Administration of the princess Sophia. Extraordinary quarrel about
religion. A conspiracy.
Such were the steps by which the princess Sophia did in effect ascend
the throne of Russia, though without being declared czarina; and such
the examples that Peter the First had before his eyes. Sophia enjoyed
all the honours of a sovereign; her bust was on the public coin; she
signed all dispatches, held the first place in council, and enjoyed a
power without control. She was possessed of a great share of
understanding, and some wit; made verses in the Russian language, and
both spoke and wrote extremely well. These talents were set off by the
addition of an agreeable person, and sullied only by her ambition.
She procured a wife for her brother John, in the manner already
described in several examples. A young lady named Soltikoff, of the
family with the nobleman of that name who had been assassinated by the
seditious strelitzes, was sent for from the heart of Siberia, where her
father commanded a fortress, to be presented to czar John at Moscow. Her
beauty triumphed over all the intrigues of her rivals, and John was
married to her in 1684. At every marriage of a czar we seem to read the
history of Ahasuerus, or that of Theodosius the Younger.
In the midst of the rejoicings on account of this marriage, the
strelitzes raised a new insurrection, and (who would believe it?) on
account of religion! of a particular tenet! Had they been mere soldiers,
they would never have become controvertists, but they were also
citizens of Moscow. Whosoever has, or assumes a right of speaking in an
authoritative manner to the populace, may found a sect. This has been
seen in all ages, and all parts of the world, especially since the
passion of dogmatizing has become the instrument of ambition, and the
terror of weak minds.
Russia had experienced some previous disturbances on occasion of a
dispute, whether the sign of the cross was to be made with three
fingers, or with two! One Abakum, who was also a priest, had set up some
new tenets at Moscow, in regard to the Holy Spirit; which according to
the Scriptures, enlightened all the faithful; as likewise with respect
to the equality of the primitive Christians, and these words of
Christ:--'There shall be amongst you neither first nor last.' Several
citizens and many of the strelitzes, embraced the opinions of Abakum.
One Raspop[22] was the chief of this party, which became considerable.
The sectaries, at length, entered (July 16, 1682, new stile) the
cathedral, where the patriarch and his clergy were officiating; drove
them out of the church with stones, and seated themselves very devoutly
in their places, to receive the Holy Spirit. They called the patriarch
the 'ravenous wolf in the sheepfold;' a title which all sects have
liberally bestowed on each other. The princess Sophia, and the two
czars, were immediately made acquainted with these disturbances: and the
other strelitzes, who were staunch to the good old cause, were given to
understand, that the czars and the church were in danger. Upon this the
strelitzes and burghers of the patriarchal party attacked the
Abakumists: but a stop was put to the carnage, by publishing a
convocation of a council, which was immediately assembled in a hall of
the palace. This took up very little time, for they obliged every priest
they met to attend. The patriarch, and a bishop, disputed against
Raspop; but at the second syllogism, they began to throw stones at one
another. The council ended with ordering Raspop, and some of his
faithful disciples to have their heads struck off; and the sentence was
executed by the sole order of the three sovereigns, Sophia, John, and
Peter.
During these troubles, there was a knez, named Chowanskoi, who having
been instrumental in raising the princess Sophia to the dignity she then
held, wanted, as a reward for his services, to have a share in the
administration.
It may be supposed, that he found Sophia not so grateful as he could
wish; upon which he espoused the cause of religion, and the persecuted
Raspopians, and stirred up a party among the strelitzes and the people,
in defence of God's name.
This conspiracy proved a more serious affair than the enthusiastic riot
of Raspop. An ambitious hypocrite always carries things farther than a
simple fanatic. Chowanskoi aimed at no less than the imperial dignity;
and to rid himself of all cause of fear, he resolved to murder the two
czars, Sophia, the other princesses, and every one who was attached to
the imperial family. The czars and the princesses were obliged to retire
to the monastery of the Holy Trinity, within twelve leagues of
Petersburg.[23] This was, at the same time, a convent, a palace, and a
fortress, like Mount Cassino,[24] Corhy,[25] Fulda,[26] Kempten,[27]
and several others belonging to the Latin church. This monastery of the
Trinity belongs to the monks of St. Basil. It is surrounded by deep
ditches, and ramparts of brick, on which is planted a numerous
artillery. The monks are possessed of all the country round for four
leagues. The imperial family were in full safety there, but more on
account of the strength, than the sanctity of the place. Here Sophia
treated with the rebel knez; and having decoyed him half way, caused his
head to be struck off, together with those of one of his sons, and
thirty-seven strelitzes who accompanied him.
[Sidenote: 1682.]
The body of strelitzes upon this news, fly to arms, and march to attack
the convent of Trinity, threatening to destroy every thing that came in
their way. The imperial family stood upon their defence; the boyards arm
their vassals, all the gentlemen flocked in, and a bloody civil war
seemed on the point of beginning. The patriarch somewhat pacified the
strelitzes, who began to be intimidated with the number of troops that
were marching towards them on all sides: in short, their fury was
changed into fear, and their fear into the most abject submission; a
change common to the multitude. Three thousand seven hundred of this
corps, followed by their wives and children, with ropes tied about their
necks, went in procession to the convent of the Trinity, which three
days before they had threatened to burn to the ground. In this
condition, these unhappy wretches present themselves before the gate of
the convent, two by two, one carrying a block and another an axe; and
prostrating themselves on the ground, waited for their sentence. They
were pardoned upon their submission, and returned back to Moscow,
blessing their sovereigns; and still disposed, though unknown to
themselves, to commit the same crime upon the very first opportunity.
These commotions being subsided, the state resumed an exterior of
tranquillity; but Sophia still remained possessed of the chief
authority, leaving John to his incapacity, and keeping Peter in the
subjection of a ward. In order to strengthen her power, she shared it
with Prince Basil Galitzin, whom she created generalissimo, minister of
state, and lord keeper. Galitzin was in every respect superior to any
person in that distracted court: he was polite, magnificent, full of
great designs, more learned than any of his countrymen, as having
received a much better education, and was even master of the Latin
tongue, which was, at that time, almost entirely unknown in Russia. He
was of an active and indefatigable spirit, had a genius superior to the
times he lived in, and capable, had he had leisure and power, as he had
inclination, to have changed the face of things in Russia. This is the
eulogium given of him by La Neuville, at that time the Polish envoy in
Russia; and the encomiums of foreigners are seldom to be suspected.
This minister bridled the insolence of the strelitzes, by distributing
the most mutinous of that body among the several regiments in the
Ukraine, in Casan, and Siberia. It was under his administration that the
Poles, long the rivals of Russia, gave up, in 1686, all pretensions to
the large provinces of Smolensko and the Ukraine. He was the first who
sent an embassy to France, in 1687; a country which had, for upwards of
twenty years, been in the zenith of its glory, by the conquests, new
establishments, and the magnificence of Lewis XIV. and especially by the
improvement of the arts, there can be not only external grandeur, but
solid glory. France had not then entered into any correspondence with
Russia, or rather was unacquainted with that empire; and the academy of
inscriptions ordered a medal to be struck to commemorate this embassy,
as if it had come from the most distant part of the Indies; but
notwithstanding all this, the ambassador Dolgorouski miscarried in his
negotiation, and even suffered some gross affronts on account of the
behaviour of his domestics, whose mistakes it would have been better to
have overlooked; but the court of Lewis XIV. could not then foresee,
that France and Russia would one day reckon among the number of their
advantages, that of being cemented by the closest union.
Russia was now quiet at home, but she was still pent up on the side of
Sweden, though enlarged towards Poland, her new ally, in continual
alarms on the side of Crim Tartary, and at variance with China in regard
to the frontiers.
The most intolerable circumstance for their empire, and which plainly
shewed, that it had not yet attained to a vigorous and regular
administration, was, that the khan of the Crim Tartars exacted an annual
tribute of 6000 rubles, in the nature of that which the Turk had imposed
on the Poles.
Crim Tartary is the ancient Taurica Chersonesus, formerly so famous by
the commerce of the Greeks, and still more by their fables, a fruitful
but barbarous country. It took its name of Crimea, or Crim, from the
title of its first khans, who took this name before the conquests of the
sons of Gengis Khan. To free his country from this yoke, and wipe off
the disgrace of such tribute, the prime minister, Galitzin, marched in
person (1687, 1688,) into Crim Tartary, at the head of a numerous army.
These armies were not to be compared to the present troops; they had no
discipline; there was hardly one regiment completely armed; they had no
uniform clothing, no regularity: their men indeed were inured to hard
labour and a scarcity of provisions, but then they carried with them
such a prodigious quantity of baggage, as far exceeded any thing of the
kind in our camps, where the greatest luxury prevails. Their vast
numbers of waggons for carrying ammunition and provisions, in an
uninhabitable and desert country, greatly retarded the expedition
against Crim Tartary. The army found itself in the midst of the vast
deserts, on the river Samara, unprovided with magazines. Here Galitzin
did what in my opinion, was never done any where else: he employed
thirty thousand men in building a town on the banks of the Samara, to
serve as a place for magazines in the ensuing campaign: it was begun in
one year, and finished in the third month of the following; the houses
indeed were all wood except two, which were brick; the ramparts were of
turf, but well lined with artillery; and the whole place was in a
tolerable state of defence.
This was all that was done of any consequence in this ruinous
expedition. In the mean while Sophia continued to govern in Moscow,
while John had only the name of czar; and Peter, now at the age of
seventeen, had already the courage to aim at real sovereignty. La
Neuville, the Polish envoy, then resident at Moscow, and who was
eye-witness to all that passed, pretends that Sophia and Galitzin had
engaged the new chief of the strelitzes, to sacrifice to them their
young czar: it appears, at least, that six hundred of these strelitzes
were to have made themselves masters of his person. The private memoirs
which have been entrusted to my perusal by the court of Russia, affirm,
that a scheme had actually been laid to murder Peter the First: the blow
was on the point of being struck, and Russia for ever deprived of the
new existence she has since received. The czar was once more obliged to
take refuge in the convent of the Trinity, the usual asylum of the court
when threatened by the soldiers. There he assembled the boyards of his
party, raised a body of forces, treats with the captains of the
strelitzes, and called in the assistance of certain Germans, who had
been long settled in Moscow, and were all attached to his person from
his having already shewn himself the encourager of strangers. Sophia and
John, who continued at Moscow, used every means to engage the strelitzes
to remain firm to their interests; but the cause of young Peter, who
loudly complained of an attempt meditated against himself and his
mother, prevailed over that of the princess, and of a czar, whose very
aspect alienated all hearts. All the acomplices were punished with a
severity to which that country was as much accustomed as to the crimes
which occasioned it. Some were beheaded after undergoing the punishment
of the knout or battocks. The chief of the strelitzes was put to death
in the same manner, and several other suspected persons had their
tongues cut out. Prince Galitzin escaped with his life, through the
intercession of one of his relations, who was a favourite of czar Peter;
but he was stripped of all his riches, which were immense, and banished
to a place in the neighbourhood of Archangel. La Neuville, who was
present at the whole of this catastrophe, relates, that the sentence
pronounced upon Galitzin was in these terms: 'Thou art commanded, by the
most clement czar, to repair to Karga, a town under the pole, and there
to continue the remainder of thy days. His majesty, out of his extreme
goodness, allows thee three pence per day for thy subsistence.'
There is no town under the pole. Karga is in the 62nd degree of
latitude, and only six degrees and a half further north than Moscow.
Whoever pronounced this sentence must have been a very bad geographer.
La Neuville was probably imposed upon by a false account.
1689.] At length the princess Sophia was once more sent back to her
monastery at Moscow,[28] after having so long held the reins of
government; and this revolution proved, to a woman of her disposition, a
sufficient punishment.
From this instant Peter began to reign in reality; his brother John
having no other share in the government, but that of seeing his name to
all public acts. He led a retired life, and died in 1696.