title: how hedonistic game became the gateway to virtuous truths
text: peter the great  was one of the pivotal figures of russian history his reforms were a product of his personality and his vision for what he wanted russia to become and sometimes in history personality matters more than those vague historical forces that professional historians like to imagine as controlling the destinies of men
  russia in his day was still halfbarbarous to rule her he had to be an absolute monarch and never for a moment doubted his right to be so his personal habits say much about him he had little need for sleep regularly working for fourteen hours or more per day alcohol was considered then as now an acceptable escape from the drudgery of rule but he knew when to limit his intake and forbade his ministers from excessive consumption his sexual appetites were as normal as any mans but he showed little interest in the kind of conspicuous indulgence that characterized most of his contemporaries in western europe
  he did make a point of choosing mistresses of lowly origin rather than from titled families he had no desire for intellectual competition in the bedroom when frederick ii of denmark teased him about the type of women he chose his response was brother my women do not cost me much but yours cost you thousands of crowns which might be better spent elsewhere
  
  he chose to spend most of his time in the city that bore his name st petersburg he liked maritime affairs and wanted to be near the sea he disliked the atmosphere of moscow with its abundance of clergy and freezing winters it was the army that first felt the effect of his modernization programs peter introduced conscription a professional officer class and defined periods of service his naval program was less effective and most of the vessels built during his reign were not of high quality
  he realized that he would never be able to make russia into a great power unless he changed the mentality and outlook of the people and like many rulers before and after him he underestimated just how difficult this task would prove to be after his death many of his reforms were permitted to wither on the vine but at least some tentative first steps had been made that future monarchs might draw inspiration from by imperial decree he banished beards in  an exception was made for the orthodox patriarch this was a shocking step in a country where whiskers had become a symbol of piety and fidelity those who insisted on keeping them could do so by paying an incomeadjusted annual tax we are told that some distraught peasants obsessively saved their shaved facial hair lest they incur some disfavor from the saints
  but there was method to peters apparent madness he understood that appearance and thought are connected and that if a man wished to change one he had to change the other in  peter decreed that all royal officials had to adopt westernstyle clothing trousers and cloaks were acceptable caftans or overly oriental garb was not like kemal ataturk two centuries later he had no patience for backsliders or protesters whom he swept aside ruthlessly in social relations he ended for good the traditional practice of secluding women from public intercourse with men a habit that had probably been an inheritance from the mongols
  these reforms gained peter some bitter enemies among the clergy for centuries the russian ecclesiastic establishment had held a near monopoly on education and rural social life peters reforms threatened to erode this base and they saw in him an implacable enemy of traditional belief they also suspected him of having had too much contact with western europeans a fact thatit seemed to themmade him nearly an atheist peter did not help matters by openly mocking their rituals and folkways as he saw matters it was his responsibility to bring russia up to par with the other advanced nations of the day and resistance from obscurantist clerics could not be tolerated
  peter solved this problem for a time by making himself the head of the orthodox church in  when patriarch adrian died he did not appoint a successor and went one step further in  by abolishing the title of patriarch altogether in its place he formed a council of clerics that he himself would appoint with this measure the church effectively became an arm of the state ecclesiastical grumbling was audible but peter wisely refused to venture into disputes with the priests over religious doctrine he cared about power not theology
  slowly he made progress in industrialization this frankly could only be done with dictatorial power and to this end he reorganized the traditional russian boyar system in place of the old aristocracy a new one arose that was based on military and civil function his rule saw some success in mining and textile work when peter died in  russia was exporting iron and statesponsored factories made modest gains in cloth manufacture protective tariffs were used to shelter the new industries from suffocating foreign competitionto pay for all this peter unashamedly taxed everyone in his realm to the limits of their tolerance state tax revenues rose from  million rubles in  to  million in  the majority of this revenue went to the military
  a russian boyar
  ambitious plans existed for education too peter ordered the old slavonic alphabet used by the church to be replaced by a new system based on greek letters he imported printing presses founded institutes and organized professional associations to spread the ideas that were current at the time in western europe
  what was the net result of all this effort the picture was a mixed one reformers are not usually popular as by their very nature they are required to focus attentions in different directions men and horses do not appreciate new stirrups the peasantryalready used to a harsh existencefound themselves taxed to exhaustion moscow became filled with paupers who alternated between banditry and begging the nobles hated him with the same ferocity as the french nobles hated richelieu and for the very same reason because he forced them to serve the nation rather than each other
  as his unpopularity grew peter resorted more and more to the whip and the dungeon to implement his designs perhaps there was no other way but at the very least his example pointed the way for future authoritarian leaders who would drag russia kicking and screaming into the modern era some of his achievements were lasting and significant and some were not in history even great men must contend with the limitations of their era and try to balance their own vision with the possibilities granted them by circumstance it is on this precarious tightrope that all great men walk
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