Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / Peter the Great and the Streltsy Uprising of 1698
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Peter the Great's reforms — the navy, the Table of Ranks, the building of St. Petersburg. But there's a bloody event that really shaped his early reign, and it's one we haven't touched on yet: the Streltsy Uprising of 1698. Luna: The streltsy — those were the musketeer corps, right? The ones who'd been around since Ivan the Terrible? Lucas: Exactly. The streltsy, meaning 'shooters,' were Russia's first standing army, formed in the mid-16th century. By Peter's time, they were based mostly in Moscow, and they saw themselves as defenders of the old ways — traditional Orthodoxy, the old boyar system, the old Moscow. They were deeply suspicious of Peter's fascination with foreigners and his Westernizing reforms. Lucas: Now, the background to the uprising goes back to Peter's childhood. When his father Tsar Alexei died in 1676, there was a power struggle between Peter's family and that of his half-brother Ivan. The streltsy had been involved in a previous revolt in 1682, the Moscow Uprising, which had put Sophia Alekseyevna — Peter's half-sister — in power as regent. Luna: Right, Sophia. She was the one who ruled while Peter and Ivan were young. Lucas: Yes. And when Peter finally ousted Sophia in 1689, the streltsy were punished but not disbanded. They were still a powerful force in Moscow, and many of them resented Peter's reforms, his German advisors, and his long absence during the Grand Embassy to Europe from 1697 to 1698. Lucas: While Peter was away, four regiments of streltsy stationed near the Polish border decided to march on Moscow. They were angry about low pay, harsh conditions, and rumors that Peter had been replaced by a foreign impostor — or even that he had died abroad. They wanted to restore Sophia to power. Luna: So they literally marched on the capital to install a regent? Lucas: That was the plan. They got as far as about 50 kilometers from Moscow, near the New Jerusalem Monastery, before they were intercepted by a loyalist army under General Patrick Gordon, a Scottish mercenary who had served the Russian tsars for decades. Gordon's troops were regular soldiers — not streltsy — and they were armed with modern muskets and artillery. Lucas: The confrontation was brief. The streltsy were outnumbered and outgunned. Gordon tried to negotiate, but when the streltsy refused to surrender, he ordered his men to fire. The streltsy broke and fled. About 4,000 rebels were captured and brought back to Moscow in chains. Luna: And that's when Peter really unleashed his fury. Lucas: Peter rushed back from Vienna, cutting his Grand Embassy short. He was convinced the streltsy were part of a larger conspiracy involving Sophia and the old boyar elite. He personally oversaw the investigation and torture sessions — and he didn't just delegate this. He participated. Luna: He tortured them himself? Lucas: Accounts say Peter was present during interrogations, sometimes wielding the knout — a multi-tailed whip — himself. Over a thousand streltsy were tortured to extract confessions. Many implicated Sophia and her circle. Then came the executions. Lucas: The mass executions took place at Red Square in October 1698. Over several days, hundreds of streltsy were beheaded, hanged, or broken on the wheel. Peter famously ordered that the heads of the executed be displayed on stakes around the Kremlin — a gruesome warning to anyone who might think of opposing him. Luna: I've heard that Peter even forced the boyars to participate in the executions, is that true? Lucas: Yes. He commanded members of his court, including his own generals and ministers, to take part in the beheadings. It was a deliberate humiliation and a way of binding them to his cause — they were complicit in the bloodshed. There's a famous story that Peter himself chopped off heads, but that might be legend. What's certain is that he made sure everyone in the elite witnessed the spectacle. Lucas: Sophia was forced to take monastic vows under the name Susanna and was confined to the Novodevichy Convent for the rest of her life. Peter even had her cell guarded day and night, and he posted streltsy corpses near her window as a constant reminder of the price of rebellion. Luna: That's chilling. But it also says a lot about Peter's psychology — he was determined to crush any opposition, no matter how brutally. Lucas: Absolutely. The Streltsy Uprising was a turning point. After 1698, Peter disbanded the streltsy regiments entirely. Their weapons and banners were destroyed. Their families were exiled. In their place, Peter created a new, modern army modeled on Western European lines — the Russian Imperial Army that would later defeat Sweden at Poltava. Lucas: The uprising also deepened Peter's distrust of Moscow itself. He hated the old capital, seeing it as a nest of sedition and backwardness. That's one reason he pushed so hard to build a new capital at St. Petersburg — a clean slate, far from the streltsy and the boyars. Luna: So the Streltsy Uprising didn't just end a rebellion — it changed the entire course of Russian history. Lucas: Exactly. It's one of those events that, if it had gone differently — if the streltsy had succeeded — Russia might have had a very different 18th century. But Peter's victory was total, and it set the stage for the drastic reforms we've talked about in previous episodes. Luna: You know, I appreciate how these episodes help me understand the real, human motivations behind these huge historical shifts. Lucas: I'm glad it's useful. And if today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support. If you'd like to keep these conversations going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to say the show matters. Luna: Yeah, and it really does help us keep researching and bringing these stories to life. Lucas: So, back to Peter. After crushing the streltsy, he turned his attention to modernizing the Russian state. One of his first moves was to reform the calendar — he switched Russia from the Byzantine calendar, which dated from the creation of the world, to the Julian calendar, counting from the birth of Christ. He also simplified the alphabet, introduced Western dress, and forced the boyars to shave their beards. Luna: The beard tax! I've heard about that. He literally taxed beards to force people to look more European. Lucas: Exactly. Anyone who wanted to keep their beard had to pay a tax and carry a special token proving they'd paid. It was symbolic, but it showed Peter's determination to reshape Russian culture from top to bottom. And it all traces back to that moment in 1698 when he decided the old order had to be destroyed, not just reformed. Luna: It's amazing how one rebellion can change everything. Lucas: And the Streltsy Uprising is one of those hinge points. Next time, we'll look at how Peter's new army performed in the Great Northern War — starting with the disastrous Battle of Narva in 1700, which nearly ended his ambitions before they began.