I. Skim the text and complete the tasks given below.

Peter was his father’s youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in 1682. The family of Peter’s mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however, than the Ivan’s family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d’etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of the coup was a joint tsarship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan’s elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Peter had not enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest of his life.

 With Sophia in control, Peter was sent back to Kolomenskoe. He became acquainted with a small community of European soldiers, from whom he learned Western European tactics and strategy. Remarkably, neither Sophia nor the Kremlin Guard found this suggestive. In 1689, just as Peter was to come of age, Sophia attempted another coup; this time, however, she was defeated and confined to Novodevichiy Convent. Six years later Ivan died, leaving Peter in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence and rule in Moscow, his response was to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. He spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy but also traveling incognito and even working as a ship’s carpenter in Holland.

In 1698, still on tour, Peter received news of yet another rebellion by the Kremlin Guard, instigated by Sophia despite her confinement to Novodevichiy. He returned without any sense of humor, decisively defeating the guard with his own European-drilled units, ordering a mass execution of the surviving rebels, and then hanging the bodies outside Sophia’s convent window. She apparently went mad. The following day Peter began his program to recreate Russia in the image of Western Europe by personally clipping off the beards of his nobles.

Peter’s return to Russia and assumption of personal rule hit the country like a hurricane. He banned traditional Muscovite dress for all men, introduced military conscription, established technical schools, replaced the church patriarchy with a holy synod answerable to himself, simplified the alphabet, tried to improve the manners of the court, changed the calendar, changed his title from Tsar to Emperor, and introduced a hundred other reforms, restrictions, and novelties (all of which convinced the conservative clergy that he was the antichrist). In 1703 he embarked on the most dramatic of his reforms – the decision to transfer the capital from Moscow to a new city to be built from scratch on the Gulf of Finland. Over the next nine years, at tremendous human and material cost, St. Petersburg was created.

Peter generated considerable opposition during his reign, not only from the conservative clergy but also from the nobility, who were understandably rather attached to the status quo. One of the most notable critics of his policies was his own son Alexis, who naturally enough became the focus of oppositional intrigue. In fact, Alexis seemed to desire no such position, and in 1716 he fled to Vienna after renouncing his right to the succession. Having never had much occasion to trust in others, Peter suspected that Alexis had in fact fled in order to rally foreign backing. After persuading him to return, Peter had his son arrested and tried for treason. In 1718 he was sentenced to death, but died before the execution from wounds sustained during torture.

Peter himself died in 1725, and he remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Although he was deeply committed to making Russia a powerful new member of modern Europe, it is questionable whether his reforms resulted in significant improvements to the lives of his subjects. Certainly he modernized Russia’s military and its administrative structure, but both of these reforms were financed at the expense of the peasantry, who were increasingly forced into serfdom.

[http: //www.geographia.com/russia/rushis04.htm]

II. Find the English equivalents in the text and use them in the sentences of your own:

1) плотник, столяр

2) ответственный, несущий ответственность

3) ограничение

4) статус-кво

5) исход, итог, последствие

6) побуждать, подстрекать

7) сплачивать, собирать, объединять

8) воинская повинность

9) инновация, нововведение

10) с нуля; на пустом месте

11) владение, обладание

12) принятие на себя (обязанностей), вступление (в должность)

13) решительно

14) пытка

15) непредубеждённый; непредвзятый

 

III. Mark the following statements as True or False according to the text:

1. Peter was an only child of his parents and he became Tsar when Alexis died in 1676.

2. It was Peter’s sister Sophia who launched the first coup d’é tat against Peter.

3. Peter learnt Western European tactics and strategy when he lived in Kolomenskoe.

4. Peter got the sole possession of the throne after his sister’s death in Novodevichiy Convent.

5. Recreating Russia in the image of Western Europe presupposed the enforcement on nobles to cut their beards and wear European clothes.

6. It took seven years to build a new capital from scratch.

7. Conservative clergy and the nobility accepted with enthusiasm all the changes introduced by Peter.

 

IV. Discuss the following questions:

1. How can you name a new epoch in Russian history after Peter the Great? Prove your point.

2. Why did Pogodin, a historian, write about Peter the Great that he had done much for Russia?

3. What important features of Peter’s character can you single out? Compare them with Ivan the Terrible’s traits.

 

Text 2

Early reign

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