Is it true that the modern type of skates was invented by King Peter I?

In many sources, we can read that sports skates with their abundance with their birth are owe to the Russian monarch tightly attached to shoes. We checked whether this is really so.

As the website of the magazine reports "Around the world"," From the XIV century to the end of the XVII, skates were made of wood with metal skills and attached to the soles of the shoes with ropes and belts. <...> For the first time, the skates with the rods tightly attached to the sole were "made" the Russian king Peter I, who was in Holland for shipbuilding and carried away with ice skiing. "

A similar statement can be seen on resources such as "RIA Novosti","Sport-explosionWithWith" Championat.com, Sports.ru, "Belarus today","Interactive Museum of Sports", Sites libraries, trading network "Sportmaster", In the magazine"Bonfire", As well as in books"People who have changed the world" And "Amazing Russia. 500 facts about our country that will amaze you". "Gazeta.ru"Claims that the invention of the Russian monarch is even recorded in the skating encyclopedia, which was published in the Netherlands in 1848.

Indeed, as you know, in 1697-1698 the Russian Tsar Peter I in the delegation The Great Embassy He visited Europe, where he met factories and factories, shipyards and arsenals, learned the shipbuilding in Amsterdam and even received a patent for the ship master. The Russian delegation and traditional Dutch fun did not ignore. Jan Cornelius Nomen in his notes celebrated: “Muscovites ... used winter time and diligently learned to skate on ice, and they repeatedly fell and bruised greatly. And since they, by negligence, sometimes rode on thin ice, some of them fell into the water around the neck. Meanwhile, they perfectly tolerated the cold and therefore were in no hurry to put on a dry dress, but continued to ride for some more time in wet; Then they already changed into a dry dress and went again to ride. They did this so jealously that they made success, and some of them could run perfectly on skates. ”

Another question is whether Peter really introduced his homeland to skates, as some sites say? This is wrong. Another English ambassador Howard Carlisle, appointed in 1663, celebratedthat "Muscovites, like the Dutch, have skates that are used in winter when the waters are covered with ice ... However, not for travel, but only for exercise and warming on ice." The skates, according to Carlisle, were “made of wood, below with a long and narrow iron, well -polished, but bent in front, so that iron could be better cutting the ice.” From another quote (“The High -Trinos are disdained, but they are fond of commoners”) we can conclude that many years later Peter I popularized skates precisely among the Russian nobility. However, as the author of the article in the magazine will write two centuries later,Hercules"," With the death of Peter the Great, the skating sport disappeared in Russia. " The fashion for skating will return to Russia only at the beginning of the 19th century.

So, we approached the main question - the design of the skates. Some scientists counting The history of this product is from at least 1800 BC. e. - Around then, according to their research, in Scandinavia the oldest skates from the bones of animals were made to date. Their other colleagues They say About even earlier dates. At each end of such a skate there was a hole through which a leather strap was tapped to attach to the legs.

By the XIV century in Europe (in particular, in Holland), bone skates were Reded Wooden, with a metal blade at the end.

How easy it is to notice, such skates were also attached to shoes with laces, and did not make a single design with it. Over the next centuries, the form Changed: They became higher, in front appeared a nonsense familiar to many.

But we are still interested in when the boots began to tightly attach to the metal part of the ridge. Oddly enough, according to modern researchers, this happened much later than the era of Peter I. Here, for example, the reconstruction of skates of the late XVIII century.

We see that straps are still used in them. In 1772, the Englishman Robert Jones in his "Treatise on skating" He performed For screwing the blades directly to the boot, but this offer remained on paper. In 1848, an avid skater from Pennsylvania Edward Bushnell Patented All -metal skates Philadelphia Club Skate. But even they were leather straps, and the boots were not included. The step forward was to replace the wooden stand with a metal and the appearance of a special mounted pin for connecting with shoes.

And only in 1865 Jackson Haynes Developed A double -plastic all -metal blade, which was attached directly to the boots of a skater or skater. Before the release of factory skates with a pre -attached boot, it was still far away. The question arises: if at the end of the XVII century in Russia more progressive (in fact, modern) skates appeared, why they: a) did not reach us in the form of museum exhibits; b) did not spread across Russia and Europe?

The answer to this question will be helped by modern Dutch specialists in the history of skates. In the encyclopedia they compiled, a separate page Dedicated to varieties called Peterschatsen ("Peter's skates"). It is noted that it appeared in the area of ​​1650, long before the visit and even before the birth of the Russian sovereign, and remained popular for almost three centuries. The peculiarity of this design was in a small note on the heel of skates (copper plate in the rear of the stand) and some likeness of the toe in front.

A similar design allowed the foot to stand more steady on the skate, but separate shoes and the straps attaching it were still used. Nevertheless, this variety cannot be called a particularly popular or an intermediate link between ancient skates and the current species.

As for the connection with Peter the Great, as the Dutch suggest, the king was carried away by this particular model during his stay in Zandama, which caused the hype among local residents. Since then, a variety has been nicknamed in honor of a high -ranking guest, although today the word Peterschatsen is almost forgotten. It is also noted that in the EncyClopédie Roret 1853 the term Le Cothurne Russe (“Russian Koturne”) - a high shoe attached to the wooden part of the skate.

Thus, Pyotr I did not invent the skates of the modern type, and the Dutch variety associated with his name appeared before his birth.

Photo on the cover: publicdomainpictures.net

Not true

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