Absolute Monarchy in Russia

1
Absolute Monarchy in Russia

• Ch. 17 sec. 5

2

• (1600s) Russia is still a medieval state
  untouched by the Renaissance and isolated from
  Western Europe.
• Romanov family rules.
• Czar Peter the Great took throne at age 10,
  eventually stood 7 feet tall, and was very
  curious about the west.
• Peter goes to study western technology in Europe
  and wants to modernize Russia.
• He returns to Russia with many ideas, however,
  its difficult to convince fellow Russians to
  reform.

3

• Peter centralized royal power and brought all
  Russians under his control, including the Russian
  Orthodox Church (Christian).
• He also spread serfdom (slavery).

4
Reforms

• Improved education, waterways, canals, math,
  science, engineering.
• Paid for reforms by encouraging exports.
• Insisted noblemen shave their beards so as to
  imitate western Europe.
• Imposed tax on beards. If you paid the tax, you
  held a coin for proof and didnt have to shave.
• Sought to end practice of secluding women so held
  grand parties to encourage upper-class men and
  women to dance.

5

• No mercy for anyone that resisted reforms.
• Had 1,000 palace guards tortured and executed for
  resisting.
• He left their rotting corpses outside the palace
  for months.
• Peter looks to extend Russian borders by
  utilizing the largest army in Europe.
• Russia goes to war with Sweden, wins, gets land
  on the Baltic Sea.
• Wanted a warm-water port though, so he looks to
  the south.

6

• Russians fight the Ottoman Turks for coast of
  Black Sea, lose.
• Peter begins new capital city of St. Petersburg
  to create a window on the West.
• City was built on swamps, so he had serfs drain
  the swamps. Thousands died.
• Invited Italian architects and artisans to design
  great palaces.
• Russian traders and raiders blazed trails across
  Siberia toward Pacific Ocean.
• Peter hires Vitus Bering to explore area between
  Siberia and Alaska (Bering Strait).

7

• Peter dies and Russia decentralizes and noble
  landlords reassert their independence.
• Czar Peter III rules later and has wife named
  Catherine.
• Her mentally unstable husband is murdered by army
  officers.
• She may have been involved in the plot.
• She ascends to be Czarina Catherine the Great.
• Embraced western ideas.
• Centralized Russia once again.
• Exempted nobles from taxes and put down peasant
  revolts.

8

• She mollywhops the Turks, achieves Russian dream
  of a warm-water port on Black Sea.
• Poland is unable to centralize their power and is
  ill-prepared to stand up to Catherine.
• Poland gets partitioned to Russia, Austria, and
  Prussia.
• Not until 1918 would a free Polish state reappear.