There are not many famous emperors in Russian history, but the emperor Peter the Great, who led the rise of Russia, is the most powerful tsar in Russian history and is worshipped by posterity. Although Peter I was rarely mentioned during the Soviet Period, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians once again remembered and worshipped Peter the Great. In particular, Putin admires Peter the Great the most. So why was Peter the Great worshipped by the Russians, and what did he leave for Russia?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > sense of power</h1>
Judging from the historical data, Peter the Great's growth experience was not very smooth. When he was proclaimed emperor, there was also a half-brother Ivan V. And the half-sister Sophia was regent at the time. When Peter the Great was young, he left the court with his mother, and the court was left with his half-sister to govern. On the days of leaving the court, Peter the Great liked military games and established a "young army", which was actually to recruit some young people and practice fighting every day. This army was not taken seriously by the outside world, but it helped Peter the Great succeed in the subsequent struggle for power.
Peter the Great grew up in a difficult environment, but also exercised his strong character. After the return of the imperial power, Peter the Great realized that Russia was backward, that the European powers had colonized the outside world, and that Russia did not even have shipbuilding technology. Without shipbuilding technology, it would be difficult to survive in the midst of Europe's great powers, nor would it be possible to expand outward. Faced with the backward situation in Russia, under the support of powerful countries and strong armies, Peter the Great disguised himself as a corporal and went to the Netherlands to learn advanced shipbuilding technology.
As we all know, although the Netherlands was a small country, it was already a European power at that time, and it had expanded many colonies to the Americas. It was one of the first colonial empires in Europe, and its shipbuilding industry was very developed.
Peter the Great studied not only shipbuilding in Western Europe, but also the institutions, humanities, and economic, social, and military aspects of Western Europe. After the return of Peter the Great, he was anxious to carry out Western European-style reforms, and there were many contents of reforms, and economically, Peter the Great encouraged the development of handicrafts in Russia, and encouraged trade, opened canal ports, expanded exports, and laid the foundation for Modern Russian industry.
In terms of national politics, Peter the Great realized that there were many constraints to russia's development, so he restricted religion and the Duma, attacked those conservative forces that resisted reform, and even executed his son.
Social and cultural models were also followed by Western Europe, with schools, newspapers, and even the removal of old Russian customs and traces of the Mongol Khanate. Militarily, a new type of European service was established, and the expansion of the navy was advocated.
All that Peter the Great did was a spirit of his great power. As emperor, he had a responsibility to bring Russia to power.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > crisis awareness</h1>
The consciousness of a strong country in Peter the Great's heart is also a sense of crisis. Because only when the country is strong can it have the strength to expand outward. As the Russian philosopher Chadaev said, "Peter the Great's reforms avoided making Russia a canton in Sweden." At that time, the main external threat of Peter the Great was Sweden. Because Sweden was a powerful country at that time, it was precisely because of Sweden's existence that Peter the Great could not expand his power outward or open the export of the Baltic Sea.
If it is suppressed by the Swedish threat for a long time, Russia cannot become a great power. It was with this sense of crisis that Peter the Great established anti-Swiss alliances with Denmark and Poland when he was studying in Western Europe, and then continued to fight with Sweden, eventually defeating Sweden, winning the Northern War, and obtaining the first warm outlet of the Russian Empire.
Some people say that Russia's strength is a process of constant search for access to the sea. In fact, this point began with Peter the Great. Because Russia's best territory is in Europe, although russia has a large territory in the west and there are ports in the Arctic Ocean, that kind of cold sea outlet is meaningless and does not have the conditions to dominate Europe. It was therefore imperative to find warm sea ports that would facilitate the expansion of overseas territories.
Peter the Great's sense of crisis in his life was mainly manifested in the acquisition of access to the sea, when European countries used natural access to the sea to constantly look for new continents, but Russia was trapped on land and could not expand outward, because there was no sea exit, unable to travel.
In peter the great's mind, it was urgent to open the mouth of the Black Sea, and only by entering the Black Sea could we expand to the Mediterranean Sea and then to the outside. But at that time the Black Sea was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Peter the Great fought a battle with the Ottoman Empire, but was unsuccessful, and he returned to sweden to succeed in obtaining the Baltic exit. However, Peter the Great's last wish was fulfilled by a German woman, Catherine.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > centralized consciousness</h1>
In addition to opening up territory for Russia and constantly looking for access to the sea, Peter the Great also left a legacy to Russia, that is, centralized power. After Peter the Great came to power, there was great pressure from all sides, both religious and Duma, and these organizations were strong in conservative forces, and Peter the Great had to weaken the power of these organizations to promote his own reforms, so that they would obey the Tsar.
As for the conservative forces, Peter the Great killed the killer, and if he did not eliminate these opponents, the reforms in Russia could not be carried out. And this is where Russia's strength comes from. After Peter the Great consolidated his power, he also laid the foundation for the absolute power of the later Tsar.
After the establishment of the Soviet Union, a coalition state was initially established because of the interests of all sides, and the only one who really concentrated the Soviet Union was Stalin. Some people compare Stalin to Peter the Great, although very similar, but there are differences, which are mainly related to the Soviet system.
Now putin has been in power for 20 years, and he has consolidated his power. It is not that Putin emulated Peter the Great, but mainly that peter the Great left behind what gave Putin inspiration.
Therefore, Peter the Great gave Russia both patriotism and the secret of national development.
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