A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The Russian and Swedish Empires 275

that Peter subordinated the church to his state. They also opposed Greek
and Byzantine liturgical forms, as well as the growing influence of baroque
art and religious architecture imported to Russia from Central Europe. They
considered such reforms, which constituted a “Russian reformation,” sacri­
legious. For example, they believed that the beards the tsar had ordered
shaved had distinguished Russians from people in the West. Peter placed the
Orthodox Church fully under state control, first by not naming a new patri­
arch (the head of the Russian Orthodox Church) upon the death of the
incumbent in 1700 and later by simply abolishing the patriarchate. Peter
overcame four uprisings and several conspiracies directed against him. In
1716-1718, he suspected his son Alexei, who was influenced by churchmen
and boyars who did not support the tsar's wars, of being involved in a plot
with the Habsburg monarchy against him. Peter ordered him tortured to
reveal his accomplices, who were executed, and Alexei died in a prison cell.

Map 7.3 The Expansion of Russia The state of Muscovy was expanded through

the acquisitions of Ivan III, Ivan IV (the Terrible), and Peter the Great.