Ekaterina 1 year of birth. Peter1 and Ekaterina

Ekaterina Alekseevna Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya


Coronation:
Predecessor:
Successor:
Birth:

Buried:	Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
Dynasty:	Romanovs (by marriage)
	According to the most common version, Samuel Skavronsky
	Assumption. (Anna-) Dorothea Gun
	1) Johann Kruse (or Rabe) 2) Peter I
	Anna Petrovna Elizaveta Petrovna Petr Petrovich Natalya Petrovna the rest died in infancy
Monogram:

early years

The question of origin

1702-1725 years

The mistress of Peter I

Peter I's wife

Rise to power

Governing body. 1725-1727 years

Foreign policy

End of reign

The question of succession

Will

Catherine I (Marta Skavronskaya,; 1684-1727) - Russian empress from 1721 as the wife of the reigning emperor, from 1725 as the reigning empress; second wife of Peter the Great, mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

According to the most common version, Catherine's real name is Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, later baptized by Peter I under a new name Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova... She was born into the family of a Baltic (Latvian) peasant from the vicinity of Kegums, captured by Russian troops, became the mistress of Peter I, then his wife and the ruling empress of Russia. In her honor, Peter I established the Order of St. Catherine (in 1713) and named the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals (in 1723). The name of Catherine I also bears the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (built under her daughter Elizabeth).

early years

Information about the youth of Catherine I is contained mainly in historical anecdotes and is not sufficiently reliable.

The most common version is as follows. She was born on the territory of modern Latvia, in the historical region of Vidzeme, which was part of Swedish Livonia at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries.

Marta's parents died of the plague in 1684, and her uncle gave the girl to the house of the Lutheran pastor Ernst Gluck, famous for his translation of the Bible into Latvian (after the capture of Marienburg by Russian troops, Gluck, as a scientist, was taken into Russian service, founded the first gymnasium in Moscow, taught languages and wrote poetry in Russian). Martha was used in the house as a servant, she was not taught literacy.

According to the version set forth in the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, Martha's mother, having become a widow, gave her daughter into the service of the family of Pastor Gluck, where she was supposedly taught to read and write.

According to another version, until the age of 12, Katerina lived with her aunt Anna-Maria Veselovskaya, before ending up in the Gluck family.

At the age of 17, Martha was married to a Swedish dragoon named Johan Cruse, just before the Russian advance on Marienburg. A day or two after the wedding, the trumpet player Johann and his regiment left for the war and, according to the popular version, went missing.

The question of origin

The search for Catherine's roots in the Baltics, carried out after the death of Peter I, showed that Catherine had two sisters - Anna and Christina, and two brothers - Karl and Friedrich. Catherine moved their families to St. Petersburg in 1726 (Karl Skavronsky moved even earlier, see Skavronsky). According to A.I. Repnin, who led the search, Khristina Skavronskaya and her husband “ lie", Both of them" people are stupid and drunk", Repnin offered to send them" where to another place, so that there are no big enemies from them". Catherine conferred the title of count on Karl and Friedrich in January 1727, without calling them her brothers. In the will of Catherine I, the Skavronskys are vaguely named “ close relatives of her own surname". Under Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Catherine, immediately after her accession to the throne in 1741, the children of Christina (Gendrikovs) and the children of Anna (Efimovskys) were also elevated to the rank of count. Later, the official version was that Anna, Christina, Karl and Friedrich are the brothers and sisters of Catherine, the children of Samuel Skavronsky.

However, since the end of the 19th century, a number of historians have questioned this relationship. It is pointed out that Peter I called Catherine not Skavronskaya, but Veselevskaya or Vasilevskaya, and in 1710, after the capture of Riga, in a letter to the same Repnin, he called completely different names to “my relatives” - “Yagan-Ionus Vasilevski, Anna-Dorothea , also their children. " Therefore, other versions of Catherine's origin were proposed, according to which she is a cousin, and not a sister of the Skavronsky who appeared in 1726.

In connection with Catherine I, another surname is called - Rabe. According to some sources, Rabe (and not Kruse) is the name of her first dragoon husband (this version got into fiction, for example, the novel by A. N. Tolstoy "Peter the First"), according to others, this is her maiden name, and someone Johann Rabe was her father.

1702-1725 years

The mistress of Peter I

On August 25, 1702, during the Great Northern War, the army of the Russian Field Marshal Sheremetev, fighting against the Swedes in Livonia, took the Swedish fortress Marienburg (now Aluksne, Latvia). Sheremetev, taking advantage of the departure of the main Swedish army to Poland, subjected the region to merciless ruin. As he himself reported to Tsar Peter I at the end of 1702:

In Marienburg, Sheremetev captured 400 residents. When Pastor Gluck, accompanied by his servants, came to intercede for the fate of the inhabitants, Sheremetev noticed the servant Martha Kruse and forcibly took her to his mistress. After a short time, approximately in August 1703, Prince Menshikov, a friend and colleague of Peter I, became its owner. This is how the Frenchman Franz Villebois, who was in the Russian service in the navy since 1698 and married to the daughter of Pastor Gluck, says. Villebois's story is confirmed by another source, notes from 1724 from the archives of the Duke of Oldenburg. According to these notes, Sheremetev sent Pastor Gluck and all the inhabitants of the Marienburg fortress to Moscow, while he kept Martha for himself. Menshikov, taking Martha from the elderly field marshal a few months later, fell out with Sheremetev.

The Scotsman Peter Henry Bruce in his Memoirs presents history (from the words of others) in a more favorable light for Catherine I. Martha was taken by the colonel of the Dragoon regiment Baur (who later became a general):

“[Baur] immediately ordered her to be placed in his house, which entrusted her to care, giving her the right to dispose of all the servants, and she soon fell in love with the new steward for her manner of household. The general later often said that his house was never as well-groomed as it was during her stay there. Prince Menshikov, who was his patron, once saw her with the general, also noting something extraordinary in her appearance and manners. After asking who she was and whether she knew how to cook, he heard in response the story just told, to which the general added a few words about her worthy position in his house. The prince said that it was in such a woman that he now badly needed, because he himself was now being served very poorly. To this, the general replied that he owed too much to the prince not to immediately do what he had just thought of - and immediately calling Catherine, he said that before her was Prince Menshikov, who needed just such a servant as she was, and that the prince will do everything in his power to become, like himself, a friend to her, adding that he respects her too much not to give her the opportunity to receive her share of honor and good fortune. "

In the fall of 1703, during one of his regular visits to Menshikov in St. Petersburg, Peter I met Martha and soon made her his mistress, calling her Katerina Vasilevskaya in letters (possibly by the name of her aunt). Franz Villebois reports their first meeting as follows:

“This was the case when the tsar, driving by post from St. Petersburg, which was then called Nyenskans, or Noteburg, to Livonia, in order to travel further, stopped at his favorite Menshikov, where he noticed Catherine among the servants who served at the table. He asked where she came from and how he got it. And, speaking quietly in his ear with this favorite, who answered him with only a nod of his head, he looked at Catherine for a long time and, teasing her, said that she was smart, and ended his joking speech by telling her that when she went to bed, take a candle to his room. It was an order, spoken in a joking tone, but not subject to any objection. Menshikov took it for granted, and the beauty, devoted to her master, spent the night in the Tsar's room ... The next day the Tsar left in the morning to continue his journey. He returned to his favorite what he had lent him. The satisfaction of the tsar, which he received from his nightly conversation with Catherine, cannot be judged by the generosity he showed. She limited herself to only one ducat, which is equal in value to half of one louis (10 francs), which he thrust into her hand in a military fashion at parting. "

In 1704, Katerina gives birth to her first child, named Peter, the next year, Paul (both died soon after).

In 1705, Peter sent Katerina to the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, to the house of his sister, Princess Natalya Alekseevna, where Katerina Vasilevskaya learned Russian literacy, and, in addition, became friends with the Menshikov family.

When Katerina was baptized into Orthodoxy (1707 or 1708), she changed her name to Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova, since her godfather was Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, and Peter I himself used the surname Mikhailov if he wished to remain incognito.

In January 1710, Peter staged a triumphal procession to Moscow on the occasion of the Poltava victory, thousands of Swedish prisoners were held in the parade, among whom, according to Franz Villebois, was Johann Kruse. Johann confessed about his wife, giving birth to children one by one to the Russian tsar, and was immediately exiled to a remote corner of Siberia, where he died in 1721. According to Franz Villebois, the existence of Catherine's living legal husband during the years of the birth of Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709) was later used by opposing factions in disputes over the right to the throne after the death of Catherine I. According to notes from the Duchy of Oldenburg, the Swedish dragoon Kruse died in 1705, however one must bear in mind the interest of the German dukes in the legitimacy of the birth of the daughters of Peter, Anna and Elizabeth, who were looking for suitors among the German appanage rulers.

Peter I's wife

Even before her legal marriage to Peter, Katerina gave birth to daughters Anna and Elizabeth. Katerina alone could cope with the tsar in his fits of anger, was able to calm Peter's convulsive headaches with affection and patient attention. According to Bassevich's memoirs:

In the spring of 1711, Peter, having become attached to a charming and light-minded former servant, ordered Catherine to be considered his wife and took her on the Prut campaign, unhappy for the Russian army. The Danish envoy Yust Yul, from the words of the princesses (nieces of Peter I), wrote this story down:

“In the evening, shortly before his departure, the tsar called them, his sister Natalya Alekseevna, to a house in the Preobrazhenskaya Sloboda. There he took the hand and put his mistress Ekaterina Alekseevna in front of them. For the future, the tsar said, they should consider her his legitimate wife and Russian tsarina. Since now, due to the urgent need to go to the army, he cannot marry her, he takes her with him in order to do this on occasion in more free time. At the same time, the king made it clear that if he dies before he has time to marry, then after his death they will have to look at her as his legitimate wife. After that they all congratulated (Ekaterina Alekseevna) and kissed her hand. "

In Moldavia, in July 1711, 190 thousand Turks and Crimean Tatars pressed the 38-thousandth Russian army to the river, completely surrounded by numerous cavalry. Catherine went on a long hike, being 7 months pregnant. According to a well-known legend, she took off all her jewelry in order to bribe them to the Turkish commander. Peter I was able to conclude the Peace of Prut and, having sacrificed the Russian conquests in the south, to withdraw the army from the encirclement. The Danish envoy Yust Yul, who was with the Russian army after it left the encirclement, does not report such an act of Catherine, but says that the queen (as everyone called Catherine now) distributed her jewelry to the officers for preservation and then collected them. The notes of the brigadier Moro de Brazet also do not mention the bribery of the vizier with Catherine's jewels, although the author (the brigadier Moro de Brazet) knew from the words of the Turkish pasha about the exact size of the state sums used to bribe the Turks.

The official wedding of Peter I to Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on February 19, 1712 in the Church of St. Isaac of Dalmatsky in St. Petersburg. In 1713, Peter I, in honor of the dignified behavior of his wife during the unsuccessful Prut campaign for him, established the Order of St. Catherine and personally placed the insignia of the order on his wife on November 24, 1714. It was originally called the Order of the Liberation and was intended only for Catherine. Peter I recalled the merits of Catherine during the Prut campaign in his manifesto on the coronation of his wife on November 15, 1723:

In his personal letters, the tsar showed an unusual tenderness for his wife: “ Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I can hear that you are bored, but I am not bored either ...»Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to 11 children to her husband, but almost all of them died in childhood, except for Anna and Elizabeth. Elizabeth later became empress (ruled in 1741-1762), and Anna's direct descendants ruled Russia after Elizabeth's death, from 1762 to 1917. One of the sons who died in childhood, Pyotr Petrovich, after the abdication of Alexei Petrovich (Peter's eldest son from Evdokia Lopukhina) was considered from February 1718 until his death in 1719, the official heir to the Russian throne.

Foreigners, who followed the Russian court with attention, note the tsar's affection for his wife. Bassevich writes about their relationship in 1721:

In the fall of 1724, Peter I suspected the empress of adultery with her chamberlain Mons, whom he executed for another reason. He stopped talking to her, access to him was denied to her. Only once, at the request of his daughter Elizabeth, Peter agreed to dine with Catherine, who had been his inseparable friend for 20 years. Only at death did Peter reconcile with his wife. In January 1725, Catherine spent all the time at the bedside of the dying sovereign, he died in her arms.

The offspring of Peter I from Catherine I

	Year of birth	Death year	Note
Anna Petrovna			In 1725 she married the German Duke Karl-Friedrich; left for Kiel, where she gave birth to the son of Karl Peter Ulrich (later the Russian emperor Peter III).
Elizaveta Petrovna			Russian Empress from 1741.
Natalia Petrovna
Margarita Petrovna
Petr Petrovich			He was considered the official heir to the crown from 1718 until his death.
Pavel Petrovich
Natalia Petrovna

Rise to power

By a manifesto of November 15, 1723, Peter announced the future coronation of Catherine as a sign of her special merits.

On May 7 (18), 1724, Peter crowned Catherine as Empress in the Moscow Dormition Cathedral. This was the second coronation of the sovereign's wife in Russia (after the coronation of Marina Mnishek by False Dmitry I in 1605).

By his law of February 5, 1722, Peter abolished the previous order of succession to the throne as a direct male descendant, replacing it with the personal appointment of the reigning sovereign. Any person worthy, in the opinion of the sovereign, to head the state could become a successor under the Decree of 1722. Peter died in the early morning of January 28 (February 8) 1725, not having time to name a successor and leaving no sons. The absence of a strictly defined order of succession to the throne of Russia was given to chance, and subsequent times went down in history as the era of palace coups.

The popular majority was in favor of the only male representative of the dynasty - Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, grandson of Peter I from the eldest son Aleksey who died during interrogation. For Peter Alekseevich there was a well-born nobility, who considered him the only legitimate heir, born of a marriage worthy of royal blood. Count Tolstoy, Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky, Chancellor Count Golovkin and Menshikov at the head of the serving nobility could not hope to preserve the power received from Peter I under Peter Alekseevich; on the other hand, the coronation of the empress could be interpreted as an indirect indication of Peter's heiress. When Catherine saw that there was no longer any hope for her husband's recovery, she instructed Menshikov and Tolstoy to act in favor of their rights. The guard was devoted to adoration to the dying emperor; she transferred this affection to Catherine.

Guard officers from the Preobrazhensky regiment came to the Senate meeting, knocking down the door to the room. They openly declared that they would smash the heads of the old boyars if they went against their mother Catherine. Suddenly there was a drumbeat from the square: it turned out that both guards regiments were lined up in front of the palace under arms. Prince Field Marshal Repnin, president of the military collegium, angrily asked: “ Who dared bring shelves here without my knowledge? Am I not a field marshal?"Buturlin, the commander of the Semyonovsky regiment, answered Repnin that he called the regiments at the will of the empress, to whom all subjects are obliged to obey," not excluding you"He added impressively.

Thanks to the support of the guards regiments, it was possible to convince all opponents of Catherine to vote for her. The Senate "unanimously" elevated her to the throne, calling her " All-Blessed, Most Powerful Great Sovereign Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the autocrat of the All-Russian”And in justification by announcing the will of the deceased sovereign interpreted by the Senate. The people were very surprised by the ascension of a woman to the throne for the first time in Russian history, but there was no excitement.

On January 28 (February 8), 1725, Catherine I ascended to the throne of the Russian Empire thanks to the support of the guards and nobles who had risen under Peter. In Russia, the era of empresses reign began, when, until the end of the 18th century, only women ruled, with the exception of a few years.

Governing body. 1725-1727 years

The actual power in the reign of Catherine was concentrated by the prince and field marshal Menshikov, as well as the Supreme Privy Council. Catherine, however, was completely satisfied with the role of the first mistress of Tsarskoye Selo, relying on her advisers in matters of government. She was only interested in the affairs of the fleet - Peter's love for the sea touched her too.

The nobles wanted to rule under a woman and now they really got their way.

From "History of Russia" S.M. Solovyova:

Under Peter, she shone not with her own light, but borrowed from the great man whom she was a companion; she had the ability to keep herself at a certain height, to show attention and sympathy to the movement that was taking place around her; she was privy to all the secrets, the secrets of the personal relationships of the people around her. Her position, fear for the future kept her mental and moral strength in constant and strong tension. But the climbing plant reached its height thanks only to the giant of the forests around which it twisted; the giant is slain, and the weak plant spreads on the ground. Catherine retained the knowledge of persons and the relationships between them, kept the habit of wading between these relationships; but she had neither due attention to matters, especially internal affairs, and their details, nor the ability to initiate and direct.

On the initiative of Count P.A.Tolstoy, in February 1726, a new body of state power, the Supreme Privy Council, was created, where a narrow circle of chief dignitaries could govern the Russian Empire under the formal chairmanship of a semi-literate empress. The Council included Field Marshal Prince Menshikov, Admiral General Count Apraksin, Chancellor Count Golovkin, Count Tolstoy, Prince Golitsyn, Vice Chancellor Baron Osterman. Of the six members of the new institution, only Prince D. M. Golitsyn came from a noble family. In April, the young prince I. A. Dolgoruky was admitted to the Supreme Privy Council.

As a result, the role of the Senate fell sharply, although it was renamed the High Senate. The supreme leaders jointly decided all important matters, and Catherine only signed the papers they sent. The Supreme Council liquidated the local authorities created by Peter and restored the governor's power.

The long wars waged by Russia affected the country's finances. Due to poor harvests, the prices of bread rose, and discontent grew in the country. To prevent uprisings, the poll tax was lowered (from 74 to 70 kopecks).

The activities of Catherine's government were limited mainly to petty issues, while embezzlement, arbitrariness and abuse flourished. There was no talk of any reforms or transformations, there was a struggle for power within the Soviet.

Despite this, the common people loved the empress for the fact that she sympathized with the unfortunate and willingly helped them. Soldiers, sailors and artisans constantly crowded in its front halls: some were looking for help, others asked the queen to be their godmother. She did not refuse anyone and usually gave each of her godchildren a few ducats.

During the reign of Catherine I, the Academy of Sciences was opened, V. Bering's expedition was organized, the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established.

Foreign policy

For 2 years of the reign of Catherine I, Russia did not wage big wars, only in the Caucasus a separate corps operated under the command of Prince Dolgorukov, trying to recapture the Persian territories while Persia was in a state of turmoil, and Turkey unsuccessfully fought the Persian rebels. In Europe, the case was limited to diplomatic activity in defending the interests of the Holstein Duke (husband of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Catherine I) against Denmark.

Russia was at war with the Turks in Dagestan and Georgia. Catherine's plan to return Schleswig, taken by the Danes, to the Duke of Holstein, led to military actions against Russia from Denmark and England. In relation to Poland, Russia tried to pursue a peaceful policy.

End of reign

Catherine I did not rule for long. Balls, festivities, feasts and carousing, which followed an uninterrupted succession, undermined her health, and on April 10, 1727, the Empress took to her bed. The cough, which was previously weak, began to intensify, a fever was found, the patient began to weaken day by day, signs of damage to the lung appeared. Therefore, the government had to urgently resolve the issue of succession to the throne.

The question of succession

Catherine was easily elevated to the throne due to the early childhood of Peter Alekseevich, but in Russian society there were strong sentiments in favor of the grown-up Peter, the direct male heir to the Romanov dynasty. The Empress, alarmed by the anonymous letters directed against the decree of Peter I of 1722 (according to which the reigning sovereign had the right to appoint any successor to himself), turned to her advisers for help.

Vice-Chancellor Osterman proposed to marry Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich to Princess Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Catherine, to reconcile the interests of the noble and new service nobility. Their close relationship served as an obstacle; Elizabeth was Peter's own aunt. In order to avoid a possible divorce in the future, Osterman proposed stricter determination of the order of succession to the throne at the time of marriage.

Catherine, wishing to appoint her daughter Elizabeth (according to other sources - Anna) as the heir, did not dare to accept Osterman's project and continued to insist on her right to appoint a successor to herself, hoping that over time the issue would be resolved. Meanwhile, the main supporter of Catherine Menshikov, assessing the prospect of Peter to become the Russian emperor, went over to the camp of his adherents. Moreover, Menshikov managed to get Catherine's consent to the marriage of Mary, Menshikov's daughter, to Peter Alekseevich.

The party led by Tolstoy, which most of all contributed to the enthronement of Catherine, could hope that Catherine would live a long time and circumstances might change in their favor. Osterman threatened to revolt the people for Peter as the only legitimate heir; he could be answered that the army was on the side of Catherine, that it would also be on the side of her daughters. Catherine, for her part, tried to win the affection of the army with attention.

Menshikov managed to take advantage of Catherine's illness, who signed on May 6, 1727, a few hours before her death, an indictment against Menshikov's enemies, and on the same day Count Tolstoy and other high-ranking Menshikov enemies were sent into exile.

Will

When the empress became dangerously ill, members of the highest government institutions gathered in the palace to resolve the issue of a successor: the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate and the Synod. Guards officers were also invited. The Supreme Council decisively insisted on the appointment of Peter I's young grandson, Peter Alekseevich, as the heir. Before his death, Bassevich hastily drew up a will, signed by Elizabeth instead of the ailing mother-empress. According to the will, the throne was succeeded by the grandson of Peter I, Peter Alekseevich.

Subsequent articles dealt with the custody of the minor emperor; determined the power of the Supreme Soviet, the order of the inheritance of the throne in the event of the death of Pyotr Alekseevich. According to the will, in the event of the childless death of Peter, Anna Petrovna and her descendants ("descendents") became his successor, then her younger sister Elizaveta Petrovna and her descendants, and only then the sister of Peter II, Natalya Alekseevna. At the same time, those claimants to the throne who would not be of the Orthodox faith or who had already reigned abroad were excluded from the order of inheritance. It was to the will of Catherine I 14 years later that Elizaveta Petrovna referred to in the manifesto, setting out her rights to the throne after the palace coup of 1741.

Article 11 of the will amazed those present. It commanded all the nobles to promote the betrothal of Peter Alekseevich to one of the daughters of Prince Menshikov, and then, upon reaching the age of majority, to promote their marriage. Literally: “In the same way, our princes and the administration’s government have to try to arrange a marriage between his love [Grand Duke Peter] and the one princess Prince Menshikov”.

Such an article clearly testified to a person who participated in drawing up the will, but for Russian society, the right of Peter Alekseevich to the throne - the main article of the will - was indisputable, and there was no excitement.

Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered Chancellor Golovkin to burn the spiritual Catherine I. He fulfilled, nevertheless keeping a copy of the will.

Russian empress since 1721, since 1725 as ruling empress; second wife of Peter I, mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna

Catherine I

short biography

Catherine I (Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, married Kruse; after the adoption of Orthodoxy Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova; April 15, 1684 - May 17, 1727) - Russian empress since 1721 (as the wife of the reigning emperor), since 1725 as the reigning empress; second wife of Peter I, mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

In her honor, Peter I established the Order of St. Catherine (1713) and named the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals (1723). The name of Catherine I also bears the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (built under her daughter Elizabeth Petrovna).

early years

Until now, her place of birth, the details of her early life have not been precisely determined.

According to one version, she was born on the territory of modern Latvia, in the historical region of Vidzeme, which was part of Swedish Livonia at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, in the family of a Latvian or Lithuanian peasant from the vicinity of Kegums. According to another version, the future empress was born in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) into a family of Estonian peasants.

In addition, the surname "Skowrońska" is typical for people of Polish origin.

According to another version, until the age of 12, the girl lived with her aunt Anna-Maria Veselovskaya, before ending up in the Gluck family.

The question of origin

The search for the roots of Catherine in the Baltic States, carried out after the death of Peter I, showed that the empress had two sisters - Anna and Christina, and two brothers - Karl and Friedrich. In 1726, Catherine moved their families to St. Petersburg (Karl Skavronsky moved even earlier, see Skavronsky) with the help of Jan Kazimir Sapega, who received the highest state award for personal services to the empress. It is believed that he moved her family from his possessions in Minsk. According to A.I. Repnin, who led the search, Khristina Skavronskaya and her husband “ lie", Both of them" people are stupid and drunk", Repnin offered to send them" where to another place, so that there are no big enemies from them". Catherine conferred the title of count on Karl and Friedrich in January 1727, without calling them her brothers. In the will of Catherine I, the Skavronskys are vaguely named “ close relatives of her own surname". Under Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Catherine, immediately after her accession to the throne in 1741, the children of Christina (Gendrikovs) and the children of Anna (Efimovskys) were also elevated to the rank of count. Later, the official version was that Anna, Christina, Karl and Friedrich are the brothers and sisters of Catherine, the children of Samuel Skavronsky.

However, since the end of the 19th century, a number of historians have questioned this relationship. It points to the fact that Peter I called Catherine not Skavronskaya, but Veselevskaya or Vasilevskaya, and in 1710, after the capture of Riga, in a letter to the same Repnin, he called completely different names to “my relatives” - “Yagan-Ionus Vasilevsky, Anna-Dorothea, also their children. " Therefore, other versions of Catherine's origin were proposed, according to which she is a cousin, and not a sister of the Skavronsky who appeared in 1726.

1702-1725 years

The mistress of Peter I

On August 25, 1702, during the Northern War, the army of the Russian Field Marshal Sheremetev, fighting against the Swedes in Livonia, took the Swedish fortress Marienburg (now Aluksne, Latvia). Sheremetev, taking advantage of the departure of the main Swedish army to Poland, subjected the region to merciless ruin. As he himself reported to Tsar Peter I at the end of 1702:

“I sent in all directions to captivate and burn, nothing was left intact, everything was ruined and burned, and your military sovereign people took full of male and female sex and rob several thousand, as well as work horses, and cattle with 20,000 or more ... and which they could not lift, they chopped and chopped "

In Marienburg, Sheremetev captured 400 residents. When Pastor Gluck, accompanied by his servants, came to intercede for the fate of the inhabitants, Sheremetev noticed the servant Martha Kruse and forcibly took her to his mistress. After a short time, approximately in August 1703, Prince Menshikov, a friend and colleague of Peter I, became her patron. This is what the Frenchman Franz Villebois, who was in the Russian service in the navy since 1698 and married to the daughter of Pastor Gluck, says. Villebois's story is confirmed by another source, notes from 1724 from the archives of the Duke of Oldenburg. According to these notes, Sheremetev sent Pastor Gluck and all the inhabitants of the Marienburg fortress to Moscow, while he kept Martha for himself. Menshikov, taking Martha from the elderly field marshal a few months later, fell out with Sheremetev.

“[Baur] immediately ordered her to be placed in his house, which entrusted her to care, giving her the right to manage all the servants, and she soon fell in love with the new steward for her manner of household. The general later often said that his house was never as well-groomed as it was during her stay there. Prince Menshikov, who was his patron, once saw her at the general's, also noting something extraordinary in her appearance and manners. After asking who she was and whether she knew how to cook, he heard in response the story just told, to which the general added a few words about her worthy position in his house. The prince said that it was in such a woman that he now badly needed, because he himself was now being served very poorly. To this, the general replied that he owed too much to the prince, so as not to immediately do what he just thought of - and immediately called Catherine, he said that before her was Prince Menshikov, who needed just such a servant as she was, and that the prince will do everything in his power to become, like himself, a friend to her, adding that he respects her too much not to give her the opportunity to receive her share of honor and good fortune. "

“This was the case when the tsar, driving by post from St. Petersburg, which was then called Nyenskans, or Noteburg, to Livonia, in order to travel further, stopped at his favorite Menshikov, where he noticed Catherine among the servants who served at the table. He asked where she came from and how he got it. And, speaking quietly in his ear with this favorite, who answered him only with a nod of his head, he looked at Catherine for a long time and, teasing her, said that she was smart, and ended his humorous speech by telling her that when she went to bed, take a candle to his room. It was an order, spoken in a joking tone, but not subject to any objection. Menshikov took it for granted, and the beauty, devoted to her master, spent the night in the Tsar's room ... The next day the Tsar left in the morning to continue his journey. He returned to his favorite what he had lent him. The satisfaction of the tsar, which he received from his nightly conversation with Catherine, cannot be judged by the generosity he showed. She limited herself to only one ducat, which is equal in value to half of one louis (10 francs), which he thrust into her hand in a military fashion at parting. "

In 1704 Katerina will give birth to her first child, named Peter; the next year - Paul (both died soon after).

In 1705, Peter sent Katerina to the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, to the house of his sister, Princess Natalya Alekseevna, where Katerina Vasilevskaya learned Russian reading and writing, and, in addition, became friends with the Menshikov family.

Peter I's wife

Wedding of Peter I and Katerina Alekseevna in 1712. Engraving by A.F. Zubov, 1712

Even before her legal marriage to Peter, Catherine gave birth to daughters Anna and Elizabeth. Katerina alone could cope with the tsar in his fits of anger, was able to calm Peter's convulsive headaches with affection and patient attention. According to Bassevich's memoirs:

“The sound of Katerina's voice calmed Peter; then she would sit him down and take him, caressing him, by the head, which she lightly scratched. This produced a magical effect on him, he fell asleep in a few minutes. So as not to disturb his sleep, she held his head on her chest, sitting motionless for two or three hours. After that he woke up completely fresh and vigorous. "

“In the evening, shortly before his departure, the tsar called them, his sister Natalya Alekseevna, to a house in the Preobrazhenskaya Sloboda. There he took the hand and put his mistress Ekaterina Alekseevna in front of them. For the future, the tsar said, they should consider her his legitimate wife and Russian tsarina. Since now, due to the urgent need to go to the army, he cannot marry her, he takes her with him in order to do this on occasion in more free time. At the same time, the king made it clear that if he dies before he has time to marry, then after his death they will have to look at her as his legitimate wife. After that they all congratulated (Ekaterina Alekseevna) and kissed her hand. "

“Our dear spouse, Empress Catherine, was a great helper, and not exactly in this, but in many military actions, postponing women's sickness, she was present with us by will and perhaps only helped, and especially in the Prut campaign from the Turks, consider a desperate time, as I acted masculinely, not femininely; our entire army knows about that ... "

In his personal letters, the tsar showed an unusual tenderness for his wife: “ Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I can hear that you are bored, but I am not bored either ...". Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to her husband 11 children, but almost all of them died in childhood, except for Anna and Elizabeth. Elizabeth later became empress (ruled in 1741-1762), and Anna's direct descendants ruled Russia after Elizabeth's death, from 1762 to 1917. One of the sons who died in childhood, Pyotr Petrovich, after the abdication of Alexei Petrovich (Peter's eldest son from Evdokia Lopukhina) was considered from February 1718 until his death in 1719, the official heir to the Russian throne.

Dish "Coronation of Catherine I". Moscow, 1724-1727. Craftsman Nikolay Fedorov. It depicts one of the central moments of the first Russian coronation, which took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on May 7, 1724: the laying on of the imperial crown by Peter the Great on his wife Catherine. Kneeling Catherine is presented in a full dress and an ermine-trimmed mantle supported by pages. The mantle, first included in the state regalia, was made especially for this ceremony. The crown depicted in Peter's hands - the first Russian imperial crown - was also created for this coronation. On the left, behind the figure of Peter, there is depicted Count Y. V. Bruce holding a gilded pillow for the crown in his hands. It was he who introduced a new symbol of monarchy into the cathedral. To the right of the emperor are two bishops - probably the archbishops Theodosius (Yanovsky), presented in a miter and holding a staff, and Theophanes (Prokopovich), who present Peter the coronation mantle to be placed on Catherine

Foreigners, who followed the Russian court with attention, note the tsar's affection for his wife. Bassevich writes about their relationship in 1721:

“He loved to see her everywhere. There was no military review, the launching of a ship, a ceremony or a holiday at which she would not appear ... Catherine, confident in her husband's heart, laughed at his frequent love affairs, as Livia did at the intrigues of Augustus; but on the other hand, when he told her about them, he always ended with the words: nothing can compare with you. "

In the fall of 1724, Peter I suspected the empress of adultery with her chamberlain Mons, whom he executed for another reason. The tsar brought the head of the executed to Catherine on a tray. He stopped talking to her, access to him was denied to her. Only once, at the request of his daughter Elizabeth, did Peter agree to dine with Catherine, who had been his inseparable friend for 20 years. Only at death did Peter reconcile with his wife. The rights to the throne were owned by: Catherine, the son of Tsarevich Alexei Peter and daughters Anna and Elizabeth. But Catherine was crowned by Peter I in 1724. In January 1725 Catherine spent all the time at the bedside of the dying sovereign, he died in her arms.

Opinions about Catherine's appearance are contradictory. If you focus on male eyewitnesses, then, on the whole, they are more than positive, and, on the contrary, women sometimes treated her with prejudice: “She was short, fat and black; her whole appearance did not make a favorable impression. It was worth looking at her to immediately notice that she was of low birth. The dress she was wearing was most likely bought from a shop in the market; it was old-fashioned and trimmed with silver and sequins. By her side one could take her for a German itinerant artist. She wore a belt adorned at the front with an embroidery of precious stones, a very original design in the form of a two-headed eagle, whose wings were studded with small precious stones in a foul setting. About a dozen orders and the same number of icons and amulets were hung on the queen, and when she walked, everything rang like a dressed-up mule passed. "

Rise to power

By a manifesto of November 15, 1723, Peter announced the future coronation of Catherine as a sign of her special merits. The ceremony took place at the Assumption Cathedral on May 7 (18), 1724. The first crown in the history of the Russian Empire was made especially for this occasion. This was the second coronation of a woman-wife of the sovereign in Russia (after the coronation of Marina Mnishek by False Dmitry I in 1606).

The popular majority was in favor of the only male representative of the dynasty - Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, grandson of Peter I from the eldest son Aleksey who died during interrogation. For Peter Alekseevich there was a well-born nobility (Dolgoruky, Golitsyn), who considered him the only legitimate heir, born of a marriage worthy of royal blood. Count Tolstoy, Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky, Chancellor Count Golovkin and Menshikov at the head of the serving nobility could not hope to preserve the power received from Peter I under Peter Alekseevich; on the other hand, the coronation of the empress could be interpreted as an indirect indication of Peter's heiress. When Catherine saw that there was no longer any hope for her husband's recovery, she instructed Menshikov and Tolstoy to act in favor of their rights. The guard was devoted to adoration to the dying emperor; she transferred this affection to Catherine.

Guard officers from the Preobrazhensky regiment came to the Senate meeting, knocking down the door to the room. They openly declared that they would smash the heads of the old boyars if they went against their mother Catherine. Suddenly there was a drumbeat from the square: it turned out that both guards regiments were lined up in front of the palace under arms. Prince Field Marshal Repnin, president of the military collegium, angrily asked: “ Who dared bring shelves here without my knowledge? Am I not a field marshal?". Buturlin, the commander of the Preobrazhensky regiment, answered Repnin that he had summoned the regiments at the behest of the empress, whom all subjects were obliged to obey, “ not excluding you"He added impressively.

Thanks to the support of the guards regiments, it was possible to convince all opponents of Catherine to vote for her. The Senate "unanimously" elevated her to the throne, calling her " All-Blessed, Most Powerful Great Sovereign Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the autocrat of the All-Russian”And in defense by announcing the will of the deceased sovereign interpreted by the Senate. The people were very surprised by the ascension of a woman to the throne for the first time in Russian history, but there was no excitement.

Governing body. 1725-1727 years

Ekaterina Alekseevna. Engraving 1724

The nobles wanted to rule under a woman and now they really got their way.

Under Peter, she shone not with her own light, but borrowed from the great man whom she was a companion; she had the ability to keep herself at a certain height, to show attention and sympathy to the movement that was taking place around her; she was privy to all the secrets, the secrets of the personal relationships of the people around her. Her position, fear for the future kept her mental and moral strength in constant and strong tension. But the climbing plant reached its height thanks only to the giant of the forests around which it twisted; the giant is slain, and the weak plant spreads on the ground. Catherine retained the knowledge of persons and the relationships between them, kept the habit of wading between these relationships; but she had neither the proper attention to matters, especially internal affairs, and their details, nor the ability to initiate and direct.
From "History of Russia" S.M. Solovyova:

Portrait of A. D. Menshikov

On the initiative of Count P.A.Tolstoy, in February 1726, a new body of state power, the Supreme Privy Council, was created, where a narrow circle of chief dignitaries could govern the Russian Empire under the formal chairmanship of a semi-literate empress. The Council included Field Marshal Prince Menshikov, Admiral General Count Apraksin, Chancellor Count Golovkin, Count Tolstoy, Prince Golitsyn, Vice Chancellor Baron Osterman. Of the six members of the new institution, only Prince D. M. Golitsyn came from a noble family. A month later, the empress's son-in-law, Duke of Holstein Karl-Friedrich (1700-1739), was included in the number of members of the Supreme Privy Council, on whose delight, as the empress officially declared, "we can quite rely."

During the reign of Catherine I, V. Bering's expedition was organized, and the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established.

Foreign policy

For 2 years of the reign of Catherine I, Russia did not wage big wars, only in the Caucasus a separate corps operated under the command of Prince Dolgorukov, trying to recapture the Persian territories while Persia was in a state of turmoil, and Turkey unsuccessfully fought the Persian rebels. In Europe, Russia showed diplomatic activity in defending the interests of the Holstein Duke (husband of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Catherine I) against Denmark. Russia's preparation of an expedition to return Schleswig, taken by the Danes, to the Duke of Holstein, led to a military demonstration in the Baltic by Denmark and England.

Another direction of Russian policy under Catherine was the provision of guarantees for the Nystadt peace and the creation of an anti-Turkish bloc. In 1726, the government of Catherine I signed the Vienna Treaty of Alliance with the government of Charles VI, which became the basis of the Russian-Austrian military-political alliance in the second quarter of the 18th century.

End of reign

Catherine I did not rule for long. Balls, festivities, feasts and carousing, which followed an uninterrupted succession, undermined her health, and on April 10, 1727, the Empress took to her bed. The cough, which was previously weak, began to intensify, a fever was found, the patient began to weaken day by day, signs of damage to the lung appeared. The queen died in May 1727 from complications of a lung abscess. According to another unlikely version, death came from a severe attack of rheumatism.
The government had to urgently resolve the issue of succession to the throne.

The question of succession

Catherine, wishing to appoint her daughter Elizabeth (according to other sources - Anna) as the heir, did not dare to accept Osterman's project and continued to insist on her right to appoint a successor to herself, hoping that the issue would be resolved over time. Emperor, went over to the camp of his followers. Moreover, Menshikov managed to get Catherine's consent to the marriage of Mary, Menshikov's daughter, to Peter Alekseevich.

The party led by Tolstoy, who most of all contributed to the enthronement of Catherine, could hope that Catherine would live for a long time and circumstances might change in their favor. Osterman threatened to revolt the people for Peter as the only legitimate heir; he could be answered that the army was on the side of Catherine, that it would also be on the side of her daughters. Catherine, for her part, tried to win the affection of the army with attention.

Will

Later, Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered Chancellor Golovkin to burn the spiritual Catherine I. He fulfilled, nevertheless keeping a copy of the will.

Ruble Catherine I in silver. 1726

Film incarnations

Alla Tarasova - Peter the First (1938)
Dzidra Ritenberg - Ballad of Bering and His Friends (1970)
Lyudmila Chursina - The Tale of How Tsar Peter the Arap Married (1976), Demidovs (1983)
Anna Frolovtseva - Mikhailo Lomonosov (1986)
Natalia Egorova - Tsarevich Alexei (1997), Secrets of Palace Revolutions. Movies 1-2 (2000)
Irina Rozanova - Peter the First. Testament (2011)
Alya Kizilova - The Romanovs. Film Third (2013)

Categories:

Ekaterina 1, Empress of the Russian Empire. Reign 1725-1727

Catherine 1. Accession

Peter 1 was still dying, unable to name or write the name of the heir, and in the Kremlin there was already a struggle for the throne. The main contender for the throne, Peter Alekseevich, the son of Tsarevich Alexei and the grandson of Peter 1, did not suit Menshikov and Tolstoy, who feared that, having ascended the throne, he would avenge their father and grandmother. Menshikov and Tolstov were more satisfied with the wife of Peter I, Catherine, with whom Menshikov had long had friendly relations, and during whose accession Menshikov became a de facto, albeit not crowned, sovereign. The opposing side offered a compromise, to appoint the grandson of Peter 1 as emperor, but Catherine should rule until his majority with the support of the Senate. But this did not suit the supporters of Catherine's party, and Menshikov was in a hurry to enlist the support of the guard, which in subsequent reigns would more than once decide the fate of the Russian throne. All debts were hastily paid to the Guards, rewards were promised, and a change in official duties in the direction of relief. But the guardsmen were already on the side of Peter 1 and his wife, who often accompanied Peter 1 on military campaigns.

Enlisting the support of the guards, Menshikov takes part in a meeting that decided the fate of the throne. During the conference, officers began to arrive in the hall, and detachments of the guards lined up under the windows. In this situation, there were no objections to Catherine's accession to the throne, the coronation of Catherine in 1724 was taken into account and Empress Catherine 1 ascended the throne by unanimous decision. honored Catherine with the anointing and the crown, and they only carry out his will.

The daughter of the Lithuanian peasant Samuil Skavronsky ended up at the head of the Russian State. Catherine 1 was born in 1684 on April 6. The daughter of a simple peasant, named Martha, when she grew up, received the usual education for that time, studying with the daughters of Superintendent Gluck, with whom she was in the service, working in the laundry and in the kitchen. Catherine learned to read and write, housekeeping and mastered handicrafts. Livonia at the beginning of the 18th century was not the calmest place in Europe; in 1700, a war broke out between Russia and Sweden, called the Northern War, which lasted for decades, until 1721. The Russian army, led by Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetev, in 1701 invaded South Livonia. The inhabitants of Merienburg, alarmed by the stories of the refugees about the offensive of the Russians, the destruction of everything in their path and the fate of the prisoners, prepared for the siege, but the Swedes did not have the forces capable of resisting the Russian army in Livonia.

Ekaterina 1, Beginning

In 1702, Catherine, then still Martha, married a soldier of the Swedish army, a trumpeter. With her husband, Marta did not have time to find out family happiness, it was wartime, and he was sent to Riga to pay his official duty to the Swedish crown. Martha is surrounded by Russian troops who besieged the city of Merienburg. Not wanting to tempt fate and risk the lives of residents, the commandant of the city, Major Thiel, assessing the inevitable defeat from the vastly superior Russian forces, negotiates honorary terms of surrender, including the free withdrawal of residents and the garrison from the city. The Russian army respected the terms of surrender until two military men from the city's garrison, the artillery captain Wolf and the cadet-cadet were blown up in the cellar with gunpowder, despite the fact that the cadet-cadet dragged his wife along with him, despite her active objections and resistance. After such an outburst, which took the lives of Russian soldiers and residents of the city, there could be no question of any honorable surrender. The inhabitants were taken prisoner, and the city was given up for plunder. According to the military customs of that time, the captured became the slave of the soldier or officer who captured him.

Thus began the long journey of a simple commoner Martha to the throne, which she will occupy under the name of Catherine 1. After the fall of Merienburg, Martha becomes the prey of a soldier who presents her as a gift to his commander, Captain Bauer, hoping to achieve certain benefits for herself in the future thanks to such a gift ... But Bauer also wanted to improve his official position, appreciating the beauty and other abilities of the captive, he gives her as a gift to Field Marshal Sheremetev. Aged Sheremetev, keeps Marta in the role of a servant and concubine. But not even half a year had passed when the pretty and lively Martha attracted the attention of Menshikov, who was in the field marshal's house. It is not known whether he bought it or took it away, but Martha moves to her lordship. After living for some time with Menshikov, Marta catches the eye of Peter I, who, in turn, takes her from Menshikov's house to him. However, Menshikov was not very upset, he decided to marry a decent girl from a noble family, and the complications that could arise due to a young and pretty servant living in his house were not needed.

Becoming one of the tsar's metress, Catherine gradually gains the trust and favor of Peter 1. She was so able to captivate the tsar that persistent rumors began to circulate among the people that Catherine, with the help of Menshikov, gave the Russian sovereign a love potion to drink. In his youth, Peter 1 was married at the insistence of Natalya Kirillovna's mother Naryshkina, and Lopukhin's wife Evdokia, due to her traditional upbringing, could not understand and become a friend and ally of the king. Later, the mistress of Peter 1 from the German settlement, Anna Mons, who could have become the Russian queen because of the sincere and deep affection of Peter 1, showed indifference to all his undertakings. Catherine, however, showed a keen participation in all the affairs of the tsar, participating in them to the best of her ability, not remaining indifferent to all aspects of his life, they were not only lovers, but also comrades-in-arms. Already in 1705, Peter 1 in his letters mentions children, thereby recognizing them as his own. But they were unlucky with children, they died early. Of the eleven children born to Catherine Peter 1, only two daughters survived, Anna, born in 1708, and the beautiful Elizabeth, born in 1709. Peter 1 settled Catherine in Preobrazhensky, entrusting her with the care of his sister Natalya, instructing Natalya to teach Catherine about behavior and etiquette in society. In Preobrazhensky, Marta becomes Ekaterina Alekseevna, having been baptized, the son of Peter 1, Alexei, acted as godfather.

There is a legend that while participating in a campaign against the Turks in 1711, Catherine, at the most critical moment for the Russian army, which was surrounded, having invested in a message with a proposal for negotiations to the vizier Mehmet - Pasha all her jewels, persuaded him to negotiate. As a result of the negotiations, the Russian army retreated without loss and returned to Moscow. Whether this is true or just a legend is unknown, but on November 24, 1714, having established a new order of St. Catherine and presenting it to Catherine, Peter 1 stressed that the order was established in memory of the events in the Turkish war, and with Catherine's actions at the Prut. Peter mentions participation in the events near the Prut in 1723, in the coronation act, by which Catherine was recognized as Empress of the Russian Empire. Returning from an unsuccessful military campaign in 1712, Catherine and Peter 1 consolidate their long-standing relationship with a wedding. An episode was included in the wedding ceremony when, after Catherine and Peter 1, their young daughters Elizabeth and Anna walked around the analogion. This ceremony finally recognized girls as daughters of Peter 1. Peter 1 was waiting for an heir, but all the boys born to Catherine died as babies. Realizing that the power in the country can go to those who will destroy all his undertakings and achievements, Peter 1 signs a charter regulating the transfer of power, which states that the current emperor can appoint anyone as his heir, even persons not related to him. Peter 1 was looking for a person whom he could appoint as his successor, but there were no such people around the tsar, he was surrounded by people for whom personal well-being was above any state needs and achievements. Catherine, using her influence on the tsar, seeks to revise his will in her favor, deleting the eldest daughter Anna, who was previously entered. While the tsar is solving state problems, Catherine is in a hurry to get rid of her rivals to the throne, whom her own daughters Elizabeth and Anna have become for her. The eldest Anna soon marries the Duke of Holstein Karl Friedrich and leaves Russia.

But in the fall of 1724, not only the crown, but also the life of Catherine is under threat, Peter 1 learns about Catherine's betrayal with Willim Mons, a young and handsome courtier, brother of Anna Mons. The arrest of Willim Mons and the papers obtained during the search, among which were letters from the highest courtiers, including Menshikov and Yaguzhinsky, asking for mercy from Mons, calling him a patron and giving him villages and expensive gifts, left no doubt about the reasons for his rise. Within a few days, Mons was convicted and executed, the official charge brought against Willim Mons was about malfeasance and bribery. Peter 1 restrains himself and for Catherine there are no other punishments, except for the cooling of relations on the part of the tsar, but one has to forget about the succession to the throne, Catherine is deleted from the will.

The eldest Anna soon marries the Duke of Holstein Karl Friedrich and leaves Russia with her husband, signing the renunciation of the Russian throne for herself and her descendants. But there is also a secret agreement, according to the terms of which Peter 1 could take Anna's son to Russia and transfer the Russian throne to him. The aging emperor hoped to live up to the time when he could hand over the throne to his grandson, but fate has its own plans.

Catherine 1. On the throne of the Russian Empire

After the death of Peter 1, Catherine still occupies the Russian throne, but having neither the necessary education nor management experience, Catherine 1 was forced to consult with those courtiers whose interests coincided with her own interests. Thus, Prince Menshikov became the main adviser to the empress. Having brought Catherine to power, he wanted to receive all possible rewards and privileges from her reign.

During the reign of Catherine 1, by inertia, the affairs started by Peter 1 continued, they solemnly launched a ship, the construction of which had begun under Peter 1, and to which he gave the name “Don't touch me”. But this time the celebration on the occasion of the launching of the ship, in which Catherine 1 took part, ended at nine o'clock in the evening, before such events were celebrated for several days. The academy, for the creation of which Peter 1 spent so much effort, was finally completed, the academicians who came from Europe gave a welcoming speech in Latin, which neither Empress Catherine 1 nor Prince Menshikov, who was with her, could understand.

Catherine 1, who had no experience in ruling the country, very soon realized the impossibility of ruling alone, and in the winter of 1726, from the highest dignitaries of the empire, who was the supreme authority, called upon to help Catherine 1 rule the Russian state. The council took over all day-to-day government work. The most influential figures were included in the council, and Catherine 1 herself headed the council. Bored with the council meetings, Catherine soon stopped attending them. The whole brunt of the consequences of the reforms, the depletion of the country by many years of wars, fell on the ministers. The country was drained of exorbitant taxes, many villages were deserted, people fled south and to Siberia from tax collectors.

While the Supreme Council was trying to solve state problems, the Empress was burning her life, spending all her time in constant holidays.

"These entertainments consist in almost daily drinking, going on all night long and for a good part of the day, in the garden with persons who, on duty, must always be at court," wrote the French diplomat.

The year 1727 began for Catherine 1 with illness, her health deteriorated, her legs began to swell, she was tormented by suffocation, fever did not allow her to get out of bed. But as soon as it became easier for her, Catherine immediately arranged a new revelry.

Catherine 1 was getting worse and worse, she could not attend the church on the first day of Easter, did not celebrate her birthday, which was not at all like the former merry empress. It is not known what illness Catherine 1 had, bouts of coughing and complete powerlessness were replaced by feverish activity, unrestrained joy, most likely Catherine had fleeting consumption.

The Russian Empress Catherine died on May 6, 1727, at nine o'clock in the evening.

The second wife of Peter the Great did not leave a special trace in the rule of the Russian Empire, since all two years of leadership of the vast state, the reins of government were given to those close to her. An idle pastime soon brought Catherine I to the grave - the windy empress was very fond of all kinds of amusements and balls.

Orphan Martha

The history of the ascension to the Russian throne of the Livonian simpleton Martha Skavronskaya, who by the will of fate turned into Catherine I, is just as confusing and at the same time straightforward as the principle of relations between high-ranking officials of the Russian state with representatives of the lower classes in the 18th century. They (the relationship), apparently, at that time were extremely simplified. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain the reason why an “ordinary” and even an illiterate servant in a relatively short time became the empress of such a state as Russia.

Martha's past is rather vague, little is known about him. She was left an orphan early (her parents died of the plague). There is different information about who the future Russian empress was brought up with, but one thing is clear that from early childhood Marta was in the "primaks", that is, in fact, in the service of strangers. At the age of 17, the girl married the Swede Johann Kruse. The young people did not have time to live, because almost immediately the husband left for the Russian-Swedish war. After that, traces of it are lost. There are two versions of the further fate of the first man Martha Skavronskaya: 1) he disappeared (died) in the Northern War; 2) Kruse "surfaced" as a prisoner, but at the behest of Peter I he was taken to Siberia, where the failed spouse disappeared.
It makes no sense to understand the plausibility of both versions, because in any case, Johann Kruse had no influence on the fate of his young wife.

The maid and the kept woman

Strange as it may seem, captivity played a decisive role in the amazing fate of Marta Skavronskaya-Kruse. Livonian Marienburg, where Marta lived, was taken by the Russians in 1702, and Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev, noticing a pretty German woman, took her as his mistress. Over time, it came into the possession of Prince Alexander Menshikov, a friend of Peter I. Martha, judging by the descriptions of contemporaries that have come down to us, was a "mankaya" girl, moderately curpulent (in those days, bodily texture was valued). She possessed that zest that is today called sexuality. Menshikov took Martha to Petersburg and mercifully made her a servant.

Came together "Water" and "Fire"

During one of the visits to his friend Menshikov, Peter I noticed Martha. The tsar (then still the tsar, Peter would appoint himself emperor shortly before his death) with his wife Evdokia Lopukhina, in fact, did not live in marriage, although she gave birth to two sons from him. Considering himself free from all marital conventions, Peter laid eyes on the prince's maid and slept with her on the very first night after meeting. Menshikov, comradely, lost to Martha.

It is believed that Martha gave birth to her first children (both died in infancy) from Peter. Be that as it may, the tsar in 1705 moved his mistress to his sister's house, two years later she was baptized and since then began to be called Catherine. Interestingly, the eldest son of Peter, Tsarevich Alexei, was the godfather. The social status for the newly-minted Catherine has not changed - for the tsar she still remained no one understands.

Peter and Catherine were married in 1712. By that time, the wife already had two daughters from Peter, Anna and Elizabeth. Marriage could seem like the most perfect misalliance, if you do not take into account the character of the groom.

First, Peter was (and probably remained) the only ruler of the Russian state, whose degree of simplification had no boundaries. Rather, the sovereign installed them himself. Peter preferred to personally delve into many subtleties of the state structure, down to the details, everything was interesting to him. In Holland he studied shipbuilding as a common man, hiding behind the pseudonym "Peter Mikhailov". Again, he loved to pull out bad teeth from the unfortunate. It is unlikely that among the Russian monarchs there is a more inquisitive rival to Peter.

Given all this, the autocrat did not care whether his chosen one had a solid social status or not.

Secondly, the Russian tsar was irrepressible in his exuberance. Apparently, Peter still suffered from some kind of mental illness, because, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he systematically, sometimes unmotivated, became enraged, in seizures he had a severe headache. Catherine alone could calm her spouse. And these truly magical abilities of hers had a strong influence on the king.

Stern in life, Peter was unusually affectionate with his wife. Catherine gave birth to 11 children, but only the premarital sisters survived - the other offspring died in childhood. The tsar was a walker in the female part, but his wife forgave everything and did not roll up the scenes. She herself had an affair with Chamberlain Mons, whom Peter eventually executed.

Shone by the luminary, and then faded

Emperor Peter I crowned his wife in 1723, 2 years before his death. Catherine was put on the first crown in the history of the Russian Empire. After Maria Mnishek (the failed wife of False Dmitry I), she was the second woman to be crowned to the Russian throne. Peter went against the rules, ignoring the law, according to which the direct descendants of the royal family in the male line became tsars in Russia.

After the death of her husband, Catherine ascended the throne with the help of her old friend Menshikov and his comrade, an associate of her late husband, the count. Peter Tolstoy. They pulled up to "strengthen" the Guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment, who broke the will of the dissenting "old boyars". The Senate approved the candidacy of Catherine, and the people, although they were amazed at this alignment, silently - there was no excitement about this.

Catherine did not rule for long, only two years. The people loved her (the empress was engaged in charity work). But the state was actually led by Field Marshal Menshikov and the Supreme Privy Council. Catherine herself loved balls and other amusements. Perhaps an idle lifestyle led to the fact that she died at the age of 43. Historians believe that she was a significant figure only under her husband Peter I.

The Russian Empress Catherine I Alekseevna (née Marta Skavronskaya) was born on 15 (5 old style) April 1684 in Livonia (now the territory of northern Latvia and southern Estonia). According to some sources, she was the daughter of a Latvian peasant Samuil Skavronsky, according to others, a Swedish quartermaster named Rabe.

Marta did not receive education. Her youth was spent in the house of Pastor Gluck in Marienburg (now the city of Aluksne in Latvia), where she was both a laundress and a cook. According to some sources, Martha was married to a Swedish dragoon for a short time.

In 1702, after the capture of Marienburg by Russian troops, she became a war trophy and was first in the wagon train of Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev, and then with the favorite and associate of Peter I, Alexander Menshikov.

Around 1703, a young woman was noticed by Peter I and became one of his mistresses. Soon Martha was baptized according to the Orthodox rite under the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Over the years, Catherine acquired a very great influence on the Russian monarch, which, according to contemporaries, depended in part on her ability to calm him down in moments of anger. She did not try to take direct part in solving political issues. Since 1709, Catherine no longer left the tsar, accompanying Peter on all campaigns and trips. According to legend, she saved Peter I during the Prut campaign (1711), when Russian troops were surrounded. Catherine handed over all her jewelry to the Turkish vizier, persuading him to sign an armistice.

Upon his return to Petersburg on February 19, 1712, Peter married Catherine, and their daughters Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709) received the official status of crown princess. In 1714, in memory of the Prut campaign, the tsar established the Order of St. Catherine, which he awarded his wife on her name day.

In May 1724, Peter I, for the first time in the history of Russia, crowned Catherine as Empress.

After the death of Peter I in 1725, through the efforts of Menshikov and with reliance on the guards and the Petersburg garrison, Catherine I was enthroned.

In February 1726, under the empress, the Supreme Privy Council was created (1726-1730), which included princes Alexander Menshikov and Dmitry Golitsyn, Counts Fyodor Apraksin, Gabriel Golovkin, Peter Tolstoy, as well as Baron Andrei (Heinrich Johann Friedrich) Osterman. The council was created as an advisory body, but in fact it ruled the country and decided the most important state issues.

During the reign of Catherine I, on November 19, 1725, the Academy of Sciences was opened, an expedition of the officer of the Russian fleet Vitus Bering was sent to Kamchatka, the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky.

There were almost no deviations from Peter's traditions in foreign policy. Russia improved diplomatic relations with Austria, obtained confirmation of the concessions made in the Caucasus under Peter the Great from Persia and Turkey, and acquired the Shirvan region. Friendly relations were established with China through Count Raguzinsky. Russia also gained exceptional influence in Courland.

Having become an autocratic empress, Catherine discovered a craving for entertainment and spent a lot of time at feasts, balls, various holidays, which had a detrimental effect on her health. In March 1727, a swelling appeared on the Empress's legs, growing rapidly, and in April she fell ill.

Before her death, at the insistence of Menshikov, Catherine signed a will, according to which the throne was to go to the Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich - Peter's grandson, the son of Alexei Petrovich, and in case of his death - to her daughters or their descendants.

On May 17 (6 old style), 1727, Empress Catherine I died at the age of 43 and was buried in the tomb of the Russian emperors in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Empress Catherine and