The heirs of Marta Skavronskaya at present. Catherine I

There are some dark spots in the biography of Catherine I; information about some periods of her life is very scarce. It is known that before the adoption of Orthodoxy, Ekaterina Alekseevna’s name was Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya.

She was born in April 1684. Marta was of Baltic origin, lost her parents early, and was raised in the family of a Protestant pastor.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia participated in the Northern War. Sweden was the enemy of the Russian state. In 1702, the army occupied the Marienburg fortress, which is located on the territory of modern Latvia.

During the military operation, about four hundred residents of the fortress were captured. Martha was among the prisoners. There are two versions of how Martha fell into the entourage of Peter I.

The first says that Marta became the mistress of the commander of the Russian army, Sheremetyev. Later, Menshikov, who had more influence than the field marshal, took Marta for himself.

The second version looks like this. Martha was assigned to manage the servants in Colonel Baur's house. Baur could not get enough of his manager, but Menshikov drew attention to her, and until the last decade of 1703 she worked in the house of His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich.

In Menshikov’s house, Peter I drew attention to Martha. The relationship between Peter I and Martha developed rapidly. In 1704, the couple had a child - a boy named Peter, who soon died.

The same fate befell the second boy, Pavel. In 1705, Marta lives in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, where she is taught to read and write. In Preobrazhenskoye she struck up friendly relations with the Menshikov couple.

Martha converted to Orthodoxy either in 1708 or a year later. Different historical sources indicate different dates on this matter. At baptism she took the name Ekaterina Alekseevna. She received this middle name because her godfather was Peter’s son from his first marriage, Tsarevich Alexei.

In 1708 and 1709, Ekaterina Alekseevna made Peter I happy with two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth. The second will eventually become the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. It is worth noting that the children were considered illegitimate, because their parents were not married in church.

In 1711, Peter I took Ekaterina Alekseevna with him on the Prut campaign. During the campaign, Catherine showed herself well, tying Peter to her even more. After returning from the Prut campaign, the couple decided to get married. The wedding took place on February 19, 1712. The couple had 11 children, but all of them, except Elizabeth and Anna, died in childhood.

After the death of Peter I, the question arose about who would rule the Russian Empire. The first Russian Emperor did not leave a will. The confrontation between various political forces was decided by the Guards mutiny. The guards placed Ekaterina Alekseevna on the throne, who went down in history as the first Russian empress.

Catherine I died on May 6th (17th), 1727.

She reigned from January 28, 1725 until May 1727. Her reign did not bring any significant changes to the life of Russian society. Under Catherine I, the Bering expedition was organized, and the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was established. Here, one might say, are all the important events during the reign of Catherine I.

Portrait of Catherine I. Artist J.-M. Nattier. 1717

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 Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (built under her daughter Elizabeth) also bears the name of Catherine I.

early years

Information about the early life of Catherine I is contained mainly in historical anecdotes and is not sufficiently reliable. Her place of birth and nationality have not yet 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 originally from the outskirts of Kegums. According to another version, the future empress was born in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) into a family of Estonian peasants.

Martha's parents died of the plague in 1684, and her uncle sent 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 learned man, was taken into Russian service and 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 to read and write.

According to the version set out in the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, Martha’s mother, having become a widow, gave her daughter to serve in the family of Pastor Gluck, where she was allegedly taught literacy and handicrafts.

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.

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

Question about origin

The search for Catherine's roots 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. Catherine moved their families to St. Petersburg in 1726. According to A.I. Repnin, who led the search, Khristina Skavronskaya and her husband are “lying,” they are both “stupid and drunk people,” Repnin proposed sending them “somewhere else, so that there won’t be any big lies from them.” Catherine awarded Charles and Frederick the dignity of counts in January 1727, without calling them her brothers. In the will of Catherine I, the Skavronskys are vaguely named “close relatives of her own family.” Under Elizaveta Petrovna, the 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 dignity of counts. Subsequently, the official version became that Anna, Christina, Karl and Friedrich were Catherine’s siblings, children of Samuil Skavronsky.

However, since the end of the 19th century, a number of historians have questioned this relationship. The fact 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 Katerina’s relatives” - “Yagan-Ionus Vasilevsky, Anna-Dorothea, also their children." Therefore, other versions of Catherine’s origin have been proposed, according to which she is a cousin, and not the sister of the Skavronskys who appeared in 1726.

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

1702 - 1725

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 of Marienburg (now Aluksne, Latvia). Sheremetev, taking advantage of the departure of the main Swedish army to Poland, subjected the region to merciless devastation. 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 devastated and burned, and your military sovereign’s people took full men and women and robbed several thousand, also work horses, and 20,000 or more cattle... and what they couldn’t lift they pricked and chopped”

In Marienburg, Sheremetev captured 400 inhabitants. When Pastor Gluck, accompanied by his servants, came to intercede about the fate of the residents, Sheremetev noticed the maid Martha Kruse and forcibly took her as his mistress. After a short time, around August 1703, Prince Menshikov, a friend and ally of Peter I, became its owner. So says the Frenchman Franz Villebois, who had been in Russian service in the navy since 1698 and was married to the daughter of Pastor Gluck. Villebois's story is confirmed by another source, notes from 1724 from the archives of the Duke of Oldenburg. Based on these notes, Sheremetev sent Pastor Gluck and all the inhabitants of the Marienburg fortress to Moscow, but kept Marta for himself. Menshikov, having taken Marta from the elderly field marshal a few months later, had a strong falling out with Sheremetev.

Portrait of Alexander Danilovich Menshikov in 1698, painted in Holland during the Great Embassy of Peter the Great

The Scotsman Peter Henry Bruce in his Memoirs presents the story (according to others) in a more favorable light for Catherine I. Martha was taken by Dragoon Colonel Baur (who later became a general):

“[Baur] immediately ordered her to be placed in his house, which entrusted her to her care, giving her the right to dispose of all the servants, and she soon fell in love with the new manager for her manner of housekeeping. The general later often said that his house was never as tidy as during the days of 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. Having asked who she was and whether she knew how to cook, he heard in response the story he had just told, to which the general added a few words about her worthy position in his house. The prince said that this is the kind of woman he really needs now, because he himself is now being served very poorly. To this the general replied that he owed too much to the prince not to immediately fulfill what he had only thought about - and immediately calling Catherine, he said that before her was Prince Menshikov, who needed just such a maid like her, and that the prince will do everything within his power to become, like himself, her friend, adding that he respects her too much not to give her the opportunity to receive her share of honor and good fate.”

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 after her aunt’s last name).

Peter I with the sign of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on a blue St. Andrew's ribbon and a star on his chest. Artist J.-M. Nattier, 1717

Franz Villebois recounts their first meeting as follows:
“This is how things stood when the tsar, traveling by mail from St. Petersburg, which was then called Nyenschanz, or Noteburg, to Livonia to go further, stopped at his favorite Menshikov, where he noticed Catherine among the servants who served at the table. He asked where it came from and how he acquired it. And, having spoken quietly in the 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, when she went to bed, to carry a candle to his room. It was an order spoken in a joking tone, but brooking no objection. Menshikov took this for granted, and the beauty, devoted to her master, spent the night in the king's room... The next day the king left in the morning to continue his journey. He returned to his favorite what he had lent him. The satisfaction the king received from his night 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 d’or (10 francs), which he put into her hand in a military manner when parting.”

Catherine I. Portrait of an unknown artist.

In 1704, Katerina gave birth to her first child, named Peter, and the following year, Paul (both soon died).

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 the surname Mikhailov was used by Peter I himself if he wanted to remain incognito.

In January 1710, Peter organized a triumphal procession to Moscow on the occasion of the Poltava victory; thousands of Swedish prisoners were held at the parade, among whom, according to the story of Franz Villebois, was Johann Kruse. Johann confessed about his wife, who gave birth to one after another of children 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 about 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 keep in mind the interest of the German dukes in the legitimacy of the birth of the daughters of Peter, Anna and Elizabeth, for whom grooms were sought among the German appanage rulers.

Wife of Peter I

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

Even before her legal marriage to Peter, Katerina gave birth to daughters Anna and Elizabeth. Katerina alone could cope with the king in his fits of anger; she knew how to calm Peter’s attacks of convulsive headaches with affection and patient attention. According to Bassevich's memoirs:
“The sound of Katerina’s voice calmed Peter; then she sat him down and took him, caressing him, by the head, which she lightly scratched. This had a magical effect on him; he fell asleep within 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 cheerful.”

In the spring of 1711, Peter, having become attached to a charming and easy-tempered former servant, ordered Catherine to be considered his wife and took her on the Prut campaign, which was unlucky for the Russian army. The Danish envoy Just Yul, from the words of the princesses (nieces of Peter I), wrote down this story as follows:
“In the evening, shortly before his departure, the tsar called them, his sister Natalya Alekseevna, to a house in Preobrazhenskaya Sloboda. There he took his hand and placed his mistress Ekaterina Alekseevna in front of them. For the future, the tsar said, they should consider her his legitimate wife and Russian queen. Since now, due to the urgent need to go to the army, he cannot marry her, he takes her with him to do this on occasion in more free time. At the same time, the king made it clear that if he died before he could get married, then after his death they would have to look at her as his legal 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 thousand-strong Russian army to the river, completely surrounding them with numerous cavalry. Catherine went on a long hike while she was 7 months pregnant. According to a well-known legend, she took off all her jewelry to bribe it to the Turkish commander. Peter I was able to conclude the Prut Peace and, sacrificing Russian conquests in the south, lead the army out of encirclement. The Danish envoy Just Yul, who was with the Russian army after its release from encirclement, does not report such an act of Catherine, but says that the queen (as everyone now called Catherine) distributed her jewelry to the officers for safekeeping and then collected them. The notes of Brigadier Moro de Braze also do not mention bribing the vizier with Catherine’s jewelry, although the author (Brigadier Moro de Braze) knew from the words of the Turkish pashas about the exact amount of government funds allocated for bribes to the Turks.

Unknown artist. Portrait of Catherine I.

The official wedding of Peter I with Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on February 19, 1712 in the Church of St. Isaac of Dalmatia in St. Petersburg. In 1713, Peter I, in honor of the worthy behavior of his wife during the unsuccessful Prut campaign, established the Order of St. Catherine and personally conferred the insignia of the order on his wife on November 24, 1714. Initially it was called the Order of Liberation and was intended only for Catherine. Peter I remembered Catherine’s merits during the Prut campaign in his manifesto on the coronation of his wife dated November 15, 1723:
“Our dear wife, Empress Catherine, was a great helper, and not just in this, but in many military actions, putting aside women’s illness, she was present with us and helped as much as possible, and especially in the Prut campaign with the Turks, almost in desperate times, as acted masculinely and not femininely, our entire army knows that...”

Peter I and Catherine I ride along the Neva

In his personal letters, the tsar showed unusual tenderness for his wife: “Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I hear that you are bored, and 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 Elizaveta. Elizabeth later became empress (reigned 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, he was the official heir to the Russian throne.

Foreigners who closely followed the Russian court noted the tsar’s affection for his wife. Bassevich writes about their relationship in 1721:
“He loved seeing her everywhere. There was no military review, ship launch, ceremony or holiday at which she would not appear... Catherine, confident in the heart of her husband, laughed at his frequent love affairs, like Livia at the intrigues of Augustus; But then, when he told her about them, he always ended with the words: “Nothing can compare with you.”

Artist Stanislav Khlebovsky. Assembly under Peter I.

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 and she was denied access to him. 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 her time at the bedside of the dying sovereign; he died in her arms.

Opinions about Catherine's appearance are contradictory. If we focus on male eyewitnesses, then, in general, they are more than positive, and, on the contrary, women were sometimes prejudiced towards her: “She was short, fat and black; her whole appearance did not make a favorable impression. One had only to look at her to immediately notice that she was of low birth. The dress she was wearing was, in all likelihood, bought from a shop in the market; it was of an old-fashioned style and all trimmed with silver and sparkles. Judging by her outfit, one could mistake her for a German traveling artist. She wore a belt decorated on the front with embroidery of precious stones, a very original design in the form of a two-headed eagle, the wings of which were studded with small precious stones in a bad setting. The queen was wearing about a dozen orders and the same number of icons and amulets, and when she walked, everything rang, as if a dressed mule had passed.”

Family of Peter I in 1717: Peter I, Catherine, eldest son Alexei Petrovich from his first wife, youngest two-year-old son Peter and daughters Anna and Elizabeth. Enamel on a copper plate.

Descendants of Peter I from Catherine I

Anna Petrovna (1708-1728) In 1725 she married the German Duke Karl-Friedrich; went to Kiel, where she gave birth to a son, Karl Peter Ulrich (later Russian Emperor Peter III).

Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-1762). Russian Empress since 1741.

Natalia Petrovna (1713-1715).

Margarita Petrovna (1714-1715).

Pyotr Petrovich (1715-1719). He was considered the official heir to the crown from 1718 until his death.

Pavel Petrovich (1717-1717).

Natalia Petrovna (1718-1725).

Portrait of Catherine I by Karel de Moor, 1717.

Rise to power

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

May 7, 1724 Peter crowned Catherine empress in Moscow's Assumption Cathedral. This was the second coronation of a female sovereign's wife in Rus' (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 by a direct descendant in the male line, replacing it with the personal appointment of the reigning sovereign. According to the Decree of 1722, any person who, in the opinion of the sovereign, was worthy to lead the state could become a successor. Peter died in the early morning of January 28, 1725, without having time to name a successor and leaving no sons. Due to the absence of a strictly defined order of succession to the throne, the throne of Russia was left to chance, and subsequent times went down in history as the era of palace coups.

The popular majority was for the only male representative of the dynasty - Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, the grandson of Peter I from his eldest son Alexei, who died during interrogations. Peter Alekseevich was supported by well-born nobility (Dolgoruky, Golitsyn), who considered him the only legitimate heir, born from 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 Peter's indirect indication of the heiress. When Catherine saw that there was no longer hope for her husband’s recovery, she instructed Menshikov and Tolstoy to act in favor of their rights. The guard was devoted to the point of adoration for the dying emperor; She transferred this affection to Catherine as well.

Guard officers from the Preobrazhensky Regiment appeared at the Senate meeting, knocking down the door to the room. They openly declared that they would break the heads of the old boyars if they went against their mother Catherine. Suddenly a drumbeat was heard from the square: it turned out that both guards regiments were lined up under arms in front of the palace. Prince Field Marshal Repnin, president of the military college, angrily asked: “Who dared to bring regiments here without my knowledge? Am I not a field marshal? Buturlin, the commander of the Semenovsky regiment, answered Repnin that he called up the regiments by the will of the empress, 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 of Catherine’s opponents to give her their vote. The Senate “unanimously” elevated her to the throne, calling her “the Most Serene, Most Sovereign Great Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, Autocrat of All Russia” and, in justification, announcing the will of the late sovereign as interpreted by the Senate. The people were very surprised by the accession of a woman to the throne for the first time in Russian history, but there was no unrest.

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

Unknown artist. Portrait of Catherine I with a little arap.

Governing body. 1725-1727.

The actual power in Catherine's reign was concentrated by the prince and field marshal Menshikov, as well as the Supreme Privy Council. Catherine, on the other hand, 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 also touched her.

The nobles wanted to rule with a woman and now they really achieved their goal.

From “History of Russia” by S.M. Solovyova:
Under Peter, she shone not with her own light, but borrowed from the great man whose companion she was; she had the ability to hold herself at a certain height, to show attention and sympathy for the movement taking place around her; she was privy to all the secrets, the secrets of the personal relationships of the people around her. Her position and fear for the future kept her mental and moral strength in constant and strong tension. But the climbing plant reached its height only thanks to the giant of the forests around which it twined; the giant was slain - and the weak plant spread out on the ground. Catherine retained knowledge of persons and relationships between them, retained the habit of making her way between these relationships; but she did not have the proper attention to matters, especially internal ones, and their details, nor the ability to initiate and direct.

On the initiative of Count P. A. Tolstoy, a new body of state power was created in February 1726, the Supreme Privy Council, where a narrow circle of top dignitaries could govern the Russian Empire under the formal chairmanship of the semi-literate empress. The Council included Field Marshal General 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 well-born nobles. 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 zeal, as the empress officially declared, “we can fully rely.”

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

Silver ruble 1727

The long wars that Russia waged affected the country's finances. Due to crop failures, bread prices rose, and discontent grew in the country. To prevent uprisings, the poll tax was reduced (from 74 to 70 kopecks).

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

Despite this, the common people loved the empress because she had compassion for the unfortunate and willingly helped them. Soldiers, sailors and artisans were constantly crowding in its halls: some were looking for help, others asked the queen to be their godfather. She never refused anyone and usually gave each of her godsons several ducats.

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

Foreign policy

During the 2 years of the reign of Catherine I, Russia did not wage major wars, only a separate corps under the command of Prince Dolgorukov operated in the Caucasus, trying to recapture 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 Duke of Holstein (husband of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Catherine I) against Denmark. Russia's preparation of an expedition to return Schleswig, which had been 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 to provide guarantees for the Nystadt Peace and create an anti-Turkish bloc. In 1726, the government of Catherine I concluded the Treaty of Vienna 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.

Unknown artist Portrait of Empress Catherine I.

End of reign

Catherine I did not rule for long. Balls, celebrations, feasts and revelries, which followed in a continuous series, undermined her health, and on April 10, 1727, the empress fell ill. The cough, previously weak, began to intensify, a fever developed, the patient began to weaken day by day, and signs of lung damage appeared. The queen died from complications of a lung abscess. According to another unlikely version, death occurred from a severe attack of rheumatism.
The government had to urgently resolve the issue of succession to the throne.

Question of succession to the throne

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

Vice-Chancellor Osterman proposed to reconcile the interests of the well-born and new serving nobility to marry Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich to Princess Elizabeth Petrovna, Catherine’s daughter. The obstacle was their close relationship; Elizabeth was Peter’s aunt. In order to avoid a possible divorce in the future, Osterman proposed, when concluding a marriage, to more strictly define the order of succession to the throne.

Catherine, wanting to appoint her daughter Elizabeth (according to other sources, Anna) as heir, did not dare to accept Osterman’s project and continued to insist on her right to appoint a successor for herself, hoping that over time the issue would be resolved. Meanwhile, the main supporter of Catherine Menshikov, appreciating Peter’s prospects of becoming the Russian emperor, joined the camp of his adherents. Moreover, Menshikov managed to obtain Catherine’s consent to the marriage of Maria, Menshikov’s daughter, with Pyotr Alekseevich.

The party led by Tolstoy, which most 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 popular uprisings for Peter as the only legitimate heir; they could answer him that the army was on Catherine’s side, that it would also be on the side of her daughters. Catherine, for her part, tried to win the affection of the army with her attention.

Menshikov managed to take advantage of the illness of Catherine, 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 enemies of Menshikov were sent into exile.

Artist Heinrich Buchholz. Portrait of Catherine I. 1725

Will

At 9 pm on May 6, 1727, the 43-year-old empress died.

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

Subsequent articles related to the guardianship of the minor emperor; determined the power of the Supreme Council, the order of succession to the throne in the event of the death of Peter Alekseevich. According to the will, in the event of Peter’s childless death, Anna Petrovna and her descendants (“descendants”) became his successor, then her younger sister Elizaveta Petrovna and her descendants, and only then Peter II’s sister Natalya Alekseevna. At the same time, those contenders for the throne who were not of the Orthodox faith or who had already reigned abroad were excluded from the order of succession. It was to the will of Catherine I that 14 years later Elizaveta Petrovna referred to in a manifesto outlining her rights to the throne after the palace coup of 1741.

The 11th article of the will amazed those present. It commanded all nobles to promote the betrothal of Pyotr Alekseevich to one of the daughters of Prince Menshikov, and then, upon reaching adulthood, to promote their marriage. Literally: “in the same way, our crown princes and the government administration are trying to arrange a marriage between his love [Grand Duke Peter] and one princess of Prince Menshikov.”

Such an article clearly indicated the person who participated in the drawing up of the will, but for Russian society, Pyotr Alekseevich’s right to the throne - the main article of the will - was indisputable, and no unrest arose.

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

Convenient navigation through the article:

Emperor Peter I and his wives

Contemporaries of the Russian Emperor Per Alekseevich the First argued that the ruler was a very passionate person. Therefore, Casanova could envy the list of the Tsar’s beloved ladies. However, among them all there were those who left a special mark in the biography of this legendary man.

First wife of Peter I

Evdokia Lopukhina

Researchers of the life of Peter the Great suggest that the monarch's first true love was Peter's first wife Evdokia Lopukhina, whom the future Russian emperor married at the behest of his mother at the age of seventeen in 1689.

Raised according to the traditions of Domostroy, the girl did not support and even condemned her husband’s pro-Western way of thinking, which, most likely, was the reason why the spouses quickly lost interest in each other. At the same time, during the time they were married, Evdokia was able to give birth to Peter three sons.

The poorly educated and very stubborn Lopukhina began to irritate the future ruler of the Russian Empire, and he soon found another lady of his heart - Anna Mons. However, until his mother’s death, Peter tried to hide this connection, and after her death he forced his wife to become a nun and left her in the Suzdal-Pokrovsky Monastery. At the same time, Evdokia herself, or, as she began to be called nun Elena, began an affair in the monastery with officer Glebov, until Peter the Great somehow found out about it.

After this, according to the royal order, Glebov, some of the monastery servants and his son Alexei were executed. The monarch exiled the wife herself this time to a more strict place, which turned out to be the Assumption Monastery, from where she did not leave for seven long years. Peter's first wife was able to leave the walls of the monastery only before her death during the reign of her own grandson, Peter the Second.

Video lecture: the first wife of Peter I Evdokia Lopukhina

Second wife of Peter I

According to Peter's contemporaries, this woman was the direct opposite of Evdokia. She not only had a bright appearance, a lively mentality and an energetic disposition, but also completely shared the tsar’s love for European culture and way of life. Thanks to these qualities, the beauty was able to win the heart of the ruler of Russia, even despite her very dubious reputation in the past.

Having a reputation among the people as a courtesan, the beautiful Mons, before meeting the tsar, was the mistress of his comrade-in-arms and friend Lefort, who, in fact, introduced them.

Peter the Great presented the winemaker’s daughter with various expensive gifts and for ten years lived with “his beloved Annushka,” whom his wife called “Monsikha” and the people called “Queen of Kukuyskaya” (after the name of the German settlement).

Peter's feelings for the caring German woman were so strong that in 1703 the Tsar intended to make her his new official wife. This would have been the case if he had not accidentally found out that Mons had been cheating on him for several years with an eminent Saxon, to whom she even somehow managed to give birth to a child (daughter).

Angered by the bad news, the ruler of Russia gave the order to keep Anna under house arrest for two whole years. And, most likely, her fate could have ended then, if during this period Peter had not had feelings for his new lover, Catherine the First.

Video lecture: Anna Mons

Third wife of Peter I

Catherine the First

He met the Tsar’s new love, Ekaterina Trubacheva, having extensive experience in a frivolous life in the past. They say that this woman changed lovers more often than she took off her gloves!

Marta Skavronskaya (that was the girl’s real name) was a native of the Baltics and before taking the place of the Empress of Russia she managed to work as a laundress, and also to be married to the Swede Rabe, to be in Russian captivity and to visit the bedrooms of Menshikov and Sheremetyev.

It was Menshikov who recommended her to Peter the Great, who developed feelings for the girl, feeling warmth and affection in her. In addition, Catherine alone was able to pacify the emperor’s frequent attacks of anger, which caused migraines.

Also, the woman shared with Pyotr Alekseevich all the hardships and deprivations of army campaigns, and also gave him eight children. But only two of them managed to live to the age of eighteen (Anna and Elizabeth).

Catherine was crowned in the fall of 1723, and a year later Peter was informed of her very long love affair with Mons, who was the brother of Peter's former love interest, Anna Mons.

In order not to tarnish his name, the enraged Emperor of the Russian Empire unleashed his fury on Mons, accusing him of embezzlement and the death penalty. At the same time, according to the royal order, his wife, who in every possible way denied the fact of treason, was supposed to oversee the execution process. They said that at the sight of this cruel scene not a single muscle flinched on her face.

In addition, she showed her character and self-control and in the evening, when she returned to her own chambers, she saw her lover’s head preserved in alcohol on a chair.

After this, the tsar still had women, and he was able to forgive his wife Catherine only before his death.

Catherine I (Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, married Kruse; after accepting Orthodoxy Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova; April 5 - May 6) - Russian empress from 1721 (as the wife of the reigning emperor), from 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 Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (built under her daughter Elizaveta Petrovna) also bears the name of Catherine I.

early years

Her place of birth and the details of her early life have not yet 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 originally from the outskirts 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 also characteristic of people of Polish origin.

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

Video on the topic

-1725

Mistress of Peter I

“This is how things stood when the tsar, traveling by mail from St. Petersburg, which was then called Nyenschanz, or Noteburg, to Livonia to go further, stopped at his favorite Menshikov, where he noticed Catherine among the servants who served at the table. He asked where it came from and how he acquired it. And, having spoken quietly in the 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, when she went to bed, to carry a candle to his room. It was an order spoken in a joking tone, but brooking no objection. Menshikov took this for granted, and the beauty, devoted to her master, spent the night in the king's room... The next day the king left in the morning to continue his journey. He returned to his favorite what he had lent him. The satisfaction the king received from his night 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 d’or (10 francs), which he put into her hand in a military manner when parting.”

“The sound of Katerina’s voice calmed Peter; then she sat him down and took him, caressing him, by the head, which she lightly scratched. This had a magical effect on him; he fell asleep within 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 cheerful.”

In his personal letters, the tsar showed unusual tenderness for his wife: “ Katerinushka, my friend, hello! I hear that you are bored, and I am not bored either...". Ekaterina Alekseevna bore her husband 11 children, but almost all of them died in childhood, except for Anna and Elizaveta. Elizabeth later became empress (ruled in -), and Anna's direct descendants ruled Russia after Elizabeth's death, from to. 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. Master Nikolai Fedorov. 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, is depicted: Peter the Great placing the imperial crown on his wife Catherine. Kneeling Catherine is presented in a ceremonial dress and an ermine-trimmed mantle, supported by pages. The mantle, which was included for the first time in state regalia, was made specifically 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 is Count J. V. Bruce with a gilded pillow for the crown in his hands. It was he who brought a new symbol of royal power into the cathedral. To the right of the emperor are two bishops - probably Archbishops Theodosius (Yanovsky), represented in a miter and with a staff in his hands, and Feofan (Prokopovich), who present Peter with the coronation mantle to be placed on Catherine

Foreigners who closely followed the Russian court noted the tsar’s affection for his wife. Bassevich writes about their relationship in 1721:

“He loved seeing her everywhere. There was no military review, ship launch, ceremony or holiday at which she would not appear... Catherine, confident in the heart of her husband, laughed at his frequent love affairs, like Livia at the intrigues of Augustus; But then, when he told her about them, he always ended with the words: “Nothing can compare with you.”

Children of Peter I from Catherine I

Rise to power

The popular majority was for the only male representative of the dynasty - Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, the grandson of Peter I from his eldest son Alexei, who died during interrogations. Peter Alekseevich was supported by well-born nobility (Dolgoruky, Golitsyn), who considered him the only legitimate heir, born from 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 Peter's indirect indication of the heiress. When Catherine saw that there was no longer hope for her husband’s recovery, she instructed Menshikov and Tolstoy to act in favor of their rights. The guard was devoted to the point of adoration for the dying emperor; She transferred this affection to Catherine as well.

Guard officers from the Preobrazhensky Regiment appeared at the Senate meeting, knocking down the door to the room. They openly declared that they would break the heads of the old boyars if they went against their mother Catherine. Suddenly a drumbeat was heard from the square: it turned out that both guards regiments were lined up under arms in front of the palace. Prince Field Marshal Repnin, president of the military college, angrily asked: “ Who dared to bring shelves here without my knowledge? Am I not a field marshal?" Buturlin, commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, answered Repnin that he called up the regiments by the will of the Empress, 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 of Catherine’s opponents to give her their vote. The Senate “unanimously” elevated her to the throne, calling her “ the Most Serene, Most Sovereign Great Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, Autocrat of the All-Russian” and in justification, announcing the will of the late sovereign interpreted by the Senate. The people were very surprised by the accession of a woman to the throne for the first time in Russian history, but there was no unrest.

Under Peter, she shone not with her own light, but borrowed from the great man whose companion she was; she had the ability to hold herself at a certain height, to show attention and sympathy for the movement taking place around her; she was privy to all the secrets, the secrets of the personal relationships of the people around her. Her position and fear for the future kept her mental and moral strength in constant and strong tension. But the climbing plant reached its height only thanks to the giant of the forests around which it twined; the giant was slain - and the weak plant spread out on the ground. Catherine retained knowledge of persons and relationships between them, retained the habit of making her way between these relationships; but she did not have the proper attention to matters, especially internal ones, and their details, nor the ability to initiate and direct.

Portrait of A. D. Menshikov

On May 1, 1726, she was awarded the Polish Order of the White Eagle.

Foreign policy

During the 2 years of Catherine I's reign, Russia did not wage major wars, only a separate corps operated in the Caucasus under the command of Prince Dolgorukov, trying to recapture Persian territories while Persia was in a state of turmoil, and Turkey unsuccessfully fought the Persian rebels. In Europe, Russia was diplomatically active in defending the interests of the Duke of Holstein (husband of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Catherine I) against Denmark. Russia's preparation of an expedition to return Schleswig, which had been 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 to provide guarantees for the Nystadt Peace and create an anti-Turkish bloc. In 1726, the government of Catherine I concluded the Treaty of Vienna 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, celebrations, feasts and revelries, which followed in a continuous series, undermined her health, and on April 10 the Empress fell ill. The cough, previously weak, began to intensify, a fever developed, the patient began to weaken day by day, and signs of lung damage appeared. The queen died in May 1727 from complications of a lung abscess. According to another unlikely version, death occurred from a severe attack of rheumatism.
The government had to urgently resolve the issue of succession to the throne.

Question of succession to the throne

Catherine I. Portrait of an unknown artist.

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

The party led by Tolstoy, which most 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 popular uprisings for Peter as the only legitimate heir; they could answer him that the army was on Catherine’s side, that it would also be on the side of her daughters. Catherine, for her part, tried to win the affection of the army with her attention.

Menshikov managed to take advantage of the illness of Catherine, 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 enemies of Menshikov were sent into exile.

Will

At 9 pm on May 6 () 1727, the 43-year-old empress died.

When the Empress became dangerously ill, members of the highest government institutions: the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate and the Synod gathered in the palace to resolve the issue of a successor. Guards officers were also invited. The Supreme Council decisively insisted on the appointment of a young grandson as heir

Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, later Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova, the future All-Russian Empress Catherine 1st, was born on the lands of Livonia near Kegmus (today the territory of Latvia) in 1684. Her biography is quite contradictory and ambiguous. There is little accurate information about her youth. It is only known that Martha’s parents died quite early, after which she lived with her aunt, and, according to another version, with a pastor. At the age of 17 she married the Swedish dragoon Johann Kruse. But a few days later he left for the war, from which he never returned.

Martha (and about 400 other people) was captured by Russians in 1702 after the capture of the Marienburg fortress by Field Marshal Sheremetev.

There are two versions of the development of her future fate. According to the first, Martha became the manager in the house of Colonel Bauer, according to the second, she was noticed by Sheremetev and became his mistress, but later he had to give up the girl to Prince Menshikov. It is impossible to prove or disprove any of the versions today. However, it is known that he met Martha precisely in the prince’s house, where the girl worked as a servant.

Martha, who had already received the name Catherine, under which she would go down in history, gives birth to the Tsar 11 children, most of whom die while still babies. Only Anna and . In 1705, Catherine was brought to the house of Natalya Alekseevna, the Tsar’s sister, where she learned to write and read. During the same period, Catherine the 1st established close relations with the Menshikovs.

The next important event in the biography of Martha Skavronskaya takes place in 1707 (according to some sources - in 1708). The future queen is baptized into Orthodoxy and receives the name Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova. Peter the Great became so attached to this woman that he took her with him on the Prussian campaign, where Catherine showed herself very worthy. All contemporaries note the amazing relationship between the Russian Tsar and Catherine the 1st, her ability to calm his attacks of anger and headaches. It is believed that Peter’s numerous love affairs were not a secret to his future wife.

In 1714, on February 19, Peter the 1st and Catherine got married in the Church of John of Dalmitsky. In honor of his wife, the Tsar established the Order of St. Catherine, which he awarded her on November 24, 1724.

In 1724, on May 7, Catherine was crowned empress in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. But in the same year, suspecting her of having a connection with Mons, the chamberlain, Peter the 1st removes her from himself and executes the chamberlain. In the winter of 1724, when the Tsar became seriously ill, Catherine 1st did not leave his bedside. Peter the Great died in her arms on January 28, 1725.

The Russian Tsar died, abolishing the previous order of succession to the throne by his decree, but without appointing an heir. As a result of this, the following years brought many. Catherine 1st ascended the Russian throne during the Guards mutiny on January 28, 1725, becoming the first woman to rule Russia. However, she was not directly involved in management, delegating important state affairs to Menshikov and the Supreme Privy Council. During the short reign of Catherine the 1st, the Academy of Sciences was opened and the Bering expedition was organized. Catherine died of lung disease on May 6, 1727, having signed a will, according to which the Russian throne passed to the grandson of Peter the Great -.