The Crusade Against Beards And Cloaks

The return of Peter the Great from his European journey was marked by

other events than his cruel revenge upon the rebellious Strelitz. That

had affected only a few thousand people; the reforms he sought to

introduce affected the nation at large. The Russians were then more

Oriental than European in style, wearing the long caftan or robe of

Persia and Turkey, which descended to their heels, while their beards

were like those of the patriarchs, the man deeming himself most in honor

who had the longest and fullest crop of hair upon his face.






To Peter, fresh from the West, and strongly imbued with European views,

all this was ridiculous, if not abominable. He determined to reform it

all, and at once set to work in his impetuous way, which could not brook

a day's delay, to deprive the Russians of their beards and the tails of

their coats. He had scarcely arrived before the boyars and leading

citizens of Moscow, who flocked to congratulate him on his return, were

taken aback by the edict that whiskers were condemned, and that the

razor must be set at work without delay upon their honorable chins.



This edict was like a thunder-clap from a clear sky. The Russians

admired and revered their beards. They were time-honored and sacred in

their eyes. To lose them was like losing their family trees and patents

of nobility. But Peter was without reverence for the past, and his word

was law. He had ordered a mowing and reaping of hair, and the harvest

must be made, or worse might come. General Shein, commander-in-chief of

the army, was the first to yield to the imperative edict and submit his

venerable beard to the indignity of the razor's edge. The old age seemed

past and the new age come when Shein walked shamefacedly into court with

a clean chin.



The example thus set was quickly followed. Beards were tabooed within

the precincts of the court. All shared the same fate, none being left to

laugh at the rest. The patriarch, it is true, was exempted, through awe

for his high office in the Church, while reverence for advanced years

reprieved Prince Tcherkasy, and Tikhon Streshnef was excused out of

honor for his services as guardian of the czaritza. Every one else

within the court had to submit to the razor's fatal edge or feel the

czar's more fatal displeasure, and beards fell like "autumnal leaves

that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa."



An observer speaks as follows concerning a feast given by General Shein:

"A crowd of boyars, scribes, and military officers almost incredible was

assembled there, and among them were several common sailors, with whom

the czar repeatedly mixed, divided apples, and even honored one of them

by calling him his brother. A salvo of twenty-five guns marked each

toast. Nor could the irksome offices of the barber check the

festivities of the day, though it was well known he was enacting the

part of jester by appointment at the czar's court. It was of evil omen

to make show of reluctance as the razor approached the chin, and

hesitation was to be forthwith punished with a box on the ears. In this

way, between mirth and the wine-cup, many were admonished by this insane

ridicule to abandon the olden guise."



For Peter to shave was easy, as he had little beard and a very thin

moustache. But by the old-fashioned Russian of his day the beard was

cherished as the Turk now cherishes his hirsute symbol of dignity or the

Chinaman his long-drawn-out queue. Shortly after Peter came to the

throne the patriarch Adrian had delivered himself in words of thunder

against all who were so unholy and heretical as to cut or shave their

beards, a God-given ornament, which had been worn by prophets and

apostles and by Christ himself. Only heretics, apostates,

idol-worshippers, and image-breakers among monarchs had forced their

subjects to shave, he declared, while all the great and good emperors

had indicated their piety in the length of their beards.



To Peter, on the contrary, the beard was the symbol of barbarity. He was

not content to say that his subjects might shave, he decreed that they

must shave. It began half in jest, it was continued in solid earnest.

He could not well execute the non-shavers, or cut off the heads of those

who declined to cut off their beards, but he could fine them, and he

did. The order was sent forth that all Russians, with the exception of

the clergy, should shave. Those who preferred to keep their beards

could do so by paying a yearly tax into the public treasury. This was

fixed at a kopeck (one penny) for peasants, but for the higher classes

varied from thirty to a hundred rubles (from sixty dollars to two

hundred dollars). The merchants, being at once the richest and most

conservative class, paid the highest tax. Every one who paid the tax was

given a bronze token, which had to be worn about the neck and renewed

every year.



The czar would allow no one to be about him who did not shave, and many

submitted through "terror of having their beards (in a merry humor)

pulled out by the roots, or taken so rough off that some of the skin

went with them." Many of those who shaved continued to do reverence to

their beards by carrying them within their bosoms as sacred objects, to

be buried in their graves, in order that a just account might be

rendered to St. Nicholas when they should come to the next world.



The ukase against the beard was soon followed by one against the caftan,

or long cloak, the old Russian dress. The czar and the leading officers

of his embassy set the example of wearing the German dress, and he cut

off, with his own hands, the long sleeves of some of his officers.

"Those things are in your way," he would say. "You are safe nowhere with

them. At one moment you upset a glass, then you forgetfully dip them in

the sauce. Get gaiters made of them."



On January 14, 1700, a decree was issued commanding all courtiers and

officials throughout the empire to wear the foreign dress. This decree

had to be frequently repeated, and models of the clothing exposed. It is

said that patterns of the garments and copies of the decrees were hung

up together at the gates of the towns, while all who disobeyed the order

were compelled to pay a fine. Those who yielded were obliged "to kneel

down at the gates of the city and have their coats cut off just even

with the ground," the part that lay on the ground as they kneeled being

condemned to suffer by the shears. "Being done with a good humor, it

occasioned mirth among the people, and soon broke the custom of their

wearing long coats, especially in places near Moscow and those towns

wherever the czar came."



This demand did not apply to the peasantry, and was therefore more

easily executed. Even the women were required to change their Russian

robes for foreign fashions. Peter's sisters set the example, which was

quickly followed, the women showing themselves much less conservative

than the men in the adoption of new styles of dress.



The reform did not end here. Decrees were issued against the high

Russian boots, against the use of the Russian saddle, and even against

the long Russian knife. Peter seemed to be infected with a passion for

reform, and almost everything Russian was ordered to give way before the

influx of Western modes. Western ideas did not come with them. To change

the dress does not change the thoughts, and it does not civilize a man

to shave his chin. Though outwardly conforming to the advanced fashions

of the West, inwardly the Russians continued to conform to the

unprogressive conceptions of the East.



It may be said that these changes did not come to stay. They were too

revolutionary to take deep root. There is no disputing the fact that a

coat down to the heels is more comfortable in a cold climate than one

ending at the knees, and is likely to be worn in preference. Students in

Russia to-day wear the red shirt, the loose trousers tucked into the

high boots, and the sleeveless caftan of the peasant, to show that they

are Slavs in feeling, while the old Russian costume is the regulation

court dress for ladies on occasions of state.



We cannot here name the host of other reforms which Peter introduced.

The army was dressed and organized in the fashion of the West. A navy

was rapidly built, and before many years Russia was winning victories at

sea. Peter had not worked at Amsterdam and Deptford in vain. The money

of the country was reorganized, and new coins were issued. The year,

which had always begun in Russia on September 1, was now ordered to

begin on January 1, the first new year on the new system, January 1,

1700, being introduced with impressive ceremonies. Up to this time the

Russians had counted their year from the supposed date of creation. They

were now ordered to date their chronology from the birth of Christ, the

first year of the new era being dated 1700 instead of 7208. Unluckily,

the Gregorian calendar was not at the same time introduced, and Russia

still clings to the old style, so that each date in that country is

twelve days behind the same date in the rest of the Christian world.



Another reform of an important character was introduced. Peter had

observed the system of local self-government in other countries, and

resolved to have something like it in his realm. In Little Russia the

people already had the right of electing their local officials. A

similar system was extended to the whole empire, the merchants in the

towns being permitted to choose good and honest men, who formed a

council which had general charge of municipal affairs. Where bribery and

corruption were discovered among these officials the knout and exile

were applied as inducements to honesty in office. Even death was

threatened; yet bribery went on. Honesty in office cannot be made to

order, even by a czar.