It was
Peter the Great, who raised this language to be the language of public
business, in which all transactions of the courts of justice
henceforth were to be held, and all ordinances to be issued. Ere this
energetical man was able to establish a Russian printing office in his
own empire, in order not to lose time, he gave a privilege for
fifteen years to the Dutch printer Tessing for Russian works. It was
in Amsterdam, in 1699, that the first Russian book was printed. About
the year 1704, Peter himself invented some alterations in the Slavic
letters, principally so as to make them more similar to the Latin. He
caused a fount of these new types to be cast by Dutch artists; and the
first Russian newspaper was printed with them at St. Petersburg in
1705. These letters, with some additional alterations during the
course of the following ten years, were generally adopted for the
Russian language, and are in use at the present time. The same
letters, with a few slight variations, are also used by that portion
of the Servians who belong to the eastern church; the other portion
making use of the Latin alphabet. In all theological writings,
however, the ancient forms of the letters are preserved. This is the
difference between the _grashdanskii_ and _tzerkvennii_, or the civil
and church alphabet.[18]

The energy with which this emperor, _a real autocrat_, proceeded,
caused his people to overleap a whole century. If there is something
revolting to a liberal mind, in the despotic haste with which he
deprived a great nation at once of a part of their nationality,
through his arbitrary decision in all that he deemed best for them;
still it serves greatly to allay this feeling, to observe that the
resistance which he experienced did not proceed from the people, but
almost exclusively from the obstinate pride of a spoiled nobility, and
the narrow-minded policy of an ignorant and jealous priesthood. The
Russian nation itself is indeed, more than any other people,
susceptible of deep impressions. Hence they are in general not averse
to innovations; and were in Peter's time, as now, willing to be
conducted by a hand acknowledged as that of a superior. In
consequence of these very national qualities, good or bad, they are
capable of being readily moulded into any new form.

Whether the rapidity, nay, vehemence of the Tzar's improvements were a
real benefit to the nation, this is not the place to examine; but for
the free developmen