Peter The Great's Reforms

Peter the Great

Peter the Great was an iconic individual in Russian history and even in world history. He made many strides for Russia to become more of a westernized nation. World Civilization II: The Rise and Fall of Empires© 1500- present stated, "From his father, Peter learned of Russia’s need for modernization, so in the early 18th century, Peter embarked on an extended journey throughout Europe where he learned how to build ships, observed modern military techniques, and recruited Western craftsmen and artists to come back to Russia with him" (Sattler, 60). He was very determined to make Russia modernized to say the least. In his reign, he held many reforms to push Russia to become more westernized (Sattler, 60-61). Two in particular are from the reading passage, Peter the Great's Reforms.

In the passage there are two reforms that the tsar had passed. One revolved around a new modernized calendar for Russia. Peter the Great's Reforms stated, "Great Sovereign knows that many European Christian countries as well as Slavic peoples are in complete accord with our Eastern Orthodox Church . . . —all these peoples number their years from eight days after the birth of Christ, this is from January 1, and not from the creation of the world. There is a great difference in those two cal- endars. This year is

Although these were successes, he may have not taken the correct way of placing them. In my opinion, he seemed very demanding and inconsiderate with his reforms. People may have disagreed with reforms and a revolt or uprising was a possibility for Russia. There were cases of uprisings as well. Sattler stated, "Revolts were dealt with swiftly and with great cruelty, and when Peter demanded reforms nothing was allowed to stand in his way." This is not the correct way to handle a revolt, but Peter sought it appropriate and it got him what he