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Online lecture

The place of Peter the Great’s reforms in Russian history

30 January 2025
Time: 8 pm

The St Petersburg University representative office in Spain invites you to an online lecture titled "The place of Peter the Great’s reforms in Russian history", delivered by Dr Kirill Nazarenko, Doctor of Historical Sciences.

Peter the Great’s reforms represent one of the most important turning points in Russian history and remain one of the most popular and debated periods among contemporaries. Despite more than 300 years of study, many questions surrounding these reforms remain controversial. Was there an alternative to the Europeanisation of Russia? What would have happened if Peter the Great’s reforms had never taken place? Did the emperor achieve his goals in transforming the country, and can his reformist activities be considered a unique phenomenon in world history? 

"The Russians will never become a truly civilised nation because they were civilised too early. Peter had a talent for imitation, but lacked true genius..." wrote the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. At the same time, Voltaire described Peter as a brilliant reformer who radically transformed his country.

In 18th and early 19th century Russia, an official cult of Peter the Great developed, and any criticism of his actions was strictly forbidden. It was inevitable, however, that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many critical views of the Tsar’s reforms would emerge. Slavophiles argued that he had led Russia astray from its true path, liberals accused him of cruelty, and economic historians stressed that the tax burden of Peter’s era had impoverished the Russian people.

The official rehabilitation of Peter the Great took place on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, when his figure became a symbol of national unity and historical continuity. In this lecture we will explore who Peter the Great really was and the results of his reforms.

Lecturer

Kirill Nazarenko is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Acting Head of the Department of Source Studies of Russian History at the SPbU, and a laureate of the Alexander Nevsky Prize of the St Petersburg Government. He is the author of several monographs on the history of the Russian Navy.

This lecture is part of the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Russia’s oldest university, St Petersburg University. The event will be broadcast online in Russian with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

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