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Compare And Contrast Ivan The Terrible And Peter The Great

Satisfactory Essays

Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible are both well know Russian Tsars. Both Russian rulers killed many of their own people but Peter the Great was a much better ruler because the second half of Ivan’s reign was characterized by political instability and atrocities committed by Ivan’s personal guard the Oprichnina while Peter continued to better the Russian state.
The first half of Ivan’s reign was positive for the Russian people. Ivan reformed Muscovy’s legal system and administrative structure as well as reforming the army. That army he then used to conquer more land for the Russian state, notably the Khanate of Kazan. Ivan’s undoing was the death of his first wife Anastasia. She stabilized his mind in the early part of his reign so after …show more content…

He spent much of his childhood in the German district of the capital. There he became fascinated with the west. As an adult he toured Western Europe in an attempt to learn the latest advances in ship building as well as to campaign for a crusade against the Ottoman Empire. When he returned he continued to Westernize Russia . Some of his reforms are looked on by contemporary’s as overly fanatical for example he implemented a beard tax and forced social events to be mixed genders. ! He was the Master of bureaucracy. Peter I completely restructured the government on western models. He established a Privy Council staffed with his closest friends as well as organizing the senate in to different colleges. He secularized the government thus taking power away from the Russian Orthodox church. Peter also reorganized the army and defeated the Swedish empire in The Great Northern War. He then erected a new capital in the lands he gained and named it for his likeness Saint Petersburg. This city became an important trading hub because it had a warm water port and Russia could now trade overseas with the rest of Europe all year round. His wife Catherine succeeded him on his death in

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