Westernization In Russia

Inbetween the years 1450-1750 CE, Western Europe and Russia have gone through several political and economic changes, though they have existed in different districts of Europe. Both Western European and Russian cultural patterns have been influenced by their enlightenment periods, bringing an era of revolution and economic/ intellectual advancement. However, though they shared this in common, Western Europe went through the Renaissance, a time of new styles and inventions in secular arts and sciences that challenged popular religion, while Russian was becoming a major European power through Westernization forces brought on by tsars, like Peter the Great. Many of Western Europe’s innovations in finance and government started developing during

Initially, Russia’s tsar, Ivan the Great, had seen Russia’s low literacy level and poor economic system dependent on peasant labor and began the revival of his mother country through expansion and reform. Unlike Western empires, Russia’s expansion had limited commercial expansion, though it did establish territorial and trading policies in central Asia. This expansion was caused by the movement of Russian peasants and landlords, adding new diversities to the country, making it a multicultural empire, like the Ottoman Empire. This expansion period reached a dramatic change with Russian Westernization led by one its chief reformist tsars, Peter the Great. Inspired by his travels, Peter the Great brought back many inventions of Western science and technology to shift Russia westward and created his capital, St. Petersburg. Russia’s enlightenment period consisted of changes of a more defined military hierarchy, building up metallurgical and mining industries, and reformation of its economy while continuing to use serf labor. One paradigm of Westernization was seen in Peter the Great’s order for all men of nobility to cut their beards off, symbolizing the shaving of “old Russia” and growing into a time of advanced education and new cultural styles, reflecting the Renaissance. Furthermore, Peter’s ministers created law codes extending throughout Russia and revising the tax system, imposing larger taxes on Russian