What did the Czar have against beards?

Which Czar? If you are talking Nicholas II, the last Czar, he HAD a beard.

At one time peasants had beards because they couldn't afford shaving implements; nobility did not have beards because they could afford shaving implements.

JudyKayTee,

Czar Peter I of Russia!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ROLCAM

JudyKayTee,

Czar Peter I of Russia !!

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There was more than one Czar and I had no way of knowing which one you were talking about.

I don't know that he had anything against beards. He taxed them as a means of raising money, realizing that the peasants could not be clean shaven (as a rule).

Yes, the beards were taxed by Peter so this would encourage the men to be clean shaven. Peter had spent so much time in European courts when he was young that he was very impressed with the clean shaven men he wanted his own country to do the same. Peter did bring a lot of European ideas to Russia at a time when Russia was considered to be a backward nation. Peter built the city of St. Petersburg from marshland to be the Venice of the North.

It was also a slap at the boyars (nobility) and Orthodox clergy. Members of both groups had traditionally been distinguished by their long beards.