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The greatest
paradox of Peter’s Reform was that by shaking up Russian society, by
introducing efficient and up-to-date methods, by equipping Russia
with military and economic might Peter not only preserved the most
salient features of traditional Muscovite society, but actually
strengthened and reinvigorated them. In other words,
his version of Europeanization served only to reinforce the
oppressive character of the state.
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This paradox
was forcefully expressed by the Russian philosopher George
Plekhanov: “In his Europeanization of Russia Peter developed to its
final, logical conclusion the condition of complete helplessness of
the population vis-à-vis the State that is characteristic of
Oriental despotism.” The rationalization and modernization initiated
by the state unchecked by any kind of control from society led in
practice to the creation of a police state. |
This is,
perhaps, the most tragic contradiction of Russian modernization
attempts. The coercive and brutal nature of these transformations
meant that Russia’s modernization attempts often defeated their main
purpose: that of creating conditions for unfettered modern social
and economic development. On the contrary, the state, which
remained, to a great extent, the embodiment of Oriental despotism,
used modernization and westernization in order to preserve and
strengthen its autocratic prerogatives and its dominance over
society.
Only the
ruling classes enjoyed the benefits of modernization whereas the
masses remained oppressed and saw the government’s reforms as
something alien to them and thrust upon them by the state against
their will.
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