Peter the Great's Reformation - Essay Example

Peter the Great's Reformation Peter the Great might as well been d Peter the Ambitious. He had a vision of Russia that he desperately wanted tocome true, and through his ambitious and persistent nature, he forced magnificent changes to the state which were beneficial to some, and detrimental others. Peter instituted state wide reformation from military ranks to beard taxation, all of which helped Westernize Russia. These westernizing reformations forced Russia modernize, and adoption of European culture whether the people liked it or not.

Peter the Great's most significant changes to the state were the improvements to the Russian military and also the expansion of the Russian industry. Throughout his reign, Peter the Great's ambitious westernizing reformation of the Russian military and industry transformed Russian into a strong and well respected European power at the expense of the countries laboring serfs. After the crushing defeat against the Swedish at the Battle of Narva, Peter the Great realized he had to reform the Russian military they wanted to stand a chance against the European powers.

Although Peter's army was very large the soldiers were in sufficiently trained and inadequately equipped (Hosking). Peters officers and soldiers were not accustomed to fighting the European style battles involving open field. Peter knew that if he wanted match the European powers he needed to teach his officers western military tactics, modernize the weaponry for the soldiers, and raise funds to apply these changes. Peter also adopted European style uniforms for his army to express formality and contention to the Western powers.

With this large, formal, advanced, and educated army, Russia could safely protect its newly acquired lands, contest European powers such as Sweden. For massive military modernization to occur, industry had to be modernize as well. Peter used his power to grow the Russian industry by developing new branches of production such as ship building, weapon manufacturing, and uniform production. He grew the industry about tenfold which ultimately started a new era of industrialization and economic development in Russia.

However, there is more to the story. All of these branches of production required labor, so Peter implemented "A degree on the Right of Factories to Buy Villages," which allowed factory owners to simply purchase entire villages, and force people to work at their nearby factories, and carry out the unskilled labor(Dmytryshyn, 18). Peter also gave factory owners the right to use corporal punishment on their serfs which lead to the abuse of many laborers. Peter the Great himself used forced laborer to build St.

Petersburg, which resulted in over 30,000 deaths among the serfs(Kelly, 24). This industrial expansion of Russia under Peter the Great was indeed effective in its production, but detrimental to the serfs. When looking back at Peter the Great, he really did accomplish many feats during his reign. His western reformations advanced the military and grew industry like never before, allowing Russia to become a strong and well respected European power. On the other hand, Peter the Great had the state's power and image as his top priority, and the value of human lives at the lowest.

From a modern stand point, Peter the Great would have been a pretty rotten guy. He essentially enslaved his people, and worked them to death for the modernization of the state and a little bit for his own greed. However, when comparing Peter to the rest of the leaders of his era, he really wasn't that much different. In the 1700's life was cheap. Serfs were seen as state property more so than actual people for most leader at the time, including Peter the Great. I believe that Peter's westernizing reforms of the military and industry were necessary for Russia's advancement as a state.

Because of the era Peter was born in, it is safe to say that you cannot blame Peter the Great entirely for the mistreatment of the serf and laborers at the time. Work Cited Dmytryshyn, Basil. Imperial Russia; a Source Book, 1700-1917. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press, 1974 Hosking, Geoffrey A. Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Laurence Kelly. St. Petersburg: A Travellers’ Companion. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1983 .