Case file · High strangeness
Peter's decree on 'monsters' for the Kunstkamera
In 1718 Peter the Great ordered that deformed human and animal births across Russia be sent, preserved, to his new Kunstkamera in St Petersburg, with rewards for those who handed them in and fines for concealing them.
1718 CE · 59.94, 30.30 · status: official
The account
The decree aimed to show that 'monsters' were natural errors, not the work of the devil or signs of God's anger, as chroniclers had treated them since the 11th century. Many of the specimens, bought also from the Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch, are still on display in the museum.