He appointed himself executioner-in-chief and the Streltsiwere hanged and quartered and killed to the last man.
A sudden rebellion among his life-guards, the Streltsi regiment, forced Peter to hasten home by the fast mail.
Some asserted that Peter was still kept there; and in 1705 the streltsi and raskolniks of Astrakhan still gave out that it was a false czar who had come back to Moscow--the true czar was a prisoner at Stockholm, attached to a stake.
On this rumor, the streltsi had arrived, and also because Romodanovski wished to disperse and put them to the sword without anyone knowing why.
Those of the streltsi who had been sent to form the garrison of Azov pined for their wives, their children, and the trades they had left in Moscow.
Footnote 1: The streltsi were an ancient Muscovite guard composed of citizens rendering hereditary military service in the different cities and fortified posts.
Two streltsi warned Peter of the plots of his sister, and for the second time he sought an asylum at Troitsa.
The streltsi attempted a new rising, but, with the usual fickleness of a popular militia, suddenly passed from the extreme of insolence to the extreme of humility.
The streltsi remained indifferent when Sophia, affecting to think her life threatened, fled to the Dievitchi monastery, and sent them letters of entreaty.
Historians show us Sophia interceded for the victims on her knees, but an understanding between the rebels and the Czarevna did exist; the streltsi obeyed orders.
Another cause of misunderstanding was the support she gave to the state church, as reformed by Nicon, while the streltsi and the greater part of the people held to the "old faith.
The partisans of Sophia were cold and irresolute; the streltsi themselves demanded that her favorite Chaklovity should be surrendered to the Czar.
In 1694 Peter had discovered a fresh conspiracy, having for its object the deliverance of Sophia; and at the very moment of his departure from Russia he had to put down a plot of streltsi and Cossacks headed by Colonel Tsykler.
The guard consisted of 300 of the Streltsi with their showiest weapons, and behind them came pensioners, boyards and officers of the court.
In January 1699 came more enquiries, more tortures, more executions, and then the extermination of the Streltsi determined upon.
Peter exterminated the streltsi, the men who first of all his subjects had supported his claims and protected his rights; it is in connection with the streltsi that Peter is most enduringly associated with Moscow.
He wished also for proof of Sophia's connection with the discontent amongst the Streltsi and people; in this, notwithstanding all his energy and cruelty, he was unsuccessful.
At first the revolt of the Streltsi had little political significance beyond the fact that it was the forcible demand of a part of the citizens for common justice.
A most compromising letter from Sophia to the Streltsi is generally considered to be a forged document, made up of stray, incoherent scraps of information wrung from maddened creatures in the torture chamber.
The Streltsi insisted that Peter should reign conjointly with Ivan and carried their point, but Sophia, as regent, was entrusted with certain powers.
Her younger sister, Marfa, was then strung up in turn and all that could be learned of her was that she had apprised her sister Sophia of the return of the Streltsi to Moscow and of their desire to see her rule re-established.
Peter the Great imprisoned his sister Sophia within its walls, and executed many of the streltsi before her windows that their agony might awe her bold spirit.
His treatment of theStreltsi called forth a fierce denunciation from the Patriarch Adrian, who "beseeched him in the name of the Mother of God to desist.
Hurried by the impatient boyards he courageously left the chapel, and crossing the threshold of the Golden Gates was at once seized by the Streltsi waiting him and dragged to torture and execution, and this satisfied the rioters for the time.
Whereas fifteen blows with the knout were equal to a capital sentence, one of the Streltsi was put to the torture seven times and received in all ninety-nine blows, yet confessed nothing.
The commander of the Streltsi selected a band of six hundred of the imperial guards to go with him to Obrogensko.
The Streltsi placed ladders against the rails, and some of them climbed up to the platform where the little Czar stood.
Sophia endeavored to keep the Streltsi upon her side, but they at last went over to Peter, and he demanded that the leader of the band who attempted his assassination should be delivered into his hands.
Peter had just time to flee with his wife and mother to the monastery of the Trinity, when the Streltsi reached his palace, and sought him in vain.
The Czarina Natalia was advised to go out on the red staircase with the Czar Peter and the Czarewitz Iván, that the Streltsimight be convinced of the falsity of the rumor.
But even this did not quiet the disturbance, and the Streltsi burst into the palace.
They were big, savage-faced men, pets of the half-civilized Russian rulers, and were called the Streltsi Guard.
Some of the Streltsi Guard who had taken part against him were tried and executed, and the Princess Sophia was shut up in a convent for the remainder of her life.
She shocked every Russian by her manners until the streltsi began to speak of her as "the scandalous person.
The latter part of the story was true, as she had in fact retreated to such a place, from which she sent letters to the streltsi to come to her rescue.
After this rioting had continued seven days, the streltsi sent their commandant Khovanski to the douma, to demand that there should be two czars, Ivan, with Peter as his assistant.
In some places, such as Pskof, Novgorod, and elsewhere, the streltsi joined the people, and Russia was for some time at the mercy of an enemy.
He secured from the douma an order by which three thousand families were moved to that port, and streltsi were dispatched to garrison it.
The people of Moscow rose, and the streltsi marched to the kremlin where the appearance of Natalia with the two children made the mob hesitate.
One of Natalia's brothers was thrown out of a window and caught on the points of the lances of the streltsi who (p.
The commandant failed to secure more than 500 men; the other streltsi told him that there should be an investigation.
Bodies were seen dangling from the walls of the kremlin for five months, and for the same length of time, the corpses of some of the streltsi hung from the bars of Sophia's prison, clutching the secret proclamation.
The streltsi were dissolved and replaced by regular troops.
She sent for the commandant of the streltsi who agreed to sound the men.
The streltsi acted under authority from Sophia when they committed these outrages.
The streltsi were equipped as well as the men-at-arms; but the services of Cossacks and foreign mercenaries were refused.
Two of the streltsi went to Peter and reported to him what was going on, whereupon he moved to the famous Troïtsa monastery.
The douma did not fancy the idea,--but there were the streltsi with their pikes, and they carried the day.
She was to be forced to disband her new regular armies, and Peter was to be made to restore to the country the Streltsi whom he had abolished, and the old order of things generally.
It is probable that, young as he had been at that time, Peter never forgave the Streltsi for that terrible experience, and that his distrust of them as a danger to the state dated from that day.
In the ranks of the Streltsi our hunter soon learned the simple drill which the soldiers of the Russia of that day had to acquire.
The men had never before been called upon to leave Moscow for prolonged service, though many others of the Streltsi regiments had not been so fortunate.
To Boris the news that the Streltsi had gone away without him was the best and most acceptable news in the world.
Presently, however, two young Streltsiofficers came walking down the street talking confidentially.
Foiled in his attempt to dig down to the roots of this matter, but unconvinced that his sister and others were innocent, Peter then proceeded to wreak his vengeance upon the Streltsi themselves.
There are some old friends of yours, I find, among these accursed ones, the Streltsi prisoners.
The regiment of Guards to which Boris was attached was ordered to proceed to the south of Russia, where the Streltsi were already gathered before the walls of the city of Azof in preparation for a siege.
It was at this stage of affairs that letters were despatched to the Tsar at Vienna, summoning him to his capital, which was menaced by a descent upon it by the dissatisfied Streltsi regiments.
But the Streltsi would not believe the words of Gordon, and declared that they must and would come to Moscow in order to see with their own eyes that all was well with the Tsar and the country.
The Streltsi were at this time practically the only regular regiments of the country, though they were not destined to remain so long under the progressive rule of their present enlightened Tsar.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "streltsi" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
