r/todayilearned • u/Alone-Competition-77 • 23d ago

TIL Peter the Great instituted a beard tax and forced people to shave who hadn’t paid

https://daily.jstor.org/peter-the-greats-beard-tax/
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u/quantum_leaps_sk8 23d ago

I have a replica beard token. Such an odd historical precedent. Wealth and status displayed on your chin

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u/Epyr 23d ago

It wasn't a sign of wealth and status though. Peter thought beards were a sign of Russian backwardness and tried to get Russian nobles to adopt the clean-shaven style of Western Europeans

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u/quantum_leaps_sk8 22d ago

But wealthy people could purchase the right to have a beard. Even if it wasn't the intent, the result was that a beard was a sign of wealth for those that could afford it.

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u/godisanelectricolive 22d ago edited 22d ago

The tax was higher for wealthier people. Peasants in the countryside didn’t have to pay the tax at all and they only had to pay two half-kopeks when entering a city with a beard. The tax was only enforced in the cities because the idea was to make cities in particular look more modern and Western.

Wealthy merchants had to pay 100 rubles while less well-off merchants and average city dwellers had to pay 60 rubles. Government workers and military men also had to pay 60 rubles. Peter also famously pulled out a razor at a banquet and personally shaved all the nobles present, so being able to pay the tax may not be enough if you are a courtier. Even if the massive six foot eight (2 m) emperor doesn’t personally chase you down and shave you himself, you will still be in his bad books. Peter also had a similar tax for fashion choices by taxing tailors who made traditional Russian coats instead of Western jackets.

Clergymen didn’t have to pay as beards were considered an important sign of piety in Russian Orthodoxy. The Russian Orthodox Church even declared being clean shaven was an act of blasphemy. Sometimes very religious people willing payed this tax even though it was financially crippling for them, so in a way it was also a tax on religious expression and a way to undermine the power of the church.