A history of Russia

by Riazanovsky

  1694-95 and contain approximately 4,200 figures, represent the greatest effort of its kind in the world. Illumination also flourished, as evidenced, for instance, by the 1,269 miniatures - another 710 spaces remained blank - of the huge first volume of a sixteenth-century Russian chronicle of the world. In Muscovite frescoes and miniatures, as in icons, Western influences became increasingly apparent. By the end of the seventeenth century all ancient Russian graphic art was being rapidly replaced by the modern art of the West. It might be added in passing that in many other highly-skilled arts and crafts, such as carving, enamel, ceramics, and work with jewelry and precious metals, Muscovite Russia also left a rich legacy.

  Education

  Education in pre-Petrine Russia remains a controversial subject. Estimates of Muscovite enlightenment have ranged from an emphasis on well-nigh total illiteracy and ignorance to assertions that there existed in the realm of the tsars a widespread ability to read, write, and understand Church teachings and practices. The highly skeptical views of Miliukov and other critics appear on the whole rather convincing. Still, in this case, as in so many others, one has to strive for a balanced judgment. The Muscovite culture that we have discussed in this chapter could not have existed without some enlightenment. The enormous Muscovite state, and in particular its numerous bureaucracy, required, as a minimum, some education of officials. More speculative, although not necessarily fantastic, is Vladimirsky-Budanov's suggestion that Muscovites, like later Old Believers, generally could read and had thorough knowledge of their religious books. Finally, we do possess considerable direct evidence of education in Muscovite Russia.

  Some education remained and developed in towns, in the many monasteries, and among the clergy generally. While much of it must have been of an extremely elementary character, more advanced schools appeared in the seventeenth century, especially after the acquisition of Ukraine by Muscovy. In Kiev in Ukraine, which was more open to the West, and where Orthodoxy had to defend itself against Catholicism, Metropolitan Peter Mogila, or Mohila, founded an Academy modeled on Jesuit colleges in 1631. In Moscow in 1648-49, a boyar Theodore Rtishchev built a monastery and invited some thirty Kievan monks to teach Slavonic, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, philosophy, and other disciplines. In 1666 Simeon of Polotsk established a school where he taught Latin and the humanities. After his death the school was re-established by his student, Sylvester Medvedev. In 1683 a school that offered Greek was opened in conjunction with a printing office and eventually contained up to two hundred and thirty students. Later in the 1680's the Medvedev and the printing press

  schools combined to form the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy, headed by learned Greek monks, the Lichud brothers, Ioannicius and Sofronius. As planned, the Academy was to protect the faith and to control knowledge as well as disseminate it. While Kiev and Moscow clearly stood out as centers of Russian enlightenment, some relatively advanced teaching also went on in such places as the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery and the cities of Novgorod and Kharkov.

  The Muscovite school curriculum resembled closely, at corresponding levels, that of medieval Europe. In particular, it included almost no study of science and technology. Of the humanities, history fared best. In the sixteenth and, especially, the seventeenth centuries Russian textbooks in such fields as arithmetic, history, and grammar, dictionaries, and even elementary encyclopedias made their appearance, and toward the end of the period Sylvester Medvedev compiled the first Russian bibliography.

  Western Influences. The Beginnings of Selj-Criticism

  Even if we make full allowance for Muscovite enlightenment, the fact remains that in a great many ways Muscovy lagged behind the West. Russia experienced no Renaissance and no Reformation, and it took no part in the maritime discoveries and the scientific and technological advances of the early modern period. Deficiencies became most apparent in war and in such practical matters as medicine and mining. They extended, however, into virtually every field. It should be noted that the Muscovite government showed a continuous and increasing interest in the West and in the many things that it had to offer. Muscovite society too, in spite of all the parochialism and prejudice, began gradually to learn from "the heretics."

  Diplomacy constituted one obvious contact between the Muscovite state and other European countries. Although we traced the highlights of Russian foreign relations in preceding chapters, we should note here that these relations repeatedly included distant lands, such as England and Holland, as well as neighbors like Poland and Sweden, and that they dealt with many matters. For instance, an English merchant, Sir John Merrick, helped to negotiate the Treaty of Stolbovo between Sweden and Russia. Or, less happily, after the execution of Charles I, Tsar Alexis restricted English traders to Archangel, and he helped the king's son, later Charles II, with money and grain. Diplomatic correspondence published by Konova-lov in the Oxford Slavonic Papers illustrates well the variety of issues encompassed in Anglo-Russian relations.

  Many foreigners came to Muscovy and stayed. The number continued to increase after the first large influx in the reign of Ivan III. At the end of the sixteenth century foreigners in Muscovite service could be counted in hundreds, and even thousands if we include Poles, Lithuanians, and

  Ukrainians, while the foreign section of the tsar's army consisted of 2,500 men. The Time of Troubles reduced these numbers, but with the reign of Michael the influx of foreigners resumed. In 1652 Tsar Alexis assigned them a northeastern suburb of Moscow, the so-called Nemetskaia Sloboda, or German Suburb. Incidentally, the Russian word for German, nemets, derived from the Russian for dumb, nemoi, came to mean all Europeans except Slavs and Latins. A visitor in the sixteen-seventies estimated that about eighteen thousand foreigners lived in Muscovy, mostly in the capital, but also in Archangel and other commercial centers, and in mining areas.

  The importance of the foreign community, in particular for the economic development of the country, far exceeded its numbers. In addition to handling Russia's foreign trade, the newcomers began to establish a variety of manufactures and industries. Sir John Merrick, already mentioned as a diplomat, concentrated on producing hemp and tow. Andrew Vinius, a Dutchman, organized the industrial processing of iron ore and built the first modern ironworks in Muscovy. A Swede established a glass factory near Moscow. Others manufactured such items as gunpowder and paper. Second-generation foreigners often proved particularly adept at advancing both the economy of Russia and their own fortunes. Foreigners also acted as military experts, physicians, and other specialists.

  Slowly the Russians turned to Western ways. In addition to reading and even writing secular stories, constructing baroque buildings, and painting portraits, as indicated above, they began to eat salad and asparagus, to snuff and smoke tobacco in spite of all the prohibitions, and to cultivate roses. Western clothing gained in popularity; some audacious persons also trimmed their hair and beards. In 1664 the postal service appeared, based on a Western model. And in the reign of Tsar Theodore a proposal was advanced to deal with the poor "according to the new European manner."

  The stage was set for Peter the Great. In conclusion, however, it might be added that the reformer's wholesale condemnation of the existing order, although highly unusual, also had certain precedents in the Muscovite past. Not to mention the religious jeremiads, the secular writers often complained that there was no justice in the land even when praising the Muscovite form of government, as in the case of Peresvetov. More radical critics included Prince Ivan Khvorostinin, who died in 1625 and has been described as the first Russian free-thinker, George Krizanic, and Gregory Kotoshikhin. Krizanic, a Croatian and a Catholic priest, spent eighteen years in the realm of the tsars, from 1659 to 1677, and wrote there some nine books on religious, philosophical, linguistic, and political subjects. He combined an extremely high regard for Russia as the natural leader and savior of Slavdom with a sweeping condemnation of its glaring defects and, above all, its abysmal ignorance. Krizanic's writings were apparently known to the Rus
sian ruling circles. Kotoshikhin, an official in the foreign office,

  escaped to Sweden in 1664 after some personal trouble. There - before being executed in 1667 for the murder of his landlord - he wrote a sweeping denunciation of his native land. Kotoshikhin emphasized Muscovite pride, deceit, and, again, the isolation and ignorance of the people. As it turned out, the system that he condemned did not long outlast him.

  Part V: IMPERIAL RUSSIA

  XX

  THE REIGN OF PETER THE GREAT, 1682-1725

  Now an academician, now a hero, Now a seafarer, now a carpenter, He, with an all-encompassing soul, Was on the throne an eternal worker.

  PUSHKIN

  If we consider the matter thoroughly, then, in justice, we must be called not Russians, but Petrovians… Russia should be called Petrovia, and we Petrovians… .

  KANKRIN

  Peter the Great's reign began a new epoch in Russian history, known variously as the Imperial Age because of the new designation of ruler and land, the St. Petersburg Era because of the new capital, or the All-Russian Period because the state came to include more and more peoples other than the Great Russians, that is, the old Muscovites. The epoch lasted for approximately two centuries and ended abruptly in 1917. Although the chronological boundaries of Imperial Russia are clearly marked - by contrast, for instance, with those of appanage Russia - the beginning of Peter the Great's reign itself can be variously dated. The reformer, who died on February 8, 1725, attained supreme power in several stages, and with reversals of fortune: in 1682 as a boy of ten he was proclaimed at first tsar and later that same year co-tsar with his elder half-brother Ivan; in 1689 he, or rather his family and party, regained effective control of the government; in 1694 Peter's mother died and he started to rule in fact as well as in name; finally in 1696 Ivan died, leaving Peter the only and absolute sovereign of Muscovy. Therefore, before turning to the celebrated reformer and his activities, we must consider a number of years during which Peter's authority remained at best nominal.

  Russian History from 1682 to 1694

  Tsar Alexis had been married twice, to Mary Miloslavskaia from 1648 to 1669, and to Nathalie Naryshkina from 1671 until his death in 1676. He had thirteen children by his first wife, but of the sons only two, Theodore and Ivan, both of them sickly, survived their father. Peter, strong and healthy, was born on June 9, 1672, about a year after the tsar's second marriage. Theodore, as we know, succeeded Alexis and died without an

  heir in 1682. In the absence of a law of succession, the two boyar families, the Miloslavskys and Naryshkins, competed for the throne. The Naryshkins gained an early victory: supported by the patriarch, a majority in the boyar duma, and a gathering of the gentry, Peter was proclaimed tsar in April 1682. Because of his youth, his mother became regent, while her relatives and friends secured leading positions in the state. However, as early as May, the Miloslavsky party, led by Alexis's able and strong-willed daughter Sophia, Peter's half-sister, inspired a rebellion of the regiments of the streltsy, or musketeers, concentrated in Moscow. Leading members of the Naryshkin clique were murdered - Peter witnessed some of these murders - and the Miloslavskys seized power. At the request of the streltsy, the boyar duma declared Ivan senior tsar, allowed Peter to be junior tsar, and, a little later, made Sophia regent. It might be added that the streltsy, strongly influenced by the Old Belief, proceeded to put more pressure on the government and cause further trouble, but in vain: the new regent managed to punish the leaders and control the regiments.

  From 1682 to 1689 Sophia and her associates governed Muscovy, with Ivan V incapable of ruling and Peter I, together with the entire Naryshkin party, kept away from state affairs. Prince Basil Golitsyn, the regent's favorite, played a particularly important role. An enlightened and humane person who spoke several foreign languages and arranged his own home and life in the Western manner, Golitsyn cherished vast projects of improvement and reform including the abolition of serfdom and education on a large scale. He did liberalize the Muscovite penal code, even if he failed to implement his more ambitious schemes. Golitsyn's greatest success came in 1686 when Russia and Poland signed a treaty of "eternal peace" that confirmed the Russian gains of the preceding decades, including the acquisition of Kiev. Yet the same treaty set the stage for the war against the Crimean Tartars, who were backed by Turkey. This war proved disastrous to Muscovite arms. In 1687 and again in 1689 Golitsyn led a Muscovite army into the steppe only to suffer heavy losses and defeat as the lack of water and the huge distances exhausted his troops, while the Tartars set the grass on fire. Golitsyn's military fiasco, together with other accumulating tensions, led to Sophia's downfall.

  As Peter grew older, his position as a tsar without authority became increasingly invidious. Sophia, on her part, realized the insecurity of her office and desired to become ruler in her own right. In 1689 Theodore Shaklovity, appointed by Sophia to command the streltsy, apparently tried to incite his troops to stage another coup, put the regent on the throne, and destroy her opponents. Although the streltsy failed to act, a denouement resulted. Frightened by the report of a plot, Peter escaped in the dead of night from the village of Preobrazhenskoe, near Moscow, where he had

  been living, to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery. In the critical days that followed, the patriarch, many boyars and gentry, the military units trained in the Western manner and commanded by General Patrick Gordon, and even several regiments of the streltsy, rallied behind Peter. Many others wavered, but did not back Sophia. In the end the sister capitulated to the brother without a fight and was sent to live in a convent. Shaklovity and two of his aides were executed; several other officers and boyars, including Basil Golitsyn, suffered exile. Thus, in August 1689, Peter won acknowledgment as the effective ruler of Russia, although Ivan retained his position as co-tsar. Still, at seventeen, Peter showed no desire to take personal charge of affairs. Instead the government fell into the hands of his mother Nathalie and her associates, notably her brother, the boyar Leo Naryshkin, Patriarch Joachim, and, after his death in 1690, Patriarch Hadrian. The years 1689-94 witnessed the last flowering of Muscovite religiosity, ritualism, parochialism, and suspicion of everything foreign - it was even forbidden to train troops in the Western manner. But in 1694 Nathalie died, and Peter I finally assumed the direction of the state at the age of twenty-two.

  Peter the Great: His Character, Childhood, and Youth

  The impression that Peter I commonly made on his contemporaries was one of enormous strength and energy. Almost seven feet tall and powerfully built, the tsar possessed astonishing physical strength and vigor. Moreover, he appeared to be in a constant state of restless activity, taking on himself tasks normally done by several men. Few Russians could keep up with their monarch in his many occupations. Indeed, as he walked with rapid giant strides, they had to run even to continue conversation. In addition to his extraordinary physical attributes, Peter I exhibited some remarkable qualities of mind and character. The tsar had an insatiable intellectual curiosity coupled with an amazing ability to learn. He proceeded to participate personally in all kinds of state affairs, technical and special as well as general, becoming deeply involved in diplomacy, administration, justice, finance, commerce, industry, education, and practically everything else besides. In his reforms the tsar invariably valued expert advice, but he was also generally independent in thought and did not hesitate to adapt projects to circumstances. Peter I also developed into an accomplished military and naval commander. He studied the professions of soldier and sailor from the bottom up, serving first in the ranks and learning the use of each weapon before promoting himself to his first post as an officer. The monarch attained the rank of full general after the victory of Poltava and of full admiral after the successful conclusion of the Great Northern War. In

  addition, the sovereign found time to learn some twenty different trades and prided himself on his ability to make almost anything, from a ship to a pair of shoes. With his own hands he pulled the teeth
of his courtiers and cut off their beards. Characteristically, he wanted to be everywhere and see everything for himself, traveling indefatigably around his vast state as no Muscovite monarch had ever done. In a still more unprecedented manner he went twice to the West to learn, in 1697-98 and in 1717. Peter I's mind can best be described as active and practical, able quickly to grasp problems and devise solutions, if not to construct theories.

  As to character, the tsar impressed those around him by his energy, unbending will, determination, and dedication. He recovered quickly from even the worst defeats and considered every obstacle as an invitation to further exertion and achievement. Less attractive, but at times equally imposing, traits included a violent temper, crudeness, and frequent cruelty. The sovereign could be an executioner, as well as a dentist, and his drunken, amorous, and blasphemous pastimes exceeded the measure of the rough times in which he lived. Yet Peter the Great must not be confused with Ivan the Terrible, whom he, incidentally, admired. The reformer never lost himself in the paranoid world of megalomania and delusions of persecution, and he even refused to identify himself with the state. To mention one significant detail, when reforming the army, Peter I crossed out "the interests of His Tsarist Majesty" as the object of military devotion and substituted "the interests of the state." Consistently he made every effort to serve his country, to bring to it change and enlightenment. As the sovereign wrote in the last month of his life, in connection with dispatching Vitus Bering's first expedition: "Having ensured the security of the state against the enemy, it is requisite to endeavor to win glory for it by means of the arts and sciences." Or, to support Peter the Great's emphasis on education with another quotation - and one especially appropriate in a textbook- "For learning is good and fundamental, and as it were the root, the seed, and first principle of all that is good and useful in church and state."