The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters

The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters (1692 – 1725) was a club founded by Peter I of Russia. The group included many of Peter's closest friends, and its activities centered mostly around drinking and partying. The group was not without controversies; some of its parodies against the Church in particular were heavily criticized.

As a teenager and young adult, Peter I of Russia had a large group of friends and followers. Some were childhood friends who had been with him since throughout his stay at Preobrazhenskoye or before, such as Nikita Zotov and Fyodor Romodanovsky; others were older patriotic men from respected families, such as Prince Michael Cherkassky, Prince Peter Prozorovsky and Fedor Golovin; and some others were foreigners like Patrick Gordon and Franz Lefort whose company Peter enjoyed. Together, the "cohesive group" often wandered the countryside and interrupted noblemen, asking for food and shelter for the night. Known as the "Jolly Company", there were anywhere from 80 to 200 followers within the "Company". In addition to the vast varieties of food, games, and events at the parties the "Jolly Company" held, there were also copious amounts of alcoholic beverages.

In time, the Jolly Company held more and more parties within Moscow itself, often within the home of Franz Lefort. Lefort, however, had limited funds, and he could not often afford to host the Tsar. To assist Lefort, Peter first built Lefort a large dining hall, and when that grew to be too small, he built him a fully furnished stone mansion with a banquet hall that could hold 1,500 men. The hall would become "a kind of " for the Jolly Company, even when Peter or Lefort were absent.

The Jolly Company slowly "proceeded to more organized buffoonery and masquerades" as Peter gave many of the men titles that they addressed each other by, often for ridiculous reasons. For example, a boyar named Ivan Buturlin was forever known as "The Polish King" because he played the enemy in a mock battle at Preobrazhenskoye, while Fyodor Romodanovsky was first known as "King of Pressburg" and then as "Prince-Caesar". Many years later, Peter would address Romodanovsky as "Your Majesty" and even presented him as the Tsar to defeated military opponents.

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