Forgotten king
Why did the author of the first Russian “perestroika”, Sovereign Fedor Alekseevich, appear to be deleted from stories
"The old sons have three sons: / The eldest smart was a fellow, / The middle son was like that, / The youngest was a fool." It seems that Peter Ershov borrowed the beginnings of his fairy-tale story directly from Russian history. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov was survived by three of his sons. The eldest, Fyodor, had every reason to become the greatest of Russian reformers and the founder of the empire, but the youngest, Peter, was not lucky with his special talents. As a result, we got a new capital, a new alphabet and, in general, a new story performed by Peter Alekseevich, who turned upside down many of the beginnings of his older half-brother.
Restructuring
The young Fyodor Romanov ascended the throne at the age of fifteen and, as contemporaries asserted with one voice, in the twenty-first year of his life he was poisoned. On the day of the king’s death, 27 on April 1682, a palace coup was attempted: relatives of the mother of nine-year-old Peter (Naryshkins) attempted to put him on the throne, bypassing his sixteen-year-old middle brother Ivan (his and Fyodor’s mother were from the Miloslavsky clan). As one of the eyewitnesses wrote, "the boyars want to take possession of the entire state." The uprising in Moscow almost boldly the whole political system. Meanwhile, six years before that, nothing foreshadowed such shocks.
If in the 17th century the ratings of the rulers were measured, Tsar Fedor would probably turn out to be a record holder. Especially against the background of Peter, who became popular only in the writings of later historians, and during his life was ardently hated by loyal subjects. However, open any textbook on national history and see a set of stamps: Peter the Great, a window to Europe, shaved beards, the Swedes were beaten near Poltava, the founder of the empire ... Pro Fedor is succinctly informed that he was in poor health, like all descendants of Alexei’s first wife Mikhailovich, Mary Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. Well, at best - something vague about some kind of reform.
In fact, the six-year rule of the third tsar from the Romanov dynasty led to the transformation of Russia into a European superpower. The scale of the transformations carried out by the very young king, is striking: successful modernization, growth of the population’s well-being, almost entirely restructured capital, creation of the first permanent government in Russian history ...
Today, any official will say that to solve the housing problem in Moscow in a few years is absolutely impossible. Is it conceivable to inherit the wooden capital and instantly build almost thousands of stone buildings! How can you! It's very simple: to give Muscovites interest-free loans for stone construction, the right to pay for them with the power of the state order of stone affairs, and also to approve "typical" building projects. Boyar "Khrushchev" times of Fyodor Alekseevich, called chambers, are still in abundance in Moscow. With this tsar, Red Square ceased to be a trade and became the front door, orders were erected and the first sewage system was built in the Kremlin.
For comparison: despite the decree of Peter of 1714, on the prohibition to build with stone anywhere except in St. Petersburg, the city on the Neva essentially remained the only stone structure of that time - the central part of the Menshikov Palace.
Under Fedor, the construction boom, naturally, did not go without complaints. Tsar was reproached for squandering the treasury, much of which went to the construction of new buildings of the capital. The scale can be judged by the fact that the tsar's decree forbade the construction of wooden buildings within the walls of the White City - this is approximately the border of the modern Boulevard Ring.
Acceleration
The treasury is really empty. But the government of Tsar Fedor managed to find sources of budget replenishment. Most notably, taxes are reduced. The king forgave the arrears. Taxation has been streamlined; in 1678, a population census was conducted, and in the following year, the household tax was introduced. A wealthy population brought new revenues to the treasury. In the decree on the abolition of old taxes, the king wrote: "Wealth and strengthen your country with your wealth."
This sounds surprising, but all the important decrees of Fyodor lucidly explained to the population: why did the king make such a decision, and not otherwise, and what would be its consequences. Decrees were announced in each village so that they could be understood by "every reasonable person." The king himself appealed to the electorate from the counties to hear what duties they "should bear or not and why they should not." Having before the eyes of the tax card of the country, Fedor decided to differentiate taxation by the level of economic development of the counties. With the help of elective districts taxes were calculated at different rates, the maximum in Moscow and the minimum in Siberia.
Reasonable taxes the population began to pay regularly. Moreover, the king abolished feeding - a system in which officials collected taxes not only (and not so much) into the treasury, but also for themselves. In 1679, on the same day with the announcement of the tax reform, Fyodor signed a decree on the liquidation of disparate local authorities and the transition to the “one-stop-shop” system - only the provincial administration decides everything at the local level. In this case, the governor-governor and their apparatus were supposed to live exclusively on the salary.
Finally, in 1682, the Zemsky Sobor abolished the centuries-old custom of regionalism, in which positions were held according to the genericity of the ancestors. Bit books, according to which the boyars were measured by the nobility of the clan and the merits of ancestors, were publicly burned by the order of the king. Orders with duplicate functions are combined, official hours in state institutions are formally established, a draft of the future Peter's Table of Ranks has been developed, and the state administration as a whole has been streamlined. It was Fyodor who, for the first time in Russian history, created a permanent government - the Slitting Chamber.
Against the background of all this, the “hulk” of Peter's reforms with the renaming of orders in the college and the illegal Supreme Privy Council, which many contemporaries considered, not without reason, a gathering of crooks and thieves, looks rather pale. The local government, created by Fedor and responsible for collecting taxes, his younger brother replaced the direct rule of the military authorities.
One can argue with the fact that the Russian industrial potential was created only by the incredible efforts of Peter I. This is not so. Peter is the founder of Russian state capitalism. His older brother relied on private initiative. Under Fedor, the factories were built on private capital and did not cost the penny a penny. Peter I confiscated private capital and started up state-owned enterprises (primarily military). The emperor had to wage war against the “non-refundable”, uncontrolled officials of the metallurgical, blacksmith and textile industries that flourished during the reign of his brother. This war is real - when military teams destroyed private blast furnaces and manufactories, and masters were driven into state slavery.
Publicity
Well, Russian Alekseevich still created the regular army? Are his military victories indisputable? We have to admit that such a historical story is largely a consequence of falsification.
In fact, Fedor turned out to be a far better strategist than his brother. Peter 20 spent the years waging war with Sweden over the Baltic, utterly depleting the country's resources. The accomplishment of Fyodor is the war of 1676 — 1681, which stopped the Turkish aggression in Ukraine and ended with the consolidation of vast territories in the south of Russia.
In the very first year, the Russians took the capital of Right-Bank Ukraine Chigirin, and in 1677, they defeated a huge army of Turks under it. However, the following summer, the king gave a secret — even from the Boyar Duma — a decree to the Commander-in-Chief, Prince Romodanovsky, to withdraw the troops and allow the Turks to level Chigirin with the ground. The Russian troops, who had previously defeated the best corps of the Janissaries, carried out the order. And until the conclusion of the peace of Bakhchisarai in 1681, there was no fighting.
The motif of the "retreat" was simple: the king knew how to count. War and in the XVII century was primarily a matter of money. We won the army of professionals who require expensive weapons and supplies. The Turkish budget was superior to Russia, its military-industrial complex was the most powerful in Europe. The resilience and heroism of the Russian regular forces — two regiments of soldiers deployed by Fyodor in a division, twenty regiments of archers, dragoon formations and reytar — only temporarily compensated for this imbalance. Nevertheless, managed to win a strategic victory. The Ottoman Empire in the wars with Russia now only defended itself. The last dash of the Turks managed to redirect to the West. A few years later, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa, who fought with the Russians at Chigirin and with whom Tsar Fedor negotiated, would besiege Vienna. And could, by the way, and Moscow.
Let's try to draw up the military balances of the two reigns. So, Peter during the exhausting Northern War achieved a reduction in the population of Russia by 19,5 percent. For the sake of the capture of Azov and construction fleet, then surrendered to the Turks, for the sake of the notorious opening of a window to the Baltic, where the Swedish fleet dominated, capital will be confiscated, and industry will be reoriented to serfdom. Most Russians will be deprived of political rights - for the peasants even the oath of the tsar will be brought to the king by their masters. But this does not seem enough. After the victory over the Swedes, martial law will be introduced in Russia, military command and control will be assigned to taxes. By the time of Peter's death, the people were so impoverished that Menshikov, who knew a lot about cuts and kickbacks, would declare to the Supreme Privy Council that the people of the tribute “cannot bear it in any way” because they have come “in an irreparable disaster”.
Tsar Fedor avoided economic collapse. Rejecting the Turks, he built a line of fortifications far to the south, cutting off the 30 thousand square kilometers of fertile land from the Wild Field. A colossal land fund appeared necessary to provide the nobility who served in the army. The experience of military operations on the right bank of the Dnieper against such a powerful adversary (the Ottoman army reached 120 thousands during the Chigirin campaign) made it possible to implement the military-district reform, putting the army in 75 percent in a regular fashion. Instead of crowds of nobles with their lackeys, long and stupidly going to war in each county, the central regions of the country began to give soldiers and reytar for regiments and divisions in the border districts. Service was mandatory for all nobles. Peasants and citizens sent into the army "datochnyh people" one by one from a certain number of yards. Merchants and industrialists were not called upon - they were considered necessary for the development of the economy.
Yes, yes, do not be surprised. The regular Russian army was not created by Tsar Peter, but by his elder brother! According to the 1680 mural of the year, the 41 regiment of soldiers, 21 regiment of archers, 26 regiment of reiter and spearmen, and also 4 regiment of Cossack permanent service were listed in it. Their officers were trained in the regular ranks, and four reached the full generals. In 1689, after Fedor’s death, Generalissimus Vasily Golitsyn advanced with him did the impossible: he led regiments across the steppe to the Crimea, reflecting the continuous attacks of the Tatars with fire, without the rebuilds prescribed in European armies to cover the musketeers with pikemen. The army of the famous Jan Sobieski in such conditions was defeated by the Tatars, and later Peter himself capitulated to the Turks in the Prut campaign, almost captive.
The “new army” of Peter I grew out of the reforms of Fedor - in every sense. After the sudden death of his older brother, the boyars who poisoned him (as everyone believed) put the young Peter on the throne, but were thrown on spears by insurgent Muscovites headed by regular regiments. Fedor's army did not forgive the boyars of its creator’s death. In the 1698 year, taking advantage of the uprising of four rifle regiments, Peter began the destruction of the former army. Peter's recruits forcibly recruited from the serfs, officers and generals — mostly foreigners — became soldiers. Many of them, including the famous Franz Lefort, entered the Russian service, by the way, under Fedor Alekseevich. However, this ruler still gave preference to domestic personnel.
Peter's recruits and mercenaries showed themselves in all their glory in the battle of Narva. Foreign officers mostly went over to the side of the Swedes, the army fled. Only four regiments survived: Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and two miraculously surviving after the rifle revolt of the regiment of the guard of Tsar Fedor - Lefortovo and Butyrsky.
Have you heard about such? That's it. As well as about many other things from the heritage of the king, who did not live to see the 21 year. The subsequent official chroniclers did not favor Fyodor. Say, he was weak in health, he did not rule himself, and in general his reign, as it were, wasn’t. And this is despite the fact that we have documents about the not so bad state of health of this autocrat from the third day of his reign. Many things the Russian ruling class could not forgive Fedor Alekseevich. At least the fact that, unlike his father, for whom, at the end of the reign, the neighbor boyar Artamon Matveyev, and brother Peter, who allowed the "Most Serene Prince" Alexander Menshikov, Fedor, brought up by one of the most brilliant minds of his time, personally preparing reforms. His decrees are the best consolidated sources on economics and politics of the 17th century.
Speaking of scholarship. Fyodor’s decree on the “institution of perfect science in Russia” was put under the cloth after his death. At the end of 1681, the king signed Privilege to the first university in Russia, autonomous from secular and church authorities. During the reign of Fedor Alekseevich, the literacy rate in the country increased three times, and in Moscow - five times. The king personally introduced the linear notes that we use until now. Under him, court poetry flourished, including the genre of the Russian ode, the appearance of which for some reason belongs today to the times of Lomonosov.
Changed and fashion. Shaving beards and wearing a short European dress in the Russian court began precisely in the time of Tsar Fedor. He simply forbade those who were dressed in the old Russian style to enter the Kremlin. So the tales about the groans of the boyars, who, under Peter, supposedly en masse, beard their beards, have no basis.
Enlightenment implied philanthropy. Fedor created for public money the first shelters for the elderly and disabled. And at the same time vocational schools for children of beggars and orphans who were taught new specialties in the country, such as watch making. He tried to reform the judicial system, unload the prisons and limit the previously endless preliminary investigation for a period of one hundred days. The king replaced the punishment with self-mutilation by referring to Siberia and forbade the banning of children.
Under Peter, everything returned to normal, and his elder brother was tried to be deleted from Russian history ...
Throne of wisdom
From the inscription on the parsun (portrait) of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich Romanov, made for his tomb in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin:
"The one whose image and coffin of eyes ... was the throne of wisdom, treasure council, royal and civil foundations of guarding and fortification, debate by decision, the Russian kingdom assertion ... He kindly said that ... peace, silence and every kind of people well-being multiplied ... He, from many years of wars to the Russian kingdom, created the venomous world. From the darkness of Mohammedanism and idolatry, a lot of people did not coerce, but brought Christian Orthodox piety into the light of the Orthodox faith ... He constantly thought about teaching the free wisdom of the Russian people ... Houses of stone for the stay of the needy and the poor were satisfied with such food and made thousands like them. The royal perennial debts of the people forgiven and henceforth tax eased. Brotherly-hated ... distant disputes stopped. Tsar's pretitory renewed his home, city of the Kremlin, and China's city, changed clothes that were unprofitable to the people, made many other honorable things and made decent memory - and prepared everything for everything useful and necessary for the people ... The most pious and gracious king of 6 reigned years , and two months, and days 28.
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