In 1708 Peter sent Alexius to Smolensk to collect provender and recruits, and thence to Moscow to fortify it against Charles XII.
Livonia Minsk Mogilev Moscow Nizhniy-Novgorod Novgorod Olonets Orel Orenburg Penza Perm Podolia Poltava Pskov Ryazan St Petersburg Samara Piotrkow Plock Radom St Michel Tavastehus Uleaborg Stavropol Elizavetpol Erivan Kars Saratov Simbirsk Smolensk Tambov Taurida Tula Tver Ufa Vilna Vitebsk Vladimir Volhynia Vologda Voronezh Vyatka Yaroslavl Siedlce Suwalki Warsaw Viborg Vasa Terek Kutais Tiflis with Zakataly Akmolinsk Semipalatinsk The Steppes Turgai Uralsk Semiryechensk Samarkand Ferghana Syr-darya The effects of emigration and immigration cannot be estimated with accuracy, because only those who cross the frontier with passports are taken account of.
Owing to the forced abstention from agricultural labour in the winter months the peasants of central Russia, more especially those of the governments of Moscow, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Tver, Smolensk and Ryazan have for centuries carried on a variety of domestic handicrafts during the period of compulsory leisure.
Far from being destroyed by the competition of the " modern " factories, domestic industries have well maintained their ground, new branches of petty trade having sprung up in some districts, among them the manufacture of agricultural machinery (thrashing machines in Ryazan, Vyatka and Perm; ploughs in Smolensk, &c.) deserves notice.
He began war therefore in 1514 and at once captured Smolensk, but in the following year he was defeated, and the war dragged on during more than seven years, with varying successes and without any important result.
