Peter The Great: A Example Of Effective Leadership: Peter I The Great

Peter The Great should be granted the title of "Most Absolute Monarch" because he created a strong navy, recognized his army according to Western standards, secularized schools, administrative and territorial divisions of the country. Peter focused on the development of science and recruited several experts to educate his people about technological advancements. He concentrated on developing commerce and industry and created a gentrified bourgeoisie population. Mirroring Western culture, he modernized the Russian alphabet, introduced the Julian calendar, and established the first Russian newspaper. Peter was a far-sighted and skillful diplomat who abolished Russia's archaic form of government and appointed a viable

     Peter the Great had many strengths, but his best was he modernized Russia. By seeing Europe, he changed many things. He changed the calendar so the New Year would be January 1. He increased agriculture by growing new crops and increased the number of factories in Russia. He also started the first Russian newspaper and enlarged their army to 200,000 men. He also got a warm water port for his “window on the sea.”

Prior to Peter taking reign, the Russian society was in a rough condition. The economy was failing and the country's standing army was extremely weak. Russia was also in the midst of a war against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, with a goal to secure a Russian port on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Peter the Great ruled over Russia from 1682-1752.He tried to form warm water ports so they had the ability to trade in the in the winter. He also tried to improve Russia and modernize the culture. As an effect of these things, Peter the Great had an overall positive impact on Russia during his rule.

Russia before Peter the Great was disconnected from Europe and did not have the technology that the rest of the world had. This position was largely caused by the Mongol invasion of Russia around the 14th century. However, before the Mongol rule, the city-states of Kievan Rus predominated the region. This settlement was established when the Vikings began migrating from Scandinavia to the Black Sea, merging with the East Slavic people. Soon after the creation of Kievan Rus, they converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and began trade with the Byzantine Empire. About 250 years later, the Golden Horde began controlling Russia, cutting it off from the rest of the Europe. When the Russians finally broke free from Mongol rule around the 15th

In doing this Peter took part in transforming Russia into a major European

Peter the Great made it his ambition to pursue military growth in Russia. What started out as a defenseless country, ended as an army of 210,000 men. “At his (assumption of the throne) Russia had no armed forces except for the inefficient and untrustworthy Streltsy (hereditary military units).”- Document F. Peter the Great had many accomplishments. His greatest was the army, he formed in Russia. With all the power concentrated in his hands, Peter the Great was able to get things done efficiently and effectively. It took less time because, under the rule of absolutism, no one could question Peter’s work or capabilities. He built a professional army of 210,0000 men, created a navy and fleet of forty-eight ships and smaller vessels. Rather than being an insignificant vulnerable country, Russia was made into a dominant country. The amount of power that Russia had acquired was feared by other countries. Absolutism prevented many rebellions because of a new found fear. Many countries and people were afraid of Russia’s potential to become a dominate country. However, this was beneficial for absolutist leaders because no one would question or rebel against their actions. Many historians argue that Peter the Great’s method of absolutism was an excuse for tyranny. However, his achievements for the country of Russia outweigh the costs of inequality and unshared wealth. If Peter the

Prior to Peter the Great taking reign, the Russian society was in a rough condition. The economy was failing and the country's standing army was extremely weak. Russia was also in the midst of a war against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, with a goal to secure a Russian port on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Peter the Great ruled over Russia from 1682-1752.He tried to form warm water ports so they had the ability to trade in the in the winter seasons. He also tried to improve Russia and modernize the culture. As an effect of these things, Peter the Great had an overall positive impact on Russia during his rule.

Peter’s respect did not translate into friendship with Western Europe. These countries were his competitors, his rivals, and one could say that by modernizing Peter was really trying to beat them at their own game. He fought a long war against Sweden and with victory finally gained possession of ports on the Baltic that opened the way for greater trade with Western Europe.
Meanwhile, Peter continued Russia’s attempts to expand at the Ottoman Empire’s expense. His short war in 1710-11 was a failure, though, and nearly resulted in his own capture. In spite of this loss, it was obvious to Peter and the rest of Europe that the Ottoman Empire was in an irreversible decline. The Ottomans were quite a contrast to Europe: outdated in technology and military methods, politically unstable, and scarcely able to control their far-flung empire.

Before the reign of Peter the Great, the ruler of Russia had no control over the religion of its people, but after Peter the Great created the Holy Synod, the Russian tsar could control the Russian Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod served as a secular, non-religious body which controls the rules and regulations of the Russian Orthodox Church. Moreover, Peter’s creation of the the Holy Synod allowed the Russian ruler to create a religiously uniformed society and to completely control religious matters as well as political issues. In addition, Peter the Great expanded Russia’s territory to the Baltic Sea due to the necessity of a warm water port. During Peter’s reign as tsar during the 1720’s, Russia needed a warm water port in order to successfully trade with other European nations. Peter the Great wanted to make Russia a European power, and in order to do that he needed to conquer a warm water port to increase Russian wealth. For this reason, Peter the Great declared war on Sweden in order to control a port in the Baltic Sea and expand Russia east in the Great Northern War. Also, in order to increase his power over the Russian nobility, Peter the Great created the Table of Ranks to control which aristocrats become nobles. The Table of Ranks system involved aristocrats working in military service and civil service to rise up in the “ranks”

He was simultaneously worshiped and able to gain the nobles cooperation through this. Similarly, in Russia, Ivan III, the first real king of Russia, ended Mongol power and created a new service of nobles which were also dependent on the state. Peter the Great then proceeded to westernize Russia through his absolutist power. He built the city of St. Petersburg, where like Versailles, nobles were required to say. Peter also established a bureaucracy which was military and civilian. Overall, both absolutist rulers in France and Russia had similar political practices, like creating a grandiose environment where nobles had to stay, and developing a governmental system which gave all power to the

Next, Peter the Great reformed Russia by modernizing Russia’s military. Before he came to power, Russia’s army was amatuer and navy nearly nonexistent thanks to the lack of viable coastline. Since Russia lacked the knowledge and skill, he brought in foreign experts and encouraged his own soldiers to learn about shipbuilding in order to develop a strong navy (Doc 11). He established a standing army and abolished the Streltsi, bringing in European professionals to command the units. He acquired territory in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, went to war against the Ottoman Empire in order to access the Black Sea, and later defeated the Swedish army and establish the city of St. Petersburg on the Neva River; this was named Russia’s “window to Europe”.

With increasing military strength, Peter the Great initiated the organization of his new navy. A strong navy, which Russia previously lacked, was essential to the state, due to the absence of warm water ports. While water does surround Russia, it is frozen over for the majority of the year, which made trade relatively impossible at the time. Therefore, capturing other warm water ports was a necessary step to increase Russian power. This necessity led to conflicts with both the Ottoman Empire, and the Swedish, who blocked Russia from the ports they desired. The strong navy that Peter developed, known as the Baltic fleet, had early successes in capturing Ottoman ports such as Azov; however, its main target was the Swedish who controlled Baltic Sea. The Swedish King at the time Charles XII, fought against Peter in the Great Northern War for these ports. In the battle of Poltava, Peter’s well trained fleet successfully crushed the Swedish; and the Russian

Peter older brother took over his father's job when he passed away and Peter was by his side as the age of four ("Peter I." Britannica School). Peter was by his brother side since the age of four because his brother needed someone by his side and wanted to hand over his job to his brother since it was a family trend. Peter lived with his mother in Preobrazhenskoe and Peter was usually fearing for safety ("Peter I." Britannica School). Preobrazhenskoe is a village near Moscow, Russia and usually feared about safety. Peter feared for safety because he all pressure was on him since he was a young tsar and put all of his negative attitude on the Russian guardsmen. Peter also had a sister named Sophia and Sophia was made a regent, which is taking control of the government ("Peter I." Britannica School). Since Sophia was a regent, she could not have public appearance, since she took over the government and the government policy was that you can not have public appearances. Peter the Great was good at a lot of things but Geography was not a hit for him since he wanted to open up trade routes, so that Russia could get their name around and get objects that they needed but it was hard for Peter since know one did not support his idea (“Readings in European History,”). Know one supported Peter's idea because they felt that Russia

Peter the Great was a descendant of the Romanov family who started his co-rule with his brother since he was ten years old. When his brother died in 1896, only then did Peter become the sole tsar of Russia. However, at the time, Russia did not have a developed military, government, or technology as that of the other countries in Europe. At the start of the Peter’s reign as tsar, he had taken part in the conquest against the Ottoman Empire in an effort to gain land in order to secure a Russian port in the coast of the Black Sea. In Compared to Europe, Russia was much less advanced.

The reforms and westernization of Peter the Great made Russia a more modern and stronger power in Europe under his rule and until his death in 1725. Peter was a powerful and forceful leader with a vision. He wanted to westernize Russia and bring the state to a more modern era in order to compete with Europe for goods and services.