midterm two Flashcards
peter i’s foreign policy
wars granted access to the seas
- southern access to the black sea (ottoman empire)
- the northern war against the swedes
peter defeats king charles xii in 1709 at the battle of poltava, a highly publicized event
st. petersburg
st. petersburg was founded in 1703 after peter lost the battle of narva
“the city of saint peter”
the monarch’s patron, st. peter, was the first bishop of rome
expressed peter’s imperial ambition
1721
peter becomes emperor after winning the northern war and gains access to the baltic sea
the stardom becomes an empire and the tsar becomes an emperor
the russian empire consists of russia, white russia (belarus), and small russia/malorossijo (ukraine)
the table of ranks
- contained 14 ranks
- was used until 1917
- three fields: army/navy, administration, court
- based on merit, not birth
peter’s church reform
- patriarch is the head of the russian orthodox church (roc)
- in 1720, the patriarch dies, but peter doesn’t appoint a new one
- he creates a new office to run/control the church, the holy synod
- the synod was headed by a civil servant (often from the military)
- the synod runs the roc until 1917
peter’s cultural reform
- brutally imposed on the russian people
- changed to the julian calendar
- modified the cyrillic alphabet to look more latin-y
- introduced arabic numbers
- forced nobility to dress in european clothing styles
- forced noblemen to cut their beards (could pay a tax to keep them)
- forced men into western social occasions with women, known as “assemblies”
- forced aristocracy to move from moscow to petersburg
- inapplicable to peasants, clergymen, and merchants
first russian museum
kunst kamera
peter’s political schism
westernization concerned only a small minority of the population (aristocrats)
resulted in a gap between the elites and the rest of the population
aristocracy felt estranged and guilty in their own country
peter’s foreign architects
domenico tressini (switzerland)
andreas schüter (germany)
jean-baptiste leblond (france, built peterhoff)
the vedomosti
first russian newspaper (established in 1703)
government-run
translates to “the news”
would later become “the st. petersburg news”
etiquette manuals
in 1717, “the youth’s honest mirror” is published, which encourages gentle and well-behaved nobles and courtiers
petrovian literature
- fiction about young russian nobles
- action was set in contemporary times
- young heroes would travel to contemporary europe
- individual talent was stressed over birthright
- prose and romance genres emerge
russian empresses
catherine i
anna ivanovna
elizabeth peprovna
catherine ii
empress’ rule’s dynamics (heavily relied on nobility)
empresses only gained the throne due to the nobility, so they rewarded them by accommodating them
undermined peter’s merit system and reinstated the birth system
anna created a cadet corp school for noble children
limited state service to only 25 years
nobility were given a monopoly on alcohol production, making them even richer
empress’ rule’s dynamics (peasant’s conditions worsened)
more limitations were placed on serf’s rights
no time limit on retrieving runaway serfs
serfs could be sent to siberia if nobles were unhappy with them
neoclassicism
new literature influenced by antique literature from ancient greece and rome
developed in 17th century france in louis xiv’s court
has rational rules and imitates classics
introduced the concept of genres
hierarchy of neoclassic genres
epic
tragedy
ode
satire
comedy
short narrative
fable
epigram
elegy
odes
odes are long, laudatory poems dedicated to the glory of someone important
writers would write odes to the sovereign and other courtiers
writing odes granted money, protection, or a higher rank
modeled the patron/client system, with dignitaries as the patron and poets as the clients
neoclassic poets
antiokh kantemir (prince)
vasily trediakovsky (commoner)
mikhail lomonosov (commoner)
alexander sumarokov (aristocrat)
catherine ii’s reforms
- catherine ii was very well read, fashioning herself as an enlightened despot (believing in absolutism with power being limited by the law), and also a writer
- wanted to rule an enlightened nobility
- supported the arts, sciences, development of literature, and translation
- granted nobility the right to free press and encouraged publishing