Reforms of Peter I of Russia

The government reforms of Peter I were aimed at modernizing the Tsardom of Russia (later the Russian Empire) based on Western and Central European models.

Peter ascended to the throne in 1682; he ruled jointly with his half-brother Ivan V. After Ivan's death in 1696, Peter started his series of sweeping reforms. At first, these reforms were intended to support the Great Northern War; later, more systematic reforms significantly changed the internal construction and administration of the state.

During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), which dominated most of Peter's reign, Russia, along with a host of allies, seized control of the Baltic Sea from Sweden and gained considerable influence in Central and Eastern Europe. The war, one of history's costliest at the time, consumed significant financial and economic resources, and the administrative system Peter had inherited from his predecessors strained to gather and manage resources. During his Grand Embassy (Russian: Великое посольство, Velikoye posol′stvo), Peter conducted negotiations with a number of European powers to strengthen his position against Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, and his exposure to the more developed nations of Western Europe motivated him to take steps toward turning Russia into an industrial economy. Despite Russia's vast size and considerable natural resources, a number of factors, including corruption and inefficiency, hampered economic growth. Peter believed that targeted reform could not only strengthen his hold on power, but increase the efficiency of the government, and thus better the lot of his people.

Another major goal of Peter's reform was reducing the influence of the Boyars, Russia's elite nobility, who stressed Slavic supremacy and opposed European influence. While their clout had declined since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Boyar Duma, an advisory council to the tsar, still wielded considerable political power. Peter saw them as backward, standing in the way of Europeanization and reform. He specifically targeted the boyars with numerous taxes and obligatory services, including a tax on beards.

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