The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-08
PETER THE GREATS MEMORY.
Almost Worship of the Great Gar
by the Russian People.
Black and White

ny the huSSldn IcOpIcs
Black and White.
Peter has become almost cult in Russia.
Go to his cottage on the banks of the Neva
on a Russian holiday and you will have to
fall in queue and squeeze your way into his
little rooms ostensibly to kiss a holy pic
tUre, but this holy picture is mixed up in
the Russians mind with Peter the Great
The moujik looks around on the little home
Peter built for himself on the NeVa marshes
as though he looked on the relics of a saint.
Peter was essentially a man of action-an
artisan of genius, as his handiwork and the
tools he used prove; yet a born commander,
restless ruthless. Whtn near the site of his
future St. Petersburg he saw a tree scored
with a mark high above the ground; he
asked of the peasants near:
What is that?"
THE height to which the waters rose in
1850, replied peasant.
You lie!' cried Peter. He cut the tree
down. He was not to be deferred by the
fact that floods had swept over his chosen
site, and his masterfulnesS is to-day felt by
the Russian until they have nearly made
a god of him. 1t is impossible now to see
the exterior of Peters cottage on the NeVa' s
banks, for stone house was built by Cath
crime II over it as a shell to preserve this
little wooden cottage, and so the outward
appearance is gone Inside this stone build
ing you see the wooden building, but this
has very foolishly lately been painted to
initiate bricks; but inside you can see in
one room the type of place Peter lived and
worked in. Here in this one little room
there are but two in the cottage-are the
oak furniture, old leather chairs, a little
cooking service, some of the sails of his
boat and the worn little wooden bench
seat on which he sat at his door and
dreamed of the future capital, or raved at
those who carried out his orders or failed
to do so. In this room he transacted busi-
ness with his ministers of state and re-
ceived foreign ambassadors
The very greatness of the man forces it
self upon one by this act alone. He, the
Gar, with all the jeweled group of the
Kremlin to enshroud himself with. sitting
on this bench, or in his timber hut, and
creating a that less har two
turtles was to rule half the world. The other
room of the cottage is also greatly trans
formed 1t was Peters sleeping and dining
room; now it is chapel, and picture of
our Savior which Peter took with him upon
all his travels, and which he bore with him
at the famous battle of Potava, hangs here.
1t is in a gilt frame with a jeweled crown
that, as is usual in Russian towns, quite
overshadows the picture.
Not long ago / went out to this cottage
on Russian saints day, and service was
being performed in the chapel. A small
choir of men in ordinary dress were
squeezed in behind the little altar, and a
priest in robes was chanting the service.
The people We're packed fatty together in
the room and outside around the door, and
under the passage OF the outer building
that protects the cottage. Some tried to
get others to pass in lighted candles to place
before the picture. and others crushed and
squeezed until some moving on gave a
chance to get in. All deVoutly blessed the
picture and crossed themselves continuously.
and when. they got out went with reveren-
Il
boat he built, this latter placed between his
cottage and the outer building. The heat in
the little chapel, with the lighted candles
and the packed little mass of not too clean
humanity, was excessive, and the perspira-
ton stood out on the faces of priests and
choir. who went about their work in quiet,
businesS-like fashion; but the devotion of
the crowd TO memory, TO a something they
themselves perchance could not explain, was
very apparent Ostensibly it was the holy
picture, but ii Is the link between the pic
ture and Peter that gives 1t so much value
and makes it so revered.
This Peter who built St. Petersburg gave
Russia q port and a navy, and started her
on her Notwithstanding career. The fierce
remorseiess, indomitable restlessneSs OF the
man and his crimes are forgotten; all the
bloodshed ne caused in Selling upon the sole
rule and in his ill-planned campaigns-even
the ons great terrible crime of the murder
of his own son Alexis which rumor and ira
dition lay to his charge-all is forgotten in
the memory of the man who by that same
indomitable will and force of character
started Russia on her aggrandizing career.
Everything that is associated with him.
his clothes, his trappngs, his jewels, the
tools with which he worked, his writings
his books, everything is treasured up and
looked upon with such reverence by the
Russian that even strangers begin to feel
they axe in the presence of relics of a man
OF men The common folk may we'll be ex-
cused for so crowding TO the little house
where he lived and worked almost as they
live and work and so passionately venerat-
ing the holy picture that receives their Wor-
ship OF the founder of Petersburg.