Peter The Great Decrees

3. Peter the Great wanted “to transform his country through a process of state imposed Westernization.” He was convinced that Russia could overcome its backwardness only by adopting “the institutions, customs and attitudes of the technologically superior, wealthier and more powerful states of Western Europe.”
Many were opposed to his decrees and edicts because they would “mean discarding much of Russia’s distinctive past.” Those “devoted to Russia’s unique Slavic and Orthodox Christian traditions” …” argued that abandonment of Russia’s past was too high a price to pay for Europeanization.”
He revived his father Alexis’ efforts to “centralize government in Russia” and put in place many decrees which affected the Russian people in in radical and very personal ways. Peter “issued no fewer than three thousand decrees” …on everything from the structure of government to …show more content…
And having fully learned these skills, they were directed to return home and be “assigned soldiers, one soldier per returnee”,” to teach them what they had learned abroad.”
“Decree on Western Dress”, which was aimed at “creating a new Russian.” With the exception of “clergy and peasant tillers of soil”, people were to no longer wear “Russian dress…sheepskin coats, or Russian peasant coats, trousers, boots or shoes.” Instead, men were to wear clothing “of a German type”, such as “waistcoat, trousers, boots, shoes and hats” and the women “Western dresses, hats, jackets and underwear.”
“Decree on Shaving” which said that “all…must shave their beards and mustaches” but if some did not then “a yearly tax” would be “collected from such