Everyday life and everyday life in the era of Peter I. Changes in everyday life

Science and education

1. During the reign of Peter I, great changes occurred in the field of education, culture, and science. They were caused by profound changes in the socio-economic life of the country and expanded ties with European states. The developing industry, the reforming army, and the new government system required specialists in various fields: sailors, engineers, architects, cartographers, and simply literate people.

2. Schools were opened: a navigation school, which in 1715 became a preparatory class for the established Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg, an artillery school, an engineering school, a medical school, and a school for training translators at the Ambassadorial Prikaz. Many young people went to study abroad. For the children of provincial nobles and officials, 42 “digital” schools were created, where 2 thousand minors learned literacy and arithmetic. According to the sovereign's decree of 1714, those nobles who did not graduate from at least a “digital” school were prohibited from marrying. The children of craftsmen studied in the mountain schools, and the children of soldiers studied in the garrison schools. Among the subjects in first place were mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and fortification. Theology was taught only in diocesan schools, where children of the clergy were educated.

3. New textbooks appeared, the most famous being “Arithmetic” by Magnitsky (1703), which was used to study almost the entire 18th century. Instead of Church Slavonic, a civil script, similar to the modern one, and Arabic numerals were introduced (1708). In 1702, the first printed newspaper “Vedomosti” began to be published in Russia, reporting on the progress of military operations, events abroad, and the construction of factories. In 1700, Peter ordered that the beginning of the year be considered not September 1, but January 1, and at the same time introduced the counting of years from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the Creation of the world.

4. Under Peter I, the creation of the first museum in Russia began - the Kunstkamera, which marked the beginning of the collection of historical and natural science collections. The Tsar ordered that “ancient and unusual things” be delivered there: skeletons of extinct animals, ancient manuscripts, ancient cannons, monsters preserved in alcohol, anatomical collections. There was also a rich library, the book collection of which included 11 thousand volumes. In 1719, the Kunstkamera was opened to the public. Of great importance for the development of science was the creation of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, opened in 1725. Its most important feature was that it was created by the state and from the very foundation was supported by it, in contrast to the countries of Western Europe, where the academies themselves sought funds for their maintenance. A number of works on history are being created: “History of the Suean War”, co-authored by Peter I, “The Core of Russian History” by Mankiev.

5. Peter I dreamed of building a trade route from India to Europe through Russian territory. Numerous scientific expeditions have compiled maps of the western coast of the Caspian Sea. Aral, Azov seas, Don basin. The Russians visited Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. The “Atlas of the All-Russian Empire” by I.K. Kirilov appeared, geological surveys were carried out. S. U. Remezov compiled the “Drawing Book of Siberia.” Shortly before his death, Peter signed an instruction to Commander V.I. Bering, who was supposed to establish whether there was a strait between Asia and America.

Architecture. Art. Literature

1. Under Peter the Great, stone began to be widely used in civil construction. During these years, the Admiralty, Gostiny Dvor, Kunstkamera and other buildings were built in St. Petersburg. The development of the city was carried out according to a plan developed by architects. The streets intersected at right angles, typical buildings stood close to each other, the palaces of the nobility were built on 2-3 floors, facing the street, each of them had its own appearance.

2. Peter I invited the famous Italian architect Domenico Trezzini, who built the Tsar’s Summer Palace, the building of the Twelve Colleges and the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It was an elongated rectangular building, the so-called hall type, with a bell tower and a spire. The height of the spire is 112 m, higher than the bell tower of Ivan the Great.

3. A special architectural style has developed in St. Petersburg, which is called Russian Baroque. The organic combination of Western and Russian artistic traditions into a single style has made St. Petersburg one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Beginning in the 1720s, Russian architects began to play a dominant role in urban planning. I.K. Korobov built Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, architect I.P. Zarudny - the Menshikov Tower church. Under the leadership of the Russian architect P. M. Eropkin, a master plan for St. Petersburg was drawn up.

4. At the beginning of the 18th century. Icon painting is being replaced by secular painting. Portrait artists sought to convey the individuality of characters and the inner world of heroes. These are the portraits of Ivan Nikitin, whom Peter himself helped to become an artist, sending him to study in Italy, and then made him a court artist. The artist painted many portraits of his contemporaries: Chancellor Golovkin, merchant G. Stroganov, he painted the Tsar. The artist Andrei Matveev, by order of the Tsar, studied in Holland. He created a religious composition in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The artist’s most famous painting is “Self-portrait with his wife.”

5. Before Peter I, there was no public theater in Russia. True, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the court theater did not operate for long. By order of Peter I, a “comedy temple” was built in Moscow on Red Square, where German actors staged plays. In the theater at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, amateur performances on biblical or ancient themes were staged.

6. The reading circle has changed, especially among city residents, a new hero has appeared in literature - a brave, educated traveler. Such, for example, is the hero of “The History of the Russian Sailor Vasily Kariotsky.”

7. Vice-President of the Synod Feofan Prokopovich in his works glorified the victories of Russian weapons, Peter the Great, whose power he declared “not subject to any laws,” that is, unlimited. Letters from boyar Fyodor Saltykov from England to Peter I were published, in which he expressed his thoughts that the state should take care of the development of trade, industry, the interests of the nobility, and the education of the people.

Changes in the life of the nobility

1. After the return of the “great embassy” from Europe, Peter I began to introduce European-style clothing. Tsar's decrees ordered people to shave beards, dress not in long Russian dresses, but in short European caftans, and wear shoes. Sellers of long-skirted dresses and boots and those who wore beards were threatened with exile to hard labor and confiscation of property. The king himself trimmed the beards and cut off the long caftans. He left long beards only to priests and peasants; the rest paid huge taxes for wearing beards. Subjects were also required to drink tea and coffee and smoke tobacco.

2. In 1718, Peter introduced assemblies in St. Petersburg - ceremonial receptions of guests in noble houses. He himself drew up the rules for the assemblies and the behavior of guests at them. A select society was invited to the assemblies: high nobles, officials, officers, shipwrights, rich merchants, scientists. They were supposed to appear with their wives and daughters. The assemblies were schools of secular education, where young people learned good manners, rules of behavior in society, and communication. The main significance of the assemblies was that their introduction put an end to the reclusive life of women in the capital. The code of conduct for the younger generation was “An Honest Mirror of Youth, or Indications for Everyday Conduct,” compiled by an unknown author, which set out the rules of conduct for young people in the family, at a party, in public places, and at work.

3. The life of the nobility has changed fundamentally. But the life of peasants and ordinary townspeople remained the same. A deep gap arose between the way of life of the people and the nobility. Over time, this will give rise to a deep distrust of the peasant towards any educated person.

1. Noble lifestyle

Under Peter I, young nobles, as before, had to carry out lifelong service from the age of 16-17. In the first half of the 18th century. they often served as privates in infantry and dragoon regiments or as sailors on ships - along with yesterday's peasants and townspeople.

Guards soldiers on duty in the classrooms of the Naval Academy beat students regardless of their origin for disturbing the order. The noble offspring who went abroad by order of Peter had to (knowing only how to read and write in Russian) study mathematics or “navigation” in a foreign language.

Peter I examines students who returned from abroad.

Peter also ordered assemblies to be held, where men were obliged to come with their wives and adult daughters. Captured Swedish officers and residents of the German settlement taught the Russians the polonaise, minuet and Peter’s favorite dance - Grosfather.

2. In the peasant and urban “world”

Village life, in contrast to noble life, continued as before, according to centuries-old customs and the cycle of agricultural work that was repeated from year to year.

3. Innovation in everyday life

The nobles, who did not have time to recover from the ban on beards, soon faced a new shock - on August 29, 1699, a decree was issued banning the old Russian costume. In January 1700, Peter I ordered everyone to wear a dress in the Hungarian style, a little later a German suit, and in the end the boyars and nobles were ordered to wear a German dress on weekdays and a French dress on holidays.

As for the headdress, the usual tafya and murmolka were replaced cocked hat. The cocked hat was made from black felt, and the hat was not sewn, but the fabric was folded in a certain way. Gradually, the wig, popular in Europe, came into fashion.

Cloth cloaks were common as outerwear. Later, some details were added to this outfit - a watch on a chain, a cane, a lorgnette, gloves and a sword, which was worn on a sword belt and passed through one of the slits on the sides of the caftan.

At the same time, special clothing for the home – a dressing gown – came into fashion. A dressing gown was a robe that boyars and nobles wore at home over a shirt and culotte. Judging by the name (from German Schlafen - “sleep”, Rock - “clothing”), the dressing gown was originally intended for sleeping.

Most often, such a robe was made of velvet and silk, but in rich houses dressing gowns were made of expensive fabrics, and in winter they were insulated with fur.

Under Peter, outfits were characterized by excessive solemnity and majesty: with the advent of new dresses, it became fashionable to decorate oneself as abundantly as possible with jewelry.

Bant-slavage

At the beginning of the 18th century, pointed shoes were in fashion, most often with high heels - up to ten centimeters. Shoes for balls were made of satin, brocade and velvet; in other cases, women wore leather boots.

Women's shoes of the late 18th century:

In the capital, and especially at official receptions and institutions, it was required to appear in “European dress.” For Russians it was unusually short. Russian people are accustomed to long-length clothing with wide sleeves. Those who disobeyed had their clothing cut off and exposed to public ridicule.

During the time of Peter I, many festivals were held, which were celebrated magnificently, on a grand scale, with fireworks, illuminations, and cannon fire. There were many reasons for celebrations: these were the troubles in the Northern War, the celebration of the New Year, the launching of a new ship, the name day of the sovereign.

Decree of Peter I on the New Year

Peter I issued a decree according to which the new year began on January 1, and not from September 1, as it was before, and the counting of years began from the Nativity of Christ, as in the West, and not from the Creation of the world, as was the case in Russia. The decree was issued in December 1699 and, thus, from January 1, a new year, 1700, began in the country, and did not last 7208 from the Creation of the world.

Peter's Assemblies

Tsar Peter I also introduced assembly. The decree stated that this word was French. It implied receptions in some rich house, where not only men, but also women were present. There they danced, had small talk and friendly conversations, exchanged opinions, drank a previously unknown drink in Russia - coffee, smoked pipes with tobacco according to European custom, played checkers and chess.

Every St. Petersburg nobleman at least once a year (or even more often) had to organize an assembly in his house, provide refreshments, provide a hall for dancing, rooms for relaxation, games and conversations. Most of the assemblies were held in winter.

They had different attitudes towards this idea of ​​Peter I. Some welcomed it, others did not approve, but obeyed.

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The nobility, like other classes, was completely subject to Peter I and he did not hesitate to reform it both externally and internally. Mandatory service, education and responsibility for collecting taxes from the serfs who belonged to them - with these innovations the sovereign sought to achieve maximum returns from the privileges that he bestowed on the nobles.

Nobility under Peter I

Key decrees

• 1701 — Decree on lifelong service — all nobles are obliged to serve the state and the sovereign, in civil or military positions.
• 1704 — Decree on estates — unification of the concepts of boyar estate (land plot transferred for temporary use) and noble estate (personal real estate)
• 1714 — Decree on unified inheritance — preventing multiple divisions of noble estates by prohibiting nobles from passing on inheritance to more than one of their children.
• 1714 — Decree on the rules for promotion to officers - prohibited the promotion to officer rank of nobles who had not served in the Life Guards
• 1714 - Decree on the uneducated - prohibited the children of nobles who had not received the minimum knowledge from marrying.
• 1722 — Table of ranks — equalized the rights of civil and military service ranks, opened up the opportunity for any free person to receive nobility

According to historians E.V. Anisimov and B.N. Mironov, it was the era of Peter that marked the beginning of the formation of the nobility as an independent class, isolated from the rest of the population. As Anisimov writes, before Peter I, the service class was not fenced off by an insurmountable barrier from peasants and townspeople, from among whom servicemen were recruited; under Peter, such a barrier was erected - between the nobility and the rest of the population. In particular, at the end of Peter's reign, non-nobles were prohibited from holding any significant official positions. And this decree was actively implemented, as evidenced, for example, by the correspondence of the Senate with the Siberian governor A. Cherkassky. An important measure in this direction is the Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714, which, according to the historian B.N. Mironov, is one of the most important milestones in the transformation of the nobility into an estate; according to the decree, “noble estates - conditional possessions were turned into the property of nobles - into estates.”

Earlier, during the second half of the 15th - second half of the 16th centuries, as a result of the deliberate policy of Tsars Ivan III and Ivan IV, estates throughout Russia were liquidated and turned into estates - state property. Among non-church lands at the end of the 16th century. the share of estates in different regions of European Russia ranged from 2/3 to 99%; accordingly, the share of estates ranges from less than 1% to 33%.

Decree on unified inheritance

Although during the 17th century. There was a convergence of estates and estates, and the nobles gradually began to forget that estates were not their property, but the property of the state, but significant differences remained between them. As historians B.N. Mironov and D. Blum point out, both legal and factual differences between estates and estates remained: transactions for the purchase and sale of estates could only be carried out with the consent of the state, which was their owner; Moreover, estates were more expensive than estates; It was in the estates, but not in the estates, that slavery (servitude) actively spread, and in the second half of the century the first signs of trade in serfs appeared - the movement of peasants from one estate to another.

Therefore, the decree on unity of inheritance, adopted in 1714 and turning the estates into the property of the nobles (who, as historian V.O. Klyuchevsky noted: regarded the decree precisely as the transformation of estates into their personal property and called it “the most graceful blessing”) contributed not only to the formation of the nobility as an independent class, but also, in N’s opinion .A. Rozhkov, the development of serfdom. At the same time, according to I.L. Solonevich, an important consequence of this decree, in addition to the very fact of privatization of estates, was that it actually abolished the need for public service for the nobles, in which they now had no interest.

Table of ranks

Table of ranks 1722 to some extent, it opened up opportunities for people from non-noble classes to enter the service as officials and even eventually receive a noble title. However, the bulk of such officials did not rise to the rank of hereditary nobility and subsequently formed an entire class - commoners. At the same time, offspring from noble families could inherit the ranks and noble titles of their parents.

Table of ranks

As E.V. Anisimov writes, “There is no dispute that the Table of Ranks opened the way to the top for representatives of the lower classes, but it also established a strict order of stratification and clearly marked the boundary that separated the privileged class from others. The practice of the former uncontrolled social movement has become a thing of history. The capitation tax also played a role similar to the Table. Including a person in the capitation salary automatically meant securing him in an unprivileged class and made it virtually impossible for him to change his social status.”

The historian writes that the decrees adopted at the end of the reign of Peter I testify to his intention to completely remove representatives of other classes from the state apparatus, leaving only nobles in it. So, By decree of January 31, 1721 it was forbidden to appoint non-nobles as secretaries of institutions (10th grade in the Table of Ranks), so that they could not “promote to assessors, advisers and higher grades” (respectively, 8th, 9th and higher classes in the Table of Ranks). An exception was made only for the most talented.

The elite of the nobility, despite its dilution in the first decades of Peter’s reign by people from the “lower classes” (including favorites of the tsar himself and foreigners brought by him), still mainly consisted of a hereditary aristocracy. It was representatives of the ancient nobility, according to V.O. Klyuchevsky (and not at all “new people” like Menshikov), who made up from 1/2 to 2/3 of the composition of the Supreme Privy Council, which actually ruled the country for several years after the death of Peter I.

Mandatory service to the state

Throughout his reign, Peter I used all kinds of measures to force the nobles to serve government and military service. For these purposes, general reviews of nobles were organized, lists of “deviators” were drawn up and posted, and they themselves were subjected to fines and corporal punishment. However, according to historians N.I. Pavlenko and V.O. Klyuchevsky, all these measures were unsuccessful and did not have much practical result, both due to the massive deviations of the nobles and due to the widespread formal approach to serving. As Pavlenko writes, “Peter was not able to force all the nobles to serve. The non-compliance with the tsar's decrees is evidenced by their abundance... Publicist I.T. Pososhkov, in his words, met “many, many healthy young men,” each of whom “could have driven five enemies alone,” but instead of serving in the army, they took advantage of the patronage of influential relatives , settled for lucrative positions in the civil administration and “live with acquisitive matters.”

Culture change

Appearance

A special role in the noble policy of Peter I was played by the inculcation of foreign customs and clothing among the nobility. It began under the predecessors of Peter I. Thus, already under Tsar Feodor III, all officials were required to wear foreign (Polish) dress.

Noble life

But under Peter, the wearing of foreign clothes by nobles became essentially mandatory, as well as shaving the beard and mustache, which had previously been an integral part of Russian life in general and the life of the Russian nobility in particular. Any nobleman who even planned to violate the prohibition of Peter I and grow a beard or wear any element of traditional Russian clothing risked becoming a laughing stock and an outcast, and in case of special persistence, ending up in hard labor.

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Manners and life under Emperor Peter I

The era of the reign of Emperor Peter the Great is considered one of the most controversial. On the one hand, the state regularly fought for the right to access ice-free seas, on the other, new reforms were introduced. Russia's acquisition of sea trade routes with developed countries allowed not only to restore the country's economy, but also to enrich its culture, making the life of a Russian person similar to that of a European.

Military service

During the reign of Peter the Great, young nobles who reached the age of sixteen or seventeen were supposed to serve for life. Typically, they began their careers as privates in dragoon or infantry regiments. Quite often they were also taken as sailors on ships. It is worth noting that by order of the tsar, privates and sailors had to wear “German” uniforms.

Like the sovereign himself, the nobleman had to be knowledgeable in engineering and artillery. At the same time, in Russia there was no general unified system for conveying knowledge. In addition, nobles going abroad were required to master one of the sciences in a foreign language: navigation or mathematics. And Pyotr Alekseevich himself took the exams.

If a nobleman wanted to resign from military service, he was appointed to “state service,” where he performed the duties of a governor in villages or provincial towns, a poll tax collector, or an official in one of the many institutions opening at that time.

Appearance of the nobles under Peter I

But what exactly became the reason for the discontent of both the common people and representatives of the nobility were changes in the wearing of clothes. It was during this historical period, or more precisely, the twenty-ninth of August 1699, that the king ordered all wide-sleeved traditional dresses to be replaced with dresses of overseas cut. A couple of years later, the sovereign gave a new order, according to which the nobility had to wear French dress on holidays, and German dress on weekdays.

Another change that shocked the inhabitants of the Russian Empire was the tsar’s decree to shave beards, for violation of which the culprit was fined and beaten in public with batogs. Also, from 1701, all women were required to wear exclusively European-cut dresses. At this time, a lot of jewelry came into fashion: frill, lace, etc. The cocked hat became the most popular headdress in Russia. A little later, narrow-toed shoes were introduced, as well as wide skirts, corsets and wigs.

Shaving beards under Peter I

Interior decoration

In addition, thanks to the developed Western trade and the opening of new manufactories, luxury items such as glass and tin tableware, silver sets, cabinets for important papers, as well as armchairs, stools, tables, beds, engravings and mirrors appeared in the homes of nobles. It all cost a lot of money.

Also, all nobles were required to learn manners. Captured women and officers from the German settlement taught the ladies popular dances at that time (grosvatera, minuet and polonaise).

New chronology

According to the royal decrees of the nineteenth and twentieth of December 1699, chronology was introduced in Rus' from the Nativity of Christ, and the beginning of the year was moved to the first of January, as was practiced by developed Western powers. New Year's celebrations lasted a whole week - from the first to the seventh of January. The wealthy inhabitants of the empire decorated the gates of their yards with juniper and pine branches, and the common people - with ordinary branches. Fireworks were set off in the capital all seven days.

Every year, Tsar Peter Alekseevich introduced new holidays, organized balls and masquerades. Beginning in 1718, the emperor organized assemblies to which men had to come with their wives and adult daughters. In the eighteenth century, games of chess and cards became popular, and skating along the Neva River was organized for members of the upper classes.

But the life of ordinary peasants during the reign of Peter the Great did not undergo significant changes. They worked six days for their landowner, and on holidays and Sundays they were allowed to do their own farming. Children were accustomed to physical labor from the age of eight or nine, raising them according to their own unwritten rules, which were supposed to help the child feed his family in the future.

All land issues were still in charge of the community, which monitored the observance of order, as well as sorted out the quarrels of fellow villagers and distributed duties. Local affairs were decided by the so-called meeting of married men.

At the same time, a fairly strong influence of customs and traditions has been preserved in everyday life. Clothes were made from cheap materials (most often canvas), and European fashion came into everyday life only at the end of the eighteenth century.

Among the main entertainments of ordinary peasants were round dances on the most significant holidays and mass games, and the traditional food was flour products, cabbage soup and stew. Some peasants could afford to smoke.

Table: Life under Peter I

Cultural reforms

Introduction of a new calendar

New Year celebration

Wearing European clothes

Changing the appearance of subjects

The appearance of the first museum (Kuntskamera)

The appearance of the first newspaper “Vedomosti”

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