>>4604243Well Peter the Great wanted to make Russia more like Western Europe and Russia was lagging behind in education and science, so he established a lot of military academies under direct control of the state. If you advanced far enough you could gain noble status during your time in the university, but you also had to have enough money to buy a second household. You also had to dedicate the rest of your life to military service. This helped Russia to get up to date with science, math, and technology that the rest of Europe was innovating.
