Historical portrait of Catherine I. Biography of Catherine I. Death of Catherine the wife of Peter 1

Catherine 1 is the first Russian empress. Her biography is truly unusual: born into a peasant family, she, by chance, caught the eye of Emperor Peter I and became his wife, gave him heirs and sat on the throne. However, her short reign can hardly be called brilliant: the empress was more interested in outfits than in governing the country, and did not do anything significant for the state.

Early years

Marta Samuilovna Savronskaya was born on April 15, 1684. Any significant details of the biography of Catherine 1 are unknown to historians. There are 3 versions of its origin:

She was born on the territory of present-day Latvia in the family of a Latvian or Lithuanian peasant.
She was born in what is now Estonia in the family of a local peasant.
The surname “Savronskaya” could have Polish roots.

After the death of her parents, Martha ended up in the house of a Lutheran pastor who lived in the Marienburg fortress. The girl was not taught to read and write and was used as a servant. According to another version, Martha’s mother, after the death of her husband, gave her up as a servant.

At the age of 17, the girl married the Swedish dragoon Johann Kruse. The wedding took place on the eve of the entry of Russian soldiers into the city. 1-2 days after the wedding, the young husband went to war and went missing.

See you with Peter I

In August 1702, Count Sheremetyev, during the Northern War, captured Marienburg and subjected it to devastation; he also captured 400 inhabitants. The pastor came to petition for their release, and the count noticed a pretty maid. Sheremetyev forcibly took her as his mistress.

A year later, Prince Menshikov became her patron, who even quarreled with Sheremetyev because of this.
Martha was taken with him by Dragoon Colonel Baur, who later rose to the rank of general. He placed her in charge of all the servants and entrusted her with the care of the house. One day Prince Menshikov noticed her. Having learned that Marta performed the duties of a servant perfectly, the prince decided to take her with him as the manager of the household.

However, both options do not show the future wife of the Russian emperor in the best light.

Life under the Emperor

Already in the fall of 1703, Martha was noticed by Perth I and made her his mistress. In his letters, he addressed her as Katerina Vasilevskaya.

In 1704, Martha gave birth to her first son, Peter, and the following year to her second son, Pavel, but both died at an early age. In the same 1705, she arrived in Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, where she studied literacy.

In 1707-1708, Martha was baptized under the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova. Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the eldest son of Peter the Great and his heir, became her godfather. The surname came from the emperor himself: under it he traveled incognito.

Meanwhile, the emperor became attached to his mistress: she knew how to cope with his tough temper and calm his headaches. In 1711, the emperor ordered that Catherine be considered his future legal wife and queen: due to the need to urgently go to war, the wedding was postponed. He also pointed out the need to obey her in the event of his death.

Catherine went with Peter I on the Prut campaign when she was 7 months pregnant. The war was extremely unsuccessful: Russian soldiers were pressed to the river and surrounded. In honor of the worthy behavior of his future wife, 2 years later Peter the Great established the Order of St. Catherine.

The wedding took place in February 1712. In 1724, the emperor suspected his wife of adultery with the chamberlain and stopped talking to her. Reconciliation occurred only at the death of Peter: he died in the arms of his wife in 1725.

Family and legacy issues

Empress Catherine 1 gave birth to 11 children to Peter, but almost all of them died in infancy. Only 2 girls survived: Anna (1708) and Elizabeth (1709). In 1710, Catherine’s first husband was seen among the captured Swedes, so the legality of their birth and, accordingly, the right to inherit the throne raised some doubts. However, according to official data, the soldier Kruse died in 1705.

After the death of the heir Alexei Petrovich, the first son of Catherine I, Pyotr Petrovich, became the main contender for the throne. He was born at the end of 1715 and died at the age of 4.

After the death of the emperor, the throne passed to Catherine. This became possible thanks to the changes introduced by Peter the Great himself to the order of succession to the throne: from now on, anyone chosen by the monarch himself could become an heir. However, he did not have time to leave a will, and the “old” nobility decided to take advantage of this. They nominated the grandson of Peter the Great, the son of Tsarevich Alexei, Pyotr Alekseevich, as the only legal heir.

However, another group (Counts Tolstoy, Golovkin, Menshikov) decided to act in favor of the emperor’s wife. Having secured the support of the guard, devoted to Peter and, accordingly, his wife, the legal heir, the coronation of Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on February 8, 1725.

Catherine I spent only 2 years on the throne and didn't have time to do anything. However, politics was of little interest to her: being a weak, entertainment-prone person, she preferred to spend her time on entertainment. Many contemporaries talk about this in their descriptions of the ruler. The only exception concerned the fleet: Peter I “infected” his wife with a love of the sea.

She reigned until April 1727, when she fell ill with a severe cold and died a month later. Peter the Second Alekseevich became emperor.

Foreign and domestic policy

Instead, the country was ruled by Prince Menshikov and the Supreme Privy Council. The latter was created at the beginning of 1726 and represented a small circle of selected nobles: it included Princes Menshikov and Golitsyn, Counts Apraksin, Tolstoy and Golovkin, Baron Osterman, Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp. The Supreme Council decided all important issues, Catherine only signed documents without even reading them. The role of the Senate, renamed the High Senate, sharply decreased; local authorities created under Peter the Great were eliminated.

The activities of the Privy Council were mainly limited to resolving minor issues: no reforms were carried out, and important decisions were also postponed. Embezzlement and abuse of power flourished, as did the struggle for power within the Council itself.

The state's finances were in a deplorable state: long wars had devastated the treasury, and bread prices that had risen due to a bad harvest caused discontent.

Several changes took place under Catherine:

The poll tax was reduced by 4 kopecks to prevent peasant unrest.
Nobles were allowed to build factories and trade goods.
The opening of factories in the Urals, where the city was named in her honor - Yekaterinburg.
The state monopoly was abolished and duties for merchants were reduced.
The Academy of Sciences was opened.
Bereng's first expedition to Kamchatka was launched.
The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established.

There were also no significant changes in foreign policy: in the Caucasus, a corps under the leadership of Prince Dolgorukov tried to recapture Persian territories, taking advantage of the turmoil and war. The Empress defended the interests of her daughter's husband, the Duke of Holstein, who laid claim to the Duchy of Schleswig. In 1726, the Treaty of Vienna was signed with Charles VI, which later became the basis of a military alliance between Russia and Austria.

Despite all the problems and inability, ordinary people loved Catherine the First. She did not refuse small help to those asking, and often acted as a goddaughter to the children of peasants and artisans.

The peasant's daughter Martha, the future Russian Empress Catherine I, is known as the wife of Peter the Great, who managed to cope with his complex character. Her reign was the first in a series of palace coups; the activity itself did not represent anything outstanding. All decisions were made by the Privy Council and did not require the approval of the ruler.

No matter how they called Catherine I - the “camping wife”, the Chukhon empress, Cinderella - she took a place in the history of the Russian state as the first woman on the throne. Historians joke that Ekaterina Alekseevna ushered in the “woman’s century,” because after her, the country was ruled for a century by the weaker sex, whose reign refuted the myth of weakness and second roles.

Martha Katarina, aka the Empress and Autocrat of All Russia, went through a path to the throne of a vast empire more fabulous than Cinderella. After all, the fictional heroine had a noble origin, and the pedigree of the Queen of All Rus' was “written” by peasants.

Childhood and youth

The biography of the empress is woven from white spots and speculation. According to one version, the parents of Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya are Latvian (or Lithuanian) peasants from Vindzeme, the central region of Latvia (at that time the Livonia province of the Russian Empire). The future queen and successor of Peter the Great was born in the vicinity of Kegums. According to another version, Catherine I appeared in a family of Estonian peasants in Dorpat (Tartu). Researchers pay attention to the surname Skavronskaya and its Polish origin.

Martha was orphaned early - her parents died of the plague. The further fate of the girl is also unclear. According to some information, until the age of 12, Skavronskaya was raised in the family of her aunt Anna-Maria Veselovskaya, then she was given into the service of the Lutheran pastor Ernst Gluck. According to others, her uncle took little Marta to Gluck as soon as her parents died. And in the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary it is indicated that the daughter was brought to the pastor by her widowed mother.

Information also differs about what young Martha did in the parsonage. Some sources claim that she served around the house, others (the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary) say that Skavronskaya learned literacy and handicrafts from Gluck. The third, less common version is that Martha’s surname is not Skavronskaya, but Rabe. Her father is said to be a man named Johann Rabe. in the novel “Peter the First”, under the name Rabe, he mentioned Martha’s husband.

At 17, the girl was married by a Swedish dragoon, but the marriage with Johann Kruse lasted two days - the dragoon went to war with his regiment and went missing. The future empress is credited with being related to Anna, Christina, Karl and Friedrich Skavronsky. But in correspondence, Peter I called his wife Veselovskaya (Wasilevski), so there is a version that the relatives who showed up in the Baltics are Martha’s cousins.

In 1702, troops led by Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev took Marienburg, a Swedish fortress (modern Latvia), during the Northern War. Among the four hundred inhabitants captured was Martha. Further versions of her fate vary. One by one, the field marshal noticed the black-browed beauty, but soon gave the 18-year-old concubine to Alexander Menshikov, who was visiting him.

Another version belongs to the Scotsman Peter Henry Bruce and is more favorable to the queen’s reputation. The housewife was taken in by Dragoon Colonel Baur to help around the house. Martha brought the household into perfect order. In Baur’s house, Prince Menshikov, the colonel’s patron, saw the broken girl. Hearing praise about Martha’s economic abilities, Alexander Danilovich complained about the neglected house. Wanting to please the patron, Baur handed the girl over to Menshikov.

In 1703, in the St. Petersburg house of a favorite, he noticed a maid, making her his mistress. The following year, the woman gave birth to the tsar’s first child, Peter, and in 1705, a second boy, Paul. Both died in infancy. In the same 1705, the tsar transported his mistress to the summer residence Preobrazhenskoye and introduced him to his sister Natalya Alekseevna.

Martha was baptized, taking the name Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova. The godfather of Skavronskaya, who converted to Orthodoxy, was the Tsar’s son, Alexei Petrovich. In Preobrazhenskoe, the future wife of Peter the Great learned to read and write. Thus began another, royal chapter in the biography of the future Empress of All Russia. Before her official marriage, Catherine gave birth to daughters Anna and Peter Alekseevich.

Wife of Peter I

In 1711, Peter ordered his sister and nieces to consider Ekaterina Alekseevna his legal wife. The conversation took place before the Prut campaign. The monarch told his family that in the event of death they were obliged to respect Catherine as his wife. Peter Alekseevich promised to marry his mistress after a military campaign, in which he also took her.

Catherine I went on a hike with her future husband while she was seven months pregnant. The army ended up in the Turkish “cauldron” along with the king and his companion. According to legend, Catherine took off the jewelry donated by her husband and bought her freedom. The army emerged from encirclement, tens of thousands of soldiers escaped certain death. But the shock she experienced affected the health of Catherine I - the child was born dead.

In February 1712, the Tsar walked Catherine down the aisle. The wedding ceremony took place in St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. A year later, Peter, in gratitude to his wife, established the Order of Liberation, which he awarded to Ekaterina Alekseevna. Later it was renamed the Order of St. Catherine the Great Martyr.

Catherine I and Peter I

The queen gave birth to 11 offspring to her husband, one after another, but only the eldest daughters, Anna and Elizabeth, survived. The wife became the only close person who managed to calm the enraged monarch. The woman knew how to relieve her husband’s headaches, which had tormented him for the last 10 years. Not a single significant event in the state took place without the emperor's wife. On May 7, 1724, the coronation of the empress took place in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.

Independent rule

The issue of succession to the throne became acute at the beginning of 1725: the emperor was dying. Three years earlier, he canceled the previous decree, which allowed the crowning of only a direct male descendant. Since 1722, the throne could be taken by the one whom the emperor called worthy. But Peter the Great did not leave a will with the name of the heir to the vacated throne, which doomed the state to unrest and palace coups.

The people and noble nobility saw on the throne the young grandson of the deceased tsar - Pyotr Alekseevich, the son of Alexei Petrovich, who died from torture. But Catherine did not want to give the throne to the boy, ordering Alexander Menshikov and Pyotr Tolstoy to act in their own interests.

The army and guards adored Peter the Great, transferring their love to his wife. The Empress earned the respect of the guard because she easily endured the hardships of army campaigns, living in a cold tent. Like soldiers, she slept on a hard mattress, was not picky about food, and could easily drink a glass of vodka. The Empress had considerable physical strength and endurance: accompanying her husband, she made 2-3 trips a day on horseback in a man's saddle.

The intercessor mother secured the overdue salaries of three regiments of grenadiers that were overdue for a year and a half. In 1722-23, during a campaign in Transcaucasia and Dagestan (Persian Campaign), Ekaterina Alekseevna shaved her hair and put on a grenadier cap. She inspected the troops personally, encouraging the soldiers and appearing on the battlefield.

Is it any wonder that officers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment arrived at the Senate meeting where the issue of succession to the throne was being decided. The guards approached the palace. Ivan Buturlin, the commander of the Preobrazhensky soldiers, announced the military’s demand to obey the empress. The Senate unanimously voted for the enthronement of Catherine I. There were no popular unrest, although bewilderment at the appearance of a woman on the Russian throne was felt.

On January 28, 1725, the Empress ascended the throne. The Empress entrusted the rule of the country to Alexander Menshikov and the Supreme Privy Council. Catherine I was content with the role of mistress of Tsarskoye Selo. During the reign of Catherine I, the doors of the Academy of Sciences opened, the expedition of Vitus Bering took place and the Order of the Saint was established. New coins appeared (a silver ruble with the image of the empress’s profile).

The state did not get involved in big wars. In 1726, the queen and her government concluded the Treaty of Vienna with Emperor Charles VI. Ill-wishers recall the short reign of Catherine I with the debauchery and acquisitiveness of the empress, accusing her of putting money into an Amsterdam bank and the beginning of the “tradition” of transferring funds to the accounts of Western banks. The Russian Tsarina amazed the refined European ambassadors with the crowd of jesters and hangers-on who settled at the palace.

Many books have been written and dozens of films have been made about the reign of the first woman on the Russian throne. Since 2000, television viewers have seen on their screens the series “Secrets of Palace Coups. Russia, XVIII century”, where Catherine I played, and the role of the Tsar went to.

Personal life

Until 1724, the relationship between the Tsar and Catherine I was surprisingly tender and trusting. Until the end of his life, Pyotr Alekseevich was known as a womanizer and shared stories with his wife about his affairs and adventures. Each confession ended with the words that “there is no one better than you, Katenka.”

But a year before his death, the emperor suspected his wife of treason: he was informed about his wife’s adultery with the chamberlain Willim Mons. The king found a reason to execute Mons by bringing his severed head to his wife on a tray. Peter forbade his wife to come to him. At the request of his daughter Elizabeth, the sovereign dined with Ekaterina Alekseevna, but never made peace. The silence was broken a month before the death of the king: the sovereign died in the arms of his wife.

Death

The revelries and balls undermined the queen's health. In the spring of 1727, Catherine fell ill, a weak cough intensified, a fever appeared, and the empress grew weaker day by day.

Catherine I died in May of the same year. Doctors named the cause of death as a lung abscess, but they also point to another possible reason for his departure - a severe attack of rheumatism.

Image in culture (films)

1938 – “Peter the Great”
1970 – “The Ballad of Bering and His Friends”
1976 - “The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married a Blackamoor”
1983 – “Demidovs”
1986 – ""
1997 – “Tsarevich Alexei”
2000 – “Secrets of palace coups”
2011 – “Peter the First. Will"
2013 – “The Romanovs”

Catherine the First

Catherine the First (Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya or Veselovskaya, Vasilevskaya, Rabe, von Alvendal. There is no exact information about her origin, rationality, relatives, early life history) - Russian empress, wife of Peter the Great, “married, a foreigner, a simple peasant of dark origin, a wife of dubious legitimacy in the eyes of many”

(Klyuchevsky). Ruled Russia from 1725 to 1727

“Ekaterina was a person suitable for Peter: more with her heart than with her mind, she understood all the views, tastes and desires of Peter, responded to everything that interested her husband, and with remarkable energy knew how to be wherever her husband was, to endure everything that he endured. She created a family home for Peter that was previously unknown to him, achieved a strong influence on him and, being a tireless assistant and companion of the sovereign at home and on campaigns, achieved a formal marriage with Peter (Platonov “Complete course of lectures on Russian history”)

Brief biography of Catherine the First

1684, April 5 - born (where, exactly unknown: on the territory of modern Latvia, Estonia?)
1684 - death of Martha’s parents from the plague (according to one version of her biography)
1686 - Martha's aunt Anna-Maria Veselovskaya gave the girl the service of the Lutheran pastor Ernst Gluck, who lived in Marienburg (today the Latvian city of Aluksne)
1701 - Gluck married Martha to Swedish army soldier Kruse
1702, August 25 - during the Northern War, Marienburg was captured by the Russian army of Field Marshal Sheremetyev
1702, autumn - Martha moved to Sheremetyev’s house
1703, August - Sheremetyev lost Marta to the favorite of Peter the Great, Prince Menshikov, in whose house Peter noticed her
1705 - Peter sent Marta to the village of Preobrazhenskoye to the house of his sister Natalya Alekseevna
1706, December 26 - birth of daughter Catherine, died July 27, 1708
1707 (or 1708) - Martha was baptized into Orthodoxy and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova
1708, January 27 - birth of daughter Anna, died May 4, 1728
1709, December 18 - birth of a daughter, died December 25, 1761
1711, spring - before the Prut campaign, Peter ordered his entourage to consider Catherine his wife
1711, summer - participation in the Prut campaign of Peter

“She was a real officer’s wife, a “camping officer’s wife,” in the local expression, capable of hiking, sleeping on a hard bed, living in a tent and making double and triple marches on horseback. During the Persian campaign (1722-1723), she shaved her head and wore a grenadier cap" (Waliszewski "Peter the Great")

1712, February 19 - wedding of Catherine and Peter the Great
1713, March 3 - birth of daughter Natalia, died May 27, 1715
1714, September 3 - birth of daughter Margaret, died July 27, 1715
1715, October 29 - birth of Peter's sons, died April 25, 1719
1717, January 2 - birth of son Paul, died January 3, 1717
1718, August 20 - birth of daughter Natalia, died March 4, 1725
1721, December 23 - The Senate and Synod recognized Catherine as empress
1722, February 5 - Peter's law on succession to the throne, according to which the right to appoint a successor belonged to the current emperor
1723, November 15 - Peter's manifesto on the coronation of Catherine
1724, May 7 - ceremony of placing the imperial crown on Catherine's head
1724, autumn - Peter suspected Catherine of having an affair with his chamberlain Willy Mons and stopped communicating with her
1724, November 16 - Mons beheaded
1724, November 16 - by decree of the tsar, addressed to all boards, it was prescribed not to accept any orders or recommendations from her in the future. At the same time, her personal funds were sealed
1725, January 16 - through the efforts of daughter Anna, the reconciliation of Catherine and Peter
1724, January 28, 5 am - death of Peter

“...At the moment of death, the reigning house split into two lines - imperial and royal: the first came from Emperor Peter, the second from his elder brother, Tsar Ivan. From Peter I, the throne passed to his widow Empress Catherine I, from her to the grandson of the converter, from him to the niece of Peter I, the daughter of Tsar Ivan Anna, Duchess of Courland, from her to the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna of Brunswick, daughter of Catherine Ivanovna, Duchess of Mecklenburg , Anna Ivanovna's own sister, from the deposed child of Ivan to Peter I's daughter Elizabeth, from her to her nephew, the son of another daughter of Peter I, Duchess of Holstein Anna, to Peter III, who was deposed by his wife Catherine II.

Never in our country... has supreme power passed along such a broken line: they all came to the throne not according to any order established by law, but by chance, through a palace coup or court intrigue.

The transformer himself was to blame for this: by his law on February 5, 1722, he abolished both orders of succession to the throne that had been in effect before, both the will and the conciliar election, replacing them with personal appointment.

This ill-fated law emerged from a fatal confluence of dynastic misfortunes. According to the usual and natural order of succession, the throne after Peter passed to his son from his first marriage, Tsarevich Alexei, who threatened to destroy his father’s business. Saving his business, the father sacrificed both his son and the natural order of succession to the throne in his name. The sons from his second marriage, Peter and Paul, died in infancy. There remained a young grandson, the son of the deceased prince, a natural avenger for his father. With the probable possibility of the death of the grandfather before the grandson comes of age, guardianship, which means power, could be received by either of two grandmothers: one - Evdokia Fedorovna, née Lopukhina, a hater of all innovations; the other is a foreigner, a simple peasant of dark origin, a wife of dubious legitimacy in the eyes of many, and if she gets power, she will probably give her will to the Tsar’s first favorite and the first embezzler in the state, Prince Menshikov...

Peter saw a desert around him and did not find a reliable person for the throne either in the co-workers, or in the laws that did not exist, or in the people themselves, from whom the very will was taken away... For whole years Peter hesitated in choosing a successor and already on the eve of his death, having lost language, I only managed to write Give it all..., and to whom - my weakened hand did not clearly finish writing... So the throne was given up to chance... When there is no... law, the political issue is usually resolved by the dominant force. In the 18th century In our country, such a decisive force is the guard, a privileged part of the regular army created by Peter. Not a single change on the Russian throne in the indicated period of time was without the participation of the guard (Klyuchevsky “Course of Russian History”)

1725, January 28, 8 a.m. - under pressure from the guard, Catherine ascended the throne
1727, May 6 - death from numerous ailments

“His death at the age of 43 was explained primarily by the empress’s abnormal lifestyle, which was repeatedly noted by contemporaries. The French ambassador to the Russian court, Campredon, explained her illness by gastronomic excesses, excessive passion for drinks, passion for entertainment, the transformation of daytime hours into night hours - Catherine used to go to bed at four or five in the morning.”

Affairs and concerns of Catherine I and her government

“One could not expect innovations or the ability to guess the development of events from the empress, but she had access to the elementary idea of the need to complete the work begun by her late husband” (Pavlenko “Catherine I”)

—

“In 1724, Peter published a project for the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, assigning 25 thousand rubles a year for its maintenance. Catherine instructed the Russian ambassador in Paris, Kuzakin, to invite major scientists to Russia recommended by Peter Blumentrost, the physician: the two Bernoulli brothers, Bilfinger, Delisle, and others. They arrived in St. Petersburg at the end of 1725, and the Academy of Sciences was opened in 1726. Lavreny Blumentrost was appointed its president.”

—

“The leading countries of Europe in 1726 were split into two warring alliances. The first of them, the so-called Hanoverian, was formed in September 1725. It included England, France and Prussia. The Hanoverian League was opposed by a coalition of two powers - Austria and Spain. The main reason why Russia could not become a member of the Hanoverian League was the humiliating demands put forward by the Prussian king and supported by England. Russia had to give up part of its acquisitions in the Baltic states: its western borders reached Revel, and the remaining territories were to be given to the Duke of Holstein for his refusal” (N. Pavlenko “Catherine I”)

—

“Catherine promised to preside over meetings of the Supreme Privy Council. However, she did not fulfill her promise: in the fifteen months that passed from the establishment of the Supreme Privy Council until her death, she was present at meetings only fifteen times... The Supreme Privy Council was led by Menshikov - a man, although not without impeccable reputation, but with a fairly wide range of talents: he was a talented commander and a good administrator. The second person who influenced both the Empress and the Supreme Privy Council was the secret cabinet secretary Alexei Vasilyevich Makarov.”

—

Opinions about the personality of Catherine I

“This empress was loved and adored by the entire nation, thanks to her innate kindness, which manifested itself whenever she could take part in persons who fell into disgrace and deserved the emperor’s disfavor... She was truly a mediator between the sovereign and his subjects” (Field Marshal of the Russian Army )
— — — — —
“She was weak, luxurious in the entire space of this name, the nobles were ambitious and greedy, and from this it happened: practicing everyday feasts and luxuries, she left all the power of the government to the nobles, of whom Prince Menshikov soon took over” (historian of the second half of the 18th century Prince M. M. Shcherbatov)
— — — — —
“Catherine retained knowledge of persons and the relationships between them, retained the habit of making her way between these relationships, but she did not have the proper attention to affairs, especially internal ones, and their details, nor the ability to initiate and direct” (historian S. M. Solovyov)
— — — — —
"Energetic and smart wife

Catherine 1 is the only Russian empress who went “from rags to riches.” Marta Skavronskaya - that was actually the name of the empress, was born into a family of peasants, and met her future husband Peter 1 while being Menshikov’s servant.

After the sudden death of Peter the Great, with the support of the intriguer Menshikov, Catherine comes into power. However, this is nothing more than a formality.

Taking advantage of the situation, a group of people dreaming of power created the Supreme Privy Council. Several dignitaries entered it and began to run everything. The empress, ignorant of state affairs, presiding there, played the most insignificant role. Soon, seeing the threat posed by Menshikov, Catherine included her son-in-law, the Duke of Holstein, in the council.
As might be expected, the Senate ceased to play any role. A small group of people made all the important decisions, and Catherine the First only signed the documents.
Long wars could not but affect the economic state of the country. Due to crop failures, the price of an essential product—bread—rose, and unrest began to grow. To prevent unrest, it was decided to reduce the poll tax, which resulted in large arrears.

But not everything in domestic politics was so sad. It was under Catherine 1 that the Academy of Sciences was opened and the first expedition to Kamchatka, led by Bereng, was equipped. The number of bureaucratic institutions and, accordingly, parasites has decreased. The empress allowed the nobles to sell their goods everywhere and even build factories for processing raw materials. The merchants were not spared attention either. For them, she abolished the state monopoly and reduced customs duties on some goods. Despite the obvious lobbying of the interests of the wealthy part of the population, the common people treated the empress well and even went to her with their needs.

The foreign policy of Catherine 1 was mainly aimed at the future - expanding borders. For example, Russia managed to “take control” of the Shirvan region. In addition, there was a separate corps in the Caucasus led by Prince Dolgorukov. The goal was to recapture Persian territories. Despite such aggressive aspirations, the empress managed to establish good relations with some Western countries, including Austria, which cannot be said about Denmark and England. The reason for this is Catherine’s support for the Duke of Holstein’s views on the territory of these countries. Of course, the empress can be understood: after all, the duke was her son-in-law. As a result, Russia, together with friendly countries: Austria, Spain, Prussia, entered the Vienna Union. In contrast to them, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, and Holland formed the Hanoverian League.

Catherine I Alekseevna - Russian Empress; the second wife of Peter I and the mother of Empress Elizabeth I. According to one version, the future ruler was born into the family of a Latvian-Lithuanian peasant S. Skavronsky on April 15, 1684. According to another version, her father was a Swedish quartermaster. Real name is Marta Skavronskaya. Martha had no education, as she lived in the service of Pastor E. Gluck. For some time she was the wife of the Swede I. Kruse.

After the capture of Latvian Aluksne (Marienburg), she was captured by B.P. Sheremetev, then by A.D. Menshikov, who was the tsar’s favorite and closest associate. Since 1705, Martha became the wife of Peter I. After the Orthodox baptismal rite, she took a new name - Ekaterina Alekseevna. She had influence on her husband, but tried not to interfere in political affairs. She supported all of Peter’s endeavors and was always there. It was rumored that it was Catherine who saved him during the Prussian campaign of 1711. For the sake of a truce with the Turkish vizier, she gave up all her expensive jewelry.

She bore the Tsar several children, of whom only Anna and Elizabeth survived to maturity. Both were born before the couple's marriage. After the death of her husband, Ekaterina Alekseevna, under the patronage of A.D. Menshikov, ascended the throne. Consequently, from February 1725 she was Empress of the Russian State and continued to remain in this position until May 17, 1727. At the age of 43, the Empress fell ill with a serious lung disease and did not recover. In May 1727 she died. She was replaced by the tsar's grandson, Peter I.

The reign of Catherine I was short-lived, but was marked by a peaceful foreign policy. In fact, Menshikov ruled the state. During these two years, Russia did not wage any wars with other countries. Also, during her reign, guarantees of the Peace of Nystadt were provided and the Vienna Union Treaty was signed. The Empress favored science and art. In November 1725, the Academy of Sciences was opened in St. Petersburg. She devoted a lot of time to all kinds of entertainment, feasts and balls.