Ten Minute History - Peter the Great and the Russian Empire (Short Documentary)

16:45 and sol michael of russia is a bit dead he was the first ruler of the Romanov dynasty and oversaw a pretty tumultuous time in Russia he was succeeded by the young Alexis who left most of the actual governing to a man could Boris Moritz old who was a Boyer what's a Boyer well they were high ranking Nobles who had previously will did immense power but were much reduced since the Romanovs came to power Moritz ah've was a competent if not corrupt bureaucrat and he tried to raise more money for the government more itself would be thrown out of office by the Tsar in 1648 after he raised taxes on salt which caused a riot so Russia at this point had one glaring issue it was economically backwards it was mostly backwards in things like agriculture which had made immense technical progress in other parts of Europe like the Netherlands in England in Russia however agriculture made no progress in farming methods remain the same since there were loads of peasants and slaves to do the word in 1649 though alexis issued a law code which freed all of the agricultural slaves in russia and then made them serfs he also sought to give better to find legal status to the agricultural peasants by making them serfs serfdom being a serf was a hereditary status which expressly tied you to the land of your Lord previously many peasants and slaves had fled their Lords because agricultural work sucked see in Russia a shortage of reasonable land wasn't an issue because Russia is huge it was labor that was valuable and so preventing the movement of serfs protected the wealth of the nobility and of course the Tsar in terms of foreign policy alexis was quite peaceful just kidding in 1654 he invaded the polish-lithuanian Commonwealth which was suffering from its own instability the Russians performed extremely well at first and occupied most of the country which was then invaded by the Swedish - because why not Poland Lithuania defeated the Swedish and started to turn the tide but a civil war broke out and financial ruin forced them to sue for peace Russia gained this territory including the cities of Smolensk and Kiev the last row of which was supposed to be only temporary but fun fact no Alexis his reign also saw religious reform Alexis believed that Russia was being punished because it was straying from the correct religious path he thus sought to reform church practices with the help of the patriarch of Moscow patriarchy nikan the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia this was unsurprisingly met with resistance from those who considered the changes to be too dramatic into Western and by Western I mean that they were in line with the Ukrainian and Greek Orthodox Church is not like France or something in 1668 - Synod was called to formalize these changes those who resisted these new practices were excommunicate became known as Old Believers these Old Believers would represent a sizable schism in the russian orthodox church for many more centuries alexis also had issues with revolt one such revolt was led by a man could stanker Rosina cossack who in 1670 had captured the city of ceratin and was pillaging literally everything a series of peasant revolts coincided with this and it took a year for the central Moscow government to quell the uprisings and eventually execute regime in 1676 alexis shook off his mortal coil and was succeeded by his eldest son Fyodor who was crowned Fyodor the third so the young Fyodor was a good sponsor of the church and sought to strengthen its position whilst encouraging learning across the Sodom this was pretty much all he did since he died at the ripe old age of 21 in 1682 this left two potential heirs to the throne alexis his eldest surviving son ivan from his first wife who was very sickly and Peter the healthy son of his second wife were the supporters of Peter had him quickly proclaimed sour which caused Ivan supporters to riot Ivan's supporters were aided by the stroke see the palace guard who stormed the royal palace and basically murdered everyone who had ever wronged them in the end it was determined that both Ivan and Peter would be Co rulers in the Ivan's sister Sophia would act as regent for them both during his youth Peter wasn't kept in Moscow but sent to a place called Rio Bridgend square where he developed a love for the military and in particular a fascination with ships and navies Sofia who was aided by a man called for sea legal it seemed rude throughout the 1680s with fair competence she signed the Treaty of eternal peace with Poland in 1686 which did two things one it signed Russia up to an anti Ottoman alliance and two demonstrated that nobody knew what the term eternal meant in 1689 Sophia came up with the great idea let's cram in to pose the two czars to the nobility in the strokes either had supported her this was a step too far and she was sent away to a convent for the rest of her life this left both Ivan and Peter as joint rulers but since Ivan was unable to rule this made Peter the primary Tsar although it was his mother who was really in charge in 216 94 when she came down with a case of the deads two years later Ivan also tied meaning that all of Russia was finally Peters the first thing that Peter or Peter the first did with his newfound freedom was what all great Russian leaders would do thereafter invade the Ottoman Empire Russia was already at war with the Ottomans as part of an alliance but Peter made sure that there was a renewed effort at taking southern territory they saw Russia gained this territory as of which importantly gave it access to the see in the south so pita was a very involved leader who took great pride in personally overseeing government reforms and projects for example in 1697 he launched what is called the grand embassy this was where his diplomats traveled around Europe securing new military technology and know-how as well as strengthening the alliance against the Ottoman Empire he traveled with this embassy personally although for the most of it he was in disguise he travelled to many countries across Europe gaining valuable information but had no luck with fighting the Ottomans his grand embassy had to be cut short when the strokes he started to revolt in Moscow this was put down before pita even returned to Russia but afterwards all of those involved was severely punished Peter had a strong distaste for the muscovite way of life ie he disliked many of the old ways of doing things he took on a more European Way of dress and abandoned the forbids the previous Russian leaders and the boyars had sported you could opt not to but then you'd have to pay a beard tax Peter oversaw a simplification of the Russian alphabet banned arranged marriages and also changed the Russian calendar to the julian 1 so whilst travelling across Europe Peter had learned a great deal about navies how they operate and how to build them the problem for Peter was that he needed access to a better coast the Baltic one specifically one issue it was controlled by the Swedish Empire Peter thus made an alliance with Denmark and Saxony his leader was also the ruler of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth against Sweden together they invaded and so began the great northern war Denmark near immediately withdrew from the war allowing Sweden to turn east undeterred Peter clash with the Swedish at the 1700 battle of Narva where he was completely crushed by the better trained and equipped Swedish forces Sweden hereafter turned its attention to Saxony in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth which gave peat at the chance to regroup he subsequently pushed into the lands of ingria and Livonia and took this territory to keep these territorial gains Peter constructed a fort here and founded a settlement in 1703 st. Petersburg over the next four years Sweden managed to stomp Saxony in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and in 1707 its army advanced into Russia like so many others in history the invasion was difficult because winter rolled around and winter in Russia is very very cold Swedish forces retreated down south and Peter followed where they clashed at the Battle of Poltava here the Swedish army was decisively beaten Charles the 12th fled to the Ottoman Empire and his army surrendered shortly afterwards Peter demanded that the Ottomans hand Charles over which they said no to and so more war fortunately for Russia Denmark and Poland Lithuania had re-entered the war unfortunately for Russia the Ottoman army was incredibly formidable and Peter's recent gains down south were lost in 1711 the year after this defeat Peter made a monumental decision he moved the capital of the Sodom from Moscow to st. Petersburg because again he didn't care for the old ways even though he was at war Peter still wish to reform his kingdom but there were many opponents to this reform not least was his son an heir to the throne Alexis Alexis had been raised by some boyars many of whom resented Peters reforms and he grew up to despise his father when in 1716 Peter wanted Alexis to join him on campaign alexis fled to Austria which made Peter look pretty bad in 1718 Alexis returned after his father had agreed that he wouldn't be punished and shortly after this Peter had Alexis tortured to death for embarrassing him Peter then changed the rules of succession from my nearest relative gets it to I get to pick who's next beyond filicide Peter had introduced widespread modernizing reforms in areas like justice religion and of course the military in terms of Justice Peter banned lawyers from courtrooms because and I'm not kidding here they talk too much judges also weren't permitted to make new rulings because in Peters Russia only legislators could interpret law and there was only one legislator Peter as for the military Peter is often seen as the founder of the Russian Navy by 1720 Russia's Baltic Fleet was larger than the entire Swedish Navy this was quite impressive considering that in 1710 Russia didn't have a single naval vessel in terms of religious reform Peter decided in 1721 to abolish the position of patriarch of Moscow and replace it with the Holy Synod this was basically a Council of men whom he could bully into doing what he wanted 1721 was a pretty big year for both Peter and Russia first of all the great northern war ended in a Russian victory so Russia gained all of this territory having control over this Russia's position in Europe and that of Peter was much more prestigious as such Peter decided that his title of Tsar wasn't fancy enough and he declared his no title to be Imperato or Emperor and the Sodom of Russia was now the Russian Empire in 1722 Peter created his table of ranks whereby people's rank in society was ideally no longer to be determined by birth but now how useful they were they saw many sons of boyars lose favor and some new men ie nobly born people who worked for the government rise up the ranks Peter in 1723 also freed all of the household slaves in Russia and made them serfs Peter's transformative reign would come to an end in 1725 he died and so it was time for his appointed heir to take over oh wait he didn't pick one and so decades of succession disputes and turmoil which culminated in Catherine the Great but that's for another time so Peter the Great's legacy is undeniably important but also deeply complex and controversial his reign which only happened because the stars align took Russia from being a kingdom on the other side of the polish-lithuanian Commonwealth to an empire that nobody could ignore he laid the foundations for Russia's rise to great power status and deprived that same status from Sweden he was responsible for many sensible reforms and modernized the Russian system of government society religion and warfare changed under his stewardship and so it's no wonder that be seen as the epitome of the enlightened despot one who could bring Russia a great deal of glory and ultimately someone who was willing to kill his own son to protect that glory I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to Thomas guest rich Adam Harvey Winston Cawood and James Bissonnette if you'd like to learn more about Peter the Great in the Russian Empire there are some book recommendations in the description below you

Channel: History Matters

Views: 2,274,785

Keywords: Ten, Minute, History, 10, Documentary, Short, animated, education, educational, Peter, the Great, Russia, Tsar, Tsardom, Empire, Great Northern War, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Swedish, Charles XII, Carolus Rex, Alexis, Ivan, Sophia, Catherine the Great, Streltsi, Stenka Razin, Rise of, Ottoman Empire

Id: 3tBNr2gjAA0

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 21 2019