A conspiracy punished.--The corps of strelitzes abolished,
alterations in customs, manners, church, and state.
Czar Peter, when he left his dominions to set out on his travels, had
provided against every incident, even that of rebellion. But the great
and serviceable things he had done for his country, proved the very
cause of this rebellion.
Certain old boyards, to whom the ancient customs were still dear, and
some priests, to whom the new ones appeared little better than
sacrilege, began these disturbances, and the old faction of the princess
Sophia took this opportunity to rouse itself anew. It is said, that one
of her sisters, who was confined to the same monastery, contributed not
a little to excite these seditions. Care was taken to spread abroad the
danger to be feared from the introduction of foreigners to instruct the
nation. In short, who would believe, that[49] the permission which the
czar had given to import tobacco into his empire, contrary to the
inclination of the clergy, was one of the chief motives of the
insurrection? Superstition, the scourge of every country, yet the
darling of the multitude, spread itself from the common people to the
strelitzes, who had been scattered on the frontiers of Lithuania: they
assembled in a body, and marched towards Moscow, with the intent to
place the princess Sophia on the throne, and for ever to prevent the
return of a czar who had violated the established customs,[50] by
presuming to travel for instruction among foreigners. The forces
commanded by Schein and Gordon, who were much better disciplined than
the strelitzes, met them fifteen leagues from Moscow, gave them battle,
and entirely defeated them: but this advantage, gained by a foreign
general over the ancient militia, among whom were several of the
burghers of Moscow, contributed still more to irritate the people.
To quell these tumults, the czar sets out privately from Vienna, passes
through Poland, has a private interview with Augustus, concerts measures
with that prince for extending the Russian dominions on the side of the
Baltic, and at length arrived at Moscow, where he surprised every one
with his presence: he then confers rewards on the troops who had
defeated the strelitzes, (Sept. 1698,) of whom the prisons were now
full. If the crimes of these unhappy wretches were great, their
punishment was no less so. Their leaders, with several of their officers
and priests, were condemned to death; some were broken upon the
wheel,[51] and two women were buried alive; upwards of two thousand of
the strelitzes were executed, part of whom were hung round about the
walls of the city, and others put to death in different manners, and
their dead bodies remained exposed for two days in the high roads,[52]
particularly about the monastery where the princesses Sophia and Eudocia
resided.[53] Monuments of stone were erected, on which their crimes and
punishments were set forth. A great number of them who had wives and
children at Moscow, were dispersed with their families into Siberia, the
kingdom of Astracan, and the country of Azoph. This punishment was at
least of service to the state, as they helped to cultivate and people a
large tract of waste land.
Perhaps, if the czar had not found it absolutely necessary to make such
terrible examples, he might have employed part of those strelitzes whom
he put to death, upon the public works; whereas they were now lost both
to him and the state: the lives of men ought to be held in great
estimation, especially in a country where the increase of inhabitants
ought to have been the principal care of the legislature: but he thought
it necessary to terrify and break the spirit of the nation by
executions, and the parade attending them. The entire corps of the
strelitzes, whose number not one of his predecessors had even dared to
think of diminishing, was broke for ever, and their very name abolished.
This change was effected without any resistance, because matters had
been properly prepared beforehand. The Turkish sultan, Osman, as I have
already remarked, was deposed and murdered in the same century, only for
giving the janissaries room to suspect that he intended to lessen their
number. Peter had better success, because he had taken better measures.
Of this powerful and numerous body of the strelitzes, he left only two
feeble regiments, from whom there could no longer be any danger; and yet
these still retaining their old spirit of mutiny, revolted again in
Astracan, in the year 1705, but were quickly suppressed.
But while we are relating Peter's severity in this affair of state, let
us not forget to commemorate the more than equal humanity he shewed some
time afterwards, when he lost his favourite Le Fort, who was snatched
away by an untimely fate, March 12, N. S. 1699, at the age of 46. He
paid him the same funeral honours as are bestowed on the greatest
sovereigns, and assisted himself in the procession, carrying a pike in
his hand, and marching after the captains, in the rank of a lieutenant,
which he held in the deceased general's regiment, hereby setting an
example to his nobles, of the respect due to merit and the military
rank.
After the death of Le Fort, it appeared plainly, that the changes in the
state were not owing to that general, but to the czar himself. Peter had
indeed been confirmed in his design by his several conversations with Le
Fort; but he had formed and executed them all without his assistance.
As soon as he had suppressed the strelitzes, he established regular
regiments on the German model, who were all clothed in a short and
commodious uniform, in the room of those long and troublesome coats,
which they used to wear before; and, at the same time, their exercise
was likewise more regular.
The regiment of Preobrazinski guards was already formed; it had taken
its name from the first company of fifty men, whom the czar had trained
up in his younger days, in his retreat at Preobrazinski, at the time
when his sister Sophia governed the state, and the other regiment of
guards was also established.
As he had himself passed through the lowest degrees in the army, he was
resolved that the sons of his boyards and great men, should serve as
common soldiers before they were made officers. He sent some of the
young nobility on board of his fleet at Woronitz and Azoph, where he
obliged them to serve their apprenticeship as common seamen. No one
dared to dispute the commands of a master who had himself set the
example. The English and Dutch he had brought over with him were
employed in equipping this fleet for sea, in constructing sluices, and
building docks, for careening the ships, and to resume the great work of
joining the Tanais, or Don, and the Wolga, which had been dropped by
Brekel, the German. And now he began to set about his projected
reformations in the council of state, in the revenue, in the church, and
even in society itself.
The affairs of the revenue had been hitherto administered much in the
same manner as in Turkey. Each boyard paid a stipulated sum for his
lands, which he raised upon the peasants, his vassals; the czar
appointed certain burghers and burgomasters to be his receivers, who
were not powerful enough to claim the right of paying only such sums as
they thought proper into the public treasury. This new administration of
the finances, was what cost him the most trouble: he was obliged to try
several methods before he could fix upon a proper one.
The reformation of the church, which in all other countries is looked
upon as so dangerous and difficult an attempt, was not so to him. The
patriarchs had at times opposed the authority of the crown, as well as
the strelitzes; Nicon with insolence, Joachin, one of his successors, in
an artful manner.
The bishops had arrogated the power of life and death, a prerogative
directly contrary to the spirit of religion, and the subordination of
government. This assumed power, which had been of long standing, was now
taken from them. The patriarch Adrian, dying at the close of this
century, Peter declared that there should for the future be no other.
This dignity then was entirely suppressed, and the great income
belonging thereto was united to the public revenue, which stood in need
of this addition. Although the czar did not set himself up as the head
of the Russian church, as the kings of Great Britain have done in regard
to the church of England; yet he was, in fact, absolute master over it,
because the synods did not dare either to disobey the commands of a
despotic sovereign, or to dispute with a prince who had more knowledge
than themselves.
We need only to cast an eye on the preamble to the edict, concerning his
ecclesiastical regulations, issued in 1721, to be convinced that he
acted at once as master and legislator: 'We should deem ourselves guilty
of ingratitude to the Most High, if, after having reformed the military
and civil orders, we neglect the spiritual, &c. For this cause,
following the example of the most ancient kings, who have been famed for
piety, we have taken upon us to make certain wholesome regulations,
touching the clergy.' It is true, he convened a synod for carrying into
execution his ecclesiastical decrees, but the members of this synod, at
entering upon their office, were to take an oath, the form of which had
been drawn up and signed by himself. This was an oath of submission and
obedience, and was conceived in the following terms: 'I swear to be a
faithful and obedient servant and subject to my true and natural
sovereign, and to the august successors whom it shall please him to
nominate, in virtue of the incontestable right of which he is possessed:
I acknowledge him to be the supreme judge of this spiritual college: I
swear by the all-seeing God, that I understand and mean this oath in the
full force and sense, which the words convey to those who read or hear
it.' This oath is much stronger than that of the supremacy in England.
The Russian monarch was not, indeed, one of the fathers of the synod,
but he dictated their laws; and, though he did not touch the holy
censer, he directed the hands that held it.
Previous to this great work, he thought, that in a state like his, which
stood in need of being peopled, the celibacy of the monks was contrary
to nature, and to the public good. It was the ancient custom of the
Russian church, for secular priests to marry at least once in their
lives: they were even obliged so to do: and formerly they ceased to be
priests as soon as they lost their wives. But that a multitude of young
people of both sexes should make a vow of living useless in a cloister,
and at the expense of others, appeared to him a dangerous institution.
He, therefore, ordered that no one should be admitted to a monastic
life, till they were fifty years old, a time of life very rarely subject
to a temptation of this kind; and he forbid any person to be admitted,
at any age soever, who was actually in possession of any public employ.
This regulation has been repealed since his death, because the
government has thought proper to shew more complaisance to the
monasteries: but the patriarchal dignity has never been revived, and its
great revenues are now appropriated to the payment of the troops.
These alterations at first excited some murmurings. A certain priest
wrote, to prove that Peter was antichrist, because he would not admit of
a patriarch; and the art of printing, which the czar encouraged in his
kingdom, was made use of to publish libels against him: but, on the
other hand, there was another priest who started up to prove that Peter
could not be antichrist, because the number 666 was not to be found in
his name, and that he had not the sign of the Beast. All complaints,
however, were soon quieted. Peter, in fact, gave much more to the church
than he took from it; for he made the clergy, by degrees, more regular
and more learned. He founded three colleges at Moscow, where they teach
the languages, and where those who are designed for the priesthood are
obliged to study.
One of the most necessary reforms was the suppression, or at least the
mitigation of the Three Lents, an ancient superstition of the Greek
church, and as prejudicial with respect to those who are employed in
public works, and especially to soldiers, as was the old Jewish
superstition of not fighting on the sabbath-day. Accordingly the czar
dispensed with his workmen and soldiers at least, observing these lents,
in which, though they were not permitted to eat, they were accustomed to
get drunk. He likewise dispensed with their observance of meagre days;
the chaplains of the fleet and army were obliged to set the example,
which they did without much reluctance.
The calendar, another important object. Formerly, in all the countries
of the world, the chiefs of religion had the care of regulating the
year, not only on account of the feasts to be observed, but because, in
ancient times, the priests were the only persons who understood
astronomy.
The year began with the Russians on the 1st of September. Peter ordered,
that it should for the future commence the first day of January, as
among the other nations of Europe. This alteration was to take place in
the year 1700, at the beginning of the century, which he celebrated by a
jubilee, and other grand solemnities. It was a matter of surprise, to
the common people, how the czar should be able to change the course of
the sun. Some obstinate persons, persuaded that God had created the
world in September, continued their old style: but the alteration took
place in all the public offices, in the whole court of chancery, and in
a little time throughout the whole empire. Peter did not adopt the
Gregorian calendar, because it had been rejected by the English
mathematicians; but which must, nevertheless, be one day received in all
countries.
Ever since the 5th century, the time when letters first came into use
amongst them, they had been accustomed to write upon long rolls, made
either of the bark of trees, or of parchment, and afterwards of paper;
and the czar was obliged to publish an edict, ordering every one, for
the future, to write after our manner.
The reformation now became general. Their marriages were made formerly
after the same manner as in Turkey and Persia, where the bridegroom does
not see his bride till the contract is signed, and they can no longer go
from their words. This custom may do well enough among those people,
where polygamy prevails, and where the women are always shut up; but it
is a very bad one in countries where a man is confined to one wife, and
where divorces are seldom allowed.
The czar was willing to accustom his people to the manners and customs
of the nations which he had visited in his travels, and from whence he
had taken the masters who were now instructing them.
It appeared necessary that the Russians should not be dressed in a
different manner from those who were teaching them the arts and
sciences; because the aversion to strangers, which is but too natural to
mankind, is not a little kept up by a difference of dress. The full
dress, which at that time partook of the fashions of the Poles, the
Tartars, and the ancient Hungarians, was, as we have elsewhere observed,
very noble; but the dress of the burghers and common people resembled
those jackets plaited round the waist, which are still given to the poor
children in some of the French hospitals.[54] In general, the robe was
formerly the dress of all nations, as being a garment that required the
least trouble and art; and, for the same reason, the beard was suffered
to grow. The czar met with but little difficulty in introducing our mode
of dress, and the custom of shaving among his courtiers; but the people
were more obstinate, he found himself obliged to lay a tax on long coats
and beards. Patterns of close-bodied coats were hung up in public
places; and whoever refused to pay the tax were obliged to suffer their
robes and their beards to be curtailed: all this was done in a jocular
manner, and this air of pleasantry prevented seditions.
It has ever been the aim of all legislators to render mankind more
sociable; but it is not sufficient to effect this end, that they live
together in towns, there must be a mutual intercourse of civility. This
intercourse sweetens all the bitterness of life. The czar, therefore,
introduced those assemblies which the Italians call _ridotti_. To these
assemblies he invited all the ladies of his court, with their daughters;
and they were to appear dressed after the fashions of the southern
nations of Europe. He was even himself at the pains of drawing up
rules for all the little decorums to be observed at these social
entertainments. Thus, even to good breeding among his subjects, all was
his own work, and that of time.
To make his people relish these innovations the better, he abolished the
word _golut_, _slave_, always made use of by the Russians when they
addressed their czar, or presented any petition to him; and ordered,
that, for the future, they should make use of the word _raab_, which
signifies _subject_. This alteration in no wise diminished the obedience
due to the sovereign, and yet was the most ready means of conciliating
their affections. Every month produced some new change or institution.
He carried his attention even to the ordering painted posts to be set up
in the road between Moscow and Woronitz, to serve as mile stones at the
distance of every verst; that is to say, every seven hundred paces, and
had a kind of caravanseras, or public inns, built at the end of every
twentieth verst.
While he was thus extending his cares to the common people, to the
merchants, and to the traveller, he thought proper to make an addition
to the pomp and splendour of his own court; for though he hated pomp or
show in his own person, he thought it necessary in those about him; he
therefore instituted the order of St. Andrew,[55] in imitation of the
several orders with which all the courts of Europe abound. Golowin, who
succeeded Le Fort in the dignity of high admiral, was the first knight
of this order. It was esteemed a high reward to have the honour of being
admitted a member. It was a kind of badge that entitled the person who
bore it to the respect of the people. This mark of honour costs nothing
to the sovereign, and flatters the self-love of a subject, without
rendering him too powerful.
These many useful innovations were received with applause by the wiser
part of the nation; and the murmurings and complaints of those who
adhered to the ancient customs were drowned in the acclamations of men
of sound judgment.
While Peter was thus beginning a new creation in the interior part of
his state, he concluded an advantageous truce with the Turks, which gave
him the liberty to extend his territories on another side. Mustapha the
Second, who had been defeated by prince Eugene, at the battle of Zeuta,
in 1697, stripped of the Morea by the Venetians, and unable to defend
Azoph, was obliged to make peace with his victorious enemies, which
peace was concluded at Carlowitz, (Jan. 26, 1699,) between Peterwaradin
and Salankamon, places made famous by his defeats. Temeswaer was made
the boundary of the German possessions, and of the Ottoman dominions.
Kaminieck was restored to the Poles; the Morea, and some towns in
Dalmatia, which had been taken by the Venetians, remained in their hands
for some time; and Peter the First continued in possession of Casaph,
and of a few forts built in its neighbourhood.
It was not possible for the czar to extend his dominions on the side of
Turkey, without drawing upon him the forces of that empire, before
divided, but now united. His naval projects were too vast for the Palus
Mæotis, and the settlements on the Caspian Sea would not admit of a
fleet of men of war: he therefore turned his views towards the Baltic
Sea, but without relinquishing those in regard to the Tanais and Wolga.