How Did Peter The Great Influence Russia

Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible Did you know, Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible both became the leaders of
Russia at under the of 16? While Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible strengthened the central government and took power from the nobles, Ivan the Terrible gained loyalty through death threats, whereas Peter the Great gave land to the poor to make them loyal. Peter the Great was born in Moscow, Russia in 1672. Peter took over as ruler in 1682, after Ivan V’s death. When he became ruler at the age of ten, the country was severely underdeveloped compared to other European countries. Russia remained isolated from modernization by rejecting the European renaissance. Peter focused on reestablishing and modernizing Russia as a great nation. He introduced new administrative and territorial
divisions of the country, administered greater control over the reactionary Orthodox Church, secularized schools, reorganized his army according to Western standards, and created a very strong army. Peter established the city of St. Petersburg on the Neva River and moved the capital there from its former location in Moscow.
Peter the Great influenced Russia in three ways, education, architecture, and culture. First of all, he influenced Russia educationally by having many educational buildings built in St. Petersburg. This positively influenced because many people learned to get an education after Peter had established more schools. Secondly, Peter wanted to import the western manners, dress and style.
Because of this, he made it illegal to have a beard. This was a major problem with Russian traditionalists as they claimed it obstructed the image of god. Finally, many famous architectural building were built in Russia because of his love for the arts. This was excellent because the arts were extremely important in the renaissance. With Peter influencing this, many new famous paintings, sculptures and styles were created Bringing wealth to people. Born in 1533 to Vasili III and Elena Glinskaya, Ivan the Terrible grew up in the town of
Muscovy, Russia. Both of his parents died very young. Ivan took power when he was a mere
3 years old. Since he was so young, nobles called boyars wanted to take control. He was the first czar of Russia and officially took over at the age of 16. Gaining access to the Baltic
Sea and Resisting the Mongol Golden Horde were the two main foreign goals that Ivan had focused on. His original efforts were initially successful but they disrupted the economy and culture. His supporters were rewarded by being given seized land. He also, created a police force that existed more to kill traitors rather than to keep the peace. Hundreds of thousands were killed this way, making Ivan a hated and feared leader. After the believed assassination of his wife, Ivan became very depressed and paranoid, he basically went crazy. Ivan had left the town and the Muscovites pleaded for his return. He returned but he was given absolute power. He was also given the authority punish traitors and law breakers with execution and confiscation of property. He continued to rule this way for 24 years until he died in 1584. Ivan the Great positively impacted Russia by massively expanding it and made Russian culture more religious than it had ever been. He also established the empire in Siberia and promoted trade with various European countries, including England, France and Holland. He was noted

for his highly progressive administrative policies. When Ivan the Terrible died, he left the country with deep political and social scars. Russia would not merge from the chaos until the reign of Peter the Great more than a century later. Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible are similar and different in many ways. First of all, the both were born in Russia and they both ruled Russia, Peter for 43 years and Ivan for
37 years. Also, they were both interested in making Russia a stronger country, which they did.
Peter built a strong army and created the Russian navy, while Ivan expanded Russia massively. As for contrasts, there are many. Firstly, Peter the Great traveled to a lot of countries, while Ivan the Great generally stayed in Russia. Secondly, Ivan gained loyalty through death threats and his secret police, whereas Peter gave away seized land to gain more followers and loyalty. Lastly, comes Ivan’s mental instability, Ivan went somewhat insane for the last twenty years of his reign. Although Peter stayed for the most part sane.
Because of this, Peters policies were were more relaxed and reasonable other than Ivan’s harsh and cruel policies. Although Peter the Great gained loyalty through giving away land and Ivan the Great gaining it through threats, both of these absolute monarchs were effective and efficient rulers with similarities and differences.

Bibliography:
1.

Peter the Great. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 05:49, Nov 13, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/peter­the­great­9542228.

2.

Ivan the Terrible. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 05:56, Nov 13, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ivan­the­terrible­9350679.

3.

Randle, Mark G. "Best of Russia ­­­ Royal Family ­­­ Ivan the Terrible." Best of Russia
­­­ Royal Family ­­­ Ivan the Terrible. Tristarmedia, 10 Mar. 2003. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.