بطرس الأكبر .. كتاب المائة الأوائل

Peter the Great

PETER THE GREAT

1672 - 1725

Peter the Great is the greatest and most prominent czar to rule Russia. His policy, which led the Russian people and state to follow Western characteristics and culture, was a major factor in transforming Russia into a great power.

Peter was born in 1672 in Moscow and was the only son of Tsar Alexis and his second wife. Peter was barely four years old when his father died, and since his father had thirteen children from his first wife, it was not surprising that long-term sharp conflicts arose over the throne. On one occasion, Peter was forced to save his life, and then his father seized the throne as a regent. Peter could not reasonably secure his position as Caesar until after his sister was deposed from her position.

Russia at that time was a late state dragging the tails of backwardness behind Western Europe for centuries in almost all aspects of life, and cities were fewer in Russia than they are in Western countries, and slavery was prevalent, and the number of land slaves was increasing with the lack of their legal rights. The clergy were ignorant and literature was almost non-existent. As for mathematics and science, the people were ignorant of it. She was looked at with contempt. In contrast to Europe, where Newton had written his book on the laws of gravitation, and where philosophy and literature flourished, while Russia was immersed in the slumber of the Middle Ages.

In the year 1697-1698, Peter undertook a long-term trip to Western Europe, a trip that guided his policy in the coming years of his rule. He took with him about 250 people in his (venerable embassy) as he used to call it, and he used a pseudonym in Europe. Peter was able to see several things that he would not have seen if he had not changed his name.

During that trip, Boutros worked as a carpenter with the Dutch East India Company. He also worked in the British Royal Shipyards and studied artillery in Prussia. He visited factories, schools, museums, shipyards and even attended a session of the House of Commons in Britain. In short, he learned everything he could about Western culture, science, industry, and management technique.

In 1698, Peter returned to Russia, and there he embarked on a series of broad reforms to make Russia a modern and western country. He brought Western experts to Russia, sent several youth missions to study in the West, encouraged industry and trade, so cities grew and the bourgeois class increased in number and importance.

Peter built the first Russian fleet and organized the army according to Western methods. The teams were equipped with uniform clothes, cannons and modern firearms. He used Western methods and methods in military training. Then he made major reforms in the administrative system on the basis of promoting employees for their competence instead of their inherited ranks and positions.

As for social issues, he encouraged Western ways of life and issued a decree to shave long beards (although he amended that decree after that) and judges, he ordered them to wear Western clothes and to refrain from smoking and drinking coffee, although many of his proposals faced a wave of objections. However, the result was a victory for him, as a large amount of the aristocracy embraced his ideas and acquired Western customs and culture little by little.

Peter considered the Orthodox Church in Russia to be late and ineffective. He succeeded little in reorganizing the Church and somewhat in gaining control over it. He established secular schools in Russia and improved and developed education. He introduced the Julian calendar and developed the Russian alphabet, and the first newspaper appeared in Russia during his rule.

In addition to all these actions, Boutros began to adopt a foreign policy that had important results in the future. Russia has been implicated in wars with Türkiye in the south and Sweden in the north. And he seized the head of (Azov) from Turkey in 1696, and thus Russia was able to move towards the Black Sea, but at the end of his rule he was forced to return the head of (Azov) to Turkey.