Beard tax

In 1698,[1] Tsar Peter I of Russia instituted a beard tax as part of an effort to bring Russian society in line with Western European models.

To enforce the ban on beards, the tsar empowered police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to pay the tax.

[2] Resistance to going clean shaven was widespread with many believing that it was a religious requirement for a man to wear a beard,[3] and the Russian Orthodox Church declared being clean-shaven as blasphemous.

[9] This was a copper or silver token with a Russian Eagle on the reverse and on the obverse the lower part of a face with nose, mouth, whiskers, and beard.

[20] This policy differed from the approach taken in other Islamic nations where tradition and sharia law have been used to require the growing of beards under threat of punishment.