style in Europe and the forerunner of modern government ministries. In
1711 Peter created the Senate and eventually assigned to it administra-
tive, financial, and judicial duties.

Another major domestic reform destroyed the Russian Orthodox
Church's independence and turned it into a pliant tool of the state. This
was accomplished in 1721 when Peter replaced the office of patriarch
with the Holy Synod, a body of twelve priests supervised by a lay ober-
procurator, all appointed by the tsar.

In his drive to westernize Russia, Peter the Great introduced a number
of far-reaching cultural reforms. He replaced the old Muscovite calendar,
which calculated the years from the supposed beginning of time, with
the Julian calendar, which, in turn, remained in effect until superseded
by the Gregorian calendar after the 1917 revolutions. He also simplified
the Russian, or Cyrillic, alphabet, although he did not adopt the Latin
one. He brought newspapers to Russia and speeded up the process of
emancipation for Russian noblewomen that had started with his prede-
cessors. Peter concluded that a modern, Western state required an edu-
cated elite, and he proceeded accordingly. Not surprisingly, his first
schools specialized in subjects that had military value, such as mathe-
matics and navigation. Shortly before his death, he created the Russian
Academy of Sciences, which encouraged higher education in Russia.

Peter the Great was so obsessed with westernizing Russia that he even
turned his attention to appearances. He insisted that the nobility dress
in the Western manner and went so far as to personally shave Musco-
vites, since he regarded beards as symbolic of Russia's backwardness.

One reform that Peter introduced backfired. Disgusted with the conduct
of his son, Alexis, who died in 1718 under torture imposed by Peter, the
tsar decreed that henceforth the ruler would have the right to select his
successor. This destabilized the normal process by which the eldest son
followed his father on the throne. Ironically, in the case of Peter the Great
himself, he died in February 1725 without designating his successor.

Taylor Stults

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the British statesman Winston
Churchill spoke of Russia's potential role in that terrible conflict. In a
famous phrase, Churchill provided a dramatic image. Russia, he said,

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