REFORMS.
1700-1701
Peter begins his proposed reforms--Remodeling the army--Changes of
dress--The officers--New appointments--Motives and object of the
Czar--Means of revenue--Mysterious power--The secret of it--Management
of a standing army--Artful contrivances--Despotism _versus_
freedom--Policy of the American people--Standing armies--The American
government is weak--The people reserve their strength--Peter's
policy--The Church--Conservatism of the clergy--The patriarch--Ancient
custom--The emperor on the procession--Emblems--Peter's reflections on
the subject--Peter's determination--He proceeds cautiously--Contest
with the bishops--Peter is victorious--Other reforms--Collection of the
revenues--New revenue system--Manners and customs of the
people--Mustaches and beards--The long dresses suppressed--Effect of
ridicule--The jester's marriage--Curious sleeves--Mode of manoeuvring
the sleeve--The boyars in the streets--Long trains of attendants--Peter
changes the whole system--Motives of the Czar--Ultimate effect of his
reforms
As soon as Peter had sufficiently glutted his vengeance on those whom
he chose to consider, whether justly or unjustly, as implicated in the
rebellion, he turned his attention at once to the work of introducing
the improvements and reforms which had been suggested to him by what he
had seen in the western countries of Europe. There was a great deal of
secret hostility to the changes which he thus wished to make, although
every thing like open opposition to his will had been effectually put
down by the terrible severity of his dealings with the rebels. He
continued to urge his plans of reform during the whole course of his
reign, and though he met from time to time with a great variety of
difficulties in his efforts to carry them into effect, he was in the
end triumphantly successful in establishing and maintaining them. I
shall proceed to give a general account of these reforms in this
chapter, notwithstanding that the work of introducing them extended
over a period of many years subsequent to this time.
The first thing to which the Czar gave his attention was the complete
remodeling of his army. He established new regiments in place of the
old Guards, and put his whole army on a new footing. He abolished the
dress which the Guards had been accustomed to wear--an ancient
Muscovite costume, which, like the dress of the Highlanders of
Scotland, was strongly associated in the minds of the men with ancient
national customs, many of which the emperor now wished to abolish.
Instead of this old costume the emperor dressed his new troops in a
modern military uniform. This was not only much more convenient than
the old dress, but the change exerted a great influence in
disenthralling the minds of the men from the influence of old ideas and
associations. It made them feel at once as if they were new men,
belonging to a new age--one marked by a new and higher civilization
than they had been accustomed to in former years. The effect which was
produced by this simple change was very marked--so great is the
influence of dress and other outward symbols on the sentiments of the
mind and on the character.
Peter had made a somewhat similar change to this, in the case of his
household troops and private body-guard, at the suggestion of General
Le Fort, some time previous to this period, but now he carried the same
reform into effect in respect to his whole army.
In addition to these improvements in the dress and discipline of the
men, Peter adopted an entirely new system in officering his troops. A
great many of the old officers--all those who were proved or even
suspected of being hostile to him and to his measures--had been
beheaded or sent into banishment, and others still had been dismissed
from the service. Peter filled all these vacant posts by bringing
forward and appointing the sons of the nobility, making his selections
from those families who were either already inclined to his side, or
who he supposed might be brought over by the influence of appointments
and honors conferred upon their sons.
Of course, the great object of the Czar in thus reorganizing his army
and increasing the military strength of the empire was not the more
effectual protection of the country from foreign enemies, or from any
domestic violence which might threaten to disturb the peace or endanger
the property of the public, but only the confirming and perpetuating
his own power as the sovereign ruler of it. It is true that such
potentates as Peter really desire that the countries over which they
rule should prosper, and should increase in wealth and population; but
then they do this usually only as the proprietor of an estate might
wish to improve his property, that is, simply with an eye to his own
interest as the owner of it. In reforming his army, and placing it, as
he did, on a new and far more efficient footing than before, Peter's
main inducement was to increase and secure his own power. He wished
also, doubtless, to preserve the peace of the country, in order that
the inhabitants might go on regularly in the pursuit of their
industrial occupations, for their ability to pay the taxes required for
the large revenues which he wished to raise would increase or diminish,
he knew very well, just in proportion to the productiveness of the
general industry; still, his own exaltation and grandeur were the
ultimate objects in view.
Young persons, when they read in history of the power which many great
tyrants have exercised, and the atrocious crimes which they have
committed against the rights of their fellow-men, sometimes wonder how
it is that one man can acquire or retain so absolute a dominion over so
many millions as to induce them to kill each other in such vast numbers
at his bidding; for, of course, it is but a very small number of the
victims of a tyrant's injustice or cruelty that are executed by his own
hand. How is it, then, that one weak and often despicable and hateful
man can acquire and retain such an ascendency over those that stand
around him, that they shall all be ready to draw their swords
instantaneously at his bidding, and seize and destroy, without
hesitation and without mercy, whomsoever he may choose to designate as
the object of his rage and vengeance? How is it that the wealthiest,
the most respected, and the most popular citizens of the state, though
surrounded with servants and with multitudes of friends, have no power
to resist when one of these Neros conceives the idea of striking him
down, but must yield without a struggle to his fate, as if to
inevitable destiny?
The secret of this extraordinary submission of millions to one is
always an army. The tyrant, under the pretense of providing the means
for the proper execution of just and righteous laws, and the
maintenance of peace and order in the community, organizes an army. He
contrives so to arrange and regulate this force as to separate it
completely from the rest of the community, so as to extinguish as far
as possible all the sympathies which might otherwise exist between the
soldiers and the citizens. Marriage is discouraged, so that the troops
may not be bound to the community by any family ties. The regiments
arc quartered in barracks built and appropriated to their especial use,
and they are continually changed from one set of barracks to another,
in order to prevent their forming too intimate an acquaintance with any
portion of the community, or learning to feel any common interest or
sympathy with them. Then, as a reward for their privations, the
soldiers are allowed, with very little remonstrance or restraint, to
indulge freely in all such habits of dissipation and vice as will not
at once interfere with military discipline, or deteriorate from the
efficiency of the whole body as a military corps. The soldiers soon
learn to love the idle and dissolute lives which they are allowed to
lead. The officers, especially those in the higher grades of rank, are
paid large salaries, are clothed in a gaudy dress which is adorned with
many decorations, and they are treated every where with great
consideration. Thus they become devoted to the will of the government,
and lose gradually all regard for, and all sympathy with the rights and
welfare of the people. There is a tacit agreement between them and the
government, by which they are bound to keep the people in a state of
utter and abject submission to the despot's will, while he, on his
part, is bound to collect from the people thus subdued the sums of
money necessary for their pay. Thus it is the standing army which is
that great and terrible sword by means of which one man is able to
strike awe into the hearts of so many millions, and hold them all so
entirely subject to his will.
It is in consequence of having observed the effect of such armaments in
the despotisms of Europe and Asia that the free governments of modern
times take good care not to allow large standing armies to be formed.
Instead of this the people organize themselves into armed bands, in
connection with which they meet and practice military evolutions on
appointed days, and then separate and go back to their wives and to
their children, and to their usual occupations, while in the despotic
countries where large standing armies are maintained, the people are
strictly forbidden to possess arms, or to form organizations, or to
take measures of any kind that could tend to increase their means of
defense against their oppressors in the event of a struggle.
The consequence is, that under the free governments of the present day
the people are strong and the government is weak. The standing army of
France consists at the present time[1] of five hundred thousand men,
completely armed and equipped, and devoted all the time to the study
and practice of the art of war. By means of this force one man is able
to keep the whole population of the country in a state of complete and
unquestioning submission to his will. In the United States, on the
other hand, with a population nearly as great, the standing army seldom
amounts to an effective force of fifteen thousand men; and if a
president of the United States were to attempt by means of it to
prolong his term of office, or to accomplish any other violent end,
there is, perhaps, not a single state in the Union, the population of
which would not alone be able to put him down--so strong are the people
with us, and so weak, in opposition to them, the government and the
army.
It is often made a subject of reproach by European writers and
speakers, in commenting on the state of things in America, that the
government is so weak; but this we consider not our reproach, but our
glory. The government is indeed weak. The people take good care to
keep it weak. But the nation is not weak; the nation is strong. The
difference is, that in our country the nation chooses to retain its
power in its own hands. The people make the government strong enough
from time to time for all the purposes which they wish it to
accomplish. When occasion shall arise, the strength thus to be
imparted to it may be increased almost indefinitely, according to the
nature of the emergency. In the mean time, the people consider
themselves the safest depositary of their reserved power.
But to return to Peter. Of course, his policy was the reverse of ours.
He wished to make his army as efficient as possible, and to cut it off
as completely as possible from all communion and sympathy with the
people, so as to keep it in close and absolute subjection to his own
individual will. The measures which he adopted were admirably adapted
to this purpose. By means of them he greatly strengthened his power,
and established it on a firm and permanent basis.
Peter did not forget that, during the late rebellion, the influence of
the Church and that of all the leading ecclesiastics had been against
him. This was necessarily the case; for, in a Church constituted as
that of Russia then was, the powers and prerogatives of the priests
rested, not on reason or right, but on ancient customs. The priests
would therefore naturally be opposed to all changes--even
improvements--in the usages and institutions of the realm, for fear
that the system of reform, if once entered upon, might extend to and
interfere with their ancient prerogatives and privileges. An
established Church in any country, where, by means of the
establishment, the priests or the ministers hold positions which secure
to them the possession of wealth or power, is always opposed to every
species of change. It hates even the very name of reform.
Peter determined to bring the Russian Church more under his own
control. Up to that time it had been, in a great measure, independent.
The head of it was an ecclesiastic of great power and dignity, called
the Patriarch. The jurisdiction of this patriarch extended over all
the eastern portion of the Christian world, and his position and power
were very similar to those of the Pope of Rome, who reigned over the
whole western portion.
Indeed, so exalted was the position and dignity of the patriarch, and
so great was the veneration in which he was held by the people, that he
was, as it were, the spiritual sovereign of the country, just as Peter
was the civil and military sovereign; and on certain great religious
ceremonies he even took precedence of the Czar himself, and actually
received homage from him. At one of the great religious anniversaries,
which was always celebrated with great pomp and parade, it was
customary for the patriarch to ride through the street on horseback,
with the Czar walking before him holding the bridle of the horse. The
bridle used, on these occasions was very long, like a pair of reins,
and was made of the richest material, and ornamented with golden
embroidery. The Czar walked on in advance, with the loop of the bridle
lying over his arm. Then came three or four great nobles of the court,
who held up the reins behind the Czar, one of them taking hold close to
the horse's head, so as to guide and control the movements of the
animal. The patriarch, who, as is the custom with priests, was dressed
in long robes, which prevented his mounting the horse in the usual
manner, sat upon a square flat seat which was placed upon the horse's
back by way of saddle, and rode in that manner, with his feet hanging
down upon one side. Of course, his hands were at liberty, and with
these he held a cross, which he displayed to the people as he rode
along, and gave them his benediction.
After the patriarch, there followed, on these occasions, an immensely
long train of priests, all clothed in costly and gorgeous sacerdotal
robes, and bearing a great number and variety of religious emblems.
Some carried very costly copies of the Gospels, bound in gold and
adorned with precious stones; others crosses, and others pictures of
the Virgin Mary. All these objects of veneration were enriched with
jewels and gems of the most costly description.
So far, however, as these mere pageants and ceremonies were concerned,
Peter would probably have been very easily satisfied, and would have
made no objection to paying such a token of respect to the patriarch as
walking before him through the street once a year, and holding the
bridle of his horse, if this were all. But he saw very clearly that
these things were by no means to be considered as mere outward show.
The patriarch was at the head of a vast organization, which extended
throughout the empire, all the members of which were closely banded
together in a system the discipline of which made them dependent upon
and entirely devoted to their spiritual head. These priests, moreover,
exercised individually a vast influence over the people in the towns
and villages where they severally lived and performed their functions.
Thus the patriarch wielded a great and very extended power, almost
wholly independent of any control on the part of the Czar--a power
which had already been once turned against him, and which might at some
future day become very dangerous. Peter determined at once that he
would not allow such a state of things to continue.
He, however, resolved to proceed cautiously. So he waited quietly
until the patriarch who was then in office died. Then, instead of
allowing the bench of bishops, as usual, to elect another in his place,
he committed the administration of the Church to an ecclesiastic whom
he appointed for this purpose from among his own tried friends. He
instructed this officer, who was a very learned and a very devout man,
to go on as nearly as possible as his predecessors, the patriarchs, had
done, in the ordinary routine of duty, so as not to disturb the Church
by any apparent and outward change; but he directed him to consider
himself, the Czar, as the real head of the Church, and to refer all
important questions which might arise to him for decision. He thus, in
fact, abrogated the office of patriarch, and made himself the supreme
head of the Church.
The clergy throughout the empire, as soon as they understood this
arrangement, were greatly disturbed, and expressed their discontent and
dissatisfaction among themselves very freely. The Czar heard of this;
and, selecting one of the bishops, who had spoken more openly and
decidedly than the rest, he ordered him to be degraded from his office
for his contumacy. But this the other bishops objected to very
strongly. They did not see, in fact, they said, how it could be done.
It was a thing wholly unknown that a person of the rank and dignity of
a bishop in the Church should be degraded from his office; and that,
besides, there was no authority that could degrade him, for they were
all bishops of equal rank, and no one had any jurisdiction or power
over the others. Still, notwithstanding this, they were willing, they
said, to sacrifice their brother if by that means the Church could be
saved from the great dangers which were now threatening her; and they
said that they would depose the bishop who was accused on condition
that Peter would restore the rights of the Church which he had
suspended, by allowing them to proceed to the election of a new
patriarch, to take the place of the one who had died.
Peter would not listen to this proposal; but he created a new bishop
expressly to depose the one who had offended him. The latter was
accordingly deposed, and the rest were compelled to submit. None of
them dared any longer to speak openly against the course which the Czar
was pursuing, but writings were mysteriously dropped about the streets
which contained censures of his proceedings in respect to the Church,
and urged the people to resist them. Peter caused large rewards to be
immediately offered for the discovery of the persons by whom these
writings were dropped, but it was of no avail, and at length the
excitement gradually passed away, leaving the victory wholly in Peter's
hands.
After this the Czar effected a great many important reforms in the
administration of the affairs of the empire, especially in those
relating to the government of the provinces, and to the collection of
the revenues in them. This business had been hitherto left almost
wholly in the hands of the governors, by whom it had been grossly
mismanaged. The governors had been in the habit both of grievously
oppressing the people in the collection of the taxes, and also of
grossly defrauding the emperor in remitting the proceeds to the
treasury.
Peter now made arrangements for changing the system entirely. He
established a central office at the capital for the transaction of all
business connected with the collecting of the revenues, and then
appointed collectors for all the provinces of the empire, who were to
receive their instructions from the minister who presided over this
central office, and make their returns directly to him. Thus the whole
system was remodeled, and made far more efficient than it ever had been
before. Of course, the old governors, who, in consequence of this
reform, lost the power of enriching themselves by their oppressions and
frauds, complained bitterly of the change, and mourned, like good
Conservatives, the ruin which this radicalism was bringing upon the
country, but they were forced to submit.
Whenever there was any thing in the private manners and customs of the
people which Peter thought was likely to impede in any way the
effectual accomplishment of his plans, he did not hesitate at all to
ordain a change; and some of the greatest difficulties which he had to
encounter in his reforms arose from the opposition which the people
made to the changes that he wished to introduce in the dress that they
wore, and in several of the usages of common life. The people of the
country had been accustomed to wear long gowns, similar to those worn
to this day by many Oriental nations. This costume was very
inconvenient, not only for soldiers, but also for workmen, and for all
persons engaged in any of the common avocations of life. Peter
required the people to change this dress; and he sent patterns of the
coats worn in western Europe to all parts of the country, and had them
put up in conspicuous places, where every body could see them, and
required every body to imitate them. He, however, met with a great
deal of difficulty in inducing them to do so. He found still greater
difficulty in inducing the people to shave off their mustaches and
their beards. Finding that they would not shave their faces under the
influence of a simple regulation to that effect, he assessed a tax upon
beards, requiring that every gentleman should pay a hundred rubles a
year for the privilege of wearing one; and as for the peasants and
common people, every one who wore a beard was stopped every time he
entered a city or town, and required to pay a penny at the gate by way
of tax or fine.
The nuisance of long clothes he attempted to abate in a similar way.
The officers of the customs, who were stationed at the gates of the
towns, were ordered to stop every man who wore a long dress, and compel
him either to pay a fine of about fifty cents, or else kneel down and
have all that part of their coat or gown which lay upon the ground,
while they were in that posture, cut off with a pair of big shears.
Still, such was the attachment of the people to their old fashions,
that great numbers of the people, rather than submit to this curtailing
of their vestments, preferred to pay the fine.
On one occasion the Czar, laying aside for the moment the system of
severity and terror which was his usual reliance for the accomplishment
of his ends, concluded to try the effect of ridicule upon the
attachment of the people to old and absurd fashions in dress. It
happened that one of the fools or jesters of the court was about to be
married. The young woman who was to be the jester's bride was very
pretty, and she was otherwise a favorite with those who knew her, and
the Czar determined to improve the occasion of the wedding for a grand
frolic. He accordingly made arrangements for celebrating the nuptials
at the palace, and he sent invitations to all the great nobles and
officers of state, with their wives, and to all the other great ladies
of the court, giving them all orders to appear dressed in the fashions
which prevailed in the Russian court one or two hundred years before.
With the exception of some modes of dress prevalent at the present day,
there is nothing that can be conceived more awkward, inconvenient, and
ridiculous than the fashions which were reproduced on this occasion.
Among other things, the ladies wore a sort of dress of which the
sleeves, so it is said, were ten or twelve yards long. These sleeves
were made very full, and were drawn up upon the arm in a sort of a
puff, it being the fashion to have as great a length to the sleeve as
could possibly be crowded on between the shoulder and the wrist. It is
said, too, that the customary salutation between ladies and gentlemen
meeting in society, when this dress was in fashion, was performed
through the intervention of these sleeves. On the approach of the
gentleman, the lady, by a sudden and dexterous motion other arm, would
throw off the end of her sleeve to him. The sleeve, being very long,
could be thrown in this way half across the room. The gentleman would
take the end of the sleeve, which represented, we are to suppose, the
hand of the lady, and, after kissing and saluting it in a most
respectful manner, he would resign it, and then the lady would draw it
back again upon her arm. This would be too ridiculous to be believed
if it were possible that any thing could be too ridiculous to be
believed in respect to the absurdities of fashion.
A great many of the customs and usages of social life which prevailed
in those days, as well as the fashions of dress, were inconvenient and
absurd. These the Czar did not hesitate to alter and reform by
proceedings of the most arbitrary and summary character. For instance,
it was the custom of all the great nobles, or boyars, as they were
called, to go in grand state whenever they moved about the city or in
the environs of it, attended always by a long train of their servants
and retainers. Now, as these followers were mostly on foot, the nobles
in the carriages, or, in the winter, in their sledges or sleighs, were
obliged to move very slowly in order to enable the train to keep up
with them. Thus the streets were full of these tedious processions,
moving slowly along, sometimes through snow and sometimes through rain,
the men bareheaded, because they must not be covered in the presence of
their master, and thus exposed to all the inclemency of an almost
Arctic climate. And what made the matter worse was, that it was not
the fashion for the nobleman to move on even as fast as his followers
might easily have walked. They considered it more dignified and grand
to go slowly. Thus, the more aristocratic a grandee was in spirit, and
the greater his desire to make a display of his magnificence in the
street, the more slowly he moved. If it had not been for the banners
and emblems, and the gay and gaudy colors in which many of the
attendants were dressed, these processions would have produced the
effect of particularly solemn funerals.
The Czar determined to change all this. First he set an example
himself of rapid motion through the streets. When he went out in his
carriage or in his sleigh, he was attended only by a very few persons,
and they were dressed in a neat uniform and mounted on good horses, and
his coachman was ordered to drive on at a quick pace. The boyars were
slow to follow this example, but the Czar assisted them considerably in
their progress toward the desired reform by making rules limiting the
number of idle attendants which they were allowed to have about them;
and then, if they would not dismiss the supernumeraries, he himself
caused them to be taken from them and sent into the army.
The motive of the Czar in making all these improvements and reforms was
his desire to render his own power as the sovereign of the country more
compact and efficient, and not any real and heartfelt interest in the
welfare and happiness of the people. Still, in the end, very excellent
results followed from the innovations which he thus introduced. They
were the commencement of a series of changes which so developed the
power and advanced the civilization of the country, as in the course of
a few subsequent reigns had the effect of bringing Russia into the
foremost rank among the nations of Europe. The progress which these
changes introduced continues to go on to the present time, and will,
perhaps, go on unimpeded for centuries to come.
[1] 1858.