29 August 1698 year
Peter I, Returning from a long journey through Europe, he banned beards in Russia. The only way to buy oneself out of shaving was to pay a hefty tax.
Rus' was transformed for a time into a barbershop, packed to the brim with people; one offered his own beard, another was forcibly shaved.
(Nikolai Gogol, 19th century)
It is believed that it was on this day that Peter I cut off the beards of the boyars with his own hands.
Prince Alexei Semyonovich Shein, the voivode, was the first to sacrifice his long beard, submitting it to the scissors. Only the patriarch, due to the sanctity of his office, Prince Mikhail Alegukovich Cherkassky, out of respect for his advanced years, and Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev, due to the honorable position of the Tsar's guardian, preserved their beards. All others had to bow to foreign customs when the scissors destroyed their ancient custom.
(from the diary of the secretary of the Austrian embassy, Johann Georg Korb)
According to one version, a decree "On the wearing of German dress, on shaving beards and moustaches" was issued on the same day. However, historians have yet to establish its authenticity. In the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, beard bans are mentioned only in later decrees, dating back to the 18th century.
So that Russians don’t sell any clothes or boots and no one wears such clothes or beards.
(from the decree of 1713)
The ban applied to all men except peasants and clergy.
Many boyars carefully preserved their cut off beards so that they could later put them in their coffins and present them in the next world.
A tax could be paid to avoid trimming one's beard: 60 rubles for nobles, 100 rubles for merchants, and 30 rubles per year for townspeople (comparable to the cost of a sable fur coat). Peasants' beards were subject to a tax only upon entering and leaving the city: two "dengi," or two two-kopeck coins (the equivalent of two live chickens).
The payer received a metal beard badge with a note indicating payment of the duty.
The tax was taken from the beard
A beard is an unnecessary burden
(inscriptions on Peter the Great's badges)
Besides the fashion for the European way of life, Peter had his own reasons for hating beards - he associated them with the Streltsy (who almost took his life).
Bearded men are the root of much evil—elders and priests. My father [Alexei Mikhailovich] dealt with one bearded man [Patriarch Nikon], and I with thousands
By banning beards, he attacked spiritual values: shaving was considered in Rus' "an act of Latin heresy" and a "sin." A sinner who shaved was supposedly trying to "correct God." Beardless people (and those who associated with such "sinners") were not only excommunicated from the church, but also flogged and exiled to monasteries.
One of Peter's predecessors, To Fyodor Alekseevich, The ban on beards failed to be introduced due to opposition from the patriarch Joachim.
Now, moreover, the image given to man by God has begun to be destroyed.
(Joachim)
Peter "pacified" the dissatisfied patriarchs: thus, the patriarch Adrian, who spoke out against the "barbers" was in disgrace.
At the same time, some representatives of the clergy supported Peter's reforms: the metropolitan and church writer Dmitry Rostovsky He believed that the image of God is contained in a person not in his beard, but in his invisible soul.
In 1705 Astrakhan had to suppress the rebellion against beard shaving by force: one of the rebels, To Yakov Nosov, First they shaved him and only then cut off his head.
They cut our beards with meat and Russian clothes in the markets and in the streets, and they cut them in the churches, and in the villages there was much crying because of this
(from the memoirs of Astrakhan residents, 1704)
Meanwhile, the Cossacks, with the tacit consent of the authorities, did not comply with the shaving decree. When, a century later, Russian troops, concluding the war with Napoleon, entered Paris Bearded Cossacks set their own fashion there - "a la russe".
A beard is a natural adornment for the stronger sex. It's part of male beauty. Only a beard can add significance to a man's face.
(Parisian newspapers of the early 19th century)
In Russia, beard bans remained in effect until the end of the 19th century. They were rehabilitated Alexander III - He treated the razor with distrust.
