The first letter of Peter. Second Council Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter Persecution for the Name of Christ

1-Pet. 2:1. The Apostle calls for repentance: So, having put aside... (i.e., “getting rid of”). He goes on to list five sins which, if not eliminated from the speeches and relationships of believers, will lead to divisions among them. Malice (the Greek word "kakian" literally means "ill will"); deceit (literally dolon, i.e. deliberate deception, dishonesty); hypocrisy (hipokriseis - ostentatious piety and love); envy (phtonos - discontent based on eternal grievances) and slander (katalalias - lies spread behind the backs of others). None of these things should have a place in the life of the born again. In obedience to the word of God, believers must completely break with their past.

1-Pet. 2:2. Peter wanted his readers to thirst for spiritual food as babies thirst for their mother's milk. After believers have put away their unclean desires and motives (verse 1), they will have a need for wholesome spiritual food that will help them grow spiritually. The literal meaning of the Greek word adopon, translated "pure" here, is the opposite of the word dolon, translated "deceit" in verse 1.

The Word of God contains no deception; The children of God should not deceive. But having purified their hearts and minds, they must approach the Word, anticipating what is promised to it, and full of desire to grow spiritually. The phrase that from it you may grow into salvation implies the completion of salvation, which is also spoken of in 1:5,7,9,13.

1-Pet. 2:3. Quoting from Psalm 33:9, Peter continues to compare the word of God to “pure milk” (1 Pet. 2:2) and likens the knowledge of Christ that his readers already had to “tasting” the Lord. In fact, they had already “tried” Him, experienced God’s mercy in their new birth and were convinced that the Lord is good,

4. PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION (2:4-10)

Peter then resorts to a new metaphor, calling believers to practical holiness in life. His readers, having purified themselves, prepared for holy service. No longer infants, they were to continue to grow together to offer spiritual sacrifices as befits the chosen “royal priesthood” (verse 9).

1-Pet. 2:4. Approaching Him should not be understood in the meaning of the sinner’s initial appeal to Christ in order to receive salvation. We are talking here about the personal and everyday (habitual) communication of a Christian with his Lord. The first step towards the realization of practical holiness is this communion of the believer with Jesus Christ, the “living stone.” Here the Apostle Peter resorts to an unusual speech pattern. In 1:3 he spoke of a "living hope" (i.e., a living hope), in 1:23 a "living word," and here in 2:4 he speaks of Christ as a "living stone."

In subsequent verses, Peter develops this metaphor. The “Rock-Christ” has life in Himself and is able to give it to others. People, if they wish, can enter into personal, almost tangible, communication with this “living Stone”. Yes, Christ “was rejected by men,” but God chose Him (compare 1:20), for Him this “Stone” is precious (compare 1:19; 2:4,7). And Christians who are rejected by the world, knowing that they are chosen by God (1:1) and are valuable to Him (1:18), can find comfort in this.

1-Pet. 2:5. Believers are here identified with Christ because He is the living Stone and they are like living stones. And as they become more and more like Him and more and more consistent with His image, they build themselves into a spiritual house. Jesus once told Peter: “On this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). And now Peter himself quite obviously identifies Christ with the Rock on which His Church is built. The Apostle Paul called the Church “the temple” (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21) and “the habitation of God” (Eph. 2:22).

Believers, however, not only build the Church, but also serve in it - as a “holy priesthood” that “brings spiritual sacrifices.” All believers are priests (1 Pet. 2:9; Heb. 4:16; Rev. 1:6), and therefore in their communication with the heavenly Father they do not need any other mediator other than Jesus Christ. But we must not forget that priestly service requires holiness (1 Pet. 1:16,22). The "spiritual sacrifices" spoken of here are glorifying God and doing good works; such sacrifices are acceptable to God (Heb. 13:15). In addition, the “living stones” must be ready to offer themselves to God - as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), acceptable to the Father in Jesus Christ (“acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”).

1-Pet. 2:6. In verses 6-8, the apostle refers to the Old Testament three times - in support of the "living stone" metaphor. The first reference is to Isaiah (28:16), where it is said of Christ that He is the cornerstone, chosen, precious (compare the use of the words “precious”, “precious” in 1 Pet. 1:19; 2:4,7 ). As we know, the entire structure rests on the cornerstone.

It is in this sense that Christ is the cornerstone for believers to rely on Him without hesitation. And he who believes in Him will not be put to shame. The Greek text uses a double negative here - “he will never be ashamed”; Peter thus further encourages his readers by reminding them of the sure promise given in the Scriptures regarding the ultimate victory of those who trust in Christ.

1-Pet. 2:7-8. These verses highlight the contrast between those who believe in Christ and those who do not. Christ is a treasure for believers. But for those who rejected Him, He is a stumbling block (the second quotation given by Peter is taken from the Old Testament, from Ps. 118:22), because they did not submit to Him. This is exactly what happened to the high priests and Pharisees when Christ, addressing them, quoted the words from this psalm (Matt. 21:42, compare with 21:43-46).

The Apostle Peter gives the third quotation from Isa. 8:14. The rejection of Christ is a fatal event, and it is associated with disobedience to the Word of God (1 Pet. 2:86). To disobey the Good News is to reject it (compare 4:17); and to submit to it is to believe in it (about “obedience” in 1:14 and 22 and about “submitting to faith” in Acts 6:7). The day will come when all those who have not accepted Christ as their personal Savior will meet Him as their Judge. Because of sin, all disobedient unbelievers are destined to "stumble," which will lead them to eternal damnation.

1-Pet. 2:9-10. The apostle ends this encouraging part of his letter with a call to practical holiness. He reminds his readers that, unlike those who disobey God and are abandoned by Him, they are a chosen people - eclectois (1:1). And again he refers to the Old Testament, namely Isa. 43:20. “The chosen people,” an expression that in the Old Testament was used only in relation to Israel, is now applied to both Jewish and Gentile believers.

The responsibility that previously rested solely with one nation, Israel, now, in the age of grace, rests with the Church. On Mount Sinai, God commanded Moses to say to the people: “You will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). And now the believers are named: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people taken as an inheritance. Peter calls believers a “holy priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:5) and a “royal priesthood” (2:9; cf. Rev. 1:6).

The expression “people taken as an inheritance” is a free translation of the Greek ace peripoiesin. which literally means “for acquisition” or “for preservation”; in the original Greek this expression is also in Heb. 10:39. Christians are special people because God preserves them for Himself. But although the Church is characterized here very similarly to how Israel was characterized in the Old Testament, this does not mean that the Church “supplanted” Israel and took upon itself the blessings that were promised to it (and will be fulfilled in the Millennium).

It’s just that the Apostle Peter uses similar expressions and terms to express similar truths. For just as Israel was a chosen people, a “royal priesthood,” a holy and God’s people, so believers today are chosen by God, are His priests, they are holy and belong to God. However, similarity is not identity.

God chose His believers for the purpose that they would proclaim His perfections to other people. The word “perfection” could also be rendered as “outstanding qualities,” “excellence,” or “dignity,” its Greek equivalent, aretos, appears 4 times in the New Testament (Phil. 4:8; 1 Pet. 2:9; 2 Pet. 1:3,5). Believing priests must live in such a way that the attributes and qualities of their Heavenly Father are visible in their lives. After all, they are witnesses of the glory and mercy of God, Who called them “out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

In 1 Pet. 2:10 the apostle explains this truth by quoting from the prophet Hosea (2:23). "Darkness" is the time when his readers were pagans who did not know God and His salvation (Col. 1:13), when they were not yet a people and had not found favor in His sight. Now His “wonderful light” has shone upon God’s people, because now they have received mercy. The practical holiness with which God's people should serve Him - as a royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices and proclaiming to people about God's perfections - is the due response on the part of the elect to His mercy (1 Pet. 1:3), which they were awarded.

III. Call for new behavior (2:11 - 3:7).

How can Christians, the people of God, proclaim to others the perfections of God? In the following text, Peter answers this question. It is that Christians should behave differently from worldly people. This difference from the worldly should be reflected in their behavior as citizens and as slaves, as husbands and as wives. Even in ordinary situations, the behavior of believers should be different from the behavior of non-believers. And the apostle indicates what exactly this should be expressed in.

A. New behavior in the face of the world (2:11-25)

By "the world" the apostle means those people with whom his readers - witnesses, citizens, slaves - met daily. The Apostle calls on Christians to resist sin, submit to authorities, and serve their masters with patience. Such behavior will attract other people to their true faith, it will stop the lips of fools, and the believers themselves will receive praise from God.

I. CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS AS WITNESSES (2:11-12)

1-Pet. 2:11. The apostle addresses his readers cordially: beloved. Those whom God loves, he calls to live like strangers and strangers (in a couple - those who do not live in their own country. This comparison of believers with strangers is based on the fact that the true home of Christians is not on earth, but in heaven). Just as the world rejects Christian values, so Christians must reject the immorality and sinful lusts that dominate the world.

The word "to withdraw" (apehestai) literally means "to keep away from something." Believers must combat the sinful worldly desires and lusts that rise against the soul (James 4:1). After all, the strategy of demons in that real spiritual war, which does not stop on earth, is to strike each believer precisely at his weak points.

1-Pet. 2:12. Believers must “shun” fleshly lusts not only for their own spiritual well-being, but also for their witness to be effective before unbelievers. Speaking about what should not be in verse 11, the apostle in verse 12 speaks about how it should be. The exemplary lifestyle of believers in itself convicts the world of its sins (Matt. 5:16). The Apostle speaks in this verse about a “virtuous life” and “good works,” emphasizing that both the lifestyle of Christians and their deeds should be “good.”

A virtuous life cannot be such without good deeds (Matt. 5:16; Eph. 2:10; Titus 3:8; James 2:18). Despite the gossip of ill-wishers and their hypocritical accusations, the “good works” of believers are able to glorify God and attract other people to Him (Matt. 5:16; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 6:20). The expression on the day of visitation literally means, “on the day that He will visit” (Luke 19:44). Some believe that this speaks of the day when God will judge the wicked, but it is more likely that it refers to the “day of salvation,” that is, the moment when God comes to man in His mercy and calls him to convert (Acts. 15:14).

2. CONDUCT OF CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS (2:13-17).

1-Pet. 2:13-15. Christians must obey authorities (Rom. 13:1-7; Titus 3:1-2). The apostle exhorts his readers to obey laws: be subject to every human authority (ktisis - which literally means "ordinance" or "law"). Moreover, the believer must submit to the authorities not out of fear of punishment, but out of submission to God. Believers, for the glory of God, must carefully observe all human laws unless they come into direct conflict with the teaching of Holy Scripture (Acts 4:19). The main purpose of human power is to punish criminals and reward those who do good.

There is no doubt that Christians were the object of slander and all sorts of false accusations from unbelievers, because Peter emphasizes: the will of God (compare the expression “the will of God” in 1 Pet. 3:17; 4:2,19) is that It was precisely by their impeccable behavior that Christians stopped the mouths of the ignorance of insane people.

In the Greek text, each of these three words - "the ignorance of foolish people" - begins with the letter "alpha", as do the last three words in the phrase "to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, unfading" in 1:4. Apparently, the Apostle Peter, wanting to emphasize some idea or image, loved to resort to alliteration! Based on this passage, many believe that the organized persecution of the Roman authorities against Christians either had not yet begun when the apostle wrote this epistle, or that it had not yet reached Asia Minor. The lives of Christians were then poisoned by lies and slander, however, they were not yet threatened with torture and death. Believers were still under the protection of the law - as law-abiding citizens. Under such conditions, the best response of a believer to slander was good behavior.

1-Pet. 2:16. Submission to authorities does not mean losing the freedom that believers have in Christ (Gal. 5:1,18). Civil laws must be obeyed not out of fear, but because such is the will of God. Christian freedom is always conditioned by Christian responsibility (Gal. 5:13), it cannot be used as a “cover for evil.” Christians enjoy true freedom when they obey God and live the life of His servants (Rom. 6:22). In other words, while remaining free people, they must live as servants of God.

1-Pet. 2:17. This part ends with four final appeals to Christians as citizens of the country in which they live. First, believers must treat everyone with respect (timesate - honor, respect; compare with 3:7). Paul also speaks about this (Rom. 12:10; 13:7). Believers should not forget that each person is a special being, created in the image of God. Secondly, believers must love brotherhood, that is, their brothers and sisters in Christ. In the family of God, everyone should love one another.

Third, Christians must fear God. The word “fear” (phobeiste) does not mean to be tormented by fear, but to be in awe, to experience a feeling of reverence, for reverence and respect lead to obedience (compare phobo in 1 Pet. 1:17; and in 2 Cor. 7:11). One who does not honor God cannot honor people. Fourth, believers must honor the king. This word (timao - to honor) comes from the same root as the word used at the beginning of the verse. We must honor all people, but especially those whom God has placed in power (see the king in 1 Pet. 2:13 and the rulers in verse 14 and Rom. 13:1).

3. CONDUCT OF BELIEVING SLAVES (2:8-25)

In teaching the slaves, Peter gives two reasons why they should patiently endure unfair treatment. Firstly, this pleases God, and secondly, an example of patience was shown to us by Christ Himself.

1-Pet. 2:11. The Greek text here does not use the word duloi, which was usually used to describe slaves (verse 16), but the word oiketai, which was used to designate household servants (Luke 16:13). The word hupotassomenoi, translated “obey,” further develops the idea of ​​obedience expressed in 2:13, where the word hupothethethe appears. This word of exhortation was most directly relevant to many readers of the message. After all, the percentage of servants and slaves in the early churches was quite high, often these “little people” undeservedly suffered from their masters.

Of course, there were also kind gentlemen who took care of their servants. Among them were those who believed in Jesus Christ. However, Peter calls on all Christian slaves to behave not as they behaved before, but to show submission and respect even to harsh masters. The Greek word "okolios," translated "severe," literally means "crooked, bent." This is where the medical term “scolios” comes from, meaning a curvature of the spinal column.

1-Pet. 2:19-20. The apostle puts forward a principle that applies to any situation where one has to suffer undeservedly. For this pleases God if someone, having thought about God, endures sorrows, suffering unjustly. But there can be no praise for those who suffer deserved punishment. Submissive acceptance of unjust suffering is pleasing to God, because such behavior reflects the virtue inherent in Him.

1-Pet. 2:21-22. To support his exhortation to the slaves, Peter refers to the example of patience set by Christ Himself, who suffered unjustly. The words: “For to this you have been called” mean to suffer for good deeds. Christians are called (here literally "elect" -ekletete. Compare 1:15 and 2:9) to follow Christ, imitating His character and behavior, since He suffered for us. The word hyupogrammos. translated "example" is used in the New Testament only here and means a text or drawing that the student must copy or redraw.

Peter, citing Christ as an example, quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah: “He committed no sin” (Is. 53:9). Jesus did not sin either before or during His suffering (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 John 3:5). He did not sin in deed or word: “and there was no flattery (in other translations - “lying”) in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:1).

1-Pet. 2:23-25. In his unjust suffering, Christ showed an incomparable example of patient submission. “Although He was reviled, He did not revile in return; while He suffered, He did not threaten” (Rom. 12:19-20). From a human perspective, Christ had every reason to take revenge for the torture and crucifixion to which He was subjected. However, He suffered in silence, leaving everything in the hands of God. The Apostle explains (1 Pet. 2:24) why He who could destroy all His enemies with one word patiently endured the torment and shame of the cross. The fact is that our sins, which the Son took upon Himself, were justly condemned by God the Father (2 Cor. 5:21).

In the Greek text, the words “our sins” appear at the beginning of the phrase; and this emphasizes the fact that Christ did not suffer for Himself, while the phrase “He... Himself” emphasizes His personal will in what happened. The death of the Son gave believers the opportunity to be freed not only from the punishment of sin, but also from the power of sin, and now they can live for Him: that we, having been delivered from sins, may live for righteousness (Rom. 6:2,13). Christ suffered so that Christians could follow His example both in suffering and in righteous life.

The Apostle points to the essence of salvation: by His stripes you were healed (Isa. 53:5). This does not mean physical healing, because the past tense in which the verb appears implies some completely completed process of “healing.” We are talking about salvation here. Christ's sufferings (literally "wounds" - the Greek word "molopi", which means the marks on the body of "one slashed with a scourge") and His death completed the "healing", that is, the salvation of everyone who trusts in Him as their Savior.

Christ not only gives us an example and accomplishes our salvation. He also guides and protects those who once wandered like lost sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of souls... The words "Shepherd" and "Overseer" emphasize the fact that Christ watches over and cares for those who entrust themselves to His care (Ezek. 34:11-16).

The First Epistle of Peter, full title “The First Council Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter” is a book of the New Testament. The epistle of James, Jude, two epistles of Peter and three of John are called conciliar epistles, since they, unlike the epistles of the apostle... ... Wikipedia

Greetings. Peter glorifies God for the living hope through Jesus Christ of an imperishable inheritance. In this hope you rejoice in trials. Be holy, as those who have been redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ...

Peter, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, the elect, 1 Peter 2:9 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

This salvation included the research and investigation of the prophets, who foretold about the grace appointed for you, Gen. 49:10 Dan. 2:44 Dan. 9:24 Mat. 13:17 2 Pet. 1:21 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

Investigating to which and at what time the Spirit of Christ who was in them pointed, when He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow them. Ps.21:7 Isa.53:3 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

It was revealed to them that it was not they themselves, but us, who served that which has now been preached to you by those who preached the gospel by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the angels desire to penetrate. Eph.3:10 1Tim.3:16 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

Therefore, (beloved), having girded up the loins of your mind, being watchful, have complete confidence in the grace given to you at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Luke 12:35 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were in your ignorance, Acts 17:30... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

But, following the example of the Saint who called you, be holy in all your actions. Luke 1:75 ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

For it is written: “Be holy, for I am holy.” Lev.11:44… Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

And if you call Him Father, who impartially judges everyone according to their works, then spend the time of your pilgrimage with fear, Deut. 10:17... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

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• , V. Sukhanov. Isagogical information Reprinted edition using print-on-demand technology from the original Reproduced in the original author’s spelling of the 1814 edition (publishing house Central Printing House,…
• The first conciliar letter of St. ap. Petra. part 1, V. Sukhanov. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Isagogical information Reprinted edition using print-on-demand technology from the original Reproduced in…

The archers made noise. They exterminated the boyars: the Tsarina's brothers Ivan and Afanasy Naryshkin, princes Yuri and Mikhail Dolgoruky, Grigory and Andrey Romodanovsky, Mikhail Cherkassky, Matveev, Peter and Fyodor Saltykov, Yazykov and others - of worse birth. They received a Streltsy salary - two hundred and forty thousand rubles, and another ten rubles on top of that for each Streltsy as a bonus. (Gold and silver dishes had to be collected from all cities, poured into money in order to pay the archers.) A pillar was erected on Red Square, where the names of the murdered boyars, their guilt and atrocities were written on four sides. The regiments demanded letters of grant, where the boyars swore, neither now nor in the future, not to call the archers rebels or traitors, not to execute them in vain, and not to send them into exile.

Having eaten and drank the Kremlin reserves, the archers dispersed to the settlements, the townspeople - to the suburbs. And everything went as before. Nothing happened. Over Moscow, over the cities, over hundreds of districts spread across the vast land, a hundred-year twilight hung sour - poverty, servility, lack of contentment.

A man with a whipped ass was somehow picking at the hateful soil. The townsman howled in the cold courtyard from the unbearable tributes and exactions. All the small merchants groaned. A small landed nobleman was losing weight. The land was depleted; the harvest itself is three - thank you, Lord. Even the boyars and eminent merchants groaned. Did a boyar need much in his grandfather's time? - a sable fur coat and a throaty hat - that’s an honor. And at home I ate the same cabbage soup with corned beef, slept and prayed to God. Today my eyes have become hungrier: I wanted to live no worse than the Polish gentlemen, or the Livonians, or the Germans: we’ve heard enough, seen a lot. The heart flared with greed. The boyars began to create servants of a hundred souls each. But to put shoes on them, to dress them in coats of arms, to feed the insatiable horde - they don’t need the same money. It became indecent to live in wooden huts. Previously, the boyar or noblewoman left the yard in a sleigh on one horse, the serf sat on horseback, behind the arc. They hung fox tails on the collar, bridle, and harness to make people jealous. Now - order a gilded carriage from Danzig, harness it with fours - otherwise there is no honor. Where's the money? Tight, very tight.

The trade is bad. You can’t sell yours a lot, yours is a goal. You can't take it abroad - there's nothing to it. The seas are foreign. All trades with foreign countries were taken over by foreigners. If you listen to how they trade in other lands, you would break your head in frustration. What kind of Russia is this, a cursed country? When will you move?

There were two kings in Moscow - Ivan and Peter, and above them was the ruler, Princess Sophia. Some boyars were exchanged for others. That's all. Boredom. Time has stopped. There's nothing to wait for. At the memorial Streltsy pillar on Red Square there was at one time a sentry with a berdysh, but he disappeared somewhere. The common people piled everyone around the pillar. And again people began to murmur in the bazaars, and whispers began. The archers began to doubt: they didn’t finish the job then, there was a lot of noise, but there was no point. Shouldn't we finish it before it's too late?

The old people said that it was good in the old days: cheaper, more filling, more beautiful. Men and women danced around the villages. In the suburbs, people were swimming with fat from laziness. We have never heard of robberies. Oh, those were the days!..

In the Streltsy settlement, six schismatics appeared - schismatics, dry as a bone, unshakable men. “There is only one salvation,” they told the archers, “your only salvation is to overthrow the Nikonian patriarch and the entire boyar synclitte, which has become Nikonian and Polish, and return to the God-fearing faith, to the old life.” The schismatics read Solovetsky notebooks - about how to avoid the Nikonian charm and save their souls and lives. The Sagittarius cried as they listened. The schismatic elder Nikita Pustosvyat, standing on a cart at the market, read to the people from a Solovetsky notebook:

“I, my brothers, have seen the Antichrist, truly, I have seen... Once upon a time I, being sad, thinking about how the Antichrist would come, said prayers, but forgot myself, the accursed one. And on the field I see a lot of people. And someone is standing next to me. I tell him: why are there so many people? He answers: the Antichrist is coming, stop, do not be afraid. I propped myself up with a two-horned staff and stood cheerfully. And - they lead a naked man - his flesh is all stinking and very bad, it breathes fire, a stinking flame comes from his mouth, from his nostrils and from his ears. Our king will be followed by the authorities, and the boyars, and the okolnichi, and the Duma nobles... And I spat on him, I felt sick, terrible... I know from the scripture that he will soon be. There are already a lot of his bastards, rabid dogs...”

Now it was clear what to demand. The archers rushed to the Kremlin. The head of the Streltsy order, Ivan Andreevich Khovansky, was in favor of a split. Six bone schismatics with Nikita the Pustosvyat, without eating a crumb for three days, without drinking a drop, brought lecterns, wooden crosses and old books to the Chamber of Facets, and before Sophia’s eyes they barked and disgraced the patriarch and the clergy. The archers at the Red Porch shouted: “We want the old faith, we want the old.” And others said even more firmly: “It’s time for the Empress Princess to go to the monastery, to stir up trouble with the kingdom.” There was only one remedy left, and Sophia angrily threatened:

Do you want to exchange us for six blacks - men - ignoramuses? In such a time, we, the kings, cannot live here, we will go to other cities, we will announce to all the people about our ruin, about your betrayal...

The Sagittarius understood what Sophia was threatening, they were frightened: “What if she, guys, doesn’t move the noble militia to Moscow?..” They backed away! They began to come to an agreement. And by order of Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, tubs of vodka and beer were carried out from the royal cellars to the square. The archers trembled and their heads began to spin. Someone shouted: “To hell with the old faith, it’s a priest’s job, beat the schismatics.” One bone old man’s head was immediately cut off, two were crushed, the rest barely escaped with their legs.

The damned boyars got ordinary people drunk and turned away. Moscow was noisy like a beehive. Everyone shouted about their own things. One head was not found then - they raged in disarray. The royal taverns were destroyed. They caught clerks from orders and tore them to pieces. There is no passage or passage in Moscow. They went to besiege the boyars' yards, as soon as the boyars returned fire - there were great massacres in those days. Entire rows of huts were on fire. Uncollected corpses littered the streets and bazaars. There was a rumor that the boyars had gathered a militia near Moscow - they wanted to exterminate the rebellion at once. And once again the archers went with clouds of runaway slaves to the Kremlin, nailing on a spear a petition for the extradition of all the boyars to justice. Sophia went out onto the Red Porch, white with anger: “They are lying about us, and in the thoughts of that militia there was no sign, I kiss the cross on that,” she shouted, tearing off her sparkling diamond pectoral cross, “then Matveyka the Tsarevich is lying about us.” And from the porch they threw only one, the seedy Tatar prince Matveyka, onto the Streltsy spears: choke!

Matveyka was torn into small pieces, the rage was satisfied, and again the archers left with nothing... Moscow raged for three days and three nights, flocks of crows above it flew high from the alarm bells. And then the most desperate decision was born: to cut off the very head, to kill both kings and Sophia. But when Moscow woke up on the fourth day. The Kremlin was already empty: no kings, no princesses, they left with the boyars. Horror gripped the people.

Sophia went to the village of Kolomenskoye and sent privet to the districts to convene a noble militia. Throughout August she circled around Moscow in villages and monasteries, crying on porches, complaining about insults and ruin. Ivan Andreevich Khovansky remained in the Kremlin with the archers. They began to think: should they call him king? He is an amiable man, of an ancient family, of an old custom. There will be a king for the common people.

Expecting rich favors, the nobles quickly mounted their horses. A huge militia of two hundred thousand converged on Trinity-Sergius. And Sophia, like a bird, kept circling around Moscow. In September, the cavalry detachment she sent, with Styopka Odoevsky at its head, raided the village of Pushkino at dawn. There, while touring the Moscow region with archers, Ivan Andreevich Khovansky spent the night on a hillock in a tent. The Sagittarius slept carelessly. They, sleepy, were all chopped up with sabers. Ivan Andreevich, in his underwear, jumped out of the tent, waving his reed. Mikhail Tyrtov rushed straight from his horse onto his shoulders. Having fastened Ivan Andreevich to the saddle, they took him to the village of Vozdvizhenskoye, where Sophia celebrated her name day. At the outskirts of the village, boyars sat on benches, dressed for wartime - in helmets and caps. Mikhail Tyrtov threw Khovansky from the saddle, and out of grief and shame, undressed, he knelt on the grass and began to cry. The Duma clerk Shaklovity read a fairy tale about his wines. Ivan Andreevich shouted with rage: “Lies! If it weren’t for me, Moscow would have been knee-deep in blood long ago...” It was difficult for the boyars to decide to shed the blood of such an ancient family. Vasily Vasilyevich sat whiter than snow. Both he and Khovansky were Gediminovichs, and Gediminovich was now being judged by noble, recent upstarts. Seeing such hesitation, Ivan Mikhailovich Miloslavsky went to the horsemen and whispered to Styopka Odoevsky. He galloped at full speed through the village to the silk tent of Princess Sophia and returned with the same stroke, trampling the chickens and small children. “The ruler ordered, without any doubt, to put an end to the prince.” Vasily Vasilyevich hastily walked away and covered his eyes with a handkerchief. Khovansky screamed wildly when Mikhail Tyrtov grabbed him by the hair, dragging him into the dust onto the road. Here, near the outskirts, Khovansky’s head was cut off.

The archers were left without heads. Having learned about the execution, they rushed to the Kremlin in horror, closed the gates, loaded the cannons, and prepared for a siege, just like the Poles a hundred years ago, when Moscow was besieged by the troops of the Novgorod merchants.

Sophia hurried to Trinity-Sergievo under the protection of impregnable walls. She instructed Vasily Vasilyevich to lead the militia. And so both sides stood, threatening, waiting to see who would get scared first. The archers got scared and sent petitioners to Trinity. They confessed. That was the end of their will. The pillar on Red Square was demolished. The free certificates were taken back. Shaklovity, who was quick to execute, was appointed head of the Streltsy order. Many regiments were sent to cities. The people became quieter than water, lower than the grass. And again a hopeless silence hung over Moscow, over the whole earth. The years dragged on.

At dusk, Aleksashka was running along the street along the fences. My heart hurt, sweat blurred my eyes. A hut burning in the distance darkly illuminated the puddles in the ruts. About twenty paces from Aleksashka, drunken Danila Menshikov was running, his boots thumping. This time the whip was not in his hand - the curved knife sparkled. “Stop! - Danila screamed in a terrible voice, “I’ll kill you!..” Alyoshka was left behind long ago, climbed a tree somewhere.

Aleksashka did not see his father for more than a year, and then he met him at a broken and set fire to a tavern, and Danila immediately chased after his son. All this time, Aleksashka and Alyoshka lived, although from hand to mouth, but cheerfully. In the settlements the boys were known well and were warmly allowed to spend the night. During the summer they wandered around Moscow through groves and rivers. They caught songbirds and sold them to merchants. They stole berries and vegetables from gardens. Everyone thought - to catch and train the bear to break, but the animal did not fall easily into the hands. Fished.

One day, having cast a fishing rod into the quiet and bright Yauza, which flowed out of the dense forests of Losinov Island, they saw on the other bank a boy sitting with his chin propped up. He was dressed wonderfully - in white stockings and a green non-Russian caftan with red lapels and clear buttons. Not far away, on a hillock, the ridged roofs of the Preobrazhensky Palace rose from behind linden bushes. Once upon a time it was all visible, reflected in the river, elegant and colorful, but now it was overgrown with leaves and fell into disrepair.

Women were running at the gate and across the meadow, shouting for someone - they must have been looking for the boy. But he, sitting angrily behind the burdock trees, didn’t even listen. Aleksashka spat on the worm and shouted across the river:

Hey, scare our fish... Look, we'll take off our trousers and swim across - we'll...

The boy just snorted. Alexashka again:

Who are you, whose? Boy…

“But I’ll order you to cut off your head,” the boy said in a dull voice, “then you will find out...

Now Alyoshka whispered to Alexashka:

What are you talking about, this is the king, - and he threw the rod to run without looking back. Alexashka’s blue eyes sparkled with self-indulgence.”

Wait, we’ll run away, we’ll make it in time. - He threw out the fishing rod and began to look at the boy, laughing. - They were very scared of you, one of them cut off your head... Why are you sitting there? They are looking for you...

I’m sitting, hiding from the women.

I look to see if you are our king. A?

The boy did not answer right away - apparently he was surprised that they spoke boldly.

Well - the king. What do you want?

Like what... But you should have gone ahead and brought us some sugar gingerbread. (Peter looked at Alexashka intently, without smiling.) By God, run and bring it, I’ll show you a trick. - Alexashka took off his hat and pulled out a needle from behind the lining. - Look, is there a needle or not?.. If you want, I’ll drag the needle and thread through my cheek, and nothing will happen...

Are you lying? - asked Peter.

Here I will cross myself. Do you want me to cross my leg? - Alexashka quickly sat down, grabbed his bare foot and crossed himself with his foot. Peter was even more surprised.

If only the tsar would run after you for gingerbread,” he said grumpily. - Will you drag a needle for money?

I’ll spend silver money three times and nothing will happen.

Are you lying? - Peter began to blink with curiosity. He stood up, looked from behind the burdocks in the direction of the palace, where some women were still fussing, calling, calling him, and ran from the other side along the bank to the bridge.

Having reached the end of the bridge, he found himself three steps from Aleksashka. Blue dragonflies chattered above the water. Clouds and a weeping willow broken by lightning were reflected. Standing under the hut, Aleksashka showed Peter a trick - he pulled a needle with a black thread through his cheek three times - and there was nothing: not a drop of blood, only three dirty spots on his cheek. Peter looked with owl eyes.

Give me the needle,” he said impatiently.

What are you - money?

Aleksashka picked up the thrown ruble on the fly. Peter, taking the needle from him, began to drag it through his cheek. He pierced, dragged and laughed, throwing back his curly head: “No worse than you, no worse than you!” Forgetting about the boys, he ran to the palace, probably to teach the boyars to smuggle needles.

The ruble was brand new - on one side there was a double-headed eagle, on the other - the ruler Sophia. Aleksashka and Alyoshka have never made so much money. From then on, they got into the habit of going to the banks of the Yauza, but Peter was only seen from afar. Either he was riding on a dwarf horse, and fat guys were galloping behind him, then he was walking with a drum in front of the guys dressed in German caftans, with wooden muskets, and again the same guys were fussing around, waving their arms.

He’s busy with trifles,” said Aleksashka, sitting under a broken willow tree.

At the end of the summer, he managed to buy from the gypsies for fifty dollars a thin bear cub with a hump like a pig's. Alyoshka began to lead him by the ring. Aleksashka sang, danced, fought with the bear. But autumn came, and the rains stirred up knee-deep mud on Moscow streets and squares. There is nowhere to dance. They are not allowed into the huts with the beast. And the bear ate a lot before - he ate it all, and he also tried to go to sleep for the winter. I had to sell it at a loss. In winter, Alyoshka, dressed as pitifully as possible, begged for alms. Aleksashka was shaking in the church squares, naked to the waist, in the cold, as if mute, paralyzed, squeezing out a lot of money. There is no point in angering God, but we lived through the winter well.

And again - the earth dried out, the groves turned green, the birds began to sing. There are plenty of things to do: at dawn in the foggy river to fish, during the day - to wander around the markets, in the evening - to set a snare in the grove. People told Alexashka many times: “Look, your father has been looking for you in Moscow for a long time, threatening to kill you.” Aleksashka only spat three fathoms through his teeth. And out of the blue, he ran into...

Aleksashka ran all the way through old Basmannaya; his legs began to cramp. He didn’t look back anymore, he heard: boots were stomping closer and closer behind him, Danila was breathing whistlingly. Well - it's over! “Karauuuul!” - Aleksashka shouted squeaky...

At this time, a tall carriage turned, swaying, from the alley onto Razgulay, where the famous tavern stood. Two horses harnessed by a goose were walking at a fast trot. In the front sat a German in stockings and a wide-brimmed hat. Aleksashka immediately swerved towards the rear wheels, hung on the axle, and climbed onto the back of the carriage. Seeing this, Danila roared: “Stop!” But the German whipped him with a backhand, and Danila, choking with curses, fell into the mud. The carriage passed.

Alexashka was resting, sitting on his heels - he had to get as far away from this place as possible. Outside the Pokrovsky Gate the carriage turned onto a smooth road, went faster and soon arrived at a high palisade. A foreign man stood up from the gate and asked something. A head stuck out of the carriage, like a priest’s, with long curls, but his face was shaved. “Franz Lefort,” the head answered. The gates opened, and Aleksashka found himself in Kukui, in a German settlement. The wheels rustled on the sand. The welcoming light from the windows of small houses fell on low fences, on trimmed trees, on glass balls standing on poles among the sandy paths. In the gardens in front of the houses the flowers were white and smelled wonderful. Here and there Germans sat on benches and porches wearing knitted caps and holding long pipes.

“Honest mother, they live cleanly,” thought Aleksashka, turning his head behind the carriage. Lights sparkled in the eyes. We drove past a quadrangular pond - along its edges there were round trees in green tubs, and between them there were burning bowls, illuminating several boats, where, having raised their outer skirts so as not to wrinkle them, sat women with bare arms up to the elbows, with open breasts, hats with feathers, laughed and sang. Here, under the windmill, at the illuminated door of the austeria, or in our opinion - the tavern, girls and men danced in pairs.

Musketeers walked everywhere - in the Kremlin, stern and silent, here - in unbuttoned caftans, without weapons, arm in arm with each other, singing songs, laughing - without anger, peacefully. Everything was peaceful here, welcoming: as if it were not on earth - it was time to rub your eyes.

Suddenly they drove into a wide courtyard, in the middle of which water was gushing from a round lake. In the background was a brick-painted house with white pillars attached to it. The carriage stopped. A man with long hair got out of it and saw Alexashka jumping off his back.

Who are you, why are you, where are you from? - he asked, pronouncing the words funny. - I'm asking you, boy. Are you a thief?

Am I the thief? Then beat me to death if I'm a thief. - Alexashka looked cheerfully into his shaved face with an upturned nose and a small smiling mouth. - Did you see how my father ran after me with a knife on Razgulay?

A! Yes, I saw it... I laughed: big after small...

My father will kill me anyway... Please take me into the service... Uncle...

For service? What can you do?

I can do everything... The first thing is to sing whatever songs you want. I play pipes, horns, and spoons. I can make you laugh - how many times have people burst, that’s how much I can make you laugh. I’ll start dancing at dawn, I’ll finish at dawn, and I won’t sweat... Whatever you tell me, I can do...

Franz Lefort took Alexashka by the sharp chin. Apparently he liked the boy.

Oh, you are a decent boy... Take some soap and wash yourself, for you are dirty... And then I will give you a dress... You will serve... But if you steal...

We don’t do this, we, tea, have intelligence or not,” said Aleksashka so confidently that Franz Lefort believed it. Having shouted something to the groom about Aleksashka, he walked towards the house, whistling, twisting his toes and seeming to dance as he walked, probably because music was playing nearby on the lake and German women were squealing provocatively.

Yes, it will be for you, Nikita Moiseevich, no matter how much the child’s head hurts...

As soon as Natalya Kirillovna said this, Tsar Peter stopped reading the Apostle mid-sentence, hastily crossed himself with his ink-stained fingers and, without waiting for the teacher and uncle, Nikita Moiseev Zotov, according to the charter, bowed at his feet, kissed his mother’s hand, which was helplessly trembling to grab , to hold his son for a moment - and his clumsy steps rushed impatiently along the creaking floorboards and steps of the passages and stairs, frightening the elderly old women in the dark corners of the Preobrazhensky Palace.

He'll bake a hat, a hat, a head! - the queen weakly shouted after her.

Nikita Zotov stood in front of her earnestly and straight, as in church - combed, clean, in soft boots, in a dark, thin cloth fur coat - the collar at the back stuck out above his head. A handsome face with soft lips and a curly beard is thrown back with zeal. A good man - and there is nothing to say. Tell him: throw yourself, Nikita, at the knife - he will throw himself. He is more devoted than a dog, but he is too bright and light-hearted. This is not the kind of uncle a restive boy would need.

You, Nikita Moiseevich, read more of the divine with him. Otherwise, he doesn’t even look like a king... After all, before you look back, he’ll soon be getting married... He still hasn’t learned how to walk with his feet, he’s running around like a simpleton... Well, look there...

Looking out the window, the queen weakly clasped her hands. Peter ran across the yard, stumbling from haste. Behind him are lanky guys from the palace servants, with muskets and hatchets on long shafts. On the earthen rampart, an amusing fortress built in front of the palace, behind a palisade stood men driven from the village in wide German hats. They were also required to hold tobacco pipes in their mouths. Frightenedly looking at the king running in a hurry, they forgot how to play. Peter crowed angrily in a rooster's voice. With a shudder, Natalya Kirillovna saw Petenka’s wild, round eyes. He climbed to the top of the fortress and, angry, struck several times with a musket one of the funny men, who had pulled his head into his shoulders.

It’s not his way - he’ll kill him,” said Natalya Kirillovna, “Who does he have a hot temper for?”

The game started again. Lined up with lanky guys with axes, Peter again became angry that he was poorly understood. This was a disaster: when he got excited, he began to speak unintelligibly, choking on haste, as if he wanted to say much more than there were words on his tongue.

Why did his head start twitching like that? - said Natalya Kirillovna, looking at her son with fear. And suddenly she covered her ears. The men in the fortress rolled out an oak cannon, which, according to the strict orders of the queen, was loaded with the softest one: steamed turnips or apples, and fired. And immediately, throwing down their weapons, they raised their hands - as a sign that they were surrendering.

You can't give up! We must fight! - Peter shouted, twisting and shaking his head. - At first! All over again!..

Nikita Moiseevich, close the window, they are making a lot of noise, I have a headache,” said the queen.

The colored window closed. Natalya Kirillovna bowed her head and slightly moved her fingers, fingering the Athos rosary and holy shells. Sad. From grief and tears over the years, Natalya Kirillovna has aged, only her eyebrows and once fiery dark eyes remain of her beauty. She was always dressed in black, covered with a black scarf. So in Uglich, Queen Marya Nagaya once lived, with the unfortunate Dimitri... The same misfortune would not have happened here... Ruler Sophia sits and sees - to marry Golitsyn and reign. I also ordered a crown for myself from German craftsmen.

The Preobrazhensky Palace is deserted, only servants run around on tiptoe, and old women - mothers, nannies - whisper in the dark corners. The Tsar may be young, but he can’t stand the old woman’s spirit: when he sees some nanny, dripping with wax, making her way along the wall, she will make such a noise, and the old woman will barely crawl to the corner without memory.

Boyars do not come to Preobrazhenskoe - there is no honor or profit here. Everyone crowds into the Kremlin, closer to the sun. So that it would not be completely shameful, Sophia ordered four boyars to be at the court of Tsar Peter: Prince Mikhail Alegukovich Cherkassky, Prince Lykov, Prince Troekurov and Prince Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn. How much use are they? They lazily dismount from their horses at the porch, go up to the queen’s hand, sit down and - silently, sigh. There is little to talk about with the disgraced queen. Peter will run into the upper room, - the boyars, bowing to the non-reigning king, will inquire about his sovereign health, and again they sigh, shake their heads: the king is becoming too fast - look, there is a scratch on his cheek, his hands are on tiptoe. Indecent.

Nikita Moiseevich, they told me, there is a woman in Mytishchi. The sparrow is telling fortunes on the leaven grounds - that’s right - everything is coming true... - said the queen. - I should send for her!.. Yes, I’m afraid of something... I wouldn’t say anything bad...

Mother Empress, what bad things can the vile woman Sparrow tell you? - Zotov answered in a singsong, pleasant voice. - In this time, tearing Sparrow to pieces is not enough.

Natalya Kirillovna raised her finger and beckoned. Zotov approached silently in soft boots.

Moiseich... Just now in the kitchen - the Streltsy widow was bringing a sieve of berries - she said: Sophia screamed in the palace the other day, and everyone heard: “It’s a pity, she says, the Streltsy didn’t strangle the wolf cub with the she-wolf then...”

Natalya Kirillovna’s lips began to tremble, her double chin, covered in a black scarf, began to tremble, and her large eyes filled with tears.

What should I answer her? What to console? Sophia has rifle regiments, behind Sophia there is the entire noble militia, and Peter has three dozen amusing overgrown fools and a wooden cannon loaded with turnips... Nikita Zotov spread his palms, threw back his head until the back of his head rested on the hard collar...

“Send for Sparrow,” whispered the queen, “let him tell the truth, otherwise it’s worse...

It's a long, boring summer day. White clouds float and do not float over the Yauza. It's sultry. Flies. Through the haze one can see the countless domes of Moscow and the tops of the fortress towers. Closer - the needle of a German pickaxe, windmills on Kukui. The chickens moan, inducing drowsiness. Knives are knocking in the kitchen.

It used to be, under Alexei Mikhailovich, there was laughter and noise in Preobrazhenskoye, crowds of people, horses neighing. There is always some kind of fun - hunting or bear baiting, horse racing. And now, look, the road here from the stone gate is overgrown with grass. Life has passed. Sit and finger your rosary.

Something was thrown at the glass. Zotov opened the window. Peter called, standing under a linden tree, covered in dust, covered in soil, sweaty, like a peasant:

Nikita, write a decree... My men are no good, they are too old, stupid... Hurry up!

What do you order the decree to be written about, Your Royal Majesty? - Nikita asked.

I need a hundred kind, young men... Hurry...

And to write, what are these men needed for?

For military fun... They would send muskets, not broken ones, and a fire potion for them... Yes, two cast-iron cannons to shoot... Hurry, hurry... I’ll sign, we’ll send a messenger...

The queen, bending back a linden branch, leaned into the window:

Petenka, my light, will fight everything for you... I wish you could rest, sit next to me...

Mom, once, mom, later...

He ran away. The queen saw her son off with a long sigh. Zotov, having made the sign of the cross, took a quill pen and a knife out of his pocket and carefully sharpened the pen and tried it on a nail. Crossing himself once again, with a prayer, he pulled back his sleeve and sat down to write half-written: “By the grace of God, we, the Most Serene and Most Powerful Great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, are the autocrat of all Great and Little and White Russia...”

Out of boredom, the queen took Petrushin’s textbook to read. Arithmetic. The notebook is covered in ink stains, it is written at random, illegible: “An example of aditiation... I have a lot of debt, but I have less money than I owe, and I need to subtract it - it’s a lot to pay. And then they put it like this: the debt is above, and below it is the money, and they take out every word from below and from above. For example: one of two remains one. And write two on top, one below it, and under the unit put a smart line, under the smart line - the number you get, or a smart number...”

The queen yawned, “I don’t want to, or something else...

Nikita Moiseevich, I forgot - did we have lunch today or not?

Empress Mother, Natalya Kirillovna. - Zotov, putting down his pen, stood up and bowed. - Once you had dinner - you deigned to rest and, getting up, had lunch - they served you berries with sweets, pear broth and monastery honey...

And then... Vespers will soon begin...

The queen lazily got up and went to the bedchamber. There, by the light of the lamps (the window was curtained), feisty old women, hangers-on, sat against the wall on covered chests and whispered insults to each other. Standing up at once, like rags - without bones, they bowed to the queen. She sat down under the icons on a high-backed Venice chair. A dwarf with festering eyes crawled out from behind the bed, sobbing like a child, and took a nap at the empress’s feet—the hangers-on had somehow offended her.

“Tell me about your dreams, you stupid women,” said Natalya Kirillovna. - Has anyone seen the unicorn?

Ending the day, the bell slowly struck on the tower of the palace church. In the entryway, on the stairs, appeared, rubbing their swollen eyes, boyar children from small estates, noble-born - stewards assigned by Sophia to Peter's palace. Vasily Volkov was also here - his father smashed his forehead on the thresholds and achieved honor for his son. The life was satisfying and easy, the salary was sixty rubles a year. But it's boring. The guards slept almost all day and night.

The bell rang for vespers. The king was nowhere to be found. The guards wandered off to look for him in the yard, in the vegetable gardens, and in the meadow to the river. To help them, the queen sent about two dozen mothers with loud voices. They searched and searched the whole area - there was no king anywhere. Fathers, have you drowned? The steward's drowsiness suddenly disappeared. They jumped on bareback horses and scattered across the evening field, shouting and calling. There was a commotion in the palace. The old women hurriedly whispered in all corners: “It’s certainly her doing - Sonya... Just now some man was walking around the palace... And they saw a knife behind his boot... They stabbed, stabbed our breadwinner father...” Natalya Kirillovna was driven to such an ominous level by this ominous whisper that, distraught, she ran out onto the porch. Smoke wafted from the dark fields, and twitchers poked in the damp hollows. In the distance, a dim, gloomy star appeared above the black Sokolniki Forest. Natalya Kirillovna’s heart was pierced with melancholy; wringing her hands, she shouted:

Petenka, my son!

Vasily Volkov, riding his horse along the river, ran into a fisherman's fire - the fishermen jumped up in fear, the cast iron with ruffs overturned into the fire. Volkov asked, breathless:

Guys, have you seen the Tsar?

Wasn’t he the one who sailed in the boat just now?.. It seems like they were rowing straight to Kukui. Look for it from the Germans...

The gates to the settlement were not yet locked. Volkov rushed down the street to where the Germans were crowding. From the top he saw the king and next to him a long-haired, medium-sized man with the flaps of a short caftan splayed out like a turkey's. In one hand - as he flew away - he held a hat, in the other - a cane and, laughing freely, - a dog's son - he spoke to the king. Peter listened and chewed his nail. And all the Germans stood shamelessly freely. Volkov jumped off his horse, pushed through, and knelt in front of the Tsar.

Dear sir, the queen mother is being killed: God knows what they thought about you. If you please, go home and stand vespers...

Peter impatiently jerked his head to the side - towards his shoulder.

I don’t want... Get out of here... - And, since Volkov continued to look earnestly at him from his knees, the king caught fire and kicked him. - Go away, slave!

Volkov bowed low and gloomily, without looking at those who laughed, and went at a sedate trot to report to the queen. A benevolent German with a double pink chin - in a vest, a knitted cap and embroidered shoes - the wine merchant Ivan Mons, who came out of the austerium to look at the young king, took a porcelain pipe from his mouth.

It’s more pleasant for the Tsar’s Majesty than at home, it’s more fun here...

The foreigners standing around, taking out their pipes, shook their heads and confirmed with good-natured smiles:

Oh yes, we have more fun...

And they moved closer to listen to what a smart man in a magnificently curled wig, Franz Lefort, was saying to the long, childish-necked king. Peter met him on the Yauza: they were sailing in a heavy plow, the servants rowed clumsily, banging their rowlocks. Peter sat on the bow with his legs crossed. Illuminated by the sunset, tiled roofs, sharp spiers, tops of trimmed trees, windmills with weather vanes, and dovecotes slowly approached. Strange music was coming from Kukui. It was as if in reality he saw a city from a distant kingdom, a distant state, about which the nannies muttered to Peter in his cradle.

On the shore, on a heap of garbage, a man appeared in a velvet caftan spread out at the sides, with a sword and in a black hat with the edges curled on three sides - Captain Franz Lefort. Peter saw him in the Kremlin when foreign ambassadors were received. Moving his left hand with his cane to the side, he took off his hat, stepped back and bowed - the curled braids of his wig covered his face. He straightened up just as briskly and, smiling at the raised corners of his mouth, spoke brokenly in Russian:

At your royal majesty's service...

Peter looked at him, craning his neck, as if at a miracle - this man was so clever, cheerful, and unlike anyone else. Lefort spoke, shaking his curls:

I can show you a water mill that grinds snuff, crushes millet, shakes a weaving mill and lifts water into a huge barrel. I can also show you a mill wheel in which a dog runs and turns it. In the house of the wine merchant Mons there is a musical box with twelve gentlemen and ladies on the lid and also two birds, quite consistent with nature, but the size of a fingernail. Birds sing like a nightingale and shake their tails and wings, although all this is nothing more than the most cunning laws of mechanics. I will show you a telescope through which they look at the month and see seas and mountains on it. At the pharmacist's you can look at a female baby living in alcohol - the face is across one and a half quarters, the body is covered in wool, there are two fingers on the arms and legs.

Peter's eyes widened with curiosity. But he remained silent, clenching his small mouth. For some reason it seemed that if he climbed out onto the shore - long-armed, long - Lefort would laugh at him. Out of shyness, he sniffled angrily and did not dare to get out, although the boat had already hit the shore. Then Lefort ran to the water - cheerful, handsome, good-natured - grabbed Peter's scratched hand with chewed nails and pressed it to his heart.

Oh, our good Kukuis will be heartily glad to see your Majesty... They will show you very funny little tricks...

Lefort was clever and cunning. Before Peter even came to his senses, waving his arms, he was walking next to him towards the gates of the settlement. Here they were surrounded by well-fed, red-cheeked, kind Kukuis, and everyone wanted to show off their house, their mill, where a dog ran in a wheel, their vegetable garden with sandy paths, trimmed bushes and not a single extra blade of grass. They showed all the mental things that Lefort talked about.

Peter was surprised, I kept asking: “Why is this? What is this for? How is this arranged?..” The Kukuy people shook their heads and said approvingly: “Oh, young Pyotr Alekseevich wants to know everything, this is commendable...” Finally they approached the quadrangular pond. It was already dark. The light from the open door of the austerium fell on the water. Peter saw a small boat with a small sail hanging without wind. In it sat a young girl in a white dress as lush as a rose. Her hair was up and decorated with flowers, and she held a lute in her bare hands. Peter was terribly surprised - he even became scared for some reason. Turning her face, wonderful in the twilight, towards him, the girl began to play the strings and sang in a thin voice in German, so pitiful and pleasant that everyone’s noses tickled. Between the green balls and cones of trimmed trees, white tobacco flowers smelled sweetly. From an incomprehensible impression, Peter’s heart began to beat wildly. Lefort told him:

She sings in your honor. This is a very good girl, the daughter of a wealthy wine merchant Johann Mons.

Johann Mons himself, holding a pipe, cheerfully raised his hand and nodded to Peter. Lefort's seductive voice whispered:

Now the girls will gather in the austeria, there will be dancing and fireworks, or fiery fun...

Horse hooves ran wildly down the dark street. A crowd of royal stewards made their way to the king with a strict order from the queen to go home. This time I had to submit.

Foreigners who visited the Kremlin said with surprise that, unlike Paris, Vienna, London, Warsaw or Stockholm, the royal court was more like a merchant's office. No gallant fun, no balls, no games, no subtle entertainment with music. Gold-furred boyars, arrogant princes, famous governors talked only in the low and hot Kremlin chambers about trade deals for hemp, potash, blubber, grain, leather... They argued and barked about prices. They sighed - what, they say. Here the land is abundant and there is a lot of everything, but trade is bad, the boyar estates are vast, but there is nothing to sell from them. There are Tatars on the Black Sea, you can’t get through to the Baltic Sea, China is far away, the British hold everything in the north. I wish I could fight the seas, but I wouldn’t be able to.

Moreover, the Russian people were not very agile. They lived like bears behind strong gates, behind an impenetrable tine in estates in Moscow. Three services were held per day. We ate heartily four times, and slept during the day for the sake of decency and health. There was little free time left: the boyar - to go to the palace, wait until the tsar wants to demand service from him, the merchant - to sit at the shop, inviting passers-by, the clerk - to sniff over the letters.

The Russian people would have been scratching their sides, groaning and complaining for a long time, but the unexpected happened - happiness struck. The Polish king Jan Sobieski sent great ambassadors to Moscow to talk about an alliance against the Turks. The Poles said kindly that it was impossible to allow the filthy Turks to torture Christians, and it was not good for Orthodox Russians to be at peace with the Turkish Sultan and the Crimean Khan. Moscow immediately realized that the Poles were in trouble and it was time to bargain with them. And so it was: Poland, in alliance with the Austrian emperor, barely fought off the Turks; the Swedes threatened it from the north. Everyone still remembered the devastating Thirty Years' War, when the Austrian Empire was shaken, Germany was depopulated and Poland became almost a Swedish fiefdom. The masters of the seas turned out to be the French, Dutch, Turks, and along the entire Baltic coast - the Swedes. It was clear what the Poles were now seeking; to protect the Ukrainian steppes with Russian troops from the Turkish Sultan.

The royal great seals and state embassy affairs guardian and governor of Novgorod, Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, demanded that the Poles return Kyiv. “Give us back the original royal estate of Kyiv with its towns, then next year we will send an army to the Crimea to fight the Khan.” For three and a half months the Poles argued: “It’s better for us to lose everything than to give up Kyiv.” The Russians were in no hurry, stood their ground, and read to the Poles all the chronicles from the beginning of the baptism of Rus'. And they sat and argued.

Jan Sobieski, defeated by the Turks in Bessarabia, crying, signed an eternal peace with Moscow and the return of Kyiv with its towns. Luck was great, but there was nowhere to go - we had to gather an army and go to fight the khan.

Opposite Okhotny Ryad, in the Golitsyn courtyard, it was clean and orderly. The copper-clad walls of the house shone hotly, from roof to ground. At the entrance, standing on rugs were two tall musketeers - Swiss, wearing iron helmets and cowhide armor. The other two guarded the end-to-end gilded gates. On the other side, a crowd of ordinary people wandering along Okhotny Ryad gazed at the well-fed faces of the Swiss, at the wide courtyard lined with colored slabs, at the magnificent, glass-covered carriage drawn by the red fours, at the copper-shining house of the treasurer, the lover of the princess-ruler.

In this unbearable stuffiness, Vasily Vasilyevich himself sat in the draft near the open window and had a conversation in Latin with the foreigner de Neuville, who had arrived from Warsaw. The guest was wearing a wig and a French dress, which had just begun to be worn at the court of Louis the Fourteenth. Vasily Vasilyevich was without a wig, but also in French - in stockings and red shoes, in short velvet pants with ribbons - on his stomach and sides, thin underwear in lace was knocked out from under a velvet jacket. He shaved his beard, but left the mustache. On the French table in front of him lay scrolls and notebooks, Latin books on parchment, maps and architectural drawings. On the walls, upholstered in gilded leather, hung parsuns, or - in a new way - portraits, of the Golitsyn princes and in a magnificent Venice frame - an image of a double-headed eagle holding a portrait of Sophia in its paws. French - trellis and Italian - brocade chairs, colorful carpets, several wall clocks, Persian weapons, a copper globe, a thermometer made in England, cast silver candlesticks and chandeliers, book bindings and on the vaulted ceiling - a celestial sphere painted in gold, silver and azure - were reflected many times in mirrors, in walls and above doors.

The guest looked with approving curiosity at this half-Asian, half-European decoration. Vasily Vasilyevich, playing with a quill pen, crossing his legs and smiling generously, said (only sometimes stumbling over Latin words and pronouncing them somewhat in the Moscow way):

Let me explain to you, Monsieur de Neuville. Our state is based on two classes: the feeding and the serving, that is, the peasantry and the nobility. Both of these classes find themselves in great poverty, and therefore there is no benefit to the state from them, nothing but ruin. It would be a great happiness to tear the landowners away from the peasants, for now the landowner, for the sake of self-interest alone, devours the serf peasant without mercy,” and that is why the peasant is bad, and the landowner is bad, and the state is bad...

“Highly thoughtful and wise words, Mr. Chancellor,” said de Neuville. - But how do you dream of completing this difficult task?

Vasily Vasilyevich, lighting up with a smile, took from the table a notebook in morocco, written in his hand: “On civil life or the correction of all matters that should be common to the people...”

It would be a great and difficult task if the entire people could be enriched,” he said and began to read from the notebook: “Many millions of dessiatines lie in the wastelands. Those lands would have to be plowed and sown. Livestock multiply. The Russian thin sheep should be taken out and the English fine-wool sheep will be forced to be adopted instead. To get people interested in all kinds of crafts and mining, giving them fair benefits from it. Abolish the many unbearable quitrents, corvées, taxes and duties and impose a single, universal, moderate tax on everyone. This is only possible if you think about it if you take all the land from the landowners and plant free peasants on it. Destroy all former serf bondages, so that henceforth the entire people will not be in any kind of bondage, except for a small number of servants...”

“Mr. Chancellor,” exclaimed de Neuville, “history knows no examples of a ruler conceiving such great and decisive plans.” (Vasily Vasilyevich immediately lowered his eyes, and his matte cheeks turned pink.) But would the nobility agree to meekly give the land to the peasants and enslave the slaves?

In return for the land, the landowners will receive a salary. The troops will be recruited from the nobility alone. We are eliminating the dachshund recruits from slaves and tax-paying people. Let the peasant mind his own business. For their service, the nobles will receive not land allocation and souls, but an increased salary, which the royal treasury will take from the general land tax. State income should more than double...

“I imagine I hear an ancient philosopher,” de Neuville whispered.

Noble children, minors, should be sent to Poland, France and Sweden to study military affairs. It is necessary to establish academies and sciences. We will decorate ourselves with arts. Let us populate our deserts with hardworking peasants. We will turn wild people into literate people, dirty huts into stone chambers. Cowards will become brave. We will enrich the poor. (Vasily Vasilyevich glanced sideways at the window, where a pillar of dust was wandering along the street, raising fluff and straw.) We will pave the streets with stones. We will build Moscow from stone and brick... Wisdom will shine over the poor country.

Without parting with the goose feather, he left the chair, walked on the carpets, and expressed many more extraordinary thoughts to his guest:

The English people themselves crushed the unjust order, but in their malice they reached the point of great crimes - they touched the head of the anointed one... Fearing these horrors, we thirst for good equally for all classes. If the nobility resists our initiatives, we will forcefully break their ancient stubbornness...

The conversation was interrupted. The livery servant, widening his eyes in fear, approached on tiptoe and whispered something to the prince. Vasily Vasilyevich's face became intensely serious. De Neuville, noticing this, took his hat and began to bow, backing towards the door. Behind him, bowing in the same way and roundly, from the heart downwards, waving his hand in rings and lace, walked Vasily Vasilyevich.

I am very upset and in great despair, Monsieur de Neuville, that you deign to leave me so soon.

Left alone, he looked at himself in the mirror and, hastily clicking his heels, walked into the bedchamber. There, on a double bed under a scarlet silk canopy decorated with ostrich feathers at the top, sat the ruler Sophia, leaning her temple against a twisted column. As always, she arrived secretly in a closed carriage from the back door.

Sonyushka, hello, my light...

Without answering, she raised her gloomy face and gazed intently at Vasily Vasilyevich with green, manly eyes. He stopped in bewilderment before reaching the bed.

Is there some trouble? - Empress...

This winter, Sophia secretly poisoned the fruit. Her plump face, with strong muscles on the sides of her mouth, no longer showed the same blush - worries, thoughts, anxieties lay on it with a disgusted expression. She dressed magnificently, still like a girl, but her demeanor was feminine, portly, and confident. She was tormented by the need to hide her love for Vasily Vasilyevich. Although everyone knew about this before the black scullery girl, and recently, instead of the sinful and shameful name - lover - the foreign decent word galant was found - it was still poisonous, it was not good, - without the law, not married, not twisted, - to give your beloved no longer a young body. If only this spring, with all her feminine strength and sweet flour, she would have given birth... People forced her to poison the fetus... And her love for Vasily Vasilyevich was restless, beyond the measure of her years: it’s good for a seventeen-year-old girl to love like that, - with eternal anxiety, hiding, thinking relentlessly, burning in bed at night. And sometimes hatred sat up in his throat like a ball, - after all, he was the source of all the torment, he was the poisoned fruit... And at least it would have mattered to him: he wiped himself off, and to the side...

Sitting in the bed, wide, with legs missing to the floor, hotly wet under a heavy dress, Sophia looked unfriendly at Vasily Vasilyevich.

“You’re dressed up funny,” she said, “what is that French thing you’re wearing?” If it’s not pants, it’s just a woman’s dress... They will laugh... (She turned away, suppressed a sigh.) Yes, trouble, trouble, my father... We have little to rejoice at...

Lately, Sophia had been coming to him more and more often, gloomy, with unspoken thoughts. Vasily Vasilyevich knew that two joker women close to her, snooping around the back streets of the palace all day, listened to boyar speeches and whispers and, as Sophia went to bed, reported everything to her.

It’s empty, madam,” said Vasily Vasilyevich, “you never know what people talk about, don’t worry, quit it...

Quit? “She rapped her nails on the bedpost, and her teeth gradually opened angrily. - Do you know what they talk about in Moscow! To rule the kingdom, they say, we are weak... Great deeds are not visible from us...

Vasily Vasilyevich touched his mustache with his finger and shrugged his shoulder. Sophia glanced sideways at him: oh, handsome, oh, my torment... Yes, he’s weak, the veins are feminine... He’s dressed up in lace...

So, my father... You are good at reading books and writing, bright thoughts, I know myself... And yesterday after Vespers, Uncle Ivan Mikhailovich said about you: “Vasily Vasilyevich read to me from a notebook about smerds, about men, - I wondered: is the prince’s head really healthy?” And the boyars laughed...

Like a girl, Vasily Vasilyevich flushed, darting his azure eyes from under his long eyelashes.

It was not written for their minds!”

Yes, no matter what we have, we couldn’t be smarter than servants... I can endure it myself: I would like to dance like the Polish queen dances, or ride out on a horse for falconry, sitting sideways in a long skirt. I’m silent... I can’t do anything, they will say: a heretic. The Patriarch is already thrusting his hand into my hands like a shovel.

“We live among monsters,” Vasily Vasilyevich whispered.

I’ll tell you what, father... Take off your lace and stockings, put on your traveling cap, pick up a saber... Show me great things...

What?.. Was there any talk about the Khan again?

Everyone has one thing on their mind now - to fight Crimea... This will not last, my dear. If you come back victorious, then do what you want. Then you are stronger than the strong.

Understand, Sofya Alekseevna, we can’t fight... Otherwise we need money...

“It will be different after Crimea,” Sophia said firmly. “I’ve already prepared a letter: to be a great commander for you.” Day and night I will remember you in prayers, I will stand on all my knees, I will go around all the monasteries on foot, my sir... If you return victorious, who will say a word then? Let's stop hiding in shame... I believe, I believe - God will help us against the khan. - Sophia climbed out of bed and looked up into his averted eyes. - Vasya, I was afraid to tell you... Do you know what else they whisper? “In Preobrazhenskoe, they say, a strong king is growing up... And the princess, they say, is just rubbing the ermine on her back in vain...” You have pity on my thoughts... I think bad things. “She grabbed his trembling hand in her hot palms. - He is already fifteen years old. Stretched out about a mile away from Kolomna. He sent a decree to recruit all grooms and falconers into amusements. And their sabers and muskets are made of iron... Vasya, save me from sin... They mutter in my ears, mutter about Dimitri, about Uglich... Tea, it’s a sin, isn’t it? (Vasily Vasilyevich pulled his hand out of her hands. Sophia smiled slowly, pitifully.) And then, I say, it’s a sin to even think about such things... It was like that in the old days... All of Europe will know about your exploits. Then there is nothing to be afraid of him, let him play around...

We can't fight! - Vasily Vasilyevich exclaimed bitterly. - There are no good troops, no money... Great projects! - oh, it’s all in vain! Who can evaluate them, who can understand them? Lord, if only three, if only two years without war...

He waved his lace cuff hopelessly... Talking, persuading, resisting - it didn't matter - was of no use.

Natalya Kirillovna scolded Nikita Zotov: “Run after him, and find him,” he ran out of the yard as soon as light, didn’t cross his forehead, and didn’t have a piece in his mouth...”

It was not so easy to find Peter - unless shooting and drumming started somewhere in the grove - that means the king was there: playing around with the funny ones. Nikita was taken prisoner many times, tied to a tree, so that he would not bother him with requests - to go to mass or listen to a boyar visiting from Moscow. To prevent Nikita from getting bored near the tree, Peter ordered a bottle of vodka to be placed in front of him. Little by little, Zotov began to get used to the glass and sometimes he himself asked to be captured under the birch tree. Returning to Natalya Kirillovna, contrite, he threw up his hands:

There is no strength, Mother Empress, our falcon is not coming...

Peter was great at playing - he could play for a day without sleep, without food, at anything, it would be noisy, fun, amusing - cannons would fire, drums would beat. He now had about three hundred amusing soldiers from the royal grooms, falconers, and even young men of elegant families. With them he went on hikes to villages and monasteries around Moscow. Some monks were scared half to death: the midday heat, when the leaves on the birch tree do not move, only the bees hum heavily under the linden trees and drowsiness overcomes, from the forest suddenly with demonic screams some people in green caftans roll out, looking not Russian, and boom-tarars - they fire wooden cannonballs at the peaceful monastery walls. And it was even more terrifying for the monks when they recognized the long, restless young man, smeared in dirt and gunpowder soot, as the king himself.

Service in the amusing army was difficult - you couldn’t get enough sleep, you couldn’t finish eating. Whether it’s raining or the heat is unbearable, the king will wander in - go, his jester knows where and why, to frighten good people. Sometimes the amusing people were woken up in the middle of the night: “It was ordered to bypass the enemy. Swim across the river...” Some drowned in rivers at night.

For laziness or for neti - if anyone, bored with walking along the roads to no avail, showed up in neti, wanted to run home - they were beaten with batogs. Recently, a governor, or in a new way, a general, Avtonom Golovin, was assigned to the army. He was a much stupid man, but he knew the soldier’s exercise well and established strict order. Under him, Peter, instead of disorderly self-indulgence, began to seriously study military science in the first battalion, called Preobrazhensky.

Franz Lefort did not hold a position with Peter, since he was busy with his service in the Kremlin, but he often came on horseback to the army and gave advice on how to arrange things. Through him, a foreigner, Captain Fyodor Sommer, was hired for firearms and grenade combat and was also promoted to general. Sixteen cannons were delivered from the Pushkarsky Prikaz, and then they began to teach the funny ones how to shoot cast-iron bombs - they taught strictly: Fyodor Sommer did not want to receive a salary for nothing. There was no time for fun anymore. They killed a lot of different livestock in the fields and maimed people.

Foreigners in Kukui often talked about the young Tsar Peter. Gathering in the evenings on a sandy area, among trimmed trees, they patted the tables with their palms:

Hey Mons, a glass of beer!

Mons, in a knitted cap and a green vest, floated out of the illuminated door of the austerium, carrying five clay mugs in each hand. There is a head of foam above the mug. The evening is quiet and pleasant. Stars are pouring out in the Russian sky, not as bright and magnificent as in Thuringia, or Baden, or Württemberg, but you can live well under the Russian stars.

Mons! Tell us how Tsar Peter visited you.

Mons sat down at the table with good company, took a sip from someone else’s mug and, with a wink, said:

Tsar Peter is a very curious person. He learned about a wonderful music box that is in my dining room. My wife's father bought this box in Nuremberg...

“Oh yes, we all know your beautiful box,” the listeners confirmed, looking at each other and shaking their hanging tubes.

I was a little scared when Lefort and Tsar Peter entered my dining room one day. I didn’t know what I should do... In this case, the Russians kneel. I didn't want to. But the king immediately asked me: “Where is your box?” I replied: “Here he is, your anointed majesty.” Then the king said: “Johann, don’t call me your anointed majesty, I’m tired of it at home, but call me as if I were your friend.” And Lefort said: “Oh yes, Mons, we will all call him Herr Peter.” And the three of us laughed at this joke for a long time. After that, I called my daughter Ankhen and told her to start the box. We usually only start it once a year, on Christmas Eve, because it is a very valuable box. Ankhen looked at me - and I said: “Nothing, start it.” And she started it up - the gentlemen and ladies danced, and the birds sang. Peter was surprised and said: “I want to see how it works.” I thought, “The music box is missing.” But Ankhen is a very smart girl. She bowed beautifully and said to Peter, and Lefort translated for him in Russian. Ankhen said: “Your Majesty, I also know how to sing and dance, but, alas, if you want to see what’s inside me, why I sing and dance, my poor heart will probably be broken after that...” Having translated these words, Lefort laughed, and I laughed loudly, and Ankhen laughed like a silver bell. But Peter did not laugh - he blushed like ox's blood and looked at Ankhen as if she were a little bird. And I thought: “Oh, this young man has a thousand devils inside.” Ankhen also blushed and ran away with tears in her blue eyes...

Mons sniffed and took a sip from someone else's mug. He had a wonderful and touching way of telling stories. A pleasant night breeze moved the tassels on the knitted caps of the interlocutors. Ankhen appeared in the illuminated door, raised her innocent eyes to the stars, sighed happily and disappeared. Lighting their pipes, visitors said that God had sent Johann Mons a good daughter. Oh, such a daughter will bring wealth to the house. Bearded and red, a powerful blacksmith, Garrit Kist, a Dutchman, originally from Zaandam, said:

I see - if you get down to business wisely - you can get a lot of benefit out of the young king.

Old Ludwig Pfeffer, the watchmaker, answered him:

Oh no, that's a bad hope. Tsar Peter has no power... Ruler Sophia will never let him reign. She is a cruel and determined woman... Now she is gathering two hundred thousand troops to fight the Crimean Khan. When the army returns from Crimea, I will not give even ten pfennigs for the tsar...

It’s in vain that you talk like that, Ludwig Pfeffer,” Mons answered him, “General Theodor von Sommer, who recently was just Sommer, told me more than once... (Mons opened his mouth and laughed, and everyone laughed at his joke.) More than once he told me: “Wait, give us a year or two, Tsar Peter will have two battalions of such an army that the French king or Prince Maurice of Saxony himself will not be ashamed to command them...” That’s what Sommer said...

“Oh, that’s good,” the interlocutors said and looked at each other significantly.

Such conversations took place in the evenings on the swept area in front of the door of Johann Mons's austerium.

It’s hot, stuffy in the vaulted chambers of the Palace Prikaz, hang an ax. At long tables, scribes with their heads turned, their hair hanging over their eyes, their pens creaking. There are flies in the ink. Flies stick to lips and wet noses. The clerk has eaten his fill of pies and is sitting on a bench, dozing. The scribe, Ivan Baskov, whitewashes from the sheet into the book:

“...by order of the great sovereigns, a German dress was made for the mansion for him, the great sovereign, the Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, the autocrat of all Great, Lesser and White Russia, and for that matter, goods were taken from the general Franz Lefort: two skeins of gold, - paid one ruble, 13 altyn, 2 money, and nine dozen buttons for six altyn a dozen, and for the underwear caftan - 6 dozen buttons for 2 altyn, 4 money a dozen, and lace and linen for 10 altyn, and false hair - three rubles... »

Blowing on the fly, Vaskov raised his drowsy eyelids.

Hey, Petrukha, how should you write “false hair” - with a capital letter or with a small letter?

The clerk sitting opposite, after thinking, replied:

Write small.

Doesn't he have any hair of his own, does the younger sovereign have one?

And look, for such words...

Bending his head to the left in order to write more deftly, Vaskov quietly soured with laughter - it seemed very strange to him that the sovereign in a German settlement was buying hair from German women, paying three rubles for such rubbish.

Petrukha, where will he hang this hair?

This is his sovereign's will - wherever he wants, he will hang it there. If you ask again, I’ll complain to the clerk...

The clerk was also overcome by flies. Taking out a silk handkerchief, he waved it around and wiped his face and goat’s beard.

Hey, sleep! - he lazily shouted. - Are you scribes, are you clerks? All you could do is eat government money for nothing. There is no fear in you, you have forgotten God, the pins are useless... I’ll tear out the entire order with batogs, - you will know how to work with care... And you won’t have enough ink, and you’ll burst through paper... Thunder strike you, Herod’s tribe...

Limply waving his handkerchief, the clerk dozed off again. It's a boring time - no petitioners, no gifts. Moscow was empty - the archers, the boyars' children, the landowners all went on a campaign to the Crimea. Only flies and dust, and petty government affairs.

Petrukha, I should like to drink some kvass now! - said Vaskov and, looking back at the clerk, stretched and twisted, so that the rotten caftan cracked under his arms. - In the evening I’ll go to a widow’s house and get some kvass. - Shaking his head, he began writing again:

“...by decree of the V.G.Ts. and v.k. Peter Alekseevich of all V. and M. and B. R. the autocrat was ordered to send the V.G.Ts to the Village of Kolomenskoye to him. and v.k. all V. and M. and B. R. to the autocrat of the solicitor grooms - Yakim Voronin, Sergei Bukhvostov, Danil Kartin, Ivan Nagibin, Ivan Ievlev, Sergei Chertkov and Vasily Bukhvostov. The aforementioned groom grooms are ordered to be taken upstairs as amusing gunners and their salaries are paid - money for five rubles per person, bread for five quarters of rye, oats as well ... "

Petrukha, this is happiness for people...

Who else is talking, hey, the boys are standing,” the clerk threatened, half asleep.

The German dress and wig were accepted by the steward Vasily Volkov against receipt and carefully taken to the sovereign's bedroom. It was only just dawn, and Peter had already jumped up from the bench where he was sleeping on a felt mat under his sheepskin coat. He grabbed the first wig and tried it on - it was tight! - he wanted to cut his dark curls with scissors, - Volkov almost begged him not to do this, - he finally achieved it - he put on a wig and grinned in the mirror. This time he washed his hands with soap, cleaned the dirt from under his nails, hastily dressed in a new dress, tied a white scarf around his neck, as Lefort taught him, and tied a white silk scarf on his hips, over his splayed caftan. Volkov, while serving him, was amazed: it was not Peter’s custom to tinker with clothes. Trying on the narrow shoes, he ground his teeth. They called the yard servant, Styopka Bear, a tall guy, to break the shoes. Styopka, having driven his knives into them, ran up the stairs like a stallion. At nine o'clock (according to the new clock) Nikita Zotov came to call for early mass. Peter answered impatiently:

Tell your mother, “I have an urgent matter of state... I’ll pray alone.” Yes - that's what - come back yourself, and at a trot, hear...

He suddenly threw back his head and laughed, as always, as if tearing laughter out of himself. Nikita realized that the tsar had again come up with some kind of joke, which he had been taught a lot in the German settlement. But he meekly submitted, ran away in soft boots and soon returned, knowing himself that he was in trouble. And so it happened. Peter, rolling his eyes, ordered him:

You will go as a great ambassador from the Hellenic god Bacchus - to beat the birthday boy with his forehead.

“I’m listening, Sovereign Pyotr Alekseevich,” Zotov answered earnestly. Immediately, as indicated, he put on an inverted hare's fur coat, a washcloth on his head, a wreath of a bath broom on top, and took a bowl in his hands. To avoid unnecessary conversations with his mother, Peter left the palace by the back door and ran to the stable yard. There, all the servants laughed and caught four huge boars. Peter rushed to help, shouted, fought, fussed. The boars were caught, harnesses were put on the lying ones, and they were harnessed to a low golden carriage on carved wheels (a groom’s gift from the late Alexei Mikhailovich; Natalya Kirillovna ordered it to be protected more than one’s eyes). The stable clerk looked at such destruction and disorder with trembling lips. To the whistling and laughter of the servants, Nikita Zotov was pushed into the carriage. Peter sat down on the box, Volkov, with a sword and a three-cornered hat, walked ahead, throwing carrots and turnips to the wild boars. The groom was lashed from the sides with whips. Let's go to Kukui.

At the gates of the settlement they were met by a crowd of foreigners. “Okay, okay, it’s very funny,” they shouted, clapping their hands, “you might burst from laughter.” Peter, red, with a compressed mouth, with an angry face, sat stretched out on the box. The whole community came running. They laughed, holding their sides, pointing their fingers at the Tsar and at the wet head in the carriage - Zotov, half dead from fear. The pigs were pulling in different directions and the harness was tangled up. Suddenly Peter snatched the whip from the groom and madly whipped it at the pigs. Squealing, they carried the carriage... Someone was knocked down, someone fell under the wheels, women grabbed children. Peter, standing, lashed everything - purple, with flared nostrils of a short nose. His round eyes were red, as if he were holding back tears.

At Lefortovo's yard, a groom somehow knocked down a pig team and turned into the open gate. The birthday boy, Lefort, was running through the yard, waving his cane and hat. Behind him are colorfully dressed guests. Peter clumsily jumped off the box and pulled Zotov out of the carriage by his collar. Still looking furiously into Lefort’s eyes, as if afraid to see someone in the crowd, he said in a breathless voice:

Main liber general, brought the great ambassador with a great viva from the Hellenic god Bacchus... - Large sweat appeared on his face, licked his lips and, still looking into his eyes, with difficulty: - Mit herzlichen grus... In other words, hits with his forehead... The pigs and the carriage in sends a gift... - Still frantically holding Zotov, whispering: - Get on your knees, bow...

Beautiful, in pink velvet, in lace, powdered and perfumed, Lefort immediately understood everything... Raising his arms high, he clapped his hands, burst into cheerful laughter and, turning first to Peter, then to the guests, said:

Here's a wonderful joke - I've never seen a funnier joke... We thought we'd teach him funny jokes, but he'll teach us how to joke. Hey, musicians, march in honor of the Bacchus ambassador...

Behind the lilac bushes, drums and timpani beat, and trumpets began to play. Peter's shoulders sagged and the crimson color drained from his face. He threw himself up and laughed noisily. Lefort took him by the arm. Then Peter ran his eyes around the guests and saw Ankhen - she smiled at him with shiny teeth, naked to the shoulders, as if she was leaning out to meet him from a dress as lush as a rose.

Again wild embarrassment grabbed him by the throat. He walked ahead of the guests, next to Lefort, towards the house, raising his legs like a crane. On the platform near the porch there were singers in crimson Russian shirts. They grabbed the dance song with a whistle. One, blue-eyed, impudent, jumped out and with the sentence: “Ay, dudu-dudu-dudu,” he went squatted, beating a shot with his horseshoes, clicking his palms on the sand, with an inversion, with an approach, he spun with a top: “And - oh - you! »

Hey Alexashka!

Violins, violas, oboes and timpani played old German songs, Russian dance songs, ceremonial minuets, and merry anglaises in the choirs. Tobacco smoke swirled in the rays shining through the round windows of the two-light hall. The tipsy guests let out such words that the girls flushed like dawns, rosy-cheeked beauties with fluffy, barrel-shaped figs and heavy flip-flops, laughed like crazy. For the first time, Peter sat at the table with women. Lefort brought him aniseed. For the first time, Peter tried the intoxicating drink. Anise flowed like flames into my veins. He looked at the laughing Ankhen. Everything in him danced from the music, his neck swelled. Clenching his jaw, he wrung out within himself the still dark, cruel desires. I didn’t hear that the guests were shouting behind the noise, holding out glasses to him... Ankhen’s teeth sparkled slyly, she did not take her seductive eyes off him...

The feast dragged on as if the day would never end. Watchmaker Pfeffer stuck his long nose, like a carrot, into his snuffbox and began to sneeze, tearing off his wig and waving it over his bald skull. It's hilarious how funny it was! Peter swayed, knocking over the dishes around him with his long arms. His arms seemed so long before - as soon as he reached across the table, he could run his fingers through Ankhen’s hair, squeeze her head, taste her laughing mouth with his lips... And again his neck swelled, darkness obscured his eyes.

When the sun set behind the mills and a cool breath blew through the open windows, Lefort gave his hand to the eight-pound miller, Frau Schimelpfenig, and walked with her in a minuet. Moving his hand in a circular motion, he shook his hair sprinkled with gold powder, squatted and bowed, and rolled his eyes languidly. Frau Schimelpfenig, satisfied and happy, sailed in huge skirts, like a forty-gun ship decorated with flags. Following this couple, all the guests followed from the hall to the garden, where the birthday boy’s monograms were displayed in the flower beds, the bushes and trees were tied with bows with flowers made of gold and silver paper, and the paths were separated by chessboard squares...

After the minuet they started a cheerful country dance. Peter stood aside, chewing his nail. Several times the ladies, crouching low in front of him, asked him to dance. He shook his head, muttering: “I can’t, no, I can’t...” Then Frau Schimelpfenig, accompanied by Lefort, handed him a bouquet - this meant that he was chosen as the king of the dances. It was impossible to refuse. He glanced sideways at Lefort’s cheerful but firm eyes and convulsively grabbed the lady’s hand. Lefort rushed to Ankhen on tiptoe and stood with her opposite Peter for a country dance figure. Ankhen, holding a handkerchief in her lowered hands, looked as if she was asking for something. The brass timpani tinkled deafeningly, the drum thumped, the violins and trumpets sang, cheerful music rushed into the evening sky, scaring the bats.

And again, like earlier with the pigs, everything went wrong for him, it became hot, crazy. Lefort shouted:

Figure one! Ladies advance and retreat, gentlemen twist the ladies!

Grabbing Frau Schimelpfenig by the sides, Peter spun her around so that her robe, slap and figs began to swirl like a whirlwind. “Oh, mein gott!” - the miller’s wife just gasped. Leaving her, he danced, as if the music itself was tugging at his arms and legs. With a compressed mouth and flared nostrils, he performed such leaps and jumps that the guests clutched their stomachs while looking at him.

Third figure,” Lefort shouted, “the ladies are changing gentlemen!”

Ankhen’s cool hand lay on his shoulder. Peter immediately tightened his grip and the violence died down. He was trembling slightly. And his legs carried him on their own, spinning along with Ankhen, light as a feather. The lights of small bowls lit by gunpowder thread flickered between the trees. The rocket took off, hissing angrily. Two fiery strings were reflected in Ankhen’s eyes.

Rockets rose from all over the garden. Fire wheels spun and banners lit up. Like cannons, the beetroot burst, the shwermers crackled, and sparkling fountains rained down. The twilight was filled with gunpowder smoke. Wasn’t it a dream in the dreary boredom of the Preobrazhensky Palace? The rowdy Lefort galloped past with a lady tall as a soldier. “Cupid pierces hearts with arrows!” - he shouted to Peter. Ankhen, hot from dancing, smelled of fresh beauty. “Oh, Peter, I’m tired,” she moaned even more subtly, hanging on his hand. A shvermer exploded over their heads, and fiery snakes illuminated the girl’s wonderful face, haggard from fatigue. Not knowing how to do this, Peter grabbed her bare shoulders, closed his eyes and felt the wet touch of her lips. But they only slid. Ankhen escaped from her hands. Hundreds of snakes exploded with a frenzied chatter. Ankhen disappeared. A hare's fur coat and the head of the Bacchus ambassador emerged from the cloud of smoke. Completely drunk, Nikita Zotov, still with the cup in his hand, wandered, muttering all sorts of nonsense... He stopped and staggered.

Son, drink,” and handed the cup to Peter. - Drink, you and I are lost anyway... We ruined our souls, we became humiliated. Drink to the dregs, your royal majesty, all Great and Small...

He wanted to threaten someone and fell into a bush. Peter threw down the cup he had drunk. Joy spun inside him like a fireworks wheel.

Ankhen! - he shouted. Ran...

The illuminated windows of the house, the lights of bowls, and banners floated around. He grabbed his head and spread his legs wide.

Let’s go, I’ll show you where she is,” an insinuating voice spoke into your ear from behind. It was a singer in a crimson shirt, Aleksashka Menshikov with piercing eyes. - The girl went home...

Silently, Peter ran after him somewhere into the darkness. They climbed over the fence, ran into dogs, over the hedges, and ran out into the square to the mill in front of the austeria. There was a long window at the top. Alexashka - in a whisper:

She's there. - And threw sand at the glass. The window opened, Ankhen leaned out, with a scarf on her shoulders, her whole head covered in paper horns.

Who's there? - she asked thinly, looked closely, saw Peter, shook her head: - You can’t... Go to sleep, Herr Peter...

She was even cuter in those horns. She slammed the window and pulled down the lace curtain. The light went out.

The girl is on guard,” Aleksashka whispered. He took a closer look and, tightly hugging Peter by the shoulders, led him to the bench. - You better sit down... I'll bring the horses. Will you get there on horseback?

When he returned, leading two saddled horses, Peter was still sitting stooped, with his clenched fists on his knees. Alexashka looked into his face:

You've been drinking, haven't you? - Peter did not answer. Aleksashka helped him sit in the saddle, easily jumped up himself and, holding him, rode out of the settlement at a pace. Fog was spreading over the meadows. The autumn stars spread out lushly. In Preobrazhenskoe the roosters were already crowing. Peter’s icy hand, clutching Aleksashka’s shoulder, froze as if lifeless. Near the palace, he suddenly arched his back, began to throw himself, grabbed Alexashka by the neck, and pressed himself against him. The horses stopped. His chest was whistling and his bones were cracking.

“Hold me, hold me tight,” he said hoarsely. After a short time his hands weakened. He sighed with a groan: - Let's go... Just don't leave... Let's lie down together...

Volkov jumped up at the porch.

Sovereign! Yes, Lord... But we...

Stewards and grooms ran up. Peter kicked into this pile from above, got down himself and, without letting go of Alexashka, went to the mansion. In the dark passage, an old woman crossed herself and rustled - he pushed her. The other, like a rat, scurried under the stairs.

Hateful, whisperers, so that you will be torn apart,” he muttered.

In the bedchamber, Aleksashka undressed him and took off his caftan. Peter lay down on the felt and ordered Alexashka to lie down next to him. I leaned my head against his shoulder. After a pause, he said:

To be your bed servant... In the morning you tell the clerk, he will write a decree... It was fun, oh, fun... Mein Liebergott.

After a while he sobbed like a child and fell asleep.

. For the Scripture says: Behold, I lay in Zion a corner stone, chosen, precious; and he who believes in Him will not be put to shame.

So, he says, “putting aside all malice and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander”. With these few words he embraces the multitude and variety of evil. For those who have been reborn to an incorruptible life must not fall into the snare of malice and prefer what does not exist to what is real. For evil is not an essence, but lies in the error of a born essence. And there is a big difference between personal life and what only accompanies it. They, he says, must appear free from deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. For deceit and slander are far from the truth and the doctrine preached to you. Deceit seeks the destruction of those deceived by it, hypocrisy succeeds in its difference from reality, while the saving teaching that has been announced to you succeeds in the opposite. And what place do envy and slander have in you - in you, who, being bound by the indissoluble union of brotherly love, can not suffer harm from any of those who separate you? That envy and slander are the cause of quarrels and mutual hatred, does not anyone know this who does not know the sad story of Cain, who through envy broke the fraternal union, then fell into deceit, hypocrisy and murder (). And that the envious person is unclean from slander, this can be verified from the example of Joseph’s brothers, who slandered a lot about him to their father (). Therefore, he says, having been cleansed from all these evils, come as newborn babies, “for such,” said the Lord, “ is the Kingdom of God"(). And, feeding on simple teaching, grow in "the measure of the stature of Christ" (); "For you have tasted", that is, through exercise in the sacred commandments of the Gospel, you tangibly learned how good this teaching is. And the feeling in the matter of knowledge is stronger than any word, just as what is experienced in practice is more pleasant than any word. So, having experienced the goodness of the Lord for yourself, show kindness and mercy to each other, and place yourselves on the living cornerstone, rejected by men, but honored and chosen by God, and existing and predicted by the prophets. Make closer friends with each other through the unity of love, and join together in the fullness of the spiritual home, not caring in the least about the contempt of people, because they have rejected the cornerstone - Christ. Having reached unanimity among yourself, and having built yourself into a spiritual home, and having acquired the holy priesthood, offer spiritual sacrifices. And do not think that you can offer immaculate sacrifices to God if you do not maintain a bond of love among yourself. Lift up, it is said, “clean hands without anger and doubt”(); How can someone who wants to unite with God through prayer achieve this when he alienates himself from his brother through anger and evil doubts?

. Therefore He is a treasure to you who believe, but to you who do not believe the stone which the builders rejected, but which has become the head of the corner, is a stone of stumbling and a stone of offense,

. over which they stumble, not obeying the word,

By His stripes you were healed.

. For you were like wandering sheep (having no shepherd), but have now returned to the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls.

When, by order of Pilate, He was scourged, He also bore wounds from the blows on His body.

How should Christians live under persecution?
How can you maintain faith in the face of threats and resist the temptation to give up?

We continue to look at how 1 Peter encourages Christians to persevere under persecution. Peter's instructions apply not only to those experiencing severe oppression (as 10% of all Christians experience today), but also to those believers in the West who are experiencing more moderate social pressure. In fact, this message is even more likely to address the latter.

Peter writes this letter in a place he calls “Babylon” (5:13). This is probably a symbolic reference to Rome, intended to point to the Roman Empire as the place of captivity for God's people. Readers are captives and wanderers in a foreign land. They have their own values ​​and traditions, so society rejects them with contempt. His hostility and pressure are aimed at intimidating Christians into abandoning their faith and way of life and returning to the old path. This reminds us of the anti-Christian antagonism of modern society.

The Suffering of Christ

Raising these questions in the context of the suffering and persecution in which Peter's readers found themselves, this chapter, more than the rest of the epistle, shows the relationship to the suffering of Christ (vv. 21-24). This is one of the most important themes in 1 Peter. She is mentioned explicitly seven times, and mentioned indirectly several more times.

Although the message incidentally affirms the uniqueness of Christ's suffering, the author speaks of it primarily as an example that readers should follow. This is clear in 2:21 and implied in several other places (3:18; 4:1, 13). The path to eternal glory is through suffering, both for Christ and for His followers. Therefore, we must treat our sufferings in the same way as Christ perceived His, and respond to them in the same way. Some readers see this principle implied in parts of the epistle where the author does not directly speak of Christ's suffering (for example, 2:1-10).

So, 1 Peter was written to support and encourage readers, to strengthen them in faith and discipleship in the crucible of trials, and to guide us to live well in such a hostile environment. Read more about this in the first part of this series of articles:.

1 Peter 2 chapter

The first ten verses of chapter 2 continue the call of chapter 1 to a lifestyle consistent with our status as God's people and the hope of salvation in Christ. The next 15 verses begin another section in which these thoughts are translated into practical advice on how we can live in the Babylonian exile and endure persecution. The first part of this section (which continues in Chapter 3) tells us about correct behavior in society: how to obey authorities, how slaves should obey masters, and also about relationships in the family.

Love God's Word (2:1-3)

Christians are called to love each other, so we must get rid of everything bad that contradicts this love and into which we can easily fall under the pressure of persecution: meanness, betrayal, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Suffering develops in us patience and courage (cf. Romans 5:3-4), not sinful qualities. Rejecting them, we must pursue the Word of God, through which we have received regeneration, and grow into the salvation that will be revealed in the last time. God's Word helps us mature and prepares us to receive the promised inheritance. We have already experienced the Lord’s mercy, and this is a good reason to entrust our food to Him, so that He will feed us spiritually.

Pure verbal milk

Christians in Burma (Myanmar) value Bibles extremely. When they are given a Bible for personal use, they respond with great joy. Many had to flee their villages to avoid kidnapping, torture and even death at the hands of the Burmese army, and now live in internally displaced persons camps. In these difficult circumstances, God's Word brings them great comfort and encouragement, giving them strength and faith. One young Kachin Christian, when given a Bible, said, “By reading the Bible and living a consecrated life, I receive peace from God.”

Many of those who suffer especially deeply for Christ long to be fed with the Word of God, especially if the Scriptures are difficult for them to access. They know how much they need it, so they have the power to become mature Christians and maintain strong faith in the face of trials. In the West, where Bibles and Christian materials are widely available, we already take them for granted and don't think about how valuable they are. But we also vitally need the Word of God - in order to grow into salvation and remain faithful in persecution.

People of God (2:4-10)

In these verses we see a transition from the main theme of the message up to this point to the practical part that follows, which begins in 2:11. Verses 4-5 contain its key themes, which the author then develops in the following verses by referring to the texts of Scripture.

Christ appears before us in the form of a living stone, the cornerstone of God's new temple created by the Holy Spirit. This stone was rejected by people, but chosen by God and precious to Him. When we come to Christ, we also become living stones from which a spiritual house is built, and we become a holy priesthood. We are set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Him in Jesus Christ.

Anyone who believes in Christ will not be ashamed. On the contrary, we are privileged to share with Him His glory. We inherit the privileges of Old Testament Israel and become God's chosen people, a royal priesthood, chosen and precious to Him. The spiritual sacrifices we make to God include declaring the great things of God: that He has called us to a new Exodus, out of darkness into His marvelous light, and to a new covenant where in His mercy He has made us His people.

Any pressure on Christians to compromise with sin or abandon their faith will achieve its goal only if it convinces us that returning to the old path is better than following our faith and calling. To help us counter these lies, these verses summarize all the blessings we have in Christ. This time the author focuses on our present experiences rather than hope for the future. These verses encourage us to endure suffering for His sake, knowing that the privileges we have in Him are far greater than what we experience. And because they imply our unity as one people of God, they also encourage us to maintain that unity in the face of persecution that might disrupt it.

In contrast to the glory that awaits those who believe in the living “stone” of God - Jesus Christ, those who do not believe will be put to shame. The One whom they rejected becomes a stone of stumbling and temptation for them. By despising Him, they disobey the gospel. Such disobedience is the lot of those who are hostile to God and His chosen servants. This will ultimately lead to their downfall.

The meaning of our suffering

When a Christian girl in Kazakhstan wanted to distribute a children's Christian magazine to her classmates, her teacher stopped her. She scolded the girl and even threw the magazine in her face. At first the girl was scared, but when she came home, she realized that what happened to her was part of her Christian life. She suffered for Christ, and the realization of this filled her with faith and joy.

Christians who come to the “stone” rejected by people should expect similar rejection towards themselves in the form of anti-Christian persecution. But this does not mean that we made a mistake by trusting in Christ. Quite the contrary - just as His rejection by unbelieving people was a confirmation of His status as God's chosen and precious stone, so our persecution shows that we share with Him His exalted position. The privileges we have in Him encourage us to stand firm in the faith, and the fall that awaits those who will not believe is a stern warning against backsliding.

Virtuous living among unbelievers (2:11-12)

These verses open the next major section of the letter. In the initial greetings, the author calls his readers strangers and strangers, and here these words are repeated again: as Christians, we are strangers and strangers in a foreign land. Because of this, we are subject to pressure from the surrounding culture, which demands that we share its values ​​and follow its traditions. Our carnal and sinful inclinations cause us to give in to this pressure. But we must refrain from following them. These lusts rise up against our souls, and on the day of visitation we may find ourselves in danger.

Peter says that we must excel in good behavior, and especially in the behavior that is considered proper even in a non-Christian environment. There are virtues that are widely recognized not only in Christianity, but also in secular society. Our opponents may perceive us as villains, but seeing our good deeds, they will understand that we are exemplary members of society. It is possible that they will end up submitting and praising God on the day of visitation. Our virtuous life removes all excuses from those who do us harm, and their good opinion of us will reduce persecution and help us bear it more easily.

Victory over the unbelievers

When Pastor Raj was unjustly convicted in India, his fellow inmates forced him to sleep near the toilet, where he was plagued by mosquitoes. They tried in every possible way to humiliate him, forcing him to clean toilets and showers. But he showed love and humility, sharing his soap and other personal items with them. Touched by such kindness, his fellow inmates heard the gospel and asked forgiveness for their rude attitude. One of those people, who was imprisoned for smuggling, accepted Christ.

So, these verses exhort us to distance ourselves from the sinful deeds of unbelieving people and also to exhibit our best qualities. The first protects us from the coming judgment; the second alleviates pressure from society and helps to withstand pressure. Of course, a virtuous life among unbelievers will not protect us from persecution, as the author speaks about more clearly later. But this is the best way to win the favor of those who oppose us and reduce public hostility towards us. The author goes on to explain what this means in the context of individual social relationships.

Submission to government authorities (2:13-17)

The first type of relationship where we must be obedient is in relation to secular authorities. We must be subject to “all human authority for the Lord,” especially rulers. This meant that Christians must be submissive to the emperor, who in the 1st century was the supreme ruler of Asia Minor, as well as to his henchmen.

The task of the state is to punish criminals and reward those who do good. This is usually how it should happen. And if the authorities, like us, do the right thing, then they will reward us for a virtuous life, and God wants us, by doing good, to stop the ignorance of foolish people.

We Christians are free people, redeemed by Christ from slavery to corruption and worldly life. But we must not use this freedom to justify our wrong behavior by disregarding social virtue and rejecting secular authorities. On the contrary, when we do good, we must show honor to everyone, respecting the chain of command and submitting to modern political authority. This is the best way to change hostility towards yourself and reduce persecution.

This positive view of Roman authorities in these verses suggests that submission to authority is not in any way inconsistent with our submission to God. But other New Testament books (especially Revelation) make it clear that sometimes government authorities make demands on Christians that we do not have to comply with, and then our loyalty to Christ can lead us to suffering and persecution. Submission to government is the rule, but disobedience to their ungodly demands is a necessary exception, whatever the cost.

This exception can be seen in these verses. The command to love brotherhood and fear God suggests that our dedication to the Christian family and to God himself places a limit on our submission to authority. And the characterization of the emperor (literally) as a “human” superior may be a warning against attributing divine qualities to him and participating in emperor worship. Christians must be willing to refuse to obey the state if our loyalty to God requires it, even if it means persecution.

Slaves and Masters (2:18-25)

In 1st century Roman society, slaves were powerless and defenseless. They had a very low status and often suffered mistreatment from their masters. Although some slaves lived prosperously and had kind masters, the hostility and mistreatment that others experienced led them to escape or violence.

The position of Christians as strangers and sojourners in the Roman Empire was not much different from that of slaves. They were going through similar difficulties. It can be said that the instructions given in these verses are addressed to all readers. Many expressions are used here that are addressed to all Christians in other verses of this letter. Perhaps Peter wants to avoid speaking openly about the persecution of Christians, because this could entail accusations of calling for anti-state activities.

The message calls for slaves to be submissive to their masters, both good and harsh, and to endure all unjust suffering as part of their obedience to God. If they are beaten for misdeeds, this does not bring them praise, but if, while doing good, they suffer unjustly, this pleases God. In other words, they must do well in the eyes of their masters to avoid punishment, but also accept unjust oppression from them.

The patience and perseverance of slaves who suffer for good deeds is part of their Christian calling. Christ's suffering is an example for them to follow. They too were undeserved (He committed no sin), and He did not avenge Himself (He did not retaliate against or threaten His persecutors). Instead, He trusted in the righteous judgment of God to justify Him. He atoned for our sins so that we too could get rid of sins and live for righteousness. This life is possible because of the healing that His death brought to us. Having once lost our way, we returned to Him as our Shepherd and Guardian of our souls, so now we need to follow Him.

Virtuous life

Barnabas Foundation partner in Sri Lanka has developed the following guidelines for how Christians should live and serve in hostile environments to avoid causing unnecessary hostility and harassment. With some adjustments, they are applicable in other conditions, including in the West.
Be sensitive to noise levels in meetings.
Participate in the life of society, do not alienate yourself from it.
Be sensitive in your behavior to the surrounding culture, especially for young people.
Avoid holding mass events on religious holidays.
Do not use recreation or social assistance as a “bait” for evangelism (only as recreation and assistance).
Live a simple life like everyone else around you.
Have unity with other ministers in the region.
Gather in small groups if hostility continues.
Foreigners/outsiders should not play a prominent role in society.
Avoid disrespectful remarks about other religions in all conversations.

The life of the Christian slave described in these verses serves as an example for all Christians who are powerless and helpless in the face of a hostile society. Peter encourages us to imitate Christ while experiencing persecution. This is an important part of our Christian calling. If we suffer, it should be undeserved, and not as a punishment for disobedience to authority or disrespect for the good traditions of society. But if, while doing good, we suffer, we know that this pleases God, provided that we do not take revenge for ourselves, but trust it to Him. In this way we can follow the calling of God and the example of Christ.

Conclusion

We saw that Peter wrote his epistle to teach Christians living in “Babylon,” showing how we should live in the land of exile, where we face hostility and pressure due to conflicting values ​​and customs. In chapter two, as in chapter one, Peter does this in two ways.

First, he encourages us to lead virtuous lives that reflect our trust in salvation and faithfulness to God. He calls us to renounce evil works and to grow toward salvation through the Word of God, with a rich description of the wonderful privileges we have in the present, and with warnings of the consequences of falling away from the faith.

Secondly, Peter applies this principle to specific social relationships: citizens must obey authorities, and slaves must obey masters. We must be submissive to established authority and conform to the good traditions of the surrounding culture. This way we will reduce the hostility towards us from society as much as possible. If we do good, but still suffer, we must patiently endure all difficulties, not repaying evil, but trusting God, following the example of Christ. And we will receive praise from Him.