Peter the Great Chronicle

Author: B.B. Mavrogénov (USSR), translated by Yu Dajun
Translator: Yu Dajun
Country:
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Publication Date: 2000-02-01
Features: Now Peter will meet high-society ladies. Peter's meeting with the Electress Ladies in K?penick was held at their request. Initially, Peter was very shy. A large crowd waited for him by the castle. To avoid drawing attention, Peter entered through the back door, but as soon as he saw the Electress Ladies, he became shy, covering his face with his hands and repeatedly saying, "I don't understand, I don't understand." However, the Tsar soon became accustomed to it, closed the door, and had everyone drink in the Russian manner, drinking it all down and personally handing out glasses of wine to others. Peter's quick wit, accurate judgment, sincere cheerfulness, and kind nature amazed everyone. Russian dances and customs pleased the hosts, and what the hosts liked most was the guest himself—he was "very lively and talkative," and his characteristic was "natural demeanor, completely un." Peter was very willing to answer the questions raised by the Electress Ladies. He said: He did not like hunting, but loved fireworks very much. He did not place great importance on music, but respected labor, and showed the Electress Ladies his hands, covered with age spots. About Peter, his mother Sophia Goncharova, the Electress, wrote: "He has a very quick mind, his judgment is swift and just. His face is very handsome, and his figure is tall and graceful. This person is absolutely extraordinary; without having seen him, one cannot fully describe him. It is even impossible to form a concept of him. He has a very kind heart and noble sentiments." However, the Electress, who was overly concerned with outward appearances, did not hide "Peter's poor upbringing." He was not good at maintaining proper decorum at the table, the napkin left him confused, and he would rather have a large water jug filled with water. When he became cheerful, he grabbed both of the little princess's ears and lifted her, kissed her twice, and wrinkled her hair bows. When dancing with the Electress Ladies, he accepted a corset made of baleen ribs and was amazed at the "surprisingly hard bones" of the "German lady." But Peter's ignorance of court etiquette did not prevent his mother from fairly evaluating his heart and intellect: "His personality—completely the personality of his country. If he had received better education, he would have been an outstanding person, because he has many virtues and infinite natural wisdom." In fact, like Buyonovsky, any old-fashioned aristocrat, by shaving his beard, groaning, panting, talking nonsense, and wearing foreign narrow coats, had his way of thinking, nature, and habits changed at all? Not in the slightest. Peter until his very last breath could not "clear the weeds from the wheat." He Europeanized Russia, introducing things that were unnecessary for its further development and consolidation, as well as futile and alien things, which naturally gave rise to reasonable doubts and dissatisfaction. No wonder A.K. Tolstoy, in his witty "History of Russia," wrote about Peter and his foreign travels: After returning from there, he shaved our beards clean, and at Christmas, it was strange, he dressed people up as Dutchmen. Peter polluted the daily life of Russia and the Russian language with foreign things, leaving his descendants a difficult problem. Foreign clothing, "refined manners," and various "foreign languages"—Dutch, French, and German—became fashionable among the upper class, to the extent that Lomonosov, Tretyakovskii①, Sumarokov②, and Pushkin had to engage in the cause of purifying the Russian language.