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Y210: Russia 1645–1741

Opposition and reaction 1645–1741: provincial revolts, Tsarevitch Alexis and the reigns after Peter

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on provincial revolts and Mazeppa, the affair of Tsarevitch Alexis, westernisation by 1725, the reigns of Catherine I and Peter II, Anne’s accession crisis and the German period.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

How far had Russia been westernised by 1725?

Numbers

How did Catherine I come to the throne, and how was Russia governed in her reign?

Who and when

Why did Tsarevitch Alexis become a focus of opposition?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which provincial revolts did the strain of Peter's wars provoke?

    Model answer

    The Astrakhan rising of 1705 to 1706 was set off by new taxes and by enforcement of the dress and beard decrees, the Bashkirs rebelled from 1705 over tax demands and land seizures, and the Don Cossacks rose under Bulavin in 1707 against the hunt for runaway serfs sheltering among them; all three tied down troops needed against Sweden.

  2. 2

    Why did Mazeppa change sides in 1708, and what were the consequences?

    Model answer

    The hetman feared that Peter's reforms would end Cossack self-government and expected Charles XII to win, but few Cossacks followed him, Baturyn was destroyed, the Church anathematised him and he died shortly after Poltava; his treason gave Peter the excuse to appoint a compliant hetman and place the Ukrainian lands under close supervision.

  3. 3

    Why did Tsarevitch Alexis become a focus of opposition?

    Model answer

    Brought up by his mother's conservative circle and estranged from his father, Alexis disliked war, work and westernisation, and clergy and nobles who resented Peter's reforms looked to his eventual accession to undo them.

  4. 4

    How did the affair of Tsarevitch Alexis end?

    Model answer

    Threatened with disinheritance, Alexis fled abroad in 1716 to seek Habsburg protection, was persuaded to return in 1718 with a promise of pardon, was then interrogated under torture about a supposed conspiracy, condemned to death and died in the Peter and Paul Fortress in June 1718.

  5. 5

    What was the political significance of Alexis's death?

    Model answer

    It removed the natural rallying point for opponents of the reforms and terrified the elite into obedience, but it left Peter with no adult male heir and led to the decree of 1722 by which the reigning ruler could nominate any successor, a right Peter died without exercising.

  6. 6

    How far had Russia been westernised by 1725?

    Model answer

    The state, army, navy, administration and elite culture had been transformed and Russia had become a European great power, but the change reached little further than the nobility and the towns; the peasantry, four-fifths of the population, were more heavily burdened and more tightly bound than before, and the Church had been subordinated rather than reformed.

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