What was westernization of russia

Thus, the state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return, the tsars allowed the boyars to complete the process of enserfing the peasants.

With the state now fully sanctioning serfdom, peasant rebellions were endemic. This changed when Feodor died in As he did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family Maria Miloslavskaya was the first wife of Alexis I and the Naryshkin family over who should inherit the throne.

Consequently, the Boyar Duma a council of Russian nobles chose year-old Peter to become tsar, with his mother as regent. Sophia acted as regent during the minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. Although he was named a co-tsar in , at the age of ten, he did not become an independent and sole ruler until While Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name, his mother sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach.

She arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in , but the marriage was a failure. Ten years later Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union. By the summer of , Peter planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns. After a power struggle, in which the Streltsy was forced to shift its loyalty, Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars.

Yet Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power was instead exercised by his mother, Natalya Naryshkina. Peter implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia.

Heavily influenced by his advisers from Western Europe, he reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He also implemented social modernization in an absolute manner by introducing French and western dress to his court and requiring courtiers, state officials, and the military to shave their beards and adopt modern clothing styles. One means of achieving this end was the introduction of taxes for long beards and robes in September The move provoked opposition from the boyars.

To do so, he would have to expel the Tatars from the surrounding areas, but the initial attempts ended in failure.

However, after the initiative to build a large navy, he officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog Sea of Azov. Peter knew that Russia could not face the Ottoman Empire alone.

In he traveled incognito to Europe on an eighteen-month journey with a large Russian delegatio—the so-called Grand Embassy—to seek the aid of the European monarchs. The mission failed, as Europe was at the time preoccupied with the question of the Spanish succession. The rebellion was easily crushed, but Peter acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers. Over 1, of the rebels were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators.

The Streltsy were disbanded. Although the Grand Embassy failed to complete its political mission of creating an anti-Ottoman alliance, Peter continued the European trip, learning about life in Western Europe. While visiting the Netherlands, he studied shipbuilding and visited with families of art and coin collectors.

From Dutch experts, craftsmen, and artists, Peter learned how to draw teeth, catch butterflies, and paint seascapes. In England, he also engaged in painting and navy-related activities, as well as visited Manchester in order to learn the techniques of city building that he would later use to great effect at Saint Petersburg. Furthermore, in Peter sent a delegation to Malta to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet.

Unlike most of his predecessors and successors, he attempted to follow Western European traditions, fashions, and tastes. He also sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other.

A statue of Peter I working incognito at a Dutch wharf, St. Peter the Great learned the shipbuilding craft in Holland in It was one of many skills that he acquired during his Western European trip. In order to modernize a socially and economically lagging Russia, Peter the Great introduced sweeping social, administrative, and economic reforms that westernized Russia to a certain extent, yet did not alter deeply feudal divisions in the increasingly authoritarian state.

By the time Peter the Great became tsar, Russia was the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast majority of the land was unoccupied, travel was slow, and the majority of the population of 14 million depended on farming. While only a small percentage lived in towns, Russian agriculture, with its short growing season, was ineffective and lagged behind that of Western Europe.

The class of kholops, or feudally dependent persons similar to serfs, but whose status was closest to slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until , when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs in Russia also remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.

Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. His visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He also commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing great upset among boyars , or the feudal elites. Those who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles.

Peter also introduced critical social reform. He sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, seeing the practice as barbaric and leading to domestic violence. In , he changed the date of the celebration of the new year from September 1 to January 1.

Thus, in the year of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was While their clout had declined since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Boyar Duma, an advisory council to the tsar, still wielded considerable political power.

Peter saw them as backwards and as obstacles standing in the way of Europeanization and reform. He specifically targeted boyars with numerous taxes and obligatory services. The state was divided into uyezds, which mostly consisted of cities and their immediate surrounding areas. In , Peter abolished these old national subdivisions and established in their place eight governorates. In , a new state body was established: the Governing Senate. All its members were appointed by the tsar from among his own associates, and it originally consisted of ten people.

All appointments and resignations of senators occurred by personal imperial decrees. The senate did not interrupt the activity and was the permanent operating state body. The new provinces were modeled on the Swedish system, in which larger, more politically important areas received more political autonomy, while smaller, more rural areas were controlled more directly by the state. Previously, high-ranking state positions were hereditary, but with the establishment of the Table of Ranks, anyone, including a commoner, could work their way up the bureaucratic hierarchy with sufficient hard work and skill.

Intersystemically, translation also was instrumental for the system's projecting information about itself into the environment. Finally, translation played a crucial global-systemic role. Europe integrated into a global functional super-system Luhmann where law, economy, science, and art formed international functional subsystems, no longer divided by national frontiers.

Translation was a sine qua non enabling Russia to become part of this global system. PDF Full Record Statistics. The role of translation in the westernization of Russia in the eighteenth century. Feudally dependent persons in Russia between the 10th and early 18th centuries. Their legal status was close to that of serfs but in reality closest to that of slaves. A formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia.

Peter the Great introduced the system in while engaged in a struggle with the existing hereditary nobility, or boyars. It was formally abolished in by the newly established Bolshevik government. By the time Peter the Great became tsar, Russia was the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast majority of the land was unoccupied, travel was slow, and the majority of the population of 14 million depended on farming. While only a small percentage lived in towns, Russian agriculture, with its short growing season, was ineffective and lagged behind that of Western Europe.

The class of kholops, or feudally dependent persons similar to serfs, but whose status was closest to slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until , when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs in Russia also remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.

Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. His visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions.

Heavily influenced by his advisers from Western Europe, he reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He also commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing great upset among boyars , or the feudal elites. Those who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles. Peter also introduced critical social reform. He sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, seeing the practice as barbaric and leading to domestic violence.

In , he changed the date of the celebration of the new year from September 1 to January 1. Thus, in the year of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was While their clout had declined since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Boyar Duma, an advisory council to the tsar, still wielded considerable political power. Peter saw them as backwards and as obstacles standing in the way of Europeanization and reform.