by Riazanovsky
In bringing the civilization of the West to his native land, the emperor tried to introduce Western dress, manners, and usages, often by fiat and against strong opposition. The shaving of beards is a celebrated and abiding symbol of the reign. While the government demanded it "for the glory and comeliness of the state and the military profession" - to quote from Sumner's excellent little book on Peter the Great - the traditionalists objected on the ground that shaving impaired the image of God in men and made the Russians look like such objectionable beings as Lutherans, Poles, Kalmyks, Tartars, cats, dogs, and monkeys. Similarly it was argued that the already-mentioned calendar reform stole time from God and that the
new simplified civil script should not be allowed to replace Church Slavonic. The assemblees or big society parties that women attended, who hitherto had been secluded, also aroused a storm. Yet by the end of Peter's reign members of the civil service, army, and navy, of the upper classes, and to some extent even of the middle classes, particularly in the two leading cities, were shaven and wore foreign dress. Other Western innovations also generally succeeded in winning more adherents with time. It might be added in passing that the criticism frequently levied at Peter the Great that he split Russian society in two appears to miss the point. The reformer had no choice, for he could not bring Western culture to all of his subjects at the same time. The gap between the Westernized segment of the population and the masses had to be bridged by his successors, if at all.
The Problem of Succession
The conflict between old Muscovy and new imperial Russia was played out in the sovereign's own family. Both Peter the Great's mother and his first wife Eudoxia, whom he forced to become a nun in 1698, belonged to the unreformed. In 1690 Eudoxia gave Peter a son, Alexis. The boy lived with his mother until her seclusion and later with aunts, in the old Muscovite palace. The emperor had little time for his son and never established rapport with him. Instead Alexis became the hope of the opponents of the new order and their rallying point. In 1711 Peter the Great married Alexis to a German princess. In 1712 the emperor himself married for the second time, taking as his wife a Lithuanian woman of low origin named Catherine, whom he had found in Menshikov's household, with whom he had been living happily for a few years, and by whom he had had children. It might be added that, because of her understanding and energy, Catherine proved on the whole to be a good companion to the emperor, whom she accompanied even in his campaigns. In 1715 Alexis's wife died after giving birth to a son, Peter.
At that point Peter the Great demanded that Alexis either endorse Peter's reforms and become a worthy successor to his father or renounce his rights to the throne. With characteristically passive resistance, Alexis agreed to give up his rights. Soon after that, in 1716, when Peter the Great, then in Denmark, called for his son, Alexis used the opportunity to escape to Austria and ask the protection of Emperor Charles VI, who had married a sister of Alexis's late wife. The following year, however, Peter the Great's emissary persuaded Alexis to return to Russia. He arrived in Moscow in 1718 and received pardon from his father on condition that he renounce his rights to the throne and name those who had urged him to escape. The last point led to an investigation, which, although it failed to
discover an actual plot against the emperor, brought to light a great deal of opposition to and hatred of the new order, as well as some scandals. The pardon of Alexis was withdrawn as a result of the investigation and a trial set. Over a hundred high dignitaries of the state acted as the special court that condemned Alexis to death. But before the execution could be carried out Alexis expired in the fortress of Peter and Paul in the summer of 1718, probably from shock and also torture used during the questioning. Nine of his associates were executed, nine sentenced to hard labor, while many others received milder punishments.
Peter the Great's several sons born to Catherine died at an early age. Possible heirs, therefore, included the emperor's grandson Peter, the emperor's daughters and those of his half-brother Tsar Ivan V, and the emperor's wife Catherine. In 1722 Peter the Great passed a law of succession which disregarded the principle of hereditary seniority and proclaimed instead that the sovereign could appoint his successor. Once more position was to be determined by merit! But the emperor never used his new law. His powerful organism worn out by disease, strain, and an irregular life, he died on February 8, 1725, without designating a successor to his gloriously victorious, multinational, modernizing, and exhausted empire.
Evaluations of Peter the Great
Peter the Great hit Muscovy with a tremendous impact. To many of his contemporaries he appeared as either a virtually superhuman hero or the Antichrist. It was the person of the emperor that drove Russia forward in war and reform and inspired the greatest effort and utmost devotion. It was also against Peter the Great that the streltsy, the Bashkirs, the inhabitants of Astrakhan, and the motley followers of Bulavin staged their rebellions, while uncounted others, Old Believers and Orthodox, fled to the borderlands and into the forests to escape his reach. Rumor spread and legends grew that the reformer was not a son of Tsar Alexis, but a foreigner who substituted himself for the true tsar during the latter's journey abroad, that he was an imposter, a usurper, indeed the Antichrist. Peter himself contributed much to this polarization of opinion. He too saw things in black and white, hating old Muscovy and believing himself to be the creator of a new Russia. Intolerance, violence, and compulsion became the distinguishing traits of the new regime, and St. Petersburg - built in the extreme northwestern corner of the country, in almost inaccessible swamps at a cost in lives far exceeding that of Poltava - became its fitting symbol. The emperor's very size, strength, energy, and temperament intensified his popular image.
So the matter stood for about one hundred and fifty years, or roughly
until the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Peter the Great was revered and eulogized by the liberals, who envisaged him as a champion of light against darkness, and also by the imperial government and its ideologists, for, after all, that government was the first emperor's creature. Those who hated the reformer and his work included, in addition to the Old Believers and some other members of the inarticulate masses, such quixotic romantic intellectuals as the Slavophiles, who fancied to have discovered in pre-Petrine Russia the true principles and way of life of their people and who regarded the emperor as a supreme perverter and destroyer. It took a sensitive writer like Pushkin to draw a balance, emphasizing the necessity and the greatness of Peter's reforms and state, while at the same time lamenting their human cost. And Pushkin too was, in fact, overwhelmed by the image of Peter the Great.
Finally, with the work of S. Soloviev, himself a great admirer of the reformer, and other nineteenth-century historians the picture began gradually to change. Scholarly investigations of the last hundred years, together with large-scale publication of materials on the reformer's reign, undertaken by a number of men from Golikov to Bogoslovsky, have established beyond question many close connections between Peter the Great and the Muscovite past. Entire major aspects of the reformer's reign, for example, foreign policy and social relations and legislation, testified to a remarkable continuity with the preceding period. Even the reformer's desire to curb and control ecclesiastical landholding had excellent Muscovite precedents. The central issue itself, the process of Westernization, had begun long before the reformer and had gathered momentum rapidly in the seventeenth century. In the words of a modern scholar, Peter the Great simply marked Russia's transition from an unconscious to a conscious following of her historical path.
Although in the perspective of Russian history Peter the Great appears human rather than superhuman, the reformer is still of enormous importance. Quite possibly Russia was destined to be Westernized, but Peter the Great cannot be denied the role of the chief executor of this fate. At the very least the emperor's reign brought a tremendous speeding up of the irreversible process of Westernization, and it established state policy and control, where formerly in
dividual choice and chance prevailed.
Since Peter the Great was practical, and a utilitarian, it may be better to conclude this discussion on a more mundane note than historical destiny. Long ago Pogodin, a historian, a Right-wing intellectual, and one of the many admirers of the emperor, wrote:
Yes, Peter the Great did much for Russia. One looks and one does not believe it, one keeps adding and one cannot reach the sum. We cannot open our eyes, cannot make a move, cannot turn in any direction without
encountering him everywhere, at home, in the streets, in church, in school, in court, in the regiment, at a promenade - it is always he, always he, every day, every minute, at every step!
We wake up. What day is it today? January 1, 1841 - Peter the Great ordered us to count years from the birth of Christ; Peter the Great ordered us to count the months from January.
It is time to dress - our clothing is made according to the fashion established by Peter the First, our uniform according to his model. The cloth is woven in a factory which he created; the wool is shorn from the sheep which he started to raise.
A book strikes our eyes - Peter the Great introduced this script and himself cut out the letters. You begin to read it - this language became a written language, a literary language, at the time of Peter the First, superseding the earlier church language.
Newspapers are brought in - Peter the Great introduced them.
You must buy different things - they all, from the silk neckerchief to the sole of your shoe, will remind you of Peter the Great; some were ordered by him, others were brought into use or improved by him, carried on his ships, into his harbors, on his canals, on his roads.
At dinner, all the courses, from salted herring, through potatoes which he ordered grown, to wine made from grapes which he began to cultivate, will speak to you of Peter the Great.
After dinner you drive out for a visit - this is an assemblee of Peter the Great. You meet the ladies there - they were admitted into masculine company by order of Peter the Great.
Let us go to the university - the first secular school was founded by Peter the Great.
You receive a rank - according to Peter the Great's Table of Ranks.
The rank gives me gentry status - Peter the Great so arranged it.
I must file a complaint - Peter the Great prescribed its form. It will be received - in front of Peter the Great's mirror of justice. It will be acted upon - on the basis of the General Reglament.
You decide to travel abroad - following the example of Peter the Great; you will be received well - Peter the Great placed Russia among the European states and began to instill respect for her; and so on, and so on, and so on.
XXI
RUSSIAN HISTORY FROM PETER THE GREAT TO CATHERINE THE GREAT: THE REIGNS OF CATHERINE I, 1725-27, PETER II, 1727-30, ANNE, 1730-40, IVAN VI, 1740-41, ELIZABETH, 1741-62, AND PETER III, 1762
The period between the death of Peter the Great and the accession of Catherine the Great, 1725 to 1762, has been considered by some historians as an era of shallowness, confusion, and decay, whereas others attribute to it much of Russia's spiritual growth and political advancement. The truth seems to lie on both sides. Rapid and violent changes, as under Peter, were discontinued, but slowly the process of Westernization went on, gaining in depth and leading to a better proportion between the ambitions and the actual potentialities of the country.
KIRCHNER
With the second quarter of the eighteenth century a new period of Russian social history begins.
KIZEVETTER
RUSSIAN history from the death of Peter the Great to the accession of Catherine the Great has been comparatively neglected. Moreover, the treatments available turn out not infrequently to be superficial in nature and derisive in tone. Sandwiched between two celebrated reigns, this period - "when lovers ruled Russia," to quote one writer - offers little to impress, dazzle, or inspire. Rather it appears to be taken up with a continuous struggle of unfit candidates for the crown, with the constant rise and fall of their equally deplorable favorites, with court intrigues of every sort, with Biren's police terror, Elizabeth's absorption in French fashions, and Peter III's imbecility. Florinsky's description of the age, although verging on caricature, has its points. In the course of thirty-seven years Russia had, sardonic commentators remark, six autocrats: three women, a boy of twelve, an infant, and a mental weakling.
But the tragicomedy at the top should not be allowed to obscure important developments which affected the country at large. Westernization continued to spread to more people and broader areas of Russian life. Foreign relations followed the Petrine pattern, bringing Russia into an ever-closer relationship with other European powers. And the gentry made a successful bid to escape service and increase their advantages.
Catherine I. Peter II
When the first emperor died without naming his successor, several candidates for the throne emerged. The dominant two were Peter, Alexis's son and Peter the Great's grandson, and Catherine, Peter the Great's second wife. The deceased sovereign's daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, and his nieces, daughters of his half-brother Tsar Ivan V, Catherine and Anne, appeared as more remote possibilities at the time, although before very long two of them were to rule Russia, while descendants of the other two also occupied the throne. Peter was the only direct male heir and thus the logical successor to his grandfather. He had the support of the old nobility, including several of their number prominent in the first emperor's reign, and probably the support of the masses. Catherine, who had been crowned empress in a special ceremony in 1724 - in the opinion of some, a clear indication of Peter the Great's intentions with regard to succession - possessed the backing of "the new men," such as Iaguzhinsky and especially Menshikov, who had risen with the reforms and dreaded everything connected with Peter's son Alexis and old Muscovy. The Preobrazhenskii and Semenovskii guard regiments decided the issue by demonstrating in favor of the empress. Opposition to her collapsed, and the dignitaries of the state proclaimed Catherine the sovereign of Russia, "according to the desire of Peter the Great." The guards, as we shall see, were subsequently to play a decisive role in determining who ruled Russia on more than one occasion.
Catherine's reign, during which Menshikov played the leading role in the government, lasted only two years and three months. The empress's most important act was probably the creation, in February 1726, of the Supreme Secret Council to deal with "matters of exceptional significance." The six members of the council, Menshikov and five others, became in effect constant advisers and in a sense associates of the monarch, a departure from Peter the Great's administrative organization and practice. Catherine I died in 1727, having appointed young Peter to succeed her and nominated as regent the Supreme Secret Council, to which Anne and Elizabeth, her daughters and the new ruler's aunts, were added.
Peter II, not yet twelve when he became emperor, fell into the hands of Menshikov, who even transferred the monarch from the palace to his residence and betrothed him to his daughter. But Peter II did not like Menshikov; he placed his confidence in young Prince Ivan Dolgoruky. The Dolgoruky family used this opportunity to have Menshikov arrested. The once all-powerful favorite and the closest assistant of Peter the Great died some two years later in exile in northern Siberia, and the Dolgorukys
replaced him at the court and in the government. Two members of that family sat in the Supreme Secret Council, and late in 1729 the engagement of Peter II to a princess Dolgorukaia was officially announced. But again the picture changed suddenly and drastically. Early in 1730, before the marriage could take place and when Peter II was not quite fifteen years old, he died of smallpox.
Anne. Ivan VI
The young emperor had designated no successor. Moreover, with his death the male line of the Romanovs came to an end. In the disturbed and complicated deliberations which ensued, the advice of Prince Dmitrii Golitsyn to offer the throne to Anne, daughter of Ivan V and childless widow of the Duke of Courland, prevailed in the Supreme Secret
Council and with other state dignitaries. Anne appeared to be weak and innocuous, and thus likely to leave power in the hands of the aristocratic clique. Moreover, the Supreme Secret Council, acting on its own, invited Anne to reign only under certain rigid and highly restrictive conditions. The would-be empress had to promise not to marry and not to appoint a successor. The Supreme Secret Council was to retain a membership of eight and to control state affairs: the new sovereign could not without its approval declare war or make peace, levy taxes or commit state funds, grant or confiscate estates, or appoint anyone to a rank higher than that of colonel. The guards as well as all other armed forces were to be under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Secret Council, not of the empress. These drastic conditions, which had no precedent in Russian history, stood poles apart from Peter the Great's view of the position and function of the monarch and his translation of this view into practice. But Anne, who had very little to lose, accepted the limitations, thus establishing constitutional rule in Russia.
Russian constitutionalism, however, proved to be extremely short-lived. Because the Supreme Secret Council had acted in its narrow and exclusive interest, tension ran high among the gentry. Some critics spoke and wrote of extending political advantages to the entire gentry, while others simply denounced the proceedings. Anne utilized a demonstration by the guards and other members of the gentry, shortly after her arrival, to tear up the conditions she had accepted, asserting that she had thought them to represent the desires of her subjects, whereas they turned out to be the stratagem of a selfish cabal. And she abolished the Supreme Secret Council. Autocracy came back into its own.