Introduction
Until the 18th century, for many European states, Russia was, as it were, a distant colony, from which foreigners exported numerous wealth. Foreign trade in Russia was poorly developed. The 18th century for the Russian state was the century of intensive trade.
The development of industry, manufactories, agriculture gave domestic trade a new impetus, and Russia's access to the Baltic Sea, numerous foreign policy actions of the government (peace and trade agreements with Turkey in 1700, with Denmark in 1709, with Prussia in 1717 and others) opened way for Russian goods to Europe. But, as before, this did not greatly affect foreign trade.
A significant role in the development of industry belongs to Peter the Great. At the beginning of his reign, he made great efforts to develop shipbuilding and mining, and during the Northern War, the development of cloth, linen, and weapons industries was encouraged.
A little about Peter and his character:
In order to develop maritime trade relations with Europe through St. Petersburg, Peter I had to take non-standard and even harsh measures: in 1710 it was forbidden to export bread through Arkhangelsk, and a decree of 1713 ordered Russian merchants to bring hemp and yuft not to Arkhangelsk, but only to Petersburg. The decree applied to caviar, glue, potash, resin, bristles and other goods that were the subject of the state trade monopoly.
Severe measures, up to the resettlement of the merchants themselves from different places in Russia to live in St. Petersburg, broke the resistance of the Russian merchants, who still sought to trade with Western Europe through Arkhangelsk. But besides the "command order", economic mechanisms were also involved: the usual 5% duty was lowered in St. Petersburg to 3%.
As a result, if in 1718 only 52 merchant ships arrived in St. Petersburg, and 150 in Arkhangelsk, then in 1725 450 merchant ships arrived in St. Petersburg, and only 50 in Arkhangelsk. If in 1717 St. Petersburg exports were calculated in the amount of 269 thousand rubles, and imports - 218 thousand rubles, then in 1726 the amount of St. Petersburg exports was already about 2 million 403 thousand rubles, and imports were about 1 million 550 thousand rubles.
Already in the middle of the 18th century, Petersburg took the first place in the country in terms of the amount of trade turnover.
Trade also made a significant step forward under Peter. Both external and internal, for example, if in 1703 113 foreign ships arrived in Russia with goods, then at the end of the reign of Peter - 453.
However, foreign trade remained predominantly passive in nature and was caused mainly by the needs of neighboring peoples. The Russian merchant had neither sufficient enterprise nor sufficient intelligence to establish new trade relations with foreign countries. Russian agricultural products were no longer exported by foreigners, foreign trade was conducted by the government itself. It concentrated in its hands one or the other most important object of trade at the moment. The sale of these so-called state-owned goods was the monopoly of the state, which became the largest merchant, although the export of monopolized goods was often farmed out to merchants or companies for a certain fee.
State-owned goods included, for example: hemp, linseed, lard, wax, tar, molasses, caviar and some other goods.
A little about flax and its use:
The linen industry is considered the national industry of Russia. Flax has been grown in the fields of the Non-Black Earth region since time immemorial. Cloth was woven from the fibers, clothes and shoes were sewn. From flax, a high-quality oil was obtained, used for food and treatment. In the X-XIII centuries, flax spread throughout Russia; in the XIII-XVI centuries Novgorod and Pskov became the main centers of flax production and trade. Until the end of the 18th century, flax growing occupied the first place among export goods and was the main source of income for Russian foreign trade. By the beginning of the 19th century, flax growing developed in almost all provinces of the non-chernozem zone of the European part of Russia. Flax and linen fabrics remained a significant export item both before the revolution and during the Soviet period, until the northern silk crops began to decline.
Russia's foreign trade grew rapidly by the middle of the century. If in 1749 the export of bread was estimated at 2 thousand rubles, then in the early 90s it increased to almost 3 thousand.
However, Russia's foreign trade activities in the second half of the 18th century were still not active enough due to the lack of secured access to international sea communications, the underdevelopment of shipbuilding and port facilities. Nevertheless, from the end of the 50s to the end of the 70s of the 18th century, the import of goods doubled, and the export more than tripled. Since that time, the amount of imported and exported goods, and, consequently, the customs duty has increased every year.
After the conclusion of an agreement with Turkey in 1774 and the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 1782, Black Sea trade through the port cities of Odessa, Ochakov, Nikolaev, Kherson, Sevastopol, Evpatoria, Kerch, Feodosia intensified. Trade has also intensified in the ports of the Azov Sea - Mariupol and Taganrog.
The development of foreign maritime trade brought significant revenues to the treasury and made it necessary to establish new customs in Odessa, Sevastopol, Kherson, Nikolaev and other ports.
Siberia played an active role in the development of trade during this period, ensuring the export of such valuable export goods as fur, and receiving goods from China. Trade with neighboring states on the southern border was not weakened.
The development of trade required the improvement of customs in the country. Since 1718, customs duties have been managed by the Collegium of Commerce established by Peter the Great. Customs became centralized and carried out on the basis of a single customs policy. Customs revenues went to Order of the Great Treasury. On the ground, customs were subordinate to governors without the right to interfere in their financial activities. There is no exact data on the number of customs offices in Russia during this period. If we take into account that customs were created in every city and town, then there were probably about 500 of them. At the head of the customs were directors from the nobility. Vice directors, customs commissioners, obercolners and other officials were appointed from the same class. Customs had inspectors, barn inspectors, stamplemeisters, and examiners. 30% of posts in customs were in the merchant class, i.e. people who are sufficiently trained in commerce. A significant proportion of the customs staff was staffed by soldiers and sailors, which was dictated by the desire to save costs for the maintenance of customs, as well as the difficulty in staffing customs with qualified personnel.
The states of customs and the range of posts were approved by the College of Commerce. The collegium itself was staffed by representatives of the Russian nobility, customs officers, as well as foreign specialists.
In the second half of the 18th century, Russia's foreign trade turnover increased by about 5 times, reaching almost 110 million rubles in the 90s. Thus, economic reforms contributed to the strengthening of trade and the growth of foreign trade centers, not only in the north, but also in the south of the country.
However, Russia's share in foreign trade did not correspond to its potential. The presence of a raw nomenclature of imports testified to the economic backwardness of Russia. Its development was hampered by serfdom, the lack of industry, and the low social level of the majority of the population.
In the field of domestic and foreign trade in Petrovsky times, a large role was played by the state monopoly on the procurement and sale of basic goods (salt, flax, furs, lard, caviar, bread, wine, wax, bristles, etc.), which significantly replenished the treasury. The creation of merchant "kuppanstvo" and the expansion of trade relations with foreign countries were encouraged in every possible way. At the same time, the importance of the richest merchants of the “commercial hundred” was declining. Fairs remained important points for the exchange of goods. The development of trade and the all-Russian market was facilitated by the improvement of communications, the construction of canals on waterways (Vyshnevolotsky, Ladoga, etc.), as well as the abolition in 1754 of internal customs duties.
By 1725, there were 25 textile enterprises, rope and gunpowder manufactories in the country. For the first time, paper, cement, sugar factories and even a trellis factory for the production of wallpaper were built. The success of the policy in the field of trade in the Petrine era is also evidenced by the fact that by the end of the Petrine reign, the export of Russian goods was twice as high as imports. At the same time, high customs tariffs (up to 40% in foreign currency) reliably protected the domestic market.
Introduction.
1. Characteristics of the Lviv railway, features and development tasks.
1.1 Stages of construction and development of the Lviv railway
1.2 Density of the railway network of the service area. main transport hubs.
1.3 Features and volumes of railway transportation work. Structure and direction of the main cargo flows
2. Prospects for the development of the railway.
2.1 The main direction of promising development.
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Railway transport is one of the most important sectors of the economy, the successful operation of which largely depends on the effective functioning of the entire national economic complex of Ukraine.
The main advantages of this mode of transport over others are its reliability and regularity. Universality, the possibility of mass transportation of goods and passengers, independence from the time of year, day and weather conditions and the relative cheapness of transportation. Railways connect all regions and regions of our country with each other, ensure the operation of industrial and agricultural enterprises, construction sites, and satisfy the population's need for movement. Their importance in the development of international cooperation and strengthening the country's defense capability is great.
1.1 Stages of construction and development of the Lviv railway
The first railway track appeared in the Western Ukrainian lands in the second half of the last century, which is characterized by historians as an era of rapid growth of capitalism.
In 1857, the construction of a railway line from Peremishl to Lviv began, almost 100 kilometers long, and four years later the first train passed through it. The fanfare had not yet been won back on this occasion, as English engineers proposed the construction of a steel highway that would connect Lvov with Chernivtsi. After the approval of the project for two years, the railway track ran between these cities, which are located at a distance of 267 kilometers from one another. The young bourgeoisie of Galicia insisted on further accelerating the pace of construction of the railway, which would reduce the cost of transportation compared to horse-drawn and water transport, high speed deliveries, regularity and mass transportation.
Steel lines were laid primarily in areas of intensive development of oil and salt deposits. In 1872, the operation of the railway sections Khirov - Sambor, Drogobich - Borislav, Stry - Drogobich - Borislav began. Steel rails were laid to Brody, Podvolochisk and in the spring of 1873 they joined the railways of Russia.
In the same 1873, the construction of one of the directions of the railway Lviv - Stry was completed, a line from Krivin to Brest-Litovsk began to operate. The Kivertsi - Kovel - Brest line was part of a large highway that stretched from Odessa and Kyiv to the borders with Germany and the ports of the Baltic.
Another trade and strategic line ran from Lvov through Stry and the Carpathians to Mukachevo. Work in this direction was completed in 1875.
In 1890, the operational length of railways in Western Ukraine was 1,439 kilometers. 474 steam locomotives worked on them, the mobile fleet consisted of 812 passenger, 9659 freight, 367 conductor and baggage cars. Two years later, the railways became state-owned, and for more efficient management of train traffic, two directorates were created - in Lviv and Krakow. Repair enterprises were built that ensured the regular movement of trains. However, the overhaul of the rolling stock was not carried out on the spot, usually steam locomotives and wagons were sent to Germany for rehabilitation.
On March 26, 1906, thousands of Lviv residents took part in the festive events organized on the occasion of the commissioning of the largest railway station in Europe with a beautiful landing stage and underground tunnels. During World War II, the station was destroyed. In the post-war period, it was restored, reconstructed, and now it is one of the best stations in Ukraine.
By the beginning of the First World War, the construction of the premises of the Lviv Directorate of Railways was completed. On February 11, 1914, the Catholic clergy consecrated the new building. And to this day, it houses the administration of the Lviv railway.
- The density of the railway network of the service area. main transport hubs.
The Lviv railway serves the territory of the Lviv, Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian regions. Operating length of the road 4483.3 km .
The configuration of the road is an extensive network of railway lines coming from the largest transport hub in the region, Lviv in eight directions.
Lviv railway is one of the oldest railways in Ukraine, it is rightly called the main railway gateway of Ukraine to Europe. For communication with the countries of Western Europe and the CIS, there are 17 border crossings on the railway, including: on the border with Poland - 6, Slovakia - 2, Hungary - 2, Romania - 4, Belarus - 2, Moldova - 1. The presence of such a number crossings gave the railroad the status of a border highway and determined its important place in Ukraine in the organization of transit traffic and cargo between West and East, North and South and in the opposite direction.
The section Lviv - Mostytska -2 - the state border, 84 km long, is an integral part of the association of state enterprises of railway transport - the Lviv railway. The total length of the main railway lines is 4483.3 kilometers. It includes three departments of the road, 2 state-owned enterprises for the transportation of goods and passengers, more than 300 structural divisions and enterprises of road subordination. The management of production activities is carried out in the Road Administration, which is located in Lviv. The railway is a state-owned economic enterprise that performs more than 11% of freight and 12% of passenger rail traffic in Ukraine.
The Lviv railway was founded in 1961 and approved within its current borders after the Second World War. Over the past 50 years, the railway has been reconstructed anew, almost half of the main tracks have been switched to electric traction, 65% of switches and signals are equipped with electrical centralization. Modern train traffic control systems operate throughout the railway range.
The capacity of railway sections is two or more times greater than necessary, which is explained by a significant drop in traffic volumes.
The design, plan and profile of the main tracks on the main directions of the railway make it possible to realize the speed of passenger trains 100-140 km/h
The material and technical support of the Lviv railway in terms of rolling stock, materials for the upper structures of the track, fuel is carried out centrally through Ukrzaliznytsia. The purchase of spare parts, equipment and other materials is carried out at the railway's own expense. As a result of work in 1995, the balance sheet profit of the railway amounted to 14,389,319 million karbovanets (94.5 million US dollars). The ratio of credit and own funds - 8.8%, absolute liquidity ratio - 0.18%.
Due to the drop in traffic volumes, the capabilities of the repair base on the railway exceed the needs from 1.5 to 3 times, depending on the type and type of repair.
1.3 Features and volumes of railway transportation work.
The city of Lviv, as a great historical and cultural center, has always attracted the attention of foreign tourists. If we take into account that, as a large railway junction, Lviv is connected with all regional centers of Ukraine, with two-thirds of large and small cities, with the resorts of Transcarpathia, the Black and Azov Seas, then it becomes clear how attractive it is for international tourism, convenient for business people, who use the railroad. In the difficult conditions of the transition to a market economy in Ukraine and, as a result, a decrease in the volume of cargo transportation by rail, passenger traffic until 1993 remained practically unchanged. In 1994, there was a slight decline in passenger traffic (2%) and in 1995 - 1996 - about 15%. This situation is typical for all railways in Ukraine, including Lviv. However, it should be noted that due to the historical family ties of the population of the western region of Ukraine with the population of Western Ukraine, the demand for international passenger transportation here has always been greater than in other regions of the state. This demand remains high today.
The main railway line that connects the CIS countries and Ukraine with Western Europe is the double-track line Konotop - Bakhmach - Kyiv - Zhmerynka - Lviv, which will be fully electrified in the near future, on which it is already possible to realize the speed for passenger trains from 100 to 140 km \ h.
Lviv is connected with Western European countries by two lines, each of which is double-track, electrified and equipped with modern train traffic control facilities. The first line - through the border station Mostytska - 2 (84 km) connects Ukraine with Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany and other states of Central Europe and Scandinavia along the shortest path.
The second line - through the station Chop (266 km) connects Ukraine with Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and other states of Central and Southern Europe.
2.1 The main direction of perspective development.
The speed and quality of passenger traffic are the main directions of the transport policy, which is being successfully implemented in the states of Western Europe. The Lviv railway was the first among the Ukrainian railways to take the path of solving this problem. In December 1996, a new suburban station for southwestern trains was put into operation in Lviv. This was the first stage in the reconstruction of the existing station complex and the construction of an international station with a complex of service infrastructure.
The next stage is the construction of a Western European standard track from the state border to Lviv, which will eventually become an integral part of the Mostiska-Lviv-Kyiv expressway. In the near future, the Lviv railway will turn into a highway with a perfect transport infrastructure. High-speed trains will deliver passengers to the countries of Western Europe, the CIS states, and to any corner of Ukraine in the shortest possible time.
One of the projects for the development of the railway is the construction of a railway line of the Western European standard Lviv - Mostitska 2 - the state border. One of the advantages of this construction is that the travel time of an international train from the states of Central Europe can be reduced by 4 hours due to the elimination of the rearrangement of wagons from one track to another, and from the states of Southern Europe - by 6 hours by increasing the route speed. This will certainly increase the concrete possibility of the lines. An accompanying factor is also the possibility of increasing the landfill where the rolling stock of the Western European route turns around, which, given the acute shortage of international-class rolling stock in Ukraine, will reduce the need for such cars. In Ukraine, in 1993, a study was conducted that examined the current situation of railway transport in the state and the state of its main technical means. A forecast was made for the volume of passenger and cargo transportation up to the year 2000 and beyond. According to this forecast, after the year 2000, international traffic will increase:
from Ukraine to Northern Europe via Poland - by 12% (9 trains)
from Ukraine to Central Europe via Slovakia, Hungary - by 12.5% (5 trains)
to Ukraine from Northern Europe via Poland - by 10% (3 trains)
to Ukraine from Central Europe via Slovakia, Hungary - by 10% (3 trains)
In addition, the number of trains that transit through Ukraine from Russia and other states will increase:
to Northern Europe via Poland - twice (2 trains)
to Central Europe via Slovakia, Hungary - 1.5 times (3 trains).
The project is based on the idea that a passenger who wants to take a train abroad should go directly to Lviv to transfer to an international train.
It should be noted that 30% of passengers traveling through Chop and 85% of passengers traveling through Mostytska are citizens of Ukraine, for whom it will be no less convenient to make a transfer in Lviv than in Kyiv or in other cities. Add to this the convenience they will get as a result of the reduction in travel time.
Conclusion
So, we briefly described the state of the Lviv railway, the prospects and ways of its development, the features and volumes of transportation work. What conclusion can be drawn from all this? It is not enough to analyze prospective transport and economic ties using a grid of large economic regions. It is necessary to take into account possible shifts in the territorial production structure of the country, changes arising from the deployment of an objective process of economic zoning for the period under review.
The scientific development of the prospects for the development of economic regions is connected with the search for economical proportions between production and transport and between different modes of transport in each region of the production complex. When determining the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of transportation, zoning methods are used for the following stages (directions) of work: calculation of inter-district cargo flows for the future, development of transport and economic links within regions, distribution of traffic between modes of transport, justification of measures for the development of the country's transport system.
List of used literature:
1. Economic geography of transport, N.N. Kazansky, Moscow "Transport" 1991. (the basis of this work)
2. Lviv railway, description of the construction project, 1997.
3. Geography of routes and communications. Kyiv, 1994
4. Development of the system of passenger communications / Edited by L.V. Kantarovich, N.I. Beshcheva. M.: Nauka, 1984.
Peter considered foreign trade to be one of the most effective means of introducing Russia to Western European culture. At the beginning of his reign, he took vigorous measures to expand trade. He visited Arkhangelsk three times and built several ships at the Solambal shipyard to export government goods abroad. And the trade of Arkhangelsk developed rapidly; at the end of the 17th century. its turnover barely reached 850,000 rubles, and in 1710 - 1,485,000 rubles. But the White Sea, in its remoteness, the brevity of the navigation period and its difficulties, did not meet the needs of Russian foreign trade, even in its then size.
A different, more convenient outlet was needed for the products of the Russian economy. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish itself on the Sea of Azov, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were acquired for Russia and St. Petersburg was founded. Promises of benefits attracted foreign merchants to the new Russian port; the Dutch and the British took the greatest part in its trade. In 1706 a trade convention was concluded with France; Italian ships, in respect of range, were promised a concession of half of the duties; Prince Menshikov was instructed to enter into correspondence about trade benefits for the merchants of Hamburg, Bremen and Danzig. At the same time, Peter took care of the arrangement of water communication between the internal grain-growing and populated regions of the state with St. Petersburg (Vyshnevolotsk system). The canal for bypassing Lake Ladoga was started in 1719 and completed in 1728.
Having established himself on the Neva, Peter redoubled his concerns about St. Petersburg and its trade. He ordered to proceed with the construction of a military and merchant port on the island of Retusari (Kotlin), where the Baltic fleet was to have a permanent residence, and where all ships would be unloaded, for which the entrance to the mouth of the Neva, due to its shallow water, was impossible. Subsequently, this harbor, as well as the city that arose with it, received the name of Kronstadt. Trade in the new port at first developed poorly. Both Russians and foreigners preferred Arkhangelsk, where routes had been established for a long time. To strengthen the trade of St. Petersburg, Peter took a number of artificial measures. By decree of October 31, 1713, he commanded " announce publicly that merchants and other officials who have hemp and yuft should not be taken to the city of Arkhangelsk and Vologda for trade, but would be brought to St. Petersburg. Also, which sovereign goods: caviar, glue, potash, resin, bristles, rhubarb should not be released to Arkhangelsk, but brought to St. Petersburg". Merchant foreigners were invited to notify their compatriots abroad so that ships to load Russian goods would be sent to St. Petersburg, and not to Arkhangelsk. Subsequently, at the request of the merchants, with the accumulation of export goods in St. Petersburg, permission was given to carry a certain part of the goods to Arkhangelsk. By decree of November 20, 1717, the most eminent merchants of Arkhangelsk were resettled in St. Petersburg. By a decree of 1720, the usual 5% duty was lowered to 3% on goods sent to St. Petersburg, while no duties were levied on internal outposts from those designated for export from St. Petersburg abroad; carts with these goods, after examination and sealing, passed non-stop to St. Petersburg itself.
With all these measures, St. Petersburg trade was strengthened, Arkhangelsk trade was reduced. Within 8 years (1710-1718), the vacation of Arkhangelsk rose from 1 1/3 to 2 1/3 million rubles, and the import from 142,000 to 600,000 rubles; in 1726, goods worth 285,387 were shipped to Arkhangelsk, and only 35,846 rubles were brought in. In 1718, goods worth 268,590 rubles were exported from St. Petersburg, in 1726 - 2,403,423 rubles; in 1718 it was brought to St. Petersburg for 218,049 rubles, in 1726 - for 1,549,697 rubles. In 1720, 76 foreign ships entered the Neva, in 1722 - 119, in 1724 - 180. 452,403 rubles were collected from these duties.
The trade of Riga, which was greatly reduced in the first years after its conquest by Russia, soon exceeded its previous size: in 1704, 359 ships visited Riga, in 1725 - 388. The growth of Riga, despite the competition of St. export was served by the Lithuanian-Polish region far from St. Petersburg. Revel, Narva and Vyborg have lost some of their former importance, partly due to military events. Vyborg, especially those who suffered from them, Peter granted free trade in bread, resin, timber and other goods that were prohibited or were the subject of state monopoly. As part of the development of Russian overland trade, in 1714 a state-owned transport of Siberian goods was sent to Poland and Hungary, which had excellent sales there; the proceeds were used to buy Hungarian wines. The Nezhin Greeks were given the privilege of trading with Moldavia and Wallachia. Overland trade arose through Poland with Prussia. In 1723, Russian merchants were allowed to trade with Breslavl. The storage place for our overland trade with Germany at that time was Vasilkov - the Russian customs on the Polish border.
Peter's attempt to acquire several strong points on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea was unsuccessful, in order to conduct direct trade from there with Khiva and Bukhara, and then, with the help of caravans sent from these khanates to India, to direct Indian trade through the Caspian Sea to Russia. Russian-Persian trade was still concentrated mainly in the hands of Armenian merchants who had their offices in Astrakhan. They not only brought Persian goods, mainly silk, to Russia, but also sent them by sea to Holland, from where, in turn, they exported Dutch cloth and other goods that were marketed in Persia. Peter willingly allowed this trade, in view of the significant state income from transit duties. In 1711, with the knowledge and approval of the Persian Shah, he concluded a condition with the Armenians, by virtue of which all the silk exported from Persia was to be delivered by them to Russia. For this, the Armenians were granted a monopoly trade in silk, and were given some duty benefits. Russian merchants, mainly from Astrakhan, carried on quite a lively active trade in Nizabad and Rasht. They stored their goods mainly in Shamakhi. When this city, in 1711, was sacked by the Lezgins, Russian merchants lost significant sums: the losses of one trading house stretched up to 180,000 rubles. In 1716, the import of Bukhara and Persian goods to Astrakhan alone amounted to 464,000 rubles, while duties were collected over 22,500 rubles. In order to strengthen Russian-Persian trade relations, in 1715 a special embassy was sent to Persia, which managed to conclude a trade agreement with Persia. In 1720, the tsar appointed a Russian consul to Ispahan (who, however, was stopped in Rasht due to internal unrest). The British applied for permission to resume their transit trade with Persia through Russia, but were refused, as did the Dutch and French. The last years of Peter's reign were marked by a number of orders concerning the organization of Russian-Persian merchant shipping on the Caspian Sea and shipbuilding in Astrakhan.
In terms of streamlining Russian-Chinese trade, back in 1698, Peter ordered that a caravan be sent from Moscow to Nerchinsk not annually, but a year later, so that prices would not fall from the influx of Russian goods there. In 1719, Peter sent the captain of the guard Izmailov to Beijing, who managed to achieve the conclusion of a treatise on such, among other things, conditions:
- that a Russian consul should have a permanent residence in Beijing, and vice-consuls in some other cities;
- that the Russians should have the right to freely travel throughout the territory of China and transport goods along Chinese rivers and store them on wharfs;
- so that Russian merchants were allowed duty-free trade in China.
Russian-Chinese relations, however, did not improve. Soon after Izmailov's departure, the Chinese government forbade Russian caravans from coming to Beijing until certain borders were established between Russia and Chinese Mongolia; the establishment of borders, through the fault of the Chinese, slowed down.
Having ascended the throne, Peter not only left all state monopolies in force, but also multiplied them: yuft, hemp, potash, tar, lard, hemp oil, linseed, rhubarb, caviar, fish glue could be brought by private individuals only to river, lake or sea piers, and then passed into the hands of the treasury. At first, Peter conducted this trade, like his predecessors, either himself or entrusted its conduct to special officials, but soon, due to lack of time, he began to lease out the export of state-owned goods. So, in 1703, the export of tar, “seal skins and all fishery products of the Arkhangelsk coast was handed over to Prince Menshikov; Vologda merchants Okonishnikovs at the same time received a monopoly on the sale of flaxseed. Later, the caviar trade was sold for 100,000, rhubarb - for 80,000 rubles. Other export and some imported goods were also surrendered. According to the decree of 1715, the treasury sold the monopoly goods that were not at the mercy of the treasury exclusively for cash (full-weight "efimki", i.e. johimstalers). However, Peter adhered to the system of state monopolies only until experience convinced him of their unprofitability for the treasury and harm to the people's well-being. The decree of April 8, 1719 commanded " there should be only two state-owned goods: potash and smolchaku”, which were withdrawn from the circle of“ free ” trade in the form of forest conservation.
In 1718, a commerce board was established. The first Russian consulate was established in Amsterdam; he was followed by consulates in London, Toulon, Cadiz, Lisbon, and soon in almost all the chief cities of Europe and Persia.
In 1724, the customs tariff and maritime trade regulations were published. According to the tariff of 1724, the duty on most imported and selling goods did not exceed 5% of the price, but selling goods, for the supply of which Western Europe, Russia had little or no competitors, were paid with higher duties; for example, 27.5% was charged from the price of holiday hemp. Customs duties were paid in foreign coins accepted at a known rate. Customs revenues were collected at the end of Peter's reign up to 869.5 thousand rubles. The value of exports from Russia was higher than the value of imports, which is explained as much by the usefulness of Russian raw materials for the Western European manufacturing industry as by the small demand in Russia for luxury and comfort, due to the lack of rich people. But even then, the relatively small costs of the Russians to pay for imports worried Peter; he wanted to create a merchant fleet in order to save sea freight in favor of Russia, and if not increase the export of products, then at least reduce their import, developing the manufacturing industry in the country.
The decree of November 8, 1723 commanded, among other things, “to multiply your commerce, build companies, start particular auctions in the Ost See, for example, send Persian goods, sashes, etc. to Poland” and do all this “not loudly, so that with an extra echo there was no harm instead of good." In 1724, the tsar decided to equip at his own expense three Russian ships to Spain and one to France, so that the merchants who were supposed to go there with goods would stay abroad for some time to study trade operations. Measures aimed at reducing foreign imports include benefits and privileges for the establishment of factories and factories in Russia and the taxation of imported foreign goods. " To collect the scattered temple of the merchants”, Peter established magistrates in the cities. The patronage of his factory owners even went as far as attaching peasants to factories.
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
FEDERAL BUDGET EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
"OMSK STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY"
ESSAY
in the discipline "History of customs and customs policy in Russia"
on the topic:
"Trade and Customs Policy of Russia in the First Quarter of the 18th Century"
Completed by a student of the group:
__________________________
Checked:
___________________________
Omsk 2013
Content
Introduction……………………………………………………………………..…….3
1. The development of customs in the era of Peter's reforms………………..…..5
1.1 Expansion of Russia's foreign trade……………………………………...5
1.2 Customs…………………………………………………………….. .8
1.3 Politics of mercantilism…………………………………………………….9
2. The policy of industrial protectionism………………………………..11
2.1 Customs tariff of 1724………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
2.2 Maritime Trade Regulations……………………………………………………………………15
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….18
References…………………………………………………………………20
Introduction
IN modern conditions the development of market relations in Russia, the increase in foreign trade turnover, the role of customs policy is growing as the most important tool for state regulation of foreign economic activity. Interest in customs policy is also due to the growing importance of customs authorities in the system government controlled, now, by expanding their functions.
Customs policy - part of the foreign trade activities of the state, regulating the volume, structure and conditions of export and import of goods. One of the manifestations of customs policy is customs protectionism, which increases during crises. During this period, high customs duties are introduced on imported goods and, as a rule, preferential customs duties on export products.
The development of market relations in the Russian economy, the liberalization of foreign economic activity contributed to a significant increase in interest in Russia's trade policy.
significant place in the history of customs is the activity of people to implement the objective laws of the world economy and trade through the use of customs formalities. These strong personalities of their era left deep imprints in the history of our state. One of these personalities, undoubtedly, is Peter I, who in a short period of time, covering the last years of the 17th - the first quarter of the 18th century, carried out transformations that were of a comprehensive nature.
Peter the Great is one of the brightest personalities in Europe at the beginning of modern history. During the years of his reign, Russia, having escaped from semi-Asiatic backwardness, gained serious political and military influence on the Western world.
Nothing worried him more than the welfare, strength and reputation of Russia. Peter was never just a fan of foreign things. He highly valued the knowledge and methods imported from the West, but only because they were the foundations on which to build the new Russia he dreamed of and worked for.
That is why I chose the topic: "The trade and customs policy of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century."
Purpose: consideration of the development of customs policy and trade in Russia, as well as solving the problem of a rational combination of the principles of free trade and protectionism under Peter I.
To achieve this goal, the following tasks are solved in the abstract:
1. To study the expansion of Russia's foreign trade under the reign of Peter I.
2. To trace the change in the structure of the Russian customs service in the first quarter of the 18th century.
3. To reveal the meaning of Peter's policy of mercantilism.
4. Solving the problem of industrial protectionism.
5. To study the content of the customs tariff and the maritime trade charter of 1724.
1. The development of customs in the era of Peter's reforms
1.1 Expansion of Russia's foreign trade
Until the 18th century, Russia was for many states of Europe, as it were, a remote colony, from which foreigners exported numerous riches. Foreign trade in Russia was poorly developed. The XVIII century for the Russian state was the century of intensive trade.
A significant role in the development of industry belongs to Peter the Great. At the beginning of his reign, he made great efforts to develop shipbuilding and mining, and during the northern war, the development of cloth, linen, and weapons production was encouraged. But all these efforts were explained more by the need for money for military purposes than by the desire to develop industry.
Trade also made a significant step under Peter. So, if in 1703 113 foreign ships arrived in Russia with goods, then at the end of the reign of Peter - 453. Goods at the beginning of the 18th century were exported in the amount of 1.3 million rubles, brought in in the amount of no more than 150 thousand rubles. At the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, they were exported in the amount of 2.75 million rubles, and brought in for 1.75 million rubles.
However, foreign trade remained predominantly passive in nature and was caused mainly by the needs of neighboring peoples. The Russian merchant had neither sufficient enterprise nor sufficient intelligence to establish new trade relations with foreign countries. Russian agricultural products were no longer exported by foreigners. Foreign trade was conducted by the government itself. The government concentrated in its hands one or the other of the more important items of trade; the sale of these so-called state-owned goods constituted the monopoly of the state, which thus became the largest merchant, although the export of monopolized goods was often farmed out to individual merchants or companies for a certain purchase price. For example, hemp, linseed oil, lard, wax, tar, potash, caviar, etc. belonged to state goods. At the same time, the import of tobacco and some other previously prohibited goods was allowed.
Customs duties were levied in accordance with the articles of the New Trade Charter of 1667. At the same time, the number of domestic payments increased: toll and dump duties were introduced from river vessels. Duties on goods carts at crossroads, fair and collar fees, etc.
In 1705, the government was determined "from visitors on ships to Arkhangelsk to require waybills for goods to be painted (bills of lading); and what would be in excess of the waybill to take to the treasury. Since 1722, duty taxation of Russian and foreign merchants began to be carried out" upon the appearance of goods and storage in barns , or to the shore, not postponing until sale, or export, and for this, all goods from which a duty was collected from the sale were ordered to put a duty on their average price.
Encouraging Baltic trade, Peter artificially diverted goods from the Arkhangelsk port to St. Petersburg. So, by a nominal royal decree of 1713, it was ordered "from the cities closest to St. Petersburg by next spring, goods should be transported to St. Petersburg, but not to Arkhangelsk" under the loss of their belongings ", but yuft and hemp to be transported to St. Petersburg and from distant cities. In 1714, the ban was weakened half, but in 1717 the order was again issued for the delivery of two-thirds of the goods to St. Petersburg and "only 1/3 to Arkhangelsk". For the same purpose, customs duties for St. so that goods imported through Arkhangelsk, with the exception of local products - timber, tar, etc., are subject to duty "with an increase of 25% to the salaries established in the tariff.
The results of this policy showed up immediately. “Already in 1718, those same merchants from Novgorod and Pskov, who 5 years ago had to be forced to send part of the goods to the port of St. Petersburg, now applied for permission to transport the goods there in full ... In view of this, since 1719, the mandatory delivery of goods to St. Petersburg was reduced to one-third, while the rest could be carried by anyone anywhere. Thus, for a short period of time, St. Petersburg became the main center of Russia's foreign trade.
In the time of Peter the Great, great efforts were made to create a merchant fleet, to connect St. Petersburg with the central regions of the state by waterways. Peter sought to "make real merchants out of his subjects and bring them to the point that they transported goods and sold them in foreign lands not through other seafaring peoples, but at their own expense on their own ships" . However, neither Peter nor his successors succeeded in achieving this goal: "trade between Russia and the West was still concentrated in the hands of foreigners."
In 1715 It was decided in principle to abolish state monopolies relating to foreign trade. A few years later, in 1719, in anticipation of a truce with Sweden, all reserved goods were given to free trade, with the exception of tar and potash.
In 1712, along the land border of Russia, the farming system of collecting customs payments was restored, which made it possible (with the underdevelopment of state credit) to replenish the resources of the state treasury in emergency circumstances. In the corresponding decree of 1712. it was directly stated that it was introduced "to replenish his great sovereign's monetary treasury at the present time." In 1721, the maintenance of all customs houses along the land border was confirmed. At the same time, tax-farmers were allowed to alienate in their favor contraband goods confiscated at the border. Goods went to them even if their price was deliberately underestimated during declaration.
In order to make it difficult for foreigners to enter the inner cities of Russia, Peter confirmed the previously established ban: “To Moscow, let foreigners with overseas goods pass those who have letters of commendation from the great sovereign, in which letters of commendation are written, so that they, by decree of the great sovereign, travel to The Muscovite state and other cities with overseas goods, and which do not have such letters of commendation, those from the city of Arkhaangelsk to Moscow and cities with "overseas goods".
1.2 Customs Service
Changes have taken place in the very organization of the customs service. In 1699, the tsar ordered that in all cities of the state, merchants and industrial people in relation to the court, reprisals and various fees were in charge not of boyars, governors and clerks, but of elected stewards. From that time on, local customs administration was carried out by customs burmisters, who, as before, were elected by the merchants and essentially did not differ in any way from the customs heads of the past.
Since 1718. customs duties were in charge of the Commerce Collegium. In 1720 the institute of customs burmisters was abolished. They were replaced by oberzollners, who were paid a fixed monthly allowance annually. Thus, there was an important change in the nature of the activities of customs managers. Unlike the customs bailiffs, who performed their duties on the basis of civil service, oberzollners were representatives of the bureaucracy. With them, however, were kissers and, together with whom they bore not only official, but also property and material responsibility for the receipt of customs revenues in the treasury in the same amount against previous years.
1.3 Politics of mercantilism
As domestic large-scale industry developed (Peter left behind at least 230 state-owned and private manufactories, as he himself inherited no more than 30 from his predecessors), the one-sided fiscal orientation of Russian customs policy came to an end. Mercantile-protective elements were more and more clearly manifested in its content. Peter I "paid tribute to the ideas of his century, which created in the West a well-known mercantile patronage system."
Peter I was a supporter of the policy of mercantilism, in which the main task of the government was to attract as many precious metals as possible to the country. To achieve this goal, in addition to directly prohibiting the export of gold and silver, the government is trying to reduce the import and increase the export of goods from the state. Peter pursued such a policy, of course, not because of an understanding of the relationship between economic and political phenomena, but because it contributed to the accumulation of funds for military operations.
The aphorism "money is the artery of war", which characterizes the mercantile policy of the state, has remained in the history of the economy since the time of Peter the Great.
At the same time, even in the last century, the thesis about the mercantilism of the commercial and industrial policy of Peter the Great was questioned by a number of authors. K. Lodyzhensky, for example, objected to the fact that Peter allegedly “entirely transplanted mercantilism onto Russian soil. His system, both in essence and in goals, differs from the mercantile theory. attracting gold and silver from other countries, and to achieve this goal, mainly attention should be paid to foreign trade - hence the very name of the theory in question. Mercantilists demanded the encouragement of manufactories to develop the export of processed products, in these types domestic factories were supported On the contrary, Peter the Great, in his economic measures, took little interest in the export of manufactured goods. He rarely and reluctantly exempted Russian fabricated works from selling duties, never established anything like export bonuses, and finally, when encouraging the establishment of factories, he directly expressed the idea that Russian manufactory must exist for for Russia and meet her needs.
According to V. Vitchevsky, Peter's policy was generally devoid of any ideological motivation. “If,” V. Vitchevsky believed, “the leaders of other states of the same era can be reproached for using their state power too persistently to achieve often unilateral economic goals, then for Peter economic goals were only the foundation on which he should was erected a temple of his political power"; the motive for all the innovations of Peter I in the field of the state economy was his desire to create a permanent army and fleet according to the Western European model. At the same time, it seems that the stated positions have much in common. Ultimately, regardless of the subjective aspirations of Peter I, his customs policy was not consistent either in terms of mercantilist or protectionist: until the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, protectionist measures were applied sporadically and only in relation to those foreign goods, the production of analogues of which in Russia itself sufficient to meet domestic demand.
2. The policy of industrial protectionism
2.1 Customs Tariff of 1724
All customs tariffs until the 18th century were designed only to solve fiscal problems. The amount of customs duties did not exceed 10% of the value of goods, that is, a free trade policy was pursued, which did not stimulate the development of industry and handicraft production.
Only at the beginning of the 18th century, in connection with new views on the development of the country and the implementation of major economic measures to create factories, factories, manufactories, did foreign trade expand. Measures are being taken to protect Russia's economic interests.
The peculiarity of the development of customs in Russia and the formation of customs policy both at the beginning of the 18th century and in subsequent years was that customs, as a mechanism for regulating the economy and trade, practically did not function, it mainly solved only the tasks of obtaining customs fees.
Until 1724, few goods were banned or subject to high duties: some silk products, cormorant paint, needles. Only in 1723 did Peter come to the conclusion that the main reason for the lagging of manufactories in the country was the competition of foreign products. It was at this time that a number of government decisions of a sharply protectionist orientation were adopted, in particular, on the imposition of duties on imported goods, the production of which in the country was rarely established by that time. At the same time, a very peculiar (according to K. Lodyzhensky - "arithmetic") method was introduced to determine the salaries of duties on imported goods: if, in percentage terms, the domestic production of any product reached 25% of the corresponding imported analogue, then the duty was a quarter of the price of the latter; if thirds - the third part; if half - then 50%; if it exceeded the import, then 75%. Thus, the size of the duty tax began to vary depending on the degree of development of domestic production.
In 1724, a new customs tariff was issued. The tariff of 1724 was protective, protectionist. Tariff 1724 upheld the ban on the import of cormorant paint. Goods that were brought in sufficient quantities were subject to a duty of 75%. Among them were tablecloths, napkins, canvas, silk brocade, taffeta, ribbons, caps, refined wax, starch, potash, vitriol, turpentine oil, iron "out of work", needles, parchment and others. A highly patronizing duty of 50% of the price was imposed on Dutch linen, velvet, drawn and spun silver, cards, silk brocades.
A moderately protective duty of 25% - on all woolen fabrics, except for cloth, semi-silk fabrics, baize, dressed leather, stockings, fringe, mittens, stationery, iron weapons, glass bottles.
The taxation of other goods pursued a fiscal goal: a 20% duty was levied on ready-made women's dresses, mirrors, and toys; from porcelain, faience, copper and pewter utensils - 10%.
Items made of precious metals, garden seeds, animals, except horses, many building materials, some food products: oranges, lemons, oysters, etc. were allowed to be imported duty-free.
Goods that were not produced in Russia were completely exempted from import duties: silk goods, various types of kisei, wallpaper, mathematical and surgical instruments, glasses, etc.
The size of the duty tax and imported homogeneous goods increased along with the degree of their processing. The export duty remains the same - 3% of the price. Only some Russian goods, for example, “not made” elk, deer, saiga and goat skins, linen yarn, star anise, under the pretext of using them as raw materials in Russian factories and manufactories, were subject to an essentially prohibitive 75% duty or banned for export. .
The originality of the tariff of 1724 also consisted in the fact that the list of imported and sold goods was compiled in alphabetical order. About half of them were subject to ad valorem duties, the rest - with measures and mass duties, calculated in rubles and kopecks. At the same time, the classification system of goods was not perfect: commodity items corresponded to the commercial names of goods, without any additional definitions or explanations. The note of the tariff in relation to goods not named in the painting significantly hampered the work of customs officials.
The duty on imported and selling goods was to be levied in efimok, counting each efimok at 50 kopecks. At the same time, Russian merchants did not have advantages over foreign ones. If they did not have efimki, they should have taken 125 kopecks in Russian money. for efimok, however, if the own goods of Russian merchants were exported by them on their own ships, they were charged only a third duty, and then in Russian money, counting 90 kopecks per efimok. When exporting the same goods on the same terms through Arkhangelsk, the duty was levied at half the rate and also in Russian coins.
This privilege could only be used by Russian subjects. Foreigners were deprived of the opportunity to send their goods overseas with a reduction in duty. Their attempts to take goods out of Russia with the help of Russian merchants, who passed them off as their own, were strictly suppressed. Goods that were illegally exported from the country without paying customs duties were subject to confiscation in full with the transfer of one third of the confiscated goods to the informer. The same foreign goods that were imported by Russian merchants under the Russian flag were subject to one-third of the import duty, which was calculated against the price of the holiday, and in addition, profits of 25%.
The publication of the tariff and its introduction were carried out with such haste that foreign merchants, who managed to conclude contracts and even send merchant ships to Arkhangelsk, found themselves in an unenviable position. Not surprisingly, this caused a torrent of complaints on their part.
It should also be emphasized that the tariff applied to a very restrictive section of the country's customs border, as evidenced by its very name: "Tariff for imported and exported goods for the ports of St. Petersburg, Vyborsk, Narva, Arkhangelsk and Kolsk". In the rest of the country, duties continued to be levied in accordance with the articles of the New Trade Charter of 1667.
The protectionist tariff of 1724 held back foreign trade and weakened the inflow of customs revenues. In addition, the smuggling of goods increased. The protective tariff of 1724 lasted until 1731, when a new tariff was adopted. In accordance with it, a moderate duty (from 4 to 10%) was introduced for goods that were not produced in the country, and an increased duty (up to 20%) for goods produced. This tariff ruled out the possibility of a patronage system, which was so needed by the nascent Russian industry.
2.2 Maritime trade regulations
On January 31, 1724, simultaneously with the customs tariff on January 31, 1724, His Imperial Majesty's All-Merciful Regulations or Charter were published, according to which all the highest and lowest ranks of a person, both citizens and foreigners, and especially merchants, and shipbuilders, who in people come and go from this State, everyone has to act obediently." The maritime trade regulations have made significant changes to "customs rituals", focusing in this matter on foreign customs charters. They, in particular, established that all foreign ships that entered the Russian port or left it had to notify about this in a tolgouz or another place designated for this, so that the ship was accompanied to the very customs by a special person.
After the ship arrived at the port, the examiner had to appear at the customs, and "until that time, the shipbuilder should not leave the haven until the ship was all inspected, under the deprivation of one of his ship and all the goods that would be in it" . At the same time, the latter was to have "all the proper documents" with him, from which he could "correctly submit a signature on the cargo." Shipbuilders and merchants were required to correctly indicate their goods, their price and country of origin. Until the completion of the inspection activities, no one was allowed to leave the ship; unloading was prohibited. Thus, the former system of control over the correctness of the customs valuation of goods was canceled, when the customs head himself and his assistants were present at the conclusion of a trade transaction.
Loading operations, in particular, were also regulated quite strictly; loading of a ship was allowed only in the presence of examiners (tsolovalnikov). During loading and unloading operations, all merchant ships that had guns were ordered to keep the loopholes ("windows") closed. A fine of 25 Efimkov was imposed for violation.
At the same time, the deadlines for paying customs duties were set: when importing, the duty had to be claimed “before the goods were taken from the warehouse by the owner”, when exporting - before the ship left. At the same time, if the payer did not have efimok, then he had to "pay 125 kopecks for each efimok."
The regulation provided for the customs regime of a bonded warehouse. “If a furman, go to a ship’s worker,” it said, he would bring with him some boxes or bales from someone, but he would say that the owner of those boxes or bales himself would be after, and they would like to leave those boxes or bales at the customs before the arrival of the owner: then it is necessary to seal these boxes or bales and bales with a customs seal, and keep them in the hut until the arrival of the master.
Skippers and sailors were allowed to retail goods of the established range on their ships: pottery, household utensils, fresh vegetables, meat, sausages, "all kinds of foreign beer", etc.
Separate articles of the charter introduced benefits for domestic entrepreneurs. Although Russian goods were subject to import duties when they were moved from one Russian port to another by Russian citizens, their subsequent delivery to a third Russian port by Russian citizens was duty-free. If Russian goods were moved from one Russian port to another by a foreigner (for the purpose of sale), he paid not only the export duty at the port of shipment, but also the import duty at the port of delivery.
It is also important to emphasize that the regulation of 1724 had the character of a universal establishment, i.e. even military ships must go through customs procedures if they had goods on board, otherwise the captain of the ship was fined and reduced in rank.
By changing the content and procedure for customs clearance and customs control, the regulations redefined the elements of customs crimes and offenses in the field of customs affairs, as well as responsibility for these crimes and violations.
Conclusion
In the first quarter of the 18th century, namely during the reign of Peter I, domestic and foreign trade received incentives for the development. This was facilitated by the development of industrial and handicraft production, the conquest of access to the Baltic Sea, and the improvement of communications. During this period, canals were built that connected the Volga and Neva (Vyshnevolotsky and Ladoga). Exchange between the individual parts of the country intensified, the turnover of Russian fairs (Makarievskaya, Irbitskaya, Svenskaya, etc.) grew, which manifested the formation of an all-Russian market. For the development of foreign trade, not only the construction of the St. Petersburg port was important, but also the support of Russian merchants and industrialists from the government of Peter I. This was reflected in the policy of protectionism and mercantilism, in the adoption of the Protective Tariff of 1724.
Thus, as a result of the transformations in the activities of Peter I, a tariff and regulations were developed, the main content of which is aimed at protecting the economic interests of Russia and regulating foreign trade.
But, in addition to these measures, other transformations were carried out in the interests of ensuring economic security, including the establishment of special military formations on the roads to combat smuggling, the introduction of fiscals and other measures.
All this was carried out with one goal - to create a barrier to the movement of smugglers and to ensure the safety of Russia's wealth.
As for the protectionist policy pursued from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, it was aimed at protecting national trade with customs duties. But soon the shortcomings of this policy and dissatisfaction with its result on the part of the merchant class, and above all foreign merchants, whose number was very significant at the royal court, were soon revealed.
It should be noted that the customs policy in the first quarter of the XVIII century was further developed. The customs policy of the state reflected the interests of the ruling class and was aimed at the growth of the country's economy. Significant progress has been made in foreign and domestic trade.
Bibliography
1. Blinov N.M. Customs policy of Russia X-XX centuries. - M., 1997
2. Vitchevsky V. Trade, customs and industrial policy of Russia from the time of Peter the Great to the present day. - St. Petersburg., 1909.
3. Kislovsky Yu.G. History of the customs of the Russian state. - M. 1995.
4. Kulisher I.M. Essay on the history of Russian trade. - Pg., 1923.
5. Lodyzhensky K. History of the Russian customs tariff. - St. Petersburg., 1886.
6. Platonov S.F. Lectures on Russian history. - M., 1993.
7. PSZ 1. Book of tariffs. Applications.
8. Tolstoy D. The history of financial institutions in Russia since the founding of the state until the death of Empress Catherine II. - St. Petersburg., 1848.
9. Customs in Russia X - early XX centuries. - SPB., 1995.
Central place in the history of Russia in the first half of the XVIII century. occupied by Peter's transformations and the Northern War. The transformations did not break the existing socio-economic system of the country; on the contrary, they further strengthened serfdom and strengthened the rule of the nobility, while at the same time raising the importance of the merchant class. At the same time, the reforms carried out by Peter I had a profound impact on the subsequent development of Russia. Russian Empire in the first half of the 18th century. significantly different from the backward in economic, military and cultural terms Russia XVII century by the presence of a more developed industry, centralized and streamlined administrative institutions, a first-class army and navy, secular schools and the general rise of science and culture.
1. Domestic and foreign policy of Russia at the end of the XVII century.
The transformations were preceded by a sharp struggle of groups within the ruling class. The well-born boyar nobility gradually lost its leading position in the state and was wiped off by people of ordinary nobility who were not of noble origin. Together with the ranks, the new service nobility received large land grants. The establishment of absolutism also changed the position of the church in the state. The church became more and more an instrument of secular power. The growth of church land ownership was limited. The fate of the noble nobility and spiritual feudal lords was to a certain extent shared by the archery army. The conservative boyars and the clergy considered the archers as an armed support and a tool for achieving their goals. The increase in the hardships of military service, the separation from trading and crafts in connection with campaigns, the creation of new regular regiments caused discontent among the archers. Therefore, the interests of part of the boyars and the clergy on known stage coincided with the interests of the archers.
As a result of the Streltsy uprising in 1682, power was in the hands of the elder sister of Peter I, Princess Sophia, and her favorite, Prince V.V. Golitsyn. However, Sophia was not satisfied with the position of the ruler under the minor tsars Peter (born in 1672) and Ivan (seriously ill, he did not take part in the affairs and died in 1696) and sought a wedding to reign. The forces that opposed Sophia's plans were concentrated in the village of Preobrazhensky near Moscow, in the residence of Peter and his mother. Here, in contrast to the streltsy army, on which Sophia relied, amusing regiments were created. Initially, they were intended for the military amusements of the growing Peter, and then gradually turned into a real regular army.
Both groups were gradually preparing for a fight, which took place in the summer of 1689. On the night of August 8, Peter received information about a conspiracy of archers who intended to capture and kill him in Preobrazhensky. In one shirt, he jumped on a horse and galloped to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Here, under the powerful walls of the monastery-fortress, supporters of Peter began to flock, here the amusing Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments were hastily called. Sophia tried to turn again to the streltsy army, but the overwhelming mass of the nobles turned out to be on the side of Peter. The archers did not dare to support Sophia, and she was imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent. Thus, the attempt of the reactionary feudal circles to seize power suffered a complete failure. Peter I established himself on the throne, showing himself as an outstanding statesman and commander.
Azov campaigns
The first major step in the foreign policy of the new government, headed by Peter, was the organization of a campaign in the traditional for the second half of the 17th century. direction - to the south, to the shores of the Azov and Black Seas. But this time the government took into account all the disadvantages of the previous operational direction, when the Russian army had to overcome waterless steppes in order to overtake the enemy, and sent the main forces not against the Crimea, but against Azov, the largest Turkish fortress at the mouth of the Don. In the summer of 1695, Russian troops besieged Azov. However, it was not possible to block it due to the lack of a fleet, while the Turks continuously delivered reinforcements and supplies to the besieged by sea, and the Tatar cavalry attacked the Russian rear. The inconsistency of the actions of the Russian troops, which were under the command of three commanders independent of each other, led to the fact that the assault on Azov, carried out twice, did not bring success, the siege was lifted, and the troops retreated into the interior of the country.
In the winter of 1695, energetic preparations began for the second Azov campaign. At the same time, the main attention was focused on the construction of the fleet. This time the siege of Azov was successful, part of the fortress was destroyed by bombardment, and the presence of the fleet made it possible to block Azov from the sea. Without waiting for the assault, the Turks surrendered the fortress (July 18, 1696). This victory gave Russia access to Sea of Azov and allowed to proceed with the broader construction of the navy. In Moscow, a solemn meeting was arranged for the winners, the troops led by Peter passed through the Triumphal Gate.
The occupation of Azov, however, did not yet provide access to the Black Sea, which remained an inland Turkish sea; to take possession of the Kerch Strait. In order to continue the war, it was decided in the same 1696 to build 52 large ships within two years.
Grand Embassy
Simultaneously with the construction of the fleet, steps were taken to create an anti-Turkish coalition of European states. In 1697, Russia, Austria and Venice entered into an offensive alliance against the Turks for a period of three years. Russian diplomacy was faced with the task of strengthening this alliance, achieving the attraction of new states into its composition. For this purpose, in the same 1697, a “great embassy” went abroad. In addition to performing diplomatic tasks, the embassy was supposed to hire sailors, artisans, gunners and other specialists for the Russian service. The embassy was accompanied by volunteers from among noble youth sent abroad to study naval affairs and shipbuilding.
The embassy, officially headed by F. Ya. Lefort, F. A. Golovin and P. B. Voznitsyn, included Peter I incognito. Abroad, the inquisitive and energetic tsar filled in the gaps in his meager education. Work at the Zandam (Saardam) shipyard as a carpenter and visiting England, where Peter improved his shipbuilding knowledge gained in Holland, did not prevent him from directing the diplomatic activities of the embassy.
However, the plan to expand the union did not meet with support in Western Europe. The maritime powers - Holland and England - rejected it due to their interest in trade with Turkey, as well as in connection with the upcoming war for the Spanish Succession. Fearing the strengthening of Russia, Austria also refused to take active steps, to the capital of which Peter arrived in the summer of 1698. From Vienna, he was going to go to Venice, but in July he received alarming news from Moscow and urgently left for Russia. On the way back, Peter negotiated with the Polish king August II. These negotiations were completed later in Moscow with the conclusion of an agreement on joint struggle with Sweden, to which Denmark also joined.
Streltsy revolt of 1698
The news that alarmed Peter during his stay in Vienna was a report of a new streltsy revolt. The Streltsy army, being on the western border, in the region of Velikiye Luki, arbitrarily moved towards Moscow. It was defeated by troops loyal to the government not far from Moscow, near New Jerusalem. An additional investigation into the reasons for the performance of the archers, carried out with the participation of Peter upon his return to Moscow, showed that the threads of the conspiracy were in the hands of Princess Sophia, who was kept in the monastery. After the investigation, which established that Sophia, with the help of the archers, intended to overthrow Peter, about 800 archers were executed, and the rest were sent into exile. This massacre meant the end of the streltsy army.
2. Socio-economic development of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century.
Agriculture. The position of the peasants
Feudal landownership, as in pre-Petrine times, continued to expand at the expense of royal grants. Only from 1682 to 1710, 273 volosts with more than 43 thousand peasant households were distributed from the palace fund. Huge awards were received by the most prominent employees of Peter I - A. D. Menshikov, Admiral F. A. Golovin and other nobles. Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetev “for many faithful services” received the Yukhotsky volost (Rostov district) as a reward from the tsar. Large land holdings went to immigrant nobles from Georgia, Kabarda, and Moldova.
Simultaneously with the growth of noble landownership in the central regions of the country, the penetration of serfdom into the South and Southeast continued. The nobles received land in the Belgorod and Voronezh provinces, whose borders moved further south. Relying on the support of the government, which pursued a colonial policy towards the peoples of the Volga region, the Russian landowners themselves seized the lands of the local feudal nobility, mainly the Tatars. Serf landownership expanded in the Ukraine as well. Hetman I. S. Mazepa issued to the Cossack foreman over a thousand universals (letters) for estates, and he himself captured about 20 thousand households. By 1729-1730. about two-thirds of the peasant households in Ukraine found themselves in feudal dependence on secular and spiritual landowners.
In agriculture, the same routine technique remained (the predominance of three-field, wooden plow); harvests were as low as in the previous time. The most significant shift was the expansion of industrial crops and the development of sheep breeding. Both processes were closely connected with the construction of new industrial enterprises and the increase in demand for raw materials for them.
The development of commodity-money relations expanded the ties between the landlord and peasant economy and the market and influenced their organization. Hence the further growth of two tendencies that expressed the adaptation of serfdom to these relations: in non-chernozem regions, where the soil was infertile, the importance of quitrent duties, natural and monetary, increased; But in most cases, the landowner, as in the 17th century, combined the lordly plowing with the collection of dues. For example, on the estate of Prince M. P. Gagarin in the Kolomna district, the peasants annually delivered from each tax a ram, a piglet, half a pood of pork, a goose, a duck, four hens and 50 eggs. “Yes, besides that, they plow arable land, and mow hay, and do all sorts of landowner work, and they have been to Moscow as a reserve.”
The most common was a three-day corvee, but many landowners sent peasants to corvee more often. The well-known publicist of that time, I. T. Pososhkov, noted that “there are such inhuman nobles that they don’t give their peasants a single day at work ... many nobles,” he continued, “say: “Don’t let the peasant grow, but shear Evo like a sheep to the naked.
The situation of the peasants was seriously affected by the growth of state duties, and the peculiarities of recruitment, as well as numerous direct and indirect taxes. The state annually involved the population in various construction works. Tens of thousands of peasants, driven from all over the country, built a fleet in Voronezh, Taganrog, Azov, St. Petersburg, Kazan, dug canals, erected fortresses and cities. Compared to the 17th century accommodation (apartment) and underwater duties increased: the peasants were obliged to provide military teams with food for the duration of the camps, and fodder for horses. The troops stationed at the station repaired the peasants "a lot of ruin, losses and insults." In order to increase revenues, the government introduced new types of fees. On the advice of inventive profit-makers (the so-called authors of projects to increase treasury revenues, numerous in that era), home baths and mills were taxed, stamped paper was introduced. A special tax was paid by those wishing to keep a beard contrary to the royal order.
The monetary reform, accompanied by a decrease in the amount of silver in the coin, brought a large income to the treasury. In just three years (1701-1703), during which the minting of the new coin was carried out most intensively, the treasury received a net profit of over 2.8 million rubles. At the same time, as a result of the monetary operation, the exchange rate of the ruble almost halved, and, accordingly, the prices of goods rose.
Nevertheless, already in the third year of the war with Sweden, expenses significantly exceeded current income. In search of sources for increasing state revenues, in 1710 the government conducted a census. But contrary to expectations, the census revealed a decrease in the number of peasant and township households compared with the final data of the last census in 1678. The “emptiness” was explained by the mass exodus of peasants from the central counties to the outskirts. At the same time, many landowners, in order to reduce taxation and increase their own incomes, united several peasant households into one household.
Then it was decided to move from the household taxation to the poll tax. To this end, in 1718, a population census (male) began, the results of which, however, also did not satisfy the government, since the landlords submitted understated information about the number of serfs they had. To clarify the number of the taxable population, the census was carried out again, in connection with which it received the name "audit". Based on her data, the population in Russia can be estimated at about 14 million people. The main direct tax was the poll tax in the amount of 70 kopecks from each male “peasant soul”.
The significance of the first revision was not limited to the interests of the Fisk. It also had a great social significance, since with its implementation the number of serfs increased. If earlier bonded serfs received freedom after the death of their master, then during the first audit they were equated with serfs and, along with them, were obliged to pay a poll tax. Thus, bonded serfs merged with the mass of the enslaved peasantry and became the hereditary property of the landowner. The feudal exploitation of the so-called state peasants also increased. According to the revision, the black-eared peasants of the northern regions and plowed peasants of Siberia, the peoples of the Middle Volga region and single-dwellers (over 1 million male souls) were assigned to them. In addition to the poll tax, they paid an additional quitrent of 40 kopecks per man's soul.
At the same time, the village grew economic influence more prosperous ("subsistence" and "samily") households. The village rich started trading and crafts, carried out contracts along with merchants for construction work and for supplying the army with food and fodder. The cost of such contracts was often estimated at tens of thousands of rubles. Part of the trading peasants and contractors joined the ranks of the merchants, moved to the cities and invested in industry.
Nobility
In the XVI-XVII centuries. two forms of feudal landownership were distinguished: estate - conditional, life-long possession, mainly noble, and patrimony - unconditional and hereditary, mainly boyar property. The distinction between a manor and a patrimony had practically no significant significance already in the second half of the 17th century, however, only a decree of 1714 declared the estate to be the full property of the owner. The estate and patrimony merged into one legal concept of "immovable" property. This contributed to the consolidation of the ruling class, the merging of the boyars and the nobility. The decree of 1714 ordered the nobleman to inherit his estate only to one of his sons, so that the rest would receive an inheritance in money and other movable property. But this limitation of hereditary rights was abolished in 1730.
The Table of Ranks of 1722, which determined the order of service, was of great importance for the nobility. The table of ranks in the first place put not the origin, but the serviceability of the nobleman, his personal abilities. She established a career ladder of 14 steps, or ranks, from ensign and artillery constapel in the military and naval service or collegiate registrar in the civil service to the first rank - field marshal, admiral general and chancellor. The table of ranks opened access for the unborn nobility to higher ranks, helped to identify its more capable representatives for use in the military and civil service. According to Peter, the ranks should complain to those who serve, "and not to impudent and parasites", who boast of their nobility. Thanks to their personal abilities, such well-known figures of the time of Peter the Great as Admiral-General F. M. Apraksin, diplomats P. A. Tolstoy, I. I. Neplyuev and others came to the fore from among the unborn nobility.
At the same time, the Table of Ranks provided an opportunity, albeit limited, to “become noble” to individual representatives of other classes: with the receipt of the eighth rank, they became hereditary nobles. Among the prominent statesmen of the first quarter of the XVIII century. there are people of humble origin. First of all, they included A. D. Menshikov, who, according to rumor, sold pies in childhood. Peter brought him closer to him, guessing in him an intelligent, energetic and diligent person, not a single important event of that time was complete without the active participation of Menshikov. He became president of the Military Collegium, His Grace Prince and Generalissimo.
The well-known profit-maker A. A. Kurbatov, who held the post of Arkhangelsk vice-governor, came forward with his project on levying duties on stamped paper. Kurbatov, like the Moscow vice-governor V. S. Ershov, was a serf before his elevation.
Industry development
Innovations and advances in industry were especially significant. One of his contemporaries, I.K. Kirillov, in 1727 wrote an essay under the characteristic title “The Blooming State of the All-Russian State”, in which, as it were, the results of the vigorous activity of Peter I were summed up. Along with the geographical description of Russia, Kirillov gave a list of industrial enterprises, of which, as it is now established, about 200 were manufactories.
The greatest success fell on the share of metallurgy. If by the beginning of the XVIII century. the total production of large metallurgical plants was approximately 150 thousand pounds of pig iron, then by 1726 it reached 800 thousand. As early as the end of the 17th century. Russia bought iron for weapons production in Sweden, and by the end of the first quarter of the 18th century. she herself began to export metal abroad. The creation of a new metallurgical region in the Urals belongs to this time. In 1701, two water-operating plants were put into operation there, and by 1725 there were 13 of them, and these plants produced twice as much iron as all other Russian enterprises combined.
In direct connection with the needs of the army was the development of light industry, especially linen and cloth, which supplied the army and navy with sailing cloth and uniforms. Only a few years after the Poltava victory, the treasury weakened the demand for manufactory products, and some of the industrial goods began to enter the market. The emergence of manufactories designed for the production of household goods - stockings, tapestries (wallpaper), playing cards, buttons, smoking pipes, - consumed mainly by nobles and the most prosperous citizens.
Compared with the initial period of development of the manufacturing industry, the share of private capital in it has grown. During the first decade of the eighteenth century the treasury built 14 metallurgical enterprises, and private individuals - only 2; in the next 15 years, 5 factories were built with state funds, and 10 by private industrialists. Until 1715, there was not a single private enterprise in the cloth industry, and by the end of the first quarter of the 18th century. there were 10 of them. Diplomat P. P. Shafirov, not without pride, noted in 1717 that the production of such goods had been established, “of which many and names had not been heard much before in Russia.”
Large-scale industry also appeared on the outskirts of the empire. At the beginning of the XVIII century. A group of Olonets factories was built on the territory of Karelia, a large shipyard was founded in Kazan, cloth and leather manufactories arose. Saltpeter and gunpowder production developed in Ukraine. In the first quarter of the XVIII century. A large Putivl cloth manufactory was founded, as well as the first Akhtyrsky tobacco manufactory in Russia.
However, despite the spread of manufactories, urban craft and peasant crafts retained their paramount importance. A huge mass of rural residents continued to be content with simple household items made in their own households. However, the patriarchal isolation of domestic crafts was gradually broken; millions of arshins of peasant linen and other products through buyers got not only to the markets of large cities, but also abroad.
The strengthening of commodity production attracted rural artisans to the cities as well. Among those who signed up for the workshops of Moscow, about half were not native residents of the capital, but peasants who had resettled there. Particularly large was the share of non-residents in such workshops as shoemaking, bread, kalachny, kvass; the peasants who enrolled in them were engaged in their usual business. In large cities, primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in connection with changes in everyday life, new branches of small-scale commodity production arose: the manufacture of fine cloth, braids, and wigs.
Some of the small commodity producers managed to become manufacturers, although such cases in the first quarter of the 18th century. were single. Major industrialists of the 18th century The Demidovs, Mosolovs, Batashovs, who became manufacturers at the time in question, trace their ancestry to Tula gunsmiths.
Industrial policy. Mercantilism
Even in the economic policy of the XVII century. there were elements of mercantilism. Now, along with the protection of the interests of domestic trade by the government, vigorous and versatile measures to encourage industry have begun to be carried out. As in a number of Western European states, under Peter I, the construction of manufactories was organized using state funds, followed by their transfer on preferential terms to private individuals. Industrialists received large cash loans from the treasury. The state often resorted to the forced organization of industrial companies - “if they don’t want to, though, into captivity.”
The government also sought to regulate small-scale production. In order to expand exports, for example, the production of narrow linen, which was not in sufficient demand abroad, was prohibited, specialists were brought in to train tanners in improved methods of leather processing. An important measure was the organization of craft workshops. In the early 30s of the XVIII century. in Russia there were up to 15 thousand guild artisans, of which more than half (8.5 thousand) were in Moscow.
Russian guild legislation, unlike Western European legislation, regulated the production process less strictly, did not limit the number of apprentices and apprentices, and allowed peasants to engage in crafts. The absolutist state created workshops in order to improve the skills of small producers and to more conveniently distribute government orders among them.
The government's concerns about the development of manufactories were expressed primarily in its efforts to provide them with forced labor. Already in the XVII century. the government, due to a lack of hired workers, took the path of assigning palace peasants to factories. In the first quarter of the XVIII century. new forms of providing industry with labor force have appeared. In 1721, the owners of manufactories were given the opportunity to buy serfs to the factories (such peasants were later called possessive); they, in addition, were allowed to keep runaway peasants "until the decree"; finally, convicts for various crimes, as well as homeless people and prisoners of war, were sent to work at manufactories. Legislation to provide enterprises with labor assigned, as well as serfs and workers, is a characteristic feature of Russian mercantilism. The work of bonded peasants was paid at low rates set by the government.
Thus, in Russia, as in other countries of Central and of Eastern Europe, there was a special type of manufactories. By technical equipment, division of labor, relations with the market Russian manufactories of the 18th century. differed little from the manufactories of capitalist England. The Ural blast furnaces even surpassed the English ones in size and productivity. But the composition work force Russian manufactories were more complex than in large enterprises in England and even feudal-absolutist France, where serfdom had long since disappeared. Part of the Russian manufactories, especially in metallurgy, were fully serviced by forced labor. In other enterprises, along with hired workers, serf workers also worked. Finally, in the third group of manufactories, mainly in light industry, hired people worked mainly. It was the manufactories of this group that laid the foundation for capitalist production relations in industry.
The granting of various privileges to manufacturers was also of political importance, since by this absolutism firmly connected the emerging bourgeoisie with the feudal-serf system. The owners of manufactories dreamed of nothing with such lust as receiving the title of nobility, and with it broader rights to exploit serf labor.
Domestic and foreign trade
On the basis of the further development of the social division of labor, the growth of manufactories, small commodity production and the increased specialization of agriculture, domestic trade expanded. Moscow remained the center of the all-Russian market. Fairs, especially Makarievskaya, Svenskaya, Arkhangelsk and others, retained great importance. Goods from all over the country were brought to these centers.
The construction of canals contributed to the increase in trade turnover: in 1703, the construction of the Vyshnevolotsk Canal began, connecting the Volga basin with the Baltic Sea. The cheap waterway opened up wide opportunities for the delivery of goods to St. Petersburg and from there abroad. Around the turbulent Lake Ladoga, the construction of a bypass canal began, completed already in the second quarter of the 18th century; A number of other canal projects were developed (remaining, however, unrealized), including those to connect the Volga with the Don and the Moscow River with the Volga.
The accession of the Baltic coast changed the direction of Russia's foreign trade. The importance of Arkhangelsk and the route across the White Sea has fallen. In 1726, half of all Russian goods sent to Western Europe were already exported through St. Petersburg. The main export item was agricultural products: hemp, flax, leather. What was new in the structure of Russian exports was the export of manufactured goods abroad. In 1726 over 55,000 poods of iron and over 10 million arshins of linen were exported abroad. Among imported goods, luxury goods dominated, consumed mainly by the nobility: wine, sugar, silk and woolen fabrics. On the great growth of foreign trade in the first quarter of the 18th century. can be judged from the following data: in 1701, 103 foreign ships arrived in Arkhangelsk; in 1725, 914 ships arrived in the Russian ports of the Baltic Sea - St. Petersburg, Narva, Riga, Revel (Tallinn), Vyborg, and 12 - in Arkhangelsk.
Russia has achieved success in its mercantilist policy - it has increased its trade surplus. The export of goods through St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and Riga in 1726 amounted to 4.2 million rubles, and the import - 2.1 million. duties on goods already produced on a large scale domestically. Duties were collected from foreigners in efimki, that is, in foreign currency, accepted at a reduced rate. This doubled the amount of the duty and helped attract precious metals to the country. The highest duty (75%) was levied on imported iron, canvas, silk fabrics, braids, ribbons, needles, turpentine, wax, etc. A high protective duty (50%) was also imposed on the import of Dutch linen, velvet, drawn and spinning silver, kart. A more moderate duty was imposed on goods, although produced in Russia, but in insufficient quantities, such as woolen fabrics (except for cloths), writing paper. Only a 10 percent duty was levied on goods not produced in the country. A duty of 3% was set on Russian goods exported from Russia, with the exception of industrial raw materials or semi-finished products (for example, woolen and linen yarn), which were subject to a prohibitive duty "for what Russian factories need." Trading companies were established to strengthen trade. They were often created by force. So, for example, in the decree ab organizing a company for trade with Spain, it was noted that in this case "coercion is needed."
City and urban population
In the first quarter of the XVIII century. there are significant changes in the composition and size of the urban population. Recruitment and the growth of state duties caused a temporary decline in the urban population, who fled, supposedly peasants, to the outskirts. At the same time, in such cities as Kazan, Tula, and especially Moscow, where there were about 30 manufactories, the stratum of working people increased among the population. The development of manufactories is associated with the emergence of new types of settlements, which later became cities - Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Petrozavodsk in Karelia, Lipetsk in the Voronezh province, etc.
In 1703 St. Petersburg was founded. It was built under difficult conditions by tens of thousands of soldiers and peasants driven from all over the country. The new city was populated by artisans and merchants who were forcibly transferred from other commercial and industrial centers. From the old cities, randomly built up with wooden buildings, Petersburg was distinguished by a strict layout of streets, stone houses, pavements and street lighting. With the move of the royal court here in 1712, St. Petersburg became the official capital of the state; it was a seaport, a "window to Europe", a cultural and commercial and industrial center. At the Admiralty shipyard in St. Petersburg, the largest enterprise in Russia, over 10 thousand workers were employed.
The increased economic role of the merchants and the city was reflected in the city reform. As early as 1667, the government promised to organize a "Decent Order", which would "protect and control the merchants from the voivodship taxes." It took, however, over 30 years for the implementation of this intention. By decree of 1699, the Burmister Chamber was created in Moscow, soon renamed the City Hall, and in other cities - Zemstvo huts. These were the bodies of city self-government, which were not subordinate to the voevodas in the localities and the orders in the center. The city reform was motivated by the fact that the merchants "from many orders of red tape and harassment suffered losses and ruin." But the main goal of the reform was to turn the Town Hall and Zemstvo huts into responsible collectors of customs and tavern money. As soon as in connection with the provincial reform of 1708-1710. the need for financial and administrative services of the merchants decreased, the government subordinated the bodies of city self-government to the regional administration.
The cities received a new administrative structure in 1720 with the formation of the Chief Magistrate in St. Petersburg and magistrates in the cities. The regulations of the Chief Magistrate reflected changes in the social structure of the urban population, but formalized these changes in a feudal way. He divided the inhabitants of the town into "regular" citizens in two guilds, which included merchants and guild artisans, and "irregular", or "vile" people, i.e. laborers and working people of manufactories. The latter represented the destitute mass of the urban population, deprived of the right to participate in the elections of self-government bodies. Social differences were also sharply reflected among the "regular" citizens. General township gatherings, at which the elections of city bodies took place, represented the arena of a fierce struggle between the top of the emerging bourgeoisie and small handicraft people. The government was guided by the rich strata of the townspeople, offering to elect "efficient and best people in the merchant class" to the city bodies. Thus, in the social structure of Russian society, along with the old classes-estates - the peasantry and the nobility - elements of new classes began to take shape: factory workers (pre-proletariat) and the bourgeoisie (manufactory workers, the top artisans, merchants, etc.). The latter received a class organization with very significant privileges that fenced it off from the "vile" people.
As a result of reforms that accelerated the pace of social, economic and cultural development, Russia largely overcame its lagging behind the advanced states of Western Europe, which had a strong effect in the 17th century. But its successes should be recognized as relative. Thus, the number of urban population, which is one of the indicators of the level of social division of labor, according to the first revision, reached only 3%.
3. The struggle of the masses against feudal oppression
At the beginning of the XVIII century. large anti-feudal actions of the masses unfolded in Russia. The first decade of this century is the most intense period of the Northern War, when the population suffered especially from the continuous increase in taxes and intensive recruiting. Military teams in the field collected taxes imposed by the government; many people sought salvation from the oppression of the landowners and the tsarist administration in flight to the outskirts, to the Don and the Lower Volga region, where the main centers of uprisings arose.
Astrakhan uprising of 1705-1706
Astrakhan was a major commercial and industrial center, a transit point where, along with Russian merchants, Indian, Iranian, Central Asian and Armenian merchants carried on a lively trade. Fishing, salt works and shipping attracted many newcomers to Astrakhan, who became barge haulers, rowers and working people. The garrison of Astrakhan numbered more than 3,500 people, among whom were many disgraced archers exiled from Moscow.
The impetus for the uprising was the cruel forms of tax collection and abuses of the local administration, especially the governor T. I. Rzhevsky. The voivode used the archers for personal services and in barbarous ways forced the population to comply with the decrees on shaving their beards and wearing Western European dresses. The initiators of the uprising were archers and soldiers, and the urban population also joined them.
The uprising began on the night of July 30, 1705. The "initial people" and foreign officers were killed. Instead of the murdered voivode Rzhevsky, the rebels elected their own administration in a circle, headed by the Yaroslavl merchant Yakov Nosov and the Astrakhan Gavrila Ganchikov. The circle ordered the abolition of the newly introduced numerous taxes. From the confiscated monetary treasury, the archers and soldiers were given salaries. Soon the uprising swept the military towns of Krasny Yar and Guryev, where the Astrakhan circle sent detachments of archers. The rebels also tried to raise the Don Cossacks. However, the military circle in Cherkessk refused to join the uprising. Moreover, 2 thousand Cossacks were sent from Cherkassk to help government troops. The rebels made an attempt to expand the region of the uprising by attracting the cities of the Volga region. In August 1705, the Astrakhans sent a detachment to Tsaritsyn, inviting the garrison and residents to go over to their side, but the latter refused to join the uprising, and the detachment returned to Astrakhan with nothing.
To suppress the uprising, military units under the command of Field Marshal Sheremetev were allocated. On March 13, 1706, they captured the city in battle. Over 300 Astrakhans were executed, many participants in the uprising were exiled to Siberia.
Rebellion on the Don 1707-1708
Following the suppression of the Astrakhan uprising, unrest began on the Don. In 1707, a punitive detachment under the command of Prince Yu. V. Dolgoruky arrived on the Don to detect and return fugitive peasants. He acted with incredible cruelty and caused the strongest discontent of the population. The newly arrived people and salt-workers of the Bakhmut crafts, led by Kondraty Bulavin, attacked Dolgoruky's detachment and completely destroyed it. Expanding the area of the uprising, Bulavin moved to the Cossack settlements along the tributaries of the Don (Medveditsa and Khopra), where he defeated other groups of the punitive detachment. Loyal to the tsarist government, the grassroots Cossacks sent an army to the area of the uprising. It defeated the insurgents. Bulavin hid in Ukraine, in Zaporozhye, from where he sent out "charming" letters (proclamations) with a call to "beat" the boyars and governor. These appeals were close and understandable to the masses: "We don't care about the mob, we care about the boyars and who do lies." Appeals found a wide response among the Cossacks of the upper Don, Zaporozhye Cossacks and peasants of neighboring counties - Tambov, Kozlovsky and Voronezh. When in the spring of 1708 Bulavin reappeared on Khoper, the number of rebels reached several thousand people.
The government sent a 7,000-strong detachment to the Don, replenished with mobilized nobles, as well as Don Cossacks, led by their military chieftain. But the Cossacks of the cities located in the upper reaches of the Don betrayed the government and went over to the side of the rebels. In April 1708, the Bulavins captured the center of the Don Cossacks, Cherkassk, without a fight, where they executed the military ataman along with five foremen. Bulavin was elected military ataman.
In Cherkassk, the rebel army was divided into several detachments, of which one went to meet the advancing tsarist troops, the other two were sent to the Volga region, and the main forces went to Azov. The fragmentation of the forces of the rebels weakened them and hastened the defeat of the uprising. After an unsuccessful attempt by the Bulavins to take possession of Azov, the grassroots prosperous Cossacks, who temporarily joined the uprising, organized a conspiracy in Cherkassk against Bulavin. He was killed or, according to other reports, surrounded by conspirators, shot himself.
At the end of July, government troops, having defeated the scattered forces of the rebels, approached Cherkassk. Grassroots Cossacks brought the confession and handed over the active participants in the uprising. The Bulavins fought their last major battle in October, but they were defeated and almost completely exterminated.
After the pacification of the Don, centers of revolt arose in many districts of Russia. Gavrila Starchenko's detachment successfully operated on the Volga. In some central uyezds, the rebels burned the estates of the landlords, drove out the officials, cracked down on the landlords, and set up their own administration.
The disunited actions of the rebels, their poor organization, and the general spontaneous nature of the movement made its defeat inevitable. Nevertheless, the uprising of 1707-1708. showed the readiness of the masses to fight against the intensification of feudal exploitation.
The uprising in Bashkiria in 1705-1711.
In 1705, an uprising began in Bashkiria, which dragged on until 1711. The inclusion of Bashkiria into the Russian state (as early as the 16th century) had a progressive significance for the Bashkir people. Economic and cultural ties with the Russian people contributed to the development of productive forces among the Bashkirs, accelerated the transition from a semi-nomadic economy to settled life and agriculture. The closer the Bashkirs lived to the Russian settlements, the more developed their agriculture was. However, the tsarist government and local authorities pursued a colonial policy in Bashkiria, ruthlessly exacted taxes, and sometimes demanded unbearable duties.
The impetus for the uprising was an attempt by profitmakers who arrived in Ufa in 1704 to collect new emergency taxes, as well as a demand to send a thousand people to replenish the army and 5 thousand horses. All this was accompanied by violence and bullying of the tsarist officials over the Bashkirs.
The Bashkir uprising was an expression of protest against the colonial policy of tsarism. But the Bashkir feudal lords, using their influence, directed the masses to fight not only against the tsarist officials and punitive detachments, but also against the Russian working population. Hundreds of Russian villages were devastated, many peasants were taken prisoner and sold into slavery. During the uprising, the Bashkir feudal lords sent embassies to Turkey and the Crimea, where they negotiated the transfer to the power of the Crimean Khan.
Armed forces were sent to Bashkiria, which suppressed this uprising.
4. The establishment of absolutism
Transformation of central and local government
Absolutism in Russia took shape in the second half of the 17th century, but its final approval and formalization dates back to the first quarter of the 18th century. The absolute monarchy exercised the dominance of the nobility in the presence of the emerging bourgeois class. Absolutism also enjoyed the support of the merchants and manufacturers, who increased their wealth thanks to the benefits they received, the promotion of trade and industry.
The assertion of absolutism was accompanied by increased centralization and bureaucratization of the state apparatus and the creation of a regular army and navy.
There were two stages in the implementation of public administration reforms. The first of them covers 1699-1711 - from the creation of the Burmister Chamber, or City Hall, and the first regional reform to the establishment of the Senate. Administrative transformations of this period were carried out hastily, without a clearly developed plan.
The second stage falls on quieter years, when the most difficult period of the Northern War was left behind. Carrying out transformations at this stage was preceded by a long and systematic preparation: the state structure of the Western European states was studied; with the participation of foreign jurists, the regulations of new institutions were drawn up. When compiling them, Swedish regulations were used, appropriately revised and supplemented in relation to Russian conditions. Peter I warned: "Which items in the Swedish regulations are inconvenient or dissimilar to the situation of this state, and put them according to your own reasoning." In carrying out reforms, Peter I showed outstanding abilities, exceptional energy and perseverance in the implementation of his plans.
Legislative acts of the beginning of the XVIII century. consolidated the unlimited nature of royal power: "His royal majesty is an autocratic monarch who should not give an answer to anyone in the world about his affairs." Instead of the Boyar Duma, which by this time had been reduced in its composition, the Governing Senate was established. Initially, the Senate was created as the supreme governing body during the absence of the tsar, who personally participated in the Prut campaign, but then it turned into the highest bureaucratic institution directly subordinate to the tsar. Unlike the Boyar Duma, which was staffed according to the principle of nobility of origin, the Senate consisted of a few (9 people) trustees appointed by the tsar, regardless of their generosity.
The Senate prepared new laws, was in charge of the entire system of central and local government, was engaged in recruiting the army and navy and collecting taxes. Simultaneously with the Senate, the institute of fiscals was established to secretly supervise the execution of decrees. Fiscals in cities and provinces were subordinate to the chief fiscal of the Senate.
After the organization of the Senate, the replacement of old orders with new central institutions - colleges began. The collegiate system differed from the command system primarily in a stricter distribution of responsibilities between the central departments. If before that, dozens of various orders were in charge of collecting taxes and distributing them, then since the organization of the colleges, the main budget items were under the jurisdiction of two institutions - the Chamber College and the State Offices College. As part of the new collegiate system, previously absent institutions appeared that were in charge of justice, industry and trade. In the boards, each of which consisted of ten people (the president, vice president, four advisers and four assistants to them - assessors), all decisions were made not individually, but by a majority of votes. Unlike orders, the competence of the collegiums on a certain range of issues extended to the whole country.
In 1718-1721. 11 collegiums were created. Colleges - Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs constituted a group of "three of the first state colleges." The Chamber College was in charge of expenses, and the State Offices College was in charge of state revenues. The Audit Board exercised financial control. Trade and industry were under the jurisdiction of the Berg Collegium, the Manufactory Collegium and the Collegium of Commerce. The College of Justice was in charge of the courts and was their appellate instance. The patrimonial collegium, which replaced the Local Order, protected the nobility's ownership rights to land and serfs.
Initially, all presidents of the colleges were members of the Senate. But already in 1722, Peter I admitted that “this was done without thinking at first,” because such a composition of the Senate made it impossible to control the work of the collegiums and contradicted the principle of subordination of lower institutions to the higher. The presidents of most colleges, with the exception of the "three first ones", were removed from the Senate. In the same year, Peter established the highest position in the state, Prosecutor General. In the founding decree, the prosecutor general is called "like our eye and a lawyer on state affairs." He was instructed to "keep a close eye" on the activities of the Senate and all state institutions.
Local institutions have also been transformed. The old fractional division of the country into counties, directly subordinate to orders located in the capital, did not satisfy the new needs of the state. According to the new administrative division introduced after the suppression of the uprising on the Don, larger units were established - provinces. The country was divided into eight provinces (Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Smolensk, Kyiv, Kazan, Azov and Siberian) headed by governors with broad military, financial and police powers. The governors were subordinate to officials who were in charge of certain branches of government (chief commandant, who was responsible for the state of military affairs, chief commissar, who was in charge of collecting monetary and natural taxes, etc.).
The second regional reform (1719) made the province, smaller than the province, the main unit of administrative control. There were about fifty such provinces. The division into provinces was preserved, but only military affairs remained in the power of the governors, and on other issues, the provincial governors communicated directly with the central institutions. The provinces into which Russia was divided under the second regional reform were the distant predecessors of the provinces organized under Catherine II. Officials of provincial and provincial institutions, as well as members of the boards, were appointed from the nobility and constituted an expensive bureaucratic management machine.
Reorganization of the army and creation of the navy
Along with the transformation of the administrative apparatus, a newly organized regular army and navy were created - the military stronghold of absolutism. The reorganization of the army began with the development of a new military charter (1698) and the creation of guards and regular regiments. The archers, who spoke three times (in 1682, 1689 and 1698), according to Peter's recall, "truly were only mischief-makers, not warriors" and did not inspire confidence in the tsar either militarily or politically. In 1699, the government produced the first set of recruits for permanent military service in regular regiments, one person from a certain number of peasant and township households. Of the recruits, 27 infantry regiments were formed. In addition to the special military educational institutions organized in these years, the guards regiments, Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky, were a kind of training school for officers, in which the nobles served as privates, after which they were appointed officers in field regiments.
Under Peter I, 53 recruiting was carried out. By 1725, the field army (infantry, cavalry, artillery) numbered about 130 thousand people, not counting the garrison and irregular troops.
Access to the Azov and Baltic seas made it possible to start creating a navy. In 1703, a shipyard began operating on the Svir River. Here, in August of the same year, the first-born of the Baltic Fleet, the Shtandart frigate, was launched. Soon other ships began to leave the stocks of the Admiralty shipyard in St. Petersburg. By 1724, the Russian fleet had become the most powerful in the Baltic.
Church government reform
The establishment of absolutism significantly changed the position of the church. government since the 16th century. began to take measures to limit the growth of landownership and the number of peasants in the spiritual feudal lords, bearing in mind the interests of secular landownership. However, the church and monasteries in the first quarter of the XVIII century. still owned about a fifth of the rural population of the country. The policy of subordinating the spiritual hierarchy to secular power in the first quarter of the 18th century. carried out more decisively than before. In 1701, Peter carried out a partial secularization of church property, for which he restored the Monastic Order, which administered the monastic estates through secular officials. A significant part of the income from the monastic possessions came from that time to the national treasury.
Instead of the patriarchal authority, on the model of secular collegiums, the Spiritual Collegium was established to manage the church, later renamed the Holy Synod. The members of the Synod, as well as other colleges, were appointed by the tsar. This reform completed the subordination of the church to secular power.
The case of Tsarevich Alexei
Dissatisfied with the reforms, circles of the clergy and nobility pinned their hopes on Tsarevich Alexei. This weak-willed and inactive heir to the throne became a tool in the hands of a reactionary group of boyars who sought to return to the old order, to abandon an active foreign policy and state reforms. The prince said: “When I am a sovereign, I will live in Moscow, and I will leave St. Petersburg as a simple city, I will not keep ships ... I will live in Moscow in the winter, and in Yaroslavl in the summer.”
Peter repeatedly suggested that his son either actively participate in state affairs, or take the veil as a monk. Alexei, following the advice of one of his closest supporters, A. Kikin, agreed to be tonsured. Kikin told the prince that "the hood is not nailed to the head" and, if necessary, it can be removed. Then Alexei adopted a different plan: counting on the support of Emperor Charles VI (Alexei was married to the sister of the Empress), he fled to Vienna in 1717, but the next year, at the insistence of Peter I, he was taken to Russia. An investigation began, revealing the plans of the prince and his accomplices. A special court consisting of the generals, the Senate and the Synod sentenced the prince to death.
The failure of the plot was not accidental. The defeat of the boyar opposition testified that the reforms of Peter I were in the interests of the bulk of the nobility.
5. Northern war. Foreign policy of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century.
The main task of Russia's foreign policy after the Azov campaigns was the mastery of the shores of the Baltic Sea, which were in the power of the Swedes. As early as the beginning of the 17th century. Sweden seized the ancient Russian lands along the Neva River and closed access to the sea. The turn in Russia's foreign policy found expression in the alliance of Peter I with the Saxon elector Augustus, who then occupied the Polish throne, and with the Danish king to fight Sweden (Northern Union). In January 1699, an agreement was reached in Karlovitsy on a two-year Russian-Turkish truce. On July 3, 1700, in Istanbul (Constantinople), the Russian ambassador E.I. Ukraintsev concluded a peace treaty with Turkey, which had abandoned Azov. As soon as the courier delivered this news to Moscow, Russian troops were moved to the Swedish border.
Beginning of the Northern War
The beginning of the war for the participants of the Northern Union was unsuccessful. The Swedish king Charles XII unexpectedly landed 15,000 troops near Copenhagen and forced Denmark out of the war. Russia's second ally, the Polish king Augustus II, tried unsuccessfully to capture Riga, a strong fortress that was in the hands of the Swedes. Russian military operations began with the siege of Narva. Charles XII, having signed a peace treaty with Denmark in Travendal, hastily transferred troops to Narva and in November 1700 suddenly attacked the Russians. The poor training of the noble cavalry and the newly formed infantry, as well as the betrayal of foreign officers, led to the defeat of the Russian troops.
Narva, according to Marx, "was the first serious defeat of the rising nation, which knew how to turn even defeats into instruments of victory" ( K. Marx, A retrospective look at the Crimean campaign, K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., v. 10, p. 589.). After the loss of almost all artillery near Narva, a feverish construction of new industrial enterprises began. In the Urals in 1701-1704 the country's four largest metallurgical plants began producing iron, cast iron, cannons and cannonballs. Closer to the theater of operations, in the area of the Olonets and Belozersk ore deposits, five metallurgical and weapons factories were built. At the same time, the construction of manufactories began, which were supposed to provide the army with uniforms and equipment - a tanneries and harness factories, a cloth manufactory, etc. This made it possible to eliminate the severe consequences of the defeat near Narva in a short time and accelerate the formation of a regular army. The February decree of 1705 determined the recruitment rules and completed the recruitment system. Starting from 1705, annual replenishment of more than 30 thousand people was envisaged; every 20-30 peasant and posad households were supposed to supply one recruit. The rank and file of the army was replenished with peasants and townspeople, officer positions were occupied by nobles who underwent special training in educational institutions organized in those years or in guards regiments. The staffing of the army and navy on the basis of recruitment quickly increased the size of the armed forces, which in 1708 reached 113 thousand people instead of 40 thousand, available at the beginning of the war.
Charles XII, believing that the Russian armed forces were finished near Narva, sent his troops against the third member of the Northern Union of the Polish King Augustus II. But while, in the words of Peter I, "the Swede got stuck in Poland," the recovered Russian troops began to win one victory after another. Following the capture in 1702 of the Noteburg fortress (renamed by Peter to Shlisselburg, Old Russian Oreshek), located at the exit of the Neva from Lake Ladoga, the Russians took the Nienschanz fortress at the confluence of the Neva into the sea; On May 16, 1703, construction began Peter and Paul Fortress that laid the foundation for Petersburg. The security of St. Petersburg from the sea was ensured by the Kronstadt fortress built on the island of Kotlin. Having examined it, Peter ordered "to maintain this city with God's help, if it happens, even to the last person." In 1704, Russian troops laid siege to Narva for the second time and took it.
To assist Poland in its fight against the Swedes, the Russian command concentrated its army in 1706 near Grodno. Charles XII, approaching Grodno, threatened to cut off the Russian troops. With a skillful maneuver developed by Peter I, the Russian troops got out of the trap set by the Swedes and were withdrawn to Ukraine without loss. Meanwhile, the Polish-Saxon troops were defeated, and in September 1706, Charles XII forced August II to conclude the Treaty of Altranstadt, according to which Poland and Saxony refused an alliance with Russia, and August II was deprived of the Polish crown, retaining only the Electorate of Saxony. Thus, the Northern the union no longer existed and the further struggle with Sweden had to be waged by Russia alone. The most intense and at the same time the most brilliant period of the Northern War for Russian weapons began.
Battle of Poltava and its historical significance
Charles XII hoped to bring Russia to its knees without much difficulty. In the autumn of 1707, the Swedish troops began their march to the east with the aim of invading Russian borders and marching on Moscow.
The aggressive campaign of Charles XII ended, however, in complete failure. The Russian army by this time had become much stronger than at the beginning of the war. The enemy was rebuffed not only by the army; partisan detachments arose, smashing the rear of the enemy and striking at small detachments of the Swedes.
Waging defensive battles, the Russian army in 1708 retreated to the borders of Russia. Attempts by the Swedes to impose a general battle on the Russians in unfavorable conditions for the latter were unsuccessful. The fierce defensive battles waged by the Russian troops forced Charles XII to change the invasion plan. Instead of going through Smolensk to Moscow, he was forced to accept the plan of bypass movement and go to Ukraine, where the traitor Hetman Mazepa was waiting for him. The Swedish corps under the command of A. Levenhaupt, who was near Riga, was supposed to arrive there, intended to replenish the troops of Charles XII, battered in battles. But this strategic plan of the Swedish king failed. Mazepa managed to bring only about 2 thousand people to Charles XII, some of whom were also deceived and believed that they were going on a campaign against the Swedes. The Ukrainian people remained faithful to the alliance with the Russian people and did not follow the hetman. Ukrainian peasants and townspeople, with bold raids on enemy detachments and staunch defense of a number of cities, provided significant assistance to the Russian army. The Lewenhaupt corps did not fulfill its task either. In the battle near the village of Lesnoy on September 28, 1708, he was completely defeated; more than 8 thousand Swedes died; the entire convoy and artillery fell into the hands of the Russians. Instead of the expected reinforcements, Charles XII received 5-6 thousand demoralized soldiers. The brilliant victory at Lesnaya, which took place nine months before the battle of Poltava, was later called by Peter I "the mother of the Poltava battle."
The main forces of the Swedish army from April 1709 were concentrated near Poltava. The heroic defense of this city by the garrison and the population under the command of Colonel A. S. Kelin pinned down the enemy forces and made it possible to concentrate Russian troops near Poltava. The battlefield, 5 versts from Poltava, was fortified by order of Peter I with earthen redoubts in order to delay the first onslaught of the Swedes. The Russian army was well trained by this time, had excellent artillery and numbered 42 thousand people, while Charles XII had about 30 thousand at his disposal. . At the most critical moment of the battle, Peter rushed forward with a battalion of the Novgorod regiment. Unable to withstand the onslaught, the Swedes began a retreat, which turned into a disorderly flight. On the battlefield, they left over 9 thousand corpses, about 3 thousand people were captured. “The invincible gentlemen, the Swedes, soon showed their backbone,” Peter wrote from the battlefield in a report about the Poltava victory. The victory was celebrated on the same day with a feast in the royal tent with the participation of captured Swedish generals. The remnants of the defeated army, led by the wounded Charles XII, fled to the Dnieper, where on June 30 Menshikov overtook them at Perevolochna. About 17 thousand Swedes surrendered to the 9 thousandth Russian detachment. Charles XII, together with Mazepa and a small detachment, escaped captivity and took refuge in Turkish possessions, in the city of Bendery.
The defeat of the first-class Swedish army for that time near Poltava radically changed the military and foreign policy situation. Engels wrote: “... Charles XII made an attempt to penetrate into Russia; in this way he destroyed Sweden and showed everyone the invulnerability of Russia ”( F. Engels, The foreign policy of Russian tsarism, K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. XVI, part II, p. 9.).
As a result of the Poltava victory in the autumn of 1709, August II, an ally of Russia, was restored to the Polish throne. Denmark rejoined the coalition, and Prussia joined it. Thus, the Northern Union was restored and even expanded thanks to the successes of Russian weapons.
The most important result of the Poltava victory was the strengthening of the Russian conquests in the Baltic states, which could no longer be threatened by the Swedish army. According to Peter I, after the defeat of the Swedish army, "a stone was laid in the foundation of St. Petersburg." Following Poltava, Russian troops won a number of victories in the Baltic. In 1710 Riga, Revel, Vyborg and Kexholm were taken.
Prut campaign
After the Poltava victory, Turkey in November 1709 renewed the peace treaty with Russia. But then Russian-Turkish relations worsened again. Charles XII tried to restore the Turkish government against Russia. The maritime powers - England and Holland, as well as the Empire, acted in the same direction, interested in weakening Russia, tying up her forces in the south and avoiding her influence on the course of the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition, Turkey was dissatisfied with the presence of Russian troops in Poland, close to the Turkish borders, and was afraid of turning Russia into a maritime power with a strong fleet on the Sea of Azov.
A year after the renewal of the peace treaty, in November 1710, the Turkish government imprisoned the Russian ambassador in the Seven Towers Castle (a prison in Istanbul) and declared war on Russia. In January 1711, the Crimean Tatars invaded the Russian lands and the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine.
Peter I hoped to win over the Christian and Slavic population of the Balkan Peninsula. Manifestos of Peter I with a call to rebel against the Turkish yoke were distributed in Serbia, and 30 thousand rebels were ready to join the Russians. The Moldavian ruler D. Cantemir went over to the side of Russia. But the Wallachian ruler K. Brankovan remained on the side of the Turks and prevented the Serbs from joining the Russian army.
Russian troops led by Peter I were drawn to the borders of Moldova. In difficult conditions, in extreme heat, lacking food, they reached the river. Prut. Here, in the first days of July 1711, they met with the numerically superior forces of the Turks and Tatars under the command of the Grand Vizier Baltaji Mehmed Pasha: there were 38 thousand Russians, and 188 thousand Turks and Tatars. The position of the Russian troops was extremely difficult, but and the Turks failed to realize their advantage. In the battle that took place on July 9, the Turks suffered heavy losses, and the Janissaries demanded that the Grand Vizier begin peace negotiations. Peter sent Vice-Chancellor P. P. Shafirov to the Turkish camp, and on July 12, 1711, a peace treaty was concluded. It contained difficult conditions for Russia: the return of Azov to the Turks, the obligation to tear down the fortresses in the South, etc. Nevertheless, in the current situation, the Treaty of Prut had a positive value for Russia, since it freed its armed forces to continue hostilities in the main theater of war - in the Baltic.
Continuation of the Northern War
The failure of the Prut campaign did not have a significant impact on the favorable course of the Northern War for Russia. The defeat suffered by the Swedes near Poltava was so crushing that after that they could no longer restore their former power. Now military operations unfolded far from the Russian borders - in the Swedish province of Pomerania, where in 1713 Russian troops, despite the indecisive actions of their allies (Danes and Saxons), defeated the Swedes near Stettin, and in Finland, where in the same year the Russians captured Helsingfors (Helsinki) and Abo (Turku).
By this time, fighting at sea had become of paramount importance, where the Swedes had a strong navy. But the Russian fleet already had a considerable number of ships, especially galleys. A great naval battle took place near Cape Gangut on July 27, 1714. The fierce battle ended with the surrender of the Swedish squadron led by Admiral Ehrenschild. The Gangut battle was essential for establishing the dominance of the Russian fleet in the Baltic Sea.
Peace of Nystadt
The successes of the Russian troops in Finland and on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, as well as the victory of the Russian fleet in the Baltic waters and the threat of transferring hostilities to the territory of Sweden itself, forced Charles XII to negotiate peace. This was also facilitated by the negotiations conducted by Peter I and the Russian diplomats who went abroad with him in 1716. In August 1717, after Peter I visited Paris, an alliance treaty was concluded in Amsterdam between Russia, France and Prussia. France promised its mediation for the conclusion of peace between Russia and Sweden and at the same time pledged to renounce its alliance with Sweden and stop paying her cash subsidies. The Treaty of Amsterdam weakened the position of Sweden and brought France closer to Russia. This prompted the Swedes to make concessions, and negotiations began in Holland between the Russian ambassador B. I. Kurakin and the representative of Sweden, the Holstein minister Hertz. As a result of these negotiations, on May 10, 1718, a peace congress was opened in the Åland Islands. The draft treaty prepared at this congress satisfied the territorial requirements of the Russian government. Ingria, Livonia, Estonia and part of Karelia were to go to Russia; Russia agreed to the return of Finland, occupied by Russian troops, to Sweden. Sweden insisted on receiving an "equivalent" in the form of the return to her of Bremen and Verden, taken from her during the Great Northern War and annexed to Hanover. Russia agreed to provide the Swedes with military assistance for the war against Hanover, and consequently against England, since the Hanoverian elector George I was the English king. However, in November 1718, Charles XII was killed during the siege of a fortress in Norway, and the opponents of peace with Russia gained the upper hand in Sweden. The Åland Congress dragged on, and then the negotiations were interrupted.
In 1719, the British government achieved the conclusion of a convention between Sweden and Hanover, according to which Sweden ceded Bremen and Verden to Hanover, and for this England entered into an alliance with Sweden against Russia. In the summer of 1719, in accordance with the treaty, an English squadron under the command of Admiral Norris entered the Baltic Sea for a surprise attack on the Russian fleet, but the British failed to catch the Russians by surprise. Under pressure from England, Prussia signed an agreement with Sweden in 1720 and broke off the alliance with Russia. In the same year, the English fleet entered the Baltic Sea for the second time. Nevertheless, the Russian squadron defeated the Swedes at Grengam, after which a landing was made on the Swedish coast. In 1721, the English squadron again tried to attack the Russian fleet in the Baltic Sea and was also unsuccessful. All this forced the British to recommend to the Swedish government to resume peace negotiations.
A peace congress opened in the city of Nystadt in Finland in April 1721. Here Russia achieved the acceptance of all its territorial demands put forward at the Åland Congress, and even with fewer concessions on its part.
The Treaty of Nystadt, signed on August 30, 1721, was a huge success for Russia. Eternal, true and indestructible peace and friendship between Russia and Sweden were established. Ingria, part of Karelia, Estland, Livonia with the sea coast from Vyborg to Riga and the islands of Ezel, Dago and Moon passed to Russia in "perpetual possession" and "property". Russia undertook to return Finland to the Swedes, pay 2 million Efimki and refused to support the pretender to the Swedish throne - the Duke of Holstein, the groom of Peter I's daughter Anna.
Peace of Nystadt contributed important changes to the balance of power in Europe. Sweden has lost its importance as a great power. The treaty consolidated Russia's successes achieved by victories in a long and difficult war. The most important task of Russia's foreign policy, set back in the 16th-17th centuries, was solved - access to the Baltic Sea was acquired. Russia received a number of first-class ports and thereby placed her trade relations with Western Europe on favorable terms. The significance of the Peace of Nystadt for strengthening the country's defense was very great: the northwestern borders of Russia moved far to the west and from land became sea; a powerful Russian military fleet appeared on the Baltic Sea. Before the negotiations in Nystadt, Menshikov told the French representative Compradon: “We don’t want to have any more clashes with our neighbors, and for this we need to be separated by the sea.” Subsequently, Compradon, who became the French ambassador in St. Petersburg, noted that "the Treaty of Nystadt made him (Peter I) the ruler of the two best ports on the Baltic Sea."
Sweden renounced an alliance with England and in 1724 concluded an alliance treaty with Russia with an obligation of mutual assistance in case of an attack by another power (with the exception of Turkey). Subsequent attempts by Sweden to return the Baltic provinces were unsuccessful.
The external expression of the increased international significance of Russia and the establishment of absolutism was the proclamation by the Senate in the same year of 1721 of Peter I as emperor. The Russian state became known as the Russian Empire.
Estonia and Livonia, which became part of the Russian Empire, were formerly the possessions of Sweden. The landowners here were German and Swedish feudal lords, and their serfs were Estonians and Latvians.
The accession of the Baltic states to Russia put an end to the struggle of the northern powers for possession of it. Economic, political and cultural ties between the Russian and Baltic lands were restored. This contributed to the further development of industry and trade in Estonia and Livonia. The accession to Russia greatly benefited the local German nobility, which became the backbone of the Russian autocracy. It had enormous power over the dependent peasantry. The estate privileges of the Baltic nobility were wider than the privileges of the Russian nobles: the Baltic nobles, under the Nishtadt Treaty, retained estate self-government and patrimonial police. In St. Petersburg, a special Justice College and Chamber Office for the affairs of Estonia and Livonia were created.
Persian campaign. Liberation struggle of the peoples of Transcaucasia
Russia's policy in the region of the Caspian Sea and Transcaucasia was dictated by serious economic and political interests. Through Astrakhan, trade relations were established with the Central Asian khanates, as well as with Iran and Transcaucasia. On the other hand, Turkey, taking advantage of the weakening of Iran, sought to expand its borders in the Caucasus, which posed a threat to the Russians in the Caspian region. Armenians and Georgians have repeatedly asked the Russian government to take them into Russian citizenship in order to protect them from Iranian and Turkish oppression. The end of the Northern War allowed Russia to intensify its policy in the area. In Central Asia, the Russian government failed. Back in 1716, A. Bekovich Cherkassky was instructed to persuade the Khiva khan into Russian citizenship, and the Bukhara khan - to friendship with Russia. After an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Bekovich-Cherkassky expedition in an open battle, the Khiva Khan decided to achieve this goal in a different way. He convinced Cherkassky to divide his armed forces into several parts, ostensibly to better provide the troops with apartments and food. When this was done, the Russian dismembered detachments were treacherously attacked and slaughtered.
In the first quarter of the XVIII century. Russia's ties with the peoples of Transcaucasia are being strengthened. Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have long been objects of robbery and cruel exploitation for the Turks and Iranians. During frequent wars, Iranian and Turkish hordes, passing through these countries, left ashes behind them in the place of cities and villages. The economic oppression and political lack of rights of the peoples of Transcaucasia were aggravated by religious persecution. To force Georgians and Armenians to convert to Islam, the Iranian shahs, for example, used the so-called law of Imam Jafar, according to which a family member who converted to Islam became the sole heir to the property of all his Christian relatives; often people who converted to Islam, on the basis of false testimony, were recognized as relatives of wealthy Christians and appropriated their property.
At the end of the XVII - beginning of the XVIII century. Iran was going through a period of economic decline and political decentralization. One of the important factors in its weakening was the liberation struggle of the peoples of Transcaucasia.
The Russian government closely followed the developments in the countries of Transcaucasia. It was informed in detail about the situation in these countries, both through Russian and Armenian merchants, and especially through numerous envoys who came from Georgia and Armenia to St. Petersburg with requests for help. The Russian government sought to prevent the passage of Azerbaijan, Eastern Georgia and Eastern Armenia into the hands of a stronger Turkey, whose establishment on the western coast of the Caspian Sea would create an immediate threat to the borders of Russia and Russian trade with the East. In addition, Peter I planned to direct Iran's foreign trade with Europe along the Volga transit route and ensure the predominance of Russian merchants in this trade. The Afghan invasion of Iran (1722) and the rise of the liberation movement in the countries of Transcaucasia created an exceptionally favorable environment for Russia to act. It was hastened by the threat of Turkish invasion of Iranian possessions.
In 1722, the campaign of Peter I began in the Caucasus and Iran, which went down in history under the name of the Persian campaign. In July, Russian troops set off from Astrakhan by land and sea to the south, and in August captured Derbent without a fight. The appearance of Russian troops, their first successes and the manifesto of Peter I to the local population caused a new upsurge in the liberation movement.
In September, the Georgian king Vakhtang VI with his troops went to Ganja to unite with the military forces of the Armenian Catholicos Yesai and Azerbaijani detachments. They were supposed to establish contact with the Russians in Shamakhi. However, the expected meeting of the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani troops with the Russians did not take place, since the latter, due to a lack of food and losses incurred from illnesses, returned to Astrakhan in the fall.
In 1723, Russian troops resumed their interrupted campaign and occupied Baku. The benevolent attitude of Azerbaijanis towards Russia was expressed in the fact that the Russian troops, upon entering Derbent, Baku and other cities, met resistance only from the Iranian garrisons, while the local population supported them. From there, Russian troops moved to Gilan and captured Rasht.
In September 1723, an agreement was concluded in St. Petersburg with Iran, according to which the western and southern coasts of the Caspian Sea remained with Russia.
Taking advantage of the collapse of the Safavid state, Turkey undertook the conquest of its Transcaucasian possessions. The peoples of Transcaucasia put up heroic resistance to the Turks, but the forces were unequal. The Turks barbarously exterminated the defenders of Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tabriz. Russia, having just gone through a difficult Northern War, was not ready for a long struggle. Therefore, in 1724, the Russian government concluded the Treaty of Constantinople with Turkey, according to which the sultan recognized Russia's acquisitions in the Caspian Sea, and Russia recognized Turkey's rights to Western Transcaucasia.
Thus, the Persian campaign of Peter I did not lead to the liberation of the peoples of Transcaucasia from the oppression of the Iranian and Turkish conquerors. Nevertheless, he contributed to the growth of Russia's influence in the Transcaucasus. With particular force, the movement of the broad masses of the people for joining Russia unfolded in Armenia, where numerous appeals were made to the Russian tsar with a request for acceptance into Russian citizenship.
As a result of foreign policy successes, the international significance of Russia has increased, it has taken a paramount place in international life in Europe and Asia, and not a single important issue of European politics has been resolved without its participation.
6. Culture of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century.
Science and school. Technological development
The development of Russian culture under Peter I is closely connected with the ongoing shifts in economic life and with the transformation of the state apparatus. The foundation of manufactories, the construction of canals, the creation of the navy required the training of specialists in various fields of science and technology. For the regular army and navy and the new bureaucratic institutions, trained officers and officials were needed. Meanwhile, in the seventeenth century education was still imbued with medieval religious ideology and stood far from practical tasks.
In the first quarter of the XVIII century. the business of education is largely transferred from the clergy to the state. Theology gives way to applied sciences. The ignoramuses of the nobility were forced to master mathematics, engineering, shipbuilding and navigation techniques, fortification, etc. Some of them were sent to study in Western Europe.
In Moscow in 1701, classes began at the Navigation and Artillery Schools, where they studied engineering and artillery, later, in 1715, instead of the Navigation School, the Naval Academy was established in St. Petersburg. In 1712, an Engineering School was opened in Moscow; medical personnel were trained at the Medical School at the Moscow Hospital, where classes began in 1707.
In addition to the Naval Academy and schools organized in the capitals, educational institutions, special and general education, were created in the provinces. At the Petrovsky factories in Karelia and the Urals, the first mining schools in Russia were organized, where skilled craftsmen for the metallurgical industry. Numerical (for townspeople), diocesan (for clergy) and garrison (for children of soldiers) schools arose in many cities. Educational literature was produced for schools - primers, manuals on mathematics and mechanics, manuals on military engineering. In 1703, L. Magnitsky, a teacher at the Navigation School, published the famous "Arithmetic", which taught more than one generation of Russian people.
Since January 1703, the first printed newspaper “Vedomosti about military and other affairs worthy of knowledge and memory that happened in the Moscow state and in other surrounding countries” began to appear in Moscow. Along with political and military news, Vedomosti published reports on new factories, discoveries of ore deposits, oil, etc.
The spread of printed literature was facilitated by the introduction in 1710 of a new civil type, more simplified than the complex style of the old Church Slavonic letters. The works of Western European scientists began to be systematically translated into Russian. It was a process of enriching the country with the achievements of foreign science and technology.
The greatest writer and publicist of that time was the Pskov Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich. Along with works of art and theological writings, he delivered sermons and essays on political topics. In laudatory words and sermons, Theophan defended the transformations of Peter I. In the treatises "Spiritual Regulations" and "The Truth of the Monarchs' Will", he justified absolutism and the complete subordination of the church to state power.
An outstanding work of Russian economic thought and journalism is the Book of Poverty and Wealth by I. T. Pososhkov (1652-1726), which was distributed in manuscript (for the first time, The Book of Poverty and Wealth was published only in 1842). Pososhkov was a native of a village near Moscow and belonged to the family of a silversmith, later he was a "money master", and by the end of his life - a "merchant's man". The ideologist of the emerging bourgeoisie, Pososhkov, proposed in his book measures to encourage trade and industry, corresponding to developed mercantilism. Trade, in his opinion, should be the exclusive privilege of the merchants; trade should be prohibited for nobles and peasants; it is necessary to protect the Russian merchants from the competition of foreigners. He recommended building state-owned factories and then transferring them to private hands, providing merchants with cheap credit. He proposed to limit serfdom by establishing in law the exact amount of peasant duties in favor of the landlords and separating peasant lands from landowners. His writings are imbued with a sense of deep patriotism, faith in the strength of the Russian people.
Remarkable progress was made in geographical science, in the search for new trade routes, in cartographic work, as well as in the study of the fossil wealth of the country.
In 1697, V. Atlasov led an expedition to Kamchatka and compiled its geographical and ethnographic description. At the beginning of the XVIII century. The northern group of the Kuril Islands was discovered. In 1715, an expedition of I. Buchholz was sent to Central Asia to search for gold. The path taken by Buchholz was later repeated by Likharev and I. Unkovsky. For the first time, a map of the Caspian and Aral Seas was compiled. The results of the work of Russian cartographers were summed up in 1732 by I.K. Kirillov, who compiled the capital Atlas of the All-Russian Empire. He also owns the statistical and geographical description of Russia - "The flourishing state of the All-Russian state." A systematic study of minerals led to the discovery of sulfur and oil deposits in the Volga region, coal in the Donbass, iron ores were widely explored in the Urals, and silver-lead ores were found in Transbaikalia.
Talented technicians and administrators V. N. Tatishchev, V. Genii, N. Kleopin and others came to the fore in metallurgy. In 1722, the self-taught inventor, merchant and contractor M. Serdyukov reconstructed the Vyshnevolotsk Canal and made it practically suitable for navigation. Mechanic A.K. Nartov invented a mechanical support for a lathe. Foreign experts were also invited.
For the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge, the Academy of Sciences was established in St. Petersburg. It was supposed to serve as a research center and train young scientists. The opening of the Academy took place already after the death of Peter I, at the end of 1725. Along with research institutions, the Academy included a gymnasium and a university. The first natural-science museum (Kunstkamera), organized in 1714, was transferred to the Academy.
Art and literature
In 1702, a public theater was opened in Moscow, in a building built on Red Square. Prior to that, there was only a court theater. Along with foreign actors, Russian artists soon began to perform here. Later, the plays were performed by students of the Medical School and the Theological Academy; performances were also staged at the court of Peter's sister, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. The theater served the cause of propaganda for change. In the plays, allusions were made to the political events that were taking place, for example, to the rebellions of the archers, to the betrayal of Mazepa, and the enemies of enlightenment were ridiculed.
New trends penetrate into fiction and the visual arts. In the stories of the first quarter of the XVIII century. new heroes appear - energetic and enterprising people of "sharp mind" and "worthy mind". In this regard, the "History of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky and the beautiful princess Heraclius of the Florensky land" is indicative. The hero of the story, a nobleman by birth, perfectly comprehended the dangerous business of a sailor and mastered the necessary scientific knowledge. He earned the recognition and respect of the Austrian emperor, the "King of Florence" and a wealthy merchant. At the same time, the hero is endowed with all the qualities of a gallant gentleman.
In contrast to the architecture of the 17th century, which was predominantly church in nature, in the first quarter of the 18th century. civil engineering took the lead. At that time, buildings for large industrial enterprises were built - Khamovny Dvor, Cloth Yard, Arsenal in Moscow, the Arms Plant in Tula, fortress factories in the Urals, as well as public buildings: the Main Pharmacy, the Comedy Khoromina (theater building) in Moscow, the monumental buildings of the Kunstkamera, the Admiralty and the Twelve Collegia in St. Petersburg, etc. For the first time in the history of Russian architecture, the construction of the new capital, St. Petersburg, was carried out according to a predetermined plan, which provided for the construction of buildings along wide straight streets.
The turning point in the visual arts was expressed in the replacement of biblical and gospel stories with themes from real life. Portrait painting reached a particularly high level. Portraits of Peter I by I. M. Nikitin are distinguished by a deep psychological characteristic, the artist expressed the unbending will and determination of a statesman. On Nikitin's battle canvases ("Battle of Poltava", "Battle of Kulikovo"), the heroic struggle of the Russian people against foreign invaders is depicted with deep patriotism. Of great artistic value were the sculptural portraits of Peter I and Menshikov, made by Rastrelli the father. The art of engraving was widely used, capturing the most important events of modern life.
7. Russia in the second quarter of the XVIII century.
Struggle for power within the ruling class
In the political life of Russia in the second quarter of the XVIII century. characterized by infighting within the nobility and palace coups.
Peter I died on January 28, 1725 and did not have time to appoint a successor before his death. The nobles who advanced under Peter I wanted to see the wife of the deceased emperor, Catherine, on the throne; the old nobility had its own candidate - the son of the executed Tsarevich Alexei, the young Peter. The dispute about the successor was decided by the guards regiments, which since that time have become the main instrument of the struggle for power. Menshikov, Tolstoy, Apraksin and other representatives of the new nobility, who advanced under Peter I, enlisted the support of the guards regiments called to the palace, enthroned Catherine (1725-1727).
The contradictions between the old and new nobility led to the creation of the Supreme Privy Council, which included Menshikov and other supporters of Catherine. With such a composition of this institution, the empress was completely dependent on Menshikov, who concentrated in his hands the actual power in the state. In order to weaken the influence of the temporary worker, as well as to reach a compromise with the old nobility, a representative of the noble aristocracy, Prince D. M. Golitsyn, was introduced to the Supreme Privy Council. The Supreme Privy Council became the highest body, the three "first" colleges - Military, Admiralty and Foreign Affairs - were directly subordinate to it, and the Senate lost the title of government and began to be called high.
After the death of Catherine, according to her will, the grandson of Peter I, the son of the executed Tsarevich Alexei, Peter II, was proclaimed emperor, and the functions of regent were transferred to the Supreme Privy Council. In reality, the Supreme Privy Council was an obedient instrument of Menshikov. To further strengthen his influence, Menshikov was going to marry the young emperor to his daughter Maria. But Menshikov's omnipotence and his unlimited ambition displeased even his recent allies. On the eve of the death of Catherine I, a conspiracy arose against him, led by Tolstoy. Menshikov won the victory, the conspirators paid with exile, but the number of supporters of the temporary worker decreased, which prepared his fall. In 1727 Menshikov was exiled to Berezov. It was equivalent palace coup: in the Supreme Privy Council, the aristocratic families of Golitsyn and Dolgoruky now received the majority. The latter included their relatives in its composition. Having achieved the predominant influence in the Supreme Privy Council, the aristocratic group sought to restore the order that existed in Russia before the reforms. The "Verkhovniki" moved the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow, broke up the regional administration, restoring the institutions that existed in the 17th century.
Dolgoruky, like Menshikov, tried to consolidate their influence by the marriage of Peter II with the daughter of A. G. Dolgoruky. The royal wedding was scheduled for mid-January 1730, in connection with which, in addition to the highest dignitaries, the guards and numerous representatives of the provincial nobility arrived in Moscow for the expected celebrations. But the wedding did not take place: Peter II fell ill with smallpox and died suddenly.
The Supreme Privy Council offered the crown to the early widowed Duchess of Courland Anna Ivanovna, the niece of Peter I. Conditions were hastily drawn up, that is, the conditions for Anna Ivanovna's accession to the throne. The empress was supposed to govern the state together with the Supreme Privy Council, without its consent she could not declare war and make peace, introduce new taxes, promote to a rank higher than a colonel, grant or take away estates. The command of the guard passed to the Supreme Privy Council. Thus, the conditions limited the autocracy in favor of the leaders, who expected that the Duchess of Courland would find herself without support after her arrival in Russia and would unconditionally agree to fulfill their demands.
However, the nobles, who arrived in large numbers in Moscow for the expected wedding of Peter II, were hostile to the oligarchic aspirations of the leaders and demanded the preservation of "autocracy".
In contrast to the conditions of the supreme leaders, various groups of the nobility drew up several projects listing their class requirements, namely: reducing the service life, lifting restrictions on the inheritance of real estate, exempting the nobles from military service as privates, and organizing schools for the training of officers. Anna Ivanovna, in the presence of the leaders, the assembly of the nobility and the guards officers, tore up a sheet of paper with the conditions signed by her. After some time, the “entertainers” from the aristocracy, under plausible pretexts, were expelled from Moscow to the provinces, and subsequently were subjected to severe punishments.
In the reign of Anna Ivanovna, the influence of foreigners reached unprecedented proportions. Their influx into Russia began as early as the end of the 17th century, but before the accession of Anna Ivanovna, they did not play a significant role in the political life of the country. These were mainly specialists used by the government to carry out certain assignments. The position of foreigners under Anna Ivanovna became different. The ignorant favorite of the Empress, the Courland German E. Biron, who, according to his contemporaries, “talked about horses like a man, and about people like a horse,” received a huge influence on management affairs. Under his patronage, rogue foreigners, having reached the administration of state property, robbed the treasury with impunity. One of them, Baron A. Shemberg, embezzled about half a million rubles during his time in the Russian metallurgical industry (4 million rubles with money from the beginning of the 20th century).
Under Anna Ivanovna, a new institution arises - the Cabinet of Ministers. Although the demand of the nobility to restore the rights of the Senate was satisfied and the Senate again began to be called the ruling one, however, the actual power was in the hands of the Cabinet of Ministers. It consisted of Anna Ivanovna's trusted representatives, and Biron, who did not occupy an official position, was in charge of his work.
The dissatisfaction of the nobility with foreign dominance increased. Cabinet Minister A. P. Volynsky with a circle of like-minded people developed a "Project on the amendment of state affairs." Volynsky demanded further expansion of the privileges of the nobility, the filling of all positions in the state apparatus from the clerk to the senator by the nobles, the sending of noble children abroad for training, "so that they eventually have their own natural ministers." Harsh comments about Anna Ivanovna (“our empress is a fool and no matter how you report, you won’t get any resolution from her”), a protest against the dominance of Biron and his entourage led Volynsky to the chopping block.
After the death of Anna Ivanovna (1740), Biron, with the help of foreigners, was proclaimed regent under the emperor - the infant Ivan Antonovich, the son of Anna Ivanovna's niece, the Mecklenburg princess Anna Leopoldovna and the Duke of Brunswick. However, Biron lasted only three weeks in power. Guards led by Field Marshal B. Munnich overthrew Biron, and the regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna. Actual power for some time was in the hands of the President of the Military Collegium Minich, but the aggravation of contradictions within the German group led to the fall of Minich. On November 25, 1741, with the help of the guards, Elizaveta Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter I, a protege of the Russian nobility, came to power. The Germans lost high positions in the state. The ease of coups is explained by the fact that the struggle for power was between separate groups of the nobility, but did not affect the foundations of the state system.
The new government restored the institutions created during the period of transformations in the first quarter of the 18th century - the Berg Collegium, the Manufactory Collegium, as well as the magistrates in the cities, which consisted of elected merchant representatives; The Senate was returned to its former importance in the field of domestic policy.
Expansion of the privileges of the nobility and strengthening of serfdom
The “extreme, all-term ruin” of the peasantry, caused by the long Northern War, the growth of duties and severe crop failures in 1723-1726, became so obvious that they started talking about it in government circles the very next year after the death of Peter I. The mass exodus of peasants caused alarm, growth of arrears, deficit of the state budget. All this weakened the power of the noble state, for, according to Menshikov, "the soldier is connected with the peasant, like the soul with the body, and if there is no peasant, then there will be no soldier." It was necessary to change the procedure for collecting taxes, which had previously been collected by military units stationed in the districts. The officers of these units, as well as numerous officials of the provincial administration, were even presented to members of the government as "wolves that burst into the herd." Landowners were declared responsible tax collectors. In order to save money, the staff of central institutions was reduced, the number of collegiums was reduced, and some institutions organized in 1718-1719 were abolished locally, since their maintenance excessively burdened the state budget. In carrying out these changes, the government has always emphasized that they provide the people with "prosperity." In fact, the general line of government policy in the second quarter of the XVIII century. It consisted in strengthening landowner ownership of land, expanding noble privileges and intensifying feudal exploitation of the masses, as well as in the development of large-scale industry and the promotion of the merchant class.
The successors of Peter I continued the practice of distributing lands and serfs widely to the nobility. Princes Dolgoruky appropriated 40 thousand acres of land under Peter II. The Leibkampants, who took an active part in the coup in favor of Elizabeth Petrovna - guards companies that carried guard duty at court - received 14 thousand male souls as a gift from the new empress. The brother of the favorite of Elizabeth Petrovna, Count K. G. Razumovsky, was granted about 100 thousand souls.
In the second quarter of the XVIII century. the nobility receives numerous benefits and privileges enshrined in legislation. In 1730, the nobles achieved the abolition of that part of the decree of 1714 on single inheritance, which forbade the division of the estate during inheritance, and received the right to transfer property to children "evenly to everyone."
New benefits for the nobility made it easier for him to carry out military service. Already in 1727, two-thirds of the officers and privates from the nobility were allowed to leave the army for a period of three years. Satisfying the demand of the nobility, the government in 1731 organized the gentry cadet corps. Training "from a young age" in military affairs freed the nobles from hard service as ordinary soldiers and sailors. However, already in the early 1930s, it was common among the nobility to enlist young children for military service, so that by the time they came of age they received an officer rank according to their “length of service”, without having the slightest idea about military affairs.
Finally, in 1736, the harassment of the nobles about the abolition of indefinite service was satisfied. In order to better maintain "gentry houses and villages", one of the sons in the family of a nobleman was released from service to manage the estate. The remaining sons had a term of service limited to 25 years, after which they could retire. To what extent the nobility was burdened by compulsory military service, is evidenced by the fact that in 1739, after the end of the Russian-Turkish war, half of the officers resigned. Even young nobles, barely 35 years old and enlisted in the regiments from the age of 10 or 12, petitioned for dismissal from service.
Numerous decrees of the second quarter of the XVIII century. confirmed for the nobility the exclusive estate right to own serfs. The power of the landowner over the peasants expanded even more, even from 1731 the landowners began to take the allegiance oath for the peasants.
Secular and spiritual feudal lords drew up instructions for the rulers of their estates - clerks, regulating to the smallest detail economic activity peasants, their family and spiritual life. The clerk had to ensure that the peasant did not go to the city to the market without his knowledge, and that the serf girls did not stay long in brides, and that all peasants regularly attended church.
An indicator of the tension in the payment forces of the countryside was the growing amount of arrears in the collection of the poll tax. Already by 1732 it amounted to 15 million rubles. (about 120 million with money from the beginning of the 20th century). In lean years, poverty in the countryside reached horrendous proportions. Crop failures 1733-1735 hit a vast territory from the Smolensk region to the Volga region. Tens of thousands of peasant families ate roots, died of hunger or left their homes.
The decade from 1730 to 1740, known as the Bironovshchina (on behalf of the favorite of Empress Anna Ivanovna), cost the masses dearly. A large number of decrees were issued on the search for fugitives, punitive detachments raged, extorting taxes and arrears from the taxable population. Bironovism is characterized by the unprecedented extravagance of the royal court, the prosperity of embezzlement, extortion. Balls, "masherades" and similar entertainments succeeded each other. The cost of maintaining the courtyard tripled compared to the first quarter of the 18th century. 100 thousand rubles a year were spent on the maintenance of the royal stable, while less than 50 thousand rubles were spent on the needs of the Academy of Sciences and the Admiralty Academy.
The process of strengthening feudal exploitation in the 30s of the XVIII century. also spread to the peoples that were part of the Russian Empire. In Ukraine, wealthy Cossacks occupied a privileged position, their duties from 1735 were limited to military service, while ordinary Cossacks were equalized with peasants. The Cossack elite - the foreman arrogated to himself the right of full ownership of the land.
The tsarist government limited the self-government of Ukraine. Instead of an elected hetman, the management of the Left-bank Ukraine was carried out by the Little Russian Collegium. In 1727, the choice of a hetman was allowed, but from 1734 power was again concentrated in the Board of the hetman's ranks, which consisted of government-appointed officials and representatives of the Cossack officers.
Among the peoples of the Volga region (Tatars, Chuvashs, Maris, Bashkirs), state duties increased, attempts were made to forcibly convert Muslims to Christianity. The seizure of Bashkir lands for the construction of factories, the growth of taxes and the cruel methods of their collection testified to the growth of the colonial exploitation of the Bashkirs. The construction of the Orenburg fortress was supposed to strengthen the power of tsarism in Bashkiria and ensure further advancement into Central Asia. The uprisings of the Bashkirs that broke out in 1735-1740 were an expression of their protest against the colonial policy of tsarism.
Development of industry and trade
In the second quarter of the XVIII century. industry and commerce continued to grow. The development of Russian metallurgy is especially indicative: iron smelting in 1750 amounted to 2 million poods, having increased 2.5 times over a quarter of a century. The export of iron abroad in the same year reached a record figure of 1.2 million poods. Copper smelters fully satisfied the needs of the country, and copper also became an export item. For the metallurgical industry of the second quarter of the XVIII century. characterized by a further increase in the share of private capital, dozens of new private factories were built in the Urals and in other parts of the empire. In 1750, about 100 iron foundries, ironworks and copper smelters operated in the country.
During the second quarter of the century, the number of manufactories in the light industry also increased significantly. By 1753 there were 153 of them, including 10 cloth, 29 silk and 51 linen. Already in the middle of the 30s of the XVIII century. the government noted that "many manufactories and factories" in Russia were able to meet demand without importing foreign goods.
In the first quarter of the XVIII century. large light industry enterprises were located mainly in Moscow. Subsequently, a large number of cloth, linen, glass and other manufactories were built on the periphery - closer to the sources of raw materials.
The nobleman-entrepreneur was rare among the industrialists of the first decades of the 18th century; they were usually merchants. In the middle of the XVIII century. the construction of manufactories by the nobles began, initially in light industry. In 1749-1751. the nobles built 13 linen manufactories, serviced by the labor of serfs.
In manufactories by the middle of the XVIII century. about 50 thousand serfs and hired workers and artisans were employed, 2.5 times more than in 1725. In addition, about 100 thousand registered and bought serfs worked at the metallurgical plants.
The Russian government, even after the death of Peter I, continued to pursue a policy of mercantilism. Industrialists and large merchants continued to receive government loans and privileges. Providing large enterprises with labor in the second quarter of the 18th century. It was carried out in the same ways as during the time of Peter I: through free hiring and the use of forced labor. However, the share of forced labor has increased significantly. In 1736, a decree was issued, by which all the workers and their families employed in production were assigned to large enterprises "forever". In addition, in the 30-40s of the XVIII century. the assignment of state peasants to private factories became widespread.
Expansion of the privileges of the nobility in the second quarter of the XVIII century. reflected in the commercial and industrial policy of the government. High protective duties were beneficial to industrialists, but infringed on the interests of the nobility, which was the main consumer of imported goods. The new tariff (1731) did not have such a pronounced protective character, the highest duty was 20% of the price of the goods.
The reduction in import duties contributed to the growth of foreign trade turnover. In 1749, Russian goods worth 6.9 million rubles were exported abroad, and the import from abroad amounted to 5.7 million rubles. Thus, the trade balance remained active, but the excess of exports over imports decreased markedly.
In the 30s of the XVIII century. the reorganization of institutions in charge of the commercial and industrial population was carried out. After the abolition of the Chief Magistrate in 1727, the city magistrates began to obey the governors. In the early 1930s, the Berg Collegium and the Manufaktura Collegium were merged with the Collegium of Commerce under the pretext that "one thing is found in different hands."
These measures indicate that the commercial and industrial policy, to a greater extent than in previous times, was subordinated to the interests of the nobility.
Thus, in the first half of the XVIII century. large-scale industry was created in Russia, domestic and foreign trade grew. All this was achieved in Russia, as in the countries of Western Europe, by cruel and coercive measures characteristic of the era of primitive accumulation. But the process of primitive accumulation took place in Russia under the dominance of feudal-serf relations. The methods of feudal-serf exploitation were also extended to large-scale industry. Wage workers in large manufactories were turned into serfs. Throughout the first half of the 18th century. the number of serfs and ascribed peasants who worked in manufactories continued to increase. Tax oppression in the first half of the XVIII century. put pressure on the working masses with much greater force compared to the end of the 17th century, ruining the peasants and townspeople. The tax system allowed the treasury to provide large loans to merchants and industrialists, to transfer to them industrial enterprises built with state funds, etc.
Simultaneously with the use of forced labor in manufactories, many enterprises of the capitalist type arose in Russia, based on the labor of hired workers. These enterprises successfully competed with the privileged noble and possessory manufactories, paving the way for the development of the capitalist way of life in the country.
Foreign policy
Foreign policy of Russia in the second quarter of the 18th century. in general, she continued the traditions of Peter I, but foreign policy tasks were now solved less energetically, the plans conceived were often not implemented. The main tasks were to continue the struggle with Turkey for access to the Black Sea and to consolidate the successes achieved in the Baltic states as a result of the Northern War. The problems of foreign policy in the Caspian region also had to be solved again. Particularly great disorder and routine were found in military and naval affairs. Artillery lost its former maneuverability, the importance of bayonet fighting was downplayed in the infantry, and a blind imitation of the linear tactics that dominated Europe was instilled. The construction of the fleet almost ceased, many ships were not manned and rotted laid up in the harbors.
Russia entered into a defensive alliance with Austria in 1726. France sought to oppose Russia with a coalition consisting of Sweden, Poland and Turkey. After the death of August II in 1733, kinglessness began in Poland, accompanied by the struggle of magnate-gentry groups. France supported its protege to the throne - Stanislav Leshchinsky. The second pretender to the Polish throne - Augustus, the son of the deceased king Augustus II, enjoyed the support of Russia and Austria. France managed to achieve the proclamation of Leshchinsky as king; then the supporters of Augustus among the Polish gentry turned to Russia for help. The War of the Polish Succession began, in which Russia and Austria opposed France. Hostilities continued for two years. Leshchinsky was forced to flee by sea from the besieged Gdansk, and August III became king.
During the Russo-Polish war, French diplomacy incited Turkey to oppose Russia. In an effort to enlist the friendly attitude of Iran, which had intensified by this time in the imminent conflict with Turkey, Russia in 1735 returned possessions to Iran along the western and southern shores of the Caspian Sea (Baku, Derbent, Gilan) and concluded an alliance with it. To capture the Caspian regions ceded by Russia to Iran, Turkey sent a 20,000-strong army of the Crimean Khan. The robberies and violence of the Crimean Tatars, who invaded Russian possessions, caused a new war with Turkey. Russia led it in alliance with Austria.
In the autumn of 1735, the 40,000-strong corps led by M.I. Leontiev moved to Perekop, but the troops, due to lack of roads and poorly organized supplies, did not reach their goal and suffered heavy losses, were forced to return. In the next campaign of 1736, the Russians crossed Perekop, occupied the capital of the Khanate, Bakhchisaray, but did not destroy the Tatar troops. Minich, who commanded the troops, was afraid of being locked up on the peninsula by the Tatars returning from the Iranian provinces and hastily retreated from the Crimea. More successfully proceeded military operations near Azov. In the summer of 1736, the Russians captured this fortress.
Military operations in 1737 unfolded in two theaters of war: in the Crimea, where the Russians defeated a 15,000-strong Tatar army, and in the Northwestern Black Sea region, where the Ochakov fortress was occupied. However, the victories of the Russian army this time were not fixed. The vicious tactics of Minich, who avoided a general battle, gave the Turks the opportunity to preserve their manpower. General Lassi, who commanded the Russian troops in the Crimea, and Minich returned to their original lines. Negotiations between Russian, Austrian and Turkish representatives at a congress that met in Nemirov in the summer of 1737 did not lead to peace. Fearing the strengthening of Russia, the Austrians did not support her and sought to limit Russian acquisitions to Azov alone. The Congress in Nemirov was interrupted, and the war resumed. The largest battle of the Russian-Turkish war took place in 1739, when Russian troops defeated the Turks near Stavuchany and captured the fortress of Khotyn. But in the same year, Russia's ally, Austria, suffered one defeat after another. At the cost of losing the previously captured Serbia and Wallachia, Austria made peace with the Turks.
Soldiers of Peter the Great. Bas-relief by K. B. Rastrelli "The Battle of Good in 1708"
In the same year, 1739, peace was concluded between Russia and Turkey. Under the Belgrade Treaty, Russia received Azov, but had to tear down its fortifications. In addition, a small territory on the Right-Bank Ukraine along the middle reaches of the Dnieper went to Russia. The northern coast of the Black Sea remained in the hands of the Turks, and Kabarda, from the 16th century. which was under the citizenship of Russia, was recognized as free and declared a "barrier between the two empires." Thus, the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. led only to a partial cancellation of the peace conditions that ended the Prut campaign of 1711.
Sweden, having secured the promise of financial support from France, in 1741 declared war on Russia. But the war turned out to be unsuccessful for her and ended with the Peace of Abo in 1743, according to which part of the Finnish territory to the Kymene River went to Russia.
In 1746, Russia strengthened its ties with Austria, resuming a defensive alliance with it. In this way, the alignment of forces was prepared, which had in mind not to allow the further strengthening of aggressive Prussia. In 1747, a convention was concluded with England, which also prepared the way for the position taken by both sides in the ensuing Seven Years' War, when, despite the alliance of England with Prussia, there was no break in Russian-English relations.
culture
Under Peter I, the rapid development of national culture began, combined with the mastery of advanced European culture. This process continued into the second quarter of the 18th century. Since 1725, the Academy of Sciences has become the center of scientific thought. The largest Western European and Russian scientists took part in its work. Proceedings of the outstanding scientist of the XVIII century. L. Euler laid the foundation for modern analytical mechanics. Euler also dealt with astronomy, general mathematics, and theoretical questions of shipbuilding and navigation. The works of academician D. Bernoulli were of great importance in the development of mathematics and physiology.
The Academy of Sciences took an active part in organizing the second Kamchatka expedition, which continued geographical discoveries 17th and early 18th centuries The results of the first Kamchatka expedition (1725-1730) did not satisfy the government, since it was not possible to find the American coast and decide whether there is a connection between Kamchatka and America. In 1732, the second Kamchatka expedition was sent. The expedition was instructed to answer not only the question of whether Asia is connected to America (which was clarified by Dezhnev back in 1648, but soon forgotten), but also to carry out a comprehensive study of Siberia. The work of the expedition lasted eleven years (until 1743); its participants were divided into several detachments, which included academicians, students of the Academy, surveyors and sailors. Operating in the most difficult conditions, they put the outlines of the northern coast of Siberia on the map, carried out an ethnographic study of Kamchatka and collected numerous archival materials on the history of Siberia. The names of S. Chelyuskin, who discovered the northern extremity of Asia, D. and Kh. Laptev, V. Pronchishchev and others, who put on the map a vast territory from Baikal to Anadyr, S. Krasheninnikov, who gave a wonderful “Description of the land of Kamchatka”, are the pride of Russian science.
The main scientific feat of the expedition was to reach the northwestern shores of America. In July 1741, V. Bering, A. I. Chirikov and their companions were the first Europeans to see the northwestern region of America, about which they provided reliable information.
Russian cartography has achieved significant success. In 1745, the Academic Atlas was published. In connection with its publication, Euler noted: "Russian geography has been brought into a much better condition than the geography of the German land."
Historical science of the second quarter of the XVIII century. represented by the works of V. N. Tatishchev (1686-1750). His five-volume "History of Russia" brings the presentation of events to the end of the 16th century. This work was preceded by painstaking work on collecting and studying Russian chronicles and other sources. Peru Tatishchev also owns the second, unfinished, work - "The Russian Historical, Geographical and Political Lexicon", which contains a variety of information on the history, geography, and ethnography of Russia. Both works were published after the death of the author.
Expeditions to Siberia were of great importance for geographical and historical science. Historian G.F. Miller, a member of which, discovered many valuable materials preserved in the Siberian archives.
Russian literature in the second quarter of the 18th century. entered the stage of classicism, represented in Russia by the works of A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Trediakovsky, M. V. Lomonosov, A. P. Sumarokov.
The satires of Cantemir denounced the enemies of science, ridiculed ignorance, bribery, hypocrisy. Cantemir sharply criticized representatives of the aristocracy, whose arrogance was combined with deep ignorance and cruel tyranny in relation to the serfs. The point of the satires of Kantemir was directed against real historical figures - the famous enemy of Peter's reforms, the bishop of Rostov - G. Dashkov, against I. Dolgoruky, a favorite of Peter II, and others. V. G. Belinsky called Kantemir "the first associate of Peter the Great in the field of literature" .
VK Trediakovsky (1703-1769) was the first Russian philologist and professional writer. He wrote a textbook on the theory of poetry - "A new and brief way to add Russian poetry", a number of critical and historical and philological works. “His philological and grammatical researches are very remarkable” (Pushkin). In these works, Trediakovsky promoted a more perfect versification. Trediakovsky himself, devoid of significant poetic talent, failed to implement the innovations he proposed in his work. This task proved to be within the power of only Lomonosov. A significant place in the work of Trediakovsky was occupied by translations. His translation of the French novel by Paul Tallement "Ride to the Island of Love" was one of the first printed works with a new secular theme and aroused, according to the translator, the indignation of hypocrites.
In the field of architecture, the second quarter of the 18th century. marked by high creative achievements. During this period, mainly palace and church buildings were built. Grandiose palaces with luxurious decorations, parks, gardens and sculptural decorations are being created. The architect VV Rastrelli built a huge palace in Mitava (Jelgava) for Biron. A wonderful monument of that time is the Grand Palace of Tsarskoye Selo, which amazed with its splendor.
M.V. Lomonosov
The most striking indicator of the level achieved by Russian science and culture in the 18th century is the multifaceted work of the brilliant scientist and thinker Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765). He was a native of the masses, the son of a Pomor fisherman.
An irresistible thirst for knowledge led the nineteen-year-old Lomonosov to Moscow, where he entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. Recalling his five-year stay at the academy, Lomonosov wrote: “Having one altyn (3 kopecks) per day of salary, it was impossible to have more food per day than money for bread and money for kvass, other things for paper, for shoes and other needs” . In 1735 Lomonosov was sent to St. Petersburg to study at the University of the Academy of Sciences. A year later, he was already on a scientific trip to Germany, from where he returned to St. Petersburg in 1741. Lomonosov was the first Russian scientist to receive the title of professor and academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1745).
The range of interests of Lomonosov and his scientific research is extremely wide; in this respect, he is on a par with such luminaries of science as Leonardo da Vinci. Leibniz, Franklin, Newton. Chemistry and mathematics, physics and geology, astronomy and mechanics, geography and botany, philosophy, linguistics and history were among his interests. An expression of recognition of Lomonosov's merits was his election as a member of the Stockholm and Bologna academies.
Lomonosov considered natural phenomena in their development. He wrote: “It must be firmly remembered that the visible bodily things on earth and the whole world were not in such a state from the beginning from creation, as we now find, but great changes took place in it, as history and ancient geography show.” In 1748 Lomonosov discovered the law of conservation of matter and energy. Lomonosov sought to introduce scientific discoveries into metallurgy, mining, the production of glass, porcelain, and paints. The organic unity of theory and practice was the main feature of Lomonosov's work. 0n invented a “night-sighting tube”, with the help of which it was possible to “distinguish rocks and ships more clearly and distinctly at night”, created a reflecting mirror telescope, etc. ocean to East India" (1763).
In the field of the humanities, Lomonosov's activities were no less diverse. He was the author of the first scientific grammar of the Russian language. Lomonosov's "Ancient Russian History" was directed against the anti-scientific Norman theory of the origin of the Russian state.
Lomonosov's poetic work was distinguished by life-affirming optimism, faith in the great future of his people. The main themes of Lomonosov's laudatory and solemn odes were Russia, peaceful labor; he glorified Peter I, in whom he found the ideal traits of an "enlightened monarch". "Ode on the Capture of Khotin" (1739) V. G. Belinsky considered the beginning of modern Russian literature.
Lomonosov used his poetic talent to promote science. His "Letter on the Benefits of Glass", like many other poems, is distinguished by its scientific and journalistic content. Lomonosov was an ardent supporter of the dissemination of scientific knowledge among the Russian people, he firmly believed in Creative skills Russian people and was convinced that the Russian land could give birth to "its own Platos and quick-witted Newtons." In order to spread education in the country and train his own Russian personnel in the field of education, science and culture, Lomonosov devoted much effort to organizing teaching at the gymnasium and university, located at the Academy of Sciences. In 1755, on his initiative and according to his plan, Moscow University was founded. Thanks to the efforts of Lomonosov, Moscow University did not have a theological faculty, which contributed to the development of a materialistic direction in science and its liberation from the influence of the church. Teaching at the university was conducted in Russian, not in Latin. People from the unprivileged classes had the opportunity to study at the university. The university received at its disposal a number of laboratories, scientific rooms and a printing house. All this contributed to its transformation into the most important center of Russian education, culture and science.
Lomonosov's "great struggle" for "Russian sciences" soon bore fruit: a whole galaxy of Russian scientists appeared, students of Lomonosov - philosopher D. S. Anichkov, lawyer S. E. Desnitsky, physician S. G. Zybelin. and etc.
Researchers who touched on this problem in their works limited themselves to assessing the economic development of the Adyghe society as a whole. At the same time, a paradoxical opinion was established in science that internal trade, as opposed to external trade, was extremely poorly developed. Handicraft production lagged behind in terms of development and was in its infancy, and therefore was backward and not commercial. As a rule, researchers confine themselves to describing the traditional occupations of the Circassians during this period and ascertaining the "rudimentary" state of the manufacturing industry. In our opinion, such an assessment is clearly outdated, since it reflects only the details of a single whole, and therefore needs to be seriously revised.
In the XVIII century, according to sources, the Circassians already had regular trade relations not only with their neighbors, the peoples of the North Caucasus, but also with Turkey, the Crimean Khanate, Persia and Russia. If we talk about the trade routes used by them during this period, then two main directions of Circassian foreign trade should be distinguished - the Black Sea and the Volga-Caspian.
The first was focused mainly on Turkey, the Crimean Khanate and some Western powers, admitted by the Porte to conduct commercial operations in the Crimea and on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus (France, Great Britain, somewhat later Holland). The largest centers of this trade were traditionally Kafa, Taman and Bakhchisarai.
By the end of the 17th century, only Great Britain and the Netherlands were allowed by the Port to trade in the Black Sea. France, according to V. Ulyanitsky, mainly took care of its Levantine trade. At the same time, interested in its development, she tried not to lose sight of the Black Sea region. Confirmation is the fact that the subintendent of trade and navigation of the French kingdom, Messire Hue, already at the beginning of the 18th century had information about the state of the Black Sea trade, including its Circassian segment.
For European trading companies, certain difficulties were presented by Turkey's unwillingness to allow foreign ships into the Black Sea basin. Thus, the Turks tried to protect the Black Sea, which they considered their own, from the penetration of ships of foreign powers. Goods could be delivered only on Turkish ships specially hired for this, sailing under the flag of Great Britain, and later of the Netherlands. The main export items were products of cattle breeding, beekeeping and hunting. Already by the 50s. In the 18th century, up to one hundred thousand centners of sheep wool, one hundred thousand pieces of cloth (chekmen), from five to six thousand embroidered chekmen were exported from Circassia through Taman and Kafa; up to sixty thousand cloth trousers (shalvar), two hundred thousand cloaks, from five to six thousand bull skins, about six thousand centners good honey, fifty thousand marten skins, one hundred thousand fox skins, three thousand bear skins, and five hundred thousand sheep skins.
The center of the second direction was Astrakhan, which served for centuries as a meeting place for merchants from the West and the East. Here "noble trade with India, Khiva, Bukhara and Persia" took place. The importance of Astrakhan as an international trade center increased markedly in the 20s of the 18th century due to the emerging improvement in Russian-Turkish relations. The Treaty of Prut in 1711 provided certain trade preferences and the right for merchants of both powers to freely visit each other's markets. Russia's trade through Astrakhan and along the Asian border, which had fallen into decline in a short time due to objective political reasons, was restored in a short time. And Circassian merchants also played a certain role in this.
Prominent scientist of the XIX century. A. Smirnov, speaking about Russian trade with the “Asian” peoples during this period, noted that: “The Kumyks from Kabarda, the Circassians from Persia, Bukhara and Gilan, who came to the Terek with goods, were allowed to trade with the Russians and exchange according to the old custom, levying from them a fee according to the established charters. As can be seen from this story, it was the Circassian merchants who were among the first to orient themselves in the new conditions and responded to Russia's desire to develop the Asian direction of their trade. At the same time, the government has taken a number of measures aimed at tightening control over trade, collecting duties at customs and reducing the outflow of strategic raw materials and goods abroad. “It was forbidden for the Russians to sell reserved goods, silver, gold, prisoners, military shells, grain reserves to these Asians ... and not to buy any goods from them with money, but would exchange them for these goods, as before.” A special duty was introduced for Russians who wished to buy horses from Circassians and Tatars at the Terek Bazaar.
Here it is important to pay attention to the understandable dualism in Russia's actions. On the one hand, the state tried to develop the Asian direction of its foreign trade, on the other hand, it sought to preserve important for itself, strategic metals - gold and silver, thereby forcing its trading partners to barter.
Along with the markets, the city itself developed rapidly. Significantly, in comparison with the previous period, the number of permanent residents, as well as merchants who come to seasonal fairs, increases, among which there are again Circassians. “Astrakhan, the main city of the Astrakhan province; There are 1,675 souls of Russian merchants in this city ... There are more Russians than anyone else, and besides them there are ... Persians, Greeks, Kabardians, Kalmyks and Indians who settled here for the merchants.
Traditionally, Circassian goods were in great demand in the markets of Astrakhan throughout the first half of the 18th century. S. I. Pleshcheev, who testified to this fact, mentions “Circassian sheepskin coats” in the list of goods, and further: “... the main products of this Caucasian region are honey, wax, fox and marten furs, bull and otter skins, sheepskins, wool , boxwood and walnut forest and various fruits.
It is impossible to establish the exact date of the appearance of the first Circassian merchants in the Astrakhan markets. Apparently, this happened in the early Middle Ages, we can only state that in Astrakhan itself already in the 17th century. there was a Circassian quarter, where artisans - Circassians - permanently lived. Their products were widely known and sold far beyond the Volga region and the Caucasus. This is confirmed by the chronicler's report: “In Astrakhan they were engaged in making damask sabers and shells; the Circassians who lived there were especially distinguished by this art. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered them to be called to Moscow.
The fascination of Russian monarchs with Circassian (Kabardian) weapons continued in subsequent times. Here is what F. Gilles, the first director of the Hermitage, wrote about this: “The Kabardians have now completely submitted to Russia, but their weapons and clothes still dominate the Caucasus.” And further, developing his thought, he notes: “Consequently, the word Kabardian can be applied to everything that concerns the peoples called Circassians or Chechens ...”, referring to weapons captured in battles with these peoples.
But Circassia was famous not only for weapons and magnificent horses. Some goods produced by the Circassians were so popular in Russia by the beginning of the 18th century that they became firmly established in everyday life. In part, this is clearly illustrated by the case of the so-called "Circassian sheepskin coats". In 1701 Following the decree to shave beards, another decree of Peter I comes out, forbidding the population of the country to wear traditional clothes and ordering them to dress in European dress. From now on: “Everyone, except for priests, deacons, church clerks and plowed peasants, is forbidden to wear Russian dress, Circassian sheepskin coats, azyams ... It is ordered to wear German clothes ...”. Giving a description of these reforms, G. Esipov notes: “After the destruction of beards, the destruction of the Russian national dress followed.” It can be argued that by the beginning of the 18th century, the Adyghe brand had become so firmly established in the everyday life of the Russian population that it was perceived by the latter as an element of traditional clothing. Gardanov emphasized that in the 18th century for the Trans-Kuban Circassians trade with Russia was by no means a new phenomenon, but a firmly established tradition.
Elegant and practical garments made in Kabarda and Circassia were highly valued in Russia in the following centuries. The commander in the famous poem by D. Davydov speaks: "... in a cloak on his shoulders, in a shaggy Kabardian hat." Hats - "Kabardinka" were especially popular in Little Russia among the Cossacks, partly purchased from the Nogais, partly made locally. Circassian (Kabardian) clothing is firmly included in the life of the service class and officers in Russia. F. Tolya's desktop dictionary for 1864. testifies: “Kabardinka - 1) embarrassed, high quadrangular hat. 2) A caftan with cartridges on the chest, a kind of Circassian.
Summing up the general results, it can be stated that trade and entrepreneurship among the Adygs in the first half of the 18th century were on the rise. Foreign trade and related crafts were especially developed: weaving, felt, weapons, juniper, saddlery and jewelry production. According to calculations made by I. N. Klingen on the basis of Paysonel's data, the total volume of foreign trade of Circassia, only through Taman, in the indicated period reached 160 thousand rubles in silver at the prices of that time. Moreover, these data reflect the state of affairs in trade only in the Black Sea direction. Accurate data on the Volga-Caspian direction has not been revealed to date, so it is difficult to judge the volume of trade between Circassia and Russia and Persia. We can only state that commercial relations with these countries were stable and regular. Circassian merchants could often be found in Cherkassk and Astrakhan. Brands of Adyghe goods were well known and were in great demand far beyond the borders of Circassia.
Loading...