It is acknowledged that under the rule of Peter I Russia have turned itself into a powerful nation. By what is a powerful nation? If we would generalize the knowledge we have about the different powerful states in history, we would probably discover that the powerful state should satisfy to the following two conditions: it should have its opinions respected among other nations, and it should have its laws enforced on its territory. In order for the first condition to be satisfied, the state should have a forceful army, which is provided with all the supplies it might need during its military activity. The second condition can be satisfied with having a strong central and local government. The significance of Peter I's reign in Russia is that he became a tsar in the country, which was weak in both international and domestic arena, and left a powerful nation to his successors. This was achieved by four of his major reforms: army reform, tax reform, central and local government reform, and church reform. The first two were aimed at building the strong army, and the latter two were designed for strengthening the Russian government.
[...] The cause of it probably comes from the fact that the rule of Russia before Peter I formally was in the hand of two people: the tsar, who ruled the country, and the patriarch, who ruled the church. Patriarch was not subordinated to the tsar, and therefore the church, officially, was independent from the tsar. Thus, the state ideology was not centralized on one person the monarch. However, during the reign of Peter the Great, when he began to concentrate all his power in his hands, the practice of such a dual rule was abolished. [...]
[...] These measures, obviously, had a direct effect on the military successes in the oncoming Northern War, although its first battles, like that of Narva in 1700, ended with the defeat of Russian army. The Russian army, like any other army, required much of the necessary supplies, like food, clothes, arms, etc. The only source of funds for these high expenses could come from taxes. The improvements in the Russian tax legislation were necessary, because under the old system of levying the taxes on the size of the taxpayer's land and household it was easy to defraud the governments tax collectors (Pipes, p. [...]
[...] The Significance of Peter I in the Russian History It is acknowledged that under the rule of Peter I Russia have turned itself into a powerful nation. By what is a powerful nation? If we would generalize the knowledge we have about the different powerful states in history, we would probably discover that the powerful state should satisfy to the following two conditions: it should have its opinions respected among other nations, and it should have its laws enforced on its territory. [...]
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