the cultivation of flax and hemp, as well as tobacco, mulberry trees for silkworms. The decree of 1712 ordered the creation of horse breeding farms in the Kazan, Azov and Kiev provinces, and sheep breeding was also encouraged.

In the Peter's era, there was a sharp demarcation of the country into two zones of feudal economy - the lean North, where the feudal lords transferred their peasants to a monetary quitrent, often letting them go to the city and other agricultural areas to earn money, and the fertile South, where the noble landowners sought to expand the corvee.

The state obligations of the peasants were also strengthened. They built cities (40 thousand peasants worked on the construction of St. Petersburg), factories, bridges, roads; annual recruitment was carried out, old fees were raised and new ones introduced. The main goal of Peter's policy all the time was to obtain as much money and human resources as possible for state needs.

Two censuses were carried out - in 1710 and 1718. According to the census of 1718, the unit of taxation was the male "soul", regardless of the age at which the capitation tax was levied in the amount of 70 kopecks per year (from state peasants - 1 ruble 10 kopecks per year). This streamlined the tax policy and sharply raised the state's revenues (by about 4 times; by the end of Peter's reign, they amounted to 12 million rubles a year).

In industry, there was a sharp reorientation from small peasant and handicraft farms to manufactories. Under Peter, no less than 200 new factories were founded, and he encouraged their creation in every possible way. The government's policy was also aimed at protecting the young Russian industry from competition from Western European ones by introducing very high customs duties (Customs Charter 1724)

Russian manufactory, although it had capitalist features, but the use on it mainly of the labor of peasants - possessory, registered, quitrent, etc. - made it a serf enterprise. Depending on whose property they were, manufactories were divided into state, merchant and landowners. In 1721, industrialists were given the right to buy peasants in order to assign them to the enterprise.

State treasury factories used the labor of state peasants, registered peasants, recruits and free hired craftsmen. They mainly served heavy industry - metallurgy, shipyards, mines. The merchant manufactories, which mainly produced consumer goods, employed both possessional and quitrent peasants, as well as free hired labor. The landowners' enterprises were fully supported by the forces of the landlord-owner serfs.

Peter's protectionist policy led to the emergence of manufactories in a wide variety of industries, often appearing in Russia for the first time. The main ones were those who worked for the army and navy: metallurgical, weapons, shipbuilding, cloth, linen, leather, etc. Entrepreneurial activity was encouraged, preferential conditions were created for people who created new manufactories or rented state-owned ones.

Manufactories arose in many industries - glass, gunpowder, paper-making, canvas, linen, silk-weaving, cloth, leather, rope, hat, colorful, sawmill and many others. Nikita Demidov made a huge contribution to the development of the metallurgical industry of the Urals, who enjoyed the special favor of the tsar. The emergence of the foundry industry in Karelia on the basis of the Ural ores, the construction of the Vyshnevolotsk canal, contributed to the development of metallurgy in new regions and brought Russia to one of the first places in the world in this industry.

By the end of Peter's reign, Russia had a developed diversified industry with centers in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Urals. The largest enterprises were the Admiralty Shipyard, Arsenal, St. Petersburg gunpowder factories, metallurgical plants in the Urals, Khamovny Dvor in Moscow. There was a strengthening of the all-Russian market, capital accumulation thanks to the mercantilist policy of the state. Russia supplied competitive goods to the world markets: iron, linen, yuft, potash, furs, caviar.

Thousands of Russians were trained in Europe in various specialties, and in turn foreigners - gunsmiths engineers, metallurgists, gateway craftsmen - were hired to work in the Russian service. Thanks to this, Russia was enriched with the most advanced technologies in Europe.

As a result of Peter's policy in the economic field, a powerful industry was created in an ultra-short period of time, capable of fully meeting military and state needs and in no way dependent on imports.

7. Reforms in the field of culture and life

Important changes in the life of the country decisively required the training of qualified personnel. The scholastic school, which was in the hands of the church, could not provide this. Secular schools began to open, education began to acquire a secular character. This required the creation of new textbooks that replaced the church textbooks.

Peter I introduced a new civil script in 1708, replacing the old Cyril semi-statute. For the printing of secular educational, scientific, political literature and legislative acts, new printing houses were created in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The development of book printing was accompanied by the beginning of the organized book trade, as well as the creation and development of a network of libraries. In 1703, the first issue of the newspaper "Vedomosti", the first Russian newspaper, was published in Moscow.

The most important stage in the implementation of reforms was Peter's visit to a number of European countries as part of the Grand Embassy. Upon his return, Peter sent many young noblemen to Europe to study various specialties, mainly to master the marine sciences. The tsar also cared about the development of education in Russia. In 1701, in Moscow, in the Sukharev Tower, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences was opened, headed by the professor of the University of Aberdeen, a Scotsman Forvarson. One of the teachers of this school was Leonty Magnitsky - the author of "Arithmetic ...". In 1711 an engineering school appeared in Moscow.

The logical result of all measures in the field of the development of science and education was the founding in 1724 of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Peter strove to overcome as soon as possible the disunity between Russia and Europe, which had arisen since the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. One of its manifestations was a different chronology, and in 1700 Peter transfers Russia to a new calendar - 7208 becomes 1700, and the New Year's celebration is postponed from September 1 to January 1.

The development of industry and trade was associated with the study and development of the territory and subsoil of the country, which found its expression in the organization of a number of large expeditions.

At this time, major technical innovations and inventions appeared, especially in the development of mining and metallurgy, as well as in the military field.

During this period, a number of important works on history were written, and the Kunstkamera created by Peter laid the foundation for the collection of collections of historical and memorial objects and rarities, weapons, materials on natural sciences, etc. At the same time, they began to collect ancient written sources, to make copies of chronicles, letters, decrees and other acts. This was the beginning of museum work in Russia.

From the first quarter of the 18th century. the transition to urban planning and regular urban planning was carried out. The appearance of the city began to be determined not by cult architecture, but by palaces and mansions, houses of government institutions and the aristocracy. In painting, icon painting is replaced by a portrait. By the first quarter of the 18th century. Attempts to create a Russian theater are also related, at the same time the first dramatic works were written.

Changes in everyday life affected the mass of the population. The old familiar long-sleeved clothes with long sleeves were prohibited and replaced with new ones. Camisoles, ties and frills, wide-brimmed hats, stockings, shoes, wigs quickly replaced old Russian clothes in the cities. The fastest growing Western European outerwear and dress among women. It was forbidden to wear a beard, which caused discontent, especially among the tax-paying estates. A special "beard tax" and a mandatory copper sign on its payment were introduced.

From 1718, Peter established assemblies with the obligatory presence of women, which reflected serious changes in their position in society. The establishment of the assemblies marked the beginning of the establishment among the Russian nobility of the "rules of good manners" and "noble behavior in society", the use of a foreign, mainly French, language.

It should be noted that all these transformations came exclusively from above, and therefore were quite painful for both the upper and lower strata of society. The violent nature of some of these transformations inspired disgust for them and led to a sharp rejection of the rest, even the most progressive ones. Peter strove to make Russia a European country in every sense of the word and attached great importance to even the smallest details of the process.

The changes in everyday life and culture that took place in the first quarter of the 18th century were of great progressive importance. But they further emphasized the separation of the nobility into a privileged estate, turned the use of the benefits and achievements of culture into one of the noble estate privileges, and was accompanied by a widespread Gallomania, a contemptuous attitude towards the Russian language and Russian culture among the noble milieu.

Conclusion

The main result of the entire set of Peter's reforms was the establishment of an absolutism regime in Russia, the crown of which was the change in the title of the Russian monarch in 1721 - Peter declared himself emperor, and the country began to be called the Russian Empire. Thus, it was formalized what Peter was heading for all the years of his reign - the creation of a state with a harmonious system of government, a strong army and navy, a powerful economy, influencing international politics. As a result of Peter's reforms, the state was not bound by anything and could use any means to achieve its goals. As a result, Peter came to his ideal of state structure - a warship, where everything and everything is subject to the will of one person - the captain, and managed to take this ship out of the swamp into the stormy waters of the ocean, bypassing all the reefs and shoals.

Russia became an autocratic, military-bureaucratic state, the central role in which belonged to the nobility. At the same time, the backwardness of Russia was not completely overcome, and reforms were carried out mainly due to the most severe exploitation and coercion.

The complexity and inconsistency of the development of Russia during this period also determined the inconsistency of Peter's activities and the reforms he carried out. On the one hand, they had a huge historical meaning, since they contributed to the progress of the country, were aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, they were carried out by serf-owners, serf-owning methods and were aimed at strengthening their rule. Therefore, the progressive transformations of Peter's time from the very beginning carried conservative features, which in the course of the further development of the country acted more and more and could not ensure the elimination of socio-economic backwardness. As a result of Peter's reforms, Russia quickly caught up with those European countries where feudal-serf relations remained dominant, but she could not catch up with those countries that embarked on the capitalist path of development.

The transformative activity of Peter was distinguished by indomitable energy, unprecedented scope and purposefulness, courage in breaking down obsolete institutions, laws, foundations and way of life and way of life.

The role of Peter the Great in the history of Russia can hardly be overestimated. No matter how you relate to the methods and style of his transformations, one cannot but admit that Peter the Great is one of the most prominent figures in world history.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of a contemporary of Peter - Nartov: "... and although Peter the Great is no longer with us, his spirit lives in our souls, and we, who had the happiness of being with this monarch, will die faithful to him and our ardent love for the earthly we will bury God with us. We proclaim without fear about our father, so that we learned from him noble fearlessness and truth. "

Bibliography

1. Anisimov E.V. Time of Peter's reforms. - L .: Lenizdat, 1989.

2. Anisimov E.V., Kamenskiy A.B. Russia in the 18th - first half of the 19th century: History. Historian. Document. - M .: MIROS, 1994.

3. Buganov V.I. Peter the Great and his time. - M .: Nauka, 1989.

4. History of public administration in Russia: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. A.N. Markova. - M .: Law and Law, UNITI, 1997.

5. History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. / Ed. B.A. Rybakov. - M .: Higher school, 1983.

6. Malkov V.V. A handbook on the history of the USSR for university applicants. - M .: Higher school, 1985.

7. Pavlenko N.I. Peter the Great. - M .: Thought, 1990.

8. Soloviev S.M. About the history of new Russia. - M .: Education, 1993.

9. Solovyov S.M. Readings and stories on the history of Russia. - M .: Pravda, 1989.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

KOMI REPUBLICAN ACADEMY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

AND OFFICE UNDER THE CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOMI

Faculty of State and Municipal Administration

Department of Public Administration and Civil Service

Test

REFORMS OF PETER I.

RUSSIA IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE XVIII CENTURY

Executor:

Motorkin Andrey Yurievich,

group 112

Teacher:

Art. teacher I.I. Lastunov

Syktyvkar

Introduction 1

1. Historical conditions and prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I 3

2. Military reforms 4

3. Public administration reform 6

3.1. Central administration reform 8

3.2. Local government reform 11

3.3. Urban Governance Reform 13

3.4. Public Administration Reform Results 14

4. Reform of the estate system 16

4.1. Service class 16

4.2. Urban estate (townspeople and city people) 17

4.3. Peasantry 17

5. Church Reform 18

6. Economic transformation 20

7. Reforms in the field of culture and everyday life 22

Conclusion 24

References 26

Introduction

“This monarch compared our fatherland with others, taught us to recognize that we are people; in a word, whatever you look at in Russia, everything has its beginning, and whatever is done in the future, they will draw from this source. "

I. I. Neplyuev

The personality of Peter I (1672 - 1725) rightfully belongs to the galaxy of outstanding historical figures of the world scale. A lot of research and fiction is devoted to the transformations associated with his name. Historians and writers in different ways, sometimes just the opposite, assessed the personality of Peter I and the significance of his reforms. Already the contemporaries of Peter I were divided into two camps: supporters and opponents of his transformations. The controversy continued later. In the XVIII century. MV Lomonosov praised Peter, admired his activities. A little later, the historian Karamzin accused Peter of betraying the "truly Russian" principles of life, and called his reforms "a brilliant mistake."

At the end of the 17th century, when the young Tsar Peter I found himself on the Russian throne, our country was going through a turning point in its history. In Russia, in contrast to the main Western European countries, there were almost no large industrial enterprises capable of providing the country with weapons, fabrics, and agricultural implements. It had no outlet to the seas - neither the Black nor the Baltic, through which it could develop foreign trade. Therefore, Russia did not have its own navy to guard its borders. The land army was built according to outdated principles and consisted mainly of the noble militia. The nobles were reluctant to leave their estates for military campaigns, their weapons and military training lagged behind the advanced European armies. A fierce struggle for power was going on between the old, well-born boyars and the serving people of the nobles. In the country, there were continuous uprisings of the peasants and urban lower classes, who fought against both the nobles and the boyars, since they were all feudal serf-owners. Russia attracted the greedy gaze of neighboring states - Sweden, the Commonwealth, which were not averse to seizing and subjugating the Russian lands. It was necessary to reorganize the army, build a fleet, seize the coast of the sea, create a domestic industry, and rebuild the system of governing the country. For a radical breakdown of the old way of life, Russia needed an intelligent and talented leader, an outstanding person. This turned out to be Peter I. Peter not only comprehended the dictates of the times, but also put into the service of this dictate all his extraordinary talent, the persistence of the possessed, the patience inherent in the Russian people and the ability to give the cause a state scale. Peter imperiously invaded all spheres of the country's life and greatly accelerated the development of the inherited beginnings.

The history of Russia before Peter the Great and after him knew many reforms. The main difference between the Peter's transformations and the reforms of the previous and subsequent times was that the Petrovskys were all-encompassing, covering all aspects of the life of the people, while others introduced innovations that concerned only certain spheres of the life of society and the state. We, people of the end of the XX century, did not we can fully appreciate the explosive effect of Peter's reforms in Russia. People of the past, XIX century perceived them sharper, deeper. Here is what a contemporary of A.S. wrote about the significance of Peter. Pushkin, the historian M.N. Pogodin in 1841, that is, almost a century and a half after the great reforms of the first quarter of the 18th century: "In the hands of (Peter) the ends of all our threads are connected in one knot. Wherever we look, everywhere we meet with this colossal a figure who casts a long shadow from herself on all of our past and even obscures our ancient history, which at the present moment still seems to be holding her hand over us, and which, it seems, we will never lose sight of, no matter how far we go we are into the future. "

Created in Russia by Peter, the generation of M.N. Pogodin, and the next generations. For example, the last recruitment took place in 1874, that is, 170 years after the first (1705). The Senate existed from 1711 to December 1917, that is, 206 years; the synodal structure of the Orthodox Church remained unchanged from 1721 to 1918, that is, for 197 years, the poll tax system was canceled only in 1887, that is, 163 years after its introduction in 1724.In other words, in the history of Russia we we will find a few institutions deliberately created by man that would last so long, having such a strong impact on all aspects of social life. Moreover, some of the principles and stereotypes of political consciousness, developed or finally consolidated under Peter, are still tenacious, sometimes in new verbal clothes they exist as traditional elements of our thinking and social behavior.

1. Historical conditions and prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I

The country was on the eve of great transformations. What were the prerequisites for Peter's reforms?

Russia was a backward country. This backwardness posed a serious danger to the independence of the Russian people.

The structure of industry was feudal, and in terms of production it was significantly inferior to the industry of Western European countries.

The Russian army to a large extent consisted of a backward noble militia and archers, poorly armed and trained. The complex and clumsy ordering state apparatus, headed by the boyar aristocracy, did not meet the needs of the country. Russia also lagged behind in the field of spiritual culture. Enlightenment hardly penetrated the masses, and even in the ruling circles there were many uneducated and completely illiterate people.

Russia of the 17th century by the very course of historical development was faced with the need for radical reforms, since only in this way could it secure a worthy place among the states of the West and the East. It should be noted that by this time in the history of our country there had already been significant shifts in its development. The first industrial enterprises of the manufactory type arose, handicrafts and crafts grew, and trade in agricultural products developed. The social and geographical division of labor - the basis of the established and developing all-Russian market - was continuously growing. The city was separated from the village. The fishing and agricultural areas were distinguished. Domestic and foreign trade developed. In the second half of the 17th century, the nature of the state system in Russia began to change, and absolutism took shape more and more clearly. Russian culture and sciences were further developed: mathematics and mechanics, physics and chemistry, geography and botany, astronomy and "mining". Cossacks explorers discovered a number of new lands in Siberia.

The 17th century was the time when Russia established constant communication with Western Europe, established closer trade and diplomatic ties with it, used its technology and science, and perceived its culture and enlightenment. Learning and borrowing, Russia developed independently, took only what it needed, and only when it was necessary. It was a time of accumulation of the forces of the Russian people, which made it possible to carry out the grandiose reforms of Peter, prepared by the very course of Russia's historical development.

Peter's reform was prepared by the entire previous history of the people, "demanded by the people." Already before Peter, a fairly integral reformatory program was drawn up, which in many respects coincided with the reforms of Peter, otherwise going even further than them. A transformation was being prepared in general, which, given a peaceful course of affairs, could stretch over a number of generations. The reform, as it was carried out by Peter, was his personal affair, an affair unparalleled force and, nevertheless, involuntary and necessary. External dangers of the state outstripped the natural growth of the people, which had become stagnant in their development. The renovation of Russia could not be left to the quiet, gradual work of time, not forced by force. The reforms affected literally all aspects of the life of the Russian state and the Russian people. It should be noted that the main driving force behind Peter's reforms was the war.

2. Military reforms

Military reforms occupy a special place among Peter's reforms. The essence of the military reform consisted in the elimination of the noble militias and the organization of a combat-ready standing army with a uniform structure, weapons, uniforms, discipline, and regulations.

The task of creating a modern combat-ready army and navy occupied the young tsar even before he became sovereign. You can count only a few (according to different historians - in different ways) years of peace during the 36-year reign of Peter. The army and navy have always been the main concern of the emperor. However, military reforms are important not only in themselves, but also because they exerted a very large, often decisive, influence on other aspects of the life of the state. The course of the military reform itself was determined by the war.

"The game of soldiers", to which young Peter devoted all his time, from the end of the 1680s. becomes more and more serious. In 1689, Peter builds on Lake Pleshcheyevo, near Pereslavl-Zalessky, several small ships under the guidance of Dutch craftsmen. In the spring of 1690, the famous "amusing shelves" were created - Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky. Peter begins to conduct real military maneuvers, the "capital city of Preschburg" is being built on the Yauza.

The Semyonovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments became the nucleus of the future permanent (regular) army and showed themselves during the Azov campaigns of 1695-1696. Peter I pays much attention to the fleet, the first baptism of fire of which also falls on this time. The treasury did not have the necessary funds, and the construction of the fleet was entrusted to the so-called "kumpanstva" (companies) - associations of secular and spiritual landowners. With the outbreak of the Northern War, the main focus is shifted to the Baltic, and with the founding of St. Petersburg, the construction of ships is carried out almost exclusively there. By the end of Peter's reign, Russia had become one of the strongest maritime powers in the world, with 48 ships of the line and 788 galley and other ships.

The beginning of the Northern War was the impetus for the final creation of the regular army. Before Peter, the army consisted of two main parts - the noble militia and various semi-regular formations (archers, Cossacks, regiments of a foreign system). A fundamental change was that Peter introduced a new principle of manning the army - the periodic convening of the militia was replaced by systematic recruitment. The basis of the recruiting system was the estate-serf principle. Recruitment kits were extended to the population who paid taxes and carried government duties. In 1699, the first recruitment was made, since 1705, the sets were legalized by a corresponding decree and became annual. From 20 yards, they took one person, single at the age of 15 to 20 (however, during the Northern War, these terms were constantly changing due to the lack of soldiers and sailors). The Russian countryside suffered the most from recruiting. The recruit's service life was practically unlimited. The officer corps of the Russian army was replenished at the expense of nobles who studied in the guards noble regiments or in specially organized schools (gunnery, artillery, navigation, fortification, Naval Academy, etc.). In 1716, the Military was adopted, and in 1720 - the Naval Regulations, a large-scale rearmament of the army was carried out. By the end of the Northern War, Peter had a huge strong army - 200 thousand people (not counting 100 thousand Cossacks), which allowed Russia to win a grueling war that stretched out for almost a quarter of a century.

The main results of the military reforms of Peter the Great are as follows:

the creation of a combat-ready regular army, one of the strongest in the world, which gave Russia the opportunity to fight with its main opponents and defeat them;

the emergence of a whole galaxy of talented generals (Alexander Menshikov, Boris Sheremetev, Fedor Apraksin, Yakov Bruce, etc.);

the creation of a powerful military fleet;

a gigantic increase in military spending and covering them by squeezing money out of the people.

3. Reform of public administration

In the first quarter of the 18th century. the transition to absolutism was accelerated by the Northern War and was completed. It was during Peter's rule that a regular army and a bureaucratic apparatus of state administration were created, and both the actual and legal form of absolutism took place.

An absolute monarchy is characterized by the highest degree of centralization, a developed bureaucratic apparatus completely dependent on the monarch, and a strong regular army. These signs were inherent in Russian absolutism as well.

The army, in addition to its main internal function of suppressing popular unrest and uprisings, performed other functions. Since the time of Peter the Great, it has been widely used in government as a coercive force. The practice of sending military commands to the field has become widespread in order to compel the administration to better comply with government orders and instructions. But sometimes the central institutions were put in the same position, for example, even the activities of the Senate in the first years of its creation were under the control of the Guards officers. Officers and soldiers were also involved in the population census, collection of taxes and arrears. Along with the army, to suppress its political opponents, absolutism also used punitive organs specially created for this purpose - the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, the Secret Chancellery.

In the first quarter of the 18th century. a second pillar of absolute monarchy emerges - the bureaucratic apparatus of state administration.

The central authorities inherited from the past (Boyar Duma, orders) are liquidated, a new system of state institutions appears.

The peculiarity of Russian absolutism was that it coincided with the development of serfdom, while in most European countries an absolute monarchy took shape under the conditions of the development of capitalist relations and the abolition of serfdom.

The old form of government: the tsar with the Boyar Duma - orders - the local administration in the counties, did not meet the new tasks either in providing military needs with material resources, or in collecting monetary taxes from the population. Orders often overlapped functions of each other, creating confusion in management and slowness in decision-making. Counties were of different sizes - from dwarf counties to giant counties, which made it impossible to effectively use their administration to collect taxes. The Boyar Duma with its traditions of unhurried discussion of affairs, representation of the noble nobility, not always competent in state affairs, also did not meet the requirements of Peter.

The establishment of an absolute monarchy in Russia was accompanied by a wide expansion of the state, its invasion into all spheres of public, corporate and private life. Peter I pursued a policy of further enslavement of the peasants, which took the most severe forms at the end of the 18th century. Finally, the strengthening of the role of the state manifested itself in a detailed, thorough regulation of the rights and obligations of individual estates and social groups. Along with this, there was a legal consolidation of the ruling class, from different feudal strata formed an estate of the nobility.

The state, which was formed at the beginning of the 18th century, is called a policeman, not only because it was during this period that a professional police was created, but also because the state sought to intervene in all aspects of life, regulating them.

The transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg also contributed to the administrative transformations. The king wanted to have at hand the necessary levers of control, which he often recreated, guided by momentary needs. As in all his other endeavors, during the reform of state power, Peter did not take into account Russian traditions and widely transferred to Russian soil the structures and methods of management known to him from his Western European voyages. Lacking a clear plan for administrative reforms, the tsar probably still represented the desired image of the state apparatus. This is a strictly centralized and bureaucratic apparatus, clearly and quickly executing the orders of the sovereign, within the limits of its competence, showing reasonable initiative. This is something very similar to the army, where each officer, fulfilling the general order of the commander-in-chief, independently solves his particular and specific tasks. As we will see, the Petrine state machine was far from such an ideal, which was seen only as a tendency, albeit clearly expressed.

In the first quarter of the 18th century. a whole complex of reforms was carried out related to the restructuring of central and local authorities and administration, the areas of culture and everyday life, and a radical reorganization of the armed forces is taking place. Almost all of these changes took place during the reign of Peter I and were of great progressive importance.

Consider the reforms of the highest bodies of power and administration that took place in the first quarter of the 18th century, which are usually divided into three stages:

Stage I - 1699 - 1710 - partial transformations;

Stage II - 1710 - 1719 - the elimination of the former central authorities and administration, the creation of the Senate, the emergence of a new capital;

Stage III - 1719 - 1725 - the formation of new bodies of sectoral management, the implementation of the second regional reform, reform of church government and financial and tax.

3.1. Central government reform

The last mention of the last meeting of the Boyar Duma refers to 1704. The Near Chancellery, which was established in 1699 (an institution that exercised administrative and financial control in the state), acquired paramount importance. Real power was possessed by the Consulate of Ministers, which sat in the building of the Near Chancellery - the council of heads of the most important departments under the tsar, who controlled orders and offices, provided the army and navy with everything necessary, was in charge of finances and construction (after the formation of the Senate, the Near Chancellery (1719) and the Consulate of Ministers (1711) ceased its existence).

The next stage in the reform of the central government was the creation of the Senate. The formal reason was Peter's departure to the war with Turkey. On February 22, 1711, Peter wrote with his own hand a decree on the composition of the Senate, which began with the phrase: "The Governing Senate was appointed to be absent from us". The content of this phrase has given rise to historians to argue until now about what kind of institution Peter saw the Senate: temporary or permanent. On March 2, 1711, the tsar issued several decrees: on the competence of the Senate and justice, on the organization of state revenues, trade and other branches of the state economy. The Senate was instructed to:

"To have an unhypocritical judgment, and to punish unrighteous judges with the deprivation of honor and all property, then let it follow to those who snatched";

"To look all over the state of expenses, and unnecessary, and especially in vain, to leave";

"As possible to collect money, before money is the essence of the artery of war."

The members of the Senate were appointed by the king. Initially, it consisted of only nine people who decided cases collectively. The staffing of the Senate was based not on the principle of nobility, but on competence, length of service and closeness to the king.

From 1718 to 1722 The Senate became the meeting of the presidents of the collegia. In 1722 it was reformed by three decrees of the emperor. The composition has been changed, including both the presidents of the collegia and senators, who are alien to the collegia. By the decree "On the position of the Senate" the Senate received the right to issue its own decrees.

The range of issues that were in his jurisdiction was quite wide: issues of justice, expenditures of the treasury and taxes, trade, control over the administration of different levels. Immediately, the newly created institution received an office with numerous departments - "tables" where clerks worked. The reform of 1722 turned the Senate into the supreme body of central government, which rose above the entire state apparatus.

The peculiarity of the era of Peter the Great's reforms consisted in the strengthening of the organs and means of state control. And to oversee the activities of the administration under the Senate, the post of Ober-fiscal was established, to which the provincial-fiscal should be subordinate (1711). Insufficient reliability of fiscal authority led, in turn, to the emergence in 1715 of the position of the general auditor, or overseer of decrees, under the Senate. The main business of the auditor is "to make everything done." In 1720, a stronger pressure was made on the Senate: it was ordered to observe that here "everything was done decently, and there was no vain talk, shouting, etc." When this did not help, after a year the duties of both the attorney general and
The chief secretary was assigned to the military: one of the army headquarters officers was on duty in the Senate every month to monitor order, and "whoever of the senators cursed or acted impolitely, the officer on duty arrested and took him to the fortress, letting the sovereign know, of course."

Finally, in 1722, these functions were entrusted to a specially appointed Prosecutor General, who "had to look firmly so that the Senate in its rank would act righteously and unhypocritically," state ".

Thus, the tsar-reformer was forced to constantly expand the special system of organized mistrust and denunciations he created, supplementing the existing control bodies with new ones.

However, the creation of the Senate could not complete the management reforms, since there was no intermediate link between the Senate and the provinces, and many orders continued to operate. In 1717 - 1722 to replace 44 orders of the end of the 17th century. the collegiums came. Unlike orders, the collegial system (1717 - 1719) provided for the systematic division of the administration into a certain number of departments, which in itself created a higher level of centralization.

The Senate appointed presidents and vice presidents, determined the states and operating procedures. In addition to the leaders, the collegiums included four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary, a registrar, a translator and a clerk. From 1720, special decrees were prescribed to begin the proceedings of cases with a new order.

In 1721, the Patrimony Collegium was created, replacing the Local Order, which was in charge of the noble land tenure. The collegiums were the Chief Magistrate, who ruled the city estate, and the Most Holy Governing Synod. Its appearance testified to the elimination of the autonomy of the church.

In 1699, in order to improve the receipt of direct taxes in the treasury, the Burmister Chamber, or the Town Hall, was established. By 1708, it had become the central treasury, replacing the Grand Treasury Order. It includes twelve old financial orders. In 1722, from a single Berg-Manufactory-Collegium, the Manufacture-Collegium emerged, which, in addition to the functions of managing industry, was entrusted with the tasks of economic policy and financing. The Berg Collegium retained the functions of mining and coinage.

Unlike the orders, which operated on the basis of custom and precedent, the collegia had to be guided by clear legal norms and job descriptions. The most general legislative act in this area was the General Regulations (1720), which was the charter of the activities of state collegia, chanceries and offices and determined the composition of their members, competence, functions, and procedures. The subsequent development of the principle of bureaucratic, bureaucratic length of service was reflected in Peter's "Table of Ranks" (1722). The new law divided the service into civil and military. It defined 14 classes, or ranks, of officials. Anyone who received the rank of the 8th grade became a hereditary nobleman. Ranks from the 14th to the 9th also gave nobility, but only personal.

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified to the fact that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal dedication and service become determinants of career advancement. A sign of the bureaucracy as a management system is the integration of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and his leadership in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus are professionalism, specialization, normativity; negative features are its complexity, high cost, self-employment, and inflexibility.

3.2. Local government reform

At the beginning of his reign, Peter I tried to use the old system of local government, gradually introducing elective elements of government instead of zemstvo ones. So, by the decree of March 10, 1702, it was prescribed to participate in management with the main traditional administrators (voivods) of the elected representatives of the nobility. In 1705, this order became mandatory and ubiquitous, which should have strengthened control over the old administration.

On December 18, 1708, a decree was issued "On the establishment of provinces and on the painting of cities for them." It was a reform that completely changed the local government system. The main goal of this reform is to provide the army with everything it needs: direct communication of the provinces was established with the army regiments distributed across the provinces through a specially created institute of Kriegscommissars. According to this decree, the entire territory of the country was divided into eight provinces:

Moscow included 39 cities,

Ingermanland (later St. Petersburg) - 29 cities (two more cities of this province - Yam-burg and Koporye were given into the possession of Prince Menshikov),

56 cities were assigned to the Kiev province,

To Smolenskaya - 17 cities,

To Arkhangelsk (later Arkhangelsk) - 20 cities,

Kazanskaya - 71 urban and rural settlements,

The Azov province, in addition to 52 cities, included 25 cities assigned to ship affairs

26 cities were assigned to the Siberian province, "and 4 suburbs to Vyatka."

In 1711, a group of cities in the Azov province, assigned to ship operations in Voronezh, became the Voronezh province. The province became 9. In 1713-1714. the number of provinces increased to 11.

This is how the reform of the regional administration began. In its final form, it was formed only by 1719, on the eve of the second regional reform.

According to the second reform, eleven provinces were divided into 45 provinces, headed by governors, vice-governors or voivods. Provinces were divided into districts - districts. The provincial administration was directly subordinate to the collegia. Four collegia (Kamer, State Office, Justice and Votchinnaya) had their own apparatus in the field of chamberlains, commandants and treasurers. In 1713, a collegial principle was introduced into the regional administration: under the governors, collegia of landrates were established (from 8 to 12 people per province), elected by the local nobility.

The regional reform, responding to the most urgent needs of the autocratic government, was at the same time a consequence of the development of a bureaucratic tendency that was already characteristic of the previous period. It was with the help of strengthening the bureaucratic element in the government that Peter intended to solve all state issues. The reform led not only to the concentration of financial and administrative powers in the hands of several governors - representatives of the central government, but also to the creation of an extensive hierarchical network of bureaucratic institutions with a large staff of officials in the localities. The previous system "order-district" was doubled: "order (or office) - province - province - district".

Four of his direct subordinates were subordinate to the governor:

chief commandant - was in charge of military affairs;

Ober-Commissioner - for fees;

chief praviantmeister - for grain collection;

Landrichter - for court cases.

The province was usually headed by a voivode; in the county, financial and police administration was entrusted to the zemstvo commissars, partly elected by the county nobles, partly appointed from above.

Some of the functions of orders (especially territorial ones) were transferred to the governors, their number was reduced.

The decree on the establishment of provinces completed the first stage of the reform of local government. Provincial administration was carried out by governors and vice-governors, who performed mainly military and financial management functions. However, this division turned out to be too large and did not allow the administration of the provinces in practice, especially with the communications that existed at that time. Therefore, in each province there were large cities in which the management was carried out by the previous city administration.

3.3. Urban Governance Reform

New urban-type settlements appeared around the newly formed industrial enterprises, manufactories, mines, mines and shipyards, in which self-government bodies began to form. Already in 1699, Peter I, wishing to provide the city estate with full self-government like the West, ordered the establishment of the Burmister Chamber. In the cities, self-government bodies began to form: posad assemblies, magistrates. The urban estate began to take shape legally. In 1720, the Chief Magistrate was established in St. Petersburg, who was entrusted with "in charge of the entire urban estate in Russia."

According to the regulations of the Chief Magistrate in 1721, it began to be divided into regular citizens and "vile" people. Regular citizens, in turn, were divided into two guilds:

The first guild - bankers, merchants, doctors, pharmacists, skippers of merchant ships, painters, icon painters and silversmiths.

The second guild is artisans, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, small traders.

Guilds were run by guild assemblies and foremen. The lower stratum of the urban population ("found in hiring, in black jobs, and the like") chose their elders and tenants, who could inform the magistrate about their needs and ask them for satisfaction.

According to the European model, shop organizations were created, which consisted of foremen, apprentices and apprentices, led by foremen. All other townspeople were not included in the guild and were subject to a general check in order to identify fugitive peasants among them and return them to their former places of residence.

The division into guilds turned out to be the purest formality, since the military auditors who conducted it, who were primarily concerned about increasing the number of poll tax payers, arbitrarily included in the members of guilds and persons not related to them. The emergence of guilds and workshops meant that corporate principles were opposed to the feudal principles of economic organization.

3.4. Public administration reform results

As a result of Peter's reforms, by the end of the first quarter
XVIII century the following system of authorities and administration was formed.

All the completeness of legislative, executive, and judicial power was concentrated in the hands of Peter, who, after the end of the Northern War, received the title of emperor. In 1711. a new supreme body of executive and judicial power was created - the Senate, which also had significant legislative functions. It was fundamentally different from its predecessor, the Boyar Duma.

The members of the council were appointed by the emperor. In the exercise of executive power, the Senate issued decrees that had the force of law. In 1722, the Attorney General was put at the head of the Senate, who was entrusted with control over the activities of all government agencies. The Prosecutor General was supposed to perform the functions of the "eye of the state". He exercised this control through prosecutors appointed to all government agencies. In the first quarter of the 18th century. the system of prosecutors was added to the system of fiscal, headed by the ober-fiscal. The fiscal duties included reporting on all abuses of institutions and officials that violated the "state interest".

The order system that had developed under the Boyar Duma did not in any way correspond to the new conditions and tasks. The orders that appeared at different times were very different in nature and function. Orders and edicts of orders often contradicted each other, creating unimaginable confusion and for a long time delaying the solution of urgent issues.

Instead of the outdated system of orders in 1717 - 1718. 12 colleges were created.

The creation of the collegium system completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, delineation of the spheres of government and competence, uniform standards of activity, concentration of financial management in a single institution - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the order system.

Foreign lawyers were involved in the development of the regulations, the experience of government institutions in Sweden and Denmark was taken into account.

The subsequent development of the principle of bureaucratic, bureaucratic length of service was reflected in Peter's "Table of Ranks" (1722).

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified to the fact that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal dedication and service become determinants of career advancement. A sign of the bureaucracy as a management system is the integration of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and his leadership in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus are professionalism, specialization, normativity; negative features are its complexity, high cost, self-employment, and inflexibility.

The training of personnel for the new state apparatus began to be carried out in special schools and academies in Russia and abroad. The degree of qualification was determined not only by rank, but also by education and special training.

In 1708 - 1709 restructuring of local authorities and administration began. The country was divided into 8 provinces, differing in territory and population. At the head of the province was a governor appointed by the king, who concentrated executive and judicial power in his hands. Under the governor, there was a provincial chancellery. But the situation was complicated by the fact that the governor obeyed not only the emperor and the Senate, but also all the colleges, orders and decrees of which often contradicted each other.

The provinces in 1719 were divided into provinces, the number of which was 50. At the head of the province was a voivode with an office under him. The provinces, in turn, were divided into districts (counties) with the voivode and the county office. For some time during the reign of Peter, the district administration was replaced by an elected zemstvo commissar from local nobles or retired officers. Its functions were limited to collecting the poll tax, overseeing the implementation of state duties, and arresting fugitive peasants. Subordinated to the provincial zemstvo commissar. In 1713, the local nobility was allowed to elect 8-12 landrates (advisers from the nobility of the county) to help the governor, and after the introduction of the poll tax, regimental districts were created. The military units quartered in them watched the collection of taxes and suppressed manifestations of discontent and anti-feudal demonstrations.

As a result of administrative transformations in Russia, the registration of the absolute monarchy was completed. The tsar was given the opportunity to rule the country unrestrictedly and uncontrollably with the help of officials completely dependent on him. The unlimited power of the monarch found legislative expression in the 20th article of the Military Regulations and the Spiritual Regulations: the power of monarchs is autocratic, which God himself commands to obey.

The external expression of the absolutism that has taken root in Russia is the adoption
in 1721 by Peter I of the title of emperor and the name "Great".

The most important features of absolutism are the bureaucratization of the administrative apparatus and its centralization. The new state machine as a whole worked much more efficiently than the old one. But a "time bomb" was laid in it - the domestic bureaucracy. E.V. Anisimov in his book "The Time of Peter the Great" writes: "Bureaucracy is a necessary element of the structure of the state of the new era. However, under the conditions of Russian autocracy, when nothing and no one limited the will of the monarch is the only source of law, when an official is not responsible to anyone except his boss , the creation of the bureaucratic machine also became a kind of "bureaucratic revolution", during which the perpetual motion machine of the bureaucracy was launched. "

Reforms of the central and local government created an outwardly harmonious hierarchy of institutions from the Senate in the center to the provincial office in the counties.

4. Reform of the estate system

4.1. Service class

The fight against the Swedes required the organization of a regular army, and Peter gradually transferred all the nobles and service people to regular service. The service for all serving people became the same, they served without exception, indefinitely, and began service with lower ranks.

All the former categories of service people were united together, into one class - the gentry. All the lower ranks (both noble ones and from the "common people") could equally rise to the highest ranks. The order of such length of service was precisely determined by the "Table of Ranks" (1722). In the "Table" all ranks were divided into 14 ranks or "ranks" according to their seniority. Anyone who reached the lowest rank 14 could hope for the highest position and take the highest rank. The Table of Ranks replaced the principle of gentility with the principle of seniority and performance. But Peter made one concession to the natives of the upper old nobility. He allowed noble youth to enroll primarily in his favorite Guards regiments, Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky.

Peter demanded that the nobles must study literacy and mathematics, and deprived untrained nobles of the right to marry and receive an officer's rank. Peter limited the landownership rights of the nobles. He stopped giving them estates from the treasury when they entered the service, and provided them with a monetary salary. He forbade noble estates and estates to be split up when transferred to sons (Law "On Majority", 1714). Peter's measures regarding the nobility aggravated the position of this estate, but did not change its attitude towards the state. The nobility, both before and now, had to pay for the right to land tenure by service. But now the service has become harder, and land ownership is more constrained. The nobility murmured and tried to alleviate their hardships. Peter, on the other hand, severely punished attempts to evade service.

4.2. Urban class (townspeople and city people)

Before Peter, the urban estate was a very small and poor class. Peter wanted to create in Russia an economically strong and active urban class, similar to what he saw in Western Europe. Peter expanded city government. In 1720, a chief magistrate was created to take care of the urban estate. All cities were divided according to the number of inhabitants into classes. Residents of cities were divided into "regular" and "irregular" ("vile") citizens. Regular citizens made up two "guilds": the first included representatives of the capital and the intelligentsia, the second - small traders and artisans. The artisans were divided into "workshops" according to their crafts. The laborers were called irregular people or "mean". The city was governed by a magistrate of burgomasters elected by all regular citizens. In addition, city affairs were discussed at posad meetings or councils of regular citizens. Each city was subordinate to the chief magistrate, bypassing any other local authorities.

Despite all the transformations, the Russian cities remained in the same miserable situation in which they were before. The reason for this is the far from the commercial and industrial system of Russian life and severe wars.

4.3. Peasantry

In the first quarter of the century it became clear that the principle of taxation at home did not bring the expected increase in the collection of taxes.

In order to increase their income, the landlords settled several peasant families in one yard. As a result, during the census in 1710 it became clear that the number of households since 1678 had decreased by 20%. Therefore, a new taxation principle was introduced. In 1718 - 1724 a census of the entire male taxable population is carried out, regardless of age and working capacity. All persons included in these lists ("revision tales") had to pay a poll tax. In the event of the death of the recorded person, the tax continued to be paid until the next revision by the family of the deceased or the community to which he belonged. In addition, all taxable estates, with the exception of the landowners 'peasants, paid the state 40 kopecks of "quitrent", which was supposed to balance their duties with those of the landowners' peasants.

The transition to poll taxation increased the number of direct taxes from 1.8 to 4.6 million, accounting for more than half of the budget revenue (8.5 million). The tax was extended to a number of categories of the population who had not paid it before: slaves, "walking people", one-yard villagers, black-mowed peasants of the North and Siberia, non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, etc. All these categories constituted the estate of state peasants, and the capitation tax for them it was a feudal rent that they paid to the state.

The introduction of the poll tax increased the power of the landowners over the peasants, since the presentation of revision tales and the collection of taxes was entrusted to the landowners.

Finally, in addition to the poll tax, the peasant paid a huge amount of all kinds of taxes and levies designed to replenish the treasury, which was empty as a result of wars, the creation of a cumbersome and expensive apparatus of power and administration, a regular army and navy, the construction of the capital and other expenses. In addition, the state peasants bore duties: road - for the construction and maintenance of roads, Yamskaya - for the transportation of mail, government cargo and officials, etc.

5. Church reform

An important role in the establishment of absolutism was played by the church reform of Peter I. In the second half of the 17th century. the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church were very strong, it retained administrative, financial and judicial autonomy in relation to the tsarist government. The last patriarchs Joachim (1675-1690) and Adrian (1690-1700) pursued a policy aimed at strengthening these positions.

The church policy of Peter, like his policy in other spheres of state life, was aimed, first of all, at the most effective use of the church for the needs of the state, and more specifically, at squeezing money out of the church for state programs, primarily for the construction of the fleet. After Peter's journey as part of the Great Embassy, ​​he was also concerned with the problem of complete subordination of the church to his authority.

The turn to a new policy took place after the death of Patriarch Adrian. Peter orders to conduct an audit for the census of the property of the Patriarchal House. Taking advantage of the information about the revealed abuses, Peter canceled the election of a new patriarch, at the same time entrusting the post of "locum tenens of the patriarchal throne" to Metropolitan Stephen Yavorsky of Ryazan. In 1701, the Monastic Order was formed - a secular institution - to manage the affairs of the church. The church begins to lose its independence from the state, the right to dispose of its property.

Peter, guided by the educational idea of ​​a public good, for which the productive work of all members of society is required, launches an attack on monks and monasteries. In 1701, a royal decree limited the number of monks: now it was necessary to apply to the Monastery Prikaz for permission to tonsure. Subsequently, the king had the idea to use the monasteries as shelters for retired soldiers and beggars. In a decree of 1724, the number of monks in a monastery is made directly dependent on the number of people they look after.

The established relationship between church and government demanded a new legal form. In 1721, Feofan Prokopovich, a prominent figure of the Petrine era, draws up the Spiritual Regulations, which provided for the destruction of the institution of the patriarchate and the formation of a new body - the Spiritual Collegium, which was soon renamed the "Holy Government Synod", officially equalized in rights with the Senate. Stefan Yavorsky became president, Feodosiy Yanovsky and Feofan Prokopovich became vice-presidents. The creation of the Synod was the beginning of the absolutist period of Russian history, since now all power, including the church, was concentrated in the hands of Peter. A contemporary reports that when Russian church leaders tried to protest, Peter pointed out to them the Spiritual Regulations and said: "Here's a spiritual patriarch, and if you don't like him, here's a damask patriarch (throwing a dagger on the table)."

The adoption of the Spiritual Regulations actually turned Russian clergy into government officials, especially since a secular person was appointed to supervise the Synod - the chief prosecutor.

The reform of the church was carried out in parallel with the tax reform, the registration and classification of priests was carried out, and their lower strata were transferred to a capitation salary. According to the consolidated statements of the Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan provinces (formed as a result of the division of the Kazan province), only 3044 priests out of 8709 (35%) were exempted from tax. A violent reaction among the priests was caused by the Resolution of the Synod of May 17, 1722, in which the clergy were charged with violating the secrecy of confession if they had the opportunity to communicate any information important to the state.

As a result of the church reform, the church lost a huge part of its influence and turned into a part of the state apparatus, strictly controlled and governed by the secular authorities.

6. Economic transformation

In the Petrine era, the Russian economy, and above all industry, made a giant leap forward. At the same time, the development of the economy in the first quarter of the 18th century. followed the paths outlined by the previous period. In the Moscow state of the XVI XVII century. there were large industrial enterprises - Cannon yard, Printing yard, arms factories in Tula, a shipyard in Dedinovo. The policy of Peter I regarding economic life was characterized by a high degree of command and protectionist methods.

In agriculture, opportunities for improvement were drawn from the further development of fertile lands, the cultivation of industrial crops that provided raw materials for industry, the development of animal husbandry, the advancement of agriculture to the east and south, as well as the more intensive exploitation of the peasants. The increased demand of the state for raw materials for the Russian industry led to the widespread use of crops such as flax and hemp. The decree of 1715 encouraged the cultivation of flax and hemp, as well as tobacco, mulberry trees for silkworms. The decree of 1712 ordered the creation of horse breeding farms in the Kazan, Azov and Kiev provinces, and sheep breeding was also encouraged.

In the Peter's era, there was a sharp demarcation of the country into two zones of feudal economy - the lean North, where the feudal lords transferred their peasants to a monetary quitrent, often letting them go to the city and other agricultural areas to earn money, and the fertile South, where the noble landowners sought to expand the corvee.

The state obligations of the peasants were also strengthened. They built cities (40 thousand peasants worked on the construction of St. Petersburg), factories, bridges, roads; annual recruitment was carried out, old fees were raised and new ones introduced. The main goal of Peter's policy all the time was to obtain as much money and human resources as possible for state needs.

Two censuses were carried out - in 1710 and 1718. According to the census of 1718, the unit of taxation was the male "soul", regardless of the age at which the capitation tax was levied in the amount of 70 kopecks per year (from state peasants - 1 ruble 10 kopecks per year). This streamlined the tax policy and sharply raised the state's revenues (by about 4 times; by the end of Peter's reign, they amounted to 12 million rubles a year).

In industry, there was a sharp reorientation from small peasant and handicraft farms to manufactories. Under Peter, no less than 200 new factories were founded, and he encouraged their creation in every possible way. The government's policy was also aimed at protecting the young Russian industry from competition from Western European ones by introducing very high customs duties (Customs Charter 1724)

Russian manufactory, although it had capitalist features, but the use on it mainly of the labor of peasants - possessory, registered, quitrent, etc. - made it a serf enterprise. Depending on whose property they were, manufactories were divided into state, merchant and landowners. In 1721, industrialists were given the right to buy peasants in order to assign them to the enterprise.

State treasury factories used the labor of state peasants, registered peasants, recruits and free hired craftsmen. They mainly served heavy industry - metallurgy, shipyards, mines. The merchant manufactories, which mainly produced consumer goods, employed both possessional and quitrent peasants, as well as free hired labor. The landowners' enterprises were fully supported by the forces of the landlord-owner serfs.

Peter's protectionist policy led to the emergence of manufactories in a wide variety of industries, often appearing in Russia for the first time. The main ones were those who worked for the army and navy: metallurgical, weapons, shipbuilding, cloth, linen, leather, etc. Entrepreneurial activity was encouraged, preferential conditions were created for people who created new manufactories or rented state-owned ones.

Manufactories arose in many industries - glass, gunpowder, paper-making, canvas, linen, silk-weaving, cloth, leather, rope, hat, colorful, sawmill and many others. Nikita Demidov made a huge contribution to the development of the metallurgical industry of the Urals, who enjoyed the special favor of the tsar. The emergence of the foundry industry in Karelia on the basis of the Ural ores, the construction of the Vyshnevolotsk canal, contributed to the development of metallurgy in new regions and brought Russia to one of the first places in the world in this industry.

By the end of Peter's reign, Russia had a developed diversified industry with centers in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Urals. The largest enterprises were the Admiralty Shipyard, Arsenal, St. Petersburg gunpowder factories, metallurgical plants in the Urals, Khamovny Dvor in Moscow. There was a strengthening of the all-Russian market, capital accumulation thanks to the mercantilist policy of the state. Russia supplied competitive goods to the world markets: iron, linen, yuft, potash, furs, caviar.

Thousands of Russians were trained in Europe in various specialties, and in turn foreigners - gunsmiths engineers, metallurgists, gateway craftsmen - were hired to work in the Russian service. Thanks to this, Russia was enriched with the most advanced technologies in Europe.

As a result of Peter's policy in the economic field, a powerful industry was created in an ultra-short period of time, capable of fully meeting military and state needs and in no way dependent on imports.

7. Reforms in the field of culture and life

Important changes in the life of the country decisively required the training of qualified personnel. The scholastic school, which was in the hands of the church, could not provide this. Secular schools began to open, education began to acquire a secular character. This required the creation of new textbooks that replaced the church textbooks.

Peter I introduced a new civil script in 1708, replacing the old Cyril semi-statute. For the printing of secular educational, scientific, political literature and legislative acts, new printing houses were created in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The development of book printing was accompanied by the beginning of the organized book trade, as well as the creation and development of a network of libraries. In 1703, the first issue of the newspaper "Vedomosti", the first Russian newspaper, was published in Moscow.

The most important stage in the implementation of reforms was Peter's visit to a number of European countries as part of the Grand Embassy. Upon his return, Peter sent many young noblemen to Europe to study various specialties, mainly to master the marine sciences. The tsar also cared about the development of education in Russia. In 1701, in Moscow, in the Sukharev Tower, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences was opened, headed by the professor of the University of Aberdeen, a Scotsman Forvarson. One of the teachers of this school was Leonty Magnitsky - the author of "Arithmetic ...". In 1711 an engineering school appeared in Moscow.

The logical result of all measures in the field of the development of science and education was the founding in 1724 of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Peter strove to overcome as soon as possible the disunity between Russia and Europe, which had arisen since the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. One of its manifestations was a different chronology, and in 1700 Peter transfers Russia to a new calendar - 7208 becomes 1700, and the New Year's celebration is postponed from September 1 to January 1.

The development of industry and trade was associated with the study and development of the territory and subsoil of the country, which found its expression in the organization of a number of large expeditions.

At this time, major technical innovations and inventions appeared, especially in the development of mining and metallurgy, as well as in the military field.

During this period, a number of important works on history were written, and the Kunstkamera created by Peter laid the foundation for the collection of collections of historical and memorial objects and rarities, weapons, materials on natural sciences, etc. At the same time, they began to collect ancient written sources, to make copies of chronicles, letters, decrees and other acts. This was the beginning of museum work in Russia.

From the first quarter of the 18th century. the transition to urban planning and regular urban planning was carried out. The appearance of the city began to be determined not by cult architecture, but by palaces and mansions, houses of government institutions and the aristocracy. In painting, icon painting is replaced by a portrait. By the first quarter of the 18th century. Attempts to create a Russian theater are also related, at the same time the first dramatic works were written.

Changes in everyday life affected the mass of the population. The old familiar long-sleeved clothes with long sleeves were prohibited and replaced with new ones. Camisoles, ties and frills, wide-brimmed hats, stockings, shoes, wigs quickly replaced old Russian clothes in the cities. The fastest growing Western European outerwear and dress among women. It was forbidden to wear a beard, which caused discontent, especially among the tax-paying estates. A special "beard tax" and a mandatory copper sign on its payment were introduced.

From 1718, Peter established assemblies with the obligatory presence of women, which reflected serious changes in their position in society. The establishment of the assemblies marked the beginning of the establishment among the Russian nobility of the "rules of good manners" and "noble behavior in society", the use of a foreign, mainly French, language.

It should be noted that all these transformations came exclusively from above, and therefore were quite painful for both the upper and lower strata of society. The violent nature of some of these transformations inspired disgust for them and led to a sharp rejection of the rest, even the most progressive ones. Peter strove to make Russia a European country in every sense of the word and attached great importance to even the smallest details of the process.

The changes in everyday life and culture that took place in the first quarter of the 18th century were of great progressive importance. But they further emphasized the separation of the nobility into a privileged estate, turned the use of the benefits and achievements of culture into one of the noble estate privileges, and was accompanied by a widespread Gallomania, a contemptuous attitude towards the Russian language and Russian culture among the noble milieu.

Conclusion

The main result of the entire set of Peter's reforms was the establishment of an absolutism regime in Russia, the crown of which was the change in the title of the Russian monarch in 1721 - Peter declared himself emperor, and the country began to be called the Russian Empire. Thus, it was formalized what Peter was heading for all the years of his reign - the creation of a state with a harmonious system of government, a strong army and navy, a powerful economy, influencing international politics. As a result of Peter's reforms, the state was not bound by anything and could use any means to achieve its goals. As a result, Peter came to his ideal of state structure - a warship, where everything and everything is subject to the will of one person - the captain, and managed to take this ship out of the swamp into the stormy waters of the ocean, bypassing all the reefs and shoals.

Russia became an autocratic, military-bureaucratic state, the central role in which belonged to the nobility. At the same time, the backwardness of Russia was not completely overcome, and reforms were carried out mainly due to the most severe exploitation and coercion.

The complexity and inconsistency of the development of Russia during this period also determined the inconsistency of Peter's activities and the reforms he carried out. On the one hand, they had a huge historical meaning, since they contributed to the progress of the country, were aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, they were carried out by serf-owners, serf-owning methods and were aimed at strengthening their rule. Therefore, the progressive transformations of Peter's time from the very beginning carried conservative features, which in the course of the further development of the country acted more and more and could not ensure the elimination of socio-economic backwardness. As a result of Peter's reforms, Russia quickly caught up with those European countries where feudal-serf relations remained dominant, but she could not catch up with those countries that embarked on the capitalist path of development.

The transformative activity of Peter was distinguished by indomitable energy, unprecedented scope and purposefulness, courage in breaking down obsolete institutions, laws, foundations and way of life and way of life.

The role of Peter the Great in the history of Russia can hardly be overestimated. No matter how you relate to the methods and style of his transformations, one cannot but admit that Peter the Great is one of the most prominent figures in world history.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of a contemporary of Peter - Nartov: "... and although Peter the Great is no longer with us, his spirit lives in our souls, and we, who had the happiness of being with this monarch, will die faithful to him and our ardent love for the earthly we will bury God with us. We proclaim without fear about our father, so that we learned from him noble fearlessness and truth. "

Bibliography

1. Anisimov E.V. Time of Peter's reforms. - L .: Lenizdat, 1989.

2. Anisimov E.V., Kamenskiy A.B. Russia in the 18th - first half of the 19th century: History. Historian. Document. - M .: MIROS, 1994.

3. Buganov V.I. Peter the Great and his time. - M .: Nauka, 1989.

4. History of public administration in Russia: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. A.N. Markova. - M .: Law and Law, UNITI, 1997.

5. History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. / Ed. B.A. Rybakov. - M .: Higher school, 1983.

6. Malkov V.V. A handbook on the history of the USSR for university applicants. - M .: Higher school, 1985.

7. Pavlenko N.I. Peter the Great. - M .: Thought, 1990.

8. Soloviev S.M. About the history of new Russia. - M .: Education, 1993.

9. Solovyov S.M. Readings and stories on the history of Russia. - M .: Pravda, 1989.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

KOMI REPUBLICAN ACADEMY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

AND OFFICE UNDER THE CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOMI

Faculty of State and Municipal Administration

Department of Public Administration and Civil Service

Test

REFORMS OF PETER I.

RUSSIA IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE XVIII CENTURY

Executor:

Motorkin Andrey Yurievich,

group 112

Teacher:

Art. teacher I.I. Lastunov

Syktyvkar

Introduction 1

1. Historical conditions and prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I 3

2. Military reforms 4

3. Public administration reform 6

3.1. Central administration reform 8

3.2. Local government reform 11

3.3. Urban Governance Reform 13

3.4. Public Administration Reform Results 14

4. Reform of the estate system 16

4.1. Service class 16

4.2. Urban estate (townspeople and city people) 17

4.3. Peasantry 17

5. Church Reform 18

6. Economic transformation 20

7. Reforms in the field of culture and everyday life 22

Conclusion 24

References 26

Estates (social) reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1714 - Decree on March 23, 1714 "On single inheritance": the prohibition of crushing the noble estates, they must be entirely transferred to one heir. The same decree eliminates the difference between estates and estates, which from now on are inherited in the same way. Decrees on compulsory education of children of nobles, clerks and clerks. Prohibition to make officers of nobles who did not serve as privates in the guard.

1718 - Abolition of servitude and the state of free walking people through the extension of tax and recruitment duties to both of these states.

1721 - Permission for "merchant people" to acquire inhabited estates for factories. Decree on the receipt of hereditary nobility by non-nobles who rose to the rank of chief officer in the army.

1722 - Compilation of revision tales with equal inclusion in them of serfs, slaves and persons of "intermediate" free states: all of them are now equalized in social status, as a single estate. The "Table of Ranks" puts the bureaucratic hierarchy, the principle of merit and length of service in the place of the aristocratic hierarchy of the breed.

Peter I. Portrait by J. M. Nattier, 1717

Administrative reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1699 - The introduction of city self-government: the establishment of city halls from elected bailiffs and a central Burmister chamber in Moscow.

1703 - Foundation of St. Petersburg.

1708 - Partition of Russia into eight provinces.

1711 - Establishment of the Senate - the new supreme administrative body of Russia. Establishment of a fiscal system headed by an Ober-Fiscal to control all branches of the administration. The beginning of the connection of counties in the province.

1713 - The introduction of local landrates (councils of nobility under the governors, the governor is only their chairman).

1714 - Transfer of the Russian capital to St. Petersburg.

1718 - Establishment (to replace the old Moscow orders) collegiums (1718-1719) - new higher administrative bodies by industry.

The building of the Twelve Collegia in St. Petersburg. Unknown artist of the third quarter of the 18th century. Based on the engraving by E.G. Vnukov from the drawing by M.I.Makhaev

1719 - The introduction of a new regional division (11 provinces, divided into provinces, counties and districts), which includes the lands conquered from Sweden. The abolition of the Landrates, the transfer of self-government of the nobility from the province to the county. Establishment of district zemstvo offices and elected zemstvo commissars under them.

1720 - Reorganization of the city government: establishment of city magistrates and the Chief Magistrate. Magistrates receive broader rights than the previous town halls, but they are elected less democratically: only from the "first-class" citizens.

Financial reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1699 - The introduction of stamped paper (with a special tax on it).

1701 - New taxes: "dragoon" and "ship" money (for the maintenance of cavalry and navy). The first wide re-minting of the coin with a decrease in the content of precious metal in it.

1704 - Introduction of tax on baths. Establishment of state monopolies on salt and oak coffins.

1705 - Introduction of the "beard" tax.

1718 - Destruction of most of the state monopolies. Decree on the census (first revision) of the population in order to prepare for the introduction of the poll tax.

1722 - Completion of the first revision and the introduction of the poll tax based on its results.

Economic reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1699 - Foundation of state-owned ironworks in the Verkhotursky district in the Urals, later given to the possession of N. Demidov, a Tula.

1701 - Beginning of work on the arrangement of the water communication between the Don and the Oka across the Upa River.

1702 - Construction of a canal that established water communication between the upper reaches of the Volga and the Neva (1702-1706).

1703 - Construction of an iron-smelting and iron-making plant on Lake Onega, from which the city of Petrozavodsk then grows.

1717 - Abolition of compulsory recruitment of workers for the construction of St. Petersburg.

1718 - Start of construction of the Ladoga Canal.

1723 - Foundation of Yekaterinburg - the city for the management of the vast Ural mining and metallurgical district.

Military reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1683-1685 - Set for Tsarevich Peter "amusing soldiers", of which the first two regular guards regiments were later formed: Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky.

1694 - "Kozhukhov campaigns" of amusing soldiers of Peter I.

1697 - Decree on the construction of "kumpanstvami", led by large secular and spiritual landowners of fifty ships for the Azov campaign (the first attempt to create a strong Russian fleet).

1698 - The destruction of the rifle army after the suppression of the third riot of the riflemen.

1699 - Decree on the recruitment of the first three recruiting divisions.

1703 - The shipyard in Lodeynoye Pole launches 6 frigates: the first Russian squadron on the Baltic Sea.

1708 - The introduction of a new order of service for the Cossacks after the suppression of the Bulavin uprising: the establishment for them of compulsory military service to Russia instead of the previous contractual relations.

1712 - List of the contents of the regiments by provinces.

1715 - Establishment of a permanent recruitment rate.

Church reforms of Peter I - chronological table

1700 - Death of Patriarch Hadrian and prohibition to choose his successor.

1701 - Restoration of the Monastic Order - transfer of church estates to the management of the secular administration.

1714 - Permission of the Old Believers to openly practice their faith, subject to the payment of a double salary.

1720 - Closure of the Monastery Prikaz and return of real estate to the clergy.

1721 - Institution (in place of the previous sole patriarchate) of the Holy Synod - the organ for collegial management of church affairs, which, moreover, closely dependent on secular power.

Preconditions and features of the reforms of Peter 1

Preconditions for the reforms of Peter 1	1. The lag of Russia in socio-economic, military and cultural terms from European countries 2. Active-volitional activity of Peter 1, orientation towards transformations in the country 3. Awareness of the need for reforms using European experience 4. The previous development of the country in the 17th century. Attempts to reform the tsars Alexei Mikhailovich and Fyodor Alekseevich 5. The trip of Peter 1 to Europe - "The Great Embassy" 1697-1698.
The essence of reforms	The transformations of Peter 1 were based on the following ideas: 1. Serving the fatherland as the highest value for the monarch 2. The common good, the "people's good" as the goal of this ministry 3. Practicalism and rationalism as the basis of activity
Features of reforms	1. The scale of reforms and the diffusion of innovations in various spheres of life 2. Lack of system, lack of any reform plan 3. Imitation of Western European political traditions and institutions (the political model of the "regular state" J. Locke) 4. Many beginnings have not been brought to an end 5. Striving for complete state control over the life of society

Diagram of the characteristic features of Peter's reforms

Economic reforms of Peter 1

	Peculiarities
Creation of the manufacturing industry	XVII century - about 30 manufactories First Thursday XVIII century - more than 200 manufactories Forced provision of manufactories with labor on the basis of serfdom labor in accordance with the decrees of Peter I: 1703 - about registered peasants who were assigned to factories to work at the expense of state tax 1721 - about the possessory peasants. Manufacturers were allowed to buy for the work of serfs
Implementation of state policy in the economic sphere	The policy of mercantilism is the economic policy of the state aimed at accumulating funds within the country The policy of protectionism is an integral part of the policy of mercantilism, aimed at protecting the country's economy from foreign competition
Active state intervention in the trading activities of the Russian merchants	1. the introduction of a state monopoly on the sale of a number of goods (salt, tobacco, bread, flax, resin, wax, iron, etc.); 2.Forced resettlement of merchants to the new capital - St. Petersburg, large taxes and duties in favor of the state

State administrative reforms of Peter 1

The abolition of the Boyar Duma
Establishment of the Senate with legislative and financial control functions
Replacement of old management bodies - orders - with new ones - collegia	1718-1721
Local government reform - formation of provinces
The abolition of the patriarchate and the introduction of state administration of the Orthodox Church through a new body - the Holy Synod, headed by the chief prosecutor	1700 1720
Creation of punitive state bodies of total control over the functioning of society - fiscal and prosecutors	1714 1722
Changing the system of succession. Now the monarch appointed his own successor
The proclamation of Russia as an empire

Scheme of authorities and administration

Military reforms of Peter 1

	The introduction of conscription in respect of the tax-paying estates as the basic principle of recruiting a mass regular army. It existed in Russia from 1705 to 1874.
	The beginning of the training of domestic officers. They open for them: School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences (1701) School of Engineering (1712) Artillery school (1701) School of Medicine (1707)
	New military regulations are being created. A new uniform form, orders and medals, promotions for military distinctions are introduced
	The rearmament of the army is being carried out, new types of weapons are being created - grenades, rifles with bayonets, mortars
	Navy established

Social reforms of Peter 1

During the period of Peter's reforms, changes took place in the position of social groups and in the social class structure of Russian society:

Social group	Reforms, transformations
	Completion of the process of forming the nobility The introduction of compulsory service for nobles, in which the principle of origin ("breed") is replaced by the principle of length of service New hierarchical division within the nobility (14 classes) based on the "Table of Ranks" (1722) Establishment of entitlement, that is, a ban on the division of estates during inheritance. Final legal merger of estates and estates
Citizens (residents of posadov)	City reform of Peter I (1699-1720): 1. Bringing to the uniformity of the social structure of the city 2. The introduction of Western European social and urban institutions in Russian cities (posads) 3. Separation of city residents by professional basis into workshops and guilds 4. Management of the city through the town hall and magistrates
Peasants	According to the reform, the peasants were divided into 3 main categories (estates): 1. State peasants (a new class has been formed) - in this category, according to the draft (tax) principle, one-yard farmers of the South, black-haired peasants of the North, yasak peasants of the Volga region and Siberia were united 2. Landlord (private) serfs 3. Serfs who have existed since the period of Ancient Rus were transferred to the category of serfs

Reforms of Peter 1 in the spiritual sphere

Transformation of the state and society as a result of Peter's reforms

	What has become	Positive effect	Negative effect
The political system that has been taking shape for centuries with its archaic institutions of power (Boyar Duma, orders, district-voivodship administration). They are dominated by political traditions (to rule and live "in the old days").	Reforms of the state apparatus: 1711-creation of the Senate (the highest legislative body); 1718-1720 - introduction of collegia (central bodies); 1708 - 1715 - introduction of the provincial system of administrative-territorial division and local administration. 1720 - "General Regulations". 1722 - creation of the highest supervisory authority (prosecutor's office).	1. The Moscow aristocracy and bureaucracy lost their power and influence. 2. The primacy of tradition is being replaced by the primacy of expediency. 3. The bloated and internally conflicting system of orders was eliminated. 4. The ridiculous division of the country into 215 counties has been eliminated.	1. The new St. Petersburg bureaucracy is growing by leaps and bounds. 2. Peter's ideas about the expedient at times had nothing to do with reality. 3. The principle of collegiality (joint decision-making) in practice often turned into collective irresponsibility. 4. 8 provinces - another extreme: for the vast territory of Russia, such a number of provinces was clearly not enough.
The local principle of filling positions on the basis of nobility of origin.	Since 1722, the principle of seniority of ranks and titles has been in effect according to the "Table of Ranks".	In the time of Peter the Great, many energetic and talented people of low birth prosper and make a dizzying career.	Soon after Peter's death, numerous loopholes would be invented to circumvent the need for seniority.
The Church was the largest feudal lord, often entered into a dispute with the secular authorities and adjusted the political line to please their interests. Many princes of the church were inveterate obscurantists, opponents of science and any form of secular culture.	In 1701, the control of the Monastic Order over the economic activities of the church was restored. In 1721, Peter and F. Prokopovich published "Spiritual Regulations" containing the main provisions of the future church reform. The patriarchate has been abolished, and since 1722 the church has been governed by a Synod headed by a secular official (chief prosecutor).	The reactionary churchmen have lost all power and influence. The church is leaving the political game.	The church acquires the features of a state institution, which fundamentally contradicts the canonical concept of the church. Church self-government has been paralyzed. The priests were turned into officials with the duties of agitators (propaganda of the interests of the state through sermons) and informers (communication of information received during confession). Peter's struggle with the monasteries led to the breakdown of the old Russian tradition of the monastery hostel.
The noble militia was extremely disorganized. The nobles did not come to the teachings and reviews, they deserted from the wars.	In 1705, recruiting was introduced: recruits selected from the peasants served for life.	A regular army and navy appeared in Russia, which ensured a brilliant victory in the Northern War.	The bloated staff of the army and navy demanded huge funds for their maintenance in peacetime. In addition, the fate of the recruits, forever cut off from their home and traditional way of life, is hard.
Permanent shortage of money in the treasury.	Peter invents various taxes and other ways of making a profit, effectively replenishing the treasury.	Forced industrialization of the country, successes in the military field.	The unbearable tax burden led to the impoverishment of a large part of the country's population.
The overwhelming majority of the few manufactories that existed in the country belonged to the sphere of light industry.	Creation in a short time of heavy industry (enterprises of the Urals).	Russia occupies a leading position in the world in pig iron smelting.	The created industry was supported by serf labor, which doomed it to low productivity growth, technological stagnation, and a rapid loss of its leading position.
The dominance of church culture.	Introduction of Russia to secular Western culture, science, everyday life.	The new values ​​were easily accepted, and soon they were enriched with independent achievements.	There was a cultural conflict between the nobility and the peasantry, which continued to live in the pre-Petrine cultural paradigm.

_______________

Sourse of information: History in tables and diagrams. / Edition 2е, -SPb: 2013.

Peter the Great is an ambiguous personality in world history. Assessing the reforms of Peter I briefly, some historians consider him the Great Reformer, who managed to turn the development of Russia along a different course. Others are almost the Antichrist, who went backwards against the previous order and church foundations, destroying the habitual way of life of the Russian people.

Coming to power and prerequisites

Peter Alekseevich Romanov (1672-1725) was the son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from his second marriage. He was proclaimed tsar together with his half-brother Ivan in 1682. Due to the small age of both of them, in fact, the country was ruled by their older sister Sophia.

In 1689, Sophia was removed from the throne. Power completely passed into the hands of Peter. Although formally Ivan continued to be considered a co-ruler, he was too weak and sick to participate in the affairs of the state.

The state was in a difficult position: the Muscovy was in a state of yet another war with the Ottoman Empire. In search of allies, Peter 1 went on a trip to Europe with the aim of concluding political alliances. Getting acquainted with the culture and structure of European countries, he saw with his own eyes how far behind Russia in development was from the Western powers. Peter 1 realized that it was time for a change. Returning to his homeland, he resolutely began to "cut a window to Europe".

The reforms of Peter the Great are shown in the table.

Foreign policy and military reform of Peter I

The young tsar planned to pursue a rather aggressive foreign policy. Peter intended to strengthen Russia's influence in the international arena, expand its borders and gain access to the ice-free seas - the Azov, Black and Caspian seas. To achieve such ambitious goals, it was necessary to build a combat-ready army.

Peter was interested in military affairs since childhood. For the young tsarevich, amusing (Peter's) regiments were created - special military formations for studying combat tactics and methods of using weapons. It was then that Peter developed his views on how the Russian army should look like in the future. After coming to power, these views formed the basis of the military reform of Peter 1.

The military reform had five main directions:

Thanks to these changes, the Russian army was able to become one of the strongest at that time. This was especially evident during the Northern War, where the troops of Peter 1 defeated the exemplary Swedish army.

Administrative and territorial changes

The internal policy of Peter 1 was aimed at creating an absolute monarchy by strengthening the vertical of power based on local self-government, as well as strengthening police supervision to prevent and quickly suppress riots.

Administrative reforms can be divided into 2 categories:

• central administration;
• local government.

The reason for the transformation of the central government was Peter's desire to replace the old bureaucratic machine and build a new model of power.

The result of the reform was the creation of:

• Consilia of Ministers (Senate)- a government body for running the state during the absence of the king. Senators were personally appointed by Peter I;
• Synod- was created to replace the abolished post of patriarch to manage church affairs. The church passed into subordination to the state;
• Of the collegiums- government bodies, which were clearly divided by departments and replaced the outdated system of orders;
• Secret Chancery- an organization whose activities were to persecute opponents of the tsar's policies.

The war with Sweden and the need for a more efficient state apparatus became a prerequisite for the implementation of reforms of local government.

According to the provincial (regional) reform, the country was divided into provinces, districts and provinces. This structure made it possible to more efficiently collect taxes from taxation estates in each region. A separate military unit was attached to the province, which the inhabitants of the province were supposed to maintain, provide with food and housing. In the event of a war, recruits from local residents joined the same military unit and could be instantly deployed to the places of hostilities. Governors were personally appointed by Peter.

The city reform was rather haphazard and took place in several stages. The main goal was to collect as much taxes as possible from the population.

In 1699, the Burmistra Chamber was created, which was popularly christened the Town Hall. The main functions of the Town Hall were the collection of taxes and the provision of the army's stay. It was an elected body, and elections were possible if the city paid double taxes. Naturally, most of the cities did not appreciate the reform.

After the end of the Northern War, the second stage of the urban reform began. The cities were divided into categories (depending on the number of households), and the townspeople - into categories (taxable and non-taxable).

During the administrative reforms, Peter also undertook judicial reform. The aim of the reform was to divide the branches of government, to create courts independent of the city or provincial administration. Peter himself became the supreme judge. He conducted the proceedings of the most important state affairs. The Secret Chancellery was in charge of political hearings. The Senate and the Collegiums (with the exception of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs) also had judicial functions. In the provinces, court and lower courts were created.

Economic transformation

The socio-economic situation in Russia was unenviable. In the conditions of an aggressive foreign policy, constant warfare, the country required a lot of resources and money. Peter's reforming mind stubbornly searched for ways to obtain new financial sources.

Tax reform was carried out. Its main feature was the introduction of the poll tax - funds were collected from each person, while earlier the tax was levied from the yard. This made it possible to fill the budget, but increased social tension, the number of peasant uprisings and riots increased.

For the development of backward Russian industry, Peter 1 actively used the help of foreign specialists, invited the best European engineers to the court. But workers were sorely lacking. Therefore, with the growth of production and the opening of new factories, instead of per capita pay, the serf could be assigned to the plant and undertake to work out a certain amount of time there.

Peter encouraged the construction of factories, endowed merchants with a wide range of benefits. And also enterprises were built for state money, and later transferred to private hands. If the chosen owner of the factory did not cope with production and went at a loss, Peter took the enterprise back into the ownership of the state, and the negligent industrialist could be executed.

But clumsy Russian products could not adequately compete with advanced European ones. To support domestic production, Peter began to use the policy of protectionism - high duties were introduced on the import of foreign goods.

Peter actively promoted trade. He understood that for this it was necessary to develop a convenient transport system. New water canals were laid (Ivanovsky, Staroladozhsky, Tveretsky), overland communication routes were built.

During the reign of Peter 1, a monetary reform was also carried out. The ruble began to equal 100 kopecks, or 200 money. Lighter silver coins were minted. For trading needs, copper round coins were introduced into use. For the needs of the state, 5 mints were established.

Cultural innovations

Peter the Great strove to introduce Russia to European cultural traditions. He perceived the norms of appearance and behavior that were established in the epoch of the 18th century in Russian society extremely negatively, considered barbaric and outdated.

The tsar began his reforming activity with the creation of the Cathedral - an entertaining debauched event. The council ridiculed the rituals carried out in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, parodied them, accompanying it with extortion and the use of alcohol. It was created in order to reduce the importance of the church and the influence of the clergy on the common people.

During a trip to Europe, Peter became addicted to such a bad habit as smoking. In Russia, according to the decree of 1634, the use of tobacco and its sale were prohibited. Smokers, according to this decree, had to cut off their nose. Naturally, the tsar became more loyal in this matter, canceled the previous ban, and as a result, soon their own tobacco plantations began to be created on the territory of Russia.

Under Peter 1, the state began to live according to a new, Julian, calendar. Before the countdown went from the day of the creation of the world, and the New Year began on September 1. The decree was issued in December, so since then January has become the beginning not only for the new chronology, but also for the year.

Affected the reforms of Peter and appearance subjects. From his youth, he made fun of baggy, long and uncomfortable court clothes. Therefore, by a new decree for the estate nobles, he ordered to wear clothes of the type of European - German or French clothes were used as an example. People who did not follow the new fashion could simply be grabbed in the middle of the street and “cut off the excess” - they could reshape their clothes in a new way.

Beards were also out of favor with Peter. He himself did not wear a beard, and did not perceive all the talk that it was a symbol of honor and dignity of a Russian person. All boyars, merchants and the military were ordered by law to cut their beards. For some disobedient people, Peter cut them down personally. The clergy and villagers were allowed to leave their beards, but upon entering the city, the bearded men had to pay a tax on it.

A public theater was created to ridicule Russian traditions and customs, as well as to promote Western culture. The entrance was free, but the theater did not gain success with the public and did not last long. Therefore, Peter issued a new decree on entertainment for the nobility - the Assemblies. Thus, the tsar wanted to introduce his subjects to the life of the average European.

Not only nobles, but also their wives were supposed to attend the Assemblies. It was supposed to be unbridled fun - talking, dancing, playing cards and chess. Smoking and drinking were encouraged. Among the nobility, the Assemblies caused negativity and were considered indecent - because of the participation of women in them, and it was not fun to have fun under compulsion.