Absolutism in Russia
Absolutism in Russia refers to the period of centralized power under the rule of the Tsars, particularly during the reign of Peter the Great and his successors. This form of government was characterized by the monarch's absolute authority over all aspects of society, including politics, the economy, and culture. It led to significant modernization and expansion of Russia, but also resulted in the suppression of individual freedoms and the imposition of strict social hierarchy.
6 Key excerpts on "Absolutism in Russia"
eBook - ePubRussia
The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy
- Edward Acton(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 2........................................................................... The genesis of Russian ‘absolutism’ Numerous labels have been attached to the political system which Ivan the Great bequeathed to Muscovy at the beginning of the sixteenth century – oriental despotism (Plekhanov, Szamuely), patrimonial monarchy (Pipes), estate-representative monarchy (favoured by Soviet historians). In part this variety reflects the poorly defined vocabulary available to historians seeking to distinguish various traditional authoritarian regimes. But it also derives from sharply differing interpretations of the nature of the Muscovite system. The central issue at stake is simple and crucial to an understanding of Russian history. How far was the State – the power concentrated in the hands of the Grand Prince – representative of and responsive to privileged groups or interests within society? Was the ruler’s freedom of action signifi-cantly limited by independent institutions and social pressure or was he in a position to subject every social stratum to his own will? In a famous description of Basil III, the Imperial Ambassador Sigismund von Herberstein described him as the most despotic sovereign on earth. ‘He has power over both secular and clerical individuals and freely, according to his will, disposes of the life and property of all. Among the counsellors whom he has, none enjoys such importance that he would dare to contradict him in anything or be of another opinion.’ 1 Unification under Moscow had been accompanied by the creation of a powerful centralized monarchy. All appointments to military and administrative posts were in the gift of the Grand Prince. It was in his name that taxes were collected, the law enforced, war waged and treaties signed. His realm was bound together by an increasingly standardized legal code, gradually extended over newly incorporated areas, a rudimentary postal system, and uniform coinage, weights, and measures...
eBook - ePub- Peter Wende(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
...4. . . . . . . . Eighteenth-Century Germany ABSOLUTISM The period of European history which stretches from the Peace of Westphalia up to the outbreak of the French Revolution has often been labelled the Age of Absolutism. But usually the realities of history defy the degree of uniformity suggested by such a label. Instead, they present an enormous variety of political systems in Europe, ranging from a decentralized republican confederation like Switzerland, at one end of the scale, to extreme autocracies like the Ottoman Empire or Russia, at the other. And there were also variations within the time-span of a century – when, for example, England changed its constitution from a republic under Oliver Cromwell to near absolutism under the late Stuart kings. Nevertheless, ‘absolutism’ points to certain peculiar trends and features which, taken together, mark a new stage in the development of the forms of political organization of societies, especially in Central and Western Europe. The model was provided by France. During the long reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715) a formidable concentration of the power of the centralized state was achieved at the expense of entrenched privileges of the provinces and the nobility, and this power was the personal power of the monarch. He did not only represent the state but he incorporated the state – ‘l’état c’est moi’, as Louis was supposed to have said. This process did not take place only as a corrective to the decentralized institutions left over from the medieval era, but also in reaction to the often violent rifts between the religious parties of the sixteenth century. To a certain extent European absolutism was a result of the confessionalization of Europe. When the power of the monarch was now defined as ‘absolute’ (potestas legibus soluta) this did not imply justification for unbridled despotism...
eBook - ePubThe Modernization of the Western World
A Society Transformed
- John McGrath, Kathleen Callanan Martin(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...9 The Centralization and Rationalization of the Political State John McGrath Key Terms absolutism, “balance of power,” bullionism, constitutional monarchy, “Divine Right,” economy of scale, federated republic, infrastructure, mercantilism, separation of powers, “tax farmers” While long-term economic and social forces helped to redefine the role of government during the Early Modern Period, more immediate circumstances also spurred political change, reinforcing the movement toward more concentrated forms of authority. During the Reformation era, religious divisions within and among European states, often intensified by ethnic, social, and economic differences, challenged even the most powerful monarchs to keep a firm grip on their subjects. This gave many European rulers another reason to increase the size, power, and efficiency of their administrations. The result was a new form and style of political organization known as absolutism. 1 Typically, absolutism “introduced standing armies, a permanent bureaucracy, national taxation, a codified law, and the beginnings of a unified market.” 2 Together, these elements rationalized and centralized political authority, representing a significant step in the modernization of the political state. These new structures and policies were justified on the basis of new ideologies that marked a distinct shift from the traditional medieval concept of authority. In contrast to the largely decentralized feudal system where successive levels of nobility ruled in accordance with local customs and practices, absolutist monarchies began to enjoy, at least in theory, total and absolute power over all their subjects. Such power was often supported by the religious concept of “Divine Right,” the idea that God had specially selected the royal families and endowed them with extraordinary qualities with which to lead their kingdoms...
eBook - ePub- Simon Dixon(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Stressing the breadth of the social foundation underpinning Russian culture in Catherine’s time, he wants Enlightened absolutism to be seen ‘as a contextual and enabling part of Russia’s Enlightenment, but as neither its fundamental determinant nor its context’. 72 Such emphases reflect the delayed impact on historians of Russia of a strong historiographical trend. Already by the mid-1950s, it was clear that historians of western Europe were ‘notably less concerned with men and women, their personalities and their characters’ than they had been a century earlier. 73 Whereas once, only war, revolt and religious conflict had been allowed to interrupt a procession of Renaissance ‘New Monarchs’, seventeenth-century absolutists and eighteenth-century Enlightened despots, these high-profile sovereigns had already begun to be sidelined by the ‘social forces’ that came to dominate western historical thinking in the 1960s and 1970s...
eBook - ePubThe Ideology of Order
A Comparative Analysis of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes
- Preston King(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The overall tenor of the book suggests that absolutism is some form of error or evil (with which, on one level, one may agree); and since the substantive content of absolutism is identified as centralisation, then this, too, is identified as some form of error or evil (a conclusion which is obviously silly). For the rest, the historical and argumentative leftovers of an author who advances the sort of position indicated can easily be anticipated, consisting of little more than faint and tattered photocopies of Tocqueville: the seventeenth century will be regarded as perfecting centralised ‘governmental techniques’; these will be said to be ‘appropriated by the successors of the absolutist regimes that created them’; the pre-revolutionary French monarchy will be said to have ‘paved the way’ for ‘Revolutionary and Napoleonic France’ by ‘its levelling and destroying tendencies’; whence we advance to the conclusion that the Age of Absolutism ‘comes to an end only to give way to the new age of “Democratic Absolutism”’; this being understood to mean, as already indicated, that ‘the history of absolutism is only just beginning to be written’ (pp. 18–19 and 180). Thus it is plain that Beloff identifies the history of absolutism with the growth of centralisation, and that absolutism becomes basically synonymous with centralism. Absolutism, however, is not to be equated with the centralisation of power. The term refers not so much to the fact of centralisation as to a universal justification for limitless movement towards centralisation. If we contrast absolutism, as a form of political organisation, with pluralism, we can grasp this point more clearly. To begin, absolutism cannot be equated with concentrated power; if that were so, then pluralism would prove a form of absolutism...
eBook - ePubWestern Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach
Volume I: To 1715
- Kenneth L. Campbell(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Culturally, Peter became so enamored of the West that he forbade men to wear beards (following the style in the West), forced people to wear Western-style clothing, and adopted the Western Gregorian calendar, which lopped ten days off the older Julian calendar that Russia had followed. He encouraged Russian industries, especially in textiles, mining, and metallurgy, borrowing from the Western mercantilist philosophy of creating a favorable balance of trade of exports over imports. Even though Russia lacked secondary schools, Peter created a university, to force, as he said, his successors to address the country’s educational deficiencies. The encouragement Peter gave to learning resulted in the publication of 700 books from 1682 to 1709, compared to 374 for the entire rest of the seventeenth century. Absolute Government in East and West: Manchu China and Monarchical Europe Despite some obvious differences, European and Chinese rulers faced many of the same problems; the histories of Europe and China in the seventeenth century have some important similarities that are as remarkable as their differences. Among the obvious differences, China was a large unified country, whereas Europe was divided into numerous separate states and kingdoms. The Chinese economy and society were largely agrarian, whereas commercial development and urban expansion had begun to transform the European society and economy. Even the most powerful European monarchs did not have the kind of absolute control over the life and death of their subjects as did the Qing emperor. Louis XIV vied with the pope for religious authority over French Catholics; Qing emperors confirmed the position of the religious leaders of each of the three major Chinese religions—Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism—and occupied a prominent symbolic place in each of them. Yet absolute government in China was based on many of the same foundations as absolute monarchy in Europe...
