Peter the Great or Peter I, czar of Russia, reigned from (1672-1725). In many ways he bettered the country of Russia, but in other ways he hurt Russia. The ways in which bettered the country outweighs the bad effects put upon Russians during his reign. Most of the ways that he improved the country stemmed from him forcing Western European culture on his people. One of the ways in which he bettered Russia was that he expanded their land. Land expansion meant that Russia became bigger that the rest of Europe and Russia now had sea and fresh water ports important for trade.
He also improved education, the military, and transportation. Some of the negative aspects of Peter’s rule was that the Russians taxes increased and their standard of life had decrease. At all cost and with his perseverance Peter had made Russia a European power. Peter’s greatest accomplishment was that he educated many of the would be illiterate Russians.
Russians were at the highest point of education that they had ever been. He standardized a simpler Russian alphabet and introduced Arabic numerals. He started Russian academies for higher education. For the Boyards he made the college aged people to go out of the country for five years to study at a school in a Western European school. For the first time in Russian history there were the publishing of newspapers. He also changed the calendar to agree with the current calendar, the Gregorian.
Peter next best accomplishment was that he expanded the state and therefor encouraged trade. Until the middle part of his reign Russia was land locked which meant that they had to hope that the other countries would let them through their country and water to go other countries seeking trade. The only way they could trade was with neighboring countries and that was still not good. Through wars with other countries such as Sweden they acquired lands that would give them seaports.
With this came the establishment of a large seaport called St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg brought along the establishment in Russia of newly invented canals, stone roads, and drainage systems.
The success was due to no pay labor of the peasants and the nobles having to spend time in that city. The city became known as the window to Europe. The accomplishment that is both good and bad was the implementation of a strong standing army. The main reason for why it was good was that it gave Russia victories in wars that resulted in land gains for trading.
He added the Kossacks to the military that was a great move because these men were great horsemen. Something else had grown from his army policy that benefited that peasants the nobles were also put in the army. Because of this the peasants through his military merit advancement policy could become nobles. Everyone at this time were equal in status. The reason for why it was bad was that it gave Peter absolute control over everyone.
85 to 90 percent of the revenue rose by taxes were given to the military. There were also three tax hikes to pay for his many wars and his troops. People did not realize it but their lives could have been at stake with any false actions. Peter the Great was bad in that he was very cruel to the people of Russia.
He heavily taxed everyone, so the serfs had to pay taxes for themselves and their owners. In the case of St. Petersburg the serfs had build without pay and those who did not build paid taxes. Peter was so mean that he tortured his son to death and that the people of Russia were saying some bad stuff under their breath about Peter.
Due to the frequent wars the people that he drafted for the army had great chances of dying in action. In wars with the Turks he had lost some of their pride. Peter the Great of Russia was a great Czar whose actions helped the country more than it hurt the country. He expanded the territory of Russia and trade with it.
He also introduced Russia to Western culture. From that came education and inventions. He was also known for having a great military and winning many battles. In at least one major way he hurt the country, he raised taxes three times.
