Why Leo Tolstoy wanted to write a novel about Peter I, and then changed his mind

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Leo Tolstoy at one time decided to write a huge heroic novel about the most titanic figure among the Russian tsars - Peter I. The writer studied archives, memoirs, letters for a long time and at the end of the ends wrote in his diary in the most harsh terms that he would not write about such a person. Peter I seemed to him a disgusting and evil person. Why? There are several reasons.

The tsar harassed younger relatives

It is known for sure that Peter I seduced (at best) his niece, Ekaterina Ioannovna, and, most likely, at an early age. This is indirectly indicated by typical changes in her behavior - she was addicted to wine and thoughtless intimate relationships for one night. This often happens to girls who have experienced sexual abuse.

At twenty-four, the princess got married. Arriving on a visit and seeing his niece, Peter took her to another room on the sofa, and, without locking the doors, not caring about the witnesses (including her husband), did to her what, in theory, only her husband should have done. The shamelessness of this scene amazed those present and left no doubt that Peter had done this to Catherine before.

It can also be assumed that his other victim was his daughter Elizabeth. When she was still prepubertal, the king constantly came in her presence in ecstasy and kissed her hands and feet (no, this was not very accepted), took her to the assembly, like an adult partner, ordered her nude portrait.

Moreover, as you know, the adult Elizabeth behaved exactly like Catherine - she forgot herself in wine and changed her gentlemen without embarrassment. In her youth, for a long time they could not find a suitable groom for her, since a groom worthy of a king's daughter would reject a non-virgin. In the meantime, her father died, and her twelve-year-old nephew, the new king, became her quite open lover. Elizabeth was not outraged by his encroachments - apparently, after her father, they no longer seemed like something strange.

In addition, most likely, most of Peter's permanent or one-time mistresses and lovers, if given the opportunity, would refuse such an honor. That is, the king was simply a rapist. Among his victims are even page boys, some of whom were his godchildren (for example, the notorious Prince Ibrahim Hannibal, Pushkin's ancestor).

Peter loved to watch executions and perform them

Even when he sentenced more than a thousand archers to death, he struck his contemporaries with his cruelty. According to the testimony of Patrick Gordon, the tsar began the reprisal against the archers with an unofficial conversation with his older sister Sophia with the help of a rack and a whip. The princess turned out to be a tough nut to crack, and the executioners did not dare to be zealous - in general, Sophia denied her connection with any performances of the archers. She was exiled to a monastery and dealt directly with the streltsy regiments.

After that, there were general arrests of all the archers stationed in Moscow, torture often without a protocol (the conduct of which was actually provided for by law) and, in the end, death sentences. When the first portion of the archers was brought to execution, the tsar took an ax in his hands and began to cut off the heads himself, along with the executioners. Later, he got tired of waving an ax and began to turn the execution into a show, joking around, pouring vodka to the audience, coming up with "improvements" to execute the brought crowd faster, with a conveyor belt.

Later, Peter more than once attended the death penalty, although there was no need for that. According to foreign observers, he just liked to watch. He also easily beat anyone in the mood or "for the good of the cause" without seeing obstacles, including the ladies - for example, for refusing to drink a dangerous volume of vodka when he demanded it.

Human dignity meant nothing to Peter in principle

Many of his reforms, like the fashionable one, could have been carried out in a milder form, without mockery of the more conservative, bashful and indecisive. Peter beat nobles and officials at his discretion with a cane, and he resorted to this measure very often. Deciding for others where to go to live, whom to marry and, of course, what and how much to drink was the norm for him. Moreover, he often contradicted himself. Officially, Peter fought against drunkenness, hanging a cast-iron medal on the drunks. Himself, each assembly forcibly watered those around him, regardless of age, gender, wine and vodka.

It is known that he arranged for his own amusement the wedding of his dwarf and dwarf - moreover, the lady was older than the groom, and both did not burn with love for each other. Peter personally made sure that the groom impregnated the bride on the wedding night, and this led to the fact that the wife died, unable to endure the pregnancy - the structure of the skeleton interfered.

In fact, now many are inclined to think that strange ideas, intolerance of objections and obsession with the sex issue in the king could have appeared due to untreated syphilis that struck the brain. As a matter of fact, he died more from some kind of venereal disease that woke up against a background of stress than from kidney problems. He could catch syphilis in Europe, where he went to study incognito and where he had a constant mistress. If not for the consequences, the victim of the disease could only sympathize.

In Europe, the king took up the fashion for black lackeys, whose main suppliers were slave traders. Black citizens of the Russian Empire: Where did they come from and how they lived.