Editing Peter the Great (section)

==Legacy==
[[File: Peter-the-Great-by-Collot.jpg|thumb|Head (original) of the model after which the monument by [[Peter Falconet|Falconet]] was cast in gypsum by [[Marie-Anne Collot]]. [[Russian Museum]], Saint-Petersburg.]]

Peter's legacy has always been a major concern of Russian intellectuals. Peter is a more complex character than he is sometimes given credit for. Some believe Peter's reforms divided the country socially and weakened it spiritually. [[Riasanovsky]] points to a "paradoxical dichotomy" in the black and white images such as God/Antichrist, educator/ignoramus, architect of Russia's greatness/destroyer of national culture, father of his country/scourge of the common man.{{Sfn|Riasanovsky|2000}} For [[Old Believers]] he was the Antichrist, because of the calendar changes and [[poll tax]]. Peter compared himself with [[King David]] or [[Noah]] with a divine mission.{{Sfn|Collis|2015|pp=359, 364, 379}} At his funeral Prokopovich compared him with [[Moses]] and [[Solomon]].<ref name="auto4"/> Voltaire's 1759 biography gave 18th-century Russians a man of the Enlightenment, while Alexander Pushkin's "[[The Bronze Horseman (poem)|The Bronze Horseman]]" poem of 1833 gave a powerful romantic image of a creator-god.<ref>Nicholas Riasanovsky, ''The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought'' (1985) pp. 57, 84, 279, 283.</ref><ref>A. Lenton, "Voltaire and Peter the Great" ''History Today'' (1968) 18#10 [https://www.historytoday.com/archive/voltaire-and-peter-great online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513090430/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/voltaire-and-peter-great |date=13 May 2021 }}</ref><ref>Kathleen Scollins, "Cursing at the Whirlwind: The Old Testament Landscape of The Bronze Horseman." ''Pushkin Review'' 16.1 (2014): 205–231 [https://hum.michaelkrasuski.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Scollins_BronzeHorseman_2014.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026020451/https://hum.michaelkrasuski.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Scollins_BronzeHorseman_2014.pdf |date=26 October 2020 }}.</ref> Slavophiles in mid-19th century deplored Peter's westernization of Russia.

Western writers and political analysts recounted "The Testimony" or secret will of Peter the Great. It supposedly revealed his grand evil plot for Russia to control the world via conquest of Constantinople, Afghanistan and India. It was a forgery made in Paris at Napoleon's command when he started the [[French invasion of Russia|invasion of Russia in 1812]]. Nevertheless, it is still quoted in foreign policy circles.<ref>Albert Resis, "Russophobia and the 'Testament' of Peter the Great, 1812–1980" ''Slavic Review'' 44#4 (1985), pp. 681–693 [http://www.academia.edu/download/50985326/The_will_of_Peter_the_great.pdf online]{{Dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{Cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

The Communists executed the last Romanovs, and their historians such as [[Mikhail Pokrovsky]] presented strongly negative views of the entire dynasty. Stalin however admired how Peter strengthened the state, and wartime, diplomacy, industry, higher education, and government administration. Stalin wrote in 1928, "when Peter the Great, who had to deal with more developed countries in the West, feverishly built works in factories for supplying the army and strengthening the country's defenses, this was an original attempt to leap out of the framework of backwardness."<ref>Lindsey Hughes, ''Russia in the Age of Peter the Great'' (1998) p 464.</ref> As a result, Soviet historiography emphasizes both the positive achievement and the negative factor of oppressing the common people.<ref>Riasanovsky, p. 305.</ref>

After the fall of Communism in 1991, scholars and the general public in Russia and the West gave fresh attention to Peter and his role in Russian history. His reign is now seen as the decisive formative event in the Russian imperial past. Many new ideas have merged, such as whether he strengthened the autocratic state or whether the tsarist regime was not statist enough given its small bureaucracy.{{Sfn|Zitser|2005}} Modernization models have become contested ground.<ref>Waugh, 2001</ref>

He initiated a wide range of economic, social, political, administrative, educational and military reforms which ended the dominance of traditionalism and religion in Russia and initiated its westernization. His efforts included secularization of education, organization of administration for effective governance, enhanced use of technology, establishing an industrial economy, modernization of the army and establishment of a strong navy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 February 2023 |title=10 Major Accomplishments of Peter the Great |url=https://learnodo-newtonic.com/peter-the-great-accomplishments |access-date=14 July 2023 |website=learnodo-newtonic.com}}{{Unreliable source?|date=July 2023}}</ref>

Historian Y. Vodarsky said in 1993 that Peter, "did not lead the country on the path of accelerated economic, political and social development, did not force it to 'achieve a leap' through several stages.... On the contrary, these actions to the greatest degree put a brake on Russia's progress and created conditions for holding it back for one and a half centuries!"<ref>Hughes, p. 464</ref> The autocratic powers that Stalin admired appeared as a liability to [[:ru:Анисимов, Евгений Викторович|Evgeny Anisimov]], who complained that Peter was, "the creator of the administrative command system and the true ancestor of Stalin."<ref>Hughes, p. 465.</ref> In the period from 1678 to 1710, however, the population grew 2 times.{{sfn|Vodarsky|1976|p=48}}

According to ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', "He did not completely bridge the gulf between Russia and the Western countries, but he achieved considerable progress in development of the national economy and trade, education, science and culture, and foreign policy. Russia became a [[great power]], without whose concurrence no important European problem could thenceforth be settled. His internal reforms achieved progress to an extent that no earlier innovator could have envisaged."<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 June 2023 |title=Peter I |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-the-Great |publisher=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]}}</ref>

While the cultural turn in [[historiography]] has downplayed diplomatic, economic and constitutional issues, new cultural roles have been found for Peter, for example in architecture ([[Petrine Baroque]]) and dress. James Cracraft argues:

:The Petrine revolution in Russia—subsuming in this phrase the many military, naval, governmental, educational, architectural, linguistic, and other internal reforms enacted by Peter's regime to promote Russia's rise as a major European power—was essentially a cultural revolution, one that profoundly impacted both the basic constitution of the Russian Empire and, perforce, its subsequent development.<ref>James Cracraft, "The Russian Empire as Cultural Construct", ''Journal of the Historical Society'' (2010) 10#2 pp. 167–188, quoting p. 170.</ref>

The [[icon|iconic]] representations of dead saints typical for centuries of Russian visual culture suddenly give way to naturalistic [[Portrait painting|portraiture]].<ref name="auto5"/>