272 Ch. 7 • The Age of Absolutism, 1650-1720
Poland and Turkey, Peters wars brought territorial acquisitions at the
expense of Sweden, Poland, and the Turks. No European state more dra
matically increased its territory than Russia, which expanded its frontiers
at a rapid pace between the 1620s and 1 740s. During the seventeenth cen
tury, Russian territory increased from 2.1 to 5.9 million square miles, even
if in the distant reaches of north Asia this included little more than a series
of trade routes.
As a boy growing up in the violent world of Russian court politics, Peter
was schooled in all manner of guns, ballistics, and fortifications, and he
was fascinated by sailing. Wearing a military uniform, he became tsar at
the age of ten after a bloody struggle, which he witnessed firsthand,
between the clans of his father s two widows. Seven years later, Peter killed
members of his own family whom he perceived to be a threat to his rule.
Tsar Peter, who wore shabby clothes, worn-out boots, socks he had
darned himself, a battered hat, and very long hair, stood close to seven feet
tall and suffered from chronic back problems compounded by frenetic
energy. Facial tics became most apparent when he was anxious or angry,
which seemed to be most of the time, as he lashed out with clubs or fists.
On several occasions he carried out public executions himself with an axe.
When he was twenty-five, Peter visited Western Europe incognito, dressed
as a humble, giant workman. He preferred the company of ordinary people
(his second wife was a Latvian peasant), enjoyed wood turning and fire fight
ing, and was most comfortable in simple Russian wooden houses. In the
West, he shocked statesmen and nobles with his dress and coarse manners,
snatching meat from dining tables. In London, Peter and his entourage virtu
ally destroyed a rented house with wild parties—the tsar loved to dance and
drink—leading an English bishop to worry aloud that this “furious man had
been raised up to so absolute an authority over so great a part of the world.**
Peter was not an uncritical admirer of the West, but he borrowed Western
technical knowledge as he sought to copy absolutism. In London he became
fascinated by the use of mathematics in shipbuilding, and four months on
the Dutch docks taught him ship carpentry. Impressed with the military
strength and administrative efficiency of the Western powers, Peter emu
lated w'hat he considered to be more “rational” organization. His turn toward
the West represented a monumental cultural change that was secular in
character. He ordered nobles to become educated, told his guards and offi
cials to shave off their beards, encouraged the use of glasses, bowls, and
napkins at meals, and ordered a Western book of etiquette translated into
Russian. Furthermore, he ordered nobles to build Western-style palaces, and
he demanded that women wear bonnets, petticoats, and skirts. German and,
to a lesser extent, French became the language of court. Purchasing German
and Italian paintings and statues, Peter began the royal collection that
would later become the renowned Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
and he also created the Russian Academy of Science and the Moscow
School of Mathematics and Navigation.