How did Peter the Great’s reforms transform Russian literary culture?

Peter the Great’s reforms fundamentally reshaped Russian literary culture by forcing a rapid, state-mandated transition toward Western European models, creating a lasting sense of discontinuity in the nation's literary history.12

Key transformations included:

• Secularization and Language: Peter promoted secular education and the translation of foreign books, which diminished the traditional role of the clergy in literature. To accommodate new subject matter, the Old Church Slavonic alphabet was modernized into a secular script, and the language itself was later standardized by figures like Mikhail Lomonosov.34
• Adoption of European Forms: Russian writers began imitating and adapting European genres, such as the novel and various poetic forms, often grafting them onto the Russian tradition. This included a shift from syllabic verse to syllabotonic verse, which was better suited to the Russian language.23
• Cultural Gap: The rapid Westernization of the nobility created a significant cultural divide between the elite and the peasantry, a theme that became central to Russian literature.1
• Symbolism of St. Petersburg: The founding of St. Petersburg as a "window to the West" introduced a new literary setting that symbolized state power, reason, and the rejection of tradition, influencing works by authors from Aleksandr Pushkin to Fyodor Dostoyevsky.1