I knew this already (I think), but I suspect that [many readers do not](http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/petergreat.html).
>Until that time the Russians had always worn long beards, which they cherished and preserved with much care, allowing them to hang down on their bosoms, without even cutting the moustache. With these long beards they wore the hair very short, except the ecclesiastics, who, to distinguish themselves, wore it very long. The tsar, in order to reform that custom, ordered that gentlemen, merchants, and other subjects, except priests and peasants, should each pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year if they wished to keep their beards; the commoners had to pay one kopek each. Officials were stationed at the gates of the towns to collect that tax, which the Russians regarded as an enormous sin on the part of the tsar and as a thing which tended to the abolition of their religion.
>These insinuations, which came from the priests, occasioned the publication of many pamphlets in Moscow, where for that reason alone the tsar was regarded as a tyrant and a pagan; and there were many old Russians who, after having their beards shaved off, saved them preciously, in order to have them placed in their coffins, fearing that they would not be allowed to enter heaven without their beards. As for the young men, they followed the new custom with the more readiness as it made them appear more agreeable to the fair sex.
There is a thriving modern community of [competitive beard growers](http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/). I met someone who did this for fun last year via my friend [Quinn Norton](http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/). His beard was quite impressive.
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The Working Beard Door: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi24D9lHqc
This is an episode that drew the attention of Montesquieu, one of our first political scientists (see here.) Still a great example of the power of persuasion over coercion. You want your stodgy old Russian men to look more European? Don’t ban beards. Encourage your women to “dress in the German way.”
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