Peter I Taxes Beards: Russia Westernizes
Tsar Peter I imposed a tax on beards as part of his aggressive campaign to Westernize the Russian nobility, requiring those who kept their facial hair to carry a copper token as proof of payment. The decree provoked outrage among the Orthodox faithful who considered beards a religious obligation, but it succeeded in visually separating the modernizing elite from the traditional peasantry.
September 5, 1698
328 years ago
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