No GNW (or “Peter goes South”)
- Thread starter alexmilman
- Start date
I don’t remember writing anything about such a conflict but do remember writing about the different nomenclature of the French and Russian imports into the Ottoman Empire and some limited mutual interests in Franco-Russian trade.
French main imports into the Ottoman Empire were fabrics (silk and woolen) and some luxury items. Russian - grain, iron, leather, etc.
At least for a while the ports of Southern France are interested in importing grain (there was a temporary problem in the region) and Russia may be interested in French wines, silks and trinkets but a big part of those is going through the Baltic.
In that regard France of that period is of a very limited usefulness to Russia because trade volume between these two, even with the open straits, was quite limited and in OTL the French merchants demonstrated very little interest in its expansion.
OTOH, the close relations with France almost automatically mean the souring relations with the Brits and Dutch who are much more important partners: in OTL Russia had a positive trade balance with Britain and negative with France.
It is already secured. With the Ottomans by the victorious war followed by a reasonable peace treaty and with Austria by a complete absense of any common or contradicting interests (the PLC is “held” by the whole Baltic Mafia making the Hapsburg interference suicidal). In OTL Austrian alliance, unprofitable as it was, had been an attempt to break the international isolation in which Peter put Russia. But here this is not the case.
Not at all. Prussia is a member of the Baltic Mafia but its geography and known interests outside the Mafia-controlled region pretty much doom it to getting involved in the international affairs outside the region. Closer family relations may provide at least some assurance that these affairs will not result in it taking anti-Russian/Swedish position.
Stronger in what? France already has a firmly established reputation of the main European troublemaker, even if for a short while it slightly cooled down. So such a relative can easily become a major liability. The profit is close to zero.
Outside the Ottoman possessions the Mediterranean markets are quite limited. Venetian and Genovese trade is dying and Spain is not too much of a market, especially for Russia (in OTL it was minimal and with a negative balance for Russia). And, unlike the Baltic Mafia, France is not intended to be a regional power concentrating on trade and economy: it is going to get in each and every military conflict in Europe. Which means that the Med will be a theater of a war and it is much safer to be neutral.
But Russia does not have problems with Austria so why would it need the French help?
I concede then . I can see sense in Russia not wanting to antagonize the British, or Dutch that are more valuable as a trade partners .
Regarding Austria, yea with Sweden and Prussia on Russias side i don't see Austria trying anything against status quo in PLC and as stated before Russia is willing to tolerate Austrian expansion towards Ottomans in certain measure , but will intervene if Austria crosses the fine line which would made a conflict loss for Austria. In case of the Ottomans not only are they scared of Russia but in certain measure can be downright friendly as Russia isn't intervening in their affairs in Persia and can even be used as shield against Austria so they probably won't shake that status quo.
So basically only use French marriage would bring is more potential trade in Mediterranean with lot of downsides and Russia more drawn in European affairs at it's own expense. So yea not worth it and Russia can probably go and try to make its own fate luck in med trade while staying neutral.
Life in Moscow
77. Life in Moscow
Being somewhat off the epicenter of Petrian whirlwind of activities Moscow and its inhabitants were enjoying life, …. each according to his or her social status. 😂
On the administrative level there were definitely plenty of activities. While Peter’s order to build exclusively stone/brick houses facing the street was not officially cancelled, practicality took over: it was simply impossible to change a predominantly wooden city into a stone one because majority of its population did not have needed money and there were not enough materiel and specialists. So a mandatory stone construction was limited to the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod (a district adjacent to the Kremlin, the most prestigious trade area).
The rest of the city was left with a formula “кто какое строение похочет” [3] with a freedom to built houses facing a street or placed inside of a yard. However, construction of a new house required permission from the local police (see the 3rd epigraph regarding …er… waiting so here you have a category of people enjoying the life 😉).
Actually, even most of the nobility palaces had some kind of a front yard, if only to accommodate the arriving carriages, so Peter’s order order was lacking a practicality. However, this freedom of action was not absolute: the administration developed a reconstruction plan which was straightening streets and the lanes and regulating their width: the big streets to 21.3 meters, the lanes to 12.8 meters. These straightened streets became a part of the ring-radial Moscow plan. Needless to say that the “ideal” initial plan had been modified more than once to accommodate the existing city estates of the important people. Gradually, the big streets had been paved with a stone, leaving the less important streets and lanes in their initial dirt road condition [4], sometimes with the wooden sidewalks and the rains would be turning many of them into the pools of a clayish mud dangerous even for the carts. On a positive side, the geese and ducks definitely enjoyed (no need to discriminate against the livestock 😉) the resulting pools. But these were the places never visited by the officials above the level of a local constabulary which, understandably, had been using situation for the personal benefit [5] (one more category of those enjoying the situation). The main visible problem was the Neglinnaya River flowing right through the center. It spilled in the area of Okhotny Ryad (pretty much under the Kremlin’s walls) forming along the banks landfills and stink swamps.
Since the only transport was carts and carriages, there was a lot of manure on the streets, and dirt from them went to fertilize the royal gardens, where several wagons were transported annually. At night, as in the Middle Ages, the streets were locked with slingshots, which had watchmen from city ordinary people. In the evening they boarded at ten o'clock, and in the morning they opened an hour before dawn. The watchmen were armed mainly with clubs and sticks, and in case of danger they were beaten in ratchets.
Now, what was Moscow? Funny as it may sound, its official border was defined by a need to prevent unlicensed selling of an alcohol.
Traditionally, there was a system of “otkup”: the merchants (“otkupschiks”) had been buying a license from the state allowing to sell a certain amount of vodka. Wine (that is, vodka, which was called "bread wine") was received by otkupschiks from the treasury, some could have their own production. Kabaki was ordered to be called "drinking houses" and put state coats of arms on them, "as in houses under our protection." Vodka for otkupschiki was prepared by the state chamber from state or private factories, depending on what is more profitable. Of course, they did not want anybody to break their monopoly so, with the permission of Kamer Collegium, they built a rampart around Moscow called, first, “the Company rampart” and then “Kamer Collegium rampart”. This was a purely commercial fortification: a high earth mound on the outside of it there was a moat, on the inside there was a passage where horse guard patrols periodically passed. The construction had 18 guarded openings, by a number of the roads coming to Moscow. Kamer Collegium soon kicked in by started using it for collecting the custom dues (Russia still had plenty of the internal customs).
Needless to say that Peter’s fatherly concerns were not limited to only those above the grounds. During the funerals of “Prince-Caesar” Fyodor Romodanovsky he noticed that procession was impeded by the graves placed on a monastery territory. This caused the decree of April 12, 1722, which ordered "the tombstones at churches and in monasteries to lower level with the ground; to make inscriptions on the stones from above; which stones are inconvenient to place in this way, to use them in a church structure." Unlike his many other decrees, this one was implemented. The next year he issued a decree forbidding the funerals within city limits except for those of the “important people”, which broke the existing tradition of burials near the churches and led to creation of the city-wide cemeteries on city outskirts.
As for those above the ground, Moscow had population of approximately and was an extensive city consisting of several parts. It was so striking that someone [6] called Moscow "the concentration of several worlds." In addition to the stone Kremlin, Kitay-gorod and the White-City (Белый город)
the houses of rich people were stone, to which most of the wooden, small houses covered with bast and straw were adjacent. The Moscow authorities tried to fight the "wooden structure", prescribing to cover the roofs with tiles to protect against fires. Not that this was very productive due to the shortage of the tiles and their high cost.
The sharp difference between the palaces of the nobility and the houses of poor citizens was striking to contemporaries. A visiting Brit wrote: "Pity shacks pile up near palaces, one-storey huts are built next to rich and majestic houses. Many stone buildings have wooden roofs, other wooden houses are painted, others have iron doors and roofs. Countless churches in each of their parts represent a special style of architecture, some domes are covered with copper, others are covered with tin, gilded or painted green. Some quarters of this huge city seem completely wasteland, others are densely populated, some look like poor villages, others look like a rich capital.”
The city had many extensive gardens and reservoirs, which, as in the old days, had baths. Repeatedly described by foreigners in the XVII century, the custom of ordinary citizens to wash in baths and reservoirs, not gender differences, was preserved in Moscow of the XVIII century, which is reflected in the famous engraving by J. Delabart "View of the Silver Baths and the surrounding area" (on the Yauza River). In the middle of the century, there were more than one and a half thousand baths in Moscow but all pf them private. The first public (commercial) baths only started to appear and there were few of them.
One more work on the same subject:
Now, after Peter revoke his decree regarding mandatory military service for the nobility, there was a whole social class enjoying the newly obtained freedom with a great impact upon the external and internal appearance of Moscow, making it the center of the nobility, free from obligations to the state, often critical of the authorities and gladly indulged not only in entertainment, but also in sciences, literature, architecture, projects for the reconstruction of society [7] .
In 1722, out of 155 yards in Kitay-gorod, 26 belonged to nobles, 49 belonged to merchants and burghers, 80 to the commonersg and clergy. In the White City, the picture was as follows: out of 952 yards, 502 belonged to nobles, 82 to merchants and burghers, 368 to the commoners and clergy. In the Earth City («Земляной город»), 1,354 out of 3,225 yards were noble, 841 were merchant and petty bourgeois, 1,030 belonged to the commoners or clergy. Beyond the Earth City of 4,222 yards, 1,196 were owned by nobles, 971 by merchants and burghers, 2055 by commoners and clergy.
In total, out of 85,554 Moscow yards, 3,078 (36%), merchants and burghers belonged to 1943 (23%), commoners and clergy - 3,533 (41%).
Thus, in terms of the number of households, nobles were in second place after the dispensants and clergy. However, if among the commoners and priestly houses there were only 6% stone, then among the noble houses - 25%, which was 755 houses. There were 597 stone houses in the possession of merchants. Therefore, it was the noble mansions that determined the architectural face of the city. In the 1720s, the nobility moved from the congested Kremlin and Kitay-gorod to more peripheral White and Earth cities (Земляной город).
The main area of concentration of noble city estates was the space between Neglinnaya and the Moscow River, which strangely coincided with the territory taken by Ivan the Terrible in oprichnina.
The growing noble population of Moscow included the old aristocratic families like Golitsyns, Dolgorukovs, Sheremetevs, Volkonsky, Naryshkins, Yusupovs, Saltykovs, Cherkasy, Buturlins, the less aristocratic noble families like Rimsky-Korsakovs, Tatishchevs, Sokovnins, Musin-Pushkins, Eropkins, Izmailovs, Bakhmeteva, Golovins, Nashchokin and the new nobles like Demidovs and Stroganovs. Plus there was a big and growing number of the influential “service nobility” (the bureaucrats who got a noble status by raising to a certain level of a service ladder). Sooner or later many of these families got connected by the marriages forming a complicated and powerful web of a mutual protection and influence: even a remote family link had been deeply respected and valued. The Moscow nobility was characterized by a desire for constant communication and openness, but exclusively within the class. Anyone could come to the richest feasts arranged by Count Sheremetev in Kuskovo near Moscow - if only he were a nobleman. However, it could not be otherwise: so the upbringing and way of life of the nobility distinguished this estate from others. But at the same time, there were many criteria for belonging to full members of society. Not every nobleman could be accepted in all houses and enjoy the glory of an honest man. Marriage out of a social class would close the doors. It was difficult to win the favor of society and those for whom any "history" was drawn (cheating in cards, scandalous divorce).
Possessing huge fortunes, Moscow "aces" [8] led an open and hospitable life, hosting several hundred people. Many built huge palaces, built gardens with "wilds", maintained home and manor theaters. Considerable donations also went to charity.
Known for his huge wealth and incredible oddities, the heir of Peter's miners Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov [9] donated more than a million rubles to the needs of the Moscow Orphanage, 10,000 rubles to the building of Moscow University, 20,000 rubles to scholarships to poor students, 100,000 rubles to folk schools. In 1725, he opened the Demidov Commercial School at the Orhpanage, which existed at a percentage of its capital, the first educational institution in Russia in the field of commercial education. Demidov created a Botanical Garden in Moscow, arranged gardens behind Pokrovka and near the Donskoy Monastery (later part of the Neskuchny Garden).
Demidov's eccentricity was manifested even in what his departure looked like. Like other nobles, Demidov drove out in a carriage drawn by six horses. At the same time, the two front and two rear horses were small, and the middle pair was disproportionately large. The foreitor of a big horse was a dwarf, while foreitor of a small was a giant, and his legs were dragging on the ground. The footmen were dressed in strange liveries - one half was embroidered with golden galoons, the other was made of sermaga; one leg was wearing a lacquered shoe, on the other - a “lapot” (peasant’s footwear made of a bark).
Back in the second half of the XVII century, palace manufactories, paper mills and glass factories began to appear in the vicinity of Moscow. During the formation of a system of industry under Peter the Great, which worked for military needs, Moscow suffered the creation of light industry enterprises, primarily textile and manufactory.
The first manufactory that emerged in Moscow under Peter I was the new Khamovny Dvor, built in 1696-1697 on the bank of Yauza, in the village of Preobrazhensky. For the first time, water energy was used there to push the hemp, for which a large dam was erected on Yauza. This enterprise developed rapidly. If in 1700 there were 10 mills in Khamovny Dvor, in 1710 there were already 180 of them. The number of workers also grew: in 1710 - 400 people, and in 1719 - 1,362 people. By that year, the number of mills had increased to 383, and the production of different canvases amounted to about 180-190 thousand arshins. Almost at the same time, a rope factory was founded near the Danilov Monastery. It was significantly smaller than the Khamovny court. At different times, 35-40 people worked at the cable car factory. In 1712, a second rope factory was founded at Khamovny Dvor. Thanks to the efforts of these small enterprises, the Russian fleet was fully provided with ropes, the quality of which was recognized as high in Western Europe. The products of these plants were exported in significant quantities. Among other state manufactories of the Peter's era were the Leather Yard on Yauza (1701), Hat Yard (1701), Big Cloth Yard near the All Saints Stone Bridge (1704-1705), Button Yard. In the 1710s, a number of Moscow state-owned enterprises were leased to individuals (by the end of the reign of Peter I, most of the manufactories and factories in Moscow were in private hands). From 1714 to 1725, 21 enterprises were founded by Moscow nobles and merchants. Not sure if their workers enjoyed their lives too much.
In 1720s Moscow gubernia amounted to more than 40% of the internal trade in Russia so the Moscow merchants and manufacturers definitely had reasons for enjoying the situation.
Now, the bureaucracy in and outside Moscow definitely enjoyed it because the ever-growing aspects of life had been sucked under its umbrella. The bribe as a “gratitude for the services expected or rendered” was an old Russian tradition going centuries back. The officials were expected to live on such donations simply because the state did not have money to pay them the descent salaries. Stealing from the state was a crime and extortion of the bribes, especially using force, also could be prosecuted. So, in general, a bribe was not considered as something shameful by a society, which pretty much doomed the official attempts to fight them. And how could such a fight be successful if both civilian and military administration were routinely underfunded? Yes, the foreign trade was picking up but a miracle was not going to happen overnight and the salaries still were a problem. Squeezing the tax-paying classes even more was not necessarily a good idea. Even implementation of Munnich’s proposal to stop paying the foreign mercenaries salaries three times higher than to their Russian counterparts was not enough to change situation dramatically. Of course, all this was happening within a framework of the increasing bureaucratic machine, which was consuming the growing amounts of money. So the “government” had to wait while trying to increase the revenues by increasing the exports and internal trade, keeping expenses under control avoiding the expensive wars and hoping that the state income is growing faster than the funds consumed by a bureaucratic swamp.
The court news (for those interested in the royal lines, marriages, etc. 😜)
______________
[1] Such important people live and die in Moscow!
[2] Depending on how you pronounce it, this may mean “you have to wait” («надо ждать») or you have to give [a bribe] («надо ж дать») 😂
[3] Build whatever you want
[4] Peter’s ukaz ordering every home owner to pave a street in from of his house died from the natural causes.
[5] Ukaz about the paving was dead but still in existence. For a house owner a final destination of a fine did not make a difference except that one going into an individual pocket was smaller than officially prescribed.
[6] In OTL this was Catherine II.
[7] Usually, along the lines of “how to improve things without making any changes”. Most of these people had plenty of free time (few of them were ready to waste it on making management of their estates more efficient) and not all of them managed to spend all of it on eating, drinking, carts, womanizing and hunting so “reconstruction of society” was a conversation topic as good as discussing the merits of a favorite wolfhound of a racing horse.
[8] “Ace” («туз»), as in the cards, was a definition of a VIP (socially or financially).
[9] Actually, he belonged to CII times but do you really care? 😜
«что за тузы в Москве живут и умирают!» [1]
Грибоедов
“You and me are the only two people in Russia who don’t take the bribes”
Nicholas I to Cesarevich Alexander
«Надо ждать» [2]
Unknown official
Грибоедов
“You and me are the only two people in Russia who don’t take the bribes”
Nicholas I to Cesarevich Alexander
«Надо ждать» [2]
Unknown official
Being somewhat off the epicenter of Petrian whirlwind of activities Moscow and its inhabitants were enjoying life, …. each according to his or her social status. 😂
On the administrative level there were definitely plenty of activities. While Peter’s order to build exclusively stone/brick houses facing the street was not officially cancelled, practicality took over: it was simply impossible to change a predominantly wooden city into a stone one because majority of its population did not have needed money and there were not enough materiel and specialists. So a mandatory stone construction was limited to the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod (a district adjacent to the Kremlin, the most prestigious trade area).
The rest of the city was left with a formula “кто какое строение похочет” [3] with a freedom to built houses facing a street or placed inside of a yard. However, construction of a new house required permission from the local police (see the 3rd epigraph regarding …er… waiting so here you have a category of people enjoying the life 😉).
Actually, even most of the nobility palaces had some kind of a front yard, if only to accommodate the arriving carriages, so Peter’s order order was lacking a practicality. However, this freedom of action was not absolute: the administration developed a reconstruction plan which was straightening streets and the lanes and regulating their width: the big streets to 21.3 meters, the lanes to 12.8 meters. These straightened streets became a part of the ring-radial Moscow plan. Needless to say that the “ideal” initial plan had been modified more than once to accommodate the existing city estates of the important people. Gradually, the big streets had been paved with a stone, leaving the less important streets and lanes in their initial dirt road condition [4], sometimes with the wooden sidewalks and the rains would be turning many of them into the pools of a clayish mud dangerous even for the carts. On a positive side, the geese and ducks definitely enjoyed (no need to discriminate against the livestock 😉) the resulting pools. But these were the places never visited by the officials above the level of a local constabulary which, understandably, had been using situation for the personal benefit [5] (one more category of those enjoying the situation). The main visible problem was the Neglinnaya River flowing right through the center. It spilled in the area of Okhotny Ryad (pretty much under the Kremlin’s walls) forming along the banks landfills and stink swamps.
Since the only transport was carts and carriages, there was a lot of manure on the streets, and dirt from them went to fertilize the royal gardens, where several wagons were transported annually. At night, as in the Middle Ages, the streets were locked with slingshots, which had watchmen from city ordinary people. In the evening they boarded at ten o'clock, and in the morning they opened an hour before dawn. The watchmen were armed mainly with clubs and sticks, and in case of danger they were beaten in ratchets.
Now, what was Moscow? Funny as it may sound, its official border was defined by a need to prevent unlicensed selling of an alcohol.
Traditionally, there was a system of “otkup”: the merchants (“otkupschiks”) had been buying a license from the state allowing to sell a certain amount of vodka. Wine (that is, vodka, which was called "bread wine") was received by otkupschiks from the treasury, some could have their own production. Kabaki was ordered to be called "drinking houses" and put state coats of arms on them, "as in houses under our protection." Vodka for otkupschiki was prepared by the state chamber from state or private factories, depending on what is more profitable. Of course, they did not want anybody to break their monopoly so, with the permission of Kamer Collegium, they built a rampart around Moscow called, first, “the Company rampart” and then “Kamer Collegium rampart”. This was a purely commercial fortification: a high earth mound on the outside of it there was a moat, on the inside there was a passage where horse guard patrols periodically passed. The construction had 18 guarded openings, by a number of the roads coming to Moscow. Kamer Collegium soon kicked in by started using it for collecting the custom dues (Russia still had plenty of the internal customs).
Needless to say that Peter’s fatherly concerns were not limited to only those above the grounds. During the funerals of “Prince-Caesar” Fyodor Romodanovsky he noticed that procession was impeded by the graves placed on a monastery territory. This caused the decree of April 12, 1722, which ordered "the tombstones at churches and in monasteries to lower level with the ground; to make inscriptions on the stones from above; which stones are inconvenient to place in this way, to use them in a church structure." Unlike his many other decrees, this one was implemented. The next year he issued a decree forbidding the funerals within city limits except for those of the “important people”, which broke the existing tradition of burials near the churches and led to creation of the city-wide cemeteries on city outskirts.
As for those above the ground, Moscow had population of approximately and was an extensive city consisting of several parts. It was so striking that someone [6] called Moscow "the concentration of several worlds." In addition to the stone Kremlin, Kitay-gorod and the White-City (Белый город)
the houses of rich people were stone, to which most of the wooden, small houses covered with bast and straw were adjacent. The Moscow authorities tried to fight the "wooden structure", prescribing to cover the roofs with tiles to protect against fires. Not that this was very productive due to the shortage of the tiles and their high cost.
The sharp difference between the palaces of the nobility and the houses of poor citizens was striking to contemporaries. A visiting Brit wrote: "Pity shacks pile up near palaces, one-storey huts are built next to rich and majestic houses. Many stone buildings have wooden roofs, other wooden houses are painted, others have iron doors and roofs. Countless churches in each of their parts represent a special style of architecture, some domes are covered with copper, others are covered with tin, gilded or painted green. Some quarters of this huge city seem completely wasteland, others are densely populated, some look like poor villages, others look like a rich capital.”
The city had many extensive gardens and reservoirs, which, as in the old days, had baths. Repeatedly described by foreigners in the XVII century, the custom of ordinary citizens to wash in baths and reservoirs, not gender differences, was preserved in Moscow of the XVIII century, which is reflected in the famous engraving by J. Delabart "View of the Silver Baths and the surrounding area" (on the Yauza River). In the middle of the century, there were more than one and a half thousand baths in Moscow but all pf them private. The first public (commercial) baths only started to appear and there were few of them.
One more work on the same subject:
Now, after Peter revoke his decree regarding mandatory military service for the nobility, there was a whole social class enjoying the newly obtained freedom with a great impact upon the external and internal appearance of Moscow, making it the center of the nobility, free from obligations to the state, often critical of the authorities and gladly indulged not only in entertainment, but also in sciences, literature, architecture, projects for the reconstruction of society [7] .
In 1722, out of 155 yards in Kitay-gorod, 26 belonged to nobles, 49 belonged to merchants and burghers, 80 to the commonersg and clergy. In the White City, the picture was as follows: out of 952 yards, 502 belonged to nobles, 82 to merchants and burghers, 368 to the commoners and clergy. In the Earth City («Земляной город»), 1,354 out of 3,225 yards were noble, 841 were merchant and petty bourgeois, 1,030 belonged to the commoners or clergy. Beyond the Earth City of 4,222 yards, 1,196 were owned by nobles, 971 by merchants and burghers, 2055 by commoners and clergy.
In total, out of 85,554 Moscow yards, 3,078 (36%), merchants and burghers belonged to 1943 (23%), commoners and clergy - 3,533 (41%).
Thus, in terms of the number of households, nobles were in second place after the dispensants and clergy. However, if among the commoners and priestly houses there were only 6% stone, then among the noble houses - 25%, which was 755 houses. There were 597 stone houses in the possession of merchants. Therefore, it was the noble mansions that determined the architectural face of the city. In the 1720s, the nobility moved from the congested Kremlin and Kitay-gorod to more peripheral White and Earth cities (Земляной город).
The main area of concentration of noble city estates was the space between Neglinnaya and the Moscow River, which strangely coincided with the territory taken by Ivan the Terrible in oprichnina.
The growing noble population of Moscow included the old aristocratic families like Golitsyns, Dolgorukovs, Sheremetevs, Volkonsky, Naryshkins, Yusupovs, Saltykovs, Cherkasy, Buturlins, the less aristocratic noble families like Rimsky-Korsakovs, Tatishchevs, Sokovnins, Musin-Pushkins, Eropkins, Izmailovs, Bakhmeteva, Golovins, Nashchokin and the new nobles like Demidovs and Stroganovs. Plus there was a big and growing number of the influential “service nobility” (the bureaucrats who got a noble status by raising to a certain level of a service ladder). Sooner or later many of these families got connected by the marriages forming a complicated and powerful web of a mutual protection and influence: even a remote family link had been deeply respected and valued. The Moscow nobility was characterized by a desire for constant communication and openness, but exclusively within the class. Anyone could come to the richest feasts arranged by Count Sheremetev in Kuskovo near Moscow - if only he were a nobleman. However, it could not be otherwise: so the upbringing and way of life of the nobility distinguished this estate from others. But at the same time, there were many criteria for belonging to full members of society. Not every nobleman could be accepted in all houses and enjoy the glory of an honest man. Marriage out of a social class would close the doors. It was difficult to win the favor of society and those for whom any "history" was drawn (cheating in cards, scandalous divorce).
Possessing huge fortunes, Moscow "aces" [8] led an open and hospitable life, hosting several hundred people. Many built huge palaces, built gardens with "wilds", maintained home and manor theaters. Considerable donations also went to charity.
Known for his huge wealth and incredible oddities, the heir of Peter's miners Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov [9] donated more than a million rubles to the needs of the Moscow Orphanage, 10,000 rubles to the building of Moscow University, 20,000 rubles to scholarships to poor students, 100,000 rubles to folk schools. In 1725, he opened the Demidov Commercial School at the Orhpanage, which existed at a percentage of its capital, the first educational institution in Russia in the field of commercial education. Demidov created a Botanical Garden in Moscow, arranged gardens behind Pokrovka and near the Donskoy Monastery (later part of the Neskuchny Garden).
Demidov's eccentricity was manifested even in what his departure looked like. Like other nobles, Demidov drove out in a carriage drawn by six horses. At the same time, the two front and two rear horses were small, and the middle pair was disproportionately large. The foreitor of a big horse was a dwarf, while foreitor of a small was a giant, and his legs were dragging on the ground. The footmen were dressed in strange liveries - one half was embroidered with golden galoons, the other was made of sermaga; one leg was wearing a lacquered shoe, on the other - a “lapot” (peasant’s footwear made of a bark).
Back in the second half of the XVII century, palace manufactories, paper mills and glass factories began to appear in the vicinity of Moscow. During the formation of a system of industry under Peter the Great, which worked for military needs, Moscow suffered the creation of light industry enterprises, primarily textile and manufactory.
The first manufactory that emerged in Moscow under Peter I was the new Khamovny Dvor, built in 1696-1697 on the bank of Yauza, in the village of Preobrazhensky. For the first time, water energy was used there to push the hemp, for which a large dam was erected on Yauza. This enterprise developed rapidly. If in 1700 there were 10 mills in Khamovny Dvor, in 1710 there were already 180 of them. The number of workers also grew: in 1710 - 400 people, and in 1719 - 1,362 people. By that year, the number of mills had increased to 383, and the production of different canvases amounted to about 180-190 thousand arshins. Almost at the same time, a rope factory was founded near the Danilov Monastery. It was significantly smaller than the Khamovny court. At different times, 35-40 people worked at the cable car factory. In 1712, a second rope factory was founded at Khamovny Dvor. Thanks to the efforts of these small enterprises, the Russian fleet was fully provided with ropes, the quality of which was recognized as high in Western Europe. The products of these plants were exported in significant quantities. Among other state manufactories of the Peter's era were the Leather Yard on Yauza (1701), Hat Yard (1701), Big Cloth Yard near the All Saints Stone Bridge (1704-1705), Button Yard. In the 1710s, a number of Moscow state-owned enterprises were leased to individuals (by the end of the reign of Peter I, most of the manufactories and factories in Moscow were in private hands). From 1714 to 1725, 21 enterprises were founded by Moscow nobles and merchants. Not sure if their workers enjoyed their lives too much.
In 1720s Moscow gubernia amounted to more than 40% of the internal trade in Russia so the Moscow merchants and manufacturers definitely had reasons for enjoying the situation.
Now, the bureaucracy in and outside Moscow definitely enjoyed it because the ever-growing aspects of life had been sucked under its umbrella. The bribe as a “gratitude for the services expected or rendered” was an old Russian tradition going centuries back. The officials were expected to live on such donations simply because the state did not have money to pay them the descent salaries. Stealing from the state was a crime and extortion of the bribes, especially using force, also could be prosecuted. So, in general, a bribe was not considered as something shameful by a society, which pretty much doomed the official attempts to fight them. And how could such a fight be successful if both civilian and military administration were routinely underfunded? Yes, the foreign trade was picking up but a miracle was not going to happen overnight and the salaries still were a problem. Squeezing the tax-paying classes even more was not necessarily a good idea. Even implementation of Munnich’s proposal to stop paying the foreign mercenaries salaries three times higher than to their Russian counterparts was not enough to change situation dramatically. Of course, all this was happening within a framework of the increasing bureaucratic machine, which was consuming the growing amounts of money. So the “government” had to wait while trying to increase the revenues by increasing the exports and internal trade, keeping expenses under control avoiding the expensive wars and hoping that the state income is growing faster than the funds consumed by a bureaucratic swamp.
The court news (for those interested in the royal lines, marriages, etc. 😜)
- After giving a birth to a healthy daughter named Elizabeth, Empress Maria had to more babies, each of whom died within a month.
- Alexey and Elena did not have more children leaving, so far, a single male succession line.
- Charles XII got a heir named Frederick
- Peter started considering matrimonial plans regarding his grandchildren.
- There were rumors regarding Peter paying too much of an attention to one of his wife’s ladies in waiting, Maria Rumyantseva.
______________
[1] Such important people live and die in Moscow!
[2] Depending on how you pronounce it, this may mean “you have to wait” («надо ждать») or you have to give [a bribe] («надо ж дать») 😂
[3] Build whatever you want
[4] Peter’s ukaz ordering every home owner to pave a street in from of his house died from the natural causes.
[5] Ukaz about the paving was dead but still in existence. For a house owner a final destination of a fine did not make a difference except that one going into an individual pocket was smaller than officially prescribed.
[6] In OTL this was Catherine II.
[7] Usually, along the lines of “how to improve things without making any changes”. Most of these people had plenty of free time (few of them were ready to waste it on making management of their estates more efficient) and not all of them managed to spend all of it on eating, drinking, carts, womanizing and hunting so “reconstruction of society” was a conversation topic as good as discussing the merits of a favorite wolfhound of a racing horse.
[8] “Ace” («туз»), as in the cards, was a definition of a VIP (socially or financially).
[9] Actually, he belonged to CII times but do you really care? 😜
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Yes, in OTL when Peter get overly active on the Caucasus trying to get to Georgia (Persian, but the Ottomans wanted to get it using the favorable situation), the Grand Vizier told the Russian representative in Constantinople that Peter was at war for his whole reign and now, instead of giving his country some rest, is trying to expand into the lands wanted by his friends (the Ottomans) so how one can maintain a peace with him?
Needless to say that the territories which he did get from Persia proved to be extremely costly to held because the soldiers had been dying en mass due to the bad climate. To think about it, the whole Russian conquest of the Caucasus (Baku oil was not a motivation by the obvious reasons) was extremely expensive with a very little return on investment except, perhaps, for the fact that after the genocide of the Circassians the free area South from the Kuban was populated by the Cossacks. Rather terrible price. Pretty much the same goes for the conquest of Chechya and Dagestan: huge losses on both sides for what? The whole thing was formally triggered by an attempt to help the fellow Orthodox people in Georgia (where by that time a big part of nobility converted into Islam) but Georgia was/is on a wrong side of the Caucasus so to provide communications Russia “had” to subdue the predominantly Muslim people hanging in between. What was a practical benefit of getting Georgia is absolutely beyond me except that it provided a base fir the further military operations against the Ottomans and Persia. Kind of a crappy justification even taking into an account the trade agreements (which could be probably made without these conquests).
Yes, exactly. Within framework of the XVIII century Austria, Britain and France fit into the category “God save me from the friends and I’ll deal with the enemies on my own”. 😜
Life in Moscow (cont)
78. Life in Moscow (cont.)
The cards
Peter the Great never played cards himself and was intolerant to the card game at his court. But there is reason to assume that card players were already acting at that time. Thus, according to Peter's charter, it was not allowed in the army and navy to lose more than one ruble in cards. Peter, however, liked to play chess with his cross priest Khrisanorov.
But, with Peter being safely away from Moscow for most of the year, the card games became popular in a “society” and even crept their way into the Young Court. Of course, the measures had been taken to prevent Peter’s wrath by introducing the official restrictions. Charter of the Descent Behavior (April 8, 1722) prohibited playing cards or other than games based on lucky chance or involving big amounts of money and directed the administration to make sure “that no one can: 1) have his house or a hired one to be open day or night to the players and used for the forbidden games ; 2) getting together for playing a forbidden game; 3) live exclusively off the forbidden games; 4) merchants or craftsmen or brokers to be, or to be here at a forbidden game, or in that game to write down, or to keep an account, or to notice what, or to contribute to the game, or to carry with you, or to send, or to borrow, or to promise, or otherwise directly, or by the party to deliver for that game gold or silver, in a coin or in business, or by appropriations, or copper money, or precious stones…, or things, or other goods of any type, or bill; 5) in the game to use theft is fraud.” [2] Specific names of the forbidden games were not identified based upon an assumption that any type of a game can be turned into the high staked gambling.
Even before this decree in 1721, by a decree of October 13, it was forbidden to pay debts on the card game and ordered to refuse to pay money to lenders, if they were knowingly given it for the game. This decree stated that "fathers and mothers of children who are not separated from a family don”t have to pay card debts for them" and "given from these last promissory notes and mortgages are not valid".
Of course, all these regulations were in vain. For example, Prince Sapeha lost all his estate gambling. One very rich aristocrat had been intentionally losing to his partners if he knew that they are poor: just offering money would be humiliating but gain in the cards was OK.
While the aristocrats remained pretty much above the law, a small fish could get itself on a wrong side of a law: “Collegiate assessors Ievlev and Malimonov, second-major Rostein, second lieutenant Volzhin and secretary Popov for an dishonest game to exile to the district cities of the Vologda and Vyatka provinces under the supervision of city administrators and also putting their names in public statements, so that everybody will beware of them”. Moreover, from Volzhin it was confiscated promissory notes, pawnshop tickets and mortgages for 159,000 rubles, and in addition, a lot of gold and diamonds. The confiscated wealth was transferred to a Charities Department of the Moscow administration. The “gambling academics” had been daily escorted to the head of the Moscow police but the new had been appearing on at least the same rate.
“A gambling was going on in every noble house at night, and then the state pawnshop was more and more filled with the mortgage of peasant souls. This institution of cheap and long-term loan did not serve the nobility at first. Twenty million given to landlords led to even greater development of luxury and ruin of the nobility. The transitions from luxury to ruin were quick and sudden.” [3]
On the very top level, the card game was quite often used as a political and diplomatic tool with an intention to impress the foreign dignitaries. Alexey was not, in general, too fond of the cards but from time to time played them with the foreign diplomats. For one of such games “there was a box of diamonds on each of the tables prepared for playing macao, and each nine will be paid for with a one carat stone…. After an hour and a half of the game, the guests shared the remaining diamonds. Diplomats were especially amazed by the game of gold and gems - les soupes aux pois”.
The theater and other entertainments
The Mecklenburg envoy, Weber, who was in Moscow during Peter's time, left a description of the theater of the king's beloved sister, Grand Duchess Natalia. Her theater was placed in a huge empty house, where the stalls and lodges were arranged; everyone was free to visit this theater. There were tragedies and comedies, the plots of which were borrowed from the Bible or from ordinary everyday adventures. The troupe consisted of ten Russian actors and actresses of the most ordinary quality. About the performances, he says that the role of Harlequin was entrusted to one chief official, and he interfered with his jokes here and there in the continuation of the whole action; then the speaker came out and told the course and content of the play, and finally followed the play itself, which depicted the failure of the uprisings and the always unfortunate end of them In this play, as contemporaries explained to Weber, one of the last Sagittarius indignations was brought to the stage. Performances at the People's Theater on Red Square were given on Mondays and Thursdays, these days the gates in the Kremlin, Kitay-gorod and the White City were not locked until nine o'clock in the evening, and travel fees were not taken from both Russians and foreign people passing by, "to watch that spectacles go willingly."
A whole troupe of craftsmen dancing on a rope, jumping, breaking and representing "pantomim" also arrived. There was a visiting Italian Joseph Julian Schweitzer with a number of large and small dogs accustomed to various amazing actions. For watching, he took first a ruble from a person, and then half, and from ordinary people - 10 kopecks per person.
Moscow also watched the African bird “strus” or ostrich; it was announced that this bird is larger than all birds in the world and extremely soon runs, spreading its wings, and has special power in its claws, which can grab a stone on the run and hit it as hard as if it were shot with a gun; this bird eats steel, iron, all sort Each of the nobles can pay for watching it according to his own permission, and there will be 25 kopecks from the merchants. The price will be announced to ordinary people at the very entrance.
The first circus was opened by the English bereitor Bates, notifying the public with the following poster: "By the highest permission, the glorious English bereitor Bates, who has reached his current perfection in bereiting through long-term science, so that no one has seen it anywhere else in England or anywhere else, will show viewers the following art: 1) he rides two horses on an open field a few pals around. 2) Simultaneously rides three horses in full speed switching from one to the other in an amazing way. 3) Rides three horses; letting two of them go, and jumps on the third, without preventing the horses from running. 4) Riding one horse to jump, jumps with it and jumps up again with amazing agility and jumps over it. He (Bates) asks that the audience not bring any dogs, so that they would not disturb the performance. One ruble will be charged from each person."
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Italian Locatelli gave public masquerades and balls; the price for entering them was very high: he took 3 rubles for the entrance from a person. This Locatelli was the first to introduce Russians to Italian opera - his opera buff, according to contemporaries, was delighting both court and society; his opera was then attended by the best artists invited by him from Italy and Germany; the singers were then called operaists and operaists; Locatelli also employed tze dancers and musicians. Its premiere was the famous Manfredini castrate. His theater stood at the Red Gate, it was called the Opera House. Here is one of his advertisements: “For the pleasure of the nobles and other local capital city residents, the free masquerades will begin here next Sunday. Those who want to come to these masquerades have to pay three rubles from each person for the entrance Who wants to have dinner, as well as coffee, tea and drinks, they will receive in the same house for a special fee. Masquerades will begin with a concert until so many masks gather that the ball can be conceived; and from now on, the congress in the masquerade has every Sunday at 7 o'clock in the afternoon, and without a masquerade dress no one will be allowed in. Those who want to buy tickets and masks of all kinds can purchase them in the same house from 8 a.m. till the end of the event.”
For the commoners, there were the skating mountains, merry-go-rounds, swings, etc. Such ski mountains and other ventures were arranged in Moscow at the Pokrovsky Palace. All these pleasures were arranged in the squares to entertain the people throughout Shrovetide, and everyone could "go there, watch different games, dances, puppet comedies, focus-pocus and different body movements and skating from the mountains all week, from morning to night, in a mask or without a mask, who would like any title of people"
_____________
[1] A lot of specific card terms, which I don’t know but, basically “They had been often getting together when the weather was bad and played cards winning and losing big sums of money (more than they had with them so the amounts had been written down on a table by chalk). This was their occupation when the weather was bad.”
[2] Decree of Catherine II.
[3] Pyliaev “Card games in old times”
«А в ненастные дни
Собирались они Часто.
Гнули, Бог их прости!
От пятидесяти
На сто.
И выигрывали
И отписывали
Мелом.
Так в ненастные дни
Занимались они
Делом.» [1]
Pushkin
Собирались они Часто.
Гнули, Бог их прости!
От пятидесяти
На сто.
И выигрывали
И отписывали
Мелом.
Так в ненастные дни
Занимались они
Делом.» [1]
Pushkin
The cards
Peter the Great never played cards himself and was intolerant to the card game at his court. But there is reason to assume that card players were already acting at that time. Thus, according to Peter's charter, it was not allowed in the army and navy to lose more than one ruble in cards. Peter, however, liked to play chess with his cross priest Khrisanorov.
But, with Peter being safely away from Moscow for most of the year, the card games became popular in a “society” and even crept their way into the Young Court. Of course, the measures had been taken to prevent Peter’s wrath by introducing the official restrictions. Charter of the Descent Behavior (April 8, 1722) prohibited playing cards or other than games based on lucky chance or involving big amounts of money and directed the administration to make sure “that no one can: 1) have his house or a hired one to be open day or night to the players and used for the forbidden games ; 2) getting together for playing a forbidden game; 3) live exclusively off the forbidden games; 4) merchants or craftsmen or brokers to be, or to be here at a forbidden game, or in that game to write down, or to keep an account, or to notice what, or to contribute to the game, or to carry with you, or to send, or to borrow, or to promise, or otherwise directly, or by the party to deliver for that game gold or silver, in a coin or in business, or by appropriations, or copper money, or precious stones…, or things, or other goods of any type, or bill; 5) in the game to use theft is fraud.” [2] Specific names of the forbidden games were not identified based upon an assumption that any type of a game can be turned into the high staked gambling.
Even before this decree in 1721, by a decree of October 13, it was forbidden to pay debts on the card game and ordered to refuse to pay money to lenders, if they were knowingly given it for the game. This decree stated that "fathers and mothers of children who are not separated from a family don”t have to pay card debts for them" and "given from these last promissory notes and mortgages are not valid".
Of course, all these regulations were in vain. For example, Prince Sapeha lost all his estate gambling. One very rich aristocrat had been intentionally losing to his partners if he knew that they are poor: just offering money would be humiliating but gain in the cards was OK.
While the aristocrats remained pretty much above the law, a small fish could get itself on a wrong side of a law: “Collegiate assessors Ievlev and Malimonov, second-major Rostein, second lieutenant Volzhin and secretary Popov for an dishonest game to exile to the district cities of the Vologda and Vyatka provinces under the supervision of city administrators and also putting their names in public statements, so that everybody will beware of them”. Moreover, from Volzhin it was confiscated promissory notes, pawnshop tickets and mortgages for 159,000 rubles, and in addition, a lot of gold and diamonds. The confiscated wealth was transferred to a Charities Department of the Moscow administration. The “gambling academics” had been daily escorted to the head of the Moscow police but the new had been appearing on at least the same rate.
“A gambling was going on in every noble house at night, and then the state pawnshop was more and more filled with the mortgage of peasant souls. This institution of cheap and long-term loan did not serve the nobility at first. Twenty million given to landlords led to even greater development of luxury and ruin of the nobility. The transitions from luxury to ruin were quick and sudden.” [3]
On the very top level, the card game was quite often used as a political and diplomatic tool with an intention to impress the foreign dignitaries. Alexey was not, in general, too fond of the cards but from time to time played them with the foreign diplomats. For one of such games “there was a box of diamonds on each of the tables prepared for playing macao, and each nine will be paid for with a one carat stone…. After an hour and a half of the game, the guests shared the remaining diamonds. Diplomats were especially amazed by the game of gold and gems - les soupes aux pois”.
The theater and other entertainments
The Mecklenburg envoy, Weber, who was in Moscow during Peter's time, left a description of the theater of the king's beloved sister, Grand Duchess Natalia. Her theater was placed in a huge empty house, where the stalls and lodges were arranged; everyone was free to visit this theater. There were tragedies and comedies, the plots of which were borrowed from the Bible or from ordinary everyday adventures. The troupe consisted of ten Russian actors and actresses of the most ordinary quality. About the performances, he says that the role of Harlequin was entrusted to one chief official, and he interfered with his jokes here and there in the continuation of the whole action; then the speaker came out and told the course and content of the play, and finally followed the play itself, which depicted the failure of the uprisings and the always unfortunate end of them In this play, as contemporaries explained to Weber, one of the last Sagittarius indignations was brought to the stage. Performances at the People's Theater on Red Square were given on Mondays and Thursdays, these days the gates in the Kremlin, Kitay-gorod and the White City were not locked until nine o'clock in the evening, and travel fees were not taken from both Russians and foreign people passing by, "to watch that spectacles go willingly."
A whole troupe of craftsmen dancing on a rope, jumping, breaking and representing "pantomim" also arrived. There was a visiting Italian Joseph Julian Schweitzer with a number of large and small dogs accustomed to various amazing actions. For watching, he took first a ruble from a person, and then half, and from ordinary people - 10 kopecks per person.
Moscow also watched the African bird “strus” or ostrich; it was announced that this bird is larger than all birds in the world and extremely soon runs, spreading its wings, and has special power in its claws, which can grab a stone on the run and hit it as hard as if it were shot with a gun; this bird eats steel, iron, all sort Each of the nobles can pay for watching it according to his own permission, and there will be 25 kopecks from the merchants. The price will be announced to ordinary people at the very entrance.
The first circus was opened by the English bereitor Bates, notifying the public with the following poster: "By the highest permission, the glorious English bereitor Bates, who has reached his current perfection in bereiting through long-term science, so that no one has seen it anywhere else in England or anywhere else, will show viewers the following art: 1) he rides two horses on an open field a few pals around. 2) Simultaneously rides three horses in full speed switching from one to the other in an amazing way. 3) Rides three horses; letting two of them go, and jumps on the third, without preventing the horses from running. 4) Riding one horse to jump, jumps with it and jumps up again with amazing agility and jumps over it. He (Bates) asks that the audience not bring any dogs, so that they would not disturb the performance. One ruble will be charged from each person."
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Italian Locatelli gave public masquerades and balls; the price for entering them was very high: he took 3 rubles for the entrance from a person. This Locatelli was the first to introduce Russians to Italian opera - his opera buff, according to contemporaries, was delighting both court and society; his opera was then attended by the best artists invited by him from Italy and Germany; the singers were then called operaists and operaists; Locatelli also employed tze dancers and musicians. Its premiere was the famous Manfredini castrate. His theater stood at the Red Gate, it was called the Opera House. Here is one of his advertisements: “For the pleasure of the nobles and other local capital city residents, the free masquerades will begin here next Sunday. Those who want to come to these masquerades have to pay three rubles from each person for the entrance Who wants to have dinner, as well as coffee, tea and drinks, they will receive in the same house for a special fee. Masquerades will begin with a concert until so many masks gather that the ball can be conceived; and from now on, the congress in the masquerade has every Sunday at 7 o'clock in the afternoon, and without a masquerade dress no one will be allowed in. Those who want to buy tickets and masks of all kinds can purchase them in the same house from 8 a.m. till the end of the event.”
For the commoners, there were the skating mountains, merry-go-rounds, swings, etc. Such ski mountains and other ventures were arranged in Moscow at the Pokrovsky Palace. All these pleasures were arranged in the squares to entertain the people throughout Shrovetide, and everyone could "go there, watch different games, dances, puppet comedies, focus-pocus and different body movements and skating from the mountains all week, from morning to night, in a mask or without a mask, who would like any title of people"
_____________
[1] A lot of specific card terms, which I don’t know but, basically “They had been often getting together when the weather was bad and played cards winning and losing big sums of money (more than they had with them so the amounts had been written down on a table by chalk). This was their occupation when the weather was bad.”
[2] Decree of Catherine II.
[3] Pyliaev “Card games in old times”
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Back to Asia
79. Back to Asia
Below is Dzungar Khanate (in green) on the Russian map composed in 1720-25.
The уears 1705-20 saw “war and peace” situation on what passed for the Russian-Dzungar border. Conflicts had been caused mostly by the Russian expeditions into what the Dzungars considered as their own territory but for time to time the Dzungars were going on the offensive as well. While initially for the Russian side these were shoe-string operations badly organized (by Prince Gagarin), like Buchholz's expedition, with no adequate logistics, no locally produced military supplies and inadequate numbers: due to the shortage of the locally available troops, the reinforcements had to march all the way from European Russia.
However, by 1720 situation changed quite dramatically. To start with, Russian population of Siberia grew noticeably. Then a local manufacturing base had been created and the plants in Tobolsk, Kuznetsk and other cities had been able to produce the gunpowder and firearms, including the artillery. The same goes for a permanent military presence: after the war with the Ottomans and BFW had been over, Russian “Western flank” was seemingly secure allowing transfer of a noticeable amount of troops to the East of the Ural. Some of them had been used to garrison the fortified line protecting the Junior Zhuz and some marched further all the way to the region of Baikal Lake. Construction of a reasonably good (by the Russian standards) Siberian tract and general expansion into the region allowed support of a growing number of the regular troops. These troops had been augmented by the local Cossacks, both those coming from Russia and by the native tribes which had been given a Cossack status [1].
On the other side of the equation situation had been changing as well. Since 1716 Khong Tayiji Tsewang Rabtan started a war with China for the Khalkha steppes lost at the end of the XVII century. In 1717-1720, the Oirats occupied and held Tibet, but then there was a series of defeats. In addition, the Dzungarian Khanate was subjected to continuous attacks by Kazakhs. The danger of war on three fronts forced the Dzungar to change his attitude towards Russia. These changes manifested themselves during the embassy of I. D. Cheredov sent to the Khong Tayiji in 1719. He was carrying the message demanding to punish those responsible for attacking Buchholz's detachment; return captured prisoners, treasury, horses; not to prevent Russian expeditions in search of ores and construction of fortresses. The embassy arrived in Urgu on October 11, 1719. At first, he was treated cruelly: he was put "on a clean steppe, in anhydrous and place without the trees", surrounded by guards and no one was released anywhere; guards beat members of the embassy, took away personal belongings, brought prisoners taken near Yamyshev to the Russian camp and brutally tortured them. But at the end of November 1720, the attitude towards the embassy changed dramatically. Dzungarian officials began to properly supply ambassadors with food and showed signs of attention. Meetings of Cheredov with the Khong Tayiji took place almost daily. Tsewang Rabtan assured the ambassador that the border between Russia and Dzungaria should pass along the river Om and complained to him: "Now the Chinese king has risen against me, and the king of China claims that he is the king over all kings and there is nobody higher then him in all the earth and I’m asking that your sovereign would not give me to the king of China." During the meetings, he asked the ambassador in detail about the living conditions of the Volga Kalmyks, expressed a desire with Russia "to live in friendship and bid." Through I. D. Cheredov, he appealed to Peter I with a request: "1. He (Peter) would defend him from the Chinese and the Mungal [2] and he would live like Ayuka Khan; 2. Peter would take away the mungals from the Chinese, give him, like he gave to Ayuke the Magnuts (Nogays) as the vassals; 3. So that he can still take yasak [3] from the people from whom he is getting it now; 4. Peter wouldn't accept the Kalmyks (Oirats) who fled from him and return the fugitives.”
In January 1721, Khong Tayiji sent an embassy to Moscow. In May, the ambassadors reached Tobolsk and handed over to Governor A. M. Cherkasy letter from the Khong Tayiji, in which he offered the subjects of the two states to live "in council and in love" and asked to speed up the sending of 20,000 Russian troops to Dzungaria. The governor said that without the instructions of the tsar, he could not send troops to Dzungaria.
In early September 1721, the Dzungarian ambassadors arrived in Moscow and on September 6 Peter I was presented with a letter from Tsevang Rabtan in which he asked the Russian emperor to be "defended from Chinese and Mungal forces" and promised to "live as Ayuka Khan lives." He asked Peter to treat the Oirats "in a merciful manner" and allowed Russian subjects to look for ore, gold and silver in his possessions. On November 26, an imperial charter was signed, in which Peter I notified Tsevang Rabtan of the departure of Ambassador I. Unkovsky, "who has our decree on our inclined mercy to you, and how we deign to accept you under our protection and what is our intention regarding your petitions is going to be..."
Embassy of I. Unkovsky 1722-1723 was a major event in Russian-Oirat relations. His goal was to convince Tsevang Rabatan to sign an agreement on voluntary transfer to Russian citizenship on terms similar to that of Ayuk Khan. At some point the mission looked doomed because in December 1722 Kangxi Emperor died and for a while Tsevang Rabatan was contemplating a possibility to maneuver between Peter and a new Chinese Emperor, Yongzheng.
However, eventually Tsevang Rabatan came to the conclusion that after all, China, no matter who is in charge, represents an e existential danger for the Oirat state. He sent a new ambassador Dorgi to Russia, who was received by Peter I on April 4, 1724. Application to take Dzungar state under the Russian protection was granted [4] and having received a reply letter from Peter I to Khong Tayiji on September 28, 1724, Dorji went home.
On one hand this was a major diplomatic success for Peter formally placing under his control both Dzungar and Kazakh territories but OTOH, he just got on his hands a big time bomb which could place in danger the recently achieved agreement regarding the Russian-Qing border and trade. However, there was also a personal aspect in the whole situation: Peter, after all his successes in Europe, considered a condescending Chinese attitude (“Russia is an insignificant vassal state”) quite offensive and would not mind to teach the Qing a practical lesson regarding the relative significances.
As for the risks:
Of course, there was also a good chance that, with a new Emperor seemingly having the domestic problems, a direct confrontation is a matter of years rather than months and he will have more time to strengthen his position even further.
So Peter was willing to take a risk.
___________
[1] The tangible benefits included guaranteed land (an outsider could not take it from them), freedom from taxation, regular salary and supply of the firearms. Also, there was an administrative protection against various types of the smart guys trying to cheat them out of their possessions. The downside was a need to perform some kind of a military service and to get at least a rudimentary training. On a balance, the deal was not bad.
[2] Khalka Mongols.
[3] tribute
[4] In OTL Tsevang Rabatan changed his mind again (expecting that with a new Emperor China is not going to be a threat) and the sides just exchanged the letters about mutual friendship. So this is a substantial POD
“You've got problems in Central Asia.”
Tony Blair
“There are many misunderstandings between Russia and China: Mongolia..”
Invan Urgant
“The coat of arms of Russia depicts a double-headed eagle: one head looks towards Europe, the other - towards Asia. Russia somehow of no interest for them”
Unknown authot
Tony Blair
“There are many misunderstandings between Russia and China: Mongolia..”
Invan Urgant
“The coat of arms of Russia depicts a double-headed eagle: one head looks towards Europe, the other - towards Asia. Russia somehow of no interest for them”
Unknown authot
Below is Dzungar Khanate (in green) on the Russian map composed in 1720-25.
The уears 1705-20 saw “war and peace” situation on what passed for the Russian-Dzungar border. Conflicts had been caused mostly by the Russian expeditions into what the Dzungars considered as their own territory but for time to time the Dzungars were going on the offensive as well. While initially for the Russian side these were shoe-string operations badly organized (by Prince Gagarin), like Buchholz's expedition, with no adequate logistics, no locally produced military supplies and inadequate numbers: due to the shortage of the locally available troops, the reinforcements had to march all the way from European Russia.
However, by 1720 situation changed quite dramatically. To start with, Russian population of Siberia grew noticeably. Then a local manufacturing base had been created and the plants in Tobolsk, Kuznetsk and other cities had been able to produce the gunpowder and firearms, including the artillery. The same goes for a permanent military presence: after the war with the Ottomans and BFW had been over, Russian “Western flank” was seemingly secure allowing transfer of a noticeable amount of troops to the East of the Ural. Some of them had been used to garrison the fortified line protecting the Junior Zhuz and some marched further all the way to the region of Baikal Lake. Construction of a reasonably good (by the Russian standards) Siberian tract and general expansion into the region allowed support of a growing number of the regular troops. These troops had been augmented by the local Cossacks, both those coming from Russia and by the native tribes which had been given a Cossack status [1].
On the other side of the equation situation had been changing as well. Since 1716 Khong Tayiji Tsewang Rabtan started a war with China for the Khalkha steppes lost at the end of the XVII century. In 1717-1720, the Oirats occupied and held Tibet, but then there was a series of defeats. In addition, the Dzungarian Khanate was subjected to continuous attacks by Kazakhs. The danger of war on three fronts forced the Dzungar to change his attitude towards Russia. These changes manifested themselves during the embassy of I. D. Cheredov sent to the Khong Tayiji in 1719. He was carrying the message demanding to punish those responsible for attacking Buchholz's detachment; return captured prisoners, treasury, horses; not to prevent Russian expeditions in search of ores and construction of fortresses. The embassy arrived in Urgu on October 11, 1719. At first, he was treated cruelly: he was put "on a clean steppe, in anhydrous and place without the trees", surrounded by guards and no one was released anywhere; guards beat members of the embassy, took away personal belongings, brought prisoners taken near Yamyshev to the Russian camp and brutally tortured them. But at the end of November 1720, the attitude towards the embassy changed dramatically. Dzungarian officials began to properly supply ambassadors with food and showed signs of attention. Meetings of Cheredov with the Khong Tayiji took place almost daily. Tsewang Rabtan assured the ambassador that the border between Russia and Dzungaria should pass along the river Om and complained to him: "Now the Chinese king has risen against me, and the king of China claims that he is the king over all kings and there is nobody higher then him in all the earth and I’m asking that your sovereign would not give me to the king of China." During the meetings, he asked the ambassador in detail about the living conditions of the Volga Kalmyks, expressed a desire with Russia "to live in friendship and bid." Through I. D. Cheredov, he appealed to Peter I with a request: "1. He (Peter) would defend him from the Chinese and the Mungal [2] and he would live like Ayuka Khan; 2. Peter would take away the mungals from the Chinese, give him, like he gave to Ayuke the Magnuts (Nogays) as the vassals; 3. So that he can still take yasak [3] from the people from whom he is getting it now; 4. Peter wouldn't accept the Kalmyks (Oirats) who fled from him and return the fugitives.”
In January 1721, Khong Tayiji sent an embassy to Moscow. In May, the ambassadors reached Tobolsk and handed over to Governor A. M. Cherkasy letter from the Khong Tayiji, in which he offered the subjects of the two states to live "in council and in love" and asked to speed up the sending of 20,000 Russian troops to Dzungaria. The governor said that without the instructions of the tsar, he could not send troops to Dzungaria.
In early September 1721, the Dzungarian ambassadors arrived in Moscow and on September 6 Peter I was presented with a letter from Tsevang Rabtan in which he asked the Russian emperor to be "defended from Chinese and Mungal forces" and promised to "live as Ayuka Khan lives." He asked Peter to treat the Oirats "in a merciful manner" and allowed Russian subjects to look for ore, gold and silver in his possessions. On November 26, an imperial charter was signed, in which Peter I notified Tsevang Rabtan of the departure of Ambassador I. Unkovsky, "who has our decree on our inclined mercy to you, and how we deign to accept you under our protection and what is our intention regarding your petitions is going to be..."
Embassy of I. Unkovsky 1722-1723 was a major event in Russian-Oirat relations. His goal was to convince Tsevang Rabatan to sign an agreement on voluntary transfer to Russian citizenship on terms similar to that of Ayuk Khan. At some point the mission looked doomed because in December 1722 Kangxi Emperor died and for a while Tsevang Rabatan was contemplating a possibility to maneuver between Peter and a new Chinese Emperor, Yongzheng.
However, eventually Tsevang Rabatan came to the conclusion that after all, China, no matter who is in charge, represents an e existential danger for the Oirat state. He sent a new ambassador Dorgi to Russia, who was received by Peter I on April 4, 1724. Application to take Dzungar state under the Russian protection was granted [4] and having received a reply letter from Peter I to Khong Tayiji on September 28, 1724, Dorji went home.
On one hand this was a major diplomatic success for Peter formally placing under his control both Dzungar and Kazakh territories but OTOH, he just got on his hands a big time bomb which could place in danger the recently achieved agreement regarding the Russian-Qing border and trade. However, there was also a personal aspect in the whole situation: Peter, after all his successes in Europe, considered a condescending Chinese attitude (“Russia is an insignificant vassal state”) quite offensive and would not mind to teach the Qing a practical lesson regarding the relative significances.
As for the risks:
- The fur trade became a meager factor in the Russian foreign trade and the Chinese imported goods were not in the “strategic” category and could be obtained through the CA or European traders.
- The banner armies placed in Manchuria and Mongolia on paper amounted to 200,000 but at any point only one third of that number was in service and logistics needed for raising all of them made such an effort almost unrealistic.
- Weaponry belonged to the early-mid XVII: huge matchlocks requiring support, the best cannons being copied from the Portuguese guns of early/mid-XVII and proved not to be too impressive during the siege of Albazin. Most of the infantry still having the polearms, swords and the bows.
- Infantry with the firearms was using tactics of the 30YW (infantry caracole).
- The rest still relied upon attack with a pike or sword.
- Cavalry was of a seemingly good quality but the last Ottoman War provided an adequate experience in that regard and both his own Kalmyks and Dzungars had a lot of high-quality “Eastern style” cavalry.
- While for the last few years he was building a massive logistic base close to the potential theater, the Qing had nothing of the kind anywhere close.
- Loyalty of the Khalka Mongols to the Qing was rather on a negotiable side and at least some of them could be persuaded to switch their loyalties.
Of course, there was also a good chance that, with a new Emperor seemingly having the domestic problems, a direct confrontation is a matter of years rather than months and he will have more time to strengthen his position even further.
So Peter was willing to take a risk.
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[1] The tangible benefits included guaranteed land (an outsider could not take it from them), freedom from taxation, regular salary and supply of the firearms. Also, there was an administrative protection against various types of the smart guys trying to cheat them out of their possessions. The downside was a need to perform some kind of a military service and to get at least a rudimentary training. On a balance, the deal was not bad.
[2] Khalka Mongols.
[3] tribute
[4] In OTL Tsevang Rabatan changed his mind again (expecting that with a new Emperor China is not going to be a threat) and the sides just exchanged the letters about mutual friendship. So this is a substantial POD
Well, yes. But keep in mind that by that time even the Dzungars had been reasonably successful in a field against Qing and that Chinese invasion of 1723, which presumably involved 230,000, was quite costly and ended up with very little in the terms of results: the Dzungars were more or less pushed out of Tibet but Qing had to remove most of the troops because maintenance of a big army proved to be extremely expensive.
In OTL Yongzheng later sent a small army of 10,000 to fight the Dzungars again. However, that army was annihilated near the Khoton Lake in 1731 and the peace was made only after the Khalka Mongols defeated the Dzungars in 1732.
The picture, which Peter saw looked as following:
- Qing could mobilize a big force for a short period of time.
- Military abilities of that force had been limited.
- The Qing advantage was in defense of the fortified positions because the Dzungars had no artillery.
The full mode would require the Khalka Mongols to change their affiliation but this is not completely out of the question because a major mobilization of the Qing resources would hit Khalka economically (as later happened in OTL).
Xinjiang in modern day China and they are more of a Vassals, but still that's quite bit of land , also quite possibly all Kazakh lands .
I don't know about Khoshut khanate (Tibet ) though...
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Xinjiang in modern day China and they are more of a Vassals, but still that's quite bit of land , also quite possibly all Kazakh lands .
I don't know about Khoshut khanate (Tibet ) though...
Obviously, all “real” Dzungar territories including the depended Kazakh lands but no Tibet: China must get some bonus. Borders as per OTL Aigun Treaty (on Amur). Probably the Khalka Mongols end up as the Russian vassals.
Dzungar lands are vassals but the current ruler dies within few years and in OTL there was a succession crisis which in OTL Qung used to submit the territory and conduct the genocide. IITL it can be much milder: just using the local problems to gradually increase the administrative control as was done with the Kalmuks, Kazakhs, etc.
Probably I’ll have to invent some domestic problems in China, which requires at least some knowledge. Well, judging by Wiki, the relevant emperor did have some issues with the legitimacy or something. 😉
Aren't Khalkha Mongols already part of Qing though? In the map they were added as far as 1696.
As for their location...
For them to be Russian vassals there would need to be a war between Russia and Qing , it would be better to just go for main Dzungar territories.
I was under the impression that by the early XVIII this was more or less a vassal dependency: the local nobles had a considerable authority and Qing administration or military presence was not strong and only after crushing the Dzungars and Kalkha rebellion the Qing established a strong control over Khalka and included it into the banner system: “Mongols were forbidden by the Qing from crossing the borders of their banners, even into other Mongol Banners and from crossing into neidi (the Han Chinese 18 provinces) and were given serious punishments if they did in order to keep the Mongols divided against each other to benefit the Qing. Mongol pilgrims wanting to leave their banner's borders for religious reasons such as pilgrimage had to apply for passports to give them permission.”Aren't Khalkha Mongols already part of Qing though? In the map they were added as far as 1696.
As for their location...
For them to be Russian vassals there would need to be a war between Russia and Qing , it would be better to just go for main Dzungar territories.
Of course, I can be seriously wrong in my ideas. Anyway, I need some very serious SNAFU on Qing side for them to agree upon the territorial concessions, even if they are mostly of the lands on which they have close to zero or zero footprint. In OTL the arrogance had been shattered by the First Opium War but this technology gap is not there, yet, in 1720s.
Perhaps some earlier version of the White Lotus Rebellion [1] which is being completely mishandled and lasts for many years shattering reputation of the Qing regime and forcing it to make a peace with Russia.
BTW, the OTL campaigns are not too impressive in the numbers (wiki numbers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Great_Campaigns ) :
1. 1755 (Dzungars):
9,000 Manchu Eight Bannermen
19,500 Inner Mongols
6,500 Outer Mongols
2,000 Zunghars
5,000 Uyghurs from Hami and Turfan
12,000 Chinese
2. 1756-58 (Dzungars):
10,000 Bannermen
5,000 Uyghurs from Turfan and Hami
Plus Zunghars
3. 1758-59 (Pacification of Xinjiang):
10,000 Bannermen
Uyghurs from Hami, Turfan and Badakshan
Plus Zunghars
4. 1771-76 (Second Campaign against Jinchuan):
8,000
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[1] With some fancy name (how about “Bald Heads Rebellion” or “Long Hair Rebellion”, “White teeth rebellion” - this one would be anti-aristocratic).
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Thing is that after 1691, or first Dzungar-Qing war Khalkha Mongols were officially incoporated into Qing empire and becoming part of Qing army , with three Khans becoming part of inner Qing aristocracy in 1694 and while those facts are true they are still part of Qing state and were so for around 20 years as of now. I dont see them becoming Russian vassals without a war between Qing and Russia.
"The Khalkha rulers declared themselves Qing vassals at Dolon Nor (the site of Shangdu, the pleasure palace of the Yuan Emperors) in 1691, a politically decisive step that officially ended the last remnants of the Yuan dynasty. It also allowed the Qing to assume the mantle of the Genghisid khans, merging the Khalkha forces into the Qing army."
"After the war, a Qing garrison was stationed in the area of present-day Ulaanbaatar, and Khalkha Mongolia was placed under Qing rule. Outer Mongolia was effectively incorporated into the Qing Empire."
These were parts from first Dzungar - Qing War and they are quite clear about position of Khalkha in Qing state
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There's a very good discussion on Khalkha - Russia relations, albeit focused on the second half of the 18th century, in Gregory Afinogenov's work, Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia's Quest for World Power
Personally i don't really see the need for that , Dzungar Khanate is more than enough reward, i like this because of balanced and limited Russian goals that can stay within limits of realism.
No need for Russia to overextend itself, or for Qing to fail on its own, they'll be humbled in due time anyway, it doesn't need to be in this TL. Unnecessary butterflies in China on other hand can as well butterfly this away though.
For now new status quo is enough and Russia should focus on bringing rest of Kazakh lands in the line. We control little Kazakhs and Dzungar Khanate, but think about the empty space in between (middle Zhus and Senior Zhus)! The horror!!!
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