Peter the Great

    Peter Romanov's early life was violent and tumultuous. After the death of his father, the ten year old Peter shared power with his brother Ivan and older sister Sofia. After Gaining the crown for himself, Peter went as far as to disband the streltsy, a kind of soldier-class in Russia, executing and deporting hundreds after they rebelled against him in the name of Sofia's family. Peter followed his passion of exploration and learning across Europe, educating himself in new technologies such as shipbuilding, medicine, engineering and navigation. Upon His return to Russia, Peter went through a wave of military reforms that would make Russia into the dominant empire in Eastern Europe. Before his reign, Russia's military was awash with amateurs from the privates to the generals. Noble officers typically could buy commissions and few armies, if any, across Europe knew anything resembling uniformity in competence, dress or drill. The reforms of Peter I would attain for Russia what it needed to expand westward, and that was a professional army and navy. To accomplish this, new taxes would need to be handed down, a port city would need to be obtained, and the pool of foot soldiers would need widening. A new form of conscription was implemented that included both nobles and peasants. The hiring of foreign experts gave Peter the cadre of experienced professional officers he so desperately needed. Most Tsar's before Peter I relied upon armies mainly consisting of serfs offered by landlord's for military service. Now, in addition to the serf offerings, villages and settlements would have to forfeit their young men for Peter's army and navy. The size of the army exploded over a 30 year period. During this time, Sweden was defeated and St. Petersburg could be established, under the close and watchful eye of Peter himself. One of his most dramatic acts was disbanding the rebellious streltsy and replacing it with his own boyhood creations- the Preobrazhenskii and the Semeovskii, the new elite guards regiments. Peter's new armies were well drilled and well trained. A new Russian empire could be forged off the back's of these men and indeed would be. New conquests in the north against Sweden's soldier king Karl XII would cement Sweden's downfall and Russia's rise to glory. During the Great Northern War, Peter would experience setbacks, but due to this new professionalism, the defeats would not prove to be detrimental to his goals by the end of the war. The naval victories over the Swedish in the Baltic and the Ottoman navy at Azov proved Russia's newly found competence. The sea was among Peter's great obsessions in life and he would see 48 ships-of-the-line built as well as 800 smaller combat vessels by the end of his reign. None of these reforms could have been undertaken without the iron will of an autocratic, multi-talented and multi-tasking ruler such as Peter the Great.



sources

"Peter the Great." Paper Masters. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. (photo)

Oliver, Meredith. "Peter I (The Great)." ThenAgain, 18 Dec. 1998. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.

"Peter the Great Accomplishments." History of Russia. 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.

"Peter the Great - Military Reforms". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.