History answers
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Back in the 17th century, russia was a rather insular country, lacking a navy and a welltrained army. It also struggled economically and scientifically so, in a bid to modernise his country, tsar Peter I made a radical decision to don a disguise and find out how western europe did it. On his grand tour, he learned about the advances in shipbuilding and he visited factories, museums and arsenals. He also noted that the modern western europeans did not have beards. That, he felt, was very important.
When Peter returned to Russia in 1698 and enjoyed a welcoming reception, he demanded that every man — except clergy and peasants — should clear his face of hair. He promptly whipped out a barber’s razor and began to shave the beards from the faces and necks of his aghast courtiers. Police were later instructed to do the same to any hairy-faced man they saw in the streets. Suffice to say, the ban didn’t go down well with his subjects.
It was opposed by the Russian orthodox Church, which believed it to be blasphemous, and he eventually allowed men to retain their beards as long as they paid a tax and carried a copper or bronze token as proof. This fee — 100 rubles for the wealthy and a kopek for commoners — remained in placed until 1772.