About the book: 2022 / The famous order of Peter I on barber shaving, more like an anecdote than a deliberate initiative of the wise transformer of Russia, has never been the subject of special analysis. Evgeny Akelyev takes up the study of this topic and discovers in it great potential for studying the nature of power in Petrine Russia. Why did the tsar need to introduce mandatory barber shaving at the most tense moment of the Northern War? What daily practices were associated with this order? Why were opponents of the decree ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their right to wear beards? The search for answers to these questions gave the author the opportunity to describe important changes in the relationship between the state and society in Russia at the end of the 17th - first third of the 18th century. Evgeniy Akelev – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.