European innovations as an external decoration of the state propaganda of Peter the Great

Abstract

Aim. The purpose of the article is to analyze several forms of state propaganda of Peter the Great’s era.Metodology. The author analyzes the semantic load that allegoric portraits of Peter the Great, commemorative medals, orders, decor of ships, performances and triumphs carried out in the Western European manner. The basis of the study is determined by the principle of historicism, which requires interpretation of meanings, based on the beliefs of the late 17th – early 18th centuries. The methodology of comparative analysis of Western and Russian sources was applied.Results. The analysis revealed the superficiality of Peter the Great’s Europeanization in the ideological sphere, the substitution of the idea of the «common good» in the interpretation of the tsar. In essence, the state ideology of that time was the form of the development of the former «Old Moscow » socio-political views which were developed as a part of the Russian patrimonial monarchy, ornamented by European allegorical «decor».Research implications. The conclusion made is practically not found in domestic historiography and emphasizes the attention of researchers to that part of Peter the Great’s ideology which was connected with the old basis of the sociocultural system of Russia rather than with with the «innovations».