uards wore old-fashioned uniforms
consisting of a long gown, which made it very difficult for them to move
rapidly. Peter saw some French soldiers and at once decided to adopt
their smarter and more serviceable style of dress.

[Illustration: PETER THE GREAT]

In the same way he changed the old Russian military drill to something
resembling that of the other European countries. He had new carriages
and furniture and foods imported from France and England, and tried to
make Moscow more like a modern city than like the semi-barbarous Asiatic
village it had been. The Russian men almost all wore long, flowing
beards, and this fashion Peter quickly changed, insisting that the men
about him should adopt the fashion of the French court.

It is hard to realize how far behind the rest of the countries of Europe
the Russia of those days was; yet it is due almost entirely to the young
Czar Peter that this great northern country finally came out from
semi-darkness. It must not be supposed that these great changes were at
first popular with the court; there was tremendous opposition to almost
everything Peter did, but the people gradually realized that he was
really working for their benefit and that he was deeply interested in
improving their condition. Slowly his popularity grew with the middle
and lower classes, until finally they spoke of their "little Czar," as
they called him affectionately, almost as though he were really one of
themselves.

Few rulers have had a harder task than did Peter. All during his youth
the nobles plotted against him, and as he grew to manhood he escaped
assassination again and again by the narrowest of chances, but every
time he had to face danger he grew more self-reliant and more
determined, and gradually his grip on the men of both court and army
grew so strong that they realized places had changed, and that they were
as absolutely his servants as he was their master.

In time Peter became a great king, a fearless, purposeful ruler who knit
his people together as no other Czar had ever been able to do. He led
the armies he had himself drilled to many victories. He built a great
fleet in the Baltic Sea. He established a new capital near the shores of
the Baltic, and named it after his own patron saint, St. Petersburg.

The history of his life is full of tremendous difficulties and dangers,
but he fronted each one as he had fronted the riotous Streltsi Guards
when he was a boy of eleven, and s