The Youngest Jester

“On May 30, 1683, the red dawn rose brightly and joyfully over Moscow—over its suburbs, settlements, and villages. Not too high had the sun yet risen when, along the dusty road from the city beyond the Moskva River, and along that bank, toward Vorobyov, first single pedestrians and then a whole line of them began to stream in. It wasn’t a feast day of the main church, not some great celebration of the people, that lifted them to their feet, but an unprecedented amusement of the little Moscow tsar—Peter Alekseevich…”