Regent Sophia of Russia

[ilyala]

yes but look at england. had lots of poor people, but it was an industrialized country and that was the next step towards a better life. same goes - to some extent - for france... and so on.

russia still had poor peasants. lots of them.

as i said, i'm not saying peter the great didn't make any changes. he did. but the essence of russia remained the same

[Romanov_fan]

I agree that the essence of the country remained the same despite his reforms. But in the Europe of that age, there was always a divide between classes so there might have been no change for all the classes unless there was no divide. The Europe of that age was also violent, and if Peter the great was so were many others, how true. He perhaps did make only superficial reforms, but for Russia, they were great reforms indeed, whether surface, or affecting culture, or just the upper class.  So they cannot be discounted. He did cause misery, but in the long run if not the short his changes were not superficial. But in the short run, they may have been largely cosmetic, and superficial.

I think Sophia would also have directed Rusia towards change, but less radically than Peter. She wasn't as bad as she was cut out to be, doubtless. She was in a bad time for being a strong woman, who might have steered a middle course, perhaps the best way for Russia. Her whole reign was volatile, and mixed bad/good, but if it had not been volatile, perhaps she could have accomplished more.

[ilyala]

i am of the (maybe wrong) opinion  that reforms have to be started at the core and gradually done. that is one of the reasons the russian revolution happened: no-one ever thought about the peasants. by the time of alexander 2nd it was already too late, they were a bomb waiting to happen. and part of this fault, if you ask me, lay in the so-called great monarchs of russia, peter and catherine. they made the rift between the aristocracy and the poorer classes. a country, in order to be strong, has to have a strong representation of the middle-classes, some poor and some rich. russia was never like that. it still isn't. and i still think now, after centuries of some sort of an upper-class leadership (and yes, i'm talking about the communist days too, because those were something like - you were doing good if you were a communist, bad if you weren't, making the communists the new aristocracy) it would be very very hard to create a strong middle class.

back to peter and sophia. i think some gradual reforms would have been much better and if sophia was out to do them, she would have been better for the country than peter, who just gave new rule after new rule. if you want a more extreme example of what peter sounds to me think of austrian emperror joseph... he signed so many new laws in ten years, more than his mother did in a lifetime. most of them were thought as to be for the good of the common people. how many of these laws remained effective after he died? i think the proportion is close to zero percent.

[Romanov_fan]

Well, perhaps too rapid change is indeed negative, I think. Change is perhaps more effective if it is slower. Sophia would most likely have reformed more slowly, and this might have been better. But Russia was pretty far behind western Europe, so perhaps it needed to catch up. So Peter the Great's rapid change was perhaps a good thing in this way. It's all theorotical.

[erik beale]

As most people who follow Russian history know, Peter the Great seized power for his sister sophia alexeeva. He then proceeded to shut her
up in the convent at novodevichy. Does anyone know what life would have been like for Sophia in the convent? For instance: Did they shave
her head and make her pray 3 times per day? I hyope someone can help me!!
                                                           Thank You
                                                          erik beale
                                                         erikbeale@yahoo.com

[Svetabel]

If your question is about Sophia ,why on earth did you title the topic "Peter the Great"?...And before creating new threads, do a search, many historical persons do have their own thread here!!

[agordon2000]

Sophia was locked up in the Novodevichy Convent and only her family could visit her and only female relatives on important holidays. The head of the secret police Romodanovsky determined who could see her. Her apartment was luxurious. She tried to regain power sending and receiving messages in her bread. This failed and those who wanted her back were hung outside her window.  She was said to be good enough looking according to Peter and very well educated, writing poetry and sharing lessons with her brother the future Tzar Fyodor. Their tutor was Symeon of Polotsk the most educated man in Russia at that time. In fact Peter said she would have been perfect in all ways except for her desire to hold power.