The Tsar's changes were designed to consolidate his sovereign authority and expand his control over a more powerful Russia. Peter's revolution did not affect the poor or impoverished in a positive way. By altering the relationship between the elites of Russian society and the serfs, Peter produced a wider division between the classes. He believed that just as landowners were obligated to service, so peasants were obligated to the land. Peter's tax laws expanded the number of taxable citizens; only exaggerating the existing unbalanced burden of the