"Will Durant Explores the Reign of Peter the Great"

Peter the Great one the Barbarian Voltaire wanted to know what were the steps by which Men passed from barbarism to civilization no wonder he was interested in Peter for Peter embodied if not that process at least that effort in his flesh and soul and people or hear another great Frederick II of Prussia writing about Peter de Voltaire a bit confusedly he was the only truly educated Prince he was not only the legislator of his country but he understood perfectly all Naval science he was an architect an anatomist a surgeon an expert Soldier a consummate economist to make him the model of all princes he only needed an education less barbarous and ferocious we have noted that Barbara sent ferocious education the violence and bloodshed that surrounded Peter's childhood shocking his nervous system and accustoming him to brutality even in youth he suffered from a nervous tick which may have been aggravated later by heavy drinking and venereal disease he is subject to convulsions all over his body reported Burnet after visiting him in England in 1698. it is well known said in 18th century Russian that this Monarch was subject to short but frequent brain attacks of a somewhat violent kind a sort of convulsion seized him which for a certain time and sometimes even for hours threw him into such a distressing condition that he could not bear the sight of anyone not even his nearest friends this paroxysm was always preceded by a strong contortion of the neck towards the left side and by a violent contraction of the muscles of the face yet he was robust and Powerful we are told that when he and Augustus II met they rivaled each other in crumpling silver plate in their hands caneler in 1698 pictured him as a youth in arms and regalia quite incredibly gentle and innocent later we find him more realistically portrayed as a stooping giant six feet eight eight and a half inches tall with full round face large eyes and nose and brown hair falling in curls rarely cut his look of stern command hardly harmonized with his careless and untidy dress his course darned socks his rudely cobbled shoes while he put a nation in order he left his immediate surroundings in disorder wherever he went he was so immersed in large Endeavors that he grudged all time given to Little Things his manners like his dress were so informal that he might have been taken for a peasant rather than a king except that he had none of the music's stolid patience sometimes his manners were worse than a peasants because unrestrained by fear of a master or the law seeing a phallus in a collection of Antiquities at Berlin he ordered his wife to kiss it when Catherine refused he threatened to ever beheaded she still refused and he was calmed only by receiving the object as a present to Adorn his private room in his conversation and correspondence he allowed himself the crudest obscenities time and again he reproved his closest friends with blows of his massive fist he gave menchikov a bloody nose and kicked the four his fontness for practical jokes occasionally took cruel forms so he forced one of his aides to eat tortoises another to drink a whole flask of vinegar and young girls to Down The Soldier's ration of Brandy he took undue pleasure in practicing dentistry and those near him had to guard against the slightest complaint of a toothache his forceps were always at hand when his valet complained that his wife on the score of pretended toothache refused him the consolations of matrimony he sent for her forcibly extracted a sound tooth and told her that more would be forthcoming if she continued celibate his Lawless cruelty exceeded the degree in which it might be excused as normal or necessary in his time and land the Russians were accustomed to Cruelty and were probably less sensitive to pain than persons of a subpler nervous organization they may have needed a harsh discipline but Peter's almost personal Massacre of the Stroud sea suggests a sadistic pleasure in cruelty an orgasm of blood and no need of the state required to have two conspirators sliced to death inch by inch Peter was immune to pity or sentiment and lacked the sense of justice that checked the whims of Louis XIV for Frederick the Great his violations of his solemn word however were fully in the manner of the age like the music Peter thought intoxication was a reasonable vacation from reality he had taken upon himself all the burdens of the state and the far greater task of transforming an oriental people into Western Civilization festive drinking with his friends seemed a merited relief from these undertakings he hardly accepted the peasant adage that drinking is the Russian's Joy the ability to hold liquor was one of his measures of a man when he was in Paris he wagered that his priest Confessor could drink more and remain stable than the priest Secretary of the French Ministry the contest went on for an hour when the Abe rolled under the table Peter hugged his priest for having saved the honor of Russia about 1690 Peter and his Intimates formed a band called the most drunken assembly or Sabor of Fools and jesters Prince Theodore romodanovsky was elected tsar of the Sabor Peter accepted a subordinate position as he did in the Army and Navy and often in real life he pretended that romodanovsky was our of Russia the Sabor of drunkards was formally dedicated to the worship of Bacchus and Venus it had an elaborate ritual mimicking with grossness and obscenity those of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and much of this mock ritual was composed by Peter himself the Sabor took part in many official state celebrations when it's mock patriarch Nikita zatoff aged 84 married a bride of 60 Peter designed and commanded an ornate ribbled Ceremony this in 1715 in which the dignitaries and Ladies of the Court were to take part along with bears and Stags and goats and ambassadors playing flutes or the hurdy-gurdy and Peter beating a drum his sense of humor was hilarious and unrestrained often stooping to buffoonery his court was crowded with jesters and dwarfs who seemed indispensable to every ceremony once the Tsar nearly seven feet tall playing Gulliver to his lilliputians Rode In A procession at the head of 24 mounted dwarfs at one time Peter had 72 dwarves at his court some of whom were served up a table in gigantic pies there were giants too but most of these were sent as gifts to Frederick William of Prussia to join his army of obelisks several Negroes were presented to Peter he held them in high esteem and sent some of them to Paris for an education one of them became a Russian general the great grandfather of the poet Pushkin so far we picture Peter is still very much a barbarian and Yvonne the terrible but humorous anxious to be civilized but en being the West not for its Graces and arts but for its armies and navies its Commerce and Industry and wealth his virtues were directed to these ends as the prerequisites of civilization hence his insatiable curiosity of everything he wanted to know how it worked and then how it could be made to work better on his travels he exhausted his AIDS by running about to see this and that even through the night he was swamped with ideas thereby amazing leibniz who had a swamp of his own but Peter's ideas were frankly utilitarian he had an open mind for anything that could make his country catch up to the West in a nation gloomily religious and fanatically hostile to foreign Creeds and ways he was as unprejudiced as a child or a sage sampling Catholicism protestantism even free thought he was rather imitative than original he transplanted ideas rather than conceived them but in attempting to raise his Nation to a competitive level with the West it was wiser to absorb first the best that the West could teach and then try to surpass it never had imitation been so original his indefatigable Devotion to his purpose raised him out of barbarism to Greatness if he conscripted and consumed millions of Russians to his ends he used himself up too in the effort to give Russia a modern Army a more efficient government more varied and productive Industries wider Commerce and ports that could reach the world he was economical of everything except human life which was Russia's one abundant commodity almost his first measures on reaching power were to dismiss the horde of servants and Palace officials that in cluttered the Royal household to sell three thousand horses from the Royal Stables to sweep away 300 cooks and kitchen boys to reduce the Royal table even on peace days to 16 places at most to dispense with formal receptions and balls and to make over to the state the sums that adhere to four been allotted to these luxuries his father Alexis had left him a personal property of ten thousand seven hundred thirty four decitins were about 28 982 Acres of cultivated land and fifty thousand houses bringing in a revenue of two hundred thousand rubles yearly Peter turned nearly all this over to the state treasury reserving as his own only the ancient patrimony of the Romanov family 800 souls in the province of Novgorod in effect and in sharp contrast to Louis XIV the greatest of the czars reduced his court to a few friends with an occasional Festival informal and sometimes hilarious to brighten moscow's monotony often his economy became parsimony he underpaid his Palace staff meted out mathematically its daily allowance of food invited his friends not to dinner but to picnics where each would pay his share and when the prostitutes who served him bemoaned their modest honorariums he replied that he paid them as much as he paid a Grenadier whose Services were far more valuable women with one exception were minor incidents in his life he was not keenly sensitive to Beauty he had sexual needs but he dispatched them without ritual he did not like to sleep alone but this had nothing to do with sex usually he had a servant share his bed probably he wanted someone near him in case he should have a convulsion during the night at 17 to quiet his mother he married eudoxia lopuquina who was described as beautiful but stupid finding one quality more lasting than the other he neglected her and went back to his friends and his ships he took a succession of transient Mistresses nearly always of lowly origin and condition when Frederick II of Denmark jested with him about having a mistress Peter answered brother my harlots do not cost me much but yours cost you thousands of crowns which you could spend in a better way both the four and menchikov served the tsaras procurers and menchikov surrendered his own mistress to be Peter's second wife there must have been remarkable ability in her to raise her like Justinian's Theodora from strumpet to empress the future Catherine the first was born about 1685 in Livonia of humble stock left an orphan she was brought up as a servant by the Lutheran Pastor Luke in marionborg he taught her the catechism but not the alphabet she never learned to read in 1702 a Russian army under sharemichov besieged marienberg despairing of Defense the commander of the Garrison decided to blow up his Fortress and himself master blue informed of his intention took his family and his servant and fled to the Russian camp he was sent on to Moscow but Catherine was kept as a Solace for the soldiers she graduated through them to sharamachoff to menchikov to Peter in those Wars and regions a simple woman had to be complacent in order to eat for a Time Catherine seems to have served both menchikov and the Tsar they liked her because she was neat cheerful kind and understanding for example she did not insist on being sole mistress Peter found her a gay relief from the alarms of politics or War and the Tantrums of jealous concubines she accompanied him on campaigns lived like a soldier cut her hairs left on the ground and did not flinch when she saw men shot down at her side when a convulsion seized Peter and all others were afraid to touch him she would speak to him soothingly caress him calm him and let him sleep with his head on her breast when they were apart he wrote to his katyar Anushka letters of playful and yet sincere tenderness she became indispensable to him by 1710 she was his wife and everything but law she bore him several children in 1711 she helped to save him at the fruit in 1712 he publicly acknowledged her as his wife in 1722 he crowned her empress her influence over him was good in many ways she The Peasant girl improved the manners of the royal boar she moderated his drinking on several occasions she entered the room where he was carousing with friends and quietly commanded him come home little father and he obeyed she winked at his post-marital flirtations she made no attempt to influence politics but she saw to it that the Tsar provided for her future her relatives and her friends she overcame widespread resentment of her elevation by acting as an angel of Mercy in several instances she saved persons from the penalties to which Peter wished to condemn them and when he insisted on severity he had to conceal it from her she abused her power over him by selling her intercession in this way she amassed a secret Fortune part of which she judiciously invested under assumed names at Hamburg or Amsterdam shall we blame her for seeking some security at the time when everything depended upon one man's whim and all Russia was in flux 2. the petrine revolution Peter had inherited absolute power took it for granted and never doubted its necessity ruled by the Duma of boyars would restore feudal separatism and National chaos or stagnation ruled by a democratic assembly was impossible in a country still mentally and morally primitive Peter agreed with Cromwell and Louis XIV that only the concentration of authority and responsibility could organize the human Motley into a state strong enough to control the passions of the people and repel the attacks of land-hungry enemies he thought of himself not as a desperate but as a servant of the nation and his future and in large measure this was an honest belief at least half true he worked as hard as the simplest peasant in his realm normally he rose at five in the morning and labored 14 hours a day he slept only six hours at night but took a siesta afternoon such a program was not impractical in the Saint Petersburg Summers when daylight began at 3am and lasted till 10 pm but in Winter much of it had to go on during the night which began about three in the afternoon and continued till nine the next morning Saint Petersburg was the symbol and Archimedean fulcrum of his Revolution it was not an ideal site for a capital being too close to the coast even so it was 25 miles from the sea at a point where the river Neva split into two branches and Peter hoped to protect it by The Fortress of kronstadt that he raised in 1710 on an island at the entrance to the Bay the city itself was founded in 1703 on the model of Amsterdam since much of the site was marshy Neva is Swedish for mud St Petersburg was built upon piles or as a sad Russian saying had it upon the bones of the thousands of laborers who were conscripted to lay those foundations and rear the town in 1708 some 40 000 men were sent to the task in 1709 another forty thousand in 1711 46 000 in 1713 40 000 more they were paid half a Ruble per month which they had to supplement with begging and thieving Swedish prisoners of War employed in the construction died by the thousands as there were no wheelbarrows the men transported the materials in their uplifted captains stone 2 was conscripted the uks of 1714 forbade the erection of stone houses anywhere in Russia except in Saint Petersburg but there every nobleman in the land was commanded to raise a dwelling of stone the Nobles did it under protest hating the climate and not sharing Peter's love of the sea for himself Peter had some Dutch Artisans put together a cottage like those that he had seen at zandam with log walls shingle roof and small rooms he disliked palaces but allowed three at peterhof on the southern outskirts of the city for ceremonial occasions this Summer Palace was destroyed in the Second World War in a nearby suburb zarzko cello he built a summer cottage for his katanushka he did not at first intend to make Saint Petersburg a capital as well as a port it was too close to hostile Sweden but after his victory over Charles XII at potava he decided to make the change he longed to get away from the somber ecclesiastical atmosphere of Moscow and its narrow nationalism and he wanted the conservative Nobles to feel Progressive winds from the West so in 1712 he made it his Capital the muscovites mourned and predicted that God would soon destroy the half Heathen City before the new capital wrote Pushkin Moscow bowed her head as an imperial Widow Bows before a young zaritza Peter was so anxious to westernize Russia that he dragged it so to speak to the Baltic and batted look through his window on the west to this purpose and to have a base for his Fleet and Deport for foreign trade he sacrificed all other considerations the port would be icebound five months in the year that it would face the west and touch the sea as the denipper had made Russia Byzantine and the Volga had made it Asiatic so now the Neva would invite it to be European The Next Step was to build a Navy that would guard the lanes of Russian Commerce through the Baltic to the West Peter achieved this for a Time by building in the course of his Reign a thousand galleys but they were hastily and badly constructed their Timbers rotted their masts broke in the wind and after his death Russia reconciled herself to being what geography had made it a landlocked country shut off from the Atlantic and waiting for the conquest of the air to overleap its barriers into the world in this sense Moscow was right Russia's power and defense had to be on land through its armies and its space so in 1917 Moscow had its revenge and became the capital again Peter's most permanent reform was the reorganization of the army before him it had depended upon levies of peasants led by their feudal Lords loyal cheaply to them poorly disciplined and poorly armed Peter undermined the boyars by establishing a standing army manned by conscription equipped with the latest weapons of the west officered by men who had passed through the ranks and disciplined in the new ideal of proudly serving Russia rather than a narrow Province or a hated Lord it was military necessity that dictated Peter's Revolution he could not develop Russia without opening a way to the Baltic or the Mediterranean he could not do this without a modern Army he could not maintain such an army without transforming the Russian economy and government and he could not transform these without remaking the Russian people in Manor's aims and soul it was too great a task for one man or for one generation he began in his Whimsical impulsive way with the beards and dress of the men around him in 1698 soon after returning from the West he had his own sparse beard shaved and commanded all who wish to keep his favor to do the same accepting only the patriarch of the Orthodox Church soon an edict went throughout Russia that all laymen were to shave their chins mustaches might Remain the beard had been almost a religious symbol in Russia it had been worn by the prophets and the apostles and the reigning patriarch Adrian only eight years before had condemned the Shaving of the beard as irreligious and heretical Peter accepted the challenge beardlessness was to be a sign of modernity of willingness to enter into Western Civilization those laymen who felt a dire need of whiskers might keep them by paying an annual tax rising from one kopeck for a peasant to 100 rubles for a rich Merchant there were many old Russians says in Old history who after having their beard shaved off saved them preciously in order to have them placed in their coffins fearing that they would not be allowed to enter Heaven without them next to go was the Russian costume here too Peter felt that internal resistance to westernization would be reduced by wearing Western garb he himself got off the long sleeves of the army officers who appeared before him see he said to one of them these things are in your way you are safe nowhere with them at one moment you upset a glass then you forgetfully dip them in the saws get Gators made of them so an order went forth in January 1700 commanding all courtiers and officials in Russia to adopt western dress all persons entering or leaving Moscow had to choose between having their ankle long caftans cut at the knees or paying a fine the women were likewise urged to adopt Western costume they resisted less than the men foreign dress women are annual revolutionists not So Much by decrees as by the example of his family Peter ended the seclusion of Russia's women his father Alexis and his mother Natalia had led the way his half-sister Sophia had broadened it now Peter invited women to social Gatherings encouraged them to remove their veils to dance to make music to seek education even if only through tutors he issued edicts forbidding parents to marry their children against their will and requiring an interval of six weeks between betrothal and marriage in that period the engaged couple should be allowed to see each other frequently and to break off the engagement if they wished the women were glad to emerge from the tarem they began a race to adopt new fashions and some increase in illegitimate births gave the clergy a weapon against Peter's Revolution the resistance of religion was his greatest obstacle the clergy realized that his reforms would lessen their Prestige and power they bemoaned his toleration of Western faiths in Russia and they suspected that he himself had no religious belief they heard with horror of the parodies with which he and his Intimates mocked the Orthodox ritual for his part Peter resented the diversion of Manpower into the vast and innumerable monasteries and he coveted the enormous revenues that these institutions enjoyed when the patriarch Adrian died in October 1700 Peter deliberately refrained from appointing a successor he himself like Henry VII in England became head of the church and led a Reformation in Russia for 21 years the office of patriarch remained vacant depriving the Orthodox Church of a leader against the petrine reforms in 1721 Peter abolished the office altogether and replaced it with the Holy Synod of ecclesiastics appointed by the tsar and subject to a lay procurator in 1701 he transferred the administration of ecclesiastical properties to a department of the government the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts was curtailed the appointment of Bishops was made subject to governmental approval further edicts forbade the ordination of Mystics or Fanatics and limited the number of miracle-working centers men were not to take monastic vows before the age of 30 women were not to take final vows as nuns before the age of 50. monks were to be compelled to do useful work a census of monastic properties and revenues was taken by the government a part of this income was left to the monasteries the rest was devoted to the establishment of schools and hospitals most of the clergy resigned themselves to this Russian Reformation which again like that of Henry VII left Doctrine unchanged some raskolniki or dissenters denounced Peter's Antichrist and urged the people to refuse him obedience or taxes he had the leaders of this Rebellion arrested and dealt with them after his usual fashion some were knotted and banished to Siberia some were imprisoned for life one died of torture two were slowly burned to death for the rest Peter was abreast of the West in religious toleration he protected the raskolniki from persecution as long as they abstained from politics in Saint Petersburg to encourage foreign trade he allowed calvinist Lutheran and Catholic churches to be built on the nevsky prospect which came to be called the prospect of Tolerance he protected the Capuchin monks who entered Russia but banished the Jesuits in 1710 as two sedulus and propaganda for the Roman Church in general the religious reforms of Peter were the most lasting of all they ended the Middle Ages in Russia a vast process of secularization changed the life and spirit of Russia from Domination by priests and landlords to rule almost regimentation by the state Peter subordinated the boyars to his will made them serve the public and reorganized social ranks according to the importance of the Social Service performed a new aristocracy arose composed of officials in the Army the Navy and the bureaucracy the government was headed by a senate of nine later 20 men appointed by the Tsar it was administered by nine colleges directing respectively Taxation and Revenue expenditure audit and control Commerce industry Foreign Relations War Navy and law responsible to the Senate were the governors of the 12 provinces or gubernias and the councils that ruled the cities the population of each city was divided into three classes Rich merchants and the professions teachers and Craftsmen wage earners and laborers only the first class could be elected to the municipal Council only the first two classes could vote but all male taxpayers could take part in the town meetings the Mir or village community took form not as a democratic institution but as a body collectively responsible for the poll tax introduced in 1719. local autonomy was checked by central control and there was no thought of democracy the rapid transformation that Peter planned could be achieved if at all only by dictatorial power that transformation had to be economic as well as political for no purely Agricultural Society could long maintain its independence against States enriched and armed by industry a German Economist of the time pointed out what the next 200 years would prove that a nation exporting cheaply raw material and agricultural products would soon become basal to States producing and exporting chiefly manufactured goods for agriculture therefore Peter did little instead of reducing serfdom he extended it to Industry by his own example he taught the peasants how to cut their corn and he commanded the replacement of sickles with sides the Russians were accustomed to burn the woodlands to provide fertilizing ashes for the soil Peter forbade this needing lumber for his ships trees for his masts he introduced the cultivation of the tobacco plant the Mulberry and the vine and began the Russian breeding of horses and sheep but his cheap aim was rapid industrialization the first problem was to provide raw materials he spurred the spread of mining he gave stimulating rewards to men like Nikita demidov and Alexander stroganoff who showed Enterprise and skill in mining and Metallurgy urged landowners to encourage or allow the extraction of minerals from their soils and decreed that if they neglected to do this their soil might be mined by others by paying them merely a nominal fee by 1710 Russia ceased to import iron before Peter's death it was exporting it brought in foreign Artisans and managers and prodded the Russians of every rank to learn the industrial Arts an Englishman opened in Moscow a factory for treating hides and making shoes Peter commanded every town in Russia to send a delegation of cobblers to Moscow to learn the latest methods of making boots and shoes and held the galleys as a threat over shoemakers who plunged to their old ways to encourage the Russian textile industry he wore after this was functioning only native made cloth and forbade the muscovites to buy imported stockings soon the Russians were making good textiles an admiral shocked tradition and Delight of the Czar by manufacturing silk brocades a mujit developed a lacquer Superior to any similar product in Europe except the Venetian before the rain was over there were 233 factories in Russia some were quite large the Moscow manufacture of sailcloth employed 1162 workers one textile mill used 742 men another 730 one metallurgical establishment had 683 employees there had been factories in Russia before Peter but not on this scale many of the new plants were started by the government and were later sold to private management but even then they received State subsidies and were subject to detailed supervision by the government eye protective tariffs shielded the incipient industries from foreign competition to man The factories Peter resorted to conscription since there were few free laborers available peasants were converted willy-nilly into industrial workers manufacturers were empowered to buy serfs from landlords and put them to work in the factories large-scale undertakings were supplied with peasants transferred from State lands and Farms as in most governmental attempts at rapid industrialization the leaders could not wait for the acquisitive instinct to overcome habit and tradition and Lead workers from Old Fields and ways to new tasks and disciplines an industrial serpent have developed more or less reluctantly by Peter deliberately by his successors Peter apologized in an Edict of 1723 is not everything done at first by compulsion that there are few people willing to go into business or industry is true for our people are like children who never want to begin the alphabet unless they are compelled by their teachers it seems very hard to them at first but when they have learned it they are thankful already much Thanksgiving is heard for what has already borne fruit so in manufacturing Affairs we must act and compel and help by teaching but industry could not develop without Commerce to sell its products to encourage Commerce Peter raised the social status of the merchant class he forced the growth of a great shipbuilding industry at Archangel in St Petersburg he tried and failed to establish a Merchant Marine to carry Russian goods and Russian ships the music rooted and locked in his land did not take willingly or ably to the Sea within Russia itself trade was discouraged by great distances and forbidding roads but Rivers abounded fed by the Snows of the North and the Reigns of the South and when the rivers froze they froze so firmly that they like the frozen roads could carry heavy loads what was needed was to bind these rivers with canals to lead the Neva and the Davina to the Volga and the vulgar to the Dawn and so unite the Baltic and the White Sea with the Black Sea and the Caspian Peter laid the foundation of the great system and opened in 1708 the link between the Neva and the Volga but several rains had to pass before the network was complete and thousands of workers died in the attempt war and his montefarious Enterprises compelled Peter to raise capital in quantities unprecedented in Russia part of this he secured by giving the government a monopoly in the production and sale of salt tobacco tar fats potash resin blue rhubarb caviar even of Oak coffins these coffins were sold at a profit of 400 percent salt made a modest 100 percent but the Tsar realized that monopolies discouraged both industry and trade and after peace was signed with Sweden he abolished them at one stroke leaving internal trade free foreign trade remains subject to Import and Export duties but it multiplied almost tenfold between 1700 and Peter's death in 1725. most of it was carried in foreign vessels and what remained in Russian hands was hampered by widespread bribery that even Peter's draconic penalties could not suppress taxation was exhaustive a special group of governmental appointees was charged with devising and administering new taxes there were taxes on hats boots beehives rooms sellers chimneys births marriages beards attacks on households was frustrated by whole and chaotic migrations Peter changed it to attacks on Souls wherever found this did not apply to the nobility or the clergy the revenues of the state Rose from one million four hundred thousand rubles in 1680 to 8 million five hundred thousand in 1724 of which 75 percent went to the Army and Navy half of the increase was Unreal being due to a 50 depreciation of the currency during Peter's Reign for he could not resist the temptation to make a temporary profit by debasing the coinage from Monarch to Muji dishonesty clogged the economy the collection of taxes the decisions of the courts the administration of the laws Peter decreed death for all officials who accepted gifts but one of his aides warned him that if he enforced this decree he would soon have none but dead officials he killed some of them nevertheless Prince matvey Gagarin governor of Siberia became too conspicuously rich he adorned his statue of the Virgin with jewels worth 130 000 rubles Peter wanted to know how the Virgin got them when he found out he had Gagarin hanged in 1714 several High officials were arrested for stealing from the government and the people they included the vice governor of Saint Petersburg The Head of the State commissary the head of the admiralty the commandants of Nava and ravo and several senators some were hanged some were given life imprisonment some had their noses slit some were beaten with rods when Peter gave the order to Halt the punishment the soldiers who had administered it begged him father allow us to flog a little more for the thieves have stolen even our bread corruption continued a Russian proverb said that Christ himself would steal if his hands were not tied to the cross amid this struggle of one will to change the economic and political life of half a continent Peter found time to attempt a cultural revolution too he hated Superstition and longed to replace it with education and science the Russians said heretofore dated the years from the supposed creation of the world that begun them with September Peter in 1699 brought the Russian calendar in harmony with the Julian as used by the Protestant States Hereafter the year was to begin with January and be dated from the birth of Christ the people complained how could God have chosen midwinter as the time of creation Peter had his way but he did not dare adopt the Gregorian calendar which Catholic Europe had accepted in 1582 the elimination of 10 days as required by that papistical trick would have robbed several Orthodox Saints of their holy days the Restless Czar succeeded in the equally difficult Enterprise of reforming the alphabet the Orthodox Church used the old slavonic alphabet but the business classes had adopted an alphabet based on the Greek Peter ordered all secular Works to be printed in this new form the imported printing presses and printers from the Netherlands he started in 1703 the first Russian newspaper The Gazette of Saint Petersburg he ordered and financed the publication of books on technology and science he founded the library of Saint Petersburg and established the Russian archives by gathering into the library the manuscripts records and Chronicles of the monasteries he opened several technical institutes and ordered the sons of the aristocracy to enter them he tried to set up in each province a mathematical school and in Moscow he provided a gymnasium after the German model to teach languages literature and philosophy but these schools did not long survive in 1724 he organized The Academy of St Petersburg to this he brought such distinguished savants as Joseph DeLisle to teach astronomy and Daniel Bernoulli for mathematics on leibnitz's prompting he commissioned in 1724 by despairing the Danish navigator to lead an expedition to Kamchatka to find out whether Asia and America were physically United bearing sailed after Peter's death under Alexis the Russian theater had given only private performances Peter licensed to theater on the red square and opened it to the public he imported German players who presented 15 tragedies and comedies including some of Moliere foreign musicians were brought in to provide orchestras the Sonata and the concerto were introduced into Russia and Russian secular music took European forms of Harmony and Counterpoint Peter commissioned the purchase of paintings and statues chiefly Italian gathered these and other works into a Museum of Art in Saint Petersburg opened the museum to all visitors without charge and had Refreshments served to them foreign painters came to paint portraits in western style some Churches were built during the Reigns of Alexis hardly any under Peter architects now found it more profitable to build palaces no great literature flowered during this uprooting revolution time would be needed before the stimulus of Peter would be felt in poetry one Brave book appeared in the year before Peter's death Yvonne passagekov's book of poverty and wealth chided the Russians for barbarism and illiteracy and strongly supported the czar's reforms unhappily it said our great Monarch is almost alone with 10 others in pulling upwards while millions of individuals pulled downwards Yvonne denounced the oppression of the peasantry demanded an impartial administration of justice by courts free from class domination and shock the Czar by asking that representatives of all classes be brought together to write a new Constitution and code of laws for Russia a few months after Peter's death versacekov was arrested he died in prison in 1726. 3. aftermath the resistance to Peter's reforms Rose from year to year the Russians were accustomed to Poverty suffering and despotism but not even under Ivan the Terrible had they bore in such burdens or paid such taxes or died in such numbers not only in battle but in forced labor from Hunger cold exhaustion and disease misery increases from day to day wrote Peter's beloved le4 in 1723 the streets are full of people who try to sell their children the government pays neither the troops nor the Navy nor the administrative colleges nor anybody the Tsar bewildered by the growth of poverty amid his reforms made it a crime to beg or to give to Beggars and set up 60 organizations to distribute charity begging continued in crime spread serfs fleeing from servitude soldiers and conscript laborers deserting their camps at the risk of their lives almost ruled the roads sometimes they organize themselves into regiments several hundred strong which besieged and captured cities Moscow reported a general in 1718 is a hotbed of brigandage everything is devastated the number of law Breakers is multiplying and executions never stop some streets in Moscow were barricaded by the citizens some houses were surrounded with high fences to keep thieves out Peter tried to suppress robbery by severity captured brigands were to be hanged housebreakers were to have their noses cut off to the Bone Etc the criminals were not deterred life was so hard for the poor that they looked upon capital punishment as hardly distinguishable from the life imprisonment of serfdom or Force toil and they bore the most appalling tortures with the stoicism of deadened nerves Peter was so unpopular that many wondered that no one killed him the Nobles hated him for compelling them to serve the state and for raising up the business classes to prominence and wealth The Peasants hated him for conscripting them into labor that uprooted them from their homes often from their families Churchman hated him as the Beast of the Apocalypse who had made Christ himself the servant of the government nearly all Russians distrusted him for consorting with foreigners and importing Heathen ideas all Russia feared him because of his violence and Savage penalties Russia did not want to be westernized it abominated the West to preserve its own National Spirit it had to be slavophil desperate revolts broke out in Moscow in 1698 in Astra Khan in 1705 along the Volga in 1707 and sporadically throughout the Empire and the rain Peter symbolized and intensified the conflict by twice returning to the West in the fall of 1711 he went to Germany to preside at torgao over the marriage of his son there he received leibniz who proposed to him the establishment of a Russian Academy of which the polymorphous philosopher hoped to be president lazara was back in Saint Petersburg in January 1712 but in October amid a campaign against Sweden he took the waters at Carlsbad and visited bittenberg some Lutheran clergyman took him to the house in which Luther had flung an Inkwell at the Devil and they showed him the Ink Spot on the wall they asked him to write some comment on the wall he wrote the ink is quite fresh so that the story is evidently not true Peter returned to his new capital in April 1713. in February 1716 he was off to the West again he visited Germany and Holland and in May 1717 reached Paris hoping to marry his daughter Elizabeth to Louis XV meeting the seven-year-old King Peter lifted him up to embrace him a few days later received by Louis before the Royal Palace Peter raised him like an infant and carried him up the steps setting the court at tremble he spent six weeks in Paris as a sightseer absorbing every aspect of the political economic and cultural life of the city he had his portrait painted by Rigo and by natier he visited the Aged Madame de matnau at sancer from Paris he went to spa and for five weeks he drank the waters there for by this time he was suffering from a dozen ailments at Berlin his wife Catherine joined him she discovered that he had a mistress but she forgave this as in the best traditions of European royalty when they reached Saint Petersburg on October 20th 1716 Peter faced one of the worst crises of his career his son Alexis to whom he had hoped to bequeath the realm and the advancement of his reforms had come to dislike many of those Innovations and the methods by which they were enforced physically and mentally Alexis was the son of eudoxia rather than a Peter he was small timid and weak fond of books and devoted to the Orthodox Church where he had been reared in piety while Peter went off to war in the West at the age of nine Alexa saw his mother dismissed to a Convent in 1699 when he was 11 he heard the priests mourning the melting of church bells for Canon he asked his father why Russians should go out of Russia to fight for so distant the city as narva Peter was disgusted to find that his Heir had no taste for bloodshed while Peter busied himself building Saint Petersburg Alexis remained in Moscow loving its churches and ancient ways he resented the disruption of the patriarchate and the confiscation of monastic property by the state his Confessor taught him always to defend the church at whatever cost Alexis became the idol and hope of the ecclesiastical and aristocratic groups that hated Peter's secularization and westernization of Russia and they waited impatiently for the time when this religious and manageable youth would succeed to the throne Peter seldom saw him and then usually scolded him sometimes struck him as when the Tsar found that the boy had secretly visited his mother in her nunnery the youth's disaffection came near to hatred he admitted to his Confessor ignatyaf that he wished his father were dead this no sin God will forgive you he told Alexis we all wish for his death because the people have to bear such heavy burdens in 1708 Peter sent his son to Dresden to study geometry and fortification torgao in 1711 Alexis married Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick wolfenbutu he could not pardon her refusal to abandon her Lutheran faith for the Russian Orthodox religion he took Mistresses even from brothels and drank heavily shortly after Charlotte had borne him a child he visited her in the company of a courtesan a year later his wife died in childbirth in 1715. Peter summoned him to Saint Petersburg in an angry letter containing ominous words I do not spare my own life nor that of any of my subjects I will make no exception in your case you will mend your ways and you will make yourself useful to the state otherwise you shall be disinherited Alexis sought to appease his father by resigning his rights to the throne he would be satisfied he said to lead a quiet life in the country Peter felt that this was no solution on January 30th 1716 he wrote to Alexis I cannot believe your oath David said that all men are liars so that even if you wish to keep it you could be dissuaded by the long beards it is known to everyone that you hate my Deeds which I do for the people of this nation not sparing my health and after my death you will destroy them for that reason to stay as you would like to be neither fish nor flesh is impossible therefore either change your character and without hypocrisy be my worthy successor or become a monk give me immediately an answer if you do not do this I will treat you as a criminal Alexis's friends advised him to become a monk amongst Carol is not nailed on a man said one of them it can be laid aside again Alexis wrote to his father that he was willing to become a monk Peter relented and told him to take half a year to make up his mind the Tsar went off to the West in February 1716. on June 29th Peter's sister Natalia counseled Alexis to leave Russia and put himself under the protection of the emperor in September Peter wrote to a son from Copenhagen saying that the half year was up and that Alexis must enter a monastery at once or join his father in Denmark prepared for military service Alexis pretended that he was going to his father he obtained funds from menchikov in the Senate and proceeded not to Copenhagen but to Vienna on November 10th he begged the Imperial Vice Chancellor to secure for him the protection of the emperor Charles VI my father he said his incredibly wrathful and vengeful and Spares no man and if the emperor gives me back to my father it is all the same as taking my life the vice Chancellor sent him to the castle of Ehrenberg in the Tyro there Alexis remained in concealment and disguised under surveillance but supplied with all Comforts and allowed to keep with him his mistress afrosinia dressed as a page Peter's agents traced him there Alexis warned fled to Naples where he was guarded in the Castel santelmo Peter's agents found him and urged him to return to Russia in confidence of his father's Mercy he consented on condition that Peter allowed him to live with apricinia in rural retirement Peter so promised in a letter of November 28 1717. Alexis arranged to have aphrosinia stay in Italy till she bore her child on his long journey to Russia he sent her the tenderist letters he reached Moscow at the end of January on February 3rd Peter received him in a solemn assembly of the leading dignitaries of state and church Alexis kneeling and in tears asked pardon he wrote to afrosinia that his father treated him well and had invited him to his table he looked forward to her coming and to happiness with her in rural peace she arrived in April she was at once arrested she was subjected not to torture but to a severe examination she broke down and confessed that Alexis had rejoiced at news of rebellion against his father that he had expressed his intention on coming to power to abandon Saint Petersburg and the Navy and to reduce the Army to the needs of Defense this was nothing worse than what Peter already knew when he left Alexis at liberty for two months more then spurred on by New Revelations not known to us he announced that since his pardon of Alexis had presumed the full confession and he now had evidence that the confession had been insincere and incomplete he withdrew the pardon on June 14th Alexis was arrested and was confined in the Saints Peter and Paul Fortress on June 19 1718 after examination by the high court of justice he was put to the torture for the first time receiving 25 blows of the note he confessed that he had desired his father's death and that his Confessor had told him we all wish for his death he was confronted with afrocinia who repeated what she had told the Czar nevertheless he vowed that he would love her till his death he admitted by degrees not only everything about my father but his very person became odious to me he acknowledged that he would have used the emperor's help to conquer the crown by main Force on June 24th a further torture by 15 blows of the now Drew from him nothing more the high court pronounced him guilty of treason and then condemned him to death Alexis begged to be allowed to embrace his mistress before his execution we do not know if this was granted him Peter did not sign the sentence twice again on June 25th and 26th Alexis was interrogated under torture the second time in the presence of the tsar and members of the court and the four later reported though I am not sure of this I am assured that his father struck the first blows that afternoon Alexis died in prison apparently from the effects of torture one story says that Catherine bad the doctors opened his veins we cannot say whether this was an act of Mercy or of ambition for her son afrosinia received a share of Alexis's property married an officer of the guard and lived comfortably in Saint Petersburg for 30 years more Peter hoped to raise Catherine's son to succeed him but the boy died in 1719. Catherine bore two more Sons Peter and Paul but both died before the Tsar he consoled himself with the Majestic titles awarded him after the peace with Sweden in that year 1721 the Senate and the holy Synod conferred the title of empress upon Catherine after allowing Russia its one year of Peace since the beginning of his active rule Peter turned his forces against Persia he hoped to clear and control a caravan route to Central Asia at last to India his informants told him that gold could be found on the way and he anticipated the industrial possibilities of Caucasian and Middle Eastern Oil in 1722 he sent a fleet over the Caspian to attack Persia it captured Baku and some of the Persian Caspian Coast but storms destroyed most of the ships diseased decimated the Army and Peter returned from the campaign of 1724 exhausted pessimistic and near death he had for years been suffering from syphilis and from the medicines taken to cure it heavy drinking had made matters worse and the excitements of War Revolution revolts and terroristic violence had finally exhausted his giant physique in November 1724 he jumped into the icy neighbor to help rescue Sailors on a grounded vessel he worked through a whole night in water up to his waist on the next day he had a fever but he survived it and resumed a heavy schedule of activities on January 25th he took to his bed with painful inflammation of the bladder not till February 2nd would he admit that death was upon him he confessed some of his sins and received the sacraments on the sixth he signed a proclamation freeing all prisoners except those condemned for murder or offenses against the state he startled his attendance with his cries of pain he called for a slate on which to write his will but when he had written only the words give all the pen fell from his hand soon he lapsed into a coma which continued 36 hours and from which he did not awake he was pronounced dead on February 8 1725. he was 52 years old Russia breathed with relief as if a long and terrible nightmare had ended at last the kings of Sweden and Poland rejoiced they expected Russia to fall into Anarchy and be no longer a danger to the West the old medieval Russia raised its head and begged for a return to the Past the nation had been too violently propelled and it had been hurt in its soul and pride by two indiscriminate and imitation of the West reaction was widespread and Victorious many of the reforms were allowed to die from lack of support the administrative bureaucracy was reduced but its framework endured till 1917. the Nobles regained much of their old Power they recovered their rights to the Timber and minerals on their lands the business class so suddenly elevated by Peter returned to its former subjection many of the new Industries collapsed through inadequate Machinery or incompetence in labor or management the incipient capitalism faded away and economic Russia remained for another 200 years essentially as she had been before the Petron Revolution the commercial reforms had better success trade with the West continued to increase some improvement of manners resulted from the contacts with Europe but the old native costumes returned under Catherine II 1762-1796 and beards came back into Style with Alexander II 1855-1881. corruption continued morals showed no gain and perhaps Peter's example of drunkenness licentiousness and brutality left his people morally worse than before only those changes survived that had sunk their roots in time Peter was among the less lovable figures of modern history and yet his achievement was immense his failures attest the limitations of Genius as a factor in history but the mark that he left upon Russia is a tribute to the power of personality he gave Russia an Army and Navy he opened the ports that allowed her to trade goods and ideas with the West he established Mining and Metallurgy he founded schools and an Academy with one Savage poll he drew Russia out of Asia into Europe and made her a factor in European Affairs henceforth Europe would have to reckon more and more with that vast Heartland those hearty patient stoic multitudes and their imperious and inescapable destiny