Peter the Great's advise for Obama to raise tax money for the country

Your claims are somewhat disingenuous. The Russian Orthodox church went through a severe doctinal crisis before Peter was born, and after the resolution of that crisis (which left almost half of Russians dissatisified and a significant proportion rebellious), the Russian Patriarch, Nikon, attempted to challenge the Tsar, Alexei (Peter's father) politically. When Peter took charge, he "nationalized" the church, making it a bureaucracy of the empire. He undertook to maintain all the churches, monasteries and convents, and he paid a salary to the priest, monks and nuns. Charging a fee for christenings and burials helped to pay those costs, and it made Russia the last major nation of Europe to introduce the practice--fees for christenings and burials were already common throughout the rest of Europe, Protestant or Catholic.

The tax on beards was a product of Peter's cultural bullying. He wanted Russia to become a modern European nation, and he therefore encouraged the adoption of western European styles of dress. When the old order resisted, given that he was "of Great Russia, Little Russia [the Ukraine] and all the Russias, Autocrat," he required the Russians to adopt western attire. (They must have frozen for much of the year in short pants and silk hose, waistcoats and fashionable coats rather than floor-length robes and overcoats.) But no amount of ukases by Peter could make people like the change, and the boyars continued to cherish their long beards, a matter of pride with them. So Peter introduced the beard tax to force men to either shave, or pay through the nose. Those who paid the beard tax were given a medallion to wear about their necks which they could show to avoid being forceibly shaved by soldiers under the command of imperial officials.

Russia, like ancient Rome, had a hearth tax. There was no income tax, no capitation--just the hearth tax. Therefore, just like the Romans in their warrens of flimsy apartment buildings, the Russians learned to pack as many people as possible into each house or apartment, as each one counted as a single hearth and the tax could be spread out among as many people as possible. Despite cold war propaganda in the West, that is the reason why Russians habitually pack as many people as possible into a single residence. The habit has become so ingrained that the housing shortage is only apparent, not real.

Peter learned a lesson early enough in his reign that just about every monarch learns. Even in the best designed tax system, revenue shortfalls will be significant because of theft in office by the royal officials. It was a problem which would haunt him throughout his reign, and in large measure becasue his closest friend and one of his most trusted officials, Aleksandr Menshikov, stole from him constantly, shamelessly and enormously. It was very hard to impress other officials that they should not steal from the empire when the number two man made it a favorite indoor sport.

One of the expedients to which he resorted was a heavy tax on vodka, which did not reduce consumption by one ounce. All of his successors followed the practice, until Nicholas II, who stupuidly banned vodka during the Great War. It didn't stop vodka consumption, because "moonshine" vodka was immediately produced to meet the demand--but it did bankrupt his government within six months.

We already have an excise tax on booze--i don't think that will help Mr. Obama.

While the Russian Tsar thought beards to be uncivilised, King Henry VIII of England, a introduced a tax on beards already earlier, namely in 1535. But that tax was a graduated tax, varying with the wearer’s social position.
(Later, Elizabeth I reintroduced the beard tax, taxing every beard of more than two-weeks growth.)

Peter would not have gone bankrupted if he had been smart enough to have you as his financial adviser. Why didn't you offer your services?

BBB

I don't know that Peter was ever bankrupted.

I couldn't find any sources re his personal wealth, but his 'tax reforms' enabled the Russian state to expand its treasury almost sixfold between 1680 and 1724.

Did I mis-read your post? "It didn't stop vodka consumption, because "moonshine" vodka was immediately produced to meet the demand--but it did bankrupt his government within six months."

BBB

That was a reference to the government of Nicholas II, after 1914.