FEBRUARY 19, 2023 – Today I didn’t attempt to ski. I risked life and limb slipping, sliding and otherwise navigating a course to “Little Switzerland” to confirm that I couldn’t ski without risking life and limb. Between audible cursing and intense concentration to stay upright, I considered proposals for the subject of today’s post. Since all the proposals were generated by me, I judged them harshly. None made the cut.
After my expedition I read from Robert Massie’s biography of Peter the Great, a chapter entitled, “The Revolt of the Streltsy.” It was so riveting, I flipped pages back and forth to ensure that I got every part of the story straight. The experience left me in the same state that an epic film leaves its viewers: I closed the tome and for a good five minutes didn’t move from my chair.
My synopsis . . . The Streltsy were a kind of army that had originated generations before the unspeakably brutal revolt of May 1682. Supposedly, the Streltsy mission was to protect the “government,” but the objective was often unclear, the construct of “government” in Russia at the time having a fluid nature. The para-military group of 20,000 Streltsy grew into a highly privileged fraternity, quartered near the Kremlin in the heart of Moscow. There’d be hell to pay if the members perceived any funny business among people who were out of favor.
The origins of the Streltsy revolt are a bit complicated, which is why I studied the chapter so carefully. But apropos of current events, three features of the Streltsy outrage of 1682 leaped off the page.
FIRST was the setting: palaces, chapels, and offices of the Kremlin, the seat of Russian government and the powerful Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The modern analogy that came to mind, as you will soon understand, was the U.S. capital . . . and capitol.
SECOND was the “big lie” that precipitated the storming of the Kremlin: that Ivan, the 16-year-old brother of the late Tsar Fedor, had been murdered. Ivan, blind and lame, with absolutely no interest in succeeding his brother, had been bypassed in favor of his 10-year old half-brother, Peter—a self-assured, curious kid who would become “Great.”
Some background: 1. Tsar Alexis’s first wife was Maria. Their kids (in order) were Fedor, Sophia and Ivan; 2. After Maria died, Alexis married Natalya, and their son was Peter (later “the Great,” born in 1672); 3. When Alexis himself died in 1676, Fedor, age 15, became Tsar; and 4. Six years later, Fedor died. Under normal circumstances, Ivan would’ve succeeded Fedor, but given Ivan’s weakness and that Peter’s mother was alive (giving her powerful family an advantage in pushing her interests) and Ivan’s mother wasn’t (leaving her powerful family at a disadvantage), Peter was to become Tsar, with his mother serving as regent. (Cont.)
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
