Peter I’s reforms for the education of worthy sons of the Fatherland: from the alphabet to public service

"Russia reared up...", - Pushkin wrote about the transformations of Peter the Great. The reformist activity of the first Russian emperor affected all spheres of life - government, foreign policy, economy, science, culture. The years of his reign are called the "epoch" - the epoch of Peter's transformations. With the same zeal, he was engaged in the creation of both the Russian fleet and the new alphabet.

By the beginning of the reforms of Peter I, the alphabet that came to Russia along with Christian writing was already very outdated, it retained features that were not used in secular texts and were inconvenient for typing printed texts. The state, on the other hand, needed a large number of educated domestic specialists and timely communication of official information to the population.

The work on variants of the new alphabet and font has been going on for more than one year. In January 1707, according to sketches, presumably made personally by Peter I, drawings of thirty-three lowercase and four uppercase letters (A, D, E, T) of the Russian alphabet were made and sent to Amsterdam for the manufacture of letters. The first book typed in the new civil font, Geometry of Slavonic Land Surveying, was published in March 1708. Later, the tsar decided to change the form of some letters. As a result of the reform, the number of letters in the Russian alphabet was reduced to 38, their writing became easier, instead of complex alphabetic numbers. It was prescribed to use Arabic numerals. The determined font was called "civilian".

Peter did the last proofreading personally.

A unique opportunity to learn about the historical document, to examine the handwritten corrections of Peter the Great is provided by an electronic copy of the Civil alphabet with Morals, which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

And although the Russian Orthodox Church continued to use the Church Slavonic alphabet, the introduction of the civil alphabet can rightfully be considered one of the key events in the history of our state and the Russian language.

The decree on the introduction of a new alphabet was dated February 9 (January 29, old style), 1710. It was necessary to start using the new font immediately and soon a list of books printed in the new alphabet and put on sale appeared in the Vedomosti of the Moscow State.

An important place among the published books belonged to publications designed, in accordance with the spirit of Peter's reforms, to educate a new person for a renewed state.

On February 15 (4, according to the old style), 1717, by decree of Peter I, the book An Honest Mirror of Youth, or an Indication for Worldly Behavior, Collected from Various Authors was printed. An associate of Peter, Jacob Bruce, took an active part in the creation of the textbook and supervised its publication. This book for many years became a "desktop" for teachers and parents, repeatedly reissued until the 19th century.

The first part of the book included a new alphabet, tables of syllables, numbers and religious instructions. It was practically the first manual for teaching a new civil script and Arabic writing of numbers.

The second part of the book was the rules of conduct for the younger generation. Some of them are from Holy Scripture.

The book formed the image of a person's behavior, avoiding bad company, extravagance, drunkenness, rudeness.

Similar documents from European countries were taken as a sample, but the system of ranks of the Russian Empire was also taken into account. The "Table of Ranks" included a table listing the ranks and ranks and explanations for its application.

All ranks were divided into three types: military (military army, military artillery and engineers, military guards, naval), civilian and courtiers. Each type of service was divided into 14 classes or ranks. Each species had its own characteristics, its own rank names, its own rules for obtaining the next rank, its own insignia. The first class was considered the highest, the fourteenth was considered the lowest, and military ranks were declared higher than the civil and courtiers corresponding to them. Officials of various classes had different forms of title: Your Excellency (for the highest), Your Excellency (for senators) and Your nobility (for everyone else).

Although the civil service was still focused on the nobility and made service mandatory for this class, the Report Card ... made it possible for talented people from the lower classes to advance. “In order to give them the desire to serve and honor them, and not to get impudent and parasites”, - we read the 3rd paragraph of the decree.

In addition, the principle of seniority was introduced, and anyone who received the rank of 8th class became a hereditary nobleman. Ranks from 14 to 9 gave the right to personal nobility. In military service, hereditary nobility was given already from the 14th grade. And most importantly, promotion now did not depend on the nobility of the family. The position in society could be determined not by the merits and titles of ancestors, but by what a useful person did for his country. In addition to the benefits for the country, there was also a personal benefit: becoming a nobleman, an official received land and peasants.

The "Table of Ranks" with minor amendments existed for almost two hundred years until December 29, 1917.

These and other unique documents - business and personal correspondence of the monarch, testimonies of contemporaries of Peter the Great, memoirs, historical research and many other materials are available on the Presidential Library’s portal in the collection Peter I (1672-1725), which has become a part of the digital collection The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Sobor of 1613.