Peter The Great Confiscator Of Rights Essay

Usually whenever the situation of a brooding, strict power, ruling over a land and denying the freedom of its people is presented, the argument is that this ‘confiscator of rights’ is doing so out of necessity and has the best of the nation in mind. This entire concept can be and is frequently applied to the situation of Peter the Great. Peter, a Russian emperor, is usually attacked for his attempts at social reform and transforming Russian society into that of Western Europe, henceforth destroying the rights and freedom of the Russian people but, as many of his defenders would be quick to argue, it was done to better Russia; to modernize Russia and make it a better military power and in the end, done for the betterment of Russian society. However, the question must be asked, “Did Peter actually have the benefit of Russia on his mind with all these changes? And even if he did, do the positives of these reforms outweigh the negatives?” Well, to be clear, through the analysis of evidence in the form of documents, it’s clear that Peter more than likely did not usually have the betterment of Russia on his mind and even more clear that even if he did, it was greatly ineffective.

Peter spent his days as a young man, mixed with foreigners in Russian and outside as he often travelled to Western Europe – spending a year mostly in England and Holland visiting shops, military fortifications, ship building facilities (working as a carpenter there) and any other institute which offer up knowledge about European technology and political and economic structures. From this point of view it’s not difficult to see why Peter was so obsessed with Western Europe; not only was he basically immersed in it during his early years but it caused could have even caused him to not be able to see how any country could be governed without Western European