AP European History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how **Peter the Great** and **Catherine the Great** westernized Russia
- Identify the main reforms associated with Peter, including the **Grand Embassy**, **Table of Ranks**, and **St. Petersburg**
- Explain why Catherine is described as an **enlightened absolutist**
- Distinguish between **westernization** and **liberalization**
- Analyze continuity and change in Russian government, noble power, and serfdom
- Compare Russian absolutism with constitutional developments elsewhere in Europe
- Use specific evidence, dates, and examples in AP-style arguments about state power

## AP European History Syllabus

For the AP European History, you are expected to understand how Russian rulers used westernization to strengthen absolutism, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **Peter the Great** ruled **1682–1725** and **Catherine the Great** ruled **1762–1796**
- Identify Peter’s **Grand Embassy (1697–1698)** as a major source of western influence
- Explain the importance of **St. Petersburg (founded 1703)** as a “window to the West”
- Understand how the **Table of Ranks (1722)** tied noble advancement to state service
- Know that Peter’s victory in the **Great Northern War (1700–1721)** helped make Russia a major European power
- Explain how Catherine used the **Nakaz (1767)** and **Legislative Commission (1767)** to present an enlightened image
- Understand that the **Pugachev Rebellion (1773–1775)** pushed Catherine toward greater conservatism
- Identify the **Charter of the Nobility (1785)** as evidence that noble privilege and serfdom remained central

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. How did Peter the Great use western ideas without making Russia less autocratic?
2. Why was **St. Petersburg** politically and symbolically important?
3. What did the **Table of Ranks** change about the Russian nobility?
4. Why is Catherine called an **enlightened absolutist** rather than a constitutional ruler?
5. How did the **Pugachev Rebellion** affect Catherine’s policies?

## Introduction

In **Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism**, Russia is one of the clearest examples of a state becoming more powerful and more European without becoming more free. Both Peter the Great and Catherine the Great borrowed from western Europe, but they did so selectively. They wanted stronger armies, better administration, and greater prestige. They did not want limits on their own authority.

This matters for AP European History because students often confuse **westernization** with **liberalization**. In Russia, the two were not the same. Western dress, western military methods, and French Enlightenment ideas could all be adopted while serfdom, noble privilege, and autocratic rule remained in place.

> **Key Term: westernization**
> The selective adoption of Western European military, administrative, cultural, and educational practices by a state or ruler.

### Peter the Great: westernization from above

Peter the Great did more than any earlier ruler to pull Russia into European affairs. Before his reign, Russia had been more isolated from western developments than states like France, England, or the Dutch Republic. Peter believed that this left Russia weak. His answer was not to copy western Europe completely, but to take the parts that would make the Russian state stronger.

A turning point came with the **Grand Embassy** of **1697–1698**, when Peter traveled in western Europe and studied shipbuilding, military organization, and technical skills. He was especially impressed by Dutch shipyards. This experience convinced him that Russia needed a modern army, a navy, and a more disciplined state apparatus.

> **Key Term: Grand Embassy**
> Peter the Great’s journey to western Europe in 1697–1698, during which he studied military, naval, and technical practices.

Peter’s reforms worked in several connected ways. First, he increased state revenue, including taxes on serfs and monopolies on key goods such as salt. More revenue meant more soldiers, more weapons, and more officials. Second, he built a more centralized bureaucracy. Third, he forced elites to adopt western habits, from dress to grooming. His beard regulations became famous because they symbolized the larger pattern: change was imposed from the top, not chosen from below.

Peter’s treatment of the nobility shows how absolutism and reform worked together. He did not destroy the nobility. He made it serve him.

> **Key Term: Table of Ranks**
> A hierarchy created by Peter in 1722 that linked noble advancement to military, civil, and court service to the state.

The **Table of Ranks** was important because it reduced the independence of the old boyar elite. Noble status now depended more heavily on service. In theory, this even opened some advancement to commoners. But the real point was not equality. It was control. Peter turned the nobility into an instrument of the monarchy, much as rulers in other absolutist states tried to do.

Students often miss the difference between Peter and a constitutional ruler. He did modernize administration, but he did not share power. There was no representative institution able to restrain him. Reform made the state more efficient, not more accountable.

Peter also brought the Russian Orthodox Church more firmly under state authority. Instead of allowing an independent patriarch to act as a separate source of influence, he placed the church under tighter government supervision through the **Holy Synod**. This fits a broad AP pattern: absolutist rulers often tried to reduce rival power centers.

> **Key Term: absolutism**
> A system of government in which the ruler holds centralized authority and is not meaningfully limited by representative institutions.

Militarily, Peter’s reforms had huge effects. He built Russia’s first navy and created a more disciplined army, drawing in foreign experts and conscripting serfs for long service. These changes paid off in the **Great Northern War (1700–1721)**, where Russia defeated Sweden. This victory mattered for two reasons. It ended Sweden’s status as a major northern power, and it gave Russia access to the Baltic.

That gain linked directly to Peter’s founding of **St. Petersburg** in **1703**.

> **Key Term: St. Petersburg**
> The city founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as Russia’s western-facing capital and symbolic “window to the West.”

St. Petersburg was both practical and symbolic. Practically, it gave Russia a Baltic outlet and a stronger connection to European trade and diplomacy. Symbolically, it announced that Russia was now part of the European state system. Peter built it on marshland at immense human cost, with many serfs dying in the process. That fact itself tells you something crucial: modernization in Russia rested on coercion.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, do not write that Peter “modernized Russia” and stop there. Add how: **Grand Embassy**, **Table of Ranks**, **St. Petersburg**, **army and navy**, **Great Northern War**. Specific evidence is what earns points.

### Catherine the Great: Enlightenment language, autocratic reality

Catherine the Great continued Russia’s western orientation, but her style differed from Peter’s. Peter’s reforms were direct, harsh, and strongly military. Catherine presented herself as educated, rational, and interested in Enlightenment thought. That is why she is usually described as an **enlightened absolutist**.

> **Key Term: enlightened absolutism**
> A form of absolutist rule in which monarchs adopted some Enlightenment ideas while preserving full political authority.

Catherine read French thinkers and corresponded with figures such as Voltaire and Diderot. She wanted Russia to appear civilized, rational, and European. But AP questions often ask you to assess extent, and that is where precision matters. Catherine embraced Enlightenment rhetoric more than deep political reform.

Her most famous statement of reform was the **Nakaz** in **1767**.

> **Key Term: Nakaz**
> Catherine the Great’s “Instruction” of 1767, influenced by Enlightenment ideas about law and rational government.

The **Nakaz** drew on Enlightenment thinking about law, justice, and orderly government. It showed that Catherine understood the language of reform. But understanding and applying are not the same. The Nakaz did not create constitutional limits on her rule.

This is where the **Legislative Commission** matters.

> **Key Term: Legislative Commission**
> An assembly called by Catherine in 1767 to discuss legal reform, but without real power to limit the monarch.

Students sometimes mistake the Legislative Commission for a representative legislature. It was not. It did not function like Parliament in Britain. It was consultative, not sovereign. Catherine could gather information and hear opinions, but she kept decision-making power in her own hands. That is the clearest proof that western and Enlightenment ideas in Russia did not produce constitutionalism.

Catherine’s rule also shows the limits of enlightened reform in a socially unequal empire. Russia remained deeply dependent on noble cooperation and serf labor. When pressure rose from below, Catherine moved away from reform rather than toward it.

The turning point was the **Pugachev Rebellion** of **1773–1775**, a major uprising of peasants and Cossacks.

> **Key Term: Pugachev Rebellion**
> A major uprising in 1773–1775 that convinced Catherine the Great to rely more heavily on nobles and repression.

After this rebellion, Catherine had even less reason to risk social experiments. She strengthened ties with the nobility and confirmed their privileges more clearly in the **Charter of the Nobility** of **1785**.

> **Key Term: Charter of the Nobility**
> Catherine’s 1785 decree confirming noble privileges and strengthening their social position.

This charter is vital evidence in any AP answer. It shows that Catherine’s rule did not reduce noble privilege. In some ways, it increased it. Nobles gained security in status and property, while serfs remained trapped in dependency. So although Catherine looked more enlightened than Peter in language and court culture, her social order stayed highly unequal.

> **Test Tip:** A strong comparison sentence is: “Peter westernized Russia through forced state service, while Catherine westernized elite culture through Enlightenment language, but both rulers preserved autocracy and serfdom.” That kind of sentence shows comparison and judgement at once.

### What changed, what stayed the same, and why this matters

The biggest change under Peter and Catherine was Russia’s place in Europe. Under Peter, Russia became a major military power. Under Catherine, it remained a powerful empire engaged with European diplomacy and ideas. Elite culture became more western. Court life, education for nobles, military organization, and administration all moved closer to western models.

But the biggest continuity was autocracy.

Neither ruler made Russia constitutional. Neither created representative government with meaningful power over the monarch. Neither ended serfdom. That is the key distinction examiners want students to make.

Peter and Catherine are often compared with rulers like **Louis XIV**, **Frederick the Great**, or **Joseph II**. The comparison helps show a wider AP theme: rulers across Europe borrowed ideas when those ideas strengthened the state. They became far less interested when reform threatened authority or social order.

Russia is especially useful as a contrast to England after the **Glorious Revolution**. In England, monarchy became limited by Parliament and law. In Russia, monarchy became more efficient and more European-looking, but not limited in the same way. That contrast fits the AP themes of **States and Other Institutions of Power** and **National and European Identity**.

A cause-and-effect chain is worth seeing clearly:

- Peter saw Russia as backward compared with western states
- He borrowed western military and administrative methods
- These reforms strengthened the army, navy, and bureaucracy
- Stronger state power helped Russia win the **Great Northern War**
- Victory gave Russia more prestige and access to Europe
- Yet the burden fell heavily on serfs, while autocracy intensified

Catherine followed a similar pattern with a different style:

- She used Enlightenment language to present herself as rational and modern
- She explored legal reform through the **Nakaz** and **Legislative Commission**
- These efforts remained limited because they could not challenge autocracy
- The **Pugachev Rebellion** increased elite fear of disorder
- Catherine then relied more on nobles and confirmed their privileges
- Russia looked more enlightened at the top, but remained harshly unequal underneath

This is why the best AP judgement is not “Peter and Catherine westernized Russia.” That is true, but incomplete. A stronger judgement is that they westernized Russia **selectively**, in ways designed to reinforce the monarchy.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- **Peter the Great** ruled **1682–1725** and used westernization to strengthen Russian absolutism
- Peter’s **Grand Embassy (1697–1698)** exposed him to western military and technical practices
- Peter forced western-style reforms from above, including dress and beard regulations
- The **Table of Ranks (1722)** tied noble advancement to state service
- Peter strengthened state control over the church through the **Holy Synod**
- **St. Petersburg**, founded in **1703**, symbolized Russia’s “window to the West”
- Victory in the **Great Northern War (1700–1721)** helped make Russia a major European power
- **Catherine the Great** ruled **1762–1796** and is often called an enlightened absolutist
- Catherine’s **Nakaz** and **Legislative Commission** promoted reform language but not constitutional limits
- The **Pugachev Rebellion (1773–1775)** pushed Catherine toward greater reliance on nobles and repression
- The **Charter of the Nobility (1785)** confirmed noble privilege
- Under both Peter and Catherine, westernization did not mean democracy, constitutionalism, or the end of serfdom

## Key Terms and Concepts

- westernization
- Grand Embassy
- Table of Ranks
- absolutism
- St. Petersburg
- enlightened absolutism
- Nakaz
- Legislative Commission
- Pugachev Rebellion
- Charter of the Nobility


Absolutist Approaches to Power - Peter and Catherine westernized Russia