Short Summary: Tsar Peter The Great

Peter the Great
Leaders do what is necessary in order to create a stable and secure country, shaping the country however they please. Tsar Peter the Great was a secular reforming czar that sought to rid xenophobia, and westernize Russia in order to be more modern. To begin with, Peter the Great went through times of mental suffering in order to have such mindset of Russian reform. He broke away from his half-sister Sophia because she forced Peter to watch one of his family members to suffer and die. Peter was supposed to reign, but he had to co-reign with his half-siblings, so he ran off and built a wooden fortress by hand, by himself. He was a strong, tall man for his age because he measured up to six feet, seven inches. He had great strength
so he was capable of ruling on his own. When the fortress was completed, he recruited a boy army in order to strengthen his rule, as militarism was important in successful kingdoms because an army was needed to protect the kingdom. This was only the beginning for Peter’s reform for Russia.
Peter the Great had great strength that he learned a vital skill that was detrimental to his success. He learned ship building. This allowed him to build ships for travel over the Baltic Sea where he could trade with other empires and create alliances. Ships required a port, so Peter built a port for his ships. This port later became known as St. Petersburg of Russia. He travelled to numerous western European countries because he wanted to learn more about western culture since he was highly fascinated by these Western Europe ideas. He wanted to modernize and strengthen Russia by bringing these ideas and influences to his country. He was fascinated by weapons and foreign technology; these things, like the weapons, would help his growing army and western technology would assist in strengthening Russia so it can be a world power. Also, when Peter was travelling around to educate himself with western culture, he noticed that the Dutch and the English were growing powers, so he figured that an alliance with them would help Russia grow in power as well. This alliance would be very beneficial for Peter and it would help strengthen Russia. Another one of his reforms involved territorial expansion for Russia and this involved dominating other countries.
Sweden had control of the Baltic Sea, so Peter decided to ally with Denmark and Poland in order to take out Charles XII of Sweden because they wanted access to the Baltic Sea. Peter built St. Petersburg for war and made fortresses to prepare for the war with Sweden. Despite the combined forces’ power, Charles XII’s army was too well-trained that it defeated Denmark and Russia. Due to Peter’s defeat, he put Russia through many reforms that changed Russia’s society, thus strengthening it. He forced all nobles to serve in the army for life. This was surprising because the nobles were the ones that always sat back and watched because they were often exempt from taxes. The peasants were the ones that typically did all of the work. Peter created schools and universities in order to have a more modern army and government. He created the first hospital, first school, and first navigation school. All of these institutions helped strengthen Russia because people became educated and it produced military experts and technicians, which were required for war. One of his reforms involved mandatory education for young nobles. Peter also created a system for the military which allowed non-nobles to reach top ranks because he forced everyone to start from the bottom. This reformed Russia because often nobles got all the perks and the top ranks of everything, whereas the lower class didn’t stand a chance against the nobles, but now Peter changed the policy so the lower class have a chance. Peter the Great had an army consisting of over hundred thousands of people. Funding was required in order to maintain such large army, so he increased taxes on peasants by three times the original tax amount. This is no surprise considering that peasants have always been the ones to pay taxes. He also support serfdom since he got serfs to work in his institutions for supplies for the army. Eventually, Russia took control of the Baltic through all of Peter’s reforms. Continuing onto Peter’s desire for westernization for Russia, he modernized St. Petersburg with wide, straight avenues, uniform line buildings, and large parks. He also imposed a beard tax on his people because the Western Europeans shaved and he forced them to wear Western clothing. All of these westernization reforms created a new social class for the Russians. Despite the negative consequences that came with the changes, like an increasing gap between peasants and nobles, it placed Russia in a path to Enlightenment. Peter the Great was a strong Russian czar despite the many negative consequences of his secular reforms. He was able to strengthen Russia by westernizing the country with Western European culture and he got rid of xenophobia by becoming allies with other countries. With this, Russia became a powerful country among the rest. Leaders put their country through reforms in order to strengthen the country and its people.