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portion of his own handiwork in frantic search for morerecruits, more labour, more revenue, more munitions.In his last dozen years, when war was less onerous andhis contacts with the West were closer, the peremptoryedicts, often conflicting with each other, often none tooclear for all their laconic bluntness, gave way to systematic,carefully elaborated legislation that remouldedstate and church alike. His brutal violence, the enormousdemands' that he exacted and his external flouting ofnational ways and prejudices supplied fertile ground foropposition. He had to crush in blood four seriousrisings, and he condemned to death his son and heir,Alexis, on the ground of his being the ringleader of reaction(1718). In actuality Alexis was a passive creaturewho was only hoping for his father's death in terrifiedfear of his own. The opposition was leaderless; andas well it was too heterogeneous; almost all interests inRussia were divided between supporters and opponentsof Peter.He aimed at transforming tsarism into a Europeankind of absolute monarchy, and to a considerable extenthe succeeded. Russia was never the same again, eventhough the pace was too hot and there was regressafter his death. He declared himself to be "an absolutemonarch who does not have to answer for any of hisactions to anyone in the world; but he has power andauthority for the purpose of governing his states andlands according to his will and wise decision, as a Christiansovereign." This version of enlightened despotism,typically enough, appeared in Peter's new code for thearmy (1716). The creation of a national standing armyon Western models was one of the most fundamentalof his legacies, and the links of tsarism with militarypower and the military spirit were henceforth knittedeven more closely than before. One external sign issignificant. Peter himself almost always appeared asa soldier or sailor (when not dressed as a mechanic),and all succeeding emperors did likewise: his predecessors(when not hunting) had usually appeared inhieratic pomp, half tsar, half high-priest.No tsar has made such a lasting impression on Russia104