Аннотация: Peter the First and the Three Historic Ways of Russia
Peter the First and the Three Historic Roads of Russia
I
A complete reading of the book by Henri Troyat 'Peter the First' leads to the opinion that not all of this book is written in the style of French vaudeville.
Speaking of a cruelty and of a human losses, Henri Troyat, may be, feels some horror.
A special analysis of the book by Henri Troyat is not the purpose of this essay.
Henri Troyat reflects: how many people died during a building of Saint Petersburg: 100,000 people? Or 200,000 people? 100,000 people - this is more reliable ... "But no doubt, St. Petersburg was built on a mass grave. The real piles for the city were the bones of workers who died in order that a magnificent city rose above the water.' (Henri Troyat).
At the same time, in our opinion, the book does not make a sufficient emphasis on the historical logic of the creation of St. Petersburg. This logic is such that before Peter the Great, Russia gradually lost access to the Baltic Sea - an access to even those areas of coast that since the time of the Novgorod Republic were used. ('He loved these swampy shoals, desert lands, dark and sad forests, where many wolves were found, these floating mists in which Finnish fishermen seemed a ghosts. The more this region seemed deserted and destitute, the stronger the tsar's desire to prove himself here. '(Henri Troyat).). It remains to be assumed that Peter the Great also liked other areas - not only a floating mists ...
The place where the Neva flows into the Baltic Sea, into the Gulf of Finland - it was a 'point', which remained a during a most long time under the control of Russia, and most unambiguously was recognized as the Russian territory. Nevertheless, the activity of Sweden directed situation to the loss of the Russial sovereignty over this territory.
The building of a new capital in this place guaranteed the sovereignty of Russia over this plot of the Baltic coast in any conflicts and at any negotiations, as well as creating certain guarantees of Russia's 'eternal' access to the Baltic Sea.
Thus, Peter the Great supplemented the military operations against Sweden with territorial planning and urban development - that is, he made a geopolitical reform.
Although Henri Troyat emphasized the relative prudence (a propensity to save money) of Peter the Great in his book, he did not seem to show in his book that this prudence was conscious, conceptual line of behavior. Means were supposed to be spent not on personal, but on state needs.
In discription of the situation with Tsarevich Alexei (the son of the tsar from the first wife Natalia), there is no clear mention of the fact that there were fears that, if Alexey came to power, it would be risk of execution of Catherine (future Empress) and of her children from Peter the Great. On the contrary, this topic dissolves in the references of Henri Troyat to the 'positive' relations between Catherine and Alexei (the Alexei's petition letters to Catherine and his thanks to Catherine for her help). Interesting is the emphasis of Henri Troyat on the fate of the child, which was born from Euphrosyne and Tsarevich Alexei. Allegedly, nothing was known about the fate of this child after the return of Euphrosyne to Russia.
In general, the book is written at a uniform semantic pace, correctly segmented, easy to read and understand.
II
Regarding the horror in connection of a cruelty ...
Here we turn to the historical hypothesis.
What a future the Russian state could get if the reforms of Peter the Great weren't produced?
At first we can to recall the shameful and crushing defeat near Narva (1700) of the Peter's army.
But we can go a little deeper into a history.
Prior to Peter the Great, Princess Sophia Alekseyevna and her favorite Vasily Golitsyn ruled.
It is usually emphasized that the favorite was a man with a culture level. His library, progressive impulses, European inclinations are mentioned.
All this, of course, is interesting ...
But two actual defeats in campaigns against the Ottoman Empire (1687, 1689) [Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689] are mentioned, also ...
The merit of Henri Troyat is the emphasis on signing an agreement with China during the reign of Princess (tsarevna - regent, the sister of Peter the First) Sophia Alekseyevna - the predecessor of Peter the Great:
"Soon Vasily Golitsyn became the culprit of another defeat, this time in the diplomatic field. He signed with China the Treaty of Nerchinsk [of 1689], according to which Russia ceded to the neighboring power both coasts of the Amur River. Thus, this Siberian river with excellent navigation, which Russia has been using, already, for more than thirty years was transmitted to China and became a new border between the two countries. Few in the Kremlin understood the strategic importance of such a refusal.' (Henri Troyat).
Since China is mentioned, we use this mention to build a historical hypothesis (although we can take into account, also, the difficult historical fate of the Rech Pospolita - the Commonwealth).
The backward China has become an object of 'close attention' of more developed countries - during about 400 years - counting from the 16th century.
However, China emerged from a difficult historical situation, relying on those 'good people' in the Kremlin who came to power in October 1917 and who were very concerned about a 'waking up of Asia'.
Even the efforts of Stalin in the early 30s of the 20th century to change the historical vector did not lead to a kind result. The role of world wide teachers and puppeteers seemed very sweet ... Even the allied relations with the USA turned out to be deformed ... (At the beginning of the 20th century, Sergei Witte said that there were always excellent relations between the Russia and the USA ... But the 50s of the 20th century came...).
So, China, in a difficult historical situation, used several strategies to move into the number of world leaders.
What strategies and programs were at the disposal of Peter the Great? Probably, none, - no smart plans - except for common sense, intuition and a general understanding of the need to learn.
Europe could teach, and it taught. But what exactly needed to be studied, to what extent, what kind of knowledge and how to put it into practice, what goals to set, how to adapt the acquired knowledge to a Russian conditions - it was necessary to look for answers to these and many other questions during course of practical activities, by a 'broad search', using intuition - without theories, recommendations, action programs ....
This "hopelessness" of a position of Peter the Great, linked with the lack of knowledge, theories, programs - in general, of intellectual potential - is described by Henri Troyat as follows:
'Tackling everything, he wanted to cover all areas of human knowledge, having neither the time nor the patience to deepen in them. He was keen on details and did not attach importance to the main things. Abstract concepts could baffle him. A kind of intellectual myopia constantly drove him to a something a very shallow. HOWEVER THIS ENDLESS PREPARATION OF BREAKTHROUGH BECAME, IN RESULT, A DIRECTION OF EFFECTIVE MOTION. So St. Petersburg was created: from the chaotic actions at first a beautiful city grew up, the thoughtlessly started war ended with the annexation of the desired territories. He was simultaneously interested in completely different issues, unequal in urgency and importance. In his head a thoughts met each other which he did not have time to write down. He always carried notebooks with him, which he took out of his pocket and covered with hieroglyphs. '(Henri Troyat).
'The construction of [St. Petersburg] began without an exact plan and continued spontaneously, following the caprices of the sovereign. Trying to arrange the city center on one of the two large islands, next to the right bank of the Neva, he ordered the main buildings to be built on the left bank, which was more elevated and less prone to flooding. Then he again changed his mind and, in imitation of Amsterdam, he chose a location on the western island, called Vasilyevsky. But this project was rejected ... ". (Henri Troyat).
'... His decisions, designed to change Russia, did not have a clear, coherent plan and depended on various circumstances: the military situation, the economic crisis, difficult relations with the Church, popular unrest, and the hostility of upper classes ... Each time he raised the bar higher and higher. Especially after the Treaty of Nystad [1721], when in the face of the whole world he declared himself a genius of administrative reorganization. He told his close associates: 'Reforms will be carried out in three stages, each of which lasts seven years: 1700-1707, accumulation of forces; 1707-1714, the expansion of the glory of Russia; 1714-1721, the establishing of a good order.'' (Henri Troyat).
This emphasis on the lack of information, programs, plans - in general, the lack of a knowledge and intellectual potential - with the final general success of Peter the Great - is a noticeable advantage of the book by Henri Troyat.
'What a road he managed to pass over! - since time, when he took maneuvers under sail on the Lake of Pleshcheevo during of the reign of his sister'. (Henri Troyat).
Peter's activity was not only a physical risk, it was a conceptual risk - whether will be success? Will his activity lead to a positive result? Will his achievements survive after his death?
The China in the late 40s, in the 50s of the 20th century was in a better position - China had an example of the success of the USSR and had a support from the USSR.
Peter the Great sought to fight Sweden as part of a coalition. But this, of course, was a completely different support, if to compare with the active assistance of the USSR to China ...
None of the coalition allies built enterprises for Russia ...
The greater merit of Peter the Great - he managed without programs, theories, knowledge, without external examples (with the exception of some European examples, relatively far from Russian realities), without external help, but on intuition, with God's help, to make the Russia one of the leading European powers.
Incidentally, an analogy comes - the creative activity of Thomas Alva Edison - without special education, by a 'broad search' and with constant recordings.
Thanks to Peter the Great (and thanks to the free energetic people who had discovered and developed the Siberia, the Far East, Alaska), Russia was able to exist in the status of a great power for at least 400 years (gradually spending, consuming a geopolitical rents).
In this 400-year history, you can find a lot of negative. But if we compare her with the 400-year history of China (until about the beginning of the 20th century), we can conclude that Russia lived relatively well. She even generously helped other countries and continents ...
If we take as an example the history of the partitions of the Rech Pospolita (the Commonwealth), then and in this case the option of a development of Russia without reforms and without the achievements of Peter the Great would not have seemed particularly attractive.
Briefly, the historical hypothesis can be formulated as follows - without Peter the Great, Russia would have recieved the future similar the future of China or of the Rech Pospolita (the Commonwealth) (several centuries of history till the beginning or to the middle of the 20th century). With all the shortcomings of Russial history (18-19-20 centuries), it was, nevertheless, the life of a powerful European (world level) state with a predominantly European Christian culture ...
'The path of Peter the Great' - with all the difficulties - nevertheless, seems to be the most advantageous among the three options.
Of course, both China and Poland recovered in the 20th century and quickly went forward ...
But, no matter how you interpret a history, it was not without the Russia's positive participation in those processes of recovery ...
But would there be a country like Russia (with positive participation) if Russia went through partition and loss of sovereignty (like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) or through periods of weakness and fragmentation (like the China)? ...
III
In addition, we can to look at a "cruelty", a "reincarnations", the "anti-religious performances" of Peter the Great.
1. A permanent risk (physical, conceptual) in the atmosphere of which Peter the Great lived and acted, created a constant stress - hence brutality, nervous breakdowns, outbursts of rage, inconsistency of character.
But the attitude towards Catherine (who knew how to smooth out the emotional fluctuations of Peter the Great and tried to always be his support) deserves not surprise and irony, but the recognition of the fact of the chivalrous attitude of Peter the Great to his second wife. (Of course, some aspects of the personal history of the first and second wives of Peter the Great indicate that prominent people may find themselves in a difficult emotional state generated precisely by personal circumstances).
2. Peter the Great often acted under some names or 'coverings'.
Especially often, he 'reincarnated' into a military officer (sailor) of a low level. Perhaps this allowed him to avoid the inertia of the monarch's thinking, distanced from the 'simple' people, - activity without knowledge of a real problems and situation. A soldier (ordinary soldier), by historical circumstances, has become one of the most important figures in Peter the Great's state. But in the Table of Ranks this soldier was at the very bottom. How could one find out about his, soldier's, problems? Perhaps the 'reincarnations' contributed to an understanding of the problems of the military.
('Peter himself went through this harsh school, starting from a drummer, then gradually rising over the years to a bombardier, sergeant, flag bearer, captain, colonel and lieutenant general. He regularly received a salary and wrote down the received amounts in his diary:' 1707. In Grodno. I received the salary of Colonel: one hundred and fifty rubles.' (Henri Troyat).
('Residents of St. Petersburg could see their tsar when he rode the streets of the city, casually dressed, without escort, like an ordinary citizen. Sometimes he went into the first house that came across, asked for a drink, ate something.' (Henri Troyat).
It remains to ask the question: who else of the Russian monarchs could live and act for long periods without a security service? And who was as successful as Peter the Great?
3. In the environment of Peter the Great, comic figures - the 'prince-pope' and the corresponding characters - constantly acted. These figures participated in various productions that had a comic connotation. 'The conclave was surrounding the prince-pope. In conclave twelve false cardinals and a large number of false bishops, false archimandrites and false deacons, drunkards and gluttons were. The tsar himself was an 'archdeacon' in this company. '(Henri Troyat).
Did these performances mean that Peter the Great was not a religious person? That he had no respect for religion? I think not.
Many examples speak of the religiosity of Peter the Great. '... His gaze slid from a corner, where a map of Europe was pinned, to a corner, where a wonderful icon shone, covered with gold, precious stones and diamonds. He never parted with this icon' (Henri Troyat).
It is possible that the 'prince-papa" and the corresponding performances were intended not so much to discredit religion, but to overcome the inertia of huge layers of the society at that time - to overcome a focusing, a concentrating on a deepening into religion. The psychological inertia was enormous. However, the (temporary) loss of access to the Baltic Sea by the Moscow state testified in favor of vigorous practical activity, and showed that for certain segments of society, priorities should be changed. It was necessary to spent more time on a building process of the new state.
IV
In general, all the "shortcomings" of Peter the Great recede before his colossal achievements. The state, which gradually was loosing its strength in the 17th century, was turned (taking into account the development of Siberia, the Far East and Alaska by free and independent people) into one of the leading European (world) states for period of 300 (400?) years.
Was life in this country perfect and happy? - Everything is relative...
Difficulties and problems were probably everywhere. The question is historical accents ...
November 3, 2019 13:51
Translation from Russian into English: November 5, 2019 00:27.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Петр Первый и три исторических пути России'.