COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN.
1691-1697
Peter's unlimited power--Extent of his dominions--Character--His wishes
in respect to his dominion--Embassy to China--Siberia--Inhospitable
climate--The exiles--Western civilization--Ship-building--The Dutch
ship-yards--Saardam--The barge at the country palace--The emperor's
first vessels--Sham-fights--Azof--Naval operations against
Azof--Treachery of the artilleryman--Defeat--New attempt--The Turkish
fleet taken--Fall of Azof--Fame of the emperor--His plans for building
a fleet--Foreign workmen--Penalties--His arbitrary proceedings--He
sends the young nobility abroad--Opposition--Sullen mood of
mind--National prejudices offended--The opposition party--Arguments of
the disaffected--Religious feelings of the people--The patriarch--An
impious scheme--Plan of the conspirators--Fires--Dread of them in
Moscow--Modern cities--Plan for massacring the foreigners--The day--The
plot revealed--Measures taken by Peter--Torture--Punishment of the
conspirators--The column in the market-place
Peter was now not far from twenty years of age, and he was in full
possession of power as vast, perhaps--if we consider both the extent of
it and its absoluteness--as was ever claimed by any European sovereign.
There was no written constitution to limit his prerogatives, and no
Legislature or Parliament to control him by laws. In a certain sense,
as Alexander Menzikoff said when selling his cakes, every thing
belonged to him. His word was law. Life and death hung upon his
decree. His dominions extended so far that, on an occasion when he
wished to send an embassador to one of his neighbors--the Emperor of
China--it took the messenger more than _eighteen months_ of constant
and diligent traveling to go from the capital to the frontier.
Such was Peter's position. As to character, he was talented,
ambitious, far-seeing, and resolute; but he was also violent in temper,
merciless and implacable toward his enemies, and possessed of an
indomitable will.
He began immediately to feel a strong interest in the improvement of
his empire, in order to increase his own power and grandeur as the
monarch of it, just as a private citizen might wish to improve his
estate in order to increase his wealth and importance as the owner of
it. He sent the embassador above referred to to China in order to make
arrangements for increasing and improving the trade between the two
countries. This mission was arranged in a very imposing manner. The
embassador was attended with a train of twenty-one persons, who went
with him in the capacity of secretaries, interpreters, legal
councilors, and the like, besides a large number of servants and
followers to wait upon the gentlemen of the party, and to convey and
take care of the baggage. The baggage was borne in a train of wagons
which followed the carriages of the embassador and his suite, so that
the expedition moved through the country quite like a little army on a
march.
It was nearly three years before the embassage returned. The measure,
however, was eminently successful. It placed the relations of the two
empires on a very satisfactory footing.
The dominions of the Czar extended then, as now, through all the
northern portions of Europe and Asia, to the shores of the Icy Sea. A
very important part of this region is the famous Siberia. The land
here is not of much value for cultivation, on account of the long and
dreary winters and the consequent shortness of the summer season. But
this very coldness of the climate causes it to produce a great number
of fine fur-bearing animals, such as the sable, the mink, the ermine,
and the otter; for nature has so arranged it that, the colder any
climate is, the finer and the warmer is the fur which grows upon the
animals that live there.
The inhabitants of Siberia are employed, therefore, chiefly in hunting
wild animals for their flesh or their fur, and in working the mines;
and, from time immemorial, it has been the custom to send criminals
there in banishment, and compel them to spend the remainder of their
lives in these toilsome and dangerous occupations. Of course, the
cold, the exposure, and the fatigue, joined to the mental distress and
suffering which the thought of their hard fate and the recollections of
home must occasion, soon bring far the greater proportion of these
unhappy outcasts to the grave.
Peter interested himself very much in efforts to open communications
with these retired and almost inaccessible regions, and to improve and
extend the working of the mines. But his thoughts were chiefly
occupied with the condition of the European portion of his dominions,
and with schemes for introducing more and more fully the arts and
improvements of western Europe among his people. He was ready to seize
upon every occasion which could furnish any hint or suggestion to this
end.
The manner in which his attention was first turned to the subject of
ship-building illustrated this. In those days Holland was the great
centre of commerce and navigation for the whole world, and the art of
ship-building had made more progress in that nation than in any other.
The Dutch held colonies in every quarter of the globe. Their
men-of-war and their fleets of merchantmen penetrated to every sea, and
their naval commanders were universally renowned for their enterprise,
their bravery, and their nautical skill.
The Dutch not only built ships for themselves, but orders were sent to
their ship-yards from all parts of the world, inasmuch as in these
yards all sorts of vessels, whether for war, commerce, or pleasure,
could be built better and cheaper than in any other place.
One of the chief centres in which these ship and boat building
operations were carried on was the town of Saardam. This town lies
near Amsterdam, the great commercial capital of the country. It
extends for a mile or two along the banks of a deep and still river,
which furnish most complete and extensive facilities for the docks and
ship-yards.
Now it happened that, one day when Peter was with Le Fort at one of his
country palaces where there was a little lake, and a canal connected
with it, which had been made for pleasure-sailing on the grounds, his
attention was attracted to the form and construction of a yacht which
was lying there. This yacht having been sent for from Holland at the
time when the palace grounds were laid out, the emperor fell into
conversation with Le Fort in respect to it, and this led to the subject
of ships and ship-building in general. Le Fort represented so strongly
to his master the advantages which Holland and the other maritime
powers of Europe derived from their ships of war, that Peter began
immediately to feel a strong desire to possess a navy himself. There
were, of course, great difficulties in the way. Russia was almost
entirely an inland country. There were no good sea-ports, and Moscow,
the capital, was situated very far in the interior. Then, besides,
Peter not only had no ships, but there were no mechanics or artisans in
Russia that knew how to build them.
Le Fort, however, when he perceived how deep was the interest which
Peter felt in the subject, made inquiries, and at length succeeded in
finding among the Dutch merchants that were in Moscow the means of
procuring some ship-builders to build him several small vessels, which,
when they were completed, were launched upon a lake not far from the
city. Afterward other vessels were built in the same place, in the
form of frigates; and these, when they were launched, were properly
equipped and armed, under Le Fort's direction, and the emperor took
great interest in sailing about in them on the lake, in learning
personally all the evolutions necessary for the management of them, and
in performing sham-fights by setting one of them against another. He
took command of one of the vessels as captain, and thenceforward
assumed that designation as one of his most honorable titles. All this
took place when Peter was about twenty-two years old.
Not very long after this the emperor had an opportunity to make a
commencement in converting his nautical knowledge to actual use by
engaging in something like a naval operation against an enemy, in
conjunction with several other European powers, he declared war anew
against the Turks and Tartars, and the chief object of the first
campaign was the capture of the city of Azof, which is situated on the
shores of the Sea of Azof, near the mouth of the River Don. Peter not
only approached and invested the city by land, but he also took
possession of the river leading to it by means of a great number of
boats and vessels which he caused to be built along the banks. In this
way he cut off all supplies from the city, and pressed it so closely
that he would have taken it, it was said, had it not been for the
treachery of an officer of artillery, who betrayed to the enemy the
principal battery which had been raised against the town just as it was
ready to be opened upon the walls. This artilleryman, who was not a
native Russian, but one of the foreigners whom the Czar had enlisted in
his service, became exasperated at some ill treatment which he received
from the Russian nobleman who commanded his corps; so he secretly drove
nails into the touchholes of all the guns in the battery, and then, in
the night, went over to the Turks and informed them what he had done.
Accordingly, very early in the morning the Turks sallied forth and
attacked the battery, and the men who were charged with the defense of
it, on rushing to the guns, found that they could not be fired. The
consequence was that the battery was taken, the men put to flight, and
the guns destroyed. This defeat entirely disconcerted the Russian
army, and so effectually deranged their plans that they were obliged to
raise the siege and withdraw, with the expectation, however, of
renewing the attempt in another campaign.
Accordingly, the next year the attempt was renewed, and many more boats
and vessels were built upon the river to co-operate with the besiegers.
The Turks had ships of their own, which they brought into the Sea of
Azof for the protection of the town. But Peter sent down a few of his
smaller vessels, and by means of them contrived to entice the Turkish
commander up a little way into the river. Peter then came down upon
him with all his fleet, and the Turkish ships were overpowered and
taken. Thus Peter gained his first naval victory almost, as we might
say, on the land. He conquered and captured a fleet of sea-going ships
by enticing them among the boats and other small craft which he had
built up country on the banks of a river.
Soon after this Azof was taken. One of the conditions of the surrender
was that the treacherous artilleryman should be delivered up to the
Czar. He was taken to Moscow, and there put to death with tortures too
horrible to be described. They did not deny that the man had been
greatly injured by his Russian commander, but they told him that what
he ought to have done was to appeal to the emperor for redress, and not
to seek his revenge by traitorously giving up to the enemy the trust
committed to his charge.
The emperor acquired great fame throughout Europe by the success of his
operations in the siege of Azof. This success also greatly increased
his interest in the building of ships, especially as he now, since Azof
had fallen into his hands, had a port upon an open sea.
In a word, Peter was now very eager to begin at once the building ships
of war. He was determined that he would have a fleet which would
enable him to go out and meet the Turks in the Black Sea. The great
difficulty was to provide the necessary funds. To accomplish this
purpose, Peter, who was never at all scrupulous in respect to the means
which he adopted for attaining his ends, resorted at once to very
decided measures. Besides the usual taxes which were laid upon the
people to maintain the war, he ordained that a certain number of
wealthy noblemen should each pay for one ship, which, however, as some
compensation for the cost which the nobleman was put to in building it,
he was at liberty to call by his own name. The same decree was made in
respect to a number of towns, monasteries, companies, and public
institutions. The emperor also made arrangements for having a large
number of workmen sent into Russia from Holland, and from Venice, and
from other maritime countries. The emperor laid his plans in this way
for the construction and equipment of a fleet of about one hundred
ships and vessels, consisting of frigates, store-ships, bomb-vessels,
galleys, and galliasses. These were all to be built, equipped, and
made in all respects ready for sea in the space of three years; and if
any person or party failed to have his ship ready at that time, the
amount of the tax which had been assessed to him was to be doubled.
In all these proceedings, the Czar, as might have been expected from
his youth and his headstrong character, acted in a very summary, and in
many respects in an arbitrary and despotic manner. His decrees
requiring the nobles to contribute such large sums for the building of
his fleet occasioned a great deal of dissatisfaction and complaint.
And very soon he resorted to some other measures, which increased the
general discontent exceedingly.
He appointed a considerable number of the younger nobility, and the
sons of other persons of wealth and distinction, to travel in the
western countries of Europe while the fleet was preparing, giving them
special instructions in respect to the objects of interest which they
should severally examine and study. The purpose of this measure was to
advance the general standard of intelligence in Russia by affording to
these young men the advantages of foreign travel, and enlarging their
ideas in respect to the future progress of their own country in the
arts and appliances of civilized life. The general idea of the emperor
in this was excellent, and the effect of the measure would have been
excellent too if it had been carried out in a more gentle and moderate
way. But the fathers of the young men were incensed at having their
sons ordered thus peremptorily out of the country, whether they liked
to go or not, and however inconvenient it might be for the fathers to
provide the large amounts of money which were required for such
journeys. It is said that one young man was so angry at being thus
sent away that he determined that his country should not derive any
benefit from the measure, so far as his case was concerned, and
accordingly, when he arrived at Venice, which was the place where he
was sent, he shut himself up in his house, and remained there all the
time, in order that he might not see or learn any thing to make use of
on his return.
This seems almost incredible. Indeed, the story has more the air of a
witticism, invented to express the sullen humor with which many of the
young men went away, than the sober statement of a fact. Still, it is
not impossible that such a thing may have actually occurred; for the
veneration of the old Russian families for their own country, and the
contempt with which they had been accustomed for many generations to
look upon foreigners, and upon every thing connected with foreign
manners and customs, were such as might lead in extreme cases, to
almost any degree of fanaticism in resisting the emperor's measures.
At any rate, in a short time there was quite a powerful party formed in
opposition to the foreign influences which Peter was introducing into
the country.
There was no one in the imperial family to whom this party could look
for a leader and head except the Princess Sophia. The Czar John,
Peter's feeble brother, was dead, otherwise they might have made his
name their rallying cry. Sophia was still shut up in the convent to
which Peter had sent her on the discovery of her conspiracy against
him. She was kept very closely guarded there. Still, the leaders of
the opposition contrived to open a communication with her. They took
every means to increase and extend the prevailing discontent. To
people of wealth and rank they represented the heavy taxes which they
were obliged to pay to defray the expenses of the emperor's wild
schemes, and the loss of their own proper influence and power in the
government of the country, they themselves being displaced to make room
for foreigners, or favorites like Menzikoff, that were raised from the
lowest grades of life to posts of honor and profit which ought to be
bestowed upon the ancient nobility alone. To the poor and ignorant
they advanced other arguments, which were addressed chiefly to their
religious prejudices. The government were subverting all the ancient
usages of the country, they said, and throwing every thing into the
hands of infidel or heretical foreigners. The course which the Czar
was pursuing was contrary to the laws of God, they said, who had
forbidden the children of Israel to have any communion with the
unbelieving nations around them, in order that they might not be led
away by them into idolatry. And so in Russia, they said, the extensive
power of granting permission to any Russian subject to leave the
country vested, according to the ancient usages of the empire, with the
patriarch, the head of the Church--and Peter had violated these usages
in sending away so many of the sons of the nobility without the
patriarch's consent. There were many other measures, too, which Peter
had adopted, or which he had then in contemplation, that were equally
obnoxious to the charge of impiety. For instance, he had formed a
plan--and he had even employed engineers to take preliminary steps in
reference to the execution of it--for making a canal from the River
Wolga to the River Don, thus presumptuously and impiously undertaking
to turn the streams one way, when Providence had designed them to flow
in another! Absurd as many of these representations were, they had
great influence with the mass of the common people.
At length this opposition party became so extended and so strong that
the leaders thought the time had arrived for them to act. They
accordingly arranged the details of their plot, and prepared to put it
in execution.
The scheme which they formed was this: they were to set fire to some
houses in the night, not far from the royal palace, and when the
emperor came out, as it is said was his custom to do, in order to
assist in extinguishing the flames, they were to set upon him and
assassinate him.
It may seem strange that it should be the custom of the emperor himself
to go out and assist personally in extinguishing fires. But it so
happened that the houses of Moscow at this time were almost all built
of wood, and they were so combustible, and were, moreover, so much
exposed, on account of the many fires required in the winter season in
so cold a climate, that the city was subject to dreadful
conflagrations. So great was the danger, that the inhabitants were
continually in dread of it, and all classes vied with each other in
efforts to avert the threatened calamity whenever a fire broke out.
Besides this, there were in those days no engines for throwing water,
and no organized department of firemen. All this, of course, is
entirely different at the present day in modern cities, where houses
are built of brick or stone, and the arrangements for extinguishing
fires are so complete that an alarm of fire creates no sensation, but
people go on with their business or saunter carelessly along the
streets, while the firemen are gathering, without feeling the least
concern.
As soon as they had made sure of the death of the Czar, the
conspirators were to repair to the convent where Sophia was imprisoned,
release her from her confinement, and proclaim her queen. They were
then to reorganize the Guards, restore all the officers who had been
degraded at the time of Couvansky's rebellion, then massacre all the
foreigners whom Peter had brought into the country, especially his
particular favorites, and so put every thing back upon its ancient
footing.
The time fixed for the execution of this plot was the night of the 2d
of February, 1697; but the whole scheme was defeated by what the
conspirators would probably call the treachery of two of their number.
These were two officers of the Guards who had been concerned in the
plot, but whose hearts failed them when the hour arrived for putting it
into execution. Falling into conversation with each other just before
the time, and finding that they agreed in feeling on the subject, they
resolved at once to go and make a full confession to the Czar.
So they went immediately to the house of Le Fort, where the Czar then
was, and made a confession of the whole affair. They related all the
details of the plot, and gave the names of the principal persons
concerned in it.
The emperor was at table with Le Fort at the time that he received this
communication. He listened to it very coolly--manifested no
surprise--but simply rose from the table, ordered a small body of men
to attend him, and, taking the names of the principal conspirators, he
went at once to their several houses and arrested them on the spot.
The leaders having been thus seized, the execution of the plot was
defeated. The prisoners were soon afterward put to the torture, in
order to compel them to confess their crime, and to reveal the names of
all their confederates. Whether the names thus extorted from them by
suffering were false or true would of course be wholly uncertain, but
all whom they named were seized, and, after a brief and very informal
trial, all, or nearly all, were condemned to death. The sentence of
death was executed on them in the most barbarous manner. A great
column was erected in the market-place in Moscow, and fitted with iron
spikes and hooks, which were made to project from it on every side,
from top to bottom. The criminals were then brought out one by one,
and first their arms were cut off, then their legs, and finally their
heads. The amputated limbs were then hung up upon the column by the
hooks, and the heads were fixed to the spikes. There they remained--a
horrid spectacle, intended to strike terror into all beholders--through
February and March, as long as the weather continued cold enough to
keep them frozen. When at length the spring came on, and the flesh of
these dreadful trophies began to thaw, they were taken down and thrown
together into a pit, among the bodies of common thieves and murderers.
This was the end of the second conspiracy formed against the life of
Peter the Great.