Source A Adapted from a speech by Peter the Great to some Russian gentlemen
I know that the preference that I give to foreigners is not pleasing to all my subjects. But some of my subjects are intelligent and observe that I treat foreigners well and try to get them to stay so that my subjects can learn from them and adopt their sciences and arts, for the good of Russia. I also have foolish and wicked subjects who do not appreciate my good intentions and wish to remain in their ignorance. In their stupidity they despise anything good which is new to them and would willingly hinder it if only they could. They do not reflect on what it was like in our country before I travelled in foreign lands and invited foreigners to Russia, and how little I would have achieved without their aid against our powerful enemies.
Source B Adapted from NP Pavlov Silvanksi, Popular Reactions to Reform, 1897
The year 1697 started a pilgrimage of Russians to the West, which continued throughout Peter's reign. Many Russians went abroad and often lived their for long periods, either to study at the Tsar's command, or in the course of state service, or simply by personal choice. Immediately after the Tsar's first journey abroad, Russian society was swept with the desire to become acquainted with Western life. Peter, who had first sent young people abroad with the sole aim of securing expert seamen, eventually came to understand the cultural importance of direct contact with Western European life.
Source C Adapted from M Rady, Russia, Poland and the Ukraine 1462-1725, 1990
Peter's 'Great Embassy' to Western Europe had stirred within him a desire to seek Russia's modernisation and transformation. Thus, once he returned to Moscow, he at once sought to impose western manners on his subjects. The process of Westernisation gathered pace during the first years of the new century. In 1700 Peter commenced hostilities with Sweden. As it turned out Russia was seriously unprepared for the war which followed. A basic lack of resources, combined with poor military provision and administrative disorganisation made Russia an easy target for invasion. In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation.
Use Sources A, B, C and your own knowledge. How far were Peter's westernisation policies driven by the needs of war? 24 marks
Your first task is to find the best quote from each source to back up your argument (either in support or against the question). For each quote you need to provide a sentence to explain why you chose it.
Once you have had an opportunity to read other responses and make your comments about them, your second task is to write your most important argument from your own knowledge and justify your choice.
Source A: "How little I would have achieved without their aid against our powerful foreign enemies." This quote shows that Peter needed the help from foreign experts coming into Russia, because without their skills, the Russians would not be able to learn the "sciences and arts" that were essential for the ability to fight against other nations. This quote is in support of the question because Peter needed to educate (and therefore, modernise) Russia in order to succeed.
ReplyDeleteSource B: "Russian society was swept with the desire to become auquainted with Russian life." argues a different viewpoint, that it was not just war that lead to modernisation, but a positive regeneration of Russian lifestyle was becoming apparent in society. It is a positive outlook on Russians going to study abroad, wheras it was not very popular to those who were forced to leave. However, also in this source, it says "Peter had first sent young people abroad with the sole aim of securing expert seamen." This supports the title, as it clearly demonstrates how experts were needed in order for the navy to become powerful and able to succeed in war situations. Therefore, Peter's westernisation policies were carried out to improve Russias' armed forces to help her win wars.
Source C: "A basic lack of recourses, combined with poor military provision made Russia an easy target for invasion." This quote shows that Peter needed to westernise as quickly as he could, because there was the overbearing risk of being invaded, due to being behind in technology development. This was an important motivation for Peter as a solution to this risk had to be found, otherwise his dreams he had invisioned of a new Russia might take far longer to fulfill, i.e being invaded would cause many complications to the country as a whole and perhaps the size of Russia would be an issue to keep it secure? I'm not sure about this, but maybe the more time spent on that, the less time Peter would have to modernise.
Source A
ReplyDelete"what it was like in our country before I travelled in foreign lands"
The words "in our country" suggest that Peter's westernisation was driven by, not war, but a desire for internal reform.
Source B
"the sole aim of securing expert seamen, eventually came to understand the cultural importance of direct contact with Western European life."
This quote synthesis the arguments that he westernised for war and that he had other motives for westernisation by showing how the first "eventually came" the latter.
Source C
"In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation."
A similar argument to source B, however this source says that the other motives came before war, that, instead of leading to more general westernisation, war accelerated the existing process.
Source A: ‘I treat foreigners well and try to get them to stay so that my subjects can learn from the and adopt their sciences and arts, for the good of Russia’. This quote demonstrates that Peter’s Westernisation policies were driven not simply by war but also by the desire to educate Russia, possibly so they can increase their economic power and be put on the European map.
ReplyDeleteSource B: Peter ‘sent young people abroad with the sole aim of securing expert seamen, eventually [coming] to the understanding the cultural importance of direct contact with western European life’. On this quote I agree with Mary, as it demonstrates how while initially his motives might have been dominate by military concerns, he soon began to be interested in western culture and how it might benefit Russia.
Source C: ‘In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation’: This quote supports the view that Peters policies were driven by war by stating that military deficiencies led to Peter feeling that in order to compete with the west, he needed to westernise his army. However, the fact that this refers to Narva in 1700 suggests that previously there had been other motives as this was midway through his reign.
I agree with Emmeline's comments on source A. Her argument is supported by the Peter's setting up an Admiralty College in 1718. In addition, by the end of Peter's reign, the number of iron foundries has increased from 20 to 200, and teh College of Manufacture had been set up.
ReplyDeleteThat "Russian society was swept with the desire to become auquainted with Russian life" does not necessarily only mean that war was not a factor, as war could be seen as the means of intergrating Russian society with Russian life. For example, the war with Sweden opened access to the Baltic, which was intended to provide the geographical means for merging the two cultures.
Source A- “..how little I would have achieved without their aid against our powerful enemies”. This quote suggests that Peter’s desire to westernise Russia was fuelled by his desire for war. As he explains that without “their aid” (those from the west) he wouldn’t have been able to successfully fight his “powerful enemies”.
ReplyDeleteSource B- “Russian society was swept with the desire to become acquainted with Western life”. This quote implies that both Peter and Russia were in fact eager to become westernised and that there was a genuine want for progression within Russia.
Source C- “In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation.” This however suggests that Peter’s want for modernisation was due to his desire to be successful in war, not that he simply desired modernisation. His motive was to "meet the Swedish challenge".
Source A: "my subjects can learn from them and adopt their sciences and arts for the good of Russia". This shows that Peter's westernisation policies were not driven by war. This suggests that Peter's motives were directed towards his educational reforms. In 1714, Peter attempted to introduce a system of primary schools. He wanted to overcome the backwardness of Russian society by improving people's understanding of science and art.
ReplyDeleteSource B: "Peter sent young people abroad with the soul aim of securing expert seamen" This reveals how Peter aimed to westernise Russia as a way to become a strong military power, therefore his policies were driven by the needs of war. Peter wanted to improve his subjects skills and understanding of matters which concerned war. As well as sending young apprentices abroad, in order to learn sufficient modern skills from Western European foreigners, Peter also set up a school of navigation in 1701.
Source C: "In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation." This shows how Peter was driven to westernize and modernize Russia, because he belived this would have a significant impact on the improvement of the Russian armed forces, therefore he would be more prepared to fight Sweden. This was one of Peter's soul aims because it ensured that Russia would become a dominant European power. He did this by modernising the armed forces, by brining in foreigners from the west to teach their skills in shipbuilding and strategically command the Russian armies. He also introduced modern weaponary, such as bayonets (originally introduced from Britain), which increased Russia's military advantage.
Source A-'My subjects can learn from [foreigners] and adopt their sciences and arts for the good of Russia.'
ReplyDeleteI think this opposes the idea that Peter westernised purley for the ability of being successfull in wars because from the quote it is clear that in order to modernize Russia, Peter encouraged and influenced the western way of life for 'The good of Russia'.
Source B- 'Russian society was swept with the desire to become aquainted with western life'.
Like source A, this follows the argument that Peter simply wanted to westernize to create a more modern Russia, instead of the needs for war. As his pilgrimage ephasized his interest for the cultures of the west.
Source C- 'in 1700 Peter commenced hostilities against sweden This agrees with the reason of westernization due to needs of war. Peter returned from the Great Embassy 1698, and war was declared in 1700 just two years later, meaning that Peter could have been fascinated by the western millitary system instead of westernising for the good and culture of Russia.
Source A:'some of my subjects are intelligent and observe that I treat foreigners well and try to get them to stay so that my subjects can c'This shows peters approach to reformation and his western ideology, however the comment 'some of my subjects' shows that not all of them shared his view and that he dissaproved of those who don't. It is also possible to argue that what peter means by 'learn from them and adopt their sciences and arts, for the good of Russia.'to use western ideas and sciences to assist his military reforms.
ReplyDeleteSource B:I agree with Francis' point for source B that Peter ‘sent young people abroad with the sole aim of securing expert seamen, eventually [coming] to the understanding the cultural importance of direct contact with western European life’. This demonstrates how initially his motives might have been dominated by military concerns, he soon began to be interested in western culture and how it might benefit Russia.
Source C: "A basic lack of recourses, combined with poor military provision made Russia an easy target for invasion." This quote shows that Peter needed to westernise as quickly as he could, because there was the overbearing risk of being invaded, due to being behind in technology development. This was an important motivation for Peter as a solution to this risk had to be found, otherwise his dreams he had invisioned of a new Russia might take far longer to fulfill, i.e being invaded would cause many complications to the country as a whole and perhaps the size of Russia would be an issue to keep it secure? I'm not sure about this, but maybe the more time spent on that, the less time Peter would have to modernise.
Source A -
ReplyDelete"...how little I would achieved without their aid against our powerful enemies." This quote shows that at least one of Peter's main aims was to gain Western expertise and techniques in order to tackle Sweden, which without foreign aid would have far surpassed Russia in military power, due to it's modern and disciplined army. However, another quote from the same source, "...adopt their science and arts, for the good of Russia." , also shows that Peter did have an interest in non military cultural gains through his contact with the West was not entirely only in war.
Source A
ReplyDelete"I treat foreigners well and try and get them to stay so that my subjects can learn from them and adopt their sciences and arts for the good of Russia"
In this case the adoption of sciences would be in order to for the Russian army to be able to e.g. correctly use artillery they would have to understand angles as well as the fact that in 1701 a school of Navigation and Mathematics was created to help out with the war via the use of sciences. On the other hand it also talks about modernising the arts which suggests that westernisation wasn’t fuel by just war but to enable a cultural revolution also eg Peter reformed the alphabet which allowed it to be easier to print many copies of books.
Source B
“Peter, who had first sent young people abroad with the sole aim of securing expert seamen ship eventually came to understand the cultural importance of direct contact with Western European life”
Again like Source A it suggest that initially Peter’s westernisation policies were driven by war since he sent nobles abroad to try and get the knowledge that Peter believed they would acquire from the west to aid Russia in building a navy but this is then said to have later developed from a need to westernise for the needs of war to on of again cultural importance. But because the cultural importance was developed later, it can still be suggested that Peter’s westernisation policies were driven by the need of war.
Source C
“In order to meet the Swedish challenge, Peter was forced to increase the speed of modernisation”
In this case the source is talking about Peter’s response to the Battle of Narva in 1700 in which he lost against Charles. Therefore Peter thought that in order to be successful in his next battle against Sweden, he would have to modernise his army in order to do so.