PETER THE GREAT

More than in any other period of Russian history or the history of any other country, the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries was a era of great events and changes for which a single man was mostly responsible. To posterity Peter seems like a superhuman colossus bestriding half a continent. To contemporaries he seemed much the same. He is indeed a unique personality in history.

Intellectually Peter the Great was one of those simpleminded people who can be read at a glance and are easily understood. Physically Peter was a giant of just under seven feet, and at any gathering he towered a full head above everybody else. Not only was Peter a natural athlete, but habitual use of ax and hammer had developed his strength and ''manual dexterity to such an extent that he was able to twist a silver platter into a scroll. Indeed so dexterous was he that if a piece of cloth was thrown into the air he could cut it in half with his knife before it landed.

Peter at eleven was a lively, handsome boy. But traces of a serious nervous disorder due either to the memories of the bloody scenes of 1682, or to his all too frequent debaucheries, or to a combination of both, ruined his health. So that in later years Peter made a different impression. By the time he was twenty he began to suffer from a nervous twitch of the head. When he was lost in thought, or during moments of emotional stress, his round, handsome face became distorted with convulsions. This, together with a birthmark on his right cheek, and a habit of gesticulating with his arms as he walked, made everybody notice him.

In 1697, some Dutchmen who were waiting in a barber shop in Haarlam, and who had been obligingly informed of these characteristics by some of their compatriots who had been in Moscow, easily recognized the carpenter who had just come in to be shaved as the Tsar of Muscovy. At times Peter's face and eyes took on such a savage aspect that nervous people were likely to become demoralized in his presence.

Parisian observers described Peter as an imperious-looking sovereign who, in spite of his fierce and savage looks, could be most amiable to those who were likely to be of use to him. Peter had such a sense of his own importance [hat he paid no attention whatsoever to the elementary rules of behavior, and behaved on the seine as he behaved on the Neva. Leaving his Paris hotel one day, he took possession of a carriage that did not belong to him and calmly drove away.

Peter was never more than a guest in his own home. His adolescence and youth had been spent either in traveling or working out of doors' Had Peter at the age of fifty paused to look over his past, he would have seen that he had been constantly moving about from one place to another. During his reign he had traveled the length and breadth of Russia, from Astrakhan to Derbent, from Archangel to Azov, and from the Neva to the Pruth. As a result of this perpetual mobility, Peter became so restless that he was constitutionally incapable of staying in one place for any length of time, and was always looking for a change of scenery and for new impressions. The haste with which he did everything was now normal. He had such a long stride and used to walk so quickly that his companions had to run to keep up with him. He could not sit still for long, and at banquets he would jump out of his chair and run into the next room in order to stretch his legs.

When he was young his restlessness added to his enjoyment of dancing. Peter was an ever-welcome guest at the parties of noblemen, merchants, or artisans; here he danced a great deal and, though the only dancing lessons he had were ''practices'' during evenings spent at the Lefort establishment, he danced well. If Peter was not sleeping, traveling, feasting, or inspecting, he was busy making something. Whenever he could he used his hands, which were never free from calluses. When he was young and still inexperienced he could never be shown over a factory or workshop without trying his hand at whatever work was in progress. He found it impossible to remain a mere spectator, particularly if he saw something new going on. His hands instinctively sought for tools; he wanted to work at everything himself.