Peter The Great Influence

1. The reign of Peter the Great had a great impact on the Russian Orthodox Church. Peter did not particularly like the Russian Orthodox Church, he saw the church as backwards and still using their traditions which Peter did not like. He also saw the Church as rival to his power. The patriarch’s constant ceremonial presence, pretensions to co-sovereignty, and network of subordinate bishoprics and monasteries evoked an aura of theocracy. For many years the church operated autonomously, but this changed under Peter. When the senior bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church died in 1700 Peter did not appoint a new one. In 1721 Peter replaced the patriarch with a college of the monarch’s clerical appointees dubbed the Holy Synod and assisted by Senate
The importance of the naval and military reforms that Peter the Great undertook in his reign was of great importance to Russia and to Peter personally. During this time there was a military revolution going on in early modern Europe, which involved innovations in technology, tactics, army and navy size, and bureaucratization. The prospect of war in the north against the Swedish and its Polish allies, and in the south against the Ottomans persuaded Peter that he had to reform his armies in accordance to contemporary European standards in order to survive. Russia's armed forces as they stood in the late seventeenth century bore comparison with those of the armies of feudal Europe. Russia’s defeat at Narva in 1700 hundred showed Peter that military modernization needed to be fully implemented in Russia. The reform entailed the establishment of more efficient systems of central command and control, and of taxation, recruitment, training, and supplies. Peter would abandon the traditional levy that they relied on for centuries. He would then recruited and drilled, dozens of new infantry and cavalry, establish new regiments of artillery and engineering units. He also made a system called the Table of Ranks that was based on merit and length of service instead of social standing. This forced many nobles in state servitude. In terms of the navy Peter was always fascinated by building his own ship and having a navy in Russia. Peter himself mastered and built his own full sailing ship. There were two stages in building his navy; the building of a war fleet in Voronezh, and his dispatch of nobles to Holland and elsewhere in Europe to learn shipbuilding and navigation. Peter also built many academies for learning on military operations for both the army and the navy in which many foreigners were recruited to teach Russians. Many foreigners were hired into the army and navy while Russians were being