The increased revenues that the government received from indirect taxation at the end of the nineteenth century suggests that the population was sufficiently prosperous to continue to consume taxed goods, even as the tax on them rose. The preponderance ofrural dwellers in the Russian Empire makes it improbable that it was townspeople who were the main purchasers ofthese goods and, in any case, significant numbers ofthe peasantry augmented their income from farming by wage labour in Russia's growing factories. It does appear as if the Russian peasant was, overall, well enough off to be able to continue to consume manufactured goods, even as the government increased the taxation on them. Witte's 1898 plaintive report to the emperor about the impoverishment of the peasantry and the effect this had on the state's budget is a reflection on the long-term relative poverty of the Russian peasant. The poor yields that Russian agriculture produced meant that the per capita income of Russia's farmers continued to be much lower than incomes elsewhere in Europe and thus, that the tax revenues that they could contribute were significantly lower than in Austria or France.
The challenge that the Russian state faced in framing its fiscal policies was how to enhance the overall prosperity of its population and thus increase the state's revenues. Although it was able to stave off the most serious financial crises, tsarist Russia faced a series of nevertheless persistent and significant budget difficulties. These were the product of the imperial Russian regime seeking to maintain a military profile equivalent to that of its Western neighbours and rivals from an economic base that was much less developed than its Great Power rivals. The tsarist state's expenditure was on the same level as that of its more prosperous rivals to the west, but its revenue-raising potential was much lower. The tsarist state had, therefore, to impose relatively high levels of taxation on its population to enable it to continue as a Great Power and it had to collect its revenues effectively and ruthlessly if it was to continue to be a credible military power.
PART VI
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FOREIGN POLICY AND THE ARMED FORCES
Peter the Great and the Northern War
PAUL BUSHKOYITCH
From the end of the fifteenth century to Peter's time the main preoccupation of Russian foreign policy was the competition with Poland-Lithuania for territory and power on the East European plain. Poland was the hegemonic East European power for almost two centuries, and after initial success by 1514, Russia struggled in vain against its neighbour with few intervals of peace or goodwill. The long series of wars that resulted culminated in the war of 1653-67, which brought the Ukrainian Hetmanate into the Russian state and marked a decisive turn in Russia's favour. Relations with the Tatar khanates to the south and east were more complex. Russia had conquered Kazan and Astrakhan in 1552-6 but was unwilling to confront Crimea, whose overlord was the Ottoman Empire, western Eurasia's greatest power until the very end of the seventeenth century. The tsars preferred to build elaborate defences in the south, a line of forts and obstructions that stretched hundreds of miles from the Polish border to the Volga, and mobilise the army every spring rather than risk war with the Ottomans by pressing too hard on Crimea. The only area of relative security was the north-west, the Swedish border. The expansion of Sweden into Estonia in the 1570s and the capture of Ingria, ratified at Stolbovo in 1619, cut Russia off from the Baltic and placed an ever more powerful neighbour on Russia's frontier, but Sweden's main preoccupations were with Denmark, Germany and Poland, not Russia. In the seventeenth century Russia's relations with Sweden were good (apart from the war of 1656-8, a result of the Polish tangle) and the King of Sweden was the only European monarch to be allowed to send a resident emissary to Moscow, from 1630 until the outbreak of the Northern War. Thus it was not without reason that Peter's declaration of war on Sweden in 1700, in concert with Denmark and King Augustus II of Poland, came as a surprise in Stockholm.[97]
Peter's new war was also a surprise because Russian foreign policy after 1667 had been preoccupied with the Ottoman Empire and its Crimean vassal. Russia's strategic situation had been radically altered by the acquisition of the Ukrainian Hetmanate, placing Russian troops in Kiev and other Ukrainian towns on the northern edge of the steppe, that is, of Crimean territory. The immediate result was the Chigirin War of 1677-81, the first in which Russian troops actually confronted Ottoman soldiers as well as the Crimeans. The outcome was a minor military defeat for Russia but also recognition of Russia's new border along the Dnieper. With their northern frontier secure, the Turks under Kara Mustafa pasha turned to Vienna but were defeated in 1683. The failed Turkish siege of Vienna led to the Habsburg reconquest of Hungary and the formation of the Holy League, consisting of the Empire, Poland, Venice and the Papacy. The regent Sophia, Russia's ruler in Peter's youth (1682-9) responded positively to an imperial invitation to join the Holy League, but such a step required a full reconciliation with Poland (1686), something that aroused doubts not only among Polish magnates but also in Moscow The Naryshkin faction was against it, but Sofia and her favourite Prince V V Golitsyn persuaded the duma (council of Boyars) to go along and Russia joined in. Her contribution was to be the two Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689, both attempts to strike Crimea across the steppe, moving south from the Ukraine, and both ignominious failures. The failures led to the triumph of Peter and the Naryshkins, but the new government was not decisive enough either to break with the alliance or to continue the struggle. The war stagnated until the death of Peter's mother in 1694 put him wholly in charge for the first time. Late in that year, on his return from Archangel and his first sea voyage, Peter decided to move against the Turks and he did not consult the boyars about it. He followed the enthusiastic advice of his two foreign favourites, Francois Lefort of Geneva and the Scottish general Patrick Gordon, not that of his Naryshkin relatives. In the war Peter moved not against Crimea but against the Ottoman fort of Azak (Azov) at the mouth of the Don. The lack of a Russian navy caused the failure of the first siege, so over the following winter Peter built one at Voronezh and in 1696 took the fort. It seems that he intended to go on fighting the Turks, opening his way into the Black Sea, and talks with his allies were the diplomatic purpose of the famous trip to Europe in 1697-8. There he discovered that the Habsburgs in particular were weary of war and that Peter would himself have to make peace with Istanbul.
On the way home he met with Augustus II in Poland, who had a new idea: attack Sweden. If Peter went along it meant a break with the tsar's previous favourites, Lefort and Gordon, who continued to favour an anti-Ottoman policy, but both died early in 1699. He mourned their deaths, but for political support found two new favourites, Fedor Golovin, the scion of an old boyar family, and Aleksandr Menshikov, the son of one of the palace falconers. Peter moved quickly to make a treaty with Denmark, completing the circle of allies against Sweden. His method was characteristic, for he ordered the Danish envoy to Voronezh where he was inspecting the shipyards. There he met the Dane at night in a small house on the edge of town with only Fedor Golovin and a translator present, and together they wrote the treaty. Peter told the Dane to be sure to keep the matter secret from the Russian boyars. Complications with the Turkish peace put off the Swedish war until the autumn of 1700, but the new direction was now set.
The course of the war was full of surprises, for the political, military, economic and even demographic position of the warring powers was not what it seemed on the surface. Sweden had been the hegemonic power in northern Europe since the great victories of Gustavus Adolphus, having reduced Denmark in size and power and established itself not only in the Baltic provinces but in northern Germany The performance of KingJan Sobieski's army before Vienna in 1683 seemed to suggest that Poland had recovered from its losses in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Contemporaries attributed great significance to Augustus II's success in Hungary as an imperial ally and commander, presum- ingthat he, like Sobieski, could overcome the contentions of Polish magnates long enough to secure victory. Russia, in contrast, was still a marginal power, fighting with mixed success against the Turks and Tatars and apparently much less important than Poland.
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For more detailed discussion and a full bibliography see Paul Bushkovitch,