“I want to transform secular goats”: how Peter fought with beards

On April 17, 1722, Tsar Peter issued a decree “On the special taxation of bearded men and their wearing of a special dress.” According to him, the unshaven, with the exception of priests and peasants, had to pay a tax of 50 rubles a year and could only wear traditional Russian clothes: zipun, bellow and single-line. This decree confirmed and consolidated the restrictions prior to 1705.

Peter’s reforms in public administration, army, navy, culture and science were probably the most dramatic change in Russian history. Therefore, provisions regarding beards in this context may seem meaningless to a modern person. However, both the reformer tsar and his contemporaries considered the appearance, especially the beard, an important symbol, and it was the shaving of the beard that became the object of particular hatred against the champions of ancient traditions.

The beard was an integral part of the image of an Orthodox Russian man. It is unclear whether this comes from ancient Russian traditions or the tradition of Byzantine priests not to shave, but in the 16th century, wearing a beard was conditionally acceptable. Ivan the Terrible forbade shaving, and the Stoglavy Cathedral, which he assembled in 1551, declared that “it is impossible for a man without a beard to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Later, in the 17th century, the beard became a symbol of Russian identity, emphasizing the difference from the “Germans” as all Western Christians are called. Historian Nikolai Kostomarov wrote: “According to the concept of strict piety, not only friendship with the Germans, but even touching them defiled the Orthodox. On this basis, when great princes and kings received envoys and received them into their hands, they washed their hands to wipe off the tainting touch of a heresy.

But gradually the contacts between Russia and the West became more and more intense. There was an active trade, the Russian people got acquainted with European culture, fashion and lifestyle. Some liked it, some did not, but there were aspects in which the advantage of Western countries was undeniable. The main task of the state of the Early Modern era was war, and in contrast to the issues of spiritual life, faith and salvation of the soul, in military relations there is a clear and linear criterion – victory on the battlefield. The large-scale penetration of Western civilization into Russia began with the army long before Peter. Starting with the Russian-Polish wars of the first half of the 17th century, regiments of a foreign system were formed, the training of which was carried out with the participation of European instructors, mainly English and German.

Against this background, many Russian people began to actively adopt European fashion. In 1675, at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a decree was issued that the courtiers “do not accept foreign German and other izvychay, do not cut their hair on their heads, and also do not wear dresses, robes and hats, and do not order their men to wear them too.” Thus, the conflict over wearing beards and taking on an alien appearance took shape largely before Peter’s accession to the throne.

Peter began to carry out the main reforms after returning from the Great Embassy in 1698. His ideas were so radical that a whole conspiracy theory arose about the succession of the king: the real Peter remained in Europe or was killed, and a crook with a similar face was sent in his place. According to some sources, it was then that the first decree banning the beard was issued.

According to legend, the king justified this as follows:

“I want to convert secular goats, that is, citizens and clergy, that is, monks and priests. The first is that they are beardless, like Europeans in kindness, and others, although bearded, will teach parishioners in churches the way I have seen and heard pastors teaching Christian virtues in Germany.

There is no documentary justification for these words, and Peter is unlikely to be able to afford such a sentence: the nobility could interpret the reference to German priests as apostasy, which would seriously undermine the legitimacy of royal power at that time.

However, it was in this vein that the king’s opponents perceived the innovation. Historian Sergei Solovyov mentions anonymous leaflets distributed by monks in 1700. “She crossed the sovereign sea, fell in love with the German faith: on Wednesday and Friday, Balti and the elders will eat milk (they will cancel their fasting day, – socialbites.ca),” he said.

In 1705, a decree was signed “On shaving people’s beards and mustaches of all ranks, except priests and deacons,” with its final approval. It is said that the tsar sometimes dragged his jesters and boyars out of the sledge and forcibly shaved them; These events have been the subject of many paintings, stories and anecdotes. Regardless of whether Peter did this personally or not, forced shaving really began to be practiced. Residents of Astrakhan complained about the actions of the governor Timofey Rzhevsky, saying, “Beards were cut with flesh and Russian dress in the bazaars and streets, and in churches, and there was a lot of crying in the settlements.”

According to the decree of 1722, those who did not want to shave were taxed at 50 rubles a year. To pay the tax, they made a beard sign with the words “Para vozty”. This did not apply to the villagers, but when entering the city with a beard, they had to pay a kopeck. At that time 50 rubles was a huge amount. The horse cost three rubles, and the colonel received 40 rubles a month.

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Cutting the beard was perceived by many as a tragedy. British engineer John Perry, who was in the Russian service, left the following memoir: “The tsar came to Voronezh, where I was serving at that time, and many of my workers, who wore beards all their lives, had to leave. with them; One of the first I met on my way back from the barbershop was a former Russian carpenter I’ve always been particularly fond of. On this occasion I joked a little, reassured him that he was a young man and asked him what he was doing with his beard. Then he put his hand on his bosom and, pulling his beard, showed it to me, and said that he would hide it when he got home so that later they would put him in a coffin and bury him. He could answer to St. Nicholas for his appearance in the afterlife.”

Some saw the reforms as an apocalypse. Ladoga archer Alexander reported that he met an old man in 1704 and told him:

“What kind of ruler is he to us Christians? Not a ruler, a Latvian: He has no office, a sycophant, an antichrist… All of the soldiers are busurman, they have no office… Everyone has become foreigners now, everyone wears German clothes. they walk and shave their beards in curls.

The clergy were at the forefront of resistance to the reforms, but there were also those who took a conciliatory stance among the priests. Solovyov tells how Rostov Metropolitan Dimitry went to Yaroslavl in 1705 and how two middle-aged men approached him on his way from Mass. “Vladyka holy, what do you command? They are telling us to shave our beards by order of the ruler, we are ready to put our heads behind our beards, it is better to cut our heads off than to shave our beards.”

The metropolitan replied: “What will grow – a severed head or a shaved beard? Therefore, it is better not to let go of your beard, which will grow back after ten shaves, than to lose your head, which, once trimmed, will never grow back except on an ordinary Sunday. That same day, many parishioners turned to him with the same question, and in response declared that the image of God was not in the visible human face, but in the spirit, and it was necessary to follow the instructions of the ruler. do not harm the salvation of the soul.

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Efoskin Sergei. “On the streets of old Moscow”. 18th century

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It is impossible to find out exactly how Peter explained the need to shave his beard, but in general the meaning of shaving and wearing European clothes is clear. According to many experts, Peter created a new, modern elite that valued energy and efficiency, development and progress. These new ideas, breaking the old pattern of behavior, required an external form, a symbolic break with the old order. In addition, the European appearance and habits such as smoking tobacco made it easier to study and make business contacts in the West, as traditional Russian clothing often caused laughter there.

How successful this idea has been is unknown. Many historians have noted the superficial, imitative nature of some of Peter’s reforms. In particular, the historian Sergei Platonov wrote that not all Russian people could accept the healthy beginning of their life from the West, and “however, they remained rude barbarians who combined the elegant appearance of European snobs with deep ignorance.” This contrast of external appearance and internal content, uncritical copying of European fashion, became the subject of many caricatures of the second half of the 18th century.