peter I legacy

peter succesion issue

Peter I dies 28 January 1725, his inheritance law of 1722 puts succession to Russian throne at the discretion of reigning monarch. He failed to nominate a successor.

• Leaves problems of succession and favouritism regarding who runs Russia.

farrow 1996 law of single inheritance

Published 23 March 1714 by Peter the Great.

• Established new rules for transmission of family lands and property.

• Sought to ensure conservation of noble estates and protection of peasantry's taxpaying ability.

• Nobility did not believe the law would benefit them, saw as a threat to their vital interests.

• In 1731 Empress Anna Ioannovna repealed the legislation.

law of single inheritance terms

• Abolished the centuries-old distinction between service and hereditary land, merging them into a single category of immovable property.

• Mandated that an entire estate pass to only one son (or daughter, if no sons existed) to keep family wealth intact.

• Particularly intrusive because Peter "went into the nobleman's home" to dictate how he should provide for his children, which many nobles viewed as immoral.

• Anticipated circumvention and noncompliance. 2 articles were designed to discourage the illegal transfer of land.

law of single inheritance impact on women

• Tackled inheritance rights of noble women. Eg an unmarried woman acquired the right to choose where she wanted to live after the death of her parents.

• Also resurrected a principle of women's property rights that had existed in medieval law - gave a childless widow all of her husband's immovable property for her use until she died, remarried or took religious vows, at which time the land returned to her husband's clan.

opposition to peter succession law

Dictated to the nobleman how he was to provide for his family and bequeath his ancestral lands.

• Considered by nobles an infringement on their ability to provide for family members and protect their families' political and social interests.

• Law seen as unjust and immoral.

peter motivations for succession law

• Peter argued partible inheritance was a harmful practice because it was harmful to the state treasury.

• Second reason was to stem the decline of the noble families. Continued division of noble estates would result in poverty for nobles.

• Third reason was to transform the nobility's attitude toward state service and work itself.

analysis of peter succesion law

Did not achieve its primary goals.

• It failed to create a new pattern of inheritance concentrated on one child, and instead succeeded only in angering the nobility and forcing its members to find creative methods of circumventing the law.

• Failed to create a pool of young nobles compelled to enter trade or other professions, for although these children were removed from the business of landholding, they were still required to serve the state.

summary of petrine legacy

• Consolidating the elite - cultural trends never reversed among the elites.

• Devotion to duty.

• Concern for common good.

• Determination to maintain and expand the empire.

• Paternalism over the people.

• Saw economic crises of early 1720s - reduced salaries, 1724 poll tax collected for first time which saw protests.

Chancellor Golovkin speech in 1721 on peter

personally responsible for bringing his realm “from the darkness of Ignorance into the Theater of the World, so to speak from nothingness into being, into the company of political peoples.”

peter I successes in war - was russia a great power

1726: Austro-Russian alliance (basis of Russian foreign policy until 1764)
1733-5: War of the Polish Succession
1735-9: Russo-Turkish War (Peace of Belgrade Sept. 1739) [France under Cardinal Fleury]
1741-3: Russo-Swedish War
1742-8: War of Austrian Succession
1756-62(3): Seven Years’ War
1756: Frederick the Great defeated the French at Rossbach
1757: Russia defeated the Prussians at Gross-Jägersdorf
1759: Russia defeated Prussia at Kunersdorf

summary of rulers 1725-62

1725-7 Catherine I [Peter I’s widow]
1727-30 Peter II [Peter I’s grandson]
1730-40 Anna Ioannovna [Peter I’s niece]
1740-1 Ivan VI (a baby; Anna Leopoldovna as regent)
1741-61 Elizabeth (Elizaveta Petrovna)[Peter I’s daughter]
25 Dec. 1761- 28 June 1762 Peter III [Elizabeth’s nephew]

view of 1725-62 ruler period

• Traditional view: period of stagnation, palace revolutions (Peter’s Law on succession opened up doors for faction struggle).

• More positive view: time of consolidation, strengthening Russia’s position as a European power, building on Peter’s innovations in the arts, science, and education.

potential for disorder after 1725

• High political discontinuity

• Unexpected death of the tsar

• Dynastic instability

• Female rule and favouritism

• Weakened international position

• Recent and incomplete reform

• Domestic opposition to reform

potential for stability after 1725

• Underlying continuities, economic development, cultural westernisation

• Nobles reject oligarchy in favour of absolutism

• Nobility could have been bought off

• Petrine legacy as model for success

politics of female rule

• Empresses – no husband consorts, three were widows, one unmarried.

• Needed escorts, preferably men, who would not compete for political power.

• Peter I took women out of seclusion, created female court, crowned Catherine as consort (1724) – was it an indication of Peter’s possible wishes?

• Most of the nobility supported the rhetoric of a feminine scenario of power (none of the empresses were deposed, all died of natural causes).

• The female rule established Guards as political factor.

was the nobility bought off?

coronations, accession days: promotions; rewards; ‘forgiveness’ of tax debts
1731: Repeal of law of single inheritance [entail] (23 March 1714)
1754: Noble monopoly on alcohol production
1762: 18 Feb: Edict freeing nobility from obligatory state service (Table of Ranks, 1722)

did the nobility buy into the regime?

Privatization 1714-1730s
: 86% of private ironworks survive 1725-mid-1740s
: 72% of textile manufactories
Anglo-Russian Trade Treaties: 1734, 1766 (importance of ‘naval stores’)

Palace building: imitating the Court in the 1750s
Imperial palaces: Peterhof; Tsarskoe Selo; Winter Palace (1754-62)
Noble palaces: Vorontsov, Shuvalov, Stroganov [cf Grand Duke Peter at Oranienbaum]

State-sponsored cultural institutions
1725: St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (opens after Peter I’s death)
1755: University of Moscow
1757: Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (St Petersburg)

bushkovitch 2012 anna’s reign

• For Russian nobility was a dark period of rule by her German favourites.

• Story of German domination in Anna's court is largely a legend.

• She entrusted foreign policy to Count Andrei Ostermann and the army to Count Burkhard Christian Munnich, but were in no sense a clique. They actually hated each other and allied with numerous Russian grandees.

bushkovitch 2012 anna reign innovations

• Anna restored much of Peter's work which had been rejected by the oligarchy in the time of Peter II.

• One of the most important innovators - Russia finally abandoned the simplicity of Peter’s time and acquired a court like those of other European states with the usual cultural institutions.

bushkovitch 2012 elizabeths reign

• Brought a renewed sense of normalcy to Russia.

• The remaining Golitsyns, Dolgorukiis, and alleged confederates of Volynskii were returned from exile, their lands and position restored.

• The Senate was restored to the position that it had under Peter.

• The Russian army defeated the Swedes, quickly ending the war in 1743.

• Elizabeth continued in Anna's cultural direction.

• Time of Elizabeth was high point of the domination of the Orthodox Church by Ukrainian bishops, who were trained in Kiev and elsewhere on Western and Catholic models.