CHAPTER XIII.

THE GREAT CZAR: HIS REFORMS.

PETER set to work to make his people better and more civilised, but it was not an easy or a pleasant work. For the people loved their old ways simply because they were old, and, being ignorant and foolish in many ways, they thought that the Germans had got power over Peter to make him change old

customs.

Now Peter brought in many good things. He taught the people to till their land better than they had been used to do. He taught them also better ways of making shoes, and ships, and many other things. But the people grumbled, and said, "Old ways are best."

One thing he did which vexed them very much. He changed the beginning of the year from September to January, so that they might count their year like the other European people. The peasants thought that this was very wrong, "for," they said, "apples are not ripe in January, so Eve

could not have been tempted then." And they thought that Peter was contradicting the Bible, and called him the Great Antichrist.

They made up a fairy story, which they repeat now. They said that the Czar went to the castle of a witch in Norway. The witch fried him, and then threw him into prison. Then she was going to put him into a barrel full of nails and roll him into the sea, only somehow he escaped. But he never came back to Russia, and the Czar who pretended to be Peter was, they said, really a German.

But when Peter went to war the people suffered terribly. For their children were carried off to be soldiers, and their money was taken to pay for the soldiers' arms and food. These poor peasants did not want the glory they won. What they wanted was to live at home happily with all their friends round them. So they hated Peter, while they liked the Czars who made no wars and wanted no men for soldiers. And of Peter they said, "Since God has sent him to be the Czar we have no happy days. The village is weighed down with providing roubles and half-roubles." And the women wailed, and cried, "He has taken all our husbands to be soldiers, and left us to weep all our lives long."

Another thing that Peter did made the peasants still more unhappy. There had been three sorts of

peasants, those that were free and owned their own land, those that had to pay half they got to their masters, those that belonged to the land and were bought and sold with it. Peter made these three sorts all alike. He arranged that all should be bought and sold with the land they lived on. That was a hard and unjust measure.

The rest of what Peter did was very good. He did much, as I said, to help the people to manufacture things better. He built schools, too, and taught in them geography and history and languages, and how to manage a ship. Latin and Greek he thought were of no use.

Then, too, he built hospitals, and would no longer allow deformed babies to be killed. Besides this, he kept order in the streets of Moscow, and ordered that people should not hit each other, or push each other into the mud.

But one of the reforms that gave him the most trouble was the reform of the government. There was one governor for each town and province, who settled everything, and settled it very badly. This Peter altered for the better. It is too long to tell you exactly how. Only he arranged that these governors were not each to settle everything in their province, but there were to be different sorts of governors-one for the criminal law, one for money affairs, and so on.

At the head of all was a council made of nobles. You may tell how rough they were by hearing what rule Peter was forced to make. He had to order them not to cry out, or thump each other, or call each other thieves.

Peter did not interfere with the Mirs at all. That was very wise of him, and showed his greatness.

When all these arrangements were settled, he had a great deal of trouble in making his officers do their duty. For they were very fond of stealing, and did not judge fairly, but judged in favour of those who gave them most money.

Peter was very anxious that fair judgment should always be given; and if he found any of them taking bribes, he had them up before his court, whether they were nobles or peasants, and there he beat them with the knout, and some he hung. You must remember that whatever mistakes Peter made, he did mean. to give Russia a good government, and to have all things fair and just as far as he could see.

One day Peter actually began to dictate to one of his nobles a decree, saying that he would punish any official with death who even took the value of a rope as a bribe. But the noble, instead of writing, said, "Has your Majesty thought as to what will be the result of this order?" "Go on writing," said Peter, who was very obstinate. "Do you wish to be left quite alone in Russia?" said the noble; "we

all steal,—some more, some less, but more cleverly." Peter laughed, and did not go on.

Peter was no easier a master to the nobles than to the peasants. He made strict laws about their lands, and forced them to serve either in the army or navy or law-courts for many years.

The work that Peter liked best of all was his plans for the city St. Petersburg. Directly after the battle of Pultowa he wrote to one of his generals, saying, "I feel as if the first stone of St. Petersburg was laid." The first stone had really been laid about six years before. You know what the country was like. Neva separated into four

The great

branches, besides which there were numberless little rivers running into it. But the land did not look at all fit for a city, for it was all marshy islands, with dreary dull plains about it, and dark forests stretching away on each side. But we know why Peter wanted to build his city there; because he wanted a window into Europe. He ordered labourers to come, and, as they had no spades, they had to dig out the earth with their nails or with sticks, and carry it in their long caftans. When that was done great stakes of wood had to be driven in close to each other, for the marsh was not firm enough to support a house. The poor workmen slept in the open air, and often had not enough food to eat, so that they died by thousands.

This was in 1703. Peter lived