19 - Peter the Great by Jacob Abbott

Few figures in history are as renowned as Peter the Great, often hailed as the architect of modern Russian civilization. His legacy captures the imagination of many, particularly young people, largely due to his adventurous journey to Holland. There, he immersed himself in the world of shipbuilding, even rolling up his sleeves to work in a local shipyard. The very workshop where Peter honed his skills still stands in Saardam, near Amsterdam, albeit in a state of decay. To protect this historical gem, it has been encased in a larger brick structure, drawing curious visitors from around the globe each year. The captivating story of Peter the Great, underscored by his hands-on approach to learning, offers profound insights and lessons for everyone.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eighteen of Peter the Great. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Peter
the Great by Jacob Abbott, Chapter eighteen, The Condemnation and

(00:22):
Death of Alexis, seventeen eighteen. The examinations and investigations described
in the last chapter were protracted through a period of
several months. They were commenced in February and were not
concluded until June. During all this time, Alexis had been
kept in close confinement, except when he had been brought

(00:43):
out before his judges for the various examinations and cross
examinations to which he had been subjected. And as the
truth in respect to his designs became more and more
fully developed, and the danger in respect to the result increased,
he sank gradually into a state of distress and terror,
almost impossible to be conceived. The tribunals before whom he

(01:05):
was tried were not the regular judicial tribunals of the country.
They were, on the other hand, two grand convocations of
all the great official dignitaries of the Church and of
the State, that were summoned expressly for this purpose, not
to decide the case, for, according to the ancient custom
of the Russian Empire, that was the sole and exclusive
province of the Czar, but to aid him in investigating it,

(01:28):
and then, if called upon, to give him their council
in respect to the decision of it. One of these
assemblies consisted of the ecclesiastical authorities, the archbishops, the bishops,
and other dignitaries of the church. The other was composed
of nobles, ministers of state, officers of the army and
navy in high command, and other great civil and military functionaries.

(01:49):
These two assemblies met and deliberated in separate halls, and
pursued their investigations in respect to the several persons implicated
in the affair as they were successively brought before them,
under the direction of the Czar. Though the final disposal
of each case rested, it was well understood with him alone.
At length, in the month of June, when all the

(02:10):
other cases had been disposed of, and the proof in
respect to Alexis was considered complete, the Czar sent in
a formal address to each of these conventions, asking for
their opinion and advice in respect to what he ought
to do with his son. In his address to the
Archbishops and Bishops, he stated that although he was well
aware that he had himself absolute power to judge his

(02:31):
son for his crimes, and to dispose of him according
to his own will and pleasure, without asking advice of
any one, still as men were sometimes less discerning, he said,
in their own affairs than in those of others, so
that even the most skillful physicians do not run the
hazard of prescribing for themselves, but call in the assistance
of others when they are indisposed. In the same manner,

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he having in the fear of God before his eyes,
and being afraid to offend him, had decided to bring
the question at issue be between himself and his son
before them, that they might examine the word of God
in relation to it, and give their opinion in writing
what the will of God in such a case might be.
He wished also, he said that the opinion to which
they should come should be signed by each one of

(03:15):
them individually with his own hand. He made a similar
statement in his address to the Grand Council of Civil Authorities,
calling upon them also to give their opinion in respect
to what should be done with Alexis I beg of you,
he said, in the conclusion of his address, to consider
of the affair, to examine it seriously and with attention,

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and see what it is that our son has deserved,
without flattering me or apprehending that if, in your judgment
he deserves no more than slight punishment, it will be
disagreeable to me. For I swear to you by the
Great God and by His judgments, that you have nothing
to fear for me on this account. Neither are you
to allow the consideration that it is the son of
your sovereign that you are to pass judgment upon, to

(03:58):
have any effect upon you, but due justice, without respect
of persons, so that your conscience and mind may not
reproach us at the great day of judgment. The convocation
of clergy, in deliberating upon the answer which they were
to make to the Czar, deemed it advisable to proceed
with great caution. They were not quite willing to recommend
directly and openly that Alexi should be put to death,

(04:20):
while at the same time they wished to give the
sanction of their approval for any measures of severity which
the Czar might be inclined to take. So, they forbore
to express any positive opinion of their own, but contented
themselves with looking out in the scriptures, both in the
Old and New Testament, the terrible denunciations which are therein
contained against disobedient and rebellious children, and the accounts of

(04:42):
fearful punishments which were inflicted upon them in Jewish history.
They began their statement by formally acknowledging that Peter himself
had absolute power to dispose of the case of his
son according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, that
they had no jurisdiction in the case, and could not
presume to pronounce or say anything which could in any
way restrain or limit the Czar in doing what he judged best.

(05:06):
But nevertheless, as the Czar had graciously asked them for
their counsel as a means of instructing his own mind
previously to coming to a decision, they would proceed to
quote from the Holy Scriptures such passages as might be
considered to bear upon the subject and to indicate the
will of God in respect to the action of a
sovereign and a father in such a case. They then

(05:26):
proceeded to quote the texts and passages of scripture. Some
of these texts were denunciations of rebellious and disobedient children,
such as the eye that mocketh his father, and that
despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley
shall pluck it out, and the Jewish law providing that
if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who
will not obey the voice of his father nor the

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voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him,
will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and
mother lay hold of him and bring him out unto
the elders of his city, and unto the gate of
his place. And shall they until the elders of his city,
this our son is rebellious, he will not obey our voice.
He is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the
men of his city shall stone him with stones, that

(06:09):
he die. There were other passages quoted relating to his
actual cares which occurred in the Jewish history of sons
being punished with death for crimes committed against their parents,
such as that as Absalom and others. The bearing and
tendency of all these extracts from the scriptures was to
justify the severest possible treatment of the unhappy criminal. The

(06:31):
bishops added, however, at the close of their communication, that
they had made these extracts in obedience to the command
of their sovereign, not by way of pronouncing sentence or
making a decree, or in any other way giving any
authoritative decision on the question at issue, but only to
furnish to Czar himself such spiritual guidance an instruction in
the case as the Word of God afforded. It would

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be very far from their duty, they said, to condemn
any one to death, For Jesus Christ had taught his
ministers not to be governed by a spirit of anger,
but by a spirit of meekness. They had no power
to condemn any one to death or to seek his blood. That,
when necessary, was the province of the civil power theirs,
was to bring men to repentance of their sins, and

(07:14):
to offer them forgiveness of the same Jesus Christ their savior.
They therefore, in submitting their communication to his Imperial majesty,
did it only that he might do what seemed right
in his own eyes. If he concludes to punish his
fallen suddenly said according to his deeds and in a
manner proportionate to the enormity of his crimes, he has
before him the declarations and examples which we have herein

(07:37):
drawn from the scriptures of the Old Testament. If, on
the other hand, he is inclined to mercy, he has
the example of Jesus Christ, who represented the prodigal son
as received and forgiven when he returned and repented, who
dismissed the woman taken in adultery when by law she
deserved to be stoned, and who said that he would
have mercy and not sacrifice. The document concluded by the

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words the part of the czar is in the hand
of God, and may he choose the part to which
the hand of God shall turn it. As for the
other assembly, the one composed of the nobles and senators
and other great civil and military functionaries, before rendering their judgment,
they caused Alexis to be brought before them again in
order to call for additional explanations and to see if

(08:19):
he still adhered to the confessions that he had made.
At these audiences. Alexis confirmed what he had before said
and acknowledged more freely than he had done before, the
treasonable intentions of which he had been guilty. His spirit
seems by this time to have been completely broken, and
he appeared to have thought that the only hope for
him of escape from death was in the most humble

(08:40):
and abject confessions of earnest supplications for pardon. In these
his last confessions, too, he implicated some persons who had
not before been accused. One was a certain priest named James.
Alexis said that at one time he was confessing to
this priest, and among other sins which he mentioned, he
said that he wished for the death of his father.

(09:01):
The priests replied to this was as Alexis said, God
will pardon you for that, my son, for we all,
meaning the priests, wish it too. The priest was immediately arrested,
but on being questioned, he denied having made any such reply.
The inquisitors then put him to the torture, and there
forced from him the admission that he had spoken those words.

(09:22):
Whether he had really spoken them or only admitted it
to put an end to the torture, it is impossible
to say. They asked him for the names of the
persons whom he had heard express a desire that the
Czar should die, but he said he could not recollect.
He had heard it from several persons, but he could
not remember who they were. He said that Alexis was
a great favorite among the people, and that they sometimes

(09:44):
used to drink his health under the designation of the
Hope of Russia. The Czar himself also obtained the final
and general acknowledgment of guilt from his son, which he
sent in to the Senate on the day before their
judgment was to be rendered. He obtained this confession by
sending Tolstoy, and officer of the highest rank in his court,
and the person who had been the chief medium of

(10:04):
the intercourse and of the communications which he had held
with his son during the whole course of the affair,
with the following written instructions to M. Tolstoy, Privy counselor
go to my son this afternoon and put down in
writing the answers he shall give to the following questions. One,
what is the reason why he has always been so
disobedient to me and has refused to do what I

(10:25):
acquired of him, or to apply himself to any useful business,
notwithstanding all the guilt and shame which he has incurred
by so strange and unusual a course. Two, Why is
it that he has been so little afraid of me
and has not apprehended the consequences that must inevitably follow
from his disobedience? Three? What induced him to desire to

(10:46):
secure possession of the crown otherwise than by obedience to
me and following me in the natural order of succession?
And examine him upon everything else that bears any relation
to this affair. Tolstoy went to Alexis in the prison
and read these questions to him. Alexis put out the
following statement in reply to them, which Tolstoy carried to
the Czar. One. Although I was well aware that to

(11:09):
be disobedient, as I was to my father and refused
to do what pleased him was a very strange and
unusual course, and both a sin and a shame. Yet
I was led into it in the first instance, in
consequence of having been brought up from my infancy with
a governess and her maids, from whom I learned nothing
but amusements and diversions and bigotry, to which I had
naturally an inclination. The person to whom I was entrusted

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after I was removed from my governess, gave me no
better instructions. My father, afterward, being anxious about my education
and desirous that I should apply myself to what became
the son of the Czar, ordered me to learn the
German language and other sciences which I was very averse to.
I applied myself to them in a very negligent manner,
and only pretended to study at all in order to

(11:53):
gain time, and without having any inclination to learn anything.
And as my father, who was then frequently with the army,
was absent from me a great deal, he ordered his
serene Highness, the Prince Menzakhov, to have an eye upon me.
While he was with me, I was obliged to apply myself.
But as soon as I was out of his sight.
The persons with whom I was left, observing that I

(12:15):
was only bent on bigotry and idleness, on keeping company
with priests and monks and drinking with them, they not
only encouraged me to neglect my business, but took pleasure
in doing as I did. As these persons had been
about me from my infancy, I was accustomed to observe
their direction, to fear them, and to comply with their
wishes in everything. And thus, by degrees they alienated my

(12:35):
affections from my father by diverting me with pleasures of
this nature, so that, by little and little I came
to have not only the military affairs and other actions
of my father and horror, but also his person itself,
which made me always wish to be at a distance
from him. Alexandro Kikin, especially when he was with me,
took a great deal of pains to confirm me in
this way of life. My father, having compassion on me

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and desire iring still to make me worthy of the
state to which I was called, sent me into foreign countries.
But as I was already grown to man's estate, I
made no alteration in my way of living. It is true, indeed,
that my travels were of some advantage to me, but
they were insufficient to erase the vicious habits which had
taken such deep root in me. Two. It was this

(13:20):
evil disposition which prevented my being apprehensive of my father's
correction for my disobedience. I was really afraid of him,
but it was not with a filial fear. I only
sought for means to get away from him, and was
in no wise concern to do his will, but to
avoid by every means in my power what he required
of me. Of this, I will now freely confess one

(13:41):
plain instance. When I came back to Petersburg to my
father from abroad at the end of one of my journeys,
he questioned me about my studies, and, among other things,
asked me if I had forgotten what I had learned,
and I told him no. He then asked me to
bring him some of my drawings of plans. Then, fearing
that he would order me to draw something in his presence,
which I could not do as I knew nothing of

(14:03):
the matter, I set to work to devise a way
to hurt my hand, so that it should be impossible
for me to do anything at all. So I charged
the pistol with a ball, and taking it in my
left hand, I led it off against the palm of
my right with a design to have shot through it.
The ball entered the wall of my room, and it
may be seen there still. My father, observing my hand

(14:24):
to be wounded, asked me how it came. I told
him an evasive story and kept the truth to myself.
By these means, you may see that I was afraid
of my father, but not with a proper filial fear. Three.
As to my having desired to obtain the crown otherwise
than by obedience to my father and following him in
regular order of succession, all the world may easily understand

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the reason for when I was once out of the
right way and resolved to imitate my father in nothing,
I naturally sought to obtain the succession by any even
the most wrongful method. I confess that I was even
willing to come into possession of it by foreigness distance
if it had been necessary. If the Emperor had been
ready to fulfill the promise that he made me of

(15:05):
procuring for me the crown of Russia, even with an
armed force, I should have spared nothing to have obtained it.
For instance, if the Emperor had demanded that I should
afterward furnish him with Russian troops against any of his
enemies in exchange for his service in aiding me or
large sums of money, I should have done whatever he pleased.
I would have given great presents to his ministers and

(15:27):
generals over and above in a word, I would have
thought nothing too much to have obtained my desire. The confession,
after it was brought to the Czar by Tolstoy, to
whom Alexis gave it, was sent by him to the
Great Council of State to aid them in forming their opinion.
The Council were occupied for the space of a week
in hearing the case, and then they drew up and

(15:48):
signed their decision. The statement which they made began by
acknowledging that they had not, of themselves any original right
to try such a question, the Tsar himself, according to
the ancient constitution of the Empire, having sole and exclusive
jurisdiction in all such affairs, without being beholden to his
subjects in regard to them in any manner whatever. But nevertheless,

(16:08):
as the Czar had deemed it expedient to refer to them,
they accepted the responsibility, and, after having fully investigated the case,
were now ready to pronounce judgment. They then proceeded to
declare that after a full hearing and careful consideration of
all the evidence, both oral and written, which had been
laid before them, including the confessions of Alexis himself, they

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found that he had been guilty of treason and rebellion
against his father and sovereign, and deserved to suffer death.
And although said the counsel in continuation, although both before
and since his return to Russia, that Tsar his father
had promised him pardon on certain conditions, yet those conditions
were particularly and expressly specified, especially the one which provided

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that he should make a full and complete confession of
all his designs and of the names of all the
persons who had been privy to them or concerned in
the execution of them. With these conditions, and particularly the last,
Alexis had not complied, but had returned insincere in a
vasive answers to the questions which had been put to him,
and had concealed not only the names of a great

(17:11):
many of the principal persons that were involved in the conspiracy,
but also the most important designs and intentions of the conspirators,
thus making it appear that he had determined to reserve
to himself an opportunity hereafter, when a favorable occasion should
present itself, of resuming his designs and putting his wicked
enterprise into execution against his sovereign and father. He thus

(17:32):
had rendered himself unworthy of the pardon which his father
had promised him, and had forfeited all claim to it.
The sentence of the Council concluded in the following words.
It is with hearts full of affliction and eyes streaming
down with tears, that we, as subjects and servants, pronounce
the sentence, considering that being such, it does not belong

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to us to enter into a judgment of so great importance,
and particularly to pronounce sentence against the son of the
most Mighty and Merciful Tsar, our Lord. However, since it
has been his will that we should enter into judgment,
we herein declare our real opinion and pronounce this condemnation
with a conscience so pure in Christian that we think
we can answer for it at the terrible, just and

(18:13):
impartial judgment of the Great God. To conclude, we submit
the sentence which we now give, and the condemnation which
we make, to the sovereign power and will, and to
the merciful review of His Sarian Majesty, our most merciful Monarch.
This document was signed in the most solemn manner by
all the members of the Council, nearly one hundred in number.

(18:35):
Among the signatures are the names of a great number
of Ministers of State, councilors, senators, governors, generals, and other
personages of high civil and military rank. The document, when
thus formally authenticated, was sent with much solemnon imposing ceremony
to the Tsar. The Tsar, after an interval of great
suspense and solicitude, during which he seems to have endured

(18:56):
much mental suffering, confirmed the judgment of the Council, and
a day was appointed on which Alexis was to be arraigned,
and ordered that sentence of death, in accordance with it,
might be solemnly pronounced upon him. The day appointed was
the sixth of July, nearly a fortnight after the judgment
of the court was rendered to the Czar. The length
of this delay indicates a severe struggle in the mind

(19:18):
of the Czar between his pride and honor of a
sovereign feelings which prompted him to act in the most
determined and rigorous manner in punishing a rebel against his government,
and what still remained of his parental affection for his son.
He knew well that after what had passed, there could
never be any true and genuine reconciliation, and that as
long as his son lived, his name would be the

(19:39):
watchword of opposition and rebellion, and his very existence would
act as a potent and perpetual stimulus to the treasonable
designs which the foes of civilization and progress were always
disposed to form. He finally therefore determined that the sentence
of death should at least be pronounced. What his intention
was in respect to the actual execution of it can

(19:59):
never be known. When the appointed day arrived, a grand
session of the Council was convened, and Alexis was brought
out from the fortress where he was imprisoned and arraigned
before it for the last time. He was attended by
a strong guard. On being placed at the bar of
the tribunal, he was called upon to repeat the confessions
which he had made, and then the sentence of death,

(20:19):
as it had been sent to the Czar, was read
to him. He was then taken back again to his prison.
As before, Alexis was overwhelmed with terror and distress at
finding himself thus condemned, and the next morning intelligence was
brought to the Czar that, after suffering convulsions at intervals
through the night, he had fallen into an apoplectic fit.

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About noon, another message was brought saying that he had
revived in some measures from the fit, yet his vital
power seemed to be sinking away, and the physician thought
that his life was in great danger. The Czar sent
for the principal ministers of state to come to him,
and he waited with them in great anxiety and agitation
for further tidings. At length, a third messenger came and

(21:00):
said that it was thought that Alexis could not possibly
outlive the evening, and that he longed to see his father.
The Tsar immediately requested the ministers to accompany him and
set out from his palace to go to the fortress
where Alexis was confined. On entering the room where his
dying son was lying, he was greatly moved, and Alexis himself,
bursting into tears, folded his hands and began to entreat

(21:21):
his father's forgiveness for his sins against him. He said
that he had grievously and heinously offended the majesty of
God Almighty and of the Tsar, that he hoped he
should not recover from his illness. For if he should recover,
he should feel that he was unworthy to live. But
he begged and implored his father, for God's sake, to
take off the curse that he had pronounced against him,
to forgive him for all the heinous crimes which he

(21:42):
had committed, to bestow upon him his paternal blessing, and
to cause prayers to be put up for his soul.
While Alexis was speaking thus, the Tsar himself and all
the ministers and officers who had come with him were
melted in tears. The Tsar replied kindly to him. He referred,
it is true to the sin and crimes of which
Alexis had been guilty. But he gave him his forgiveness

(22:03):
and his blessing, and then took his leave, with tears
and lamentations, which rendered it impossible for him to speak,
and in which all present joined. The scene was heart rending.
At five o'clock in the evening, a major of the
guards came across the water from the fortress to the
Czar's palace with a message that Alexis was extremely desirous
to see his father once more. The Czar was at

(22:24):
first unwilling to comply with this request he could not bear,
he thought to renew the pain of such an interview,
but his ministers advised him to go There represented to
him that it was hard to deny such a request
from his dying son, who was probably tormented by the
stings of a guilty conscience, and felt relieved and comforted
when his father was near. So Peter consented to go.
But just as he was going on board the boat

(22:46):
which was to take him over to the fortress, another
messenger came saying that it was too late. Alexis had
expired On the next day after the death of his son,
the Tsar, in order to anticipate and preclude the false
rumors in respect to the case, which she knew that
his enemies would endeavor to spread throughout the continent, caused
the brief but full statement of his trial and condemnation

(23:07):
and of the circumstances of his death, to be drawn
up and sent to all his ministers abroad, in order
that they might communicate the facts in an authentic form
to the courts to which they were respectfully accredited. The
ninth day of July, the third day after the death
of Alexis, was appointed for the funeral the body was
laid in a coffin covered with black velvet. A pall

(23:27):
of rich gold tissue was spread over the coffin, and
in this way the body was conveyed to the Church
of the Holy Trinity, where it was laid in state.
It remained in this condition during the remainder of that
day and all of the next, and also on the
third day until evening. It was visited by vast crowds
of people who were permitted to come up and kiss
the hands of the deceased. On the evening of the

(23:47):
third day, after the body was conveyed to the church,
the funeral service was performed and the body was conveyed
to the tomb. A large procession headed by the Czar,
the Tsarina and all the chief nobility of the court
followed in the fiel funeral train. The Czar and all
the other mourners carried in their hands a small wax
tape or burning. The ladies were all dressed in black silks.

(24:09):
It was said by those who were near enough in
the procession to observe the Czar that he went weeping
all the way. At the service in the church, a
funeral sermon was pronounced by the priest from the very
appropriate text o Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. Thus
ended this dreadful tragedy. The party who had been opposed
to the reforms and improvements of the Czar seems to

(24:30):
have become completely disorganized after the death of Alexis, and
they never again attempted to organize any resistance to Peter's plans. Indeed,
most of the principal leaders had been executed or banished
to Siberia. As to Araqussa, the first wife of the
Czar and the mother of Alexis, who was proved to
have been privy to his designs, she was sent away

(24:51):
to a strong castle and shut up for the rest
of her days in a dungeon. So close was her
confinement that even her food was put in to her
through a hole in the water. It remains only to
say one word in conclusion in respect to Afrostenia. When
Alexis was first arrested, it was supposed that she, having
been the slave and companion of Alexis, was a party

(25:12):
with him in his treasonable designs. But in the course
of the examinations it appeared very fully that whatever of
connection with the affair, or participation in it she may
have had, was involuntary and innocent, and the testimony which
she gave was of great service in unraveling the mystery
of the whole transaction. In the end, the Czar expressed
his satisfaction with her conduct and strong terms. He gave

(25:34):
her a full pardon for the involuntary age which he
had rendered Alexis. In carrying out his plans. He ordered
everything which had been taken away from her to be restored,
made her presence of handsome jewelry, and said that if
she would like to be married, he would give her
a handsome portion out of the royal treasury. But she
promptly declined this proposal. I have been compelled, she said,

(25:54):
to yield to one man's will by force. Henceforth, no
other shall ever come near my side. End of Chapter eighteen.