The Founding of Russia's Navy: Peter the Great and the Azov Fleet, 1688-1714

Edward J. Phillips

Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995 - Russia - 214 pages

The reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), long regarded as the turning point in the Europeanization of Russia, witnessed the establishment of Russia's first modern navy, the Azov Sea fleet. Its creation evokes a fundamental question about the era: was Peter a reformer or a revolutionary? This three-part study examines Russia's maritime experience in the 17th and early 18th centuries in order to address this central question. The author argues that Peter's development of the navy was revolutionary in the scale and level of technology brought to fruition through the reform of existing political and social structures.

Contents

• THE FIRST ROMANOVS AND THE SEA THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: 13
• PREPARATIONS: 29
• BEGINNINGS 16881696: 31
• THE GRAND EMBASSY To EUROPE 16971698: 45
• PERMANENCE: 57
• NEW ENTERPRISES OLD SOLUTIONS: 59
• GROWTH CHANGE AND MISSION 16971700: 71
• ADMIRALTY ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCES 17001710: 85
• RENEWAL AND RUIN 17001712: 101
• THE LESSONS OF AZOV THE BALTIC FLEET 17021715: 113
• THE NAVY AND PETER THE GREATS RUSSIA: 125
• APPENDIX: 131
• NOTES: 161
• GLOSSARY OF SHIP TYPES: 199
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 201
• INDEX: 207

Popular passages

Page 20 - We, the Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince Aleksei Mikhailovich, Autocrat of all Great and Little...

Page viii - ... messing.' (Kenneth Graham, Wind in the Willows, 1908) Historians traditionally emphasise the rational, pragmatic aspects of Russia's military programme, not least with reference to naval affairs. A recent study of the origins of the Russian navy, for example, describes 'an evolving process of gathering and mobilizing available political, economic, social and cultural resources to surmount technical, organizational, and financial challenges'.1 Other contributors to this section outline the concrete...

About the author

EDWARD J. PHILLIPS is currently serving as a special projects consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He has been a lecturer and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and the University of Maryland at College Park.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Founding of Russia's Navy: Peter the Great and the Azov Fleet, 1688-1714; ABC-Clio ebook; Issue 159 of Contributions in military studies, ISSN 0883-6884
• Author: Edward J. Phillips
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995
• ISBN: 0313295204, 9780313295201
• Length: 214 pages