The relevance of the work is due to the intensity of economic events that occurred during this period of development of our country. In the 15th century The Russian economy developed intensively. Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. - a centralized feudal state. Agriculture remained the basis of the economy, in which the vast majority of the population was employed. By the end of the 17th century, there was a significant expansion of cultivated areas associated with the colonization of the southern regions of the country by Russian people. The dominant form of land tenure was feudal land tenure. Feudal ownership of land was strengthened and expanded, and peasants were further enslaved.

It was during this period of time that Russia entered a new period in its history, characterized by the beginning of the formation of an all-Russian market and the emergence of elements of bourgeois relations.

The object of study is the Russian economy of the 15th-17th centuries.

The subject of the study is the features and components of the country’s economic development in the 15th-17th centuries.

The purpose of the work is to identify and consider the main directions of development of the Russian economy in the XV-XVII centuries.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve a number of problems:

1. Study the features of development Agriculture and strengthening of feudal exploitation of peasants in XV-XVI centuries;

2. Familiarize yourself with the development of domestic trade in this period;

3. Consider the situation of agriculture, crafts and manufactures in the 17th century;

4. Characterize the features of the beginning of the formation of the all-Russian market.

1. Economic development of the Russian state in the XV-XVII centuries

1.1. Development of agriculture and strengthening of feudal exploitation of peasants

Agriculture developed its own geography and areas of specialization. Agriculture was the dominant industry everywhere. Three-field farming and the associated use of fertilizers were used more widely. The steam system was used in parallel with the transfer system. We are talking primarily about the steppe regions; the northern lands were cultivated with cuttings. The yield was mainly samtri. The increase in trade in grain caused the expansion of the strip of agricultural regions at the expense of the northern lands, the coastal territory of the Novgorod region, and the Volga region. The lands of the Urals were developed. Urban needs for marketable grain grew, which forced monasteries and landowners to become involved in the grain trade. The peasants had to sell part of the harvest to pay state taxes and rent to the landowners.

The domestic market stimulated the expansion of agricultural land. The feudal lords sought reserves from the land fund of peasant farms. This was the way of direct appropriation of peasants' plots. State lands also suffered: feudal lords forcibly annexed them to their domains. The central regions of the Russian state were involved in the process of reducing peasant plots, the number of which decreased by 40% by the end of the century. This applies equally to Novgorod and Pskov with their vast lands. In the southern lands this process did not proceed so rapidly: the annexed Pomerania was black-growing.

The forms of feudal land tenure were transformed. Patrimonial land ownership existed as the main one, along with this there was a process of formation of local property. The votchinniki were still strong, the land fund formed the basis of economic power, however, their rights were suppressed: they lost their political independence. The economic mechanism of the estate was based on the right of full inheritance. The manorial form was a conditional form of ownership during the life of the owner. The service of the owner was often put at the forefront: with its end, the local legal right to own land also ceased. The layer of dependent peasants was joined by those who had previously paid only the traditional “rents” in kind, as well as newly enslaved peasants. This category, in addition to the already existing serfs, was now formed as a result of the introduction of a new form of debt relations. This was a form of dependence in the form of indentured servants working off the sums of money they had taken.

There was also voluntary dependence, when a contract was concluded between the feudal lord and the worker; this category was called “new contractors”. The “ladleman”, in the absence of his own, worked on the feudal lord’s land, paying with half the harvest. There were also bobyli, tax-exempt peasants who worked for food and money, and youngsters who worked their duties within the church household. As before, part of the peasants constituted a black-growing, state-dependent category.

Along with the work, there was also food rent. Until the end of the 16th century, rent in kind remained in the south. These General characteristics it is necessary to supplement with information about crop failures and famines that periodically occurred in Russia and complicated the situation of the plebeian part of the population.

1.2. Development of domestic trade and prerequisites for the all-Russian market

All cities of Russia, especially its central part, were interested in agricultural products. There was a deepening of the social division of labor. Craft production developed into small-scale production and was concentrated in urban centers. According to the data of the 16th century, shoemakers, carpenters, potters, gunsmiths and silversmiths worked at the princely courts. The staff of the Novgorod Sophia House includes six carpenters, six grain workers, and a wheelwright. There were mukosei, brewers and blacksmiths. Mention is made of icon makers and boiler makers. Craftsmen of Volokolamsk served the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. Monastic needs were not provided only by the work of quitrent people, but required hired labor. Craftsmen made oil from hemp, Romanov "polstovals" made felt, Boldino tailors made fur coats. Among the common specialties of this time were saddle makers, tanners, candle makers, and window makers.

In cities where free craft was concentrated, some researchers count 186 types of craft qualifications and another 34 different specializations in the food industry.

The leading professions were crafts related to the production of clothing. In large cities - Novgorod and Pskov - there were special rows: linen, homespun, fur coats. There is a mention of terlic, single-row, caftan and leather. From the shop books of Novgorod, the presence of cap, hat, hat, dyeing and bleaching rows is clear. Specialization, for example, covered tanners engaged in the production of soles, saddles, and belts. The rawhide and raw materials rows were respectively provided with the products of artisans of this qualification.

After clothing and leather, the most widespread was the production of household items and tools from metal to serve the strengthened industry and agriculture. In Pskov in the middle of the 16th century, there were 67 shops selling products from this branch of craft. 222 silversmiths were registered in Novgorod. From the documents it becomes clear that these crafts served both urgent needs and were engaged in the production of highly artistic liturgical objects. Mention is made of simple cabbage cutters and door checks, interior and hanging locks, “iron checks with iron pins for dogs.” Pskov and Novgorod had special rows - boiler houses, in which copper products were sold.

From the end of the 10s to the beginning of the 20s, after the Peace of Stolbovo and the Deulin Truce, the end of the actions of the rebel groups, the Russian people began to restore normal economic life. The Zamoskovny region, the center of European Russia, comes to life, the counties around the Russian capital, in the west and northwest, northeast and east. The Russian peasant is moving to the outskirts - south of the Oka River, in the Volga region and the Urals, in Western Siberia. New settlements are springing up here. Peasants who fled here from the center from their owners - landowners and patrimonies, monasteries and palace departments, or were transferred to these places, are developing new land masses, entering into economic, marriage, and everyday contacts with the local population. A mutual exchange of management experience is being established: local residents adopt the steam farming system, haymaking, apiary beekeeping, plows and other devices from the Russians; Russians, in turn, learn from local residents about the method of long-term storage of unthreshed bread and much more.

In February 1613, Mikhail Romanov (1613-1645) was elected tsar at the Zemsky Sobor. A new dynasty is establishing itself in Russia. His father is Fyodor Nikitich (in monasticism Filaret), cousin of the last tsar from the Rurik dynasty Fyodor Ivanovich, after returning from Polish captivity in 1619, he becomes the Patriarch of All Rus',

The new government is primarily engaged in eliminating the consequences in the socio-economic and foreign policy spheres. In 1617, a peace treaty was concluded with Sweden, Russia returned Novgorod and Pskov, but lost lands along the banks of the Neva and the Gulf of Finland, its only access to the Baltic Sea. In 1618, the Deulin truce with Poland was signed, leaving Smolensk and the Smolensk lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The relatively calm reign of Mikhail Fedorovich was a time of gathering forces. However, these decades also became a period of latent maturation of new social contradictions, which splashed out to the surface of social life in the first years of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676).

Due to the increase in military spending in the 30-40s. taxes increase noticeably. In 1646 an increased salt tax is introduced (an indirect tax to replace direct taxes). In 1647, the government abandoned the salt tax and decided to collect direct taxes from the population for 1646 and 1647. and introduces new taxes. At the same time, management costs are being reduced, which deprives entire categories of the serving population of wages. All this, along with the introduction of an indefinite search for fugitive peasants, leads to increased social tension.

The discontent of the population results in the Salt Riot in Moscow, unrest in Tomsk, Vladimir, Voronezh, Yelets, Salt Kama and other cities. In 1650, major uprisings took place in Novgorod and Pskov. In the beginning. 60s again military expenses (1654-1667 - war with Poland due to the annexation of Ukraine) lead to deterioration economic situation countries. Trying to overcome it, the state issues copper money at the rate of gold. Taxes are collected in gold money, and wages are paid in copper. The natural consequence of this was the impoverishment of the population and the Copper Riot in Moscow in 1662. The tightening of the serfdom regime led to the peasant war led by Stepan Razin (1667 - 1671).

As a reaction to popular discontent, a new code of feudal law was adopted - the Council Code of 1649, which regulated many processes in the socio-economic, political, and legal spheres: the formation of a single form of property was consolidated on the basis of the merger of patrimonial and local property; the main classes-estates were consolidated; the transition from estate-representative to absolute monarchy was proclaimed; the church begins to submit to the state through the creation of the Monastic Order; there is a centralization of the judicial-administrative apparatus, a detailed development of the court system and the unification of legal relations on the basis of feudal principles; Church institutions are deprived of the right to acquire new estates. In general, by confirming the abolition of fixed-term years, i.e., the indefinite search for runaway peasants and the assignment of members of posad communities to posads, the Cathedral Code strengthens and consolidates the “tax system.”

In 1652, on the initiative of Patriarch Nikon, the reform of the Russian Church began. Nikon expressed the ideas of Caesaropapism, that is, the superiority of spiritual power over secular power, and with his transformations tried to strengthen the church organization. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich supported the reform, but wanted to use it to further subordinate the institution of the church to state interests.

The reform was carried out with a focus on Greek rites. This was opposed by the “zealots of ancient piety” led by Archpriest Avvakum - representatives of the clergy who were guided by ancient Russian ritual traditions. The contradictions led to a split in the church and the emergence of a religious opposition, which became the ideological shell of a broad social protest with an arsenal of means from armed uprisings (the Solovetsky uprising of 1668-1676, the movement on the Don in the 80s, etc.) to mass self-immolations. By the end of the 17th century. Several tens of thousands of people died in them.

The split led to a crisis of religious and national consciousness (Moscow, which considered itself the third Rome, suddenly admits its errors and invites Greek and Ukrainian monks to copy church books), and in 1658. As a result of the conflict between the king and Nikon, the latter falls and the idea of ​​“priesthood above the kingdom” collapses.

Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676), two more remarkable events took place. Foreign specialists are beginning to be invited and by mid. XVII century The German Settlement was created in Moscow. Foreign customs, clothing, and fashion began to enter the life of the Moscow aristocracy and the royal court.

A number of important socio-economic and political events marked the reign of Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682). A reform of the tax system was carried out, and from 1679 the transition to household taxation began in the country. The general reform project developed in 1681 touched on many issues of governing the country and had a clearly anti-Duma and anti-patriarchal orientation. The main real act of Fyodor Alekseevich was the abolition of localism in 1682. From now on, appointments to administrative posts were carried out regardless of the past merits of the family and its nobility.

In the 17th century The colonization of Siberia, begun by Ermak's campaign, continues. By the 20s. The Russians had already established themselves in the Yenisei region, in the 30-40s, Russian explorers reached Baikal and Transbaikalia. Thanks to the combined efforts of the Cossacks and peasants, with the support of the government, a huge distance to the Pacific Ocean was covered in almost 100 years. Colonization was carried out by three streams: Cossacks and industrialists; governors and sovereign military men who built cities and forts and established a system of government; peasant agricultural colonization, thanks to it by the 80s. XVII century Siberia was able to provide itself with bread.

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The unification of Russian lands around Moscow marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of Russian statehood - the formation of a centralized state, where political and economic unification takes place around a strong central government and an unlimited monarchy is established (autocracy, absolutism). For centralized state characterized by uniform laws and common governance. In the XIV–XV centuries. Communication between Russian lands is intensifying, and the concept of “Russia” has appeared. At the end of the 15th century. under Ivan III, a single state was created with its center in Moscow. From the end of the 15th century. The highest state body of the centralized state, the Boyar Duma, was also formalized. In 1497, a new set of laws was compiled - the Code of Laws of Ivan III - the first code of laws of Russia, taking into account uniform norms of criminal liability and the procedure for conducting investigations and trials. Ivan III began to be called the Sovereign of All Rus' and pursued an increasingly independent policy from the Horde. In 1480, having admitted their defeat at the Oka tributary on the Ugra River, the Horde troops turned back and thus the Mongol-Tatar yoke fell. In the second half of the 15th century. Ivan III determined the most important direction in foreign policy - the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea. A national cultural revival began, largely facilitated by the formation of a unified Russian state.

The process of strengthening the state and centralization followed the line of strengthening the power of the prince in the 16th century. under Vasily III and Ivan IV. In the 16th century The Boyar Duma continued to exist as an advisory body under the Grand Duke. The state was divided into counties (territorially close to the former principalities), and counties into volosts. It was headed by the governor in the district and the volost in the volost. These positions were given, as a rule, for previous military service.

The general trend of the country's socio-economic development in the 15th century. – strengthening of the feudal-serf system. The economic basis of serfdom was feudal ownership of land: local, patrimonial and state. According to their social status, peasants were divided into three groups: proprietary (belonged to secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords); palace (palace department of the Moscow princes, and later the tsars); Chernososhnye (later state-owned - lived in volost communities on lands that did not belong to any owner, but had to perform certain duties in favor of the state).

In 1533, Ivan IV (the Terrible) (1522–1584) ascended the grand-ducal throne. This time was marked by the strengthening of central power. On January 16, 1547, the 17-year-old Grand Duke accepted the royal title. In the 50s XVI century a number of reforms were carried out. A new system of government has emerged. An important step in the history of Russia there was the convening of the first Zemsky Sobor (Moscow, 1549) - an advisory body, a meeting of class representatives from boyars, nobles, clergy, merchants, townspeople and black-sown peasants, as well as lower class organizations. The community played an important role in the lives of peasants. Community in the 16th century was governed through a system of elected offices and often opposed feudal lords and authorities, defending the interests of its members through customary law, courts and petitions.

For 13 years, the government of Russia was essentially the Elected Rada, without formally being a state institution. In 1550, a new Code of Law was adopted, strengthening the central government. New forms of management appeared - orders (the first functional governing bodies). The feeding system was abolished, taxes were streamlined, and a tax tax was introduced. A local system developed - distribution of estates to military servicemen - nobles. In accordance with the military reform of 1550, a uniform procedure for passing military service: “by fatherland” (by origin - nobles and boyar children) and “by device” (by recruitment - service people from whom the rifle army was formed). Reforms of the mid-16th century. strengthened the central government. Russia developed in the direction of an estate-representative monarchy.

The elected Rada was a supporter of gradual reforms leading to strengthening of centralization. Ivan IV preferred a path that contributed to the rapid strengthening of his personal power, stipulating for himself the right to execute and pardon at his discretion. The tsar divided the entire state into two parts: the oprichnina, allocated to him personally as a special inheritance, and zemshchina- remaining lands. The purpose of the oprichnina was to undermine the economic power of the feudal aristocracy by eliminating its extensive patrimonial land ownership and at the expense of allocating land to the nobility. An oprichnina army was created - a punitive mechanism without trial. Winter–summer 1569–1570 A terrible terror swept across the country.

The results of the reign of Ivan IV were extremely contradictory for the country. The main result of his almost 50-year stay on the throne was the formation of a centralized Russian state, which acquired wide international authority. A class-representative despotic monarchy led by the tsar emerged. At the same time, the result of the oprichnina was an economic crisis and political destabilization.

By the beginning of the 17th century. The difficult situation in the economic and political life of the country, generated by the oprichnina and the Livonian War, again sharply worsened. The Russian state entered the period of Troubles (1598–1613) – civil war. At the beginning of the century (1601-1603), the country was struck by a terrible crop failure, famine began, and peasant riots broke out. The internal political situation of the state continued to deteriorate. Impostors appeared on the royal throne - False Dmitry I (1602), False Dmitry II (1607), and the struggle for power intensified.

The period of unrest ended with the fact that in January 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail Romanov (1613–1645) to the throne. The beginning of the reign of the Romanov dynasty was the heyday of the class-representative monarchy. The appearance and significance of the Boyar Duma is changing. Measures are being taken to strengthen the autocracy. In 1625, the word “autocrat” was included in the royal title.

The establishment of absolutism in Russia began after the accession to the throne in 1645 of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645–1676), the eldest son of Tsar Mikhail. The Zemsky Sobor in 1649 adopted the Code, according to which the hereditary assignment of peasants to the land was legally formalized, and the state took upon itself the indefinite search for fugitives. Essentially in Russia it was introduced serfdom. The government continued its policy aimed at strengthening the feudal-serf system. A single ruling class of nobles (landowners) emerged. The corvée system became the basis of relations between feudal lords and peasants. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, an autocratic-noble monarchy emerged.

At the same time, by the middle of the 17th century. new features have appeared in economic development Russia. Cities gradually came to life in the 20s and 30s. The first manufactories emerge - relatively large productions, especially in metallurgy, domestic and foreign trade revives.

The development of the country's economy was accompanied by major social movements. XVII century received the name “rebellious age”: 1648 - Salt riot in Moscow, 1662 - Copper riot, 1667 - Cossack uprising led by S. T. Razin.

Russian foreign policy in the 17th century. was aimed at solving three problems: achieving access to the Baltic Sea, ensuring the safety of the southern regions from the raids of the Crimean Khan, and returning territories seized during the Time of Troubles.



In 1584, Ivan IV died, and his son Fyodor Ivanovich ascended the throne. Under him, the “middle-born” and “middle-class” boyar Boris Godunov emerged as ruler. After the death of Feodor (1598), a dynastic crisis began. Fyodor's only brother, Tsarevich Dmitry, who lived in Uglich, died in 1591 under unclear circumstances (either he “self-immolated” while playing “knives”, or was killed by people sent by Godunov). For the first time, Russia received an elected tsar, who became ruler Boris Godunov, officially elevated to the throne by the Zemsky Sobor in 1598. While still a ruler, he pursued successful domestic and foreign policies. Thus, in 1589 the patriarchate was established in Russia; as a result of the war with Sweden in 1590-1593. The successful Treaty of Tyavzin was concluded in 1595, according to which the Baltic cities went to Russia: Ivan-Gorod, Yam and Koporye. The victory over the Crimean Khan near Serpukhov is also associated with his name.

In the internal life of the country, Godunov carried out a number of reforms: he streamlined trade, actively suppressed bribery, and promoted justice. Contemporaries highly appreciated his statesmanship. Thus, Dyak Ivan Timofeev, a famous writer of the 17th century, wrote about him: “We had other smart kings before him, but their mind was only a shadow of his Mind.” However, Godunov was plagued by failures. In 1601-1602 A terrible famine broke out in Russia (people ate “the worst animal foods” and tree bark), which caused mass migrations from the central counties and the Volga region to the Don, Ural and Siberia. In order to save small-scale farms from ruin, Godunov allowed the temporary transfer of peasants from one landowner to another, but not to large estates or monastic farms, but this decree brought almost no benefit.

In 1601-1602 Popular unrest swept across the country, and from 1603 rumors began to spread about the miraculous salvation of Tsarevich Dmitry. The most reasoned version to date

Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, together with this detachment, liberated a number of cities and blocked the Poles’ path to the north. But in the fall of 1609, the Polish king Sigismund III Augustus besieged Smolensk and proclaimed the gathering of all Polish troops under the besieged city. The Tushino camp disintegrated due to the mass departure of Poles. The impostor fled to Kaluga. The Tushino boyars decided to achieve peace with Sigismund and made him an offer to invite his son, Prince Vladislav, to the Russian throne. On February 4, 1610, an agreement was concluded in Smolensk calling Prince Vladislav to the Russian throne. It stipulated the competence of the supreme power and the rights of the upper classes of Russian society. However, the siege of Smolensk was not stopped, but, on the contrary, took on more fierce forms, and the Russian army marching near Smolensk was defeated near the village of Klushin. The impostor took advantage of the defeat of the Russian troops and again approached Moscow. The boyars and nobles expressed dissatisfaction with the helplessness of Shuisky's government and overthrew him. Russian state became “stateless”, the rule in it passed to the “Semiboyarshchina” (“seven-numbered boyars”). The question of Russia's loss of independence has become acute.

After the overthrow of Vasily Shuisky, the Swedes violated the terms of the treaty of 1609 and occupied the Novgorod land and Novgorod, installing their governors there. Polish and Swedish troops dominated Russia, negotiations with Vladislav dragged on (he did not want to convert to Orthodoxy), meanwhile Moscow had already sworn allegiance to him. On November 6, 1610, Patriarch Hermogenes issued an appeal to all Russians to begin a serious fight against intervention for the liberation of the Russian state. Central Russia was dominated by Polish detachments under the command of Sapieha, Lisovsky, Khotkevich and others. Zholkiewski's detachment entered Moscow and occupied the Kremlin. The position of the Russian state was extremely difficult. Sigismund did not lift the siege of Smolensk, did not send Vladislav, and it soon became known that Sigismund III Augustus himself wanted to receive the Russian crown.

In many cities of the Russian land, a movement began aimed at liberating the country from interventionists. The cities corresponded with each other and agreed on joint actions against the invaders. Many people were “served in shishi”, i.e. to the partisans. Patriarch Hermogenes called on all Russians to stand “with one mind” for the freedom of the fatherland. The first militia was formed on Ryazan soil, and its leader was the nobleman Prokopiy Lyapunov. It was joined by Cossacks led by Ataman I. Zarutsky and the remnants of the Tushino troops under the command of Trubetskoy. Lyapunov promised all the boyars and nobles who would take part in the militia forgiveness, as well as “freedom and salary.” The militia entered Moscow and besieged the Kremlin Kitay-Gorod. Prince Dmitry Pozharsky fought especially bravely at Lubyanka, but this militia failed to defeat the Poles. In addition, disagreements began between the Cossacks, nobles and peasants. The militia had its own plan for restoring statehood. The “Sentence of the Whole Land” was drawn up, according to which the rights of the Cossacks were curtailed in comparison with the nobles (they, for example, did not receive the right to hold public office), and the peasants were ordered to return to captivity: “and upon detection of the peasants and fugitives, they should be given back to the old landowners " In addition, the nobles began to occupy lands inhabited by state peasants and brutally dealt with Cossacks who expressed dissatisfaction for any reason. The Cossacks called Lyapunov to a circle and killed him. The militia disintegrated. The defense in the capital was held by Cossack camps led by Trubetskoy and Zarutsky, with a total number of approximately 10 thousand soldiers. Meanwhile, Smolensk, which had resisted for 642 days, fell, and Sigismund openly declared his claims to the Russian throne, the Swedes captured Novgorod and Pskov and, for their part, proposed Prince Karl Philip to the Russian throne. The power of the Swedish administration was established in Novgorod and its environs.

In the fall of 1611, a second people's militia began to form in Nizhny Novgorod. Its initiator was a townsman - the zemstvo elder (favorite head) “beef man” Kozma Minin-Sukhoruk. The townspeople decided to collect the “third money”, i.e. one third of the income, and invite service people skilled in military affairs. At Minin’s suggestion, they turned to Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who distinguished himself in the battles of the first militia. At this time, he was healing his wounds on his Suzdal estate. Thus, the Nizhny Novgorod militia was led by two people: Dmitry Pozharsky, who commanded the army, and Kozma Minin, who was in charge of money and supplies. The chronicler wrote about this: “The last people gathered in the Moscow state and went against the godless Latins and their traitors.” To lead the militia, a “Council of the Whole Land” was created from elected people (two or three people from each city), then a government and orders were formed as governing bodies - in the Nizhny Novgorod militia the management scheme of the Moscow state, which existed before the Time of Troubles, was repeated. In the spring of 1612, the militia moved towards Moscow through Yaroslavl. In August 1612, the militia of Minin and Pozharsky approached Moscow and united with the remnants of the first militia by Trubetskoy’s detachments and part of the noble militia. At the same time, Khodkiewicz’s Polish troops approached Moscow, but were repulsed. In these battles, Minin showed himself to be a talented organizer and a brave warrior. On October 26, 1612, Moscow was liberated.

In January 1613, an expanded Zemsky Sobor was held, which decided not to invite any foreign contenders to the Russian throne. The name of Mikhail Romanov was named, who came from an ancient boyar family from Moscow, connected by kinship with the extinct Rurik dynasty. Mikhail Romanov, despite his youth and the difficult situation in which he found himself on the throne, led the country skillfully. Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich took urgent measures to eliminate the military danger. Relations with Sweden were settled diplomatically, thanks to the mediation of England, and the Peace of Stolbovo was signed in 1617. In this world, Russia again lost its coastline (Yam, Koporye, Oreshek), but returned the original Russian Novgorod lands occupied by the Swedes.

Negotiations with Poland dragged on, and Vladislav set off on a campaign against Moscow “to gain the throne for himself.” Hetman Sagaidachny came from Ukraine to help him. But the defense of Moscow was organized successfully, and near Moscow in the village of Rubtsovo, the Polish troops were completely defeated; on December 1, 1618, peace was made in the village of Deulino not far from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The prisoners returned home, and among them was the tsar’s father, Metropolitan Philaret, who was solemnly elevated to the rank of patriarch. Under the terms of the Deulin Peace with Poland, Russia gave up the Smolensk (except for Vyazma), Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversk lands. The city of Smolensk also went to Poland.

The loss of Smolensk was deeply felt in Russia, and in 1632, when Sigismund III Augustus died and “kinglessness” arose in Poland, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich presented Poland with “its guilt” in relation to the Russian state (atrocities during the Time of Troubles, plunder of Russian lands). Russian troops under the command of Mikhail Shein began a campaign against Smolensk. At this time, Vladislav, the son of Sigismund, was elected king of Poland, who led the army, managed to encircle Shein’s troops and seize weapons, baggage and provisions. As a result of these actions, the Peace of Polyanovsky was concluded in 1634, according to which Russia never received Smolensk and Chernigov, but Vladislav officially renounced his claims to the Russian throne.

In 1637, the Cossacks, without the consent of the government of Mikhail Fedorovich, captured Azov and, after a long “sitting”, asked the tsar for help. The government found itself in a dual position: on the one hand, the acquisition of Azov was part of Russian foreign policy plans, as it would provide Russia with access to the Black Sea, and on the other hand, Russia, exhausted by the Time of Troubles, was not ready for war with the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Zemsky Sobor in 1641 decided to recall the Cossacks and not start a war with the Turks. In 1642, the Cossacks left Azov.

Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the development and settlement of Siberia continued actively. In 1618, Russian people reached the Yenisei and founded the city of Krasnoyarsk there. In 1619 - Yenisei, in 1631 - Bratsk and in 1632 - Yakut fort. In 1622, an episcopate was established in Tobolsk.

The Tsar in every possible way contributed to the development of the fertile lands of Siberia, sending not only service people, but also arable peasants to these lands.

In general, the government of Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645) adhered to a peaceful orientation in its foreign policy.

Result: During the Time of Troubles, there were attempts to implement reforms both in the political (collective leadership, election of the king, creation of provisional governments, etc.) and in economic spheres(tax reforms, liberalization of the order of peasant transitions, etc.). During the struggle against the intervention, national consolidation took place (people's militias), but unresolved economic problems constantly led to an intensification of social struggle, which took various forms - from palace coups to the peasant war.

In 1613, Mikhail Fedorovich was elected Tsar to the Russian throne, marking the beginning of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia until March 1917

In the second half of the 17th century. after the death of Mikhail Fedorovich, Russia was ruled by his son, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676).

The social composition of society remained the same. The non-taxable population (service people) was represented by boyars, nobles, Cossacks and archers. The top of this group consisted of court ranks: Duma boyars and okolnichy. Among the nobles, the Duma nobleman was considered the highest rank. Military service was compulsory for them. The nobles served “for their fatherland”, for which they were rewarded with estates and salaries.

The Streltsy service was built, as in the 16th century, “according to instruments,” i.e. inviting free “willing” people to “retired places.” Number of rifle regiments in the 17th century. increased significantly, and by the middle of the 17th century. they numbered 70 thousand people. In the 30s XVII century “regiments of the new system” arose - the first experience in creating a regular army. They were fully supported by the state and were formed from datochny (dependent) people called up for lifelong service. The officer corps was noble and was replenished with foreign specialists. General military administration in the country was carried out by the voivode. The voivodships strengthened significantly during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich (1613-1645).

Military reforms allowed the central government to become independent of the nobility in the formation of the armed forces and at the same time use the compulsory service of the nobility in the creation of officer cadres.

The city was represented by a trade and craft population and was traditionally divided into: “the best, average, young” and black people.

The peasants made up two main groups: black-mown and privately owned.

Mid-17th century associated with the development of small-scale production, the products of which are supplied to the market. A division of labor arises and develops, primarily on a geographical basis: iron production - Pavlovo on the Oka, Tula, Lipetsk and Kashira; textiles - Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, Vologda, Lyskovo; canvases - cities in the upper reaches of the Volga; leather crafts - Kimry. Specialization leads to increased production volume. In the second half of the 17th century. In Russia, manufactories emerge, which are large specialized production facilities that, as a rule, use hired labor. The first manufactories were formed in Russia in iron production (Tulo-Kashira region). The development of production led to the formation of a nationwide market. A layer of people appears who are engaged only in the sale of products - merchants. Manufactures and small-scale production, which were widespread in Russia, especially in non-black earth provinces, play a role in the formation of the market structure. Interregional connections led to the creation of large fairs: Makaryevskaya, Irbitskaya, Svenskaya and a number of other, less significant ones. Moscow was also a major industrial and agricultural trading center. Wholesale trade was concentrated in the hands of eminent merchants, the most privileged group of whom - guests - had the right to conduct foreign trade; retail trade was carried out by small traders. Foreign trade is also developing, which is conducted with the East through Astrakhan, and with Western countries- via Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory.

The government provided patronage to trade and, in order to further develop it, adopted two protectionist trade charters: the Trade Charter of 1653 (according to Stroganov’s petition) and the New Trade Charter of 1667, presented by Ordin-Nashchokin, which not only provided support to Russian merchants, but also gave a certain freedom cities in matters of trade.

In the financial field, the end of the 17th century. marked by intensive transformation of the tax and tax systems. Remaining the main type of taxation, the “plow” (economic territorial unit) is subject to a long series of additional taxes: customs duty, Streltsy, Yamsk taxes, salt and tobacco excise taxes.

At the end of the century, the “plow” as a unit of taxation gave way to the “Yard”. Taxation begins to take on an increasingly personal character. In 1646, a household census was carried out, and in 1678, census books were compiled. In 1679-1681. There was a final transition from road taxation to household taxation. All work on taxation since 1680 was concentrated in the Order of the Great Treasury.

The court system was divided into central (the Tsar, the Boyar Duma and orders) and local (provincial and zemstvo self-government bodies and governors).

The drafting of the Code “was a complex process in which it is possible to distinguish between the moments of codification, consultation, revision, legislative decision and binding” (V.O. Klyuchevsky).

The long process of legal registration of serfdom found its end in the Council Code.

Already during the period of Kievan Rus, measures were taken for the economic and non-economic enslavement of peasants by feudal lords. The establishment of peasant dependence on landowners was the main feature of the entire system of feudal relations.

Forms of non-economic dependence were reduced mainly to different forms servility (slavery). Serfdom in Ancient Rus' had a special character, different from Eastern and European (Greek, Roman) slavery, in nature. It can be described as patriarchal.

Quite soon (in the 14th century) signs of a general reduction in servitude as a form of dependence appeared. The place of non-economic coercion began to be taken by forms of economic, bonded, and property dependence. The sources of servitude are being reduced, and servitude is appearing.

The reduction of servitude was carried out in different ways. Some traditional forms disappeared, such as servitude according to the “city key” (entering the service of a master without a contract), and it was forbidden to servile “children of boyars” (nobles). Cases of slaves being released into freedom became more frequent.

The development of indentured servitude (in contrast to complete servitude, an enslaved slave could not be transferred by will, his children did not automatically become slaves) led to the equalization of the position of slaves with serfs.

There was a special category of “big” or “report” serfs, who were princely or boyar servants in charge of certain sectors of the economy - housekeepers, tiuns, firemen, elders. They performed administrative, judicial and police functions on the estates of their masters.

A significant part of the “big” serfs became free people, and at the end of the 16th century, during the oprichnina period, some of them settled on the former lands of the boyars, receiving the name “new noble masters.”

From the end of the 15th century. enslaved servitude replaces complete servitude. At the same time, indentured servitude turned into a form of dependence, which from the 16th century. began to spread to new layers of the free population who fell into economic dependence (nobles, clergy, service people in general, etc.). This required the conclusion of a special agreement.

The forms of economic dependence of peasants also have ancient origins. Already the purchases mentioned in Russian Pravda represented a category of peasants who fell into servile dependence. On the master's farm they were forced to perform various jobs towards the interest on their debt.

The semi-free position of the purchaser, the presence of the master's rights to his person and property brought the purchaser closer to the status of a slave. In some cases (escape, commission of a crime), the purchase could turn into a complete slave.

The attachment of peasants to the land begins quite early. Already in the 14th century. In the inter-princely agreements, an obligation was written down not to lure black-tax (tax-paying) peasants from each other.

From the middle of the 15th century. A series of charters from the Grand Duke are issued, which establish a uniform period for all feudal lords to leave and receive peasants. It also indicated the obligation to pay certain sums of money for the departing peasant (“elderly”).

Attachment developed in two ways - non-economic and economic (enslaved). In the 15th century There were two main categories of peasants - old-timers and newcomers. The first ones ran their own household and bore full duties, forming the basis of the feudal economy. The feudal lord sought to secure them for himself, to prevent their transfer to another owner. The latter, as newcomers who had just settled on their land, could not fully bear the burden of duties and enjoyed certain benefits, received loans and credits. Their dependence on the owner was debt-like and enslaving. According to the form of dependence, a peasant could be a ladle (work for half the harvest) or a silversmith (work for interest).

The first legal act aimed at attaching peasants was the Code of Law of 1497, which established the rule on “St. George’s Day” (a certain and very short period of transition of peasants from one feudal lord to another, the need to pay “elderly”). These provisions were developed in the Code of Laws of 1550, which increased the size of the “elderly”.

Since 1581, the so-called reserved years were introduced, during which peasants were temporarily forbidden to cross even on St. George’s Day. The ban applied to landowners, state (black tax) peasants, palace peasants and the townspeople.

By 1592, the compilation of “scribal books” was completed, in which the names of all owners of courtyards were entered. The books provided the documentary basis for the subsequent attachment of peasants; their waste was controlled and their search and return were organized.

In 1597, the royal decree established a five-year period for searching for runaway peasants; in 1607, this period was extended to 15 years. The years of searching for fugitives were called “training years.”

The final act of the process of enslavement was the Council Code of 1649, which abolished the “lesson years” and established the indefiniteness of the search for fugitive peasants, which extended to all categories of the peasantry.

By the middle of the 17th century. Almost all the “black” (state) volosts in the central regions of the country were in the hands of the feudal lords, and the peasants who lived in them turned into serfs.

Unlike the Chernososhnye peasants (on lands belonging to patrimonies, landowners, monasteries and the palace) all duties were borne directly in favor of the owner.

The Council Code prohibited landowners from accepting peasants recorded in the scribe books and members of their families. Serfdom became hereditary.

Peasants were subject to the jurisdiction of their landowners in a wide range of cases, and bore property liability for the debts of their masters.

On the lands of the state, palace and feudal lords, after the establishment of serfdom, the traditional peasant community continued to exist. The community carried out the redistribution (exchange) of land plots, distributed taxes and duties (the main ones were corvee labor and rent in kind or cash), and controlled the contractual relations of its members. Peasant plots were inherited by sons, but their disposal was limited by the land rights of the community.

In the 15th century The church played an important role in the process of unifying the Russian lands around Moscow and strengthening the centralized state. She took an appropriate place in the new system of power.

A system of church government bodies has emerged - episcopates, dioceses, and parishes.

In 1589, the patriarchate was established in Russia, which strengthened the church’s claims to political power, which resulted in conflicts between Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (mid-17th century), and on a broader level - into a schism, a clash between old and new political and ideological positions of the church.

The clergy, as a special class, was endowed with a number of privileges and benefits: exemption from taxes, duties and corporal punishment.

On the issue of land ownership of the church since the 16th century. there was a serious dispute going on. Since 1580, monasteries were forbidden to buy estates from service people, to accept them as mortgages and “for the commemoration of the soul.” The most tangible limitation was the liquidation of “white” monastic, patriarchal, metropolitan and bishop’s settlements in cities, enshrined in the Council Code of 1649.

The power of the patriarch was based on people subordinate to church organizations, the special status of monasteries, which were large landowners, and representatives of the church in the estate-representative bodies of power and administration.

The church exercised its judicial powers through bishops, its governors and monastic courts headed by the abbot. The bishop was appointed by the metropolitan or the tsar.

From the middle of the 16th century. Church bodies, by their regulations, prohibit secular entertainment, buffoonery, gambling, sorcery, witchcraft, etc.

The idea of ​​“two powers” ​​(spiritual and secular) made the church organization a strong competitor for government agencies.

In 1653, under the leadership of Patriarch Nikon, church reform began, aimed at unifying the rituals of the Orthodox Church. The fundamentals of Orthodox doctrine were not affected by the reform. The Church Council approved some ritual innovations and made changes to the text of liturgical books, eliminating discrepancies that had accumulated over a long period of time. The response to the reforms was a powerful protest from supporters of the “old faith,” which later took shape in the form of separate trends and opinions, the main one of which was the Old Believers. In general, this movement acquired a massive opposition character in relation not only to the church, but also to the state.

In terms of its social composition, the Old Believers were quite diverse, but its main driving force were peasants, townspeople and the lower white clergy closely associated with them, as well as local service people. The black clergy in a number of places also actively supported adherents of the old faith; for example, these sentiments were very strong in one of the most authoritative monasteries in Rus' - Solovetsky. For eight years (1668-1676), the monks of the monastery offered armed resistance to the government troops of Alexei Mikhailovich, who besieged the monastery, which refused to accept the new liturgical books, corrected by the reform.

Many Old Believer schools of thought (directions) defended the ideals of common property and considered labor as the only source of an honest and respectable existence. In Old Believer literature there is often an appeal to the ideals of equality of all people on earth.

A particularly strong side of schismatics was the criticism to which church hierarchs and the highest ranks of government were subjected. The most prominent fighter for the “old faith,” Archpriest Avvakum openly condemned the order in which the “humble and small” were oppressed with impunity by the “big.” Habakkuk considered the equality of all people on earth to be the only state pleasing to God.

Supporters of the official church doctrine used the state apparatus and repressive bodies and the army in the fight against the Old Believers.

A kind of “nationalization” of the church took place. Related to this is the fact that the Council Code of 1649 for the first time included crimes against religion (Chapter 1) as part of the secular codification (before that, such acts were regulated by church statutes).

The rapprochement of the church with the state prepared the reform of the early 18th century, as a result of which the church was finally included in the system of state organizations, losing its independence.

After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676, the throne passed to his eldest son from his first marriage with Marya Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682). During his reign, an important reform was carried out - the abolition of localism in 1682, which influenced the organization of military affairs.

To discuss the issue of military reforms in the state (their implementation was long overdue), service people were convened, proposing to the tsar to appoint military leaders “without places and without selection, in what rank great sovereign will indicate." A special commission proposed that the nobles serve in the standing troops, and the outdated custom of localism would be completely abolished as harmful to discipline and order.

To resolve this issue, the tsar convened the Zemsky Sobor, but not in its entirety, but only the Upper House as the most interested in solving this problem. The Council condemned the custom of localism, calling it “hostile” and “fraternally hateful,” and abolished it, while ordering that the “rank books” in which local affairs were recorded should be burned near the palace. It was also ordered to compile new genealogical books for all hereditary nobility. The death of Fyodor Alekseevich interrupted the military transformations.

After the death of Fyodor Alekseevich in 1682, the struggle for the throne intensified between two groups of boyars: the Miloslavskys (relatives of Alexei Mikhailovich by his first marriage) and the Naryshkins (relatives of Alexei Mikhailovich’s second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina). The Miloslavskys insisted on enthroning the Tsar's son from his first marriage, Tsarevich Ivan, and the Naryshkins, pointing to Ivan's poor health, demanded that the throne be transferred to the Tsar's youngest son from his marriage to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, Peter. The influential Patriarch Joachim also took the side of the Naryshkins. However, the preference for Peter clearly violated the rights of the eldest son Ivan. The Miloslavskys, taking advantage of the discontent of the archers, who had not been paid their salaries for a long time, raised them to revolt. Relying on the support of the Streltsy, the authorities wanted to seize the eldest daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich by marriage to Miloslavskaya - Princess Sophia, who received an excellent education under the guidance of the poet and educator Simeon of Polotsk. The uprising, led by the new head of the Streletsky Prikaz, Prince Khovansky, began on May 15, 1682 and became widespread and bloody. Numerous relatives of Tsarina Natalya Naryshkina, including her siblings, were brutally killed. At the request of the archers, they made an unprecedented decision: two brothers were elevated to the throne - Ivan and Peter (even a royal throne was built for two persons). “Due to Ivan’s inability” and “Peter’s infancy,” Sophia was declared ruler, and her reign lasted for seven years (1682-1689).

Peter and his mother settled in the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, where the future tsar spent his childhood and youth. In the summer of 1689, an open conflict occurred between Peter and Sophia: Peter accused the ruler of intending to usurp power. As a result of the armed confrontation, Sophia was sent to the Novodevichy Convent, where she subsequently took monastic vows under the name of Susanna.

Peter, with a special message, invited his brother Ivan to “rule the kingdom ourselves.” However, the country was actually governed by a government formed by the Naryshkins and consisting of their supporters.

In 1696, after the death of Ivan, Peter single-handedly established himself on the throne. In 1697, he went abroad as part of the “Great Embassy,” but upon receiving news of the Streltsy riot, he interrupted his stay abroad and returned to Moscow. The uprising was suppressed with great cruelty, the Streltsy army was disbanded, the Streltsy gradually joined the regiments of the “new system” (the prototype of the future regular army). The Streltsy regiments were finally abolished in 1713.

Peter began to govern the country independently.

Foreign policy. In accordance with the articles of the “eternal peace” concluded with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1686, Russia undertook several military campaigns against the Crimean Khanate (1687 and 1689). Russian troops under the command of V. Golitsyn failed.

In 1695, the first campaign was undertaken against the Turkish fortress of Azov. The blockade of the fortress failed due to the Russians lacking the necessary fleet. Turkish ships constantly delivered food and weapons to Azov.

In 1696, the second Azov campaign took place. A Russian flotilla (built in Voronezh) with a 40,000-strong army approached Azov. After an assault from land and sea, Azov fell. Peter himself took part in both campaigns with the rank of bombardier Mikhailov.

In 1697, the “Great Embassy”, which included Peter I, set off from Russia to Europe. The mission of the embassy was to familiarize itself with the political situation in Europe and identify potential allies and opponents of Russia.

It turned out that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Denmark and Saxony could become real allies of Russia. Having concluded the anti-Swedish Northern Alliance in 1699 and a truce with Turkey in 1700, Russia decided to oppose Sweden.

In 1700, a war began against Sweden, which went down in history as the Northern War. From the very beginning it was not going well for the Northern Alliance. Charles XII landed troops near Copenhagen and brought Denmark out of the war. He moved the liberated 12,000-strong army to Narva. In November 1700, the Russians were defeated. The Swedish army outnumbered the Russian army, and was also well armed and trained. In addition, it used more advanced artillery - howitzers, while Russia mainly had only mortars. Having suffered defeat, Peter urgently began to rebuild the army. He built four state-owned buildings in the Urals metallurgical plant(cast iron, cannonballs, cannons) and five - at the Olonetsky and Belozersky ores. In eight years, he built 30 state-owned manufactories, which clothed and equipped the army (before that, no more than 15 manufactories had been built over the course of a whole century). First-class small arms, multi-barreled guns were created, and horse artillery was equipped.

In 1701, near Dorpat, the first victory was won by Russian troops under the command of Sheremetyev, and the Nieshants fortress was also taken. May 17, 1703 at the mouth of the river. Neva was founded new town- the future capital of St. Petersburg, the construction of which began with the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Moving further, Russian troops took Yam, Koporye, Korela and Oreshek. Peter I noted that “it is true that this nut was very cruel, but thank God it was happily chewed.”

In 1704 Narva and Dorpat capitulated. Charles XII changed his war tactics and began military operations against Poland. In 1706, he captured Warsaw, overthrew Augustus II and elevated the Poznan voivode Stanislaw Leszczynski to the throne. Thus, Poland and Saxony (since Augustus II was also Elector of Saxony) were also withdrawn from the war. Russia was left alone with Sweden. Charles decided to launch an attack on Moscow from the western borders, through Smolensk, but his protracted siege forced him to head to Kyiv, where he enlisted the support of Hetman Mazepa. Kochubey and Colonel Iskra warned Peter about the impending treason, but Peter trusted Mazepa and considered Kochubey and Iskra slanderers. In this direction, the first battle between the Russians and the Swedes took place on September 28, 1708 near the village of Lesnaya. General Levengaupt's corps was defeated, and Peter called this battle “the mother of the Poltava battle.”

On June 27, 1709, the siege of Poltava began, which lasted about three months. On June 27, 1709, the Battle of Poltava broke out, in which Peter himself took part. The Swedes were defeated, Karl and Mazepa fled to Bendery (Türkiye). The Swedes lost 9 thousand killed, 3 thousand surrendered, and during the retreat, the remnants of the army were overtaken by A. Menshikov and captured another 16,250 Swedes. The first-class army of Charles XII no longer existed. Augustus II took the Polish throne, and the Northern Alliance was restored: Denmark, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony again became allies of Russia.

In 1710, Türkiye, in violation of the peace treaty of Constantinople, declared war on Russia. The Russian army was defeated on the river. Prut, where the peace treaty was concluded. Thanks to the efforts of the diplomat Shafirov, the conditions of the Prut Treaty of 1711 were not particularly difficult for Russia: Russia was losing Azov, and pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The next stage of the Northern War was actions in the Baltic states. Russian troops took Riga, Revel, Vyborg and Kexholm in 1710, and Stettin and Helsingfors in 1714. On July 27, 1714, the largest naval battle took place at Cape Gangut, in which the Russian fleet defeated the Swedish squadron. In 1718, a peace treaty was concluded on the Åland Islands, but England, dissatisfied with its terms, continued to incite Sweden to continue the war, promising help. In 1720, near the island of Grengam in the harbor on the Åland Islands, the Swedish squadron was again defeated. At this time, Charles XII dies, and the new queen Ulrika-Eleanor asks for peace. The peace treaty was signed on August 30, 1721 in Nystadt (Finland). According to it, Russia received part of Karelia, Estonia with Revel, Eastern Latvia with Riga. The Finnish lands were returned to Sweden, but the Vyborg province remained with Russia. The shores of the Baltic became Russian over a large area. According to the Peace of Nystadt, the population of these provinces retained their former rights and privileges. In 1727 Livonia received a special diet. The German nobility, which owned the bulk of the land in these parts, gradually penetrated into the composition of the highest Russian nobility.

Transformations. Even under Alexei Mikhailovich, there was a tendency towards the concentration of power in the hands of the monarch. The importance of the Zemsky Sobor began to decline. With the establishment of the Order of Secret Affairs, which controlled the entire order system, government of the country was concentrated in the hands of the tsar. Locally, voivodes became increasingly important, finally subjugating zemstvo and provincial elective self-governments. Absolutism as a form of government (absolute monarchy) received legal formalization already under Peter I. All the conditions necessary for the establishment of such power developed during his reign: a strong regular army, an extensive state apparatus, financial independence of state power, subordination of the church to the state.

Absolutist tendencies in establishing the status of supreme power in the state found their expression in the Military Article (1716), which confirmed the unlimited power of the king. So, in Art. 120 of the military article read: “His Majesty is an independent monarch who should not give an account of his affairs to anyone in the world.”

After the victory in the Northern War in 1721, the Senate and Synod proclaimed Peter Emperor of All Russia. Peter took the title of emperor and began to be called the Great.

The Spiritual Regulations, which determined the position and forms of activity of the Synod, also stated that “the Russian Emperor is an autocratic and unlimited monarch; God himself commands to obey his power not only out of fear, but also out of conscience.” Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich, who supported the reforms of Peter I, wrote in his treatise “The Truth of the Monarchs’ Will” that royal power is inviolable “by virtue of its Divine establishment” (1722)

Thus, the term “autocracy” changed its meaning and began to be used not to denote the sovereignty and independence of power, as it was in the XIV-XVI centuries. (in the sense of “I hold my own table”), but to determine its unlimitedness.

Russian absolutism was characterized distinctive features. If absolute monarchy in Europe took shape under the conditions of the development of capitalist relations and the abolition of old feudal institutions (especially serfdom), then absolutism in Russia coincided with the maximum development of serfdom.

If the social basis of Western European absolutism was the alliance of the nobility with the cities (free, imperial), then Russian absolutism relied mainly on the serf-owning nobles and the service class.

The establishment of an absolute monarchy in Russia was accompanied by widespread expansion of the state into all spheres of public, corporate and private life.

Economy. The area of ​​origin of capitalist elements (without the appearance of which the establishment of absolutism is impossible) in Russia became manufacturing production (state and private) and corvée landowner production, latrine trades and peasant trade. Merchant trade remained the sphere of capital accumulation. The number of manufactories increased, but the lack of a free labor market (manufacturers employed assigned peasants, otkhodniks, and fugitives) hampered industrial development.

In the 18th century An all-Russian market begins to take shape, and Moscow remains the center of trade relations.

The economic activities of the peasants encountered resistance from the nobility and the bureaucracy. Serf labor prevailed over free labor. This was facilitated by the fact that the labor of serfs was used in state industry.

Peasant duties (corvée days) were not regulated by law, which strengthened feudal tyranny. Privately owned peasants of the 18th century. made up the majority of the population, and the distribution of state (black-mush) lands to landowners increased their numbers.

In the first quarter of the 18th century. merchants and factory owners were allowed to acquire populated villages in order to provide workers for the enterprises they were creating. It was also allowed to assign runaways and newcomers to factories and factories. Later, illegitimate and “loitering commoners” working at enterprises began to be equated with assigned workers. Peasants assigned to enterprises could not be sold separately from the factory, transferred from factory to factory, released or mortgaged.

In 1718, a capitation census was carried out, and financial services switched to capitation taxation. As a result of this action, groups of non-taxable classes were identified (nobility and clergy) and, in fact, various groups of the peasant population (state, property, possession, slaves) were equalized in terms of taxation.

The ruling class remained the nobility. During the formation of the absolute monarchy, various categories of feudal lords were united. Their economic consolidation was completed by the decree “On Single Inheritance” (1714), which eliminated the differences between votchina and estate and united these concepts into a single one - “real estate”. With the liquidation of the Boyar Duma, the boyars and nobility were united into one estate - “gentry” (the term did not catch on, and this estate became traditionally called the nobility).

The nobility becomes the only service class, and service becomes the main sphere of application of its strength and energy. The established procedure for transferring real estate by inheritance to one of the sons forced others to enter the service (military or civilian) of the state, engage in trade, etc.

In 1722, new principles for the formation of the ruling stratum (length of service, qualifications, devotion to the sovereign) were enshrined in the “Table of Ranks”. This document actually turned the old idea of ​​localism upside down: title and rank were transformed from the basis for obtaining a position in the state apparatus into the result of promotion. Having reached a certain rank, one could become a nobleman, i.e. receive personal or hereditary nobility. By the end of the 20s. XVIII century the number of those who rose to the rank of nobility amounted to a third of the entire noble class.

The “Table of Ranks” for the first time divided the service into military and civilian, and the latter into civil and court service.

Since 1714, compulsory elementary education. Special military and naval schools are being created, and young nobles are sent abroad to learn navigation.

The nobles had a monopoly in land ownership and made up a significant part of the bureaucratic apparatus, as well as the entire officer corps.

Administrative reforms of the first quarter of the 18th century. (under Peter I) affected all areas government controlled.

With the cessation of the existence of the Boyar Duma, the Senate became the highest government body (1711). The Senate was granted special powers (“everyone will obey their decree, just as we ourselves”). It became the highest executive, administrative and judicial body, for whose meetings a Senate office was established in Moscow. The Senate issued decrees and clarifications, monitored the actions of government and judicial institutions, and its work was monitored by the chief prosecutor (“the sovereign’s eye”), who reported everything personally to the tsar. In addition, specially assigned guards were present at Senate meetings to monitor the behavior of senators.

In 1718 the general and political police were created; The Governor-General of St. Petersburg was placed at the head of the general one, and the Preobrazhensky Prikaz and the Secret Chancellery became the bodies of the political police.

In 1717-1720 Peter I created new sectoral management bodies - collegiums, which replaced outdated orders.

Three of them were considered the main ones: the Admiralty, or Naval, Military and Foreign Affairs, in addition, there were also the Bergcollegium, the Manufactory Collegium, the Justice Collegium, etc. The work of the collegiums was determined by general and sectoral regulations, in the drafting of which foreign specialists participated. The board was headed by a president and a vice-president, and they were staffed by assessors and advisers.

Local government was also transformed. In 1702, the bodies of class representation - provincial and zemstvo huts - were finally liquidated and their functions were transferred to the governors. A new territorial division of the state was introduced: eight provinces were established, into which all counties and cities were divided. In 1713-- 1714 the number of provinces increased to 11.

A governor was placed at the head of the province, concentrating all administrative, judicial and military power in his hands.

The second territorial reform was carried out in 1719 (after the introduction of the poll tax). Its content was to divide the provinces into provinces. New Administrative division finally destroyed the old pre-Petrine system of territorial connections, preserved from the times of Muscovite Rus'.

For more successful development of trade and industry, Peter I created city government bodies. In 1699, the Chamber of Burgomasters was established in Moscow and zemstvo huts in other cities. In 1720-1721 Peter unified city government: the Chief Magistrate in St. Petersburg and local city magistrates with administrative, financial and judicial functions were created.

Military reform was one of the most important links in the chain of government reforms at the beginning of the 18th century.

The regiments of Peter I's personal guard - Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Lefortovo - became a model for the transformation of military units.

The Streltsy uprising of 1698 accelerated the liquidation of the old Streltsy units and their disbandment (however, some of their units still participated in the capture of Narva in 1704 and the Battle of Poltava in 1709). The Moscow Streltsy were disbanded in 1713.

In 1699, the formation of a recruiting system for the army began. On February 20, 1705, the law “On the recruitment of recruits from 20 households, one person at a time” was adopted, which introduced conscription duty for peasants and townspeople. The service life was determined to be 20-25 years, recruitment was carried out according to types of troops: infantry, cavalry, artillery. The army became regular.

27 infantry and two dragoon regiments were formed from among the landowners, courtyard people and townspeople. By 1708, the army consisted of 52 infantry regiments, recruitment was carried out according to established recruiting districts. For the training of soldiers and officers, the Military Regulations and numerous instructions were prepared. In 1716, the Military Charter was introduced, and in 1720, the Naval Charter (by this time a strong fleet had been built in Russia). The commander-in-chief of the army was the tsar himself, and the Military Council acted under him. At the beginning of the 18th century. The General Staff also appears.

The reform activities of Peter I also affected the church. In 1700, by the decision of Peter I, the Patriarchal rank was abolished, and its functions were transferred to the Monastic Prikaz. In 1721, with the adoption of the Spiritual Regulations, the patriarchate was abolished, and a Spiritual College was established to govern the church, which was soon transformed into the Holy Synod. The monarch himself became the head of the church (formally, the chief prosecutor was at the head of the Synod), he resolved issues of organizing church life and appointing hierarchs. The church lost its independence, its lands and property came under state control.

In connection with the conduct of the Northern War, the government of Peter I increased the amount of direct and indirect taxes that extended to the urban population, and the total amount of duties for townspeople and service people. The deterioration of living conditions caused a number of uprisings, especially on the outskirts of the Russian state.

In 1705, an uprising broke out in Astrakhan against the arbitrariness of Voivode Rzhevsky, who independently raised taxes and established excise taxes on some goods. All types of trade were subject to taxation, and often the amount of taxes exceeded the amount received from trade. In addition, voivode Timofey Rzhevsky strictly enforced the decree of Peter I on barber shaving and short caftans. Taxes and excise taxes primarily affected the position of the poor and service people living on salaries (streltsy). The archers were not paid salaries, and food prices increased. On the night of July 30, 1705, the uprising of the archers and lower social groups of the urban population of Astrakhan, as a result of which the governor and the “initial people” were killed. Residents of the cities of Krasny and Cherny Yar, Guryev and Tersky town joined the rebels. The detachment of Field Marshal Sheremetyev sent by the government defeated them and captured Astrakhan. Neither the Don Cossacks nor the Volga Posads supported the rebels. The investigation into the Astrakhan uprising was carried out in Moscow, several hundred people died from torture, many were exiled to Siberia, others were executed on Red Square.

Soon after the pacification of the Astrakhan uprising in southern Russia, another, more powerful movement began (1707-1708) on the Don under the leadership of Kondraty Bulavin. After the capture of Azov (1696) by Russian troops, the Cossacks were recruited by the government to serve as border guards. The government began to constrain Cossack self-government and limit its numbers, since a large and independent army posed a danger. On the Don, especially from the end of the 17th century, a large number of peasants from various districts of Russia accumulated. The landowners of these counties complained to the government about the outflow of peasants from their estates. The government several times sent punitive detachments to the Don to catch the fugitives and return them to the landowners. A detachment under the command of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov was sent to the Don with similar tasks. This detachment acted with exceptional cruelty, not stopping at burning villages. The former Bakhmut ataman Kondraty Bulavin gathered a Cossack detachment and in the fall of 1707 on the river. Aidare destroyed Dolgoruky's detachment at night. Bulavin moved up the Don and distributed “lovely letters” everywhere with calls to destroy officers and soldiers who were trying to return fugitives (violating the well-known rule: “There is no extradition from the Don”), to deal with the boyars and governors. The uprising spread to the “working people” of the Voronezh shipyards, seized the Tambov and Kozlov districts, in which the peasants smashed the landowners and went to the Cossacks. The Cossack elders under the leadership of Ataman Lukyan Maksimov united against Bulavin. In the battle with him, Bulavin was defeated and went to Zaporozhye, hoping to raise the Ukrainian Cossacks. But the Zaporozhye hetman forbade the Ukrainian Cossacks to join Bulavin. With a small detachment of Ukrainian "gultyaev" Bulavin in 1708 returned to the upper reaches of the Don, where the Pristansky town on the river. Khoper became the center of the uprising. From Khopr, Bulavin moved to the center of the Don army - Cherkassk - and took it. The population of the villages greeted him with bread and salt. In Cherkassk, Bulavin was elected military chieftain, and chieftain Lukyan Maksimov was executed. The uprising covered increasingly larger territories. Bulavin troops occupied Tsaritsyn and captured a number of cities on the Volga. Among Bulavin's associates, Nikita Goly, Ataman Nekrasov and Semyon Drany distinguished themselves. Bulavin himself at this time headed to Azov, where he suffered a failure, the reason for which was the disunity of his troops and actions in different directions. The tsarist government sent a 30,000-strong army to the Don under the command of Vasily Dolgoruky. The homely Cossacks plotted against Bulavin, surrounded his house in Cherkassk, he fired back, but was either killed or shot himself. Detachments of Bulavinites continued to fight on the Don, in the Volga region and in Ukraine. The movement during this period covered about 60 counties. The remnants of the Bulavin detachments were defeated near the village of Reshetovskaya.

Only at the end of 1708 did government troops manage to finally suppress the uprising. This was followed by reprisals. To intimidate the Cossacks, rafts with gallows of executed people floated along the Don. Only part of the Cossacks, led by Ataman Nekrasov, escaped and moved to Turkey. As a result of this uprising, the freedoms of the Cossacks were curtailed, and the lands in the upper reaches of the Don (Verkhovsky Cossacks most actively participated in the uprising) were included in Voronezh province. Landowner estates with serfs resettled here appeared on the Don.

From 1705 to 1711, the uprising continued in Bashkiria, the center of which was Ufa. The root cause of the uprising was taxation that was unaffordable for the population and the harsh forms of its collection. But here the leadership of the uprising ended up in the hands of the Bashkir feudal lords, who directed it against Russia and the Russians living on the territory of Bashkiria. They captured and burned Russian villages, and turned Russian peasants into slaves or sold them into slavery. The leaders of the uprising sent embassies to the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate to negotiate the transfer of Bashkiria to the rule of the Turkish Sultan or the Crimean Khan as the sole rulers of the faith. This uprising was suppressed in 1711.

The creation of civil education in Russia is associated with the activities of Peter I. The only educational institution, the Greek-Slavic-Latin Academy, was in decline after the Likhud brothers left it. There were no civil schools in Russia.

In 1700, on the initiative of Peter I, chronology was introduced from the Nativity of Christ, as was customary in European countries (and not from the creation of the world). The New Year began to begin on January 1, and not on September 1, as before. In 1702, a wooden “comedy hall” was built, in which a visiting troupe led by Johann Kunscht performed. In this theater, at the request of Peter, the “Triumphal Comedy for the Taking of Oreshok” was shown. In 1703, the first Russian newspaper “Vedomosti about military and other affairs” was published. In 1704, city planning rules were issued, according to which cities began to be built according to plan, the streets in them were paved and illuminated.

New educational institutions opened: in 1701 - the Navigation School, located in Moscow in the Sukharevskaya Tower. One of the teachers of this school was Leonty Magnitsky, the author of the first Russian arithmetic textbook. In 1715, the Navigation School was transferred to St. Petersburg and transformed into the Naval Academy. In 1707, a Medical School was opened in Moscow, and in 1710, an engineering school.

Schooling became widespread. 42 numerical schools arose, and under the supervision of bishops a network of theological schools was formed. School education began to cover wide circles of Russian society. The practice of sending young people abroad has also spread.

In 1710, with the direct participation of Peter, a civil script was introduced. New printing houses were formed in Moscow, a large number of books, especially scientific ones, were translated, and assemblies—entertainment gatherings—were organized by royal decree. In order to educate youth and instill good manners, a special guide appeared - “An Honest Mirror of Youth.” In 1713, the capital was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Foreign architects and artists were called in to decorate the city. There was a shortage of bricks, and masonry construction in other cities was temporarily prohibited. The most important architectural monuments of that time were: Peter's Summer Palace (architect D. Trezzini); the building of the Twelve Colleges (Trezzini together with I.K. Korobov), the Admiralty (Korobov). The summer garden was decorated with sculptures. Old long-skimmed clothing was replaced with new ones according to fashionable Western patterns. In painting, along with icon painting, attention began to be paid to portraits and genre scenes. In literature, the treatises of Feofan Prokopovich (“The Truth of the Will of the Monarchs” and “Spiritual Regulations”) are becoming very famous. I.T. Pososhkov wrote “The Book of Poverty and Wealth”, V.N. Tatishchev - “Russian history from ancient times.”

XVIII century marked by a number of scientific discoveries. I.K. Kirillov compiled the first geographical atlas. The works of V.N. made a serious scientific contribution to the development of mining and metallurgy. Tatishchev and V.G. de Gennina; M. Serdyukov came up with a project for the reconstruction of the Vyshnevolotsky Canal, which connected the Volga with the Lake Ilmen basin and the Volkhov River, after which the canal would become navigable.

Peter I prepared a project for the creation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, implemented the next year after his death. During the life of the emperor, preparations were also being made for the famous Bering expedition, which opened the strait between Asia and America.

Peter I died without leaving a will. The heirs included Peter's grandson - the son of Tsarevich Alexei, and two daughters - Anna (married to a Holstein prince) and Elizabeth (by that time still a minor). The Senate proclaimed Peter's wife, Catherine I (Marta Skavronskaya), empress. Under her, the highest government body was created - the Supreme Privy Council (1726), which included the largest dignitaries of the state, headed by A.D. Menshikov. The decision of all the most important matters in the state passed to this council.

Catherine died two years later, and the throne, according to her will, passed to the grandson of Peter I - Peter II (1727-1730). Since he was only 12 years old, the affairs of the state continued to be decided by the Supreme Privy Council. However, changes took place in it: Menshikov was removed and exiled to the city of Berezov, and the Tsarevich’s educator A. Osterman and the princes Dolgoruky and Golitsyn entered the council. In 1730, Peter II dies of smallpox, and the question of replacing the throne again arises. With his decree “On Succession to the Throne” (1722), Peter I expanded the circle of heirs, providing the opportunity to choose. Taking advantage of this right, members of the Supreme Privy Council invited the Duchess of Courland (Peter's niece) Anna Ioannovna (1730-- 1740) to the throne. The invitation was conditioned by the signing of “conditions” (conditions) limiting autocratic power, and if they were violated, the empress was deprived of the Russian crown. According to these conditions, the empress did not have the right to independently start a war and make peace; introduce new taxes and duties; appoint to senior positions; condemn the nobility without trial, confiscate estates and grant new ones, as well as marry and appoint a successor.

However, within the ruling class, opinions about these conditions were divided, and the bulk of the nobility (service) did not agree with their content. On behalf of the entire nobility, a petition was submitted to the empress for the abolition of the conditions and the restoration of traditional autocracy. Relying on the support of the Preobrazhensky Regiment (the Empress declared herself a colonel of this regiment), Anna Ioannovna broke her condition and “committed herself to sovereignty.” The Supreme Privy Council was abolished. To govern the state, a Cabinet was formed, which included cabinet ministers. Of particular importance was the Office of Secret Investigative Affairs, which terrified the population with sudden arrests and torture during investigations. All affairs in the state were managed by the Germans invited by Anna Ioannovna, among whom her favorite Biron and former member of the Supreme Privy Council Osterman especially stood out. Her government satisfied a number of demands of the nobility: in 1731 the Land Noble Corps was created; a nobleman enrolled in it from birth and upon completion received an officer's rank, which exempted him from service as a simple soldier or sailor. In 1736, Peter the Great's decree “On Single Inheritance” (1714) was changed, and the indefinite service of nobles was abolished. In order to better use and maintain noble estates, one of the noble sons was generally exempt from service to manage the estate, and the service period for others was limited to 25 years, after which they were given the opportunity to retire. Many nobles, taking advantage of these benefits (especially registration from birth in military schools), left service early. As a result, in 1740 a decree was issued according to which only those officers who had actually served 25 years were subject to dismissal.

According to Anna Ioannovna's will, her great-nephew, the infant Ivan Antonovich of Brunswick (1740-1741), was appointed as her heir, and Biron was appointed regent under him. His regency lasted only a few weeks. Biron, hated by everyone, was removed, deprived of all positions and exiled.

His mother Anna Leopoldovna was proclaimed ruler under the young Ivan Antonovich. However, there were no changes in policy; all positions continued to remain in the hands of the Germans. A new coup followed in 1741, which was carried out by Peter's daughter Elizabeth (1741-1761), using the support of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. The “Brunswick family” (Anna Leopoldovna with her husband and children) was arrested and exiled to Kholmogory, and a few years later Ivan Antonovich was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, former cabinet ministers Minikh and Osterman were sent into exile; The Senate was restored, and the Cabinet was disbanded. The privileges of the nobles were expanded, and their exclusive right to own lands inhabited by peasants was confirmed. The Senate clarified that only those persons who are able to prove their noble origin are considered nobles. Nobility can be inherited or acquired through a royal grant. The nobles were exempt from all types of corporal punishment. The Noble Bank opened in St. Petersburg, providing loans only to nobles.

According to Elizabeth's will, Prince Peter III of Holstein (the son of Peter I's eldest daughter, Anna) was appointed heir to the throne, who, in order to continue the dynasty, was married to the Anhalt-Zerbst princess, Sophia Augusta Frederick, who took the name Ekaterina Alekseevna in Orthodox baptism.

During his short reign, Peter III (1761-1762) managed to abolish the Secret Chancellery and adopt a manifesto granting liberty and freedom to the entire Russian nobility (1762). Nobles received the right to freely retire from military or civil service and even not to serve at all, to live in the fatherland or abroad at their own discretion.

In 1762, a new palace coup was carried out in favor of the wife of Peter III, Catherine Alekseevna - Catherine II (1762-1796), after whose death her son Pavel (1796-1801) reigned. He issued a Manifesto on Succession to the Throne, which introduced a strict and definite order of succession to the throne. Upon the death of the emperor, the throne should pass to the eldest son, and then to the offspring of this son in the male line; if the king had no offspring, then his eldest brother should inherit.

Dissatisfaction with internal and foreign policy Paul I led to a new coup, which took place on the night of March 11-12, 1801. The throne was taken by his eldest son Alexander I (1801-1825).

This was the last palace coup in Russia.

The territory of Russia by the end of the 18th century. has reached significant proportions. The lands of the European part of Russia were divided into chernozem and non-chernozem. In the non-chernozem regions, the quitrent system of feudal service prevailed, which provided greater freedom to the producer. Various crafts have developed in these places. In the chernozem (mainly agricultural) areas, corvée was widespread.

The country's largest industrial region is emerging in the provinces closest to Moscow. Moscow, Yaroslavl, Tula, Kaluga, Vladimir had a developed and diverse manufacturing industry. The second industrial region was the Urals. The expansion of domestic trade led to deepening specialization in the production of goods and products of all kinds, which in turn determined further development all-Russian market. The growth of trade turnover throughout the country was generally facilitated by the abolition of internal customs duties carried out by Elizabeth in 1753. Commercial and industrial development was intensified by the declaration of freedom of trade and entrepreneurial activity by the Decree of 1755, according to which peasants were allowed to freely engage in useful handicrafts and sell their products.

IN late XVIII V. Russian fairs, of which there were about 800, played a large role in domestic trade. The largest of them were Nizhny Novgorod, Irbit and Svensk. In foreign trade Russia's main partners were England, Sweden, Denmark, and in the East - Turkey, Iran, India and China.

At the beginning of the 17th century. the main northern ports were Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory, but after the Northern War (1700-1721) most of the trade turnover went through Riga and Revel. In the south, the main trade gate was Astrakhan.

The manufacturing industry entered a period of intensive development in the second half of the 18th century. During this period there is a significant (increase in total number manufactories and expansion of production from the previous ones. Many of them became large enterprises with hundreds and sometimes thousands of employees, but the predominant form was a small manufactory with 15-20 employees. Machines and mechanisms were almost never used. The most developed branches of industrial production were metallurgy and metalworking (Tula, Ural). Cloth and stationery manufactories were concentrated in the central regions, and textile production was predominantly developed in the Moscow, Vladimir and Yaroslavl provinces.

The largest mining enterprises of the Urals, as well as Olonetsky and Kirillovsky; ore mining plants belonged to the treasury, nobles and merchants. Among them, the Stroganovs and Demidovs gained fame, and were awarded the title of nobility.

Industrial enterprises operated mainly on the forced labor of peasants “assigned” to factories. “Possession” manufactories could belong to both the treasury and private individuals, but peasants were assigned directly to the manufactory and could not be sold separately from it. Serf peasants worked at patrimonial enterprises, whose labor was a unique form of corvee. In merchant manufactories, civilian labor was mainly used.

The increase in the number of manufactories stimulated the use of civilian labor. In 1762, the assignment of peasants to factories was abolished. Since 1775, peasants were officially allowed to engage in industrial activities. The formation of a free labor market began. From the end of the 18th century. restrictions are lifted for persons not included in the merchant class, but wishing to engage in trade.

Catherine II encouraged entrepreneurship. In order to attract the largest number of nobles to this process, Volnoe was opened in 1765 economic society. It published works on agronomy and economics, and announced competitions to solve pressing economic issues. Many writers of that time considered various industrial and economic problems in their works, discussed price policies, and found out the reasons for the high cost of certain goods.

“Enlightened absolutism” in Russia is associated with the name of Empress Catherine II. However, it should be taken into account that this was a forced attempt by the autocracy to adapt to the new, emerging bourgeois relations in the country, to eliminate some of the outdated institutions of the absolute monarchy, while preserving its foundations. At any moment a return to previous techniques and methods of management could be made. Thus, the liberal period of Catherine II’s reign ended after Pugachev’s peasant war.

Within the framework of the ideology of “enlightened absolutism”, the monarch is considered not just as the “father of the nation”, but as a guardian of the rule of law: “enlightened absolutism” is inextricably linked with legitimacy (legality), the “correct organization” of administration and court. Ideas of the all-class nature of power are beginning to penetrate into the official ideology. These ideas were manifested in the work of the Commission for the preparation of the new Code (Legated Commission). Representatives of various classes gathered in it were supposed to develop a law that would satisfy the interests of all subjects. The commission was convened in 1767. The main ideas that were to guide its work were formulated in the “Instructions” prepared by Catherine II. Its main provisions were borrowed from the works of French Enlightenment philosophers.

The “Nakaz” determined the principles of the structure of the state, the general forms of legal policy and the organization of the class system. Monarchy was presented as the best form of government, the monarch was declared a source of unlimited autocratic power, consolidating society.

The purpose of all actions of the supreme power is to ensure the security of every citizen, for “power was created for the people.” The monarchy is called upon to promote the continuous improvement of society. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to establish “the best laws” in the state. At the same time, the “Order” did not establish any restrictions (except moral ones) for the supreme power.

The “mandate” declared freedom (liberty) common to all citizens and equal responsibilities of all in the face of state power. However, he further substantiated the unequal position of classes before the authorities and the law, gave a clear division of society into those who rule and those who obey, which was associated with the natural laws, origin and abilities of each.

In the middle of the 18th century. The class structure of society was not only preserved, but its differentiation even became more complex and became even more formalized. The rights and obligations of each class were regulated in detail; the ruling class remained the nobility, whose legal status was fixed by letters of grant.

Even Emperor Peter III in 1762 adopted the Charter “On the granting of liberty and freedom to the entire Russian nobility,” which abolished the compulsory service of nobles both in the army and in civil institutions. The nobles received permission to live abroad. In 1785, Catherine II, with her “Certificate on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble Russian nobility,” confirmed the privileges given by Peter III to the Russian nobility, significantly expanding their scope. The nobles were exempt from taxes, compulsory service, and corporal punishment. They were allowed to have factories, factories, and also trade in the products produced in them. Not only the land, but also its subsoil was assigned to the nobles. They received broad class self-government: the right to elect the leader of the district and provincial nobility, have their own treasury and administrative houses, and submit petitions to the highest name directly.

Simultaneously with the Charter of Grant to the nobility, the Charter of Grant to the cities was adopted.

The document consolidated a single class status for the entire population of cities, regardless of professional occupations and types of activity - petty bourgeoisie. The personal rights of the bourgeoisie included the right to protection of honor and dignity, personality and life, the right to travel and travel abroad. Property rights included: the right of ownership of property owned by the tradesman, the right of ownership of industrial enterprises, crafts, and the right to conduct trade.

The entire urban population was divided into six categories depending on their property and social status.

In cities, general city councils were created, which included representatives elected from each category.

Even earlier, in 1775, during the provincial reform (which doubled the number of provinces in Russia), a strictly class-based judicial system was formed.

For nobles in counties and provinces, noble class courts were created (district and upper zemstvo courts).

For citizens, judicial functions were performed by city and provincial magistrates.

State peasants were tried in the district lower and upper courts. Among the landowners, the landowner was the judge in most cases.

Class system in the 18th century. was based on the system of serfdom and the institutions of absolute monarchy.

In the middle of the 18th century. in various regions of the country there were unrest among peasants and mining workers. The spread of landownership to the lands of the Middle and Lower Volga region and the exploitation of the local population (Bashkirs, Tatars, Chuvash) also caused discontent in these areas. In the Urals, sessional mining workers were worried, and in the Volga region the situation became tense due to the large outflow of Old Believers to these places. The Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 also played a role, causing a deterioration in the economic situation in the country. In such a situation, a man appeared capable of leading the dissatisfied masses.

Emelyan Pugachev was born on the Don in the village of Zimoveyskaya, participated in the Seven Years' War, from which he returned due to illness, and soon became a fugitive Cossack. I visited the Terek Cossacks in the North Caucasus, then the Old Believers in Irgyz. Just in the early 1770s. The Yaik Cossacks opposed their elders. They killed General Traubenberg and several Cossack chieftains. The uprising was suppressed, Cossack self-government was liquidated, and a commandant with a military team was installed at the head of the Yaitsky town. In 1773, Pugachev appeared on Yaik, declaring himself to be the survivor of Emperor Peter III. Cossacks began to flock to him. He sent out manifestos appealing to the Cossacks, working people, peasants and Old Believers. He promised the Cossacks “law and freedom,” as well as the provision of forests, forests, fishing grounds and other lands; to the peasants - “landowners' houses, all their property as a reward,” as well as the abolition of serfdom, exemption from conscription and state taxes, allotment of land; the Old Believers were given permission to freely practice the “old faith.”

In September 1773, Pugachev, together with his detachment, took the Tatishchevskaya fortress (on the way to Orenburg), after which several thousand rebels joined him: peasants, working people and Bashkirs led by Salavat Yulaev. The Southern Urals and Bashkiria became the center of the uprising. In the winter of 1773-1774. Pugachev began the siege of Orenburg. 5 km from the city in the village of Berdy, he established his “yard”, in which there was a “military board” and a “military court”; Regular military units were formed. During the siege of Orenburg, peasants from the Kazan and Simbirsk provinces joined the rebels, but the rebels were unable to take Orenburg. In the spring of 1774, Pugachev's troops suffered a number of defeats from government troops. Among the active assistants of Pugachev and the commanders of his troops are Zarubin (Chika), Ivan Beloborodov, Afanasy Khlopusha. Having been defeated near Orenburg, Pugachev went to the Kama and, having replenished his forces, moved to Kazan, which was the administrative center of the entire Volga region. The Pugachevites entered the city, but were unable to take the well-fortified Kremlin, where the Kazan garrison sat. Mikhelson's detachment approached the city, and Pugachev was again defeated. He moved to the right bank of the Volga, replenishing his detachment in the densely populated areas of the right bank, and moved south, successively occupying the cities of Alatyr, Saransk, Penza, Saratov. Near Tsaritsyn, near Cherny Yar, Michelson’s detachment overtook him, and on August 25, 1774, Pugachev was finally defeated. He fled to Yaik, where he was discovered by a Cossack foreman and handed over to the government.

On January 10, 1775, Pugachev was publicly executed in Moscow. A wave of repressions against the participants in the uprising swept across the country, accompanied by particular cruelty on the part of government punitive agencies.

Result: In the second half of the 18th century. the further formation of the class system and the development of serf relations take place. At the same time, absolutism acquires the features of “enlightenment.” Careful regulation (including legal) of all aspects of public and private life is carried out. Along with bureaucratization, new features of class, especially noble, corporatism appear.

As a result of the Treaty of Prut with Turkey (1711), Russia lost Azov and, consequently, access to the Black Sea. During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, Russia made an attempt to reach the Black Sea coast. In 1735-1739 Russia entered the war with Turkey and Crimea with the alliance of Austria. The Russian army invaded Crimea and occupied the Ochakov fortress, then defeated the Turkish army near the village. Stavuchany (near the city of Khotin), captured Kinburn and Yassy, ​​occupied the capital of the Crimean Khanate - Bakhchisarai. The war was fought in difficult conditions, costing the lives of 100 thousand Russian soldiers, but did not produce tangible results. Iran did not fulfill its preliminary obligations to start a war with Turkey, and Austria concluded a separate peace with Turkey. The commander of the Russian army, General Minich, was not popular due to his adherence to the Prussian order, which he implanted in the Russian army; supplies were poor. As a result, in 1739 the Belgorod Peace Treaty was signed. Azov was returned to Russia, but without the right to build a fortress and maintain a fleet, i.e. As a result of this war, it did not receive access to the Black Sea.

During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, in 1731, the rulers of the Small and Middle Zhuzes (in the territory of modern Kazakhstan) swore allegiance to Russia.

The most major foreign policy event in the life of Russia in the middle of the 17th century. There was the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763. It began under Elizaveta Petrovna. By that time, two coalitions of states had formed in Europe: France, Austria and Russia on the one hand, and England and Prussia on the other. The Anti-Prussian League arose as a reaction to the aggressive policy of Frederick II. In 1756, Prussia attacked Saxony and defeated the Austrian army that came to its aid. In 1757 Russia entered the war. In the summer of the same year, the Russian army under the command of P.A. Rumyantseva entered East Prussia and inflicted a serious defeat on the German army at Gross-Jägersdorf and then at Zorndorf. Russian troops won a particularly impressive victory near Kunersdorf. The Prussian army was completely destroyed; out of 45 thousand of its soldiers, only about three thousand survived. In 1760, Russian troops took Berlin.

Frederick II perceived his defeat as a complete disaster. But at this moment Elizaveta Petrovna dies, and Peter III (1761-1762), a great admirer of the Prussian king, ascends the throne. He concludes a peace with Prussia that is unfavorable for Russia and provides for the return of all territories conquered by Russia in this war. Russia and Prussia became allies.

Russia's relations with Turkey and its Crimean Khanate, which dominated the Black Sea, remained tense. Russia, for its part, also sought to seize lands on the Black Sea coast.

Declared war on Russia Turkey, which in the fall of 1768 arrested the Russian ambassador and all members of the embassy and subsequently began military operations against Russia (1768-1774).

General P.A. was placed at the head of the Russian army. Rumyantsev. The first victories of Russian troops were won in battles on the tributaries of the Danube - the Larga and Cahul rivers. The territory between the Dnieper and Danube was liberated from Turkish troops. For the successful transition of the Russian army to the right bank of the Danube, General Rumyantsev was awarded the title of Field Marshal and an honorary prefix to his surname - Zadunaisky.

At the same time, major successes were achieved in naval battles. The Russian fleet, leaving the Baltic Sea, circled Europe and entered the Mediterranean Sea, where in June 1770 it destroyed the Turkish fleet near Chesma. The naval squadrons were commanded by admirals G.A. Spiridov and A.G. Orlov. For this victory, Orlov received an honorary prefix to his surname - Chesmensky.

In 1770, the Russian army captured the entire Crimea. A.V. distinguished himself in these battles. Suvorov. But during this period, the Pugachev rebellion broke out in Russia, and the government of Catherine II hastened to make peace. In 1774, peace was concluded with Turkey in the village of Kuchuk-Kainardzhi, according to which the Crimean Khanate was declared independent; Türkiye recognized a dual protectorate over Moldova (Turkey and Russia). Russia was granted the right of free navigation in the Black Sea and passage through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. In addition, Türkiye paid indemnity to Russia.

The Crimean Khanate, surrounded on all sides by Russian territory, became part of it in 1783, and the Crimean Khan Shagin-Girey abdicated the throne.

In the same year, in the city of Georgievsk, Russia and Georgia signed a treaty, according to the provisions of which the latter was under the protection of Russia, ensuring its integrity and security.

In 1787, after Catherine II’s trip to Taurida and the appointment of G. Potemkin as Governor-General of Crimea, Turkey declared war on Russia. The Turkish army besieged the Kinburn fortress, but was repulsed by Suvorov's troops. Austria decided to take the side of Russia in the war against Turkey. In 1788, after a long siege, Ochakov was taken by Russian troops. A serious turning point in the war occurred in 1789, when Suvorov inflicted crushing blows on the enemy at Focsani and on the river. Rymnik (Bessarabia), where he defeated and put to flight a 100,000-strong Turkish army under the command of the chief vizier. For this victory he was awarded the title of Count of Rymnik. In the autumn of 1790, Russian troops took a number of Turkish fortresses, but the well-fortified Izmail fortress remained on the left bank of the Danube. Potemkin failed here and sent Suvorov to Izmail. Suvorov invited the Turks to surrender the fortress, but was refused and on December 11, 1790 he began the siege. Ishmael was captured in the evening of the same day. During the assault on the fortress, Kutuzov, appointed commandant of Izmail, distinguished himself.

On the Black Sea F.F. Ushakov (at Cape Kaliakria and Tendre Island) defeated the Turkish fleet.

On December 27, peace was signed with Turkey in Iasi. The peace treaty recognized Russia's right to annex Crimea and transferred to it the lands between the Dniester and Bug, as a result of which a new border was established along the Dniester. Thus, the entire Northern Black Sea region went to Russia. In addition, Turkey pledged not to interfere in Russian-Georgian relations and not to encroach on the lands of Erekle II.

Another foreign policy problem for Russia remained the disunity of the territory of Ukraine, since its Right Bank remained under Polish rule.

The political crisis and anarchy that took place in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century gave the opportunity to its neighbors - Austria, Prussia and Russia - to carry out partial annexations of its territories.

As a result of the first partition of Poland (1772), the eastern part of Belarus along the Upper Dnieper and Western Dvina went to Russia.

Under the second partition (1793), Russia annexed Right Bank Ukraine and the central part of Belarus (with Minsk).

According to the results of the third partition (1795), Lithuania, Western Belarus and Volyn were included in Russia. Courland, previously actually under the control of Russia, was also legally consolidated within the empire.

With the outbreak of the revolution in France (1789), Russia found itself in a coalition of European monarchical states that opposed France. In 1792, diplomatic relations with this country were interrupted.

A financial and military alliance was concluded with the opponents of France in 1793, but Russia was unable to take part in the military intervention together with England, Austria and Prussia due to events in Poland (national uprising) and the war with Sweden (1788-1790).

Russia took an active part in the anti-Napoleonic coalition under Paul I. The coalition, which included England, Austria, Turkey and the Kingdom of Naples, organized large-scale military operations in Italy, Switzerland and the Mediterranean Sea.

In the summer of 1799, the Russian fleet (commander F.F. Ushakov) entered the Adriatic Sea and began an assault on the powerful fortress of Corfu. Russian landing forces captured the Ionian Islands, and later landed on the Apennine Peninsula. The French abandoned Naples and Rome.

Suvorov's army carried out a successful Italian campaign, conducting a series of military operations in the regions of Northern Italy and Switzerland. In the spring and summer of 1799, a series of brilliant victories were won, as a result of which the Russians opened the way to Milan and Turin.

Suvorov's Swiss campaign in the fall of 1799 was less successful. Having penetrated Switzerland, Russian troops found themselves surrounded.

Military failures strained Russia's political relations with its allies: Paul I entered into an alliance with Napoleon (1800) and broke relations with England.

After the suppression of the uprising of E. Pugachev, the government of Catherine II tightened the serfdom regime. The rights of landowners in relation to serfs were expanded: public auctions of serfs were allowed, the sale of which could lead to the destruction of family ties; The nobles were granted the right to personally try serfs for certain types of offenses with the use of corporal punishment. Landowners were given the right to exile peasants to Siberia for “their insolent state,” and peasants, on the contrary, were forbidden to submit petitions in the sovereign’s name with complaints against their landowners. Moreover, the text of this order, which prohibited “landowners and peasants from submitting petitions to Her Majesty’s own hands,” said that for disobedience, the petitioners, as well as the authors of the petitions, would be punished with a whip, “will be sent to eternal labor in Nerchinsk, with credit to their landowners for recruits."

All the progressive ideas with which Catherine II spoke at the Legislative Commission regarding changing the condition of the serfs were forgotten. Under the influence of the events of the Pugachev era, Catherine II abandoned them.

Second important event What forced Catherine to dramatically change her policy was the revolution in France (1789-1794).

The French Revolution, and especially the Jacobin dictatorship, shocked Europe. In St. Petersburg they also realized that such events pose a threat to the fate of the throne in Russia.

In 1791-1795 Russia took part in a coalition of countries (England, Austria, Prussia) against France. Catherine could not help the coalition with troops, since they were busy in military operations against Ottoman Empire, but the Russian government allocated money to ensure resistance to revolutionary France (two million rubles). Catherine II firmly believed that “the cause of the French king concerns all sovereigns.” She was very wary of the spread of the influence of the revolutionary ideas of France in Russia. After the execution of Louis XVI, Catherine breaks off all relations with France, all French subjects living in Russia and accepting the legitimacy of the revolutionary government of France are expelled from Russia. All previous “flirtings” with the figures of the French Enlightenment cease and, on the contrary, all sorts of punishments fall on the heads of progressive Russian writers. A.N. Radishchev for the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was (initially) sentenced to death, the writer V.S. Krechetov was thrown into prison, publisher N.I. Novikov - to the Shlisselburg fortress. Masonic lodges, whose activities were purely educational in nature, were closed. A strict caesura of civil and spiritual books was introduced, and all private printing houses were closed. Thus, the policy of enlightened absolutism in Russia has exhausted itself. Autocracy showed its true face. Despite some liberal tendencies at the beginning of her reign, Catherine II, however, did a lot in the second half to strengthen serfdom and absolute monarchy as a form of government.

It was precisely these phenomena in Russian political and social life that A.N. struggled with. Radishchev.

A.H. Radishchev (1749-1802) born into a noble family in the Saratov province. He received a good home education and then graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Leipzig. He successfully advanced in his career, but became interested in literary activities, the result of which was his famous book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” which began with words that were later repeated by almost all participants in the December uprising (December 14, 1825): “I looked around me and my soul has become wounded by the sufferings of mankind.”

Radishchev's work was greatly impressed by the works of French enlighteners and utopian socialists. The works of Voltaire and the work of J. J. Rousseau “On the Social Contract” had a particular influence on him. In his works, Radishchev severely criticized serfdom and autocracy. He considered serfdom illegal from a legal point of view, immoral according to moral criteria and unprofitable economically. Radishchev noted the blatant poverty of the peasants and their complete lack of rights. They have no legal rights (“the peasant is legally dead”) and are entirely at the mercy of the landowners, who treat them like “greedy beasts.”

In the ode “Liberty,” Radishchev condemned the tyranny of autocrats who have no limits or barriers in their power, and expressed hope for a quick, widespread overthrow of such forms of power. The people will rise up and overthrow the “cast iron” throne. He called lawlessness the main feature of tyrannical rule. The Novgorod Republic was the ideal of government for Radishchev. In the ode “Liberty,” he expresses the hope that as a result of a victorious uprising in Russia, a republic will be established with its center in Nizhny Novgorod, in which the class of small owners will be predominant (“everyone sows for himself, he reaps for himself”). According to the form of government, it should be democracy in a republican form, and according to the state structure, it should be a federation.

Catherine II, having read Radishchev’s works, characterized him as a rebel who is even “worse than Pugachev” and “tends to indignant peasants against the landowners.” The writer was arrested, tried and sentenced to death, which was commuted to 10 years of exile in the Ust-Ilimsk prison in Siberia. He returned to St. Petersburg under Alexander I and was involved in the activities of the Commission for drafting laws (during this period he wrote the “Draft of the Civil Code” and “Experience on Legislation”). However, his projects were too radical, and the Chairman of the Commission, Count Zavadovsky, reminded him of Siberia. Arriving home, Radishchev poisoned himself, leaving a note: “Posterity will avenge me.”

In the 18th century They said: “Peter gave the Russians a body, and Catherine II gave them a soul.” This judgment reflected contemporaries’ assessment of the cultural processes that took place in the country in the middle and second half of the 18th century. The ideas of enlightenment had an impact in the 18th century. great influence on all spheres of cultural life.

Even under Elizaveta Petrovna, Moscow University was opened (1755) consisting of three faculties: law, medicine and philosophy; Academy of Arts (1757) and theater in Yaroslavl (1756). Catherine II tried to widely spread education in Russia. In 1764, the Smolny Institute was opened in St. Petersburg for the education of noble girls. Subsequently, a department was established there for girls from the merchant and bourgeois classes. Under Catherine (based on the designs of I.I. Betsky), the Mining and Land Surveying Schools were opened; two medical schools; Commercial school in St. Petersburg. But the main thing in the matter of education was the plan to establish in all provinces unified system training teachers for future schools. In pursuance of this, the Main School for teacher training was opened in St. Petersburg in 1783. At the end of the century, such schools were opened in 25 provincial cities. Theological seminaries and three Theological Academies were created for the clergy in all provinces.

In the development of science in the 18th century. M.V. played a major role. Lomonosov (1711-1765). His scientific activities are diverse. He discovered the law of conservation of matter (known in science as the Lomonosov-Lavoisier law), which he himself called the “universal law of nature”; wrote a number of works on physics, chemistry (created the first chemical laboratory at the University), geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy. His works in astronomy led to the discovery of the atmosphere on Venus. Lomonosov worked hard to create scientific terminology. He was the first to lecture students in Russian. He is the author of literary and historical works and, in particular, “Ancient Russian History.”

Outstanding historians of the 18th century. were V.N. Tatishchev (“Russian History from the Most Ancient Times”) and M.M. Shcherbatov (“History of Russia from ancient times” and “Journey to the land of Ophir”). Ya.P. Kozelsky wrote draft government reforms.

Technical thought also developed quite actively: the son of soldier I.I. Polzunov, who worked at the mining factories of Altai, created a project and built the first steam engine based on it. It was put into effect after his death and, despite successful work, abandoned after the first breakdown. Kulibin I.P. - a self-taught mechanic, the son of a Nizhny Novgorod merchant, created a number of outstanding mechanisms: a scooter cart, prosthetics for disabled people to replace arms and legs, a watercraft, a winnowing machine, a prototype of a bicycle and much more. Of particular interest was his project of a single-arch bridge across the Neva, a model of which was tested and was highly praised by the mathematician L. Euler, but was not implemented. At the end of his life, Kulibin received a position as a mechanic at the Academy of Sciences, but his inventions were not used.

In literature in the 18th century. Classicism reigned. His supporters include such writers and poets as Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Sumarokov. At the end of the 18th century. a new literary style appears - sentimentalism, the founder of which is considered to be N.M. Karamzin.

Landscapes, especially views of Italy, are becoming more common in painting. Program painting is represented by biblical scenes. It was she who gave rise to the so-called academic style of writing. The portrait began to occupy a serious place. Among portrait painters, the master of ceremonial portrait D.G. gained great fame. Levitsky. He painted the painting “Catherine the Lawgiver,” where the queen is depicted in the image of the goddess Minerva - the patroness of sciences, crafts, education, art, as well as a number of other works (portraits of N.I. Novikov, D. Diderot, etc.). Serf artist of the Sheremetevs - Argunov painted portraits of actress Parasha Zhemchugova and a number of representatives of the Sheremetev family, S.F. Rokotov - portraits of Maykov, Novosiltseva, Surovtseva and others. V.L. Borovikovsky - portrait of the diplomat Prince Kurakin. The artist Ugryumov worked in the historical genre; his painting “The Capture of Kazan” became very famous.

Sculptural monuments are becoming widespread and popular. Since the time of Peter I, sculpture has become an integral part of palace and park ensembles. In the second half of the 18th century. monumental sculpture began to attract attention, and outstanding works: monument to Suvorov (in the image of the god of war Mars), author Falcone; monument to Minin and Pozharsky, author I.P. Martos; statue of Samson for the cascade of fountains in Peterhof M.I. Kozlovsky. F.I. Shubin made sculptural portraits of Paul I and Lomonosov.

In architecture, the Baroque style, characterized by splendor, asymmetrical forms and rich decoration, gives way to classicism, characterized by strict lines. The architectural core of such buildings was a portico or rotunda with a colonnade, and their main decoration was the ancient orders: Corinthian, Doric and Ionic. The classicism style had its own characteristics in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Russia it is represented by such names as Rastrelli, Quarneghi, Cameron, Kazakov, Bazhenov, etc.). Architectural classicism had a great influence on the construction of estates in Russia.

Activities of Paul I

In November 1796, after the death of Catherine II on Russian throne Emperor Paul I ascended. The short, but extremely important and eventful reign of one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in Russian history began. In order to understand and correctly evaluate what happened during the four and a half years of Pavlov’s reign, it is necessary to remember that at the time of his accession to the throne, the emperor was already 42 years old, i.e. he was a mature man with an established character, established political convictions and ideas about the needs of Russia and the best ways to manage it. The character and political views of the emperor were formed in very difficult and unusual conditions.

The birth of Paul in 1754 was greeted at the court of his grandmother Elizaveta Petrovna as a long-awaited event, since the Empress was extremely worried about the continuation of the dynasty. Immediately after birth, the child was taken to Elizabeth’s chambers, where his parents were allowed only with her special permission. In fact, until the coup of 1762, Pavel was raised without the participation of his parents, not really knowing either his mother or his father. The latter was completely indifferent to him. It is significant that in the manifesto on the accession of Peter III to the throne, neither Paul nor Catherine were even mentioned. From 1761, N.I. Panin was appointed Pavel’s chief educator.

Panin not only followed Elizabeth’s instructions, but also sincerely became attached to his pupil. Himself a supporter of the Enlightenment, he dreamed of raising Paul to be an ideal sovereign for Russia. And indeed, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, young Pavel was a well-educated romantic youth who believed in the ideals of enlightened absolutism. He was prepared for the state career, and he grew up with the consciousness that he would have to rule Russia.

In 1773, Pavel married Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was named Natalya Alekseevna upon baptism into Orthodoxy. The young man, who had just left the care of teachers and educators, fell madly in love with his young wife, but the happiness was short-lived - three years later Natalya Alekseevna died in childbirth. A few months later, Paul married again to Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg, who received the name Maria Feodorovna in Orthodoxy. In 1777, their first-born, the future Emperor Alexander I, was born, and in 1779, their second son, Constantine. They were both taken from their parents and raised under the supervision of their grandmother. In 1781--1782 Pavel and Maria Feodorovna traveled around Europe, where they made a favorable impression on European courts. But during the trip, Pavel behaved carelessly, openly criticizing the policies of Catherine and her favorites. Apparently, this became known to the empress, who, upon her son’s return, tried to remove him from the court by donating the Gatchina manor, where Paul henceforth spent most of his time. Like Peter I once did in Preobrazhenskoye and Peter III in Oranienbaum, Paul created his own small army in Gatchina and enthusiastically took up drill, taking the Prussian military system as a model. Discipline, order, and a certain asceticism seemed to be contrasted with the luxury and disorderly life of the St. Petersburg court. He enjoyed the unquestioning submission of his soldiers, dreaming of a time when all of Russia would submit to him in the same way. He believed that for a true autocrat, Catherine was too feminine and soft and liberal. The harmfulness of such a rule was increased in his eyes by the revolutionary danger, especially after the collapse of the monarchy in France. Under these conditions, Pavel saw the salvation of Russia only in strengthening power.

Paul's intention to deal with the rebels with the help of cannons should not, however, be considered only a manifestation of ruthlessness or political myopia. Behind this there was a certain system of views, according to which, in order to avoid revolution, it was necessary, with the help of military discipline and police measures, to preserve (mothball) the existing regime for as long as possible, removing from it all corrupting elements. According to Paul, this primarily concerned various manifestations of personal and public freedom and was expressed in the lifestyle and behavior of the nobles, in neglect of public service, in elements of self-government, in the excessive luxury of the court, in the relative freedom of thought and self-expression. Paul saw the reasons for the disintegration in the mistakes of Catherine's policies. As the modern English historian R. McGrew notes, “by the time of Catherine’s death, he (Paul) was completely blind to her achievements and indifferent to her goals... His intention was to make a revolution in order to prevent an even worse one” (McGrew R. E . Paul I of Rissia (Oxford, 1992. P. 206).

Paul contrasted the Enlightenment ideals of civil liberty with the ideals of medieval chivalry with its ideas about nobility, loyalty, honor, courage, and service to the sovereign. It was a “knightly conservative idea in defiance of” freedom, equality, fraternity,... Chivalry against Jacobinism... i.e., ennobled inequality against “evil equality,” (Eidelman N.Ya. Edge of Centuries. M., 1986. With 71).

And finally, on November 6, 1796, when the empress died, Paul received the long-awaited crown and power. Eyewitnesses of the events are unanimous in their description.

The very first steps of Paul the Emperor demonstrated his intention to act contrary to his mother’s policies in everything. This desire colored, in fact, his entire reign, as a result of which “the best enterprises in concept were spoiled by the stamp of personal enmity placed on them.” So, of course, it is not at all liberal sympathies that explain the release of Pavel Novikov, Radishchev, T. Kosciuszko, and with him other Poles, and the replacement of many senior officials on charges of corruption. The new emperor tried, as it were, to cross out the previous 34 years of Russian history, to declare them a complete mistake.

In Paul's domestic policy, several interrelated areas are distinguished - public administration reform, changes in class politics and military reform. At first glance, the reform of public administration carried out by Paul, just like Catherine’s policy, was aimed at further centralization of power, but this task was solved differently. Thus, if under Catherine the importance of the Prosecutor General of the Senate especially increased, and he was in charge of many state affairs, including all financial policy, then under Pavel the Prosecutor General turned into a kind of prime minister, concentrating in his hands the functions of the ministers of internal affairs. , justice and partly finance. It is no coincidence that Pavel once declared to his Prosecutor General A. A. Bekleshov: “You and I, I and you - we will do things alone.”

A further change in the functions of the Senate as a whole, for which Catherine in her later projects essentially prepared the role of the body of supreme legal supervision, is associated with the reorganization of central and local government. Back in the 80s, a number of collegiums were liquidated and only three remained - Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs. This was due to the fact that, declaring freedom of enterprise, Catherine believed it was possible to transfer the minimum necessary control over economic development into the hands of local authorities. Paul restored some colleges, considering, however, that it was necessary to transform them into ministries, that is, replacing the principle of collegial government with one-man rule. Thus, in 1797, a completely new Ministry of Appanages was created, which was in charge of lands that belonged directly to the royal family, and in 1800 - the Ministry of Commerce.

Paul even more decisively destroyed the entire system of local government created on the basis of the Institutions of 1775.

Firstly, the positions of governors were eliminated, who, in the opinion of the new emperor, enjoyed too much independence. Secondly, the orders of public charity and the deanery council were closed; The city estate administration was merged with the police, and the city council was liquidated. The judicial system created by Catherine also underwent reform: a number of judicial instances were eliminated altogether, and the chambers of civil and criminal courts were merged into one. In this regard, the role of the Senate as a judicial body was again strengthened.

Paul also changed the administrative-territorial division of the country, the principles of managing the outskirts of the empire. Thus, 50 provinces were transformed into 41 provinces and the Region of the Don Army. Traditional governing bodies were returned to the Baltic provinces, Ukraine and some other peripheral territories. All these transformations are obviously contradictory: on the one hand, they increase the centralization of power in the hands of the tsar and eliminate elements of self-government, on the other hand, they reveal a return to a variety of forms of governance on the national outskirts. This contradiction stemmed primarily from the weakness of the new regime, the fear of not being able to control the entire country, as well as the desire to gain popularity in areas where there was a threat of outbreaks of the national liberation movement. And, of course, there was a desire to redo everything in a new way. It is significant that the content of Paul’s judicial reform and the liquidation of class self-government bodies meant, in essence, a step back for Russia. This reform affected not only the urban population, but also the nobility.

The attack on noble privileges, legalized by the Charter of 1785, began almost from the first days of Pavlov's reign. Already in 1797, a review was announced for all officers on the lists of the regiments, and those who did not appear were dismissed. It is believed that this measure was connected with the fact that under Catherine there was a custom of enrolling young noble children in the regiment, so that by the time they reached adulthood they would already have officer ranks. In fact, the number of such “officers” was negligibly small, and much more of them were listed as sick, on vacation, etc. In addition, many of the highest dignitaries of the state, along with positions in the state apparatus, had the ranks of generals and were listed in various, usually guards, shelves. Therefore, at first glance, the measure taken by Paul looked quite reasonable and fair, but it was followed by a restriction of privileges and non-serving nobles. Having requested lists of such nobles in August 1800, Paul ordered that most of them be assigned to military service. Prior to this, since October 1799, a procedure had been established according to which special permission from the Senate was required to transfer from military service to civilian service. Another decree of the emperor prohibited non-serving nobles from participating in noble elections and holding elected positions.

In 1799, provincial noble assemblies were abolished, the rights of district members were limited and, conversely, the right of governors to interfere in noble elections was strengthened. In 1797, the nobles were obliged to pay a special tax for the maintenance of the provincial administration, and in 1799 the amount charged was increased. Historians are also aware of cases of the use of corporal punishment, abolished by Catherine for the nobility (as well as for some other groups of the population), in Pavlov’s time. But in general it would be a mistake to consider Paul’s policy as anti-noble. Rather, it shows a clear desire to transform the nobility into a knightly class - disciplined, organized, serving without exception and devoted to their sovereign. It is no coincidence that Paul made an attempt to limit the influx of non-nobles into the ranks of the nobility, prohibiting their promotion to non-commissioned officers. From these positions, the emperor’s policy towards the peasantry becomes clearer.

Paul's reign, like the previous one, was marked by massive distributions to peasants as a reward for service, and in four years Paul managed to distribute almost as many peasants as his mother did in 34 (about 600 thousand). However, the difference was not only in quantity. If Catherine gave her favorites either estates left without an owner or estates in newly conquered territories, then Paul distributed first of all to state peasants, thereby significantly worsening their situation. Having declared at the beginning of his reign that every subject had the right to file a complaint with him personally, Paul brutally suppressed such attempts on the part of the peasants. In December 1796, a decree was issued on assigning peasants to private owners in the Don Army Region and in Novorossiya; in March 1798, a decree was issued on allowing merchant breeders to buy peasants for their enterprises with and without land. On the other hand, a number of legislative acts appeared that objectively contributed to the weakening of serfdom. Thus, in February 1797, the sale of household servants and landless peasants by auction was prohibited, and in October 1798, the sale of Ukrainian peasants without land was prohibited. For the first time in many years, upon Paul’s accession to the throne, serfs had to take an oath to the new emperor on an equal basis with free peasants; in December 1797, the arrears in the per capita tax were removed from the peasants and townspeople, and the recruitment set assigned by Catherine was canceled. The most famous is the so-called Manifesto on the Three-Day Corvee, published by Paul along with other important documents on the day of his coronation on April 5, 1797. The Manifesto read:

“By the grace of God we, Paul the First, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, and so on, and so on, and so on.

We announce to all our loyal subjects.

The law of God, taught to us in the decalogue, teaches us to devote the seventh day to it, why on this day, glorified by the triumph of the Christian faith, and on which we were honored to receive the sacred anointing of the world and the royal wedding on our ancestral throne, we consider it our duty to the creator and all the best giver to confirm throughout our entire empire the exact and indispensable implementation of this law, commanding everyone to observe that no one under any circumstances dares to force peasants to work on Sundays, especially since for rural products the remaining six days of the week are equal in number of which, generally shared, both for the peasants themselves and for their work, in favor of the following landowners, with good management, will be sufficient to satisfy all economic needs. Given in Moscow on Easter Day, April 5, 1797.” Quote Based on: Russian legislation X--XX centuries. M., 1987. T. 5. P. 62.

It is noteworthy that the main meaning of the manifesto is connected with the ban on work on Sundays, i.e. it confirms the legal norm that existed in the Council Code of 1649. The limitation of corvée to three days is spoken of in the manifesto rather as a desirable, more rational distribution working hours of farmers. The ambiguity of the manifesto led to its ambiguous interpretation by both contemporaries and historians. The peasants perceived the manifesto as a relief of their situation and tried to complain about the landowners who did not comply with it. There are cases when landowners were actually subjected to penalties and punishments for this.

However, the fact of non-fulfillment of the manifesto should not be discounted. Moreover, in some areas of the country, for example in Ukraine, where corvee was limited to two days a week, the manifesto, on the contrary, worsened the situation of the peasants. The manifesto's ambiguity was most likely deliberate. Firstly, Paul, fearing peasant uprisings, tried to prevent them with populist measures, and secondly, he acquired another instrument of pressure on the nobles. Thirdly, he also could not openly weaken the oppression of serfdom, since the dependence of the throne on the nobility was great, and he most likely had no such intentions.

Paul's policy towards the army looked more definite, to which he decided to transfer the Prussian military order, which he had so successfully used in Gatchina. The reform began with the introduction of a new uniform that completely copied the Prussian one: a long uniform, stockings and black patent leather shoes, a powdered head with a braid of a certain length; officers were given sticks with bone heads to punish offending soldiers. In December 1796, a new charter was issued, in which the main attention was paid to teaching soldiers how to step. Since it was based on the Prussian charter of 1760, no new achievements of Russian military thought, tested on the battlefields during Catherine’s reign, were reflected in it. Soon, several more regulations were issued for individual branches of the military, based on the idea of ​​the army as a machine, the main thing in which was the mechanical coherence of the troops and efficiency. Initiative and independence are harmful and unacceptable.

Endless parades, drills, combined with harsh measures against officers - dismissals, exiles and even arrests - caused great discontent in the army, not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. So, already in 1796-1798. In the Smolensk province there was an anti-government circle, which included officers of several regiments stationed there, officials of local institutions, as well as a number of retired military personnel.

Speaking about the internal policy of Paul I, it is worth mentioning some of his innovations related to the status of the sovereign and the royal family. On the day of his coronation, Paul published a decree on succession to the throne, establishing the transfer of the throne by inheritance strictly through the male line. The decree continued to be in force in Russia until 1917. What was also new was the creation of the already mentioned Ministry of Appanages, which meant the actual inclusion of the personal economy of the royal family in the sphere of state jurisdiction. Convinced of the divine origin of royal power, Paul did a lot to organize the external manifestations of the monarchical idea. He was a great lover of various ceremonies and rituals, which were carried out scrupulously, with observance of the smallest details, were distinguished by extraordinary pomp and lasted for many hours. The entire life of the court was given a strictly regulated ritual, which was further intensified with the proclamation of Paul in 1798 as Grand Master of the Order of Malta. It should be noted, however, that all this Europeanized ritual was alien to Russia, and in Europe itself it was already perceived as archaic, and therefore caused only grins among most contemporaries, in no way contributing to the goals of glorifying the monarchy that the emperor set for himself. “All this involuntarily took on the character of a theatrical masquerade and brought smiles both to the audience and to the characters, excluding only the emperor, who was fully in his role” (quoted from: Perminov P. Under the canopy of the eight-pointed cross: The Order of Malta and its connections with Russia. M., 1991. P. 111).

Petty regulation extended to daily life subjects. In particular, special decrees prescribed certain styles and sizes of clothing, it was forbidden to wear round hats, shoes with ribbons instead of buckles, etc. Some prohibitions concerned appearance (you cannot wear sideburns and wide curls) and behavior at the ball (you cannot dance the waltz). It is characteristic that all these restrictions applied not only to Russian citizens, but also to foreigners. Thus, the charge d'affaires of Sardinia in Russia was expelled from St. Petersburg for wearing a round hat.

In Paul's policy there is clearly a desire to unify all spheres of life, to exclude the diversity of opinions, judgments, the possibility of choosing a lifestyle, style of behavior, clothing, etc. In this very possibility, Paul saw a revolutionary danger. The introduction of censorship and the ban on the import of books from abroad were aimed at combating the penetration of revolutionary ideas.

It is quite possible that if Paul’s transformations concerned only the sphere of administrative and police management and were carried out carefully and consistently, his fate would have turned out differently. But society, which had already tasted the fruits of “enlightened absolutism,” did not want to part with that, albeit minimal, freedom that it acquired during Catherine’s reign. In addition, the impetuous, hot-tempered, fickle and unpredictable character of the emperor created a climate of uncertainty about the future, when the fate of a Russian nobleman turned out to be dependent on the random whim or change of mood of someone who was seen only as a tyrant on the throne. Moreover, if in the preparation of previous revolutions of the 18th century. The decisive role belonged to the guard, now discontent has spread to virtually the entire army. Pavel failed to find support in any social stratum.

Paul's fate was thus sealed. The conspiracy was brewing virtually from the very beginning of his reign, and many dignitaries, courtiers, senior officers, and even the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, were involved in it (or at least were aware of it). The night of March 11, 1801 became fatal for Paul, when several dozen conspirators broke into the emperor’s chambers in the newly built Mikhailovsky Castle and killed him. Alexander I was proclaimed Emperor of All Russia.

Historians, as already mentioned, evaluate Paul's reign differently. Some call it “unenlightened absolutism” (N. Ya. Eidelman), others “military-police dictatorship” (M. M. Safonov), equally agreeing that the continued existence of the Pavlovian regime would have delayed the socio-political development of Russia. There is also a point of view (Yu. A. Sorokin) according to which Paul’s policy corresponded to the interests of the absolute monarchy, and the means he chose corresponded to the set goal. The newest biographer of Paul I, American historian Roderick McGrew, writes:

“Although many Russians, especially at court and in the army, had every reason to forget about Paul, in fact what Paul accomplished during the four years and three months of his reign turned out to be fundamental for Russia in the first half of the 19th century. His reforms created a strictly centralized system of government focused on the tsar, militarized the nascent bureaucracy, changed the army and military command, settled the problem of succession to the throne, formally legitimized the status of the royal family, and dealt a mortal blow to Catherine’s innovations in the local system of government.”

The fairness of this assessment is largely confirmed by events early XIX century, the reign of Alexander I, which became a new era in the history of Russia. For with the murder of Paul the Russian history of the 18th century ended.

Government structure and internal politics

In the first half of the 17th century. Russia in its own way political system continued to be an estate-representative monarchy. However, starting from about the middle of the century, class-representative bodies of power are increasingly losing their importance, some disappear altogether, the power of the tsar acquires an autocratic character, and Russia begins to turn into absolute monarchy. The process of this transformation will be completed in the next century, during the reign of Peter the Great.

In the 17th century At the head of the country was the king, in whose hands all supreme power was concentrated. He was the supreme legislator, the chief executive and the highest court of justice. In its abbreviated form, the royal title sounded like this: “sovereign tsar and grand duke of all Great and Small and White Russia, autocrat,” and even more briefly, “great sovereign.” (The full title, which was written only in the most important state and diplomatic documents, would take at least a dozen lines.)

The next level of power was the Boyar Duma. Members of the Duma were appointed by the Tsar. It was the highest legislative and advisory body under the great sovereign. All important current affairs of domestic and foreign policy were discussed in the Duma, and the most important decrees were issued on behalf of the Tsar and the Duma (“the Tsar indicated and the boyars sentenced”).

Zemsky Sobors were convened to discuss the most important state issues. They were attended by the tsar, members of the Boyar Duma, the highest church hierarchs, as well as representatives from various classes (except for the landowner peasants) chosen locally in the districts. In the first time after the Time of Troubles, when the supreme power was still weak and needed the support of the estates, Councils were convened almost annually. Then they are collected less and less often, and the last Zemsky Sobor, which considered a truly important issue, was the Council of 1653, which approved the annexation of Left Bank Ukraine to Russia. By the end of the 17th century. Zemstvo councils were no longer convened.

The solution to everyday issues of governing the country was concentrated in orders. Their number and composition were not constant, but there were always several dozen orders at a time. Some of them were in charge of certain branches of management (for example, the Ambassadorial order - external relations, the Razryadny - the armed forces, the Local - all issues of local land ownership, etc.), others - all issues of management within any territory (the order of the Kazan Palace - the territory of the former Kazan Khanate, Siberian - Siberia). There were orders that were formed only to perform a specific task and were then abolished.

The order system lacked clarity; their functions were often intertwined, the same issues were resolved by several orders at once, and, conversely, in the same order they dealt with many different matters, which often had nothing to do with the name of this order. In addition, the orders simultaneously had legislative, executive, and judicial functions.

Russia in the 17th century was divided into counties, of which there were more than 250. The head of the county was a governor appointed by the relevant order. All power in the district was concentrated in his hands. Officials elected from the estates (such as governors and zemstvo elders), who appeared in the 16th century, played an increasingly smaller role in the 17th century and finally disappeared. The voivodeship authority, consisting of the voivodes themselves and voivodeship offices - administrative huts, became the only local authority.

At the end of the 16th century. the abolition of St. George's Day (reserved years) and then the introduction of lesson years began the process of enslavement of the Russian peasantry. In the 30-40s. XVII century Service people in the fatherland, who owned estates and estates, several times turned to the tsar with a request to make the search for fugitive peasants indefinite. However, the government was in no hurry to fulfill these wishes. The fact is that most of the fugitive peasants ended up on the lands of large and influential feudal lords: there taxes and corvée were less than for ordinary service people. There were often cases when " strong people"they simply took the peasants to their estates from the estates of small-time servicemen. Thus, the ruling elite of the country replenished the number of workers in their estates and was not interested in introducing an open-ended search for fugitives: during the established fixed years, landowners employed in the service did not even have time to find out where their peasants live, and when the period of investigation ended, the peasants remained with the new owners.

The political crisis of 1648 (Moscow and other urban uprisings, in which service people also took part, the fall of the Morozov government) showed that the supreme power needed firm support and support from two classes - servicemen and townspeople. Their demands were taken into account when drawing up the Council Code of 1649.

A special chapter of the Code was devoted to the “peasant question.” The main thing in it was the abolition of school years and the introduction of an open-ended search for runaway peasants. It was also forbidden, under threat of a heavy fine, to host fugitives or conceal them. Thus, the Council Code completed the process of the formation of serfdom in Russia.

To help service people find and return their runaway peasants, the government in the 50s and 60s. organized a massive search for fugitives, their capture and return to their old places of residence. All these events made the government very popular among small landowners and patrimonial owners, who made up the majority of service people in the country, and provided it with support from the service class.

Support from the townspeople was ensured by the inclusion in the Council Code of a number of articles that were a response to the demands of the townspeople. Trade and crafts in the cities were declared the monopoly right of the townspeople, and this eliminated competition from other classes (for example, peasants, who before 1649 also often did this in the cities). In addition, the so-called white settlements were liquidated - private lands in cities, on which the artisans and traders who lived (they were called "white towns") did not pay state taxes and were, therefore, in a more advantageous position than their "colleagues" who lived on state land. Now the “Belomestsy” were included in the number of townspeople and were subject to the full amount of government payments and duties.

Russia's military failures, especially in wars with its western neighbors in the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries, were largely explained by the fact that the Russian army was organized, trained, and armed worse than the enemy army.

The Russian cavalry consisted of regiments of noble cavalry, armed with a variety of weapons, who had not undergone systematic military training, and who had the vaguest idea of ​​military discipline. Estates and estates were considered a salary that the state paid to serving people. Buy horses, ammunition, weapons, etc. they owed it from the income they received from their estates and estates. These funds were often not enough, and leaving one’s homestead and farming was not an easy task. Therefore, failure to show up for duty under a variety of pretexts was a typical occurrence. If a military campaign was delayed or military operations occurred during a field suffering period, desertion began.

As for the infantry, it was based on rifle regiments. In terms of training, they were not much superior to the noble cavalry and were also difficult to lift, since in their free time from service the archers were engaged in arable farming, crafts, and trade. In other words, they lived not at the expense of their service, but at the expense of their farms.

It was not a regular army or a professional mercenary army (as in a number of European countries), but a standing army, on the maintenance of which the state spent practically no money; service in it was not the only occupation of service people, since they all also took care of their own households. The price for the low cost of maintaining such an army was its low combat effectiveness.

Already in the 30s. The Russian government began to form regular units, which were organized according to Western European models. The first soldier regiments were formed. It was supposed to support them exclusively at government expense so that the soldiers would devote all their time to service and military training. However, nothing came of this. Chronic financial difficulties prevented the transition to this new system. Although weapons and ammunition were purchased abroad, although dozens of foreign officers were hired, in the end they began to distribute land on estates as salaries for soldiers and officers. This is understandable: there was always not enough money in the treasury, and land in Russia in the 17th century. was more than enough.

Over the next two decades, the creation of regiments of the new system - soldiers, dragoons, and reiters - became widespread, especially in the south of the country. These measures strengthened the Russian army, since the regiments of the new system were superior to the noble cavalry and archers in weapons, organization, training, and foreign commanders. But it was still not possible to achieve a fundamentally new qualitative level of the armed forces: the new regiments became, albeit the best, but still part of the old standing army. Creation of a regular army in the 17th century. did not take place; this problem had to be solved in the era of Peter the Great.