The Russian and Swedish Empires 273Peter the Great trimming the long sleeves of the boyars, sym
bolically reducing noble power in the Russian Empire.
Peter retained a marked ambivalence about the role of tsar, maintaining
a “Drunken Assembly/’ a kind of mock parallel government of people he
trusted with strange statutes and rituals. Presided over by a pretend
“prince-pope,” the “AH Jesting Assembly” undertook boisterous, bawdy
farces that mocked religious ceremonies. Yet Peter the Great’s reforms
reflected the influence of Western absolutism on the Russian state. He
believed that it was his role to help his people achieve the best living con
ditions possible. He thus came to a conception of the common good that
he closely identified with Russian patriotism. At the time Peter became
tsar, only three books considering nonreligious themes had been translated
into Russian—a grammar book, a law code, and a military manual. Trans
lations of Western books followed at Peter’s instigation, including works by
John Locke. The tsar sent Russian students abroad to learn and, in doing
so, helped move Russia away from a uniquely religious culture.
Fearing the military superiority of his rivals, Sweden and Poland
Lithuania, Peter now raised the first Russian standing army, gradually
replacing Western mercenary soldiers with Russian troops by implement
ing military conscription in 1705 in order to have an infantry to comple
ment Cossack cavalrymen. Thereafter, one recruit—w'ho would serve for
life—had to be provided for every twenty peasant households. Peter
brought in Western commanders to train his army and provided soldiers
with uniforms and Western flintlock muskets w ith socket bayonets.