The Boys' Book of Rulers

The curious books of accounts enumerate some of the articles ordered for him in the first years of his childhood. Among them were “cradles covered with gold-embroidered Turkish velvet; sheets and pillows of white silk; coverlets of gold and silver stuffs; coats, caps, stockings, and shoes of velvet, silk, and satin, embroidered with gold and pearls; buttons and tassels of pearls and emeralds; a chest for his clothes, covered with dark blue velvet, ornamented with mother-of-pearl; and a miniature carriage, drawn by ponies, in which he was taken out to drive. Among his toys were musical instruments of various kinds, and all sorts of military equipments.” Peter grew rapidly. He was able to walk when six months old. Being the pet of his parents, he accompanied them in all their excursions and visits. When he was three years of age, he was presented with a small carriage drawn by four ponies, in which he was driven by the court dwarfs, and he began to take part in the public processions of the court. One scene is thus described: “Immediately after the carriage of the Czar, there appeared from another gate of the palace the carriage of the Czarina. In front went the chamberlains with two hundred runners, after which twelve large snow-white horses, covered with silk housings, drew the Czarina. Then followed the small carriage of the youngest prince, all glittering with gold, drawn by four dwarf ponies. At the side of it rode four dwarfs on ponies, and another one behind.” The presentation of Peter at court is thus described: —

“The door on one side suddenly opened, and Peter, three years old, a curly-headed boy, was seen for a moment, holding his mother’s hand, and looking at the reception.”

At this time, there were a dozen princesses living at the palace, – the sisters and the aunts and the six daughters of the Czar Alexis. All were unmarried. They were forbidden to marry any below their own rank; and since the Tartar invasion, only two attempts had been made to marry a Russian princess to a foreigner. None of these princesses, except Sophia, who had shared the lessons of her brother Theodore, had more than the rudiments of an education. Most of the princesses were disposed of by placing them in convents. Natalia, the mother of Peter, having been brought up by a Scotchwoman, had seen more of society than the other royal ladies; and she was allowed a greater degree of freedom than had been vouchsafed to her predecessors, who had been rigidly secluded within their own apartments.

In 1676, the Czar Alexis died, and the throne descended to his eldest son, Theodore. It was the custom in Russia for the relations of the Czar’s wife to have great power at court; and when Theodore came to the throne, the Miloslávsky family, who were his mother’s relations, assumed great power, while the family of Peter’s mother, the Czarina Natalia, lost their influence for the time.

Both Theodore and Iván were feeble and sickly children, while Peter was strong and robust. But the law of descent was inexorable, and on the death of Alexis, Theodore became Czar. As he was only fourteen years of age, the administration of the government was left to the ministers of state. Now his sister, the Princess Sophia, who was very ambitious, formed schemes for getting the power into her own hands. She therefore so devoted herself to the care of Theodore, who was sick most of the time, that she gained complete ascendency over him; and she met all the courtiers, who came to visit the sick Czar, with such affable manners, and showed such intelligence, that she won a strong party of the nobles over to her support. There was in Russia, at this time, a very powerful body of troops, which had been organized by the emperors as an imperial guard. These troops were called the Streltsi. The Princess Sophia paid great attention to the officers of these guards, and thus gained their good-will. Theodore soon after died, and named Peter as his successor, passing over his brother Iván, as his many infirmities rendered it impossible for him to reign. It is probable that it was through the influence of some of the nobles who were opposed to Sophia, that Theodore was induced to name Peter as his successor. Peter, although but ten years of age, was proclaimed emperor by the nobles, immediately after Theodore’s death. Sophia now determined to resist the transfer of the supreme power to Peter. She secretly engaged the Streltsi, or guards, on her side. She caused a report to be spread, that the late emperor had been poisoned, and that the Narýshkins had murdered the Czarewitz Iván, and that the Narýshkins wished to kill all the royal family. Thus were the relations of the Czarina Natalia, the mother of Peter, accused of desiring the death of all the children of the first wife of Alexis, that Peter might gain the throne. Such was the falsehood that the Princess Sophia is said to have originated in order to secure the power. The cry then arose, “To arms! Punish the traitors! To the Krémlin! Save the Czar!” A general alarm was sounded. The Streltsi, fully armed, advanced from all sides towards the Krémlin, and surrounded the palace, demanding the Czarewitz Iván. The Czarina Natalia was advised to go out on the red staircase with the Czar Peter and the Czarewitz Iván, that the Streltsi might be convinced of the falsity of the rumor. Trembling with terror, Natalia took by the hand her son and stepson, and accompanied by the nobles, went out upon the red staircase. “Here is the Czar Peter and the Czarewitz Iván!” cried the nobles, to the mob below. “There are no traitors in the royal family!” The Streltsi placed ladders against the rails, and some of them climbed up to the platform where the little Czar stood. Peter looked at them without blanching, or showing any signs of fear. But even this did not quiet the disturbance, and the Streltsi burst into the palace. Natalia took Peter and fled for safety to the monastery of the Trinity. The soldiers pursued her even into the sanctuary, and to the foot of the altar; but there the sacredness of the spot arrested their vengeance, and they left their victims with sullen oaths. In the meantime, the commotion in the city continued for several days, and the brother of the Empress Natalia, and others of her friends, were slain. At last a compromise was effected, and it was agreed that Iván should be proclaimed Czar in conjunction with his brother Peter, and that the Princess Sophia should be regent. Sophia, knowing that Iván, the poor idiot, would be but a tool in her hands, endeavored in every way possible to prevent her half-brother Peter from becoming so intelligent and energetic that he would take the power away from her. She therefore caused his teacher to be dismissed, and commenced to carry out her plan to ruin the bright and talented boy, by taking away from him all restraint, and indulging him in every pleasure and whim. Peter was now established in a household of his own, at a palace in a small village some distance from Moscow, and Sophia selected fifty boys to live with him as playmates. These boys were provided with every possible means of indulgence, subject to little restraint. It was the intention of Sophia that they should do just as they chose, so that they would all grow up idle, vicious, and good-for-nothing; and she had also the hope that Peter might so impair his health as to bring him to an early grave.

But Peter had already been too well instructed, or possessed too much native good sense, to fall into this snare, and instead of giving up his studies, he even contrived to turn his companions into scholars also. He organized a kind of military school, where they practised the evolutions and discipline necessary in a camp. He caused himself to be taught to drum, so that he could execute all the signals used in camp and on the battle-field. He studied fortification, and set the boys to work with him to construct a battery in a regular and scientific manner. He learned the use of tools, and the wheelbarrow he used in making the fortification was one he made himself.

As he grew older, he continued to introduce higher branches of military art into the school, and he adopted the uniforms and equipments for the pupils, such as were used in the military schools of other nations of Europe. The result was, that when he was eighteen years of age, and the time came for him to leave the place, the institution had become a well-organized and well-appointed military school, and it continued in successful operation for a long time afterwards. So this wicked plan of the ambitious Sophia had completely failed. The energy and talent that Peter had displayed caused many of the leading nobles to attach themselves to his cause, by which means he was finally enabled to depose Sophia from her regency, and to take the power into his own hands. But before this took place, we must note a still more wicked and evil design of the ambitious princess.

The party of nobles who now espoused Peter’s cause thought it expedient that he should marry, and the councillors accordingly chose for his wife, Eudoxia Lopúkhin, a young lady of noble birth. The Princess Sophia did all in her power to prevent this match, but she was unsuccessful, and the marriage took place in February, 1689. It was thought that a good stay-at-home wife would be likely to keep him from taking his long excursions for military manœuvres, and for ship-building, of which he was so fond. But he had scarcely been married two months before he started off again for his boat-building on Lake Plestchéief. Here he immediately set to work with his carpenters to complete the boats, and he wrote to his mother as follows: —

“To my most beloved and, while bodily life endures, my dearest little mother, Lady Tsaritsa and Grand Duchess Natalia Kirílovna. Thy little son, now here at work. Petrúshka, I ask thy blessing, and desire to hear about thy health; and we, through thy prayers, are all well, and the lake is all got clear from the ice to-day, and all the boats, except the big ship, are finished, only we are waiting for ropes; and therefore I beg your kindness that these ropes, seven hundred fathoms long, be sent from the artillery department without delaying, for the work is waiting for them, and our sojourn here is being prolonged.”

And again he writes: —

“Hey! I wish to hear about thy health, and beg thy blessing. We are all well, and about the boats, I say again that they are mighty good, and Tíkhon Nikítitch will tell you about all this himself. Thy unworthy Petrus.”

Peter with his young wife resided in a country palace a few miles from Moscow. This place was called Obrogensko. Meanwhile, the Russian government had been engaged in the Crimean War.

The Poles, having become involved in a war with the Turks, proposed 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.”

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.