Political reform of Peter 1. Reform of public administration of Peter I. Changes in industry and trade

Social (estate) reforms of Peter I - briefly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter I. Portrait by P. Delaroche, 1838

Military reform of Peter I - briefly

Administrative and state reforms of Peter I - briefly

Financial reforms of Peter I - briefly

Economic reforms of Peter I - briefly

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

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

Church reform of Peter I - briefly

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

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

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

Peter 1. Beginning of reforms

Peter I began to change the foundations and orders in Russia as soon as he returned from Europe in 1698, where he traveled as part of the Great Embassy.

Literally the next day, Peter 1 began to trim the beards of the boyars, decrees were issued requiring all subjects of the Russian Tsar to shave their beards, the decrees did not apply only to the lower class. Those who did not want to shave their beards had to pay a tax, which reduced the grumbling of the estates, and was profitable for the treasury. Following the beards, the turn came to reform the traditional Russian clothes, long-brimmed and long-sleeved clothes began to be changed to short camisoles of the Polish and Hungarian type.

Until the end of the century, Peter 1 created a new printing house in Moscow, they began to print textbooks on arithmetic, astronomy, literature and history. The education system was completely reformed and developed by Peter 1, the first mathematical schools were opened.

The calendar was also reformed, the New Year, calculated from the creation of the world and celebrated on September 1, began to be celebrated on January 1, at Christmas.

By his decree, Peter approved the first Russian order, the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. Peter I began to hold all meetings with foreign ambassadors personally, he himself signed all international documents.

By personal decree of Peter 1, the system of civil administration was reformed, a central governing body, the City Hall, was created in Moscow, and in other cities in 1699, zemstvo huts were created for local administration. Peter 1 reformed the system of orders, in September 1699 there were more than 40 orders - ministries. Peter 1 eliminated some orders, others began to unite under the control of one boss. The Church was also reformed, and I.A. Musin-Pushkin, a man of the world. Due to the church reform in 1701-1710, the treasury received more than a million rubles received from church taxes.

Reforms have been brewing for a long time, but until the Battle of Poltava itself, Peter 1 solved pressing problems as they appeared, giving orders to solve problems when they arose. Instead of state acts regulating certain aspects of the life of the state, Peter 1 wrote a written order for each problem, indicating to whom and how it should be solved. Non-systematic management led to problems in the Russian state, there was not enough money for the most necessary, arrears increased, the army and navy could not fully receive the supplies necessary for waging war.

Before the Battle of Poltava, Peter 1 issued only two acts, the first act of January 30, 1699 restored zemstvo institutions, the second act, dated December 18, 1708, divided the state into provinces. Only after the defeat of the Swedish army near Poltava did Peter 1 have time and the opportunity to engage in reforms and the arrangement of the state. As time has shown, the reforms carried out by Peter 1 put Russia on a par with European states, not only militarily, but also economically.

Carrying out reforms was vital for the survival and development of the state, but it would be a mistake to think that Peter 1 carried out reforms in certain sectors and areas. Starting to create an army and navy, Peter 1 had to link the changes with the social, economic and political aspects of the country's life.

Peter 1. Military reforms

In the Azov campaign of 1695, undertaken by Perth 1, 30 thousand people participated, only 14 thousand of which were organized in the European manner. The remaining 16 thousand were militias who were involved in military labor only during the conduct of hostilities. The unsuccessful siege of Narva in 1695 showed the complete inability of the militia to conduct offensive military operations, and they did not cope very well with the defense, constantly self-willed and not always obeying their superiors.

Reforms and transformations began in the army and navy. Fulfilling the decrees of Peter 1, on November 19, 1699, 30 infantry regiments were created. These were the first regular infantry troops to replace the streltsy militia, the service became indefinite. Only for the Little Russian and Don Cossacks an exception was made, they were called up only if necessary. The reforms did not pass even the cavalry, many officers recruited from foreigners turned out to be unfit for service, they were hastily changed and new cadres were trained from their own, from the Russians.

To conduct the northern war with the Swedes, the army of Peter 1 is already being recruited from free people and serfs, recruits are recruited from landowners, depending on the number of peasant households. Hastily trained by officers hired in Europe, the army of Peter 1, according to foreign diplomats, was a pitiful sight.

But gradually, having gone through battles, the soldiers gained combat experience, the regiments become more combat-ready, being in battles and campaigns for a long time, the army becomes permanent. Recruits that were previously randomly recruited are now streamlined, recruiting from all classes, including nobles and clergy. The training of new recruits was carried out by retirees who had completed military service and retired due to injury and illness. Recruits were trained at collection points for 500 - 1000 people, from where they were sent to the troops when the need arose to replenish the army. In 1701, before the military reform, the Russian army numbered up to 40 thousand people, of which more than 20 thousand were militias. In 1725, shortly before the end of the reign of Peter 1, after the reform, the composition of the regular troops of the Russian Empire consisted of up to 212 thousand regular troops and up to 120 thousand militias and Cossacks.

The first warships, Peter 1 builds in Voronezh for the siege and capture of Azov, which were later abandoned due to a change in policy and the transfer of hostilities from south to north against a new enemy. The defeat at Prut in 1711, and the loss of Azov, made the ships built in Voronezh useless, and they were abandoned. The construction of a new squadron in the Baltic begins, in 1702 up to 3 thousand people were recruited and trained as sailors. At the shipyard in Lodeynopolsk in 1703, 6 frigates were launched, which made up the first Russian squadron in the Baltic Sea. At the end of the reign of Peter 1, the Baltic squadron consisted of 48 battleships, in addition there were about 800 galleys and other ships, the number of crews was 28 thousand people.

To manage the fleet and the army, the Military, Artillery and Admiralty Collegia were created, which were engaged in recruiting, distributing them among regiments, supplying the army with weapons, ammunition, horses, and distributing salaries. To control the troops, a general staff was created, numbering two field marshals, Prince Menshikov and Count Sheremetev, who distinguished himself in the northern war, there were 31 generals.

Voluntary recruitment into the army was replaced by a permanent recruitment, the army is transferred to state content, the number of infantry begins to prevail over the cavalry. Maintenance of the army and navy cost 2/3 of the country's budget.

Peter 1. Reforms in social policy

Peter 1, busy with the reform of the state, needed associates capable of bearing not only the burden of the war, but also able to participate in state reforms, implement the reforms conceived by Peter 1. The nobility, whose initial function was to protect the state, did not always meet the requirements of the time , and Peter 1 acquired many of his associates from simple classes, thereby enabling the smart and talented to fully serve the fatherland and achieve a position on their own merits.

In 1714, Peter 1 issued a decree on uniform inheritance, ordering the transfer of property to any of the sons, at the choice of a nobleman or landowner, the rest were instructed to seek employment in the military or civil service, where they began service from the bottom. Introducing reforms in the inheritance of property and estates, Peter 1 protected the farms belonging to the nobles and landowners from fragmentation and ruin, and at the same time stimulated the rest of the heirs to enter the civil service in search of food to achieve a position in society and in the service.

The next stage, regulating the service to the state, was the table of ranks, published in 1722, dividing the state service into military, civil and court service, providing for 14 ranks. The service had to be started from the very beginning, advancing to the best of one's ability. Not only nobles could enter the service, but also people from any social class. Those who reached the 8th rank received lifelong nobility, which ensured the influx of smart and talented people capable of performing state functions into the ruling class.

The population of Russia, except for the clergy and nobles, was taxed, the peasants paid 74 kopecks a year, the inhabitants of the southern outskirts paid 40 kopecks more. The implementation of the reform and the replacement of the land tax, and the household tax following it, with a poll tax, from each male inhabitant of the Russian Empire, led to an increase in arable land, the size of which now did not affect the amount of the tax. The population was determined by the census conducted in 1718-1724. Urban residents were assigned to the place of residence and were also taxed. In 1724, Peter 1 issued a decree prohibiting serfs from going to work without the written permission of the landowner, which marked the beginning of the passport system.

Peter 1. Reforms in industry and trade

The most time-consuming was the reform in the industry, which was in its infancy. To change the situation, money, specialists, and human resources were required. Peter 1 invited specialists from abroad, trained his own, workers at factories were assigned to the land, they could not be sold except with land and a factory. In 1697, by order of Peter the Great, the construction of blast furnaces and foundries for the manufacture of cannons began in the Urals, and a year later the first metallurgical plant was built. New cloth, gunpowder, metallurgical, sailing, leather, cable and other factories and factories are being built, up to 40 enterprises were built in a few years. Among them are the factories under the leadership of Demidov and Batashov, which provided Russia's need for iron and copper. The arms factory rebuilt in Tula supplied the entire army with weapons. To attract boyars and nobles to industrial production, and to develop entrepreneurial skills in them, Peter 1 introduces a system of benefits, state subsidies and loans. Already in 1718, almost 200 thousand poods (1 pood = 16 kilograms) of copper were smelted at Russian factories, and 6.5 million poods of cast iron.

By inviting foreign specialists, Peter the Great created the most convenient working conditions for them, severely punishing any official who was noticed in their oppression. In return, Peter 1 demanded only one thing, to teach Russian workers the craft without hiding from them professional techniques and secrets. Russian students were sent to different countries of Europe to learn and adopt various skills and professions, from the skill of laying stoves to the ability to heal people.

Introducing reforms and seeking the development of trade, Peter 1 encourages merchants, freeing them from duties, state and city services, allowing them to trade duty-free for several years. One of the obstacles to trade was the distance and the condition of the roads, even the journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg sometimes took up to five weeks. Peter 1, carrying out reforms in industry and trade, first of all took up the problem of ways to deliver goods. Having decided to adapt river routes for the delivery of goods and cargo, Peter 1 orders the construction of canals, not all of his undertakings were successful, during his lifetime the Ladoga and Vyshnevolotsky canals were built, connecting the Neva River with the Volga.

Petersburg becomes a trading center, annually accepting several hundred merchant ships. Duties are introduced for foreign merchants, giving Russian merchants an advantage in the domestic market. The monetary system is developing and improving, copper coins are being minted and put into circulation.

The following year, after the death of Peter 1, as a result of the trade reform he carried out, the export of goods from Russia was twice the import of foreign goods.

Reforms and transformations were non-systemic and chaotic, Peter 1 had to first of all implement those reforms that were required immediately, being in a state of constant wars, he did not have the time and opportunity to develop the country according to any particular system. Peter I had to implement many reforms with a whip, but as time has shown, all taken together, the reforms of Peter the Great formed a certain system that ensured that the Russian state respected national interests in the present and future, preserved national sovereignty and prevented lagging behind European countries.

Peter 1. State administrative reforms

Engaged in streamlining and simplifying the cumbersome and confusing bureaucracy, Peter 1 carried out a series of reforms that made it possible to replace the system of orders and the Boyar Duma, which turned out to be ineffective in managing the state, which was changing under the influence of wars and reforms, and which required a new approach to its needs.

The Boyar Duma was replaced by the Senate in 1711, the decisions previously made by the boyars began to be accepted and approved by the closest associates of Peter 1, who enjoyed his confidence. Since 1722, the work of the Senate was led by the Prosecutor General, members of the Senate, assuming office, took an oath.

The previously existing system of orders for the administration of the state was replaced by colleges, each of which was engaged in the area assigned to it. The Collegium of Foreign Affairs was in charge of exclusively foreign relations, the Military Collegium dealt with all issues related to the ground forces. In addition to the above, the boards were created: Admiralty, Votchinnaya, Shtats - offices - board, Chambers - board, Commerce - board, Berg - board, Manufaktur - board, Justice - board, Revision - board. Each collegium dealt with the area assigned to it, the fleet, noble lands, state expenditures, revenue collection, trade, the metallurgical industry, all other industry, legal proceedings and budget execution, respectively.

The reforms of the church led to the formation of the Spiritual College, or the Synod, which subordinated the church to the state, the patriarch was no longer elected, in his place was appointed the "guardian of the patriarchal throne." Since 1722, the states were approved for the clergy, according to which, one priest was assigned to 150 households, the clergy who remained behind the state were taxed on a general basis.

The vast territory of the Russian empire was divided into eight provinces: Siberian, Kazan, Azov, Smolensk, Kyiv, Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow. Further administrative fragmentation went on the provinces, the provinces were divided into counties. In each province, a regiment of soldiers was billeted, which performed police functions during mutinies and riots.

Introduction


“The seimonarch brought our fatherland in comparison with others, taught to know that we are people; in a word, whatever you look at in Russia, it has the beginning of everything, and no matter what has been done in the past, 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 on a global scale. Many studies and works of art are devoted to the transformations associated with this name. Historians and writers differently, sometimes directly opposite, assessed the personality of Peter I and the significance of his reforms. Already contemporaries of Peter I were divided into two camps: supporters and opponents of his reforms. The dispute continued later. In the XVIII century.M. V. Lomonosov praised Peter, admired his activities. And a little later, the historian Karamzin accused Peter of betraying the “true Russian” principles of life, and called his reforms a “brilliant mistake”.

At the end of the 17th century, when the young tsar Peter I came to the Russian throne, our country experienced a turning point in its history. In Russia, unlike the main Western European countries, there were almost no large industrial enterprises capable of providing the country with weapons, fabrics, and agricultural implements. She had no access to the seas - neither to the Black nor to the Baltic, through which she could develop foreign trade. Therefore, Russia did not have its own navy, which would guard its borders. The land army was built according to outdated principles and consisted mainly of noble militia. There was a fierce struggle for power between the old, well-born boyars and the nobles serving the people. There were continuous uprisings of the peasants and the urban lower classes, who fought both against the nobles and against the boyars, since they were all feudal lords. build a fleet, take possession of the coast, create a domestic industry, rebuild the country's management system. For a radical break in the old way of life, Russia needed a smart and talented leader, an outstanding person. Such was Peter I. Peter not only comprehended the dictates of the time, but also devoted all his outstanding talent, the obsessive stubbornness, the patience inherent in a Russian person, and the ability to give the matter a state scale to serve this command. Peter imperiously invaded all spheres of the life of the country and greatly accelerated the development of the principles inherited.

The history of Russia before Peter the Great and after him knew many reforms. The main difference between Petrovsky’s reforms and the reforms of the previous and subsequent times was that the Petrovsky ones were comprehensive in nature, covering all aspects of the life of the people, while others introduced innovations that concerned only certain areas of the life of society and the state. We, the people of the late XX century, cannot fully appreciate the explosive effect of the Petrovsky reforms in Russia. what wrote the meaning of Peter's contemporary A.S. Pushkin, the historian M.N. ancient history, which in the present moment still seems to hold its hand over us, and which, it seems, we will never lose sight of, however far we may go into the future.

Created in Russia by Peter, the generation of M.N. Pogodin and subsequent generations survived. 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 abolished only in 1887, that is, 163 years after its introduction in 1724. In other words, in the history of Russia we we will find few consciously man-made institutions that have lasted so long, having had such a strong impact on all aspects of social life. Moreover, some principles and stereotypes of political consciousness, developed or finally fixed under Peter, are still alive, 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 the Great's reforms?

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

The industry was serf-owning in its structure, and in terms of output it was significantly inferior to the industry of Western European countries.

The Russian army in its significant part consisted of the old 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 quite a few uneducated and completely illiterate people.

Russia in the 17th century, by the very course of historical development, was confronted with the need for fundamental reforms, since only in this way could it secure a worthy place among the states of the West and East. It should be noted that by this time in the history of our country, significant shifts had already occurred in its development. The first industrial enterprises of a manufacturing type arose, handicrafts and crafts grew, trade in agricultural products developed. The social and geographical division of labor was constantly growing - the basis of the established and developing all-Russian market. The city was separated from the countryside. Trade 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, absolutism took shape more and more clearly. Russian culture and science were further developed: mathematics and mechanics, physics and chemistry, geography and botany, astronomy and "mining". Cossack explorers discovered a number of new landsin Siberia.

The 17th century was the time when Russia established permanent communication with Western Europe, established closer trade and diplomatic ties with it, used its technology and science, perceived its culture and enlightenment. Learning and borrowing, Russia developed independently, took only what it needed, and only when it was necessary. the opportunity to carry out the grandiose reforms of Peter the Great prepared by the very course of the historical development of Russia.

Reforms of Peter was prepared in all previous history of the people, "required by the people." Already before Peter, a rather wholesome transformational program was outlined, which in many respects coincided with the reforms of Peter, in other ways even going further than them. A transformation in general was being prepared, which, in a peaceful course of affairs, could stretch over a number of generations. it was impossible to give a quiet gradual work of time, not pushed 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 transformations. The essence of the military reform was the elimination of the nobility's militias and the organization of a combat-ready standing army with a uniform structure, weapons, uniforms, discipline, charters.

The tasks of creating a modern combat-ready army and navy occupied the young tsar even before he became a sovereign sovereign. One can count only a few (according to different historians in different ways) peaceful years 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 had a very large, often decisive, impact on other aspects of the life of the state. The course of the military reform itself was determined by the war.

"Playing soldiers", to which young Peter devoted all his time, from the end of the 1680s became more and more serious. In the spring of 1690, the famous "amusing regiments" were created - Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky. Peter begins to conduct real military maneuvers, the "capital city of Preshburg" is being built on the Yauza.

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

The beginning of the Northern War was the impetus for the final creation of a regular army. Before Peter's army consisted of two main parts - the noble militia and various semi-regular formations (archers, Cossacks, regiments of a foreign system). The cardinal change was that Peter introduced a new principle of manning the army - periodic convocations of the militia were replaced by systematic recruitment sets. The basis of the recruiting system was based on the estate-feudal principle. Recruitment kits were distributed to the population that paid taxes and carried state duties. In 1699, the first recruitment recruitment was made, since 1705, recruitment was legalized by the corresponding decree and became annual. in total, the Russian village suffered from recruiting sets. The service life of the recruit was practically unlimited. The officers of the Russian army were replenished at the expense of the nobles who studied in the guards noble regiments or in specially organized schools (Pushkar, artillery, navigation, fortification, Naval Academy, etc.). In 1716, the Military Charter was adopted, and in 1720 - the Naval Charter, 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 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-capable regular army, one of the strongest in the world, which gave Russia the opportunity to fight and defeat its main opponents;

    the emergence of a whole galaxy of talented commanders (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 through the most severe squeezing of funds from the people.

3.Public Administration Reform


In the first quarter of the XVIII century. the transition to absolutism was accelerated by the Northern War and was completed. It was during the reign of Peter the Great that the regular army and the bureaucratic apparatus of state administration were created, both the actual and legal formalization of absolutism took place.

The 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.

The army, in addition to its main internal function of suppressing popular unrest and uprisings, also performed other functions. Since the time of Peter the Great, it has been widely used in public administration as a coercive force. The practice of sending military teams to the places to compel the administration to better carry out government orders and instructions has become widespread. But sometimes the central institutions were placed in the same position, for example, even the activities of the Senate in the first years of its creation were under the control of guards officers. Officers and soldiers were also involved in the census, collecting taxes and arrears. Along with the army, to suppress their political opponents, absolutism used punitive bodies specially created for this purpose - the Transfiguration Order, the Secret Chancellery.

In the first quarter of the XVIII century. there is also a second pillar of the absolute monarchy - the bureaucratic apparatus of state administration.

Bodies of central power 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 absolute monarchy took shape in 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 - local administration in the counties, did not meet the new tasks either in providing military needs with material resources or in collecting cash taxes from the population. Orders often duplicated each other's functions, creating confusion in management and slowness in decision-making. The counties were of different sizes - from dwarf counties to giant counties, which made it impossible to effectively use their administration to levy taxes. The Boyar Duma, with its tradition of a leisurely discussion of affairs, the representation of noble nobility, not always competent in public 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 intrusion into all spheres of public, corporate and private life. Finally, the strengthening of the role of the state was manifested in the 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 the nobility was formed.

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

The transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg contributed to the administrative transformations. image of the state apparatus. This is a strictly centralized and bureaucratic apparatus, clearly and quickly executing the orders of the sovereign, within its competence, showing reasonable initiative. This is something very similar to an army, where each officer, executing the general order of the commander in chief, independently solves his private and specific tasks. As we will see, the Petrine state machine was far from such an ideal, which was seen only as a trend, although clearly expressed.

In the first quarter of the XVIII century. a whole range of reforms was carried out related to the restructuring of central and local authorities and administration, areas of culture and 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 significance.

Let us consider the reforms of the highest authorities 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 - liquidation 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 administration, the implementation of the second regional reform, the reform of church administration, and the financial and tax reform.

3.1. Central government reform

The last mention of the last meeting of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. The Near Office, which arose in 1699 (an institution that exercised administrative and financial control in the state), acquired paramount importance. The Council of Ministers, who sat in the building of the Near Chancellery, had real power, managing orders and offices, providing the army and navy with everything necessary, in charge of finances and construction (after the formation of the Senate, the Near Chancellery (1719) and the Council of Ministers (1711) cease to exist).

The next step in the reform of the central government was the creation of the Senate. The formal reason was Petran's departure from the war with Turkey. On February 22, 1711, Peter himself wrote a decree to the composition of the Senate, which began with the phrase: "The Governing Senate was determined to be for the absence of Our Governing Senate to govern." 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:

    "Judgment is not hypocritical, and unjust judges are punished with the removal of honor and all property, then the poor will follow";

    "Look in all state expenses, and unnecessary, and especially vain, leave";

    "Money, as far as possible, to collect, after all, money is the artery of war."

Members of the Senate were appointed by the king. Initially, it consisted of only nine people who decided matters collectively. The basis for recruiting the Senate was not the principle of nobility, but competence, length of service and closeness to the king.

From 1718 to 1722 The Senate became an assembly of the presidents of the colleges. In 1722, it was reformed by three decrees of the emperor. The composition was changed, including both presidents of colleges, senators, colleges of aliens. Decree "On the position of the Senate" Senate received the right to issue their own decrees.

The range of issues that were in his charge was quite wide: issues of justice, treasury expenses and taxes, trade, control over administration at various 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 highest body of central government, which rose above the entire state apparatus.

The peculiarity of the era of Peter's reforms consisted in strengthening the bodies and means of state control. And to oversee the activities of the administration under the Senate, the post of Chief Fiscal was established, to which the provincial fiscals should be subordinate (1711). Insufficient reliability of the fiscal system led in turn to the emergence in 1715 under the Senate of the post of auditor general, or overseer of decrees. The main task of the auditor is "so that everything is done." In 1720, stronger pressure was placed on the Senate: it was ordered to observe that here "everything was done decently, and there were no vain conversations, shouting and other things." When this did not help, a year later the duties of both the Attorney General and
The chief secretary was assigned to the military: one of the headquarters officers of the army was on duty in the Senate every month to monitor order, and "whoever from the senators scolded or acted impolitely, that officer on duty was arrested and taken to the fortress, letting the sovereign know, of course."

Finally, in 1722, these functions were entrusted to a specially appointed prosecutor general, who "should have to watch closely that the Senate, in his rank, act righteously and not hypocritically," have supervision over prosecutors and fiscals in general, be "the eye of the sovereign" and "solicitor in state affairs."

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

However, the creation of the Senate could complete the management reforms, since there was no intermediate link between the Senate and the provinces, many orders continued to operate. In 1717 - 1722. to replace44 orders of the end of the 17th century. colleges came. Unlike orders, the collegiate 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 the procedure for working. In addition to the leaders, the colleges included four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary, a registrar, translators and clerks.

In 1721, the Estate Board was created, replacing the Local Order, which was in charge of the nobility's land ownership. His appearance testified to the liquidation of the autonomy of the church.

In 1699, in order to improve the flow of direct taxes to the treasury, the Burmister Chamber, or Town Hall, was established. By 1708, it had become the central treasury, replacing the Great Treasury Order. It included twelve old financial orders. In 1722, the Manufactory Collegium was separated from the unified Berg-Manufactory-Collegium, 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.

В отличие отприказов,действовавшихна основанииобычая и прецедента,коллегии должныбыли руководствоватьсячеткими правовыминормами идолжностнымиинструкциями.Наиболее общимзаконодательнымактом в этойобласти былГенеральныйрегламент(1720), представлявшийсобой уставдеятельностигосударственныхколлегий, канцелярийи контор иопределявшийсостав их членов,компетенцию,функции, порядокдеятельности.Последующееразвитие принципачиновной,бюрократическойвыслуги нашлоотражение впетровской"Табели о рангах" (1722). The new law divided the service into civil and military. It determined 14 classes, or ranks, of officials. Anyone who received the rank of the 8th class became a hereditary nobleman. The ranks from the 14th to the 9th also gave nobility, but only personal.

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified that the bureaucratic beginning in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic beginning. Professional qualities, personal devotion and length of service become decisive for career advancement. A sign of bureaucracy as a management system is the incorporation of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and guidance in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of law, regulations, instructions. Professionalism, specialization, normativity became positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus, negative - its complexity, high cost, self-employment, inflexibility.


3.2. Local government reform


At the beginning of his reign, Peter I tried to use the previous system of local government, gradually introducing elected elements of government instead of zemstvo ones. So, by decree of March 10, 1702, elected representatives of the nobility were prescribed to participate in government with the main traditional administrators (voivodes). In 1705, this order became mandatory everywhere, which was to strengthen control over the old administration.

Dec. 18, 1708 issued a decree "On the establishment of the provinces and the painting of cities with them." This was a reform that completely changed the system of local government. The main goal of this reform is to provide the army with everything necessary: ​​with the regiments of the army, distributed among the provinces, a direct connection was established between the provinces through a specially created institute of krig commissars. According to this decree, the entire territory of the country was divided into eight provinces:

    Moscow included its composition of 39 cities,

    Ingrian (later St. Petersburg) - 29 cities (another two cities of this province - Yamburg and Koporye were given into the possession of Prince Menshikov),

    56 cities were assigned to the Kiev province,

    Ksmolensk - 17 cities,

    To Arkhangelsk (later Arkhangelsk) - 20 cities,

    KKazanskaya - 71 urban and rural settlements,

    Kazovsky province, in addition to 52 cities, were assigned 25 cities assigned to ship affairs

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

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

Thus began the reform of the regional administration. 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 voivodes. The provinces were divided into districts - districts. The provincial administration was directly subordinated to the colleges. The regional administration was introduced collegiate beginning: under the governors colleges of landrats were established (from 8 to 12 people per province), elected by the local nobility.

The regional reform, while meeting the most pressing needs of the autocratic government, was at the same time a consequence of the development of a bureaucratic trend, 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 a few 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 locally.

Four of his direct subordinates were subordinate to the governor:

    chief commandant - answered military affairs;

    chief commissar - for money collections;

    Ober-praviantmeister - for grain collections;

    landrichter - for court cases.

At the head of the province, there was usually a governor, in the county, financial and police administration was entrusted to zemstvo commissars, partly elected by the county nobles, partly appointed from above.

The governors passed part of the functions of orders (especially territorial ones), their number was reduced.

The decree on the establishment of provinces completed the first stage of the reform of local government. Provincial government was carried out by governors and vice-governors, who performed mainly military and financial functions of government. However, this division turned out to be too large in practice to manage the provinces, especially the communications that existed at that time. Therefore, in each province there were large cities in which the former city administration exercised control.

3.3. City government reform

Around the newly formed industrial enterprises, manufactories, mines, shipyard mines, new urban-type settlements appeared, in which self-government bodies began to form. Self-government bodies began to form in the cities: town councils, magistrates. The urban estate began to take shape legally. In 1720, the Chief Magistrate was established in St. Petersburg, who was instructed to "be 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 "mean" people. Regular citizens, in turn, were divided into two guilds:

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

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

The guilds were managed by guild meetings and foremen.

According to the European model, guild organizations were created, which consisted of masters, apprentices and students, led by foremen.

The division into guilds turned out to be the purest formality, since the military auditors who carried it out, primarily concerned about increasing the number of poll tax payers, arbitrarily included persons who had nothing to do with them as members of the guilds. The appearance of guilds and the workshop meant that corporate principles were opposed to feudal principles of economic organization.

3.4. Results of public administration reform

As a result of Peter's reforms, by the end of the first quarter
18th century formed the following system of authorities and management.

All the fullness 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.

Council members 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 placed at the head of the Senate, who was entrusted with control over the activities of all government agencies. The Attorney General was supposed to perform the functions of the "eye of the state". the system of prosecutors was supplemented by the system of fiscals, headed by the chief fiscal.

The order system that had developed under the Boyar Duma did not correspond to the new conditions of the tasks. The orders that arose at different times differed greatly in their nature and functions. Orders and decrees of orders often contradicted each other, creating unimaginable confusion and delaying the solution of urgent issues for a long time.

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

The creation of a system of boards completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, delimitation of areas of public administration and competence, uniform standards of activity, concentration of financial management in a single institution - all this significantly distinguished the new apparatus from the system of orders.

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

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

The adoption of the "Tabelio ranks" testified that the bureaucratic beginning in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic beginning. A sign of bureaucracy as a management system is the incorporation of each official into a clear hierarchical structure of power (vertically) and guidance in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of law, regulations, instructions. Professionalism, specialization, normativity became positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus, negative - its complexity, high cost, self-employment, 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.

B1708 - 1709 restructuring of local authorities and administrations 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, concentrating executive and judicial power in his hands. A provincial office existed under the governor. But the situation was complicated by the fact that the governor was subordinate not only to the emperor and the Senate, but also to all colleges, whose orders and decrees 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 the voivode with an office attached to him. The provinces, in turn, were divided into districts (districts) with a voivode and a district office. Some time during the reign of Peter the district administration was replaced by an elected zemstvo commissar of local nobles or retired officers. Егофункции ограничивалисьсбором подушнойподати, наблюдениемза выполнениемказенных повинностей,задержаниембеглых крестьян.Подчинялсяземский комиссарпровинциальнойканцелярии.В 1713 г. местномудворянствубыло предоставленовыбирать по8-12 ландратов(советниковот дворян уезда)в помощь губернатору,а после введенияподушной податибыли созданыполковые дистрикты.Квартировавшиев них воинскиечасти наблюдализа сбором податейи пресекалипроявлениянедовольстваи антифеодальныевыступления.

As a result of administrative reforms in Russia, the absolute monarchy was completed. The king got the opportunity to unlimitedly and uncontrollably rule the country with the help of officials completely dependent on him.

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

The most important signs of absolutism include 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 inside it - the domestic bureaucracy. Anisimov writes in the book "The Time of Peter the Great": "The bureaucracy is a necessary element of the structure of the state of the new time. However, in the conditions of the Russian autocracy, when the unlimited will of the monarch is the only source of law, when the official is not responsible to anyone except his boss, the creation of a bureaucratic machine became a kind of" bureaucratic revolution ", during which the perpetual motion machine of the bureaucracy was launched."

The reforms of central and local government created an external hierarchy of institutions from the Senate - in the center to the voivodship office - in the counties.


4. Reform of the estate device


4.1. Servant class


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

All the previous ranks of service people were united together, into a single estate - the gentry. All lower ranks (both noble and from the "common people") could equally rise to the highest ranks. In the "Table" all the ranks were divided into 14 ranks or "ranks" according to their seniority. Everyone who reached the lowest rank 14 could hope for a higher position and take the highest rank. "Table of ranks" replaced the principle of generosity with the principle of service and fitness for service. But Peter made one concession to the natives of the highest old nobility.

Peter demanded that the nobles must learn to read and write and mathematics, and deprived the untrained nobles of the right to marry and receive an officer rank. Peter limited the landowning rights of the nobles. He stopped giving them estates from the treasury upon entering the service, and provided them with a monetary salary. Peter's measures regarding the nobility aggravated the position of this estate, but did not change its relationship to the state. The nobility, before and now, had to pay for the right to own land by service. But now the service has become harder, and land ownership is tighter. Piotrzhe severely punished attempts to evade service.


4.2. Urban estate (townspeople and urban 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 the city self-government. In 1720, a chief magistrate was created, who was supposed to take care of the city estate. All the cities were divided according to the number of inhabitants into classes. The inhabitants of the cities were divided into "regular" and "irregular" ("mean") citizens. burgomasters, elected by all regular citizens. In addition, city affairs were discussed at town meetings or councils from regular citizens. Each city was subordinate to the main magistrate, bypassing any other local authorities.

Despite all the transformations, Russian cities have remained in the same pitiful position as they were before. The reason for this is far from the commercial and industrial structure of Russian life and heavy wars.


4.3 Peasantry


In the first quarter of the century, it turned out that the house-to-house principle of taxation did not bring the expected increase in the receipt of taxes.

In order to increase their incomes, the landowners settled several peasant families in one yard. As a result, during the 1710 census, it turned out that the number of households had decreased by 20% since 1678. Therefore, a new principle of taxation was introduced. B1718 - 1724 a census of the entire taxable male 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 addition, all taxable estates, with the exception of the landowning peasants, paid the state 40 kopecks of quitrent, which was to balance their duties with those of the landlord peasants.

The transition to poll taxation increased the figure 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 that had not paid it before: slaves, "walking people", one-palaces, the black-mossed peasantry of the North and Siberia, the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, etc. All these categories constituted the class of state peasants, and the poll tax for them 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 audit 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 various taxes and fees 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, the regular army and navy, the construction of the capital and other expenses. In addition, state-owned peasants were not responsible: road - 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 royal power. The last patriarchs Joachim (1675-1690) and Adrian (1690-1700) pursued a policy aimed at strengthening these positions.

Peter's church policy, like his policy in other areas of public life, was aimed primarily at the most efficient 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 is also occupied 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 identified abuses, Peter cancels the election of a new patriarch, entrusting at the same time the Metropolitan of Ryazan, Stefan Yavorsky, with the post of "seat guardian of the patriarchal throne." In 1701, a 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 enlightening idea of ​​public good, which requires the productive work of all members of society, launches an offensive against the monks and the monastery. In 1701, the royal decree limited the number of monks: now one had to apply to the Monastic order for permission to take vows. Subsequently, the king came up with the idea to use monasteries as shelters for retired soldiers and beggars. In a decree of 1724, the number of monks in a monastery is directly dependent on the number of people they look after.

Сложившиесяотношения междуцерковью ивластью требовалинового юридическогооформления.В 1721 г. видныйдеятель Петровскойэпохи ФеофанПрокоповичсоставляетДуховный регламент,который предусматривалуничтожениеинститутапатриаршестваи образованиенового органа- Духовной коллегии,которая вскоребыла переименованав "СвятейшийправительственныйСинод", официальноуравненныйв правах с Сенатом.Президентомстал СтефанЯворский,вице-президентами- ФеодосийЯновский иФеофан Прокопович.Создание Синодаявилось началомабсолютистскогопериода русскойистории , since now all power, including church power, was concentrated in the hands of Peter. A contemporary reports that when Russian church leaders tried to protest, Peter pointed to the Spiritual Regulations and declared: “Here is the spiritual patriarch, and if you don’t like him, here you are (throwing a dagger on the table) damask patriarch.”

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

The reform of the church was carried out in parallel with the tax reform, the registration and classification of priests were 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 the tax. A stormy reaction among the priests was caused by the Resolution of the Synod of May 17, 1722, in which the clergy were charged with the obligation to violate 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 managed by secular authorities.


6. Economic transformation


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

In agriculture, opportunities for improvement were scooped 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, and also the more intensive exploitation of the peasants. The increased demand of the state for raw materials for Russian industry led to the wide distribution of such crops as flax and hemp. The decree of 1715 encouraged the cultivation of flax and hemp, as well as tobacco, mulberries for silkworms. The decree of 1712 ordered the creation of horse breeding farms in the Kazan, Azov and Kiev provinces, sheep breeding was also encouraged.

In the Petrine era, the country was sharply divided into two zones of feudal farming - the lean North, where the feudal lords transferred their peasants for cash rent, 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 corvée.

State duties of the peasants also increased. Cities were built by their forces (40 thousand peasants worked on the construction of St. Petersburg), manufactories, bridges, roads; annual recruitment recruitments were held, old fees were increased and new ones were 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 1718 census, the unit of taxation was the "soul" of the male, regardless of age, from which the poll tax was charged in the amount of 70 kopecks per year (from state peasants - 1 rub. 10 kopecks per year). This streamlined tax policy and dramatically raised state revenues (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, at least 200 new manufactories were founded, he encouraged their creation in every possible way. The state policy was also aimed at protecting young Russian industry from competition from Western Europe by introducing very high customs duties (Customs Charter of 1724

Russian manufactory, although it had capitalist features, but the use of predominantly the labor of peasants - sessional, ascribed, quitrent, etc. - made it a serf enterprise. Depending on whose property they were, manufactories were divided into punished, merchant and landlord.

State state-owned factories used the labor of state peasants, assigned peasants, recruits and free hired craftsmen. They mainly served heavy industry - metallurgy, shipyards, mines. The merchant manufactories, which produced mainly consumer goods, employed both sessional and quitrent peasants, as well as civilian labor force.

The protectionist policy of Peter the Great led to the emergence of factories in various 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, favorable conditions were created for people who created new manufactories or took state leasing.

There are manufactories in many industries - glass, gunpowder, paper, canvas, linen, silk weaving, cloth, leather, rope, hat, colorful, sawmill and many others. 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 areas and brought Russia to one of the first places in the world in this industry.

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

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

As a result of Peter's policy in the economic field, a powerful industry was created in an extremely short period of time, capable of fully meeting military and state needs and not dependent on imports.


7. Reforms in the field of culture and life


Important changes in the life of the country strongly 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 came to replace the church textbooks.

In 1708, Peter I introduced a new civil font, which replaced the old Cyrillic semi-charter. New printing houses were created in Moscow and St. Petersburg to print secular educational, scientific, political literature and legislative acts.

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

The most important step in the implementation of the reforms was Peter's visit as part of the Great Embassy of a number of European countries. Upon his return, Peter sent many young nobles to Europe to study various specialties, mainly to master the marine sciences. The Tsar took care of the development of education in Russia. In 1701, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences was opened in Moscow, in the Sukharev Tower, headed by the professor of the University of Aberdeen, the Scottish 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 the activities in the development of science and education was the foundation in 1724 of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Peter sought someone to overcome as soon as possible the disunity between Russia and Europe that had arisen since the time of the Tatar-Mongolian.

The study and development of the territory and mineral resources of the country were associated with the development of industry and trade, which was reflected 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 the Kunst marked the beginning of the collection of collections of historical and memorial objects and rarities, weapons, materials on the natural sciences, etc. At the same time, they began to collect ancient written sources, make copies of chronicles, letters, decrees and other acts. This was the beginning of museum business in Russia.

From the first quarter of the 18th century. carried out the transition to urban planning and regular planning of cities. The appearance of the city was no longer determined by cult architecture, but by palaces and mansions, houses of government agencies and aristocracy. In painting, the portrait comes to replace icon painting. Attempts to create a Russian theater are also included, at the same time the first dramatic works were written.

Changes in everyday life affected the mass of the population. Camisoles, ties and frills, wide-brimmed hats, stockings, shoes, wigs quickly replaced old Russian clothes in the cities. Western European outerwear and dresses among women spread most quickly. It was forbidden to wear a beard, which caused dissatisfaction, especially among the taxable estates. A special "beard tax" and a mandatory copper sign were introduced for its payment.

Since 1718, Peter established assemblies with the obligatory presence of women in them, which reflected serious changes in their position in society.

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, undertakings. 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 significance. But they even more emphasized the allocation of the nobility to a privileged class, turned the use of the benefits and achievements of culture into one of the noble class privileges, and was accompanied by the widespread gallomania, contemptuous attitude to the Russian language and Russian culture among the nobility.


Conclusion


The main result of the totality of Peter's reforms was the establishment in Russia of the regime of absolutism, the crown of which was the change in 1721 of the title of the Russian monarch - Peter declared himself emperor, and the country began to be called the Russian Empire. Thus, what Peter was going for all the years of his reign was formalized - the creation of a state with a harmonious system of government, a strong army and navy, a powerful economy that had an impact on 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 state structure - a military ship, where everything and everything is subordinate to the will of one person - the captain, and managed to bring 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, in which the central role belonged to the nobility. At the same time, the backwardness of Russia was not completely overcome, and the reforms were carried out mainly through the most severe exploitation and coercion.

The complexity and inconsistency of the development of Russia during this period determined the inconsistency of Peter's activities and the reforms he carried out. On the one hand, they had great historical meaning, as they contributed to the progress of the country, were aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, they were carried out by feudal lords, feudal methods and were aimed at strengthening their dominance. Therefore, the progressive transformations of Peter the Great from the very beginning did not merge with themselves conservative features that, in the course of the further development of the country, were more powerful 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 the dominance of feudal-serf relations was preserved, but it could not catch up with the test 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 obsolete institutions, laws, and the foundations of the way of life and way of life.

The role of Peter the Great in the history of Russia is difficult to overestimate. No matter how one relates to the methods and style of carrying out transformations, one cannot fail to recognize - 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 more in dreams, his spirit lives in our souls, and we, who had the good fortune to be with this monarch, will die faithful to him and bury our ardent love for the earthly god with us. We fearlessly proclaim about our father for the fact that we learned noble fearlessness and truth from him."


Bibliography


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

2. Anisimov E.V., Kamensky A.B. Russia in the 18th - the 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 XVIII century. / Under the editorship of B.A. Rybakov. - M .: Higher School, 1983.

6. Malkov V.V. A manual on the history of the USSR for those entering universities. - M.: Higher school, 1985.

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

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

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

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

KOMI REPUBLICAN ACADEMY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

AND ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE HEAD OF THE REPUBLIC KOMI

Faculty of State and Municipal Administration

Department of Public Administration and Public Service


Test

REFORMS OF PETER I.
RUSSIA IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY

Executor:

Motorkin Andrey Yurievich,

group 112


Teacher:

Art. teacherI.I. Lastunov

Syktyvkar

Introduction1


1.Historical conditions and prerequisites for the reforms of Peter I3


2.Military reforms4


3.Public Administration Reform6

3.1. Central government reform8

3.2. Local government reform11

3.3 City government reform13

3.4. Results of public administration reform14


4.Reform of the class device16

4.1. Service class16

4.2. Urban estate (townspeople and urban people) 17

4.3. Peasantry17


5.Church reform18


6. Economic transformations20


7. Reforms in the field of culture and life22


Conclusion24


References26

Peter the Great (1672 - 1725) - Russian Tsar, ruled independently from 1689 to 1725. He carried out a large-scale reform of all areas of life in Russia. The artist Valentin Serov, who dedicated a number of works to Peter, described him as follows: “He was terrible: long, on weak, thin legs and with such a small head, in relation to the whole body, that he should have looked more like some kind of stuffed animal with a poorly set head than a living person. There was a constant tic in his face, and he was always "cutting faces": blinking, twitching his mouth, moving his nose and clapping his chin. At the same time, he walked with huge steps, and all his companions were forced to follow him at a run. .

Prerequisites for the reforms of Peter the Great

Peter accepted Russia as a backward country, located on the outskirts of Europe. Muscovy had no access to the sea, with the exception of the White, regular army, navy, developed industry, trade, the state administration system was antediluvian and inefficient, there were no higher educational institutions (the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was opened in Moscow only in 1687), book printing , theater, painting, libraries, not only the people, but many members of the elite: boyars, nobles, did not know the letter. Science did not develop. Serfdom ruled.

Public Administration Reform

- Peter replaced the orders, which did not have clear responsibilities, with collegiums, the prototype of future ministries

  • College of Foreign Affairs
  • Collegium military
  • Maritime College
  • College for commercial affairs
  • College of Justice...

The boards consisted of several officials, the eldest was called the chairman or president. All of them were subordinate to the Governor-General, who was a member of the Senate. There were 12 boards in total.
- In March 1711, Peter created the Governing Senate. At first its function was to govern the country in the absence of the king, then it became a permanent institution. The Senate consisted of presidents of colleges and senators - people appointed by the king.
- In January 1722, Peter issued a "table of ranks" with 14 class ranks from State Chancellor (first rank) to collegiate registrar (fourteenth)
- Peter reorganized the secret police system. Since 1718, the Preobrazhensky Prikaz, which was in charge of political crimes, was transformed into the Secret Investigative Office

Church reform of Peter

Peter abolished the patriarchate, a church organization practically independent of the state, and instead created the Holy Synod, all members of which were appointed by the tsar, thereby eliminating the autonomy of the clergy. Peter pursued a policy of religious tolerance, facilitating the existence of the Old Believers and allowing foreigners to freely profess their faith.

Administrative reform of Peter

Russia was divided into provinces, provinces were divided into provinces, provinces into counties.
Provinces:

  • Moscow
  • Ingrian
  • Kyiv
  • Smolensk
  • Azov
  • Kazanskaya
  • Arkhangelsk
  • Siberian
  • Riga
  • Astrakhan
  • Nizhny Novgorod

Military reform of Peter

Peter replaced the irregular and noble militia with a standing regular army, manned by recruits, recruited one from each of the 20 peasant or petty-bourgeois households in the Great Russian provinces. He built a powerful navy, he wrote the military charter himself, taking the Swedish one as a basis.

Peter turned Russia into one of the strongest maritime powers in the world, with 48 linear and 788 galley and other ships

Economic reform of Peter

The modern army could not exist without a state supply system. To supply the army and navy with weapons, uniforms, food, consumables, it was necessary to create a powerful industrial production. By the end of Peter's reign, about 230 factories and plants operated in Russia. Factories focused on the production of glass products, gunpowder, paper, canvas, linen, cloth, paints, ropes, even hats were created, the metallurgical, sawmilling, and leather industries were organized. In order for the products of Russian craftsmen to be competitive in the market, high customs duties were introduced on European goods. Encouraging entrepreneurial activity, Peter widely used the issuance of loans to create new manufactories and trading companies. The largest enterprises that arose in the era of Peter's reforms were those created in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Urals, Tula, Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, Samara

  • Admiralty shipyard
  • Arsenal
  • Gunpowder factories
  • Metallurgical plants
  • Linen production
  • Production of potash, sulfur, saltpeter

By the end of the reign of Peter I, Russia had 233 factories, including more than 90 large manufactories built during his reign. During the first quarter of the 18th century, 386 different ships were built at the shipyards of St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk, at the beginning of the century, about 150 thousand pounds of pig iron were smelted in Russia, in 1725 - more than 800 thousand pounds, Russia caught up with England in iron smelting

Peter's reform in education

The army and navy needed qualified specialists. Therefore, Peter paid great attention to their preparation. During his reign were organized in Moscow and St. Petersburg

  • School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences
  • artillery school
  • engineering school
  • medical school
  • Marine Academy
  • mining schools at the Olonets and Ural factories
  • Digital schools for "children of every rank"
  • Garrison schools for children of soldiers
  • spiritual schools
  • Academy of Sciences (opened a few months after the death of the emperor)

Reforms of Peter in the field of culture

  • Publication of the first Russian newspaper "Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti"
  • Ban on boyars wearing beards
  • Establishment of the first Russian museum - Kunskamera
  • Requirement for nobility to wear European dress
  • Creation of assemblies where the nobles were to appear together with their wives
  • Creation of new printing houses and translation into Russian of many European books

Reforms of Peter the Great. Chronology

  • 1690 - The first guards regiments Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky were created
  • 1693 - Creation of a shipyard in Arkhangelsk
  • 1696 - Creation of a shipyard in Voronezh
  • 1696 - Decree on the establishment of an arms factory in Tobolsk
  • 1698 - Decree banning the wearing of beards and ordering the nobles to wear European clothes
  • 1699 - Dissolution of the archery army
  • 1699 - creation of commercial and industrial enterprises enjoying a monopoly
  • 1699, December 15 - Decree on the reform of the calendar. New Year starts on January 1st
  • 1700 - Creation of the Government Senate
  • 1701 - Decree forbidding kneeling at the sight of the sovereign and taking off his hat in winter, passing by his palace
  • 1701 - Opening of the school of mathematical and navigational sciences in Moscow
  • 1703, January - the first Russian newspaper is published in Moscow
  • 1704 - Replacement of the Boyar Duma with a council of ministers - the Council of Chiefs of Orders
  • 1705 - First recruitment decree
  • 1708 November - Administrative Reform
  • 1710, January 18 - decree on the official introduction of the Russian civil alphabet instead of Church Slavonic
  • 1710 - Foundation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg
  • 1711 - instead of the Boyar Duma, a Senate of 9 members and a chief secretary was created. Monetary reform: minting gold, silver and copper coins
  • 1712 - Transfer of the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg
  • 1712 - Decree on the creation of horse breeding farms in the Kazan, Azov and Kyiv provinces
  • 1714, February - Decree on the opening of digital schools for the children of clerks and priests
  • 1714, March 23 - Decree on majorate (single inheritance)
  • 1714 - Foundation of the State Library in St. Petersburg
  • 1715 - Creation of shelters for the poor in all cities of Russia
  • 1715 - Order of the merchant college to organize the training of Russian merchants abroad
  • 1715 - Decree to encourage the cultivation of flax, hemp, tobacco, mulberries for silkworms
  • 1716 - Census of all dissenters for double taxation
  • 1716, March 30 - Adoption of military regulations
  • 1717 - The introduction of free trade in grain, the annulment of some privileges for foreign merchants
  • 1718 - Replacement of Orders by Colleges
  • 1718 - Judicial reform. tax reform
  • 1718 - Beginning of the census (lasted until 1721)
  • 1719, November 26 - Decree on the establishment of assemblies - free meetings for fun and business
  • 1719 - Creation of an engineering school, the establishment of the Berg College to manage the mining industry
  • 1720 - Adopted the Charter of the Sea
  • 1721, January 14 - Decree on the creation of the Theological College (future Holy Synod)

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 no matter what 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 world scale. Many studies and works of art are devoted to the transformations associated with his name. Historians and writers differently, sometimes directly 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 reforms. The dispute continued later. In the XVIII century. M. V. 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 came to the Russian throne, our country was going through a turning point in its history. In Russia, unlike the main Western European countries, there were almost no large industrial enterprises capable of providing the country with weapons, fabrics, and agricultural implements. She had no access to the seas - neither the Black nor the Baltic, through which she could develop foreign trade. Therefore, Russia did not have its own military fleet, which would guard its borders. The land army was built according to outdated principles and consisted mainly of noble militia. The nobles were reluctant to leave their estates for military campaigns, their weapons and military training lagged behind the advanced European armies. There was a fierce struggle for power between the old, well-born boyars and the nobles serving people. There were continuous uprisings of peasants and urban lower classes in the country, who fought both against the nobles and against the boyars, since they were all feudal serfs. Russia attracted the greedy eyes of neighboring states - Sweden, the Commonwealth, which were not averse to seizing and subjugating Russian lands. It was necessary to reorganize the army, build a navy, take possession of the sea coast, create a domestic industry, and rebuild the system of government. To radically break the old way of life, Russia needed an intelligent and talented leader, an outstanding person. This is how Peter I turned out to be. Peter not only comprehended the dictates of the time, but also gave all his outstanding talent, the obsessed stubbornness, the patience inherent in a Russian person and the ability to give the case a state scale to serve this decree. Peter imperiously invaded all spheres of the life of the country and greatly accelerated the development of the principles inherited.

The history of Russia before Peter the Great and after him knew many reforms. The main difference between the Petrine reforms and the reforms of the previous and subsequent times was that the Petrine reforms were comprehensive in nature, covering all aspects of the life of the people, while others introduced innovations that concerned only certain areas of society and the state. We, the people of the late 20th century, do not we can fully appreciate the explosive effect of the Petrine reforms in Russia. People of the past, the 19th century, perceived them sharper, deeper. Here is what a contemporary of A.S. wrote about the significance of Peter. Pushkin, 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. a figure that casts a long shadow over our entire past and even obscures our ancient history, which at the present moment still seems to hold its hand over us, and which, it seems, we will never lose sight of, no matter how far we go. we're into the future."

Created in Russia by Peter, the generation of M.N. Pogodin, and next generations. For example, the last recruitment took place in 1874, that is, 170 years after the first (1705). The Senate lasted 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 abolished only in 1887, that is, 163 years after its introduction in 1724. In other words, in the history of Russia we will find few institutions consciously created by man that would last so long, having such a strong impact on all aspects of social life. Moreover, some principles and stereotypes of political consciousness, developed or finally fixed under Peter, are still alive, 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 was a serious danger to the independence of the Russian people.

Industry in its structure was serf-owning, and in terms of output it was significantly inferior to the industry of Western European countries.

The Russian army for the most part 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 of the people, 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 fundamental reforms, since only in this way could it secure a worthy place for itself among the states of the West and East. It should be noted that by this time in the history of our country there had already been significant changes in its development. The first industrial enterprises of the manufactory type arose, handicrafts and crafts grew, trade in agricultural products developed. The social and geographical division of labor - the basis of the established and developing all-Russian market - was constantly growing. The city was separated from the village. Trade 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 began to take shape more and more clearly. Russian culture and sciences were further developed: mathematics and mechanics, physics and chemistry, geography and botany, astronomy and "mining". Cossack 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, perceived its culture and enlightenment. By learning and borrowing, Russia developed independently, taking only what it needed, and only when it was needed. 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 the Great prepared by the very course of Russia's historical development.

The reforms of Peter was prepared by the entire previous history of the people, "required by the people." Already before Peter the Great, a fairly cohesive program of transformation had been outlined, which in many respects coincided with Peter's reforms, and in other ways went even further than them. A transformation in general was being prepared, which, in the 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 unparalleledly violent affair, and yet involuntary and necessary. The external dangers of the state outstripped the natural growth of the people, who had become stagnant in their development. The renewal 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 the Petrine reforms. The essence of the military reform was the elimination of the noble militias and the organization of a combat-ready standing army with a uniform structure, weapons, uniforms, discipline, charters.

The tasks of creating a modern, efficient army and navy occupied the young king even before he became a sovereign sovereign. It is possible to count only a few (according to different historians - in different ways) peaceful years 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 had a very large, often decisive, impact on other aspects of the life of the state. The course of the military reform itself was determined by the war.

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

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

The beginning of the Northern War was the impetus for the final creation of a regular army. Before Peter the Great, the army consisted of two main parts - the noble militia and various semi-regular formations (archers, Cossacks, regiments of a foreign system). The cardinal change was that Peter introduced a new principle of manning the army - periodic convocations of the militia were replaced by systematic recruiting sets. The basis of the recruiting system was based on the estate-serf principle. Recruitment kits were extended to the population that paid taxes and carried state duties. In 1699, the first recruitment was made, since 1705, the sets were legalized by the relevant decree and became annual. From 20 yards they took one person, a single person aged 15 to 20 years (however, during the Northern War, these terms were constantly changing due to a shortage of soldiers and sailors). The Russian village suffered most of all from recruiting sets. The service life of a recruit was practically unlimited. The officers of the Russian army were replenished at the expense of the nobles who studied in the guards noble regiments or in specially organized schools (Pushkar, artillery, navigation, fortification, Naval Academy, etc.). In 1716, the Military Charter was adopted, and in 1720 - the Naval Charter, 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 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 and defeat its main opponents;

    the emergence of a galaxy of talented commanders (Alexander Menshikov, Boris Sheremetev, Fyodor Apraksin, Yakov Bruce, etc.);

    the creation of a powerful navy;

    a gigantic increase in military expenditures and covering them through the most severe squeezing of funds from the people.

3. Public administration reform


In the first quarter of the XVIII century. the transition to absolutism was accelerated by the Northern War and was completed. It was during the reign of Peter the Great that the regular army and the bureaucratic apparatus of state administration were created, and both the actual and legal formalization of absolutism took place.

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

The army, in addition to its main internal function of suppressing popular unrest and uprisings, also performed other functions. Since the time of Peter the Great, it has been widely used in public administration as a coercive force. The practice of sending military teams to the places to compel the administration to better carry out government orders and instructions has become widespread. 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 guards officers. Officers and soldiers were also involved in the census, collecting taxes and arrears. Along with the army, to suppress its political opponents, absolutism also used punitive bodies specially created for this purpose - the Preobrazhensky order, the Secret Chancellery.

In the first quarter of the XVIII century. there is also a second pillar of the absolute monarchy - 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 absolute monarchy took shape in 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 - local administration in the districts, did not meet the new tasks either in providing military needs with material resources or in collecting monetary taxes from the population. Orders often duplicated each other's functions, creating confusion in management and slowness in decision-making. The uyezds varied in size, from dwarf uyezds to giant uyezds, which made it impossible to use their administration effectively to levy 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 intrusion 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 was manifested 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, the estate of the nobility was formed.

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

The transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg also contributed to administrative changes. The king wanted to have at hand the necessary control levers, which he often created anew, guided by momentary needs. As in all his other undertakings, 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 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 decrees of the sovereign, within its competence, showing a reasonable initiative. This is something very similar to an army, where each officer, executing the general order of the commander in chief, independently solves his private and specific tasks. As we will see, the Petrine state machine was far from such an ideal, which was seen only as a trend, although clearly expressed.

In the first quarter of the XVIII century. a whole range of reforms was carried out related to the restructuring of central and local authorities and administration, areas of culture and 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 significance.

Consider the reforms of the highest authorities 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 liquidation 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 administration, the implementation of the second regional reform, the reform of church administration and financial and tax.

3.1. Central government reform

The last mention of the last meeting of the Boyar Duma dates back to 1704. The Near Office, which arose in 1699 (an institution that exercised administrative and financial control in the state), acquired paramount importance. The real power was held by the Council of Ministers, which sat in the building of the Near Chancellery - the council of heads of the most important departments under the tsar, which managed 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 Council of Ministers (1711) cease its existence).

The next step in the reform of the central authorities was the creation of the Senate. The formal reason was the departure of Peter to the war with Turkey. On February 22, 1711, Peter personally wrote a decree on the composition of the Senate, which began with the phrase: "Determined to be for Our absences the Governing Senate to govern." The content of this phrase has given rise to historians still arguing about what kind of institution the Senate seemed to Peter: 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 have a court that is not hypocritical, and to punish unjust judges with the deprivation of honor and all property, then let it be followed by the tell-tales";

    "Look throughout the state of spending, and leave unnecessary, and especially vain";

    "Money, how possible, to collect, because money is the artery of war."

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

From 1718 to 1722 The Senate became an assembly of presidents of the colleges. In 1722 it was reformed by three decrees of the emperor. The composition has been changed, including both the presidents of the colleges and senators, alien to the colleges. The Decree "On the Position of the Senate" gave the Senate the right to issue its own decrees.

The range of issues that were in his charge was quite wide: issues of justice, treasury expenses and taxes, trade, control over the administration of various 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 highest body of central government, which stood above the entire state apparatus.

The originality of the era of Peter's reforms consisted in strengthening the organs and means of state control. And to oversee the activities of the administration under the Senate, the position of chief fiscal was established, to which the provincial fiscals should be subordinate (1711). Insufficient reliability of the fiscal system led, in turn, to the emergence in 1715 under the Senate of the post of auditor general, or overseer of decrees. The main task of the auditor is "so that everything is done." In 1720, stronger pressure was placed on the Senate: it was ordered to watch that "everything was done decently, and there was no vain talk, shouting and other things." When this did not help, after a year of duty and 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 from the senators scolded or acted impolitely, the officer on duty arrested him and took him to the fortress, letting the sovereign know, of course."

Finally, in 1722, these functions were assigned to a specially appointed prosecutor general, who "had to watch firmly that the Senate, in his rank, act righteously and without hypocrisy," have supervision over prosecutors and fiscals, and in general be "the sovereign's eye" and "solicitor in business state".

Thus, the reformer tsar was forced to constantly expand the special system of organized distrust and denunciation he had 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, many orders continued to operate. In 1717 - 1722. to replace 44 orders of the end of the 17th century. colleges came. Unlike orders, the collegiate 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 states and procedures. In addition to the leaders, the boards included four advisers, four assessors (assessors), a secretary, an actuary, a registrar, a translator and clerks. Special decrees were ordered from 1720 to begin the proceedings in a new order.

In 1721, the Estate Board was created, replacing the Local Order, which was in charge of the noble land ownership. On the rights of colleges were the Chief Magistrate, who ruled the city estate, and the Holy Governing Synod. His appearance testified to the elimination of the autonomy of the Church.

In 1699, in order to improve the flow of direct taxes to the treasury, the Burmister Chamber, or Town Hall, was established. By 1708, it had become the central treasury, replacing the Great Treasury Order. It included twelve old financial orders. In 1722, the Manufactory College was separated from the unified Berg Manufactory College, 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 orders that acted on the basis of custom and precedent, collegiums 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 a charter for the activities of state collegiums, offices 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 8th class became a hereditary nobleman. The ranks from the 14th to the 9th also gave the nobility, but only personal.

The adoption of the "Table of Ranks" testified that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal devotion and length of service become decisive for promotion. A sign of bureaucracy as a management system is the inclusion of each official in a clear hierarchical power structure (vertically) and his guidance in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus were professionalism, specialization, normativity, while the negative features were 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 former system of local government, gradually introducing elected elements of government instead of zemstvo ones. So, the decree of March 10, 1702 prescribed participation in the administration with the main traditional administrators (voivodes) of elected representatives of the nobility. In 1705, this order became mandatory and universal, which was supposed to strengthen control over the old administration.

December 18, 1708 was issued a decree "On the establishment of the provinces and the painting of cities to them." It was a reform that completely changed the system of local government. The main goal of this reform was to provide the army with everything necessary: ​​with the regiments of the army, distributed among the provinces, a direct connection was established between the provinces through a specially created institute of krieg commissars. According to this decree, the entire territory of the country was divided into eight provinces:

    Moscow included 39 cities,

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

    56 cities were assigned to the Kyiv province,

    To Smolensk - 17 cities,

    To Arkhangelsk (later Arkhangelsk) - 20 cities,

    To Kazanskaya - 71 urban and rural settlements,

    In addition to 52 cities, 25 cities assigned to ship affairs were assigned to the Azov province

    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 affairs in Voronezh, became the Voronezh province. There were 9 provinces. In 1713-1714. The number of provinces increased to 11.

Thus began the reform of the regional administration. 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, at the head of which were placed governors, vice-governors or voivodes. The provinces were divided into districts - districts. The administration of the provinces reported directly to the colleges. Four collegiums (Cameras, State Office, Justice and Votchinnaya) had their own apparatus in the field of chamberists, commandants and treasurers. In 1713, a collegiate principle was introduced into the regional administration: colleges of landrats were established under the governors (from 8 to 12 people per province), elected by the local nobility.

The regional reform, while responding to the most pressing needs of autocratic power, was at the same time a consequence of the development of a bureaucratic trend, 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 on the ground. The former "order-county" system was doubled: "order (or office) - province - province - county".

The governor had four direct subordinates:

    chief commandant - was responsible for military affairs;

    chief commissar - for fees;

    Ober-praviantmeister - for grain fees;

    landrichter - for court cases.

The province was usually headed by a voivode, in the county the 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 orders) 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 management of the provinces to be carried out in practice, especially with the communications that existed at that time. Therefore, in each province there were large cities in which the former city administration exercised control.

3.3. City government reform

Around the newly formed industrial enterprises, manufactories, mines, mines and shipyards, new urban-type settlements appeared, in which self-government bodies began to form. Already in 1699, Peter I, wishing to provide the urban estate with complete self-government in the style of the West, ordered the establishment of a burmister chamber. Self-government bodies began to form in the cities: town councils, magistrates. The urban estate began to take shape legally. In 1720, the Chief Magistrate was established in St. Petersburg, who was instructed to "be in charge of all the urban class in Russia."

According to the regulations of the Chief Magistrate in 1721, it began to be divided into regular citizens and "mean" 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 - artisans, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, small traders.

Guilds were controlled by guild meetings and foremen. The lowest stratum of the urban population ("those who are hired, in menial jobs, and the like") chose their elders and tenths, who could report to the magistrate about their needs and ask them for satisfaction.

According to the European model, guild organizations were created, which included masters, 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 carried it out, primarily concerned about increasing the number of poll tax payers, arbitrarily included in the members of the guilds and persons not related to them. The emergence of guilds and guilds meant that the corporate principles were opposed to the feudal principles of economic organization.

3.4. Results of public administration reform

As a result of Peter's reforms, by the end of the first quarter
18th century the following system of authorities and administration was formed.

All the fullness 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.

Council members were appointed by the emperor. In the exercise of executive power, the Senate issued decrees that had the force of law. In 1722, the Prosecutor General was placed 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 offices. In the first quarter of the XVIII century. the system of prosecutors was added to the system of fiscals, headed by the chief fiscal. The duties of the fiscals included reporting on all abuses of institutions and officials that violated the "public interest".

The order system that had developed under the Boyar Duma did not correspond in any way to the new conditions and tasks. The orders that arose at different times differed greatly in their nature and functions. Orders and decrees of orders often contradicted each other, creating unimaginable confusion and delaying the resolution of urgent issues for a long time.

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

The creation of a system of colleges completed the process of centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus. A clear distribution of departmental functions, delimitation of the spheres of state administration and competence, uniform norms 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 regulations, and the experience of state 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 that the bureaucratic principle in the formation of the state apparatus undoubtedly defeated the aristocratic principle. Professional qualities, personal devotion and length of service become decisive for promotion. A sign of bureaucracy as a management system is the inclusion of each official in a clear hierarchical power structure (vertically) and his guidance in his activities by strict and precise prescriptions of the law, regulations, instructions. The positive features of the new bureaucratic apparatus were professionalism, specialization, normativity, while the negative features were 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 administrations 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 tsar, who concentrated executive and judicial power in his hands. Under the governor there was a provincial office. But the situation was complicated by the fact that the governor was subordinate not only to the emperor and the Senate, but also to all colleges, whose orders and decrees 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 governor with an office attached to him. The provinces, in turn, were divided into districts (counties) with a voivode and a county office. Some time during the reign of Peter the county administration was replaced by an elected zemstvo commissar from local nobles or retired officers. Its functions were limited to collecting the poll tax, monitoring the performance of state duties, and detaining fugitive peasants. The zemstvo commissar of the provincial office was subordinate. In 1713, the local nobility was given the choice of 8-12 landrats (advisers from the nobles of the county) to help the governor, and after the introduction of the poll tax, regimental districts were created. The military units stationed in them observed the collection of taxes and suppressed manifestations of discontent and anti-feudal actions.

As a result of administrative reforms in Russia, the formation of an absolute monarchy was completed. The king got the opportunity to unlimitedly and uncontrollably govern the country 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 established in Russia is the adoption
in 1721 by Peter I the title of emperor and the title "Great".

The most important features of absolutism include 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 it was planted with a "time bomb" - domestic bureaucracy. E.V. Anisimov in the book "The Time of Peter the Great" writes: "The bureaucracy is a necessary element of the structure of the state of the new time. However, in the conditions of the Russian autocracy, when the monarch's will is the only source of law, when the official is not responsible to anyone except his boss , the creation of the bureaucratic machine became a kind of "bureaucratic revolution", during which the perpetual motion machine of the bureaucracy was launched.

The reforms of central and local government created an outwardly orderly hierarchy of institutions from the Senate in the center to the voivodship office in the counties.


4. Reform of the estate device


4.1. Service class


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

All the former categories of service people were united together, into one estate - the gentry. All the lower ranks (both noble 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 the 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 generosity with the principle of length of service and serviceability. But Peter made one concession to people from the upper old nobility. He allowed noble youth to enter predominantly in his favorite guards regiments Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky.

Peter demanded that the nobles must learn to read and write and mathematics, and deprived the untrained nobles of the right to marry and receive an officer's rank. Peter limited the landowning rights of the nobles. He stopped giving them estates from the treasury when they entered the service, but provided them with a monetary salary. Noble patrimonies and estates forbade splitting when transferred to sons (the law "On Majorate", 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 ownership by service. But now the service has become harder, and land ownership more constrained. The nobility grumbled and tried to alleviate their hardships. Peter severely punished attempts to evade service.


4.2. Urban estate (townspeople and city people)


Before Peter, the urban estate was a very small and poor class. Peter wanted to create an economically strong and active urban class in Russia, similar to what he saw in Western Europe. Peter expanded the city self-government. In 1720, the chief magistrate was created, who was supposed 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" ("mean") citizens. Regular citizens made up two "guilds": the first included representatives of the capital and the intelligentsia, the second - small merchants and artisans. Craftsmen were divided into "workshops" according to crafts. Irregular people or "mean" were called laborers. The city was governed by a magistrate of burgomasters, elected by all regular citizens. In addition, city affairs were discussed at town meetings or councils of regular citizens. Each city was subordinated to the main magistrate, bypassing any other local authorities.

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


4.3. Peasantry


In the first quarter of the century, it became clear that the household principle of taxation did not bring the expected increase in the receipt of taxes.

In order to increase their incomes, the landowners settled several peasant families in one yard. As a result, during the census in 1710, it turned out that the number of households had decreased by 20% since 1678. Therefore, a new principle of taxation was introduced. In 1718 - 1724. a census of the entire taxable male population is carried out, regardless of age and ability to work. 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, the family of the deceased or the community in which he was a member. In addition, all tax-paying estates, with the exception of the landlord peasants, paid the state 40 kopecks of quitrent, which was supposed to balance their duties with those of the landlord peasants.

The transition to per capita taxation increased the figure of direct taxes from 1.8 to 4.6 million, accounting for more than half of the budget receipts (8.5 million). The tax was extended to a number of categories of the population that had not paid it before: serfs, "walking people", residents of the same palace, the black-haired peasantry of the North and Siberia, the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region, the Urals, and others. All these categories made up the estate of state peasants, and the poll 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 landlords over the peasants, since the submission of revision tales and the collection of taxes were entrusted to the landowners.

Finally, in addition to the poll tax, the peasant paid a huge amount of all kinds of taxes and fees, 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 carried duties: road - for the construction and maintenance of roads, pit - 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 royal power. The last patriarchs Joachim (1675-1690) and Adrian (1690-1700) pursued a policy aimed at strengthening these positions.

Peter's church policy, as well as his policy in other areas of public life, was aimed, first of all, at the most efficient use of the church for the needs of the state, and more specifically, at squeezing money from the church for state programs, primarily for the construction of the fleet. After Peter's journey as part of the Great Embassy, ​​he is also occupied with the problem of the complete subordination of the church to his authority.

The turn to the new policy took place after the death of Patriarch Hadrian. Peter orders to conduct an audit for the census of the property of the Patriarchal House. Taking advantage of information about revealed abuses, Peter cancels the election of a new patriarch, at the same time entrusting Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan with the post of "locum tenens of the patriarchal throne." 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 enlightening idea of ​​the public good, which requires the productive work of all members of society, launches an offensive against monks and monasteries. In 1701, the royal decree limited the number of monks: now one had to apply to the Monastic order for permission to be tonsured. Subsequently, the king had the idea to use the monasteries as shelters for retired soldiers and beggars. In the decree of 1724, the number of monks in the monastery is directly dependent on the number of people they look after.

The existing relationship between the church and the authorities required a new legal formalization. In 1721, Feofan Prokopovich, a prominent figure in the Petrine era, drew up the Spiritual Regulations, which provided for the destruction of the institution of the patriarchate and the formation of a new body - the Spiritual College, which was soon renamed the "Holy Government Synod", officially equalized in rights with the Senate. Stefan Yavorsky became president, Feodosy 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 church power, was concentrated in the hands of Peter. A contemporary reports that when Russian church leaders tried to protest, Peter pointed them to the Spiritual Regulations and said: "Here's a spiritual patriarch for you, and if you don't like him, then here's a damask patriarch (throwing a dagger on the table)."

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

The reform of the church was carried out in parallel with the tax reform, the registration and classification of priests were carried out, and their lower strata were transferred to the head 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 exempt from tax. A stormy reaction among the priests was caused by the Resolution of the Synod of May 17, 1722, in which the clergy were charged with the obligation to violate 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 managed by secular authorities.


6. Economic transformation


During the Petrine era, the Russian economy, and above all industry, made a giant leap. At the same time, the development of the economy in the first quarter of the XVIII century. followed the path outlined by the previous period. In the Muscovite state of the XVI XVII century. there were large industrial enterprises - Cannon Yard, Printing Yard, weapons factories in Tula, a shipyard in Dedinovo. The policy of Peter I in relation to economic life was characterized by a high degree of use 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 needs of the state for raw materials for 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, sheep breeding was also encouraged.

In the Petrine era, the country was sharply divided into two zones of feudal economy - the lean North, where the feudal lords transferred their peasants to 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 corvee.

The state duties of the peasants also increased. They built cities (40 thousand peasants worked on the construction of St. Petersburg), manufactories, bridges, roads; annual recruiting was carried out, old fees were increased and new ones were introduced. The main goal of Peter's policy all the time was to obtain the largest possible financial and human resources for state needs.

Two censuses were carried out - in 1710 and 1718. According to the 1718 census, the "soul" of the male sex became the unit of taxation, regardless of age, from which the poll 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 state 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, at least 200 new manufactories were founded, he encouraged their creation in every possible way. The policy of the state was also aimed at protecting the young Russian industry from competition from Western Europe by introducing very high customs duties (Customs Charter of 1724)

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

State state-owned factories used the labor of state peasants, bonded peasants, recruits and free hired craftsmen. They mainly served heavy industry - metallurgy, shipyards, mines. The merchant manufactories, which produced mainly consumer goods, employed both sessional and quitrent peasants, as well as civilian labor. Landlord enterprises were fully provided by the forces of the serfs of the landowner.

Peter's protectionist policy led to the emergence of manufactories in various 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, favorable conditions were created for people who created new manufactories or rented state ones.

There are manufactories in many industries - glass, gunpowder, paper, canvas, linen, silk weaving, cloth, leather, rope, hat, colorful, sawmill and many others. A huge contribution to the development of the metallurgical industry of the Urals was made by Nikita Demidov, who enjoyed the special favor of the king. 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 areas and brought Russia to one of the first places in the world in this industry.

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

Thousands of Russians were trained in Europe in various specialties, and, in turn, foreigners - weapons engineers, metallurgists, locksmiths were hired into 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 extremely short period of time, capable of fully meeting military and state needs and not dependent on imports in anything.


7. Reforms in the field of culture and life


Important changes in the life of the country strongly demanded 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 to replace the church textbooks.

In 1708, Peter I introduced a new civil script, which replaced the old Cyrillic semi-character. 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 printing was accompanied by the beginning of an organized book trade, as well as the creation and development of a network of libraries. In 1703, the first issue of the Vedomosti newspaper, the first Russian newspaper, was published in Moscow.

The most important stage in the implementation of the reforms was the visit of Peter as part of the Great Embassy of a number of European countries. Upon his return, Peter sent many young nobles to Europe to study various specialties, mainly to master the marine sciences. The tsar also took care of 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 Scotsman Forvarson, professor at the University of Aberdeen. One of the teachers of this school was Leonty Magnitsky - the author of "Arithmetic ...". In 1711 an engineering school appeared in Moscow.

The logical outcome of all the activities in the field of the development of science and education was the foundation in 1724 of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Peter sought to overcome as soon as possible the disunity between Russia and Europe that had arisen since the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. One of its manifestations was a different chronology, and in 1700 Peter transferred Russia to a new calendar - the year 7208 becomes 1700, and the celebration of the New Year is transferred 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 was reflected 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 collecting collections of historical and memorial objects and rarities, weapons, materials on the natural sciences, etc. At the same time, they began to collect ancient written sources, make copies of chronicles, letters, decrees and other acts. This was the beginning of the museum business in Russia.

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

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

From 1718, Peter established assemblies with the obligatory presence of women, which reflected a serious change in their position in society. The establishment of the assemblies marked the beginning of the establishment among the Russian nobility of "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 reforms instilled disgust for them and led to a sharp rejection of the rest, even the most progressive ones, undertakings. Peter aspired 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 significance. But they even more emphasized the allocation of the nobility to a privileged estate, turned the use of the benefits and achievements of culture into one of the noble class privileges, and was accompanied by the widespread gallomania, contemptuous attitude towards the Russian language and Russian culture among the nobility.


Conclusion


The main result of the totality of Peter's reforms was the establishment of an absolutist regime in Russia, the crowning achievement of which was the change in 1721 of the title of the Russian monarch - Peter declared himself emperor, and the country began to be called the Russian Empire. Thus, what Peter was going for all the years of his reign was formalized - the creation of a state with a coherent system of government, a strong army and navy, a powerful economy that had an impact on 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 state structure - a warship, where everything and everything is subject to the will of one person - the captain, and managed to bring 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, Russia's backwardness was not completely overcome, and the reforms were carried out mainly through the most severe exploitation and coercion.

The complexity and inconsistency of Russia's development during this period also determined the inconsistency of Peter's activities and the reforms he carried out. On the one hand, they had great historical significance, since they contributed to the progress of the country and were aimed at eliminating its backwardness. On the other hand, they were carried out by the feudal lords, using feudal methods, and were aimed at strengthening their dominance. Therefore, the progressive transformations of the time of Peter the Great from the very beginning carried conservative features, which, in the course of the further development of the country, became stronger and could not ensure the elimination of socio-economic backwardness. As a result of Peter the Great's transformations, Russia quickly caught up with those European countries where the dominance of feudal-serf relations was preserved, but it 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 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 one relates to the methods and style of carrying out 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 Let us bury God with us. Without fear, we proclaim about our father in order that we learned noble fearlessness and truth from him.


Bibliography


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

2. Anisimov E.V., Kamensky A.B. Russia in the 18th - the 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 XVIII century. / Ed. B.A. Rybakova. - M.: Higher school, 1983.

6. Malkov V.V. A manual on the history of the USSR for applicants to universities. - M.: Higher school, 1985.

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

8. Soloviev S.M. On the history of the new Russia. - M.: Enlightenment, 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 STATE SERVICE

AND DEPARTMENT UNDER THE HEAD OF THE KOMI REPUBLIC

Faculty of State and Municipal Administration

Department of Public Administration and Public Service


Test

REFORMS OF PETER I.
RUSSIA IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 18TH 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 government reform 8

3.2. Local government reform 11

3.3. City government reform 13

3.4. Results of public administration reform 14


4. Reform of the estate structure 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 life 22


Conclusion 24


References 26