17 According to Bogoslovskii, Peter chose Swedish models for many reasons. Above all, Sweden’s physical and economic conditions appeared to be similar to Russia’s, and the Swedish administrative organs, famed for their consistently systematic structure, were considered superior to any others in seventeenth-century Europe and seemed to explain Sweden’s military successes. Another decisive factor was the fact that the Russians were more familiar with the Swedish administrative system than with any other.®^ Moreover, argued Bogoslovskii, there were a number of Swedish prisoners of war who spread knowledge of Swedish social institutions in Russia. “Thus,” stated Bogoslovskii: the Swedish administrative organs were not borrowed by accident: one must see a conscious judgement in their choice. But once they were chosen, they were not introduced into Russia in entirely the same way they existed in Sweden and were described by Pick. They were subjected to a reworking and even to alterations. Least of all is it possible to criticize Peter for any intention to copy the foreign administrative organs in a slavish manner. In contrast to Miliukov, then, Bogoslovskii emphasized the fact that the Russian reforms were markedly independent in relation to the Swedish models, and that this had been the case right from the beginning. The Russians learned from“foreign experiences,” but they maintained a critical eye in appraising them. This is a view shared by modern Soviet historiography. In sum, then, Bogoslovskii felt that the Petrine reforms were primarily the result of the influence of Western ideas.®'* The question of Swedish influence on Peter’s reforms was being studied simultaneously in Sweden. In 1884, Harald Hjärne published an essay in which he argued that: the Russian archives contain irrefutable evidence that the organization of the colleges was carried out under the immediate influence of the regulations in effect in Sweden, and that the first corps of civil servants was made up in part by Swedish prisoners of war who had been persuaded to accept positions in the new organs, and in part by other persons who had gained knowledge of the Swedish administration. Gradovskii’s influence on this essay is evident in such instances as when Hjärne wrote that “it was the collegial principle of government, with the more careful consideration of matters and the greater possibility of control which went with it, that struck [Peter] as being exemplary in contrast to «- Ibid., 30. «•* Ibid., 31. Ibid., 26. Harald Hjärne, “Ryska konstitutionsprojekt år 1730 efter svenska förebilder,” Historisk tidskrift, 4 (1884), 8. 2 - Peterson
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