Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725) ruled alone from 1694. Although Russia was huge, its navy was weak at a time when European powers like Britain and the Dutch were exploring and colonising the globe, and expanding their borders. So to learn from European nations’ successes, Peter spent 1697-8 travelling in Europe in a Grand Embassy.
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His Grand Embassy consisted of 250 high-ranking ambassadors and their staff, and he was able to blend in and spend time learning about Europe first hand. He spent four months working at a ship yard for the Dutch East India Co., where he studied Netherland’s modern ship-building innovations. Then he went to Britain to further study shipbuilding, working in the Royal Navy’s dock yard at Deptford, visiting factories, arsenals, schools and museums. The trip took 2 years altogether, visiting heads of state, collections of natural curiosities and theatres, and throwing wild parties.
Back home in 1698, Peter wanted to modernise Russian society based on Western European models, so Russia could compete with the European superpowers. He played a crucial role in changing its economy, government, culture and religious affairs. He revised Russia’s calendar, introduced changes to Russian writing, and completely modernised the military. And he wanted to westernise the next generation of Russians by marrying his family into other European royalty. Russia’s most Europeanised city started when St Petersburg became an elegant and modernised capital.
Peter also reinvented Russian culture. He was an influential patron of the arts who founded the country’s first public museum. Fine paintings, jewellery and armour from the tsar’s collections are still on display. Tsar Peter I certainly did change Russia forever.
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The Tsar also required courtiers, state officials and the military to shave their beards, like the modern Western Europeans he’d met on his tour. Peter dramatically begun the shaving practice at a New Year’s Eve reception, held in his honour. In attendance were his Army Commander and 2nd-in-command, and many aides and diplomats. Suddenly the crowd’s mood went from happy boozing to horror as Peter personally waved a huge barber’s razor!
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Peter the Great gaily cutting a Boyar's beard
Peter The Great
This ambitious young man travelled to Western Europe several times on his grand tour. Peter chose to travel incognito, calling himself Sgt Pyotr Mikhaylov. Nonetheless excited rumours of his visit spread from town to town: 6’6 tall, brilliant and half civilised.
by Jean-Marc Nattier, c1717
Hermitage
This ambitious young man travelled to Western Europe several times on his grand tour. Peter chose to travel incognito, calling himself Sgt Pyotr Mikhaylov. Nonetheless excited rumours of his visit spread from town to town: 6’6 tall, brilliant and half civilised.
His Grand Embassy consisted of 250 high-ranking ambassadors and their staff, and he was able to blend in and spend time learning about Europe first hand. He spent four months working at a ship yard for the Dutch East India Co., where he studied Netherland’s modern ship-building innovations. Then he went to Britain to further study shipbuilding, working in the Royal Navy’s dock yard at Deptford, visiting factories, arsenals, schools and museums. The trip took 2 years altogether, visiting heads of state, collections of natural curiosities and theatres, and throwing wild parties.
Back home in 1698, Peter wanted to modernise Russian society based on Western European models, so Russia could compete with the European superpowers. He played a crucial role in changing its economy, government, culture and religious affairs. He revised Russia’s calendar, introduced changes to Russian writing, and completely modernised the military. And he wanted to westernise the next generation of Russians by marrying his family into other European royalty. Russia’s most Europeanised city started when St Petersburg became an elegant and modernised capital.
Peter also reinvented Russian culture. He was an influential patron of the arts who founded the country’s first public museum. Fine paintings, jewellery and armour from the tsar’s collections are still on display. Tsar Peter I certainly did change Russia forever.
Pectoral Cross
commissioned and displayed by Peter the Great
The clearest implementation of social modernisation was via introducing western dress to court. The Tsar ordered his subjects to replace their long Russian overcoats with French jackets. Mannequins, set outside the Moscow city gates and in St Petersburg streets, publicly displayed the new fashions. Tailors who continued to sell Russian styles risked steep fines, and pedestrians in an old-fashioned robe could have it shortened by the Tsar’s fashion police!
The clearest implementation of social modernisation was via introducing western dress to court. The Tsar ordered his subjects to replace their long Russian overcoats with French jackets. Mannequins, set outside the Moscow city gates and in St Petersburg streets, publicly displayed the new fashions. Tailors who continued to sell Russian styles risked steep fines, and pedestrians in an old-fashioned robe could have it shortened by the Tsar’s fashion police!
The Tsar also required courtiers, state officials and the military to shave their beards, like the modern Western Europeans he’d met on his tour. Peter dramatically begun the shaving practice at a New Year’s Eve reception, held in his honour. In attendance were his Army Commander and 2nd-in-command, and many aides and diplomats. Suddenly the crowd’s mood went from happy boozing to horror as Peter personally waved a huge barber’s razor!
jstor
The Tsar empowered police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to shave their faces. English visitor to Russia Capt John Perry said the Russians submitted only upon the Terror of having their beards … pull’d out by the Roots, and some of the Skin went with them. Some men kept the torn out facial hair to put it in their coffin, so that they could give an excuse to St Nicholas in Heaven!! In this the men were guided by the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church, which considered uncut facial hair a reflection of piety. To shave a beard was an anti-Christian sin.
In 1698, the Tsar established a beard tax, as Britain’s King Henry VII did. So what was the reason behind the tax? To back up his shaving command! Although his new tax wasn’t specifically to raise money, the state would indeed collect more taxes IF any person opted to keep his beard. The State Dept ordered that for nobility, military officers & merchants, the beard tax was 100 rubles per year; for commoners, only 1 kopek. Those who paid the tax were given a token of proof, silver for nobility and copper for commoners.
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A beard token, proof of paying the Russian beard tax
1705, Wiki
The Tsar also brawled with the Church by organising a Club for his drinking mates. The members “played” at being cardinals and bishops, and performed mock ceremonies, complete with drunkenness and endless feasts! This blasphemous entertainment posed another religious dilemma for Orthodox society.
Historian VM Zhivov said by challenging the Church’s power, Peter presented himself as a semi-divine figure, above society. The emperor commanded divine power, and society had the choice of either accepting his superiority, or rejecting it as a satanic enterprise. The Tsar did indeed wield the power of life and death. The punishments for rebels’ inability to assimilate European practices, were nasty.
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The Tsar empowered police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to shave their faces. English visitor to Russia Capt John Perry said the Russians submitted only upon the Terror of having their beards … pull’d out by the Roots, and some of the Skin went with them. Some men kept the torn out facial hair to put it in their coffin, so that they could give an excuse to St Nicholas in Heaven!! In this the men were guided by the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church, which considered uncut facial hair a reflection of piety. To shave a beard was an anti-Christian sin.
In 1698, the Tsar established a beard tax, as Britain’s King Henry VII did. So what was the reason behind the tax? To back up his shaving command! Although his new tax wasn’t specifically to raise money, the state would indeed collect more taxes IF any person opted to keep his beard. The State Dept ordered that for nobility, military officers & merchants, the beard tax was 100 rubles per year; for commoners, only 1 kopek. Those who paid the tax were given a token of proof, silver for nobility and copper for commoners.
1705, Wiki
To the religious, the beard tax was a shocking scandal. Rumours circulated that Peter was not the real Tsar but a sacrilegious fake, installed by Russia’s enemies. Finally the Russian streltsy/firearm infantry initiated an open revolt in Astrakhan in 1705, honouring Christianity. The revolt was crushed and hundreds of rebels were killed
The Tsar also brawled with the Church by organising a Club for his drinking mates. The members “played” at being cardinals and bishops, and performed mock ceremonies, complete with drunkenness and endless feasts! This blasphemous entertainment posed another religious dilemma for Orthodox society.
Historian VM Zhivov said by challenging the Church’s power, Peter presented himself as a semi-divine figure, above society. The emperor commanded divine power, and society had the choice of either accepting his superiority, or rejecting it as a satanic enterprise. The Tsar did indeed wield the power of life and death. The punishments for rebels’ inability to assimilate European practices, were nasty.
Map of Russia under Peter the Great
Note the expansion of Russian lands along the Baltic
Most importantly Russia was able to expand, drawing on the newly independent Netherlands for his inspiration, and become one of the most powerful countries in the eastern hemisphere. To improve his nation’s position, Peter the Great sought to gain more ocean outlets, the goal being to make Russia a great maritime power. The map showed the vital Baltic Sea region taken by Russia by 1721.