PETER THE GREAT
At a time when the famous House of Romanoff had only recently come into
power in Russia, a prince was born in the Kremlin Palace at Moscow who
was destined to become the greatest ruler that the Russian people have
ever known. The name of this prince was Peter and he was the son of the
Czar Alexis.
Alexis was a kind-hearted man, but preferred to leave the arduous
duties of governing the Russian State to his advisors. As he was easily
influenced by any favorite who happened to gain his ear the Government
was badly run and the condition of the people was deplorable indeed.
When the Empress, or Czarina, had borne her husband two sons and a
daughter she died, and Alexis married a second wife named Natalia
Naryshkin, who became the mother of the infant Peter in 1672.
We are told that there were great festivities at Peter's christening.
Most of the great nobles of Russia were present and there was feasting
and merrymaking. The guests wondered at the great confections of candy
and spice that had been made for the celebration--life-size swans all
of sugar that looked so natural it seemed as though they could swim in
the sea of wine that flowed there, and fortresses of sweetmeats made to
resemble the buildings of Moscow.
There are many stories, too, of the pomp and luxury in which the future
Czar was brought up. Peter had his own apartments and his own train of
attendants, and he was waited on by a band of dwarfs who were selected
for this purpose. When he was three years old the Czar gave him a royal
carriage of tiny size drawn by four ponies, and sitting therein, driven
and accompanied by his dwarfs, the little Prince would appear in the
public streets whenever a royal ceremony took place.
His father died when Peter was four years old and was succeeded on the
throne by Feodor, who was Peter's half brother. This prince was not
fitted to rule. He was sickly in body and weak in intellect, as indeed
were both of the Czar's sons by his first marriage. And the new Czar
spent a large part of his time in bed while his sister Sophia, who was
shrewder than himself, was the actual ruler of Russia.
Sophia had planned to make herself Empress by the cleverest plotting
and intrigue. She nursed Feodor in his illnesses and so endeared
herself to him that he allowed her to do whatever she desired. Among
the nobility she gained a number of friends by gifts, smiles and
flattery, and she paid particular attention to winning over a body of
soldiers that formed the Imperial Guard, and were called the Streltsi,
trying to enlist them in her cause by every means in her power.
Sophia, it may be said, was base-hearted and treacherous. She did not
wish her father to marry again for she feared there would be more
children, and she desired to come to power after his death by managing
the affairs of her two weak brothers. Feodor, as we have seen, was a
hopeless invalid; and the other son, Ivan, was weak-minded, almost an
idiot, manifestly incapable of ever coming to the throne.
But Peter, the son of the second marriage, was a strong and promising
child, handsome in body and powerful in mind. He was the hope of the
Russian State, and gave every indication that he would some day become
a ruler worthy of his people. And while he was still a young boy the
sickly Feodor died and Peter became the Czar much sooner than was
expected.
Sophia was most unwilling to have Peter reign. She knew that under such
a ruler as he promised to become there would be small chance of her
keeping her power. So, when Feodor died, she planned a revolt by
spreading falsehoods among the nobles and the Imperial Guard to the
effect that Peter's mother had planned to place her son on the throne
by any means whatever and had murdered the idiot Prince Ivan so that
Peter might rule unquestioned.
At this a mob made its way to the Kremlin, determined to take and slay
both Peter and his mother, and foremost among the infuriated people
were the soldiers of the Imperial Guard who were influenced by Sophia.
The former Czarina with Peter in her arms was compelled to flee for
refuge to a monastery where the soldiers followed her as far as the
altar itself, but feared to use their swords in the house of God.
So many of the nobles, however, supported Peter and his mother, that
Sophia could not work her wicked will upon them, and at last it was
agreed that both Peter and Ivan should reign jointly as Czars, while
Sophia herself was to be Regent, with all the power in her hands until
they should come of age.
Sophia then worked out another plot by which she hoped that Peter would
never really rule. She planned to weaken him in body and will until he
should be unfit for his high duties. She took away his instructors and
surrounded him with a group of boys to whom she gave every luxury and
every opportunity for vice and idleness. They did as they liked from
morning to night and no restraint of any kind or description was placed
upon them. Sophia hoped that they would all become worthless and
vicious and that Peter would do the same. Perhaps, she thought, he
might even weaken himself by drinking bouts and riotous orgies so that
he would not even live to claim the actual power of the throne.
It was in the company of these boys, however, that Peter gave the first
signs that he was not only bright and capable but possessed the
qualities of real greatness. Instead of doing nothing, as Sophia had
wickedly hoped, he soon became a natural leader among his companions.
Although he had no instructors he kept up his studies and made his
fellows do likewise, and he organized the group of boys into a military
company which he drilled with the greatest care, teaching them tactics
and the theories of soldiering, which he obtained from the officers of
the army, and organizing a military school of such excellence that it
continued on a practical basis long after he became Czar.
The constant efforts of the young Prince to improve himself, his zeal,
energy and ability soon attracted the attention of the Russian
noblemen, who said to themselves that here was a ruler worth having.
Many of them had been Sophia's friends, but now they began to turn
toward Peter, and Sophia soon saw that the design she had entertained
was a two-edged one, and that she had only injured herself.
Peter now was a youth of eighteen, and had a strong party of noblemen
ready to support him in his claims to power. His friends and counselors
desired that he marry, and soon the Princess Eudoxia Lopukhin became
his bride. Sophia, of course, had been unwilling that the marriage take
place, but she couldn't prevent it; and from that time onward her power
grew less each day.
The young Prince continued to show every indication of his energy and
ability. He worked in the shipyards to learn ship building, and he
studied military tactics at every opportunity. He had a company of
soldiers formed, who dressed in European uniform instead of in the
Asiatic garb of Russia. He himself had drilled as a private in this
company. He was fond of taking long trips for military purposes as well
as for shipbuilding, and continued to do so after his marriage.
At about this time Russia engaged in an unsuccessful war in the Crimea.
The Russian General, Golitzyn, claimed that he had accomplished wonders
and ought to be decorated, but Peter's knowledge of military matters
had made him thoroughly disgusted with the campaign. He refused to sign
the order for the General's medals, and showed that he knew the war had
been a failure and had failed through faulty strategy and bad
leadership.
Then there took place another plot to assassinate Peter, and once again
Sophia's friends, the Imperial Guard, were in the foreground. Some of
the soldiers, however, were faithful to the young Czar and warned him
in time to fly for his life, and once again he and his mother took
refuge in the monastery that had sheltered him when he was an infant.
Noblemen hastened to the place to assure Peter that they were loyal to
him and devoted to his interests. And while still in the monastery
Peter accused Sophia of having planned the deed. The Imperial Guard at
last went over to him and the ringleaders of the plot were disclosed
and executed. General Golitzyn, who had already been in disfavor on
account of his operations in the Crimea, was banished to the desolate
reaches of Siberia, and the evil-hearted Sophia was placed in a convent
for the good of her soul, where she remained until her dying day.
After this Peter took on himself the full power of the Czar and began
the great reforms that have made his name famous and were still working
in Russia when the World War commenced in 1914. He ordered that
mechanics and craftsmen from all parts of Europe be brought into Russia
to show the Russian people improved methods of trade, building and
manufacture. He made it easy to buy the merchandise of other countries,
so the Russians might learn how to make such things themselves, and he
traveled widely in his great Empire supervising industry and
introducing new methods. He turned his attention to the Army and had it
well and efficiently drilled and dressed in the style of the armies of
England and France and other great western nations. He took long
voyages on the sea to learn the craft of sailoring, and made plans for
various ports and shipping centers in his country. And for his own
amusement the Czar was passionately fond of working with his own hands
and making various things that can be seen to the present day.
When Peter was twenty-two his mother died, and soon after this time he
ceased to live with his wife, who entered a convent. He had never cared
for her, although she had loved him passionately; and his treatment of
her was harsh to say the least. In one way Peter's early training had
done its work and Sophia had molded his character for the worse. He was
reckless and dissolute, a heavy drinker and fond of wild orgies that
lasted long after daybreak. Unusually strong himself these excesses did
not injure his health to any great extent, but it was hard for those
who had to drink with him, for the Czar expected them to go about their
affairs the next day as though they had spent the night in restful
sleep instead of some wild revel, and it is said that he had no use for
a man who would not join in the revels or who allowed himself to be
affected by them on the following day.
When still a young man there was another attempt to murder him, and to
place Sophia on the throne, but the plot was discovered and all the
conspirators were put to death, some of them with barbarous cruelties.
In 1695 the Russians went to war against the Turks and the wild
Tartars. The war is not an important one in its bearing on history, but
Peter won fame through all civilized Europe for the skill with which he
handled his army and the way in which he conducted the siege of a town
called Azov.
He then made up his mind to go to western Europe and visit the great
nations he had always admired. He went in great state and pretended
that he was bound on a diplomatic mission, but it is thought that the
real reason for the trip was his desire to see new forms and methods in
the mechanical arts. He visited what is now modern Germany and went to
Holland, where for a time he worked in one of the shipyards as a common
carpenter, dressed in a workman's clothes. He was keenly interested in
everything, and one of his biographers tells us that he even learned
dentistry and practiced his skill on the servants that accompanied him.
Peter went to England and was surprised and delighted to see the fine
metal coins that were used in that nation, as the Russian money was
printed on small bits of leather, and on his return he introduced metal
money into Russia. He also visited Vienna and Paris, and traveled in
disguise as much as possible.
While away on this trip another revolt broke out against him, and Peter
was obliged to hurry home on account of it. The conspirators were
treated with the utmost severity and were tortured and killed. There
are many ugly stories about the way that Peter behaved in regard to his
enemies, although it is true that they had given him ample provocation,
and it is said that when he was under the influence of drink he put to
death a number of conspirators with his own hand.
Peter, with his great love of shipbuilding, was always planning to
establish a Russian navy and build new seaports. To assure himself
control of the Russian seacoast of the Baltic sea he went to war with
Charles the Tenth of Sweden, and finally built the city of Saint
Petersburg that was named in his honor--a name that was changed to
Petrograd at the beginning of the World War. The war went against Peter
at first, but he trained his soldiers until they could achieve future
victory, and when the Swedes invaded Russia they found Peter more than
ready for them. With the efficient army that he had built up the Swedes
were badly beaten at the battle of Pultowa and were compelled to
withdraw from Russia, after sustaining terrible losses.
It is not on account of his wars, however, but his reforms, that the
name of Peter the Great is so well known to-day. He was constantly
changing and improving the order of things in his country. He went so
far as to require that the Russian civilians abandon the Asiatic dress
of their forefathers and cut their beards, and he, more than any other
man, transformed Russia from an eastern into a western nation.
Peter had divorced his wife after the revolt which took place when he
was visiting other nations, as he believed, or wished to believe, that
she had a share in the plot, and he now married a beautiful woman of
low degree named Catherine who was called Catherine the First. He had
one son by his first wife, who was named Alexis, but the Prince had
always given him serious trouble and finally tried to hatch a revolt
against his own father. For this Alexis was tried and condemned to
death, but he fell ill and died before the sentence could be
pronounced, asking and receiving forgiveness from Peter on his
deathbed.
Peter himself died in 1725 after a sudden illness. His funeral was so
elaborate that it was six weeks before the ceremonies were concluded,
for he had won a place in the hearts of the Russians that he never
lost. He was beyond any doubt the greatest and most famous of the
Russian Czars, and he left Russia in a far better position than when he
came to the throne. In addition to introducing all kinds of mechanical
reform he won a seaboard on the Baltic and Black seas which Russia had
never before possessed; he built great cities and established many
political reforms which were the beginning of the modern Russian
nation. He had trained an efficient army and was the father of the
Russian navy. While possessed of many faults and of a savage, ruthless
nature, the elements of greatness and of heroism were strong within
him.