How Did Peter The Great Influence The Russian Orthodox Church

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Under Peter the Great, the Russian Orthodox Church was impacted in a variety of ways, ranging from general bureaucratization and administrative changes to a divorce of the language of the church from the Russian language at large. As part of Peter’s strive toward Europeanization, he came to view the current state of the Russian Orthodox Church, like much else in Russia, as “backwards” and behind the west, and in this case like in many others, he sought to “fix” that. Administratively, the church was bureaucratized. Most obviously, the official head of the Russian Orthodox Church was no longer a high ranking member of the clergy, but rather the Most Holy Governing Synod, effectively subservient to the monarchy. This squarely placed the church …show more content…

This increase in relations and trade quickly westernized the Russian diplomatic corps as by the end of Peter’s reign they were on par with any diplomat from western or central Europe. This also helped further along the Europeanization of the nobility as they caught on to trends brought back by Peter and his diplomats, driving them ever closer to Europe. With the strengthening of economic ties, with more Russians being part of trade with other cultures, more European ideas and concepts would catch on, again bringing Russia closer to the …show more content…

Petersburg is a great achievement for Peter the Great, but also a failure at the same time. The achievements of St. Petersburg include its creation of a (semi) warm water Baltic port for the Russians, being an avenue for Peter to strengthen his own power and that of the monarchy’s by forcing the nobility to come to him, in a place away from the political intrigue of Moscow, and as a beacon of sorts to the Europe and the west that Russia was clearly open and ready to be a part of Europe. The failure of St. Petersburg is most glaringly the human toll it took to construct it, and the fact that it is still frozen over for months at time. St. Petersburg is not in the slightest idea, the ideal place to build a port from scratch, seeing that it is on swampy land and is completely frozen during the winter. For Peter, it was also not in Russian hands when he decided he wanted to build his new city there, so St. Petersburg already sounds like a terrible idea. However, it was a port, and a functioning on for most of the year, something that Peter greatly desired to increase Russian influence, and St. Petersburg did achieve this goal, giving Russia its 1st real