to the Russians, or Muscovites as they were often called, that they
should aid them in an attempt to conquer the Crimea. In this war
occurred the incident relating to the famous Mazeppa, whose frightful
ride through the tangled thickets of a wild country, bound naked to an
untamed horse, was so graphically described by the poet Byron. Mazeppa
was a Polish gentleman, and having offended a Polish nobleman, he was
thus cruelly punished by his enemy. Some Cossack peasants rescued the
poor Mazeppa from his terrible position, and he afterwards became a
chieftain amongst them. He distinguished himself in these campaigns
in the Crimean war, fought by the Muscovites against the Turks and
Tartars during the regency of the Princess Sophia. This war was not
successful, and Prince Golítsyn, who led the Russian forces, was
obliged to retreat; but fearing to have the state of the case known,
he sent word to Moscow that he had been successful, and was received
by Sophia upon his return with great honors. But the young Peter, who
had been studying military tactics, was so displeased and disgusted
with the military operations of Golítsyn that, when that general was
received by Sophia at Moscow with great state, the rewards could not
then be read, as Peter had refused to sign them. He, however, was
afterwards persuaded to grant them. But this unfortunate campaign
of Golítsyn’s was the turning point in the struggle between the
aristocratic party which espoused the side of Peter, and the government
of Sophia. Now there was formed a dark and wicked plot, and some
historians accuse Sophia of being a party to it, if she did not even
propose it. This was the assassination of the young Czar Peter.
The commander of the Streltsi selected a band of six hundred of the
imperial guards to go with him to Obrogensko. Their plan was to seize
Peter at night while in his bed. This plot was, however, frustrated
by two of the soldiers who revealed it to Peter. He could not at
first believe that Sophia would resort to such a terrible crime, and
messengers were sent to the city to learn the truth of the matter.
These messengers met the imperial guards when they had gone half-way to
Moscow; and, concealing themselves by the wayside until the troops had
passed, they hastened back by a shorter route to inform Peter of his
impending danger. Peter had just time to flee with his wife and mother
to the monastery of the Trinity, when the Streltsi reached his palace,
and sought him in vain. They returned, discomfited and alarmed, to
the Princess Sophia, and reported that Peter had escaped. From his
retreat in the monastery, Peter sent a message to Sophia, charging her
with having sent the imperial guards to take his life. The princess,
greatly alarmed, denied her guilt. The excitement increased. The
leading nobles flocked to the monastery to declare their adherence to
Peter. Sophia endeavored to keep the Streltsi upon her side, but they
at last went over to Peter, and he demanded that the leader of the band
who attempted his assassination should be delivered into his hands.
This Sophia was obliged to do; and the man was put to the torture,
and revealed the plot. He said that the design had been to kill Peter
himself, his mother, and several other near relations. The Princess
Sophia was accused of being the originator of the plot, and many other
persons were also implicated, including Prince Golítsyn, the commander
of the Russian forces in the Crimean War. The leader of the band of
guards who thus attempted the life of Peter was beheaded, Prince
Golítsyn and his family were banished to Siberia, and many others
implicated were put to death, imprisoned for life, or banished. Thus
ended this conspiracy against the young Czar Peter. The Princess Sophia
was shut up in a convent, where she was imprisoned for fifteen years,
when she died. Iván, the brother-Czar with Peter, was too feeble and
inefficient to take any part in the government, and he died about seven
years after this time. The aristocratic party now filled the offices of
state, and administered the government.
As Peter was yet so young, he left everything in the hands of his
counsellors, and for several years took merely a formal part in
the administration. He employed himself in military exercises and
boat-building, and in the indulgence of his mechanical tastes. As
Peter grew older, and took more direction of the affairs of the
government, he made choice of two very able men, whom he afterwards
raised to positions of great honor. The name of one of these statesmen
was Le Fort, and the other was Menshikóf. Le Fort was the son of a
merchant of Geneva. He had from childhood evinced a strong desire
to be a soldier; but his father preferred that he should become a
merchant, and he was taken into the counting-house of one of the great
merchants of Amsterdam. This merchant was constantly sending vessels
to different parts of the world, and Le Fort was sent in charge of
the cargo of one vessel to Copenhagen. At this time, an ambassador
was to be sent from Denmark to Russia; and, as Le Fort knew something
of the Russian language, he secured the place of interpreter in the
suite of the ambassador, and went with him to Moscow. On one occasion,
when the Czar Peter was dining at the house of the ambassador, he
noticed Le Fort, and observed that he spoke the Russian language
remarkably for a foreigner. He was at once interested in him, and
soon secured Le Fort as his own interpreter, as he found that he
also spoke other languages. Le Fort became a great favorite of the
emperor’s, and continued in his service until his death. The first
improvement which Le Fort introduced into Russia related to the dress
and equipment of the troops. The imperial guards had been accustomed
to wear an old-fashioned Russian uniform, consisting of a long outer
coat or gown, which much impeded their movements. In conversing with
the Czar, Le Fort suggested that the dress of the soldiers of the
western nations was more convenient for military use. Peter at once
desired to see it; and Le Fort immediately repaired to the tailor of
the Danish ambassador, and ordered him to make two military suits in
the style worn by the royal guards at Copenhagen, one for an officer
and the other for a soldier in the ranks. Peter was so pleased with
these suits, when they were shown to him, that he said he should like
to have a company of guards dressed and equipped in that manner, and
drilled according to the western style. Le Fort undertook the task of
organizing and equipping such a band. When this company was completed,
and clothed in the new uniform, and had been properly drilled, Le Fort
placed himself at their head, and marched them, with drums beating and
colors flying, before the palace gates. The Czar came to the window
to see them pass, and was so pleased that he said he would join the
company himself. He accordingly ordered a dress to be made for his
own use, and he took his place in the ranks, and drilled as a common
soldier. From this beginning, the entire imperial army was reformed.
The Czar now proposed to Le Fort to make arrangements for bringing into
the country a great number of mechanics and artisans from Denmark,
Germany, France, and other European countries, in order that their
improved methods might be introduced into Russia. To accomplish this
end, the tariff of duties on the products and manufactures of foreign
countries was greatly reduced. This increased the importation of goods
from foreign countries, and promoted the intercourse of the Russians
with foreign merchants, manufacturers, and artisans, and accustomed the
people to a better style of living by improving their dress, furniture,
and equipages. Also, the new system greatly increased the revenues of
the empire. Among other reforms instituted by Peter, was that of the
dress of his people. The Russians had been accustomed to wear long
gowns, similar to those worn now in Oriental countries. As this costume
was inconvenient for soldiers, workmen, and artisans, Peter required it
to be changed. This description is given of one strange style of dress
among the ancient Russian ladies:—
“They wore a sort of dress, of which the sleeves were ten or twelve
yards long. These sleeves were made very full, and were drawn up upon
the arm, in a sort of puff; it being the fashion to have as great a
length of sleeve as could possibly be crowded on, between the shoulder
and the wrist. The customary salutation between ladies and gentlemen
in society, when this dress was in fashion, was performed through the
intervention of the sleeves. On the approach of the gentleman, the
lady, by a sudden and dexterous motion of her arm, would throw off the
end of her sleeve to him. The sleeve, being so 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 the lady would draw it back again upon her arm.”
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. He,
however, met with a good deal of difficulty in inducing the people
to follow these new fashions, especially regarding the shaving of
their mustaches and beards. He thereupon assessed a tax upon beards,
requiring every gentleman who wore one to pay a hundred rubles a year;
and if any peasant entered the city wearing a beard, he was stopped at
the gates, and rerequired to pay a fine of a penny. 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 to pay a fine
of fifty cents, or else kneel down, and have all the part of his coat
which lay upon the ground cut off with a pair of big shears. The Czar
first set an example also, of rapid motion through the streets. It had
been the custom for all the nobles to move about attended by a vast
retinue; and as it was considered more stately to move slowly, and
as all those lower in rank must stand, with uncovered heads, in the
presence of their masters, the streets were often blocked in the snow
and rain by these vast cavalcades of royalty; and crowds were obliged
to stand in the cold and wet, with bare heads exposed to the inclemency
of the weather. Peter the Great was attended, therefore, only by a
few persons, when going out in carriage or sleigh, and his coachman
was ordered to drive at a quick pace; and he limited the attendants
of his nobles to a certain number. This story is told of the manner
in which the Czar’s attention was attracted to young Menshikóf, who
became one of his chief officers. Alexander Menshikóf was the son of a
laboring man, in the service of a monastery, on the banks of the Volga.
Young Menshikóf afterwards went to Moscow, and was there employed in
a pastry-cook’s shop. It was his part of the work to go out in the
streets and sell pies and cakes. In order to attract customers, he
often sang songs. At one time Peter was passing, and stopped to listen
to the songs of the young pastry-boy. Finally, the Czar asked him what
he would take for his whole stock of cakes and pies, basket and all.
The boy promptly stated the sum he would take for his wares, but as
for the basket, as it belonged to his master, he could not sell it;
but he dryly added: “Still, everything belongs to Your Majesty, and
Your Majesty has, therefore, only to give me the command, and I shall
deliver it up to you.”
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER AND PAUL IN THE FORTRESS.]
This reply so pleased the Czar, that he took the boy into his service.
When Peter the Great first became the sole ruler of Russia, after the
downfall of Sophia, he was about twenty years of age. His word was
law. Life and death hung upon his will. His dominions extended so far,
that, when he wished to send an ambassador to one of his neighbors—the
emperor of China—it took the messenger more than eighteen months of
constant travelling to go from the capital to the frontier. As to
Peter’s character, he was talented, ambitious, energetic, and resolute;
but he was also quick-tempered, imperious, merciless, towards his
enemies, and possessed an indomitable will. Peter thus describes his
first trial of the open sea:—
“For some years I had the fill of my desires on Lake Pereyaslávl, but
finally it grew too narrow for me. I then went to the Kúbensky Lake,
but that was too shallow. I then decided to see the open sea, and
began often to beg the permission of my mother to go to Archangel. She
forbade me such a dangerous journey, but, seeing my great desire, and
my unchangeable longing, allowed it, in spite of herself.”
So, in 1693, Peter set out from Moscow, with a suite of a hundred
persons, to go to Archangel. Having arrived there, the smell of the
salt water was too inviting to be resisted; and Peter put out to sea
on a little yacht, called St. Peter, which had been built for him. His
mother, who had exacted a promise that he would not go to sea, hearing
that he had gone on a sea journey, was much alarmed, and wrote to him,
urging his return. She even had a letter written to him, in the name of
his little son, Alexis, then three years old, begging him to come back.
To this he replied:—
“By thy letter I see, oh! oh! that thou hast been mightily grieved, and
why? Why dost thou trouble thyself about me? Thou hast deigned to write
that thou hast given me into the care of the Virgin. When thou hast
such a guardian for me, why dost thou grieve?”
While at Archangel, besides the time which Peter gave to the study of
commerce and ship-building, he found leisure for inspecting various
industries and for practising both at the forge and at the lathe. A
chandelier made of walrus teeth, turned by him, hangs now over his
tomb in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, at St. Petersburg;
and carved work in bone and wood, and iron bars forged by him at this
time, are still preserved. Besides the balls and dinners which he
attended at Archangel, to which he had also been much given at Moscow,
he frequently attended a neighboring church, where he himself read
the Epistle, sang with the choir, and made great friends with the
archbishop. In 1694 his mother Natalia died, and soon he repudiated his
wife Eudoxia and shut her up in a convent, where he kept her confined
all the rest of her life. Peter had only married this wife to please
his mother and his nobles, and having never loved her, soon tired of
her. She had been brought up in the old-fashioned Russian way, and was
very ignorant; but as she appeared to love him devotedly, his treatment
of her was wicked and cruel, and in his after domestic life there is
much to condemn. Although he did much for the advancement of Russia,
and his public enterprise and achievements are greatly to be admired,
in character he was brutal and selfish, and his tastes were low and
vicious. He was fond of drunken carousals, and sank the dignity of his
rank in his associations with inferior and profligate companions. As a
man, there is little to admire in him, but as a public benefactor of
his country, he is greatly to be commended. As an artisan, statesman,
and general, he introduced wise and good reforms into his realms, and
raised his people from semi-barbarism to rank with the other civilized
nations of Europe.
Though he was not a scholar, he encouraged learning. There was, about
this time, a second attempt made to assassinate the Czar. As Peter was
often accustomed to attend conflagrations in Moscow, these conspirators
formed the plan of setting fire to some building near the royal
palace, and when the emperor, as was his wont, should come out to help
extinguish the flames, he was to be assassinated. They then determined
to go to the convent where Sophia was confined, release her, and
proclaim her empress. This plot was, however, revealed to the Czar, and
he thereupon ordered a small body of men to attend him, and he went at
once to the houses of the various conspirators and arrested them. They
were afterwards executed in a most barbarous manner. The criminals were
brought out one by one. First their arms were cut off, then their legs,
and finally their heads. The amputated limbs and heads were then hung
upon a column in the market-place in Moscow, where they were left as a
bloody warning to others, as long as the weather remained cold enough
to keep them frozen. Thus ended the second conspiracy against the
life of Peter the Great. In 1695 the Czar, in conjunction with other
European powers, declared war again against the Turks and Tartars.
Peter acquired great renown throughout Europe for his successful siege
against Azof, to obtain which was one of the chief objects of the
campaign. This success also increased Peter’s interest in the building
of ships. He determined to establish a large fleet on the Black Sea,
and in order to ascertain the best modes of ship-building, Peter
resolved to make a journey to Western Europe.
That he might not be burdened by fêtes and ceremonies, he adopted
a disguise. Macaulay said of this journey, “It is an epoch in the
history, not only of his own country, but of ours and of the world.”
Various reasons have been given by different writers for this step
of the Czar. Pleyer, the secret Austrian agent, wrote to the Emperor
Leopold that the whole embassy was “merely a cloak for the freedom
sought by the Czar, to get out of his own country and divert himself a
little.” A document in the archives at Vienna states that the “cause of
the journey was a vow made by Peter, when in danger on the White Sea,
to make a pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles St. Peter and St.
Paul at Rome.” Voltaire said, “He resolved to absent himself for some
years from his dominions, in order to learn how better to govern them.”
Napoleon said, “He left his country to deliver himself for a while from
the crown, so as to learn ordinary life, and remount by degrees to
greatness.” But later writers say, “Peter went abroad, not to fulfil a
vow, not to amuse himself, not to become more civilized, not to learn
the art of government, but simply to become a good shipwright.”
His mind was filled with the idea of creating a navy on the Black Sea,
and his tastes had always been mechanical. In order to give the Czar
greater freedom of action, the purpose of his journey was concealed
by means of a great embassy, which should visit the chief countries
of western Europe. In the suite of the ambassadors were twenty nobles
and thirty-five called volunteers, who were going for the study of
ship-building. Among these was the Czar himself. These volunteers were
chiefly young men who had been comrades of Peter in his play-regiments
and boat-building. During the absence of the Czar the government was
intrusted to a regency of three persons, the uncle of the Czar and
two princes. We have not space to describe this journey in full, and
can only mention certain incidents. The Czar is thus described by the
electress of Hannover and her daughter, whom Peter met at Koppenbrügge:—
“My mother and I began to pay him our compliments, but he made Mr.
Le Fort reply for him, for he seemed shy, hid his face in his hands,
and said, ‘_Ich kann nicht sprechen_.’ But we tamed him a little, and
then he sat down at the table between my mother and myself, and each
of us talked to him in turn. Sometimes he replied with promptitude, at
others, he made two interpreters talk, and assuredly he said nothing
that was not to the point on all subjects that were suggested. As to
his grimaces, I imagined them worse than I found them, and some are not
in his power to correct. One can see also that he has had no one to
teach him how to eat properly, but he has a natural unconstrained air
which pleases me.”
[Illustration: PETER THE GREAT IN THE DUTCH SHIPYARD.]
Her mother also wrote: “The Czar is very tall, his features are fine,
and his figure very noble. He has great vivacity of mind, and a ready
and just repartee. But, with all the advantages with which nature has
endowed him, it could be wished that his manners were a little less
rustic. I asked him if he liked hunting. He replied that his father had
been very fond of it, but that he himself, from his earliest youth, had
had a real passion for navigation and for fireworks. He told us that
he worked himself in building ships, showed us his hands, and made us
touch the callous places that had been made by work. He has quite the
manners of his country. If he had received a better education, he
would be an accomplished man, for he has many good qualities, and an
infinite amount of native wit.”
The Czar proceeded to Holland, and in the little town of Saardam, not
far from Amsterdam, may still be seen the shop which Peter occupied
while there. The historians say, he entered himself as a common
ship-carpenter, at Amsterdam, and worked for several months among
the other workmen, wearing the same dress they wore. In moments of
rest, the Czar, sitting down on a log, with his hatchet between his
knees, was willing to talk to any one who addressed him simply as
carpenter Peter, but turned away without answering if called Sire or
Your Majesty. Peter’s curiosity was insatiable. He visited workshops,
factories, cabinets of coins, anatomical museums, botanical gardens,
hospitals, theatres, and numerous other places; and inquired about
everything he saw, until he was recognized by his usual questions,
“What is that for? How does that work? That will I see.” He made
himself acquainted with Dutch home and family life. Every market day
he went to the Botermarkt, mingled with the people, and studied their
trades.
He took lessons from a travelling dentist, and experimented on his
servants. He mended his own clothes, and learned enough of cobbling to
make himself a pair of slippers. He visited Protestant churches, and
did not forget the beer-houses. The frigate upon which Peter worked so
long, was at last launched, and proved a good ship. He had seen some
English ships which pleased him so much, that he determined to set out
for England, which he did in 1698, leaving his embassy in Holland.
King William of England made Peter a present of an English yacht,
with which he was much delighted. Peter spent much of his time in
England, looking for suitable persons to employ in arts and mechanics
in Russia. He avoided all court pomp and etiquette during this
journey, and travelled incognito, as much as possible. He visited also
the mint in England, for he was pleased with the excellence of the
English coinage, and he designed recoining the Russian money, which
he afterwards accomplished, coining copper, silver, and gold to the
extent of $18,000,000 in the space of three years, to replace the bits
of stamped leather formerly used. At length he returned to Amsterdam,
where his embassy awaited him. When Peter the Great was excited by
anger or emotion, the ugly aspect of his countenance and demeanor was
greatly aggravated by a nervous affection of the head and face, which
attacked him, particularly when he was in a passion, and which produced
convulsive twitches of the muscles, that drew his head by jerks to one
side, and distorted his face in a manner dreadful to behold. It was
said that this disorder was first induced in his childhood, by some
one of the terrible frights through which he passed. This distortion,
together with the coarse and savage language he employed when in a
passion, made him appear at times more like some ugly monster of
fiction than like a man. He disliked court etiquette, and avoided
pompous ceremonies. Of course there was much curiosity to see him in
the various cities he visited, but he generally avoided the crowds;
and when his splendid embassy entered a city in royal state, and the
people collected in vast numbers to behold the famous Czar, while they
were straining their eyes, and peering into every carriage of the royal
procession in hopes of seeing him, Peter himself would slip into the
city by some quiet street, in disguise, and meeting the merchants, with
whom he delighted to associate, he would go to some inn and indulge in
his pipe and beer, leaving his embassy to represent royalty. At last
his disguise was discovered, and then the news was circulated that
the Czar could be easily recognized by his great height,—nearly seven
feet,—by the twitching of his face, by his gesturing with his right
hand, and by a small mole on the right cheek. His appearance is thus
described by one who saw him at this time:—
“He is a prince of very great stature, but there is one circumstance
which is unpleasant. He has convulsions, sometimes in his eyes,
sometimes in his arms, and sometimes in his whole body. He at times
turns his eyes so that one can see nothing but the whites. I do not
know whence it arises, but we must believe that it is a lack of good
breeding. Then he has also movements in the legs, so that he can
scarcely keep in one place. He is very well made, and goes about
dressed as a sailor, in the highest degree simple, and wishing nothing
else than to be on the water.”
But the Cardinal Kollonitz, primate of Hungary, gives a more flattering
picture of Peter the Great:—