Peter the Great: His Life and World:
Essentially, Peter’s attitude toward morality in relations between men and women was based on a utilitarian social ethic. He was indulgent toward behavior and indiscretions which did no harm to society. Prostitutes enjoyed “perfect liberty in Russia,” reported Weber, except in the case of one who had “peppered some hundreds of the Preobrazhensky Guards who, being unable to march on their duty with the rest, were obliged to remain behind at Petersburg in order to be cured”; this woman was knouted [whipped] for having harmed state interests.
Unmarried women, when pregnant, were encouraged to bear their infants. Once, when Peter found a pretty girl barred from the company of other maidens because she had an illegitimate son, he said, “I forbid her to be excluded from the company of other women and girls.” The girl’s son was placed under the Tsar’s protection.
But if Peter was tolerant of indiscretion, he was implacable in criminal matters. Prenatal abortion or the murder of an unwanted infant after birth was punishable by death.
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