The 'Great' Debate

There is a large debate concerning Peter the Great’s reign of the Russian Empire from 1682-1725. Historians are split between the belief that he created a revolution, of sorts, in Russian, and the idea that he simply made many reforms but did not create a revolution. There is no doubt that he did attempt to make very drastic changes to not only the Russian government, but also the lives of every day townspeople and nobles. By “Europeanizing” the empire, Peter attempted to force people to dress, look, and act like the Europeans he has seen during his travels. He wanted to civilize his people. Unfortunately, for Peter, these new policies emulating the European style did not reach all the way into the rural areas of Russia where peasants continued to dress and wear their beards in the traditional Russian style.