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REFORMS IN THE CULTURE AND EDUCATION
HISTORIC APPRAISALS |
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After
introduction of the new calendar, there came the turn of the
next, quite significant, reforms and changes. In 1703 started
to be published the first Russian newspaper - Vedomosti
(Gazette); there were also printed more and more secular
books, historical treatises, political pamphlets, textbooks
and calendars. Originally, publications were printed with the
Old Church-Slavonic fonts, very fancy ones and difficult for
visual perception. But since 1708 the secular literature had
adopted new, simplified fonts, so-called grazhdanka, which,
with some consecutive simplifications, have been in use till
now. Introduction of grazhdanka furthered development of
various publications, as well as
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education, since books printed with the new fonts were
bought and read more gladly. But the
education had made a huge step forward not only thanks to the
new fonts. Peter I became the creator of the modern school,
first of all the elementary one, which was mandatory to all
the nobility children. Also were created schools of higher
level. In 1701in Moscow was founded the Navigation School.
There pupils of the age of 12 to 17 studied arithmetics,
geometry, trigonometry and astronomy - subjects indispensable
to the would-be sailors. In 1715 the Navigation School was
reformed and moved to Petersburg as the Naval Academy. Peter
also used to found other schools, among others for engineers
and medics. Towards the end of his reign (28 January 1724)
Peter signed the decree erecting the Academy of Sciences,
which opened its doors soon after his death, originally as the
Russian, and then Petersburg, and Imperial Academy of
Sciences.
Changes in habits also were not limited just to shaving
boyars' beards and taxing the beards of those merchants, who
wished to retain them at any price. The life at that time was
changing very quickly, first of all at the court, among the
nobility, and then also among rich merchants. New clothes
appeared, at the court everybody had to wear wigs, and the
fashion for balls and banquets was introduced - the czar
personally encouraged them. Participation in balls and
banquets, together with wives and elder daughters, also became
a duty of all the courtiers.
Among historians opinions about the reforms of Peter the Great
have varied, both in appraisal of their roots and methods of
their implementation. Historical literature is abundant with
all kinds of evaluations - from loyal enthusiasm to quite
critical views. In general one can say that the historians of
the 18th century excessively idealized Peter. Nikolai Karamzin
was very critical about him, but Sergei Solovyev put Peter
again on pedestal, as he saw in him a revolutionary czar. The
most ardent enemy of such a view was Sergei Platonov.
According to him, Peter's policy displayed absolutely no
progressive character. In the foreign affairs the czar
followed the old path and fought old enemies, while in the
domestic affairs and administration he did not go far from the
17th century, since regardless of the reforms, a "common
type" remained the same. Just as well as the industry and
the trade - already Peter's predecessors thought about their
further development. Followers of the new trends in the
culture also could be found among his predecessors - beginning
from czar Theodor III.
Peter's
reforms, broad and radical, made a horrible impression on
the Russian society after the cautious and slow policy of
the Muscovite government. There was no that consciousness of
the historic tradition in the society, which lived in
brilliant Peter. Short-sighted Muscovites perceived both
foreign affairs and domestic novelties, introduced by the
ruler, as his personal whims, views and habits. They
confronted particular innovations with particular old
traditions, and confirmed themselves in the conviction that
Peter destroyed their old traditions mercilessly. Behind the
destroyed and newly introduced particularities of the social
life they could not see the general essence of the old and
the new. The social thought did not yet reach the assessment
of the basic beginnings of the Russian statehood and social
life, and commented only on individual facts. That is why
Peter's contemporaries, who witnessed his endless
innovations, great and small, thought, that Peter had turned
the whole old life upside-down, and razed it to the ground.
They took the transformation of the old system for its
complete destruction.
(S. F. Platonov, The History of Russia, Petrograd, 5 August
1917)
Nowadays prevails the view that the roots of Peter's
reforms, in their broad sense, went back into the 17th
century, and already then had their followers -
incapable of introducing the reforms. But Russia ripe
for the reforms and it remains Peter's greatest merit
that he understood that and did not hesitate to act.
Nothing can change this fact, not even the notion that
all Peter's reforms had a clear class character. In
this respect nothing, of course, changed. One also
cannot help to understand that with all his talents of
a statesman, Peter remained a hot-tempered and
unbalanced monarch, always inclined towards cruel
shrift with his enemies |
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