The Reforms of Peter the Great Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Reforms of Peter the Great - Essay ExampleAccording to Thomas Riha, he was one of the few leadership in the empire who had the imagination and ability to offer outstanding personal leadership (498). He instituted radical reforms in the countrys education military, topical anesthetic government and church by reorganizing his army in line with western standards, creating a navy secularizing the education sector as well and exercising great control of the reactionary Orthodox Church compared to any of his predecessors. In summary, his foreign policy was aggressive considering that he, ...acquired territory in Estonia, Latvia and Finland and through several wars with Turkey in the south (Peter the Great biography). This paper is an examination of the reforms made by Peter the great, their effects, and the significance they had on Russia. In an attempt to weaken the powers of the idyll government which he considered a threat, Peter allowed the towns to elect their own officials w ho would be charged with collection of revenue and simulation of trade, the real power behind the local government was Ratusha based in Moscow. In 1702, an elective board that re rigid the old system of elected sheriffs governed towns, moreover, in 1724 he changed the system so that local governments could get a quasi-aristocracy of sorts where towns could be self-governed under guilds of elected well off citizens. Nonetheless, these reforms were considerably difficult to implement, practice since local property owners and the provincial governor had immense influence, and their watch on local affairs was extremely difficult to break. Provincial government was divided into eight Guberniia, which were headed by a Gubnator who had absolute power from within the guberniia that were divided into districts known as Uzeda, which by 1718 the increased by twelve in number. Peter considering the forty Provintsiia, in order to consolidate his power he ensured the Gubnators despite their local autonomy were directly answerable to him. In this case, there were forty departments to carry out his orders, however, since not all of them had predefined functions their duties would sometimes overspill into each other creating inefficiency and an allowance for corruption. Peters centralized government policy was evident in that each of the provinces was ruled by an appointed governor (Riasanovsky and Steinberg 259). This meant that the governors exercised power at his pleasure, hence were fully loyal to him. Peters belief in absolutism ensured that the church would no longer retain its semiautonomous status, as he was arouse in its control since it was a very wealth institution among other reasons. In addition, he wanted access to these funds, and although he had tried to modernize it, only when it had refused to be changed and remained steadfast in its traditional ways. Furthermore, the church had substantial amounts of land, many serfs and other properties consequently , Peter was uncomfortable because it appeared in a way the church was rivaling him. In order to control the church, Peter refused to appoint a leader of the church after Partricah Aldrich died and gradually took over the church integrating it into the state. In the year 1701, it was placed under a government department known as Monastyrskii Prikaz, and they paid the monks