Transcript Absolute Monarchy in Russia

Absolute Monarchy in Russia
The ULTIMATE Absolutism!
TRIVIA: Can you say your name
in Russian?
• In Russian, your middle
name is your father’s first
name.
– If a boy, you would say:
• I am (your first name) and
(your father’s first name) –
vitch.
• Daniel Clarkovitch
– If a girl you would say:
• I am (your first name) and
(your father’s first name) –
ovna.
• Carolina Clarkovna
Russia BEFORE Peter the Great
• Russia was still in the
Middle Ages – with
touches of the Muslim
culture added in.
• There was very, very
little interaction with
the rest of Europe or
the world.
Russian Life BEFORE Peter the
Great
• There were only three
social classes.
– The Boyars
– The Church
– The Serfs
The Boyars
• Russian nobles, most called
themselves Princes.
• 10th – 17th Centuries were the
“real” rulers of Russia.
• Positions in society were
based on service your family
did for the Czar and owning
land.
• Pretty much had no checks on
their local power.
– Could change your loyalty
to different princes,
depending on what they
would give you in return.
The Boyars
• Dressed more like
Arabs with beards
that you were never
supposed to trim.
• Separate society from
women.
– Women weren’t often
seen – let alone heard!
– Covered hair and no
shape to clothing.
The Boyars
• Lived on their feudal
estates with their own
armies and selfsufficient economies.
• Little interest in the
outside world.
• Do you see
Muslim influence?
The Church = Russian Orthodox
• One of the oldest
Christian religions.
• Does not recognize
the Pope or Catholic
Church.
• They believe they
practice the Christian
religion of the Roman
Emperor Constantine.
Russian Orthodox Church
• Ruled by the Patriarch.
• Urged people to not be
corrupted by outside
influences.
• Urged the serfs to remain
loyal without questioning
the Boyars.
• Life is suffering, but
heaven will be your
reward.
Russian Orthodox Church
The Serfs
• At the time of Peter
the Great, they made
up 95% of the
population in Russia.
• They were essentially
slaves – bound to the
land and bound to the
noble.
The Serfs
• Had absolutely no say
about anything in their
lives.
Over these three levels of
society were the CZARS
• Czar = Caesar /
Emperor.
• Sometimes in books
as Tsar.
• Technically had
absolute power.
– But few czars had
been powerful enough
to make the boyars
and the church obey
him.
Before Peter: The Time of
Troubles
• The belief in “blue
blood” was also with
the Russian Czars.
• 1600 – the last of the
“Rurik” czars died
with no children.
– Family had ruled since
900 AD.
– WHO SHOULD BE
CZAR?
The Time of Troubles
• “Smutnoya Vremya”’
• No czar and wars
broke out between
the boyars.
• Sensing weakness
and the chance to
take land – Poland
and Lithuania
invaded.
• Russia was in chaos!
The Romanovs become Czar
• A distant relative of
the last Rurik czar.
• Started a dynasty in
1613 that would last
until 1918.
– This is NOT the
Hapsburg doubleheaded eagle!
– It is the Romanov
symbol.
Which eagle for which family?
Hapsburg v. Romanov?
Even though the Romanovs were
on the throne
• Power was still weak.
– Just the way the
boyars and the Church
wanted it!
Peter the Great’s story starts
with his father:
• Alexei
– His first wife died.
• 13 children
• 5 boys – only one was
surviving to adulthood.
– Ivan was mentally
retarded.
– A new wife was needed.
• He practiced “droit de
seigneur.”
• Most common way that
boyars chose wives and
mistresses.
Czar Alexis I – Peter’s Father
• Had started some
reforms in Russia.
– Shaved his beard
– Could read Latin and
spoke Polish as well
as Russian.
Peter the Great’s mother
• Natalia Kirilovna
Naryshkinov
• Her grandmother was
Scottish and had
some contact with
Western Europeans
while growing up.
Peter the Great
1672 - 1725
• Peter was the
firstborn son to a
second wife who did
not come from a
powerful family to
protect her or her
children.
• 1682 – Alexis dies.
• Who becomes Czar?
Peter the Great
• First born son of a
second wife.
• He was only ten when
his father died.
– Peter’s mother’s family
was not the most
powerful Boyar family
and suspected of
“western” leanings.
Who should rule Russia
• The eldest son?
• Ivan
• Mentally
handicapped.
• Should be easy for
the Boyars and
Church to manipulate.
• But could he lead?
OR
• Their older sister
Sophia Alexovna?
– Smart
– Ambitious
– A woman
• Yes! She really was.
The Compromise: A double-Czar
• Little Peter and his
mentally handicapped
brother were crowned
co-czars and their
sister Sophia sat
behind them
whispering
instructions on what
to say and do.
Problem-Solve this!
• Why didn’t Peter’s
half-sister Sophia just
take her little halfbrother on a walk
along the cliffs, and
get rid of him?
• Why did she keep her
brother Ivan alive?
Peter the Great grows up
• Unusually tall 6’ 8”.
• But his head was small
for his body and he
suffered from epilepsy.
• He grew up away from
Moscow and played
around German sailors
and ship-builders who
were along the Russian
coast.
• Fascinated with the west!
Peter the Great Grows Up
• 1696: Peter leaves
Russia and comes to the
West.
– Didn’t just visit fellow
Royals.
– He visited factories and
took jobs in shipyards to
learn how to build ships.
– Had a dentist teach him
how to pull teeth.
– Learned a lot about
Western Europe art and
culture.
Peter the Great comes home to
Russia
• Brought with him
technical experts,
teachers, and soldiers
to teach western
methods.
• Was ready to become
a true Czar without
his sister in 1698.
Do you think Sophia accepted
this new way?
• Now she did try to
assassinate her
brother.
• Sent her personal
body guards the
Streltsky to kill Peter.
• They failed.
Peter’s Response:
• Forced his sister to
become a nun and locked
her away in a nunnery.
• Hung the bodies of the
Streltsky guards outside
her window.
– 1,000 corpses
• Later he sent her to a
sub-arctic nunnery.
• She died in 1704
On one thing the two halfsiblings agreed on:
• Leave Ivan out of it.
• Ivan remained a co-czar
living in a palace until he
died.
• Married and had three
daughters.
– Might / Probably / Maybe
were his children
biologically.
• The crown is the original
one czars were crowned
with – The Cap of
Monmahk.
Peter the Great has two goals:
• Westernize Russia
– Had 400 years of
development to catch
up on.
• Become an absolute
monarch.
• Which should be
done first?
Becoming the Absolute Monarch
• Following another king’s
model, he sought to make
the boyars too weak to
challenge him.
– Took away walled
fortresses.
– Took away private armies.
– Made the boyars become
courtiers and serve in his
government and military.
Stipulations
• Had to be WESTERN:
– Dress like they did in the
west.
– Shave their beards.
– Women were to dress
western and not be
segregated from men.
– Dancing and mingling
between men and women
was ORDERED.
How do you think Peter got
compliance?
• Humiliations
• Imprisonment /
Torture
• Forced labor
• Death
• AND ---
Give the Boyars something they
wanted in return.
• Serfdom spread in
Russia.
– Slave = Serf
• The boyars, now
called nobles, got
more control over the
people of Russia.
– It continued until 1861
in Russia.
How about the Church?
• Peter replaced
positions with western
leaning patriarchs.
• Built fabulous new
churches in the
western style.
Peter’s Germans
• Ever hear of
“Germans from
Russia”?
• Most were imported
by Peter to teach and
create a new system.
Peter’s Modernization with Force
• Improved education
• Academies for
mathematics,
science, music, dance
and engineering.
• Improved travel with
roads, waterways,
and canals.
• Developed mining
and textiles for export.
Modernization with Force
• Serfs were forced
labor for many
improvements.
• Worked until they
died to create the
modernization.
Revolts?
• Peter’s first wife,
Eudoxia:
– Preferred the “old” ways
and encouraged revolts.
• Divorced and sent to a
sub-arctic nunnery.
• His son Tsarivitch Alexei:
– Hated his father and was
encouraged by his mother
to revolt.
– Was executed by his father.
Results of Revolts?
Czarist reaction for 200 years
Peter the Great
Expanding Russian Borders
• Russia needed a
warm-water port so
ships could sail year
around.
Where on the map would be the
best spot for a warm-water port
that is close to Europe??
The Great Northern War
• 1700 – Russia goes
to war against
Sweden to get control
of the land needed for
a warm water port.
– Had 5x as many
troops as Sweden did!
• Got his royal butt kicked
by the Swedes!
Peter did not give up!
• Went back and rebuilt
his military and
trained them better.
• 1709 – defeated the
Swedes and took the
land that would
become his new
capitol.
St. Petersburg
• Note who he named the
city for!
• Also, called it Petersburg
after the German way,
not Petrograd, the
Russian way!
– 1918 – 1993 called
Leningrad.
• A city built to be the
Window to Europe.
Scenes from St. Petersburg
The Winter Palace
Scenes from St. Petersburg
The Winter Palace
JAV (just another view)
The Winter Palace
The Winter Palace and the
Hermitage
Peter the Great
Blazing to the Pacific
• Made fur trading outposts
all the way to Alaska.
– FYI: Alaska was part of
Russia until 1862.
• The Bering Strait is
named for the Danish
navigator Vitus Bering
that he sent to discover a
way between Russia and
Alaska.
Peter the Great had a problem
close to his death
• Despite having had 11
children with two wives,
only two daughters had
lived.
– Too young.
• His grandson was too
young and Peter didn’t
think he would be able to
continue Russia’s
transformation to a
modern country.
• WHO SHOULD COME
AFTER HIM?
Peter’s second wife
• Catherine I
• Born Martha Elena
Scowronska
– Lithuanian Peasant
– A commoner, little better
than a serf to the Russian
nobles.
• Had grown up a peasant,
doing laundry, becoming
other men’s mistresses.
– Rumors that Peter had
purchased her from one of
her lovers.
Peter and Catherine
• Love at first sight.
Secretly married in 1707.
• As smart and daring as
her husband.
• Could deal with Peter’s
temper and help him in
epileptic seizures.
• Never left his side.
– Kept a 3 room cabin for
them and their children
while he was building St.
Petersburg.
Peter and Catherine
• Peter crowned her
Czarina and they
were co-rulers in
1724.
• Ruled by herself from
1725 until her death
in 1727.
Catherine I coronation gown
After Catherine I
• Peter’s Grandson.
– Became czar at 12
• Only ruled three
years.
• Died of smallpox on
his wedding day in
1730.
– Did bring back his
Grandmother Eudoxia
from exile. (Peter’s
first wife.)
After Peter II?
• Remember Peter the
Great’s “co-czar”
brother?
• His daughter Anna
became Czarina.
Czarina Anna
• The Russian nobles
put her on the throne.
– She would be easy to
control.
• She should be “grateful”
for the chance to
become the Czarina.
• She wasn’t known for a
strong personality, she
could be influenced.
– Maybe even get a
Constitutional
Monarchy?
Czarina Anna ruled until 1 740
• Kept company with
foolish people.
• Created a Secret Police
to terrorize people to
follow her.
• Enjoyed humiliating the
older nobles.
– Ordering marriages
between inappropriate
people and having them
spend the night naked in
an “ice palace.”
Anna HATED her Cousin
• Elizabeth
• The daughter of Peter
the Great and his wife
Catherine.
• Every inch the
daughter of her
parents!
The saddest story of a Czar
• Ivan VI
• A nephew of Anna,
she adopted him
when he was an
infant and declared
him her successor in
1740.
• She died later that
year.
Would the daughter of Peter the
Great let a baby rule?
• Elizabeth took the throne.
• Infant Ivan was
imprisoned.
– Never left his prison.
– Not allowed contact except
with guards.
– No education.
– Effort to “rescue” him and
make him czar failed and
he was killed by his guards
in 1764.
Empress Elizabeth aka Czarina
• Continued her father’s
westernization, but had
censorship of ideas she
did not agree with.
• Waged years of war
against Prussia.
– Frederick the Great
• Could be kind and generous.
– Abolished the death
penalty.
• “Had to be the bride at every
wedding, the corpse at every
funeral.”
– “It is all about ME.”
Empress Elizabeth
• Selected a nephew to
become the next czar.
– The future Peter III
• Put some special thought
into deciding who his wife
should be.
– Selected German Princess
Sophia Augusta Frederika
of Anhalt – Zerbst.
• Known in history as ___
Catherine the Great
Huh?
• How does a German
princess become the
Czarina of Russia?
• What happened to
her husband?
Catherine the Great
• Unusual intellectual
abilities.
• Embraced all things
Russian.
• Inspired loyalty.
Her husband Peter • Not very smart
• Not good looking
• Loved everything
PRUSSIAN not
Russian.
– Cheered on Frederick
the Great against his
aunt.
Peter and Catherine
• Were NOT a good
couple.
• Peter preferred malelooking German women
for mistresses rather than
being with his wife.
• Empress Elizabeth
wanted a son from Peter
and Catherine.
– Blamed Catherine
– What is a woman to do?
Catherine produces a son!
• Was her son Paul the son
of a Russian noble?
• Was her son Paul the son
of a Polish musician?
• ???
• Peter couldn’t deny
paternity without having
to answer a lot of
“embarrassing”
questions.
– Might have been “relieved”
to have the heir.
1762: Elizabeth dies
• Peter ends the war with
Frederick the Great at a
great loss to Russia.
• Peter puts his Prussian
Guards above the
Russian nobles.
• Plans to divorce
Catherine.
– Monastery for her!
– Marry a German mistress.
Catherine’s current lover helps
hatch a plan!
• Gregori Orlov
• Stage a Coup d’Etat.
– A takeover of the
government.
– Imprison Peter.
– Make Catherine the
Czarina.
It Worked!
• Peter was so hated that
people welcomed
Catherine to the throne.
– Peter ended up being
murdered.
• By Gregori Orlov
– Paul always harbored a
hatred of his mother for not
making him czar and killing
his “father.”
Trivia
• Gregori Orlov gave
Catherine an
incredible diamond –
it is kept in the
scepter of the
Russian crown
jewels.
– The Orlov Diamond
Catherine the Great
• Set forth new efforts
with an effective ruler
to keep going with
Peter the Great’s
reforms.
Catherine the Great
An Enlightened Ruler
Reorganized
government, so she
knew what was
happening throughout
Russia.
Codified laws (wrote
them down!)
State-sponsored
education for boys
and girls.
Catherine the Great
Absolute Monarch
• Did not accept any
challenges to her
authority.
• Liked the French
intellectuals ideas of
power for people – but
never allowed it to be
discussed outside of her
palace.
• Allowed the nobles to
increase their stranglehold on the serfs.
Catherine the Great
Military Leader
• Expanded Russia’s
borders with wars
against Turkey and
the Partition of
Poland.
– Poland was divided up
between Catherine,
Frederick the Great
and Maria Theresa’s
son Josef.
Catherine the Great
Pleasures
• Kept a court where
French costume,
manners, and
language were
encouraged.
– Russian became a
language for serfs, not
nobles.
Catherine the Great – what
happened with Prince Orlov?
• She never married again.
• She kept many lovers.
– Would enjoy, give them
land, serfs, and money as
a “pension”.
– But expected the men to be
loyal to her for life.
– Some say 11 lovers, others
say 300 lovers in her life.
Catherine and Orlov
• Had a son together.
• He was raised by both his
parents and made noble.
• Alexsai did a great deal of
traveling in the west.
• Gregory Orlov, broken at
not getting Catherine to
marry him, went west for
five years, came home a
“broken” man.
– Died after marrying his
niece in retaliation against
Catherine.
Catherine the Great
• Did not get along with
her son at all.
• Took her grandsons,
Alexander and
Nicholas and raised
them, intending to
make one of them the
czar over their father.
Catherine the Great
• Died before she could
make her choice law in
1796.
– Ruled Russia for 34 years
– Not bad for a non-Russian
woman!
• Paul took over and tried
to undo everything his
mother had done.
– Made it law no woman
could rule in Russia.
– He was murdered five
years later.
Hmmmm.
• Do we want to
consider Peter the
Great and Catherine
the Great
– GREAT absolute
leaders?
– Good absolute
leaders?
– Fair absolute leaders?
– BAD absolute
leaders?