37
conquest of Siberia the first contacts with China were made. In the 15
th
century, through the Crimean Khanate, Russia opened relations with the
Ottoman Empire. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in
1453, claims were brought forward contending that Russia was the Third
Rome founded on the Byzantine legacy, and a new understanding of
sovereignty was developed. As a result of increasing power of the Orthodox
Church, the attempts of Christianization for non-Russian and non-Christian
peoples on the newly acquired territories began. Thus, all that expansion
necessitated new cadres skilled in languages. However, in that period –
except few exceptions – translators were chosen from the Tatars. Before
Peter, this relations required cartography as well, and although the
conducted investigations contributed to European science, they were carried
on practical purposes.
3.5 Orientalism at the Time of Peter the Great
The enthronement of Peter the Great or Peter I (1696)
82
is
remembered with the reforms to modernize Russia. He was a genuine
admirer of the West, and he made his first journey to Europe in 1698.
Although he couldn’t complete it because of the outbreak of the Streltsy
83
uprising in Moscow, he could find the chance to observe the Western life
style. He made changes in Russia parallel to his observations since the
82
Peter the Great shared the throne with Ivan V, between 1694 and 1696. After
Ivan’s death, he became the sole ruler.
83
Streltsy is literally “shooters”.
38
beginning of the 18
th
century. Firstly, he introduced a dress code for civil
servants and banned and fined who whore Russian clothes, coats and also
Circassian coats and lamb fur coats. Peter I banned moustache and beard
for the peasants as well. The City dwellers had to pay a yearly tax for
moustache and beard. In 1700, Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian
calendar used in Russia. In order to inform the people about the reforms
and transmit the laws, the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburg
Vedomosti was published in 1702. Peter the Great made reforms in military
and bureaucratic spheres as well, with the purpose of creating a European
army and a modern centralized state structure. Peter was aware of the
significance of education to facilitate a Western military, and founded the
Artillery School in 1701, the Glück High School to raise officers and
bureaucrats in 1705, the Engineering School in 1713 and the Naval School in
1715. In 1725, the Academy of Sciences was established to teach natural
sciences – especially mathematics – and social sciences, like history and
law.
84
Beside these developments, Peter the Great founded the city of St.
Petersburg, which determined the commercial and cultural of his country
and became the symbol of Westernization and Russia’s window to the West.
Consequently, Moscow, the Russia’s heart was now replaced by reason, and
84
Lindsey Hughes. Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven and London:
Yale University Press, 1998, pp. 298-330.
39
St. Petersburg turned into the center of cultural, political and administrative
reforms.
85
Peter the Great attempted to end the tension between the state and
church persisting since the time of Aleksei (1645 – 1676) as well. Yet, after
the death of the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Adrian in 1700,
Peter the Great expressed his authority by not accepting the appointment of
the new patriarch. With the legislation of the Spiritual Reorganization Law
and the Sacred Synod based on this law, the administration of the church
was presented to this synod.
86
The basic aim of all reforms in the sphere of
religion was diminishing the increasing power of the church vis a vis the
state and weaken the anti-Western tendencies of the church and its
negative attitudes towards non-Christian or alien elements. Probably, those
concerns affected the establishment of Sankt Petersburg as well.
For Peter the Great, the future of Russia lied in opening to the Black
Sea and turning Russia into a sea power. Accordingly, the first military
expedition was made to Azov and it was taken from the Ottoman Empire
between 1695 and 1696. Right after the conquest, a Russian fleet was
constructed on the Caspian Sea. But it couldn’t be used properly and it was
left to rot. Additionally, they started to build a canal to connect Don and
85
Serdtse Rossii Moskva, a um Sankt-Peterburg.
86
Alexander, John T. The Petrine Era and After, 1689 – 1740. in Russia: A History.
Ed. By Gregory L. Freze. 2nd Ed., Oxford University Press, p. 103.
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