5. Other reforms of Peter the Great:

a) Monetary reform

The monetary reform was aimed at creating the monetary system that would satisfy political and economic conditions of the new era. This reform began in 1698 and has become one of the first large-scale reforms carried out by Peter the Great. To a certain extent that reform laid the foundation for many other reforms and developments since it regulated rather chaotic and archaic monetary system that existed in Russia in the 17th century and provided an opportunity to increase state income ensuring growing cost of the Northern War. The reform started when the weight of an old silver kopeck was diminished in 1698 and new small copper coins, mites, half-mites and dengi, were introduced into circulation in 1700 [11]. In the course of the reform a flexible system of nominals was introduced. It included golden coins (a 10-roubles coin (“chervonets”), since 1718 a two-roubles coin); siver coins (a rouble coin, half a rouble coin (“poltina”), quarter a rouble coin (“polupoltina”), a 10-copecks coin (“grivennik”), a 3-copecks coin (“altyn”); copper coins (a 5-copecks coin (“pyatak”), a 1-copeck coin (“kopeika”) and fractions of a copeek).After that silver and gold coins of the new design were put into circulation while pre-reform coins continued to be minted in limited numbers until 1718. The correlation between coins made of different metals were strictly defined and for the first time in international practice the basis of the monetary system was the decimal system (1 rouble was equal to 100 kopecks) [5, 543].

Peter the Great paid special attention to the technical improvement of coinage. A coin is one of the major elements of the state power and the quality of its technical and artistic performance has always had an impact on prestige of this or that state abroad. However, the level of coinage in Russia in the XVIIth century was far behind the European level. During his trip to Europe, Peter the Great paid a special visit to the London Mint, where he carefully studied details of the coinage process. And it was then that Peter the Great ordered to purchase spindle presses for stamping coins in Russia.

A significant result of the monetary reform of Peter I in the 18th century became an introduction in Russia to the new cultural custom of rewarding decorative and issuing commemorative medals. During the first period of work of the Kadashevskiy mint, apart from the first gold and silver coins, the first Russian medals were minted. Assimilation of the new European custom was helped by the old Russian tradition of the pre-Peters time to decorate warriors with conferred golden coins. The first decorative medals were minted for the participants in the victorious battles of the Russian army. Searching to inform Europe of the Russian victories, Peter I commissioned a famous medallier from Augsburg F.G.Mueller to create a series of commemorative medals devoted to the defeat of Sweden in the Northern War [12].

The state dominated all forms of industry. It combined creation of its own industry with organization of its own trade mainly to get profit from popular goods inside the country and to import such goods, which could bring money to the state to purchase ships, weapon, raw materials, and equipment for industry.

The monetary reform was aimed at creating the monetary system that would satisfy political and economic conditions of the new era.

b) Religion reform

Eastern Orthodoxy and the power of the church had long played an important role of authority in Russia. The Orthodox Church was, by Peter the Great's decree, suddenly under government supervision by the appointment of the so-called Chief Procurator, who was a secular representative of the government within the Church.

In 1700, the head of the church, Patriarch Adrian, died. Peter did not replace him. In 1701, the control of church property was handed over to a government department called the Monastyrskii Prikaz. This received monastic revenues and paid monks a salary. The simple fact that it was a government department meant that it was subordinate to the will of Peter. In 1721, the church hierarchy was officially abolished by the Ecclesiastical Reservation and the church was placed under the control of the Holy Synod and was fully linked to the state. The 1721 Regulation specifically stated what the clergy could do; in essence, it was designed to control their daily life so that they became an apparatus of the state. The task of the clergy was seen as two-fold: to work for the state and to make their congregations totally submissive to the state by convincing them that Peter was all but God-like to ensure the population of Russia's total subordination to the crown [10].

Previously, the Russian Tsars had exerted some influence on church operations; however, until Peter's reforms the church had been relatively free in its internal governance. Following the model of the Byzantine Empire, the Tsar was considered to be the "Defender of Orthodoxy". In this capacity he had the right of veto over the election of new bishops, and upon the consecration of new bishops he would often be the one to present the crozier to them. The Tsar would also be involved in major ecclesiastical decisions.

During this time, the church lost much of its landed wealth, and a system of clerical education was established for the first time in Russia. Tsar Peter inflicted numerous reforms on his country with the help of Archbishop Theophan Prokopovich, Peter's ally in his reform of the Russian Orthodox Church. The reforms were designed to create and pay for a new government and a military and naval system that would enable Russia to trade with, compete with, and, as necessary defend Russia's European interests by force of arms. The ruthlessness with which he implemented his governmental and tax collection reforms, and the forced buildup of his new capital city, St. Petersburg, augured poorly for the independence of the church.

The Russian patriarchate was not restored until Tsar Nicholas II gave his permission for the calling on an All-Russian Sobor (Council) for the purpose of electing a new patriarch. Plans for the Sobor were made before the February Revolution and the Tsar's subsequent abdication on 15 March of that year. However, the assembly met despite the onset of the revolution, and on 21 June 1917, the Sobor elected St. Tikhon as Patriarch of Moscow.

Monasteries lost territory and were more closely regulated, resulting in a reduction in monks and nuns numbers from twenty-five thousand in 1734 to fourteen thousand in 1738.

A new ecclesiastic educational system was begun under Peter the Great and expanded to the point that by the end of the century there was a seminary in each eparchy. The result was that more monks and priests were formally educated than before, but their training was poor preparation for their ministry to a Russian-speaking population steeped in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. Catherine even saw that the salaries of all ranks of the clergy were paid not through the church but by the state, with the result that the clergy became effectively employees of the state [10].

In 1701, the control of church property was handed over to a government department called the Monastyrskii Prikaz. Th church was placed under the control of the Holy Synod and was fully linked to the state. During this time, the church lost much of its landed wealth, and a system of clerical education was established for the first time in Russia. Monasteries lost territory and were more closely regulated.