Ekaterina Alekseevna Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya
Coronation:
Predecessor:
Successor:
Birth:
Buried:	Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg
Dynasty:	Romanovs (by marriage)
	According to the most common version, Samuil Skavronsky
	Assum. (Anna-)Dorothea Hahn
	1) Johann Kruse (or Rabe) 2) Peter I
	Anna Petrovna Elizaveta Petrovna Pyotr Petrovich Natalya Petrovna the rest died in infancy
Monogram:

early years

Question about origin

1702-1725

Mistress of Peter I

Wife of Peter I

Rise to power

Governing body. 1725-1727

Foreign policy

End of reign

Question of succession to the throne

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 I 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 outskirts 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 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.

The most common version is this. 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.

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, founded the first gymnasium in Moscow, taught languages ​​and wrote poetry in Russian). Marta was used in the house as a servant; she was not taught literacy.

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, 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, trumpeter Johann and his regiment left for the war and, according to the widespread 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 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 “ they lie", both of them " people are stupid and drunk", Repnin offered to send them " somewhere else, so that there are no 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 surname" 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:

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 comrade-in-arms 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.

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 his 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 just 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). 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.”

In 1704, Katerina gives 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

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:

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.

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:

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:

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.

Descendants of Peter I from Catherine I

	Year of birth	Year of death	Note
Anna Petrovna			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			Russian Empress since 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

With a manifesto dated 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 empress in the Moscow 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 (February 8), 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, 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 Semenovsky regiment, answered Repnin that he called up the regiments at the behest 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.

On January 28 (February 8), 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.

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 situation 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. In April, the young Prince I. A. Dolgoruky was admitted to the Supreme Privy Council.

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.

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, matters were limited to diplomatic activity in defending the interests of the Duke of Holstein (husband of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Catherine I) against Denmark.

Russia fought a war with the Turks in Dagestan and Georgia. Catherine's plan to return Schleswig, which had been taken by the Danes, to the Duke of Holstein led to military action against Russia by Denmark and England. Russia tried to pursue a peaceful policy towards Poland.

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. Therefore, 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 the prospect of Peter becoming the Russian emperor, moved to 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 Catherine’s enthronement, 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

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 princesses 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, however, 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.

Russian Empress Catherine I Alekseevna (née Marta Skavronskaya) was born on April 15 (5 in the old style) 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.

Martha did not receive an 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, it became a military trophy and ended up first in the convoy of General Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev, and then with the favorite and associate of Peter I, Alexander Menshikov.

Around 1703, the 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 very great influence over the Russian monarch, which depended, according to contemporaries, partly on her ability to calm him down in moments of anger. She did not try to take direct part in resolving political issues. Since 1709, Catherine no longer left the Tsar, accompanying Peter on all his campaigns and trips. According to legend, she saved Peter I during the Prut campaign (1711), when Russian troops were surrounded. Catherine gave the Turkish vizier all her jewelry, persuading him to sign a truce.

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

In May 1724, Peter I crowned Catherine as empress for the first time in Russian history.

After the death of Peter I in 1725, through the efforts of Menshikov and with the support of the guard and the St. Petersburg garrison, Catherine I was elevated to the throne.

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

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

In foreign policy there were almost no deviations from Peter's traditions. Russia improved diplomatic relations with Austria, obtained confirmation from Persia and Turkey of the concessions made under Peter in the Caucasus, 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, and various holidays, which had a detrimental effect on her health. In March 1727, a tumor 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 Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich - the grandson of Peter, the son of Alexei Petrovich, and in the event of his death - to her daughters or their descendants.

On May 17 (6 old style), 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 had 11 children, almost all of whom died in early childhood. There are two daughters left - Anna and Elizaveta.

Anna Petrovna (1708-1728) became the wife of the nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII, Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein of Gottorp, and the mother of Prince Karl Peter Ulrich - later Russian Emperor Peter III.

Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-1761/1762) was elevated to the Russian throne by the Guard as a result of a palace coup in 1741. During her reign, significant successes were achieved in the development of the economy, culture of Russia and in foreign policy.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

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”

Proclamation of Catherine I as Empress

While Peter was struggling with death, in other chambers of the palace the nobles were holding a meeting about the succession to the throne. Some of them then seized on the rights of Grand Duke Peter, the son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich; such were the princes Golitsyn, Dolgoruky, Repnin; others - among them Menshikov, Admiral General Apraksin, Tolstoy, Buturlin - wanted to enthronement Catherine, based on the fact that Peter himself had crowned her, and pointed out that the installation of Grand Duke Peter, who was still a minor, could result in misunderstandings and civil strife . Some of the supporters of Grand Duke Peter tried to reconcile both parties and proposed declaring Grand Duke Peter emperor, and entrusting the reign to Catherine together with the Senate until he came of age. The side that wanted Catherine’s enthronement without the participation of Grand Duke Peter finally gained the upper hand when Tolstoy and Buturlin invited a circle of guards officers to the palace, and stationed both guards regiments outside the palace walls, ready to use weapons if necessary.

Catherine I. Portrait of an unknown artist

-Who dared to bring an army here without my knowledge? - said Prince Repnin, president of the Military College.

“I,” answered Buturlin; - I did this by order of the Empress. Everyone is obliged to obey her, not excluding you!

Those who were on the side of Grand Duke Peter lacked agreement; Almost everyone was at odds with each other for various reasons; many, moreover, were afraid that the trial of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich would not respond to them. Thus, Repnin, who did not get along with the Golitsyns, went over to Catherine’s side; Chancellor Golovkin also landed there. They called Cabinet Secretary Makarov; Under Peter the Great, for a long time he was in charge of affairs directly emanating from the sovereign.

– Is there any will or order of the late sovereign regarding the succession to the throne after his death? – Admiral General Apraksin asked Makarov.

- There is nothing! – answered Makarov. “Several years ago, the sovereign drew up a will, but destroyed it before his last trip to Moscow. Although he subsequently spoke about the need to write a new one, he did not carry out this intention. The Emperor expressed the following thought: “If the people, brought by me from an ignorant state and raised to the level of power and glory, declare themselves ungrateful, then they will not act in accordance with my will, even if it was written, and I do not want to expose my last will to the possibility of insult; but if the people feel what they owe me for my labors, they will begin to comply with my desires, and they were expressed with such solemnity that could not be conveyed in any written document.

“I ask you to allow me to say the word,” Feofan Prokopovich said then. - And, when he received the desired permission, he began, with his characteristic eloquence, to speak about the holiness of the oath taken by all subjects in 1722 - to recognize as the successor to the sovereign the person whom he himself appoints.

“However,” they objected to him, “the deceased did not leave a will, according to which it would be possible to indicate the person he had chosen.” This circumstance can rather be taken as a sign of indecision, and therefore, in the absence of a successor indicated by the former emperor, the issue of succession to the throne must be decided by the state.

“The sovereign designated his wife Catherine as his successor,” said Theophanes, crowning her himself with the imperial crown in Moscow. This coronation in itself, without any other document, gives her the indisputable right to govern the state.

Some people objected to this: among other nations, the spouses of monarchs are crowned with them, but such a coronation does not give them the right to inherit the throne after the death of their spouses.

Then one of Catherine’s supporters said: “The late sovereign performed this coronation precisely for this purpose, in order to indicate in Catherine a successor to the throne.” Even before going to Persia, he explained his views to four senators and two members of the Synod, who are now at the meeting: he then said that although in Russia there is no custom to crown queens, necessity requires this, so that the throne after his death does not remain idle and thereby there would be no reason for misunderstandings and unrest."

Feofan, for his part, spoke about the speech that the late sovereign made before Catherine’s crowning in the house of an English merchant; then the bishop turned to Golovkin and other persons who were with this merchant with the sovereign, and asked: do they remember these words of the late monarch?

The chancellor confirmed Feofan's words. Others also answered in the affirmative.

Menshikov, who in his position then most wanted Catherine to ascend the throne, exclaimed passionately:

– What other expression of the will of the late monarch should we seek? The testimony of such respectable persons is worth any will. If our great sovereign trusted his will to the truthfulness of his noblest subjects, then not to comply with this would be a crime on our part against their honor and against the autocratic will of the sovereign.

“We,” others said then, “have no need to talk about who should be elected heir to the throne: the matter was decided long ago, and we have gathered here not for election, but for a declaration.”

“Yes,” said Admiral General Apraksin, “based on the power of the coronation performed in Moscow in 1724, it remains for the Senate to proclaim Ekaterina Alekseevna Empress and Autocrat of All Russia, with the rights that her late husband enjoyed.”

In this sense, an act was drawn up, and everyone signed it without objection. Then we went to invite Catherine.

Covered in tears, Catherine left the royal bedchamber, accompanied by the Duke of Holstein, and addressed a touching speech to the nobles, spoke about her orphanhood, widowhood, entrusted herself and her entire family to the patronage of the Senate and nobles, asked them to be merciful to the Duke of Holstein, whom the deceased loved and appointed him as his son-in-law. In response to such words, Apraksin, kneeling down, presented her with an act recognizing her as Peter’s successor. There were cheers in the hall.

- My dear ones! - said Catherine. – Fulfilling the intention of my deceased husband, who is forever dear to my heart in God, I will devote my days to difficult concerns for the good of the state until God calls me away from this earthly life. If Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich uses my advice, then perhaps I will have the consolation in my sad widowhood that I will prepare for you an emperor worthy in blood and name of the one you have just lost.

A loud cheer filled the hall; The same screams were heard outside the palace wall.

On January 31, a manifesto was issued from the Synod, the Senate and the generals, notifying all of Russia about the death of its sovereign, Emperor Peter, and obliging all subjects of the Russian Empire to swear allegiance to Empress Catherine Alekseevna, since all of Russia had already sworn in 1722 to comply with the law on recognition of heir the throne is the person chosen by the last sovereign, and in 1724 Peter himself in Moscow crowned his wife Catherine with the imperial crown and thereby indicated in her the person whom he wished to appoint as his successor.

Portrait of Catherine I by J.-M. Nattier, 1717

All of St. Petersburg swore allegiance to the new Empress Catherine I without the slightest sign of grumbling or discontent. When the people in Moscow began to take the oath of office, there was small resistance, which, however, had neither influence on the popular community nor important consequences. Two schismatics became stubborn and announced that they would not swear allegiance to Catherine and would not recognize her as an empress. They were first flogged with a whip, and then, when the whip did not bother them, they began to burn them with fire and after two tortures they were forced to take an oath. In the provinces there were also glimpses of displeasure, expressed mainly by all kinds of chatter. “Our real Tsar Peter,” some said, “did not die, and did not reign; he was still captured by the Swedes when he was young and is still in their captivity, and the Swedes instead of him sent to Russia a man similar to his face , and he, calling himself Tsar Peter, began to cut off people’s beards and promoted his infidels to high ranks, and was so similar to the real Peter that no one could recognize that this was not the true king, only the queen recognized him, and for this he divorced the queen and put her in a monastery, and took another wife for himself, a German woman. This fake Peter recently died, leaving the kingdom to his German queen Catherine. And now the real Tsar Peter has freed himself from captivity and is returning to his kingdom. And his son, Tsarevich Alexei, is alive and is with his father-in-law, the Tsar.” Others did not deny that the one who reigned under the name of Peter was actually Peter, but they blamed him for introducing foreign customs and for institutions that were burdensome for the people, and, according to the usual practice in Russian spiritual life, they blamed everything bad on the boyars, blaming them for giving bad advice to the sovereign. Still others cried out directly against Catherine’s accession and shouted that it was not she who should reign, but the prince, the son of Alexei. All this had important consequences for those who only talked like that and were punished for their chatter. People everywhere obediently swore allegiance to Catherine. Only the fiction that Tsarevich Alexei, whose death was announced to all of Russia at one time, did not die, but was being saved somewhere, was more to the liking of the Russian people; but here, too, circumstances showed that it is now not so easy to inspire universal faith in impostors, as it was at the beginning of the 17th century. Soon after the promulgation of the manifesto about the death of Peter and the accession of Catherine, two named Tsarevich Alexei appeared one after another in two Russian regions opposite to each other. The first announced himself in Pochep, in Little Russia. He was a Siberian by birth, the son of a bell ringer from the city of Pogorelsky, served for seventeen years in the grenadiers and then was transferred to another regiment, located in apartments in Little Russia. No one recognized him there, and he began to proclaim that he was Tsarevich Alexei who had escaped death. This rogue didn't get to go for a walk; he was immediately captured and taken into custody. Another appeared in Astrakhan; and he was also a native of Siberia, a peasant by class, engaged in the sack trade on a foreign side. His name was Evstignei Artemyev. At first, this young man’s enterprise was a success. There were those who believed his speeches. But soon he was captured in some suburban village and taken to Astrakhan, and the local authorities there ordered him to be put in prison and sent a report about him to St. Petersburg. Both named princes - both Pochep and Astrakhan - were brought to St. Petersburg and in November 1725 they were publicly executed by death.

Reign of Catherine I

The first time after her accession to the throne, Catherine devoted the sad duty of burying her husband. The embalmed body of the sovereign was exhibited in the palace hall, which was deliberately decorated in relation to the meaning of the sad celebration. In this hall, Peter’s coffin stood from February 13 to March 8, and during this period of time another coffin was placed next to it - with the corpse of Peter’s six-year-old daughter, Natalia. On March 8, both coffins were taken to the wooden church of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was temporarily built before the completion of the stone one, and then Feofan Prokopovich delivered his famous funeral speech, which not only made a stunning impression on the listeners, but was subsequently considered one of the best examples of spiritual eloquence. The corpse of the deceased emperor, sprinkled with earth, was left in a closed coffin on a hearse and, according to Golikov, stood in the church for about six years.

There were many things that Peter began and were not completed on the occasion of his death. Catherine decided to finish them. In February 1725, an order was given to the Dane Bering to equip a naval expedition to the shores of Kamchatka: this was done at the behest of Peter, who, shortly before his death, was occupied with the idea of ​​finding out whether Asia is connected to America or separated from it by water? At the same time, Catherine, according to the project drawn up by Peter in 1724, decided to open the Academy of Sciences and for this purpose ordered the Russian ambassador in Paris, Prince Kurakin, to invite foreign scientists to Russia to take places in the Russian Academy of Sciences, which, however, in fact was opened no earlier than October 1726. In May 1725, the cavalry order of Alexander Nevsky was established, and this was also done according to the thoughts of Peter: he declared such an intention even before the Persian campaign. The same year, in the same month of May, the marriage of Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna with the Duke of Holstein took place in fulfillment of the will of the late emperor, who himself betrothed the august couple. Catherine showed mercy to those who had fallen into disgrace with their sovereign during the latter part of his reign. Persons punished with political death in the Mons case received freedom and restoration of their civil rights; Shafirov was forgiven, and Catherine instructed him to write the history of Peter the Great; the children of the executed Prince Gagarin were admitted to service and to the royal favor; They released the Little Russians, who were imprisoned by Peter in the Peter and Paul Fortress with the punished Hetman Polubotok, who died in captivity. External affairs in 1725 went well in the sense of completing Peter's plans. General Matyushkin, left in Transcaucasia by Peter, pacified the rebellion in Georgia and convinced the Georgian king Vakhtang to surrender under the protection of Russia, and then attacked Dagestan, ruined many villages, destroyed the Shahmal capital of Tarki, expelled the Shahmal himself, who was hostile to Russia, and completely destroyed the dignity of Shahmal. In October 1725, Catherine sent the Illyrian Count Savva Vladislavovich to distant China to establish strong borders and to spread mutual trade between the Russians and the Chinese.

At first glance, Catherine I could be considered well prepared for the great role that now fell to her lot. She was a constant companion and the most sincere friend of the great sovereign, who ruled Russia with such glory that none of his predecessors achieved. What is most important is that the great reformer himself declared before all of Russia that Catherine, being his beloved wife, was at the same time his assistant and participant in all important military and civil enterprises. The fact that for many years she could not only get along friendly with Peter’s character, but also earn a high opinion of herself from him, spoke a lot in her favor. But Catherine can serve as a clear proof of the truth that one cannot make judgments: what a famous human personality would have done in such and such cases, when such cases had never before occurred to her in life. In this kind of judgment we are usually mistaken. We would have been mistaken in our judgment about what would have come of Catherine, who remained on the throne as the sovereign decider of her own fate and the fate of the state subject to her, we would have been mistaken if Catherine had left the stage before the death of her husband and had not become an autocratic empress after him. We would have the right to expect something extraordinary from her, especially guided by the verdict of Peter the Great, who knew how to value people so well. This is not what history showed. Catherine, as the wife of Peter, was truly a woman of great intelligence, but she was one of such intelligent women, of which there are many in the world in all classes and under all living conditions. Women like Catherine I, combining honesty with intelligence, can be good spouses and mothers, pleasant conversationalists, good housewives and fully deserve the most flattering reviews not only from their relatives and household, but also from strangers who only know them. But further, such women do not represent any merits. Without a husband, without adult children, without a close circle of relatives and friends who serve as her constant support, such a woman can absolutely become lost, degenerate and, despite all her moral merits, not be suitable anywhere. This is essentially what Catherine is like. She perfectly knew how to take advantage of the circumstances in which fate had placed her female life; she acquired the love and respect of both her husband and the entire circle of close people and attracted their hearts to her so much that they recognized her virtues that in fact she did not have at all. Catherine was a woman in the full sense of her age, brought up and living in such an environment where a woman, by the essence of her nature, is obliged to be only a helper - whether of her husband, parents, friends, or anyone else, but still only a helper, and not an original activist: in this environment, the female mind is only suitable for such a position. Catherine was a worthy helper for Peter. We do not know, in fact, how this help was expressed, but we must believe, because Peter himself tells us about it. After the death of Peter the Great, Catherine suddenly found herself in a position above her feminine mind. I had to rise above everyone else, lead others, and choose suitable assistants. No previous life circumstances had prepared her for this; Peter’s brilliant mind did not teach her to this. Peter could not teach anyone to be original; he loved and valued only assistants who did not dare to contradict him, or give advice when he did not require it, or do anything without his knowledge and without his will. And Catherine earned her husband’s high opinion of herself precisely because she knew how to please him, and she pleased him only by being in constant moral subordination to him. Peter was gone. Catherine, accustomed for more than twenty years to see another person around her, to whom she unconditionally obeyed, and to recognize only a secondary importance for herself, from the first time shows herself to be what her previous life had developed: she betrays herself and her family to the patronage and protection of senators and nobles; but they make her an autocrat; They give her something that she was not able to accept and keep. It was impossible to refuse this honor, even if she wanted to: she would even have to risk her own head and the fate of her daughters. It was necessary to accept a new position. But with this new position, Catherine does not have to be anyone’s assistant; she must now have assistants of her own choosing, and not just one person, but many; if she wanted at all costs to remain as before in the role of someone’s helper, then she would have to become the helper of many, but this is in no way possible: many cannot harmonize with each other to such an extent as to achieve complete unity. Hence the tragic, one might say, position of Catherine I, which began precisely from the moment when, by the will of fate, she reached a height that she had never dreamed of in her youth.

Catherine I and the Senate

And this tragic situation was expressed primarily in the fact that Catherine had to get rid of and evade Menshikov, who more than others contributed to her elevation to the throne, thinking, of course, to rule the entire state on behalf of the one who had once been his servant, and now became a mistress . It was necessary to look for a counterweight to Menshikov, and Catherine thought to find it in her son-in-law, the Duke of Holstein; she became close to him, and, naturally, Menshikov and the Duke disliked each other. Things went further. The Senate, which even under Peter often did not represent agreement between its members, but was restrained by the brilliant mind and iron will of the autocrat, was now left without that strong rein that was necessary for it. At the end of 1725, a disagreement arose within it. Minikh demanded 15,000 soldiers to complete the Ladoga Canal. Some of the members of the Senate (among them Admiral General Apraksin and Tolstoy) found that it was necessary to fulfill Minich’s demand and finish the work begun by Peter, a work to which the great sovereign attached great value. Menshikov opposed, argued that soldiers were recruited at great expense not for earthworks, but to protect the fatherland from enemies, and when his arguments were not accepted, he despoticly declared in the name of the empress that soldiers would not be given work. The senators were offended. After that, murmuring began and then secret considerations and meetings about how to place Grand Duke Peter on the throne instead of Catherine; the child king seemed the most suitable king for those who thought of actually ruling the state in his name.

Tolstoy found out about this, and according to his assumption, an institution was to be formed, standing above the Senate and directly controlled by the empress. He won over several of the most important and influential nobles to his side: Menshikov, Prince Golitsyn, Chancellor Golovkin, Vice Chancellor Osterman and Admiral General Apraksin. They proposed to Catherine a project for the establishment of the Supreme Privy Council, which should be higher than the Senate. The decree on its establishment was given by Catherine I in February 1726. The reason for such an establishment is the fact that some sitting in the Senate at the same time are presidents of the collegiums, and moreover, “as the first ministers, by virtue of their positions, have secret councils on political and other military affairs.” Obliged at the same time to sit in the Senate and delve into all matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Senate, “due to their busyness, they cannot quickly make resolutions on internal state affairs, and as a result, in secret councils on the most important matters, they suffer considerable confusion, and in the Senate in matters stop and continue." The new institution separated matters of primary importance from the Senate and was under the direct chairmanship of the highest person. Matters that were subject exclusively to the Supreme Privy Council were all foreign and those internal that essentially required the highest will; for example, new taxes could not be decreed except by decree of the Supreme Privy Council. At the very opening of the new institution, it was decided that meetings of the Supreme Privy Council should take place weekly on internal affairs on Wednesday, and on foreign affairs on Friday, but if something unusual happens, the meeting can take place on some other day of the week, and then all members are especially notified about this. Decrees from the council are issued on behalf of Empress Catherine. The Senate ceased to have the right of peremptory verdicts and was no longer entitled to the title of Government, but of High. Petitioners were allowed to appeal to the Supreme Privy Council both against the Senate and the collegium, but if anyone files an unfair appeal, he will be subject to a fine and payment in favor of those judges against whom he complained, and in the same amount as the fine would have been taken. from these judges, if the complaint filed against them had been recognized as fair. If the petitioner wrongfully accuses the judges of such an unlawful act, which according to the law is subject to the death penalty, then the petitioner himself will be subject to death. The Council, as explained in the modern protocol, is not a special court, but an assembly serving to ease her (the Empress’s) burden (Read. 1858, 3. Protocols of the V. t. sov., 5).

Three collegiums were removed from the department of the Senate: Foreign, Military and Naval.

The members of the newly established council were the persons who submitted the project for its establishment; Count Tolstoy was added to them, and a few days after the opening of the council, which followed on February 8, Catherine I placed the Duke of Holstein among the members (February 17), and with the clear intention of placing him above other members: “Ponezhe,” says one decree, - our dearest son-in-law, His Royal Highness the Duke of Holstein, at our gracious request, is present in this Supreme Privy Council, and we can completely rely on his faithful zeal for us and for our interests, for this sake and His Royal Highness, as our dearest son-in-law and by His dignity not only has primacy over other members and has the first vote in all matters that happen, but we also allow His Royal Highness to demand from other subordinate places the Supreme Privy Council all such statements that are proposed for the affairs of the Supreme Privy Council, for a better explanation of them , he will need it." The Duke, present at the Supreme Privy Council for the first time on February 21 and showing his importance, graciously stated that he would be pleased if other members were sometimes of a contrary opinion with him (Protocol. Read. 1858, 111, 5). The Duke understood Russian poorly, if not completely, and therefore the chamber cadet Prince Ivan Grigorievich Dolgoruky was seconded to translate his opinions into Russian.

In April 1726, Catherine I began to be disturbed by anonymous letters, the content of which indicated the existence of people dissatisfied with the government established after the death of Peter. The ministers, members of the Supreme Privy Council, verbally presented her with various comments on how to protect the throne from possible shocks. Osterman presented his opinion in a letter and proposed, in order to eliminate different opinions about the order of succession to the throne, to unite Grand Duke Peter in marriage with his aunt, Tsarevna Elizabeth Petrovna, despite neither their relationship nor inequality in age, so that if they have no heirs, then the inheritance will have to go to Anna Petrovna’s offspring. This project became a subject of discussion for a long time, but for history it is important mainly because at its foundation it was realized by the flow of history; although Elizabeth did not marry Peter, she actually reigned and, remaining childless, transferred the throne to the offspring of her sister Anna Petrovna.

But as anonymous letters continued to appear, on April 21 Catherine issued a strict decree against their writers and distributors; a double reward was promised to those who would reveal and bring to justice the writers of anonymous letters, then private discussions and conversations on the issue of the rights of succession to the throne were prohibited and it was announced that if within six weeks those guilty of composing anonymous letters were not revealed, they would be handed over to the church. curse.

Domestic policy of Catherine I

With the existence of the Supreme Privy Council, Catherine's short reign was marked by the fact that attention was drawn to some of the methods and institutions of the past reign that were burdensome for the people; some things were changed, others were completely cancelled. All income of the empire in 1725 extended to 8,779,731 rubles. with expenses of 9,147,108 rubles, therefore with a deficit. The main source of income fell on the per capita tax, which ultimately amounted to 4,487,875 rubles, and this type of tax was the most burdensome and most intolerant of the people, both in its essence and even more so in the methods of collection. By its very essence, this tax represented visible inequality and injustice. Those recorded in the audits paid, and since audits could not be undertaken frequently, it inevitably turned out that the living had to pay for the dead, adults for the little ones, workers for the elderly who were not capable of any work. The method of collecting this tax was extremely difficult and hateful. You need to know that, according to Peter’s idea, this tax was determined exclusively for the maintenance of the army and the army itself was supposed to be quartered in accordance with the collection of funds, so that collection from those enrolled in the per capita salary was provided to the military ranks themselves, with the participation of commissars chosen from the zemstvo nobility. But this was done in an extremely ruinous way for the peasants and with all sorts of signs of abuse, embezzlement, extortion and bribery.

The decree of Catherine I to the Supreme Privy Council of January 9, 1727 combines many things that were invented and developed over the course of the year. There (see Collection. Department of Russian language and words. Imp. Ak. N., IX, 86 and Reading. 1857, III, 33) it says: “Not only the peasantry, on whom the maintenance of the army is entrusted, is in great poverty is found, and from great and incessant executions and other disorders comes to extreme and complete ruin, but other matters, such as commerce, justice and mints, are found in a very ruined state.” The peasant escapes that devastated the Russian regions during the entire reign of Peter did not stop now; others who fled from their place of residence wandered through the forests, formed gangs of robbers and attacked people passing along the roads and landowners' estates; others settled on the outskirts, many fled abroad: some sought refuge in Poland, others in Turkish and Crimean possessions or among the Bashkirs. The government and Catherine were aware that such escapes occurred “not just from grain shortages and from the poll tax,” but also “from disagreement between the officers and the zemstvos.” But one should not think that only officers and soldiers burdened the peasants in their life: “Nowadays there are ten or more commanders over the peasants instead of what before there was one, namely from the military, starting from the soldier to the headquarters and generals, and from the civilians and civilians from the fiscal, commissars, waldmeisters and others to the governor, some of whom can be called not shepherds, but wolves breaking into the herd. Many clerks are like that, who, after the excommunication of their landowners, do whatever they want over the poor peasants."

This was how the government of that time saw the situation of the rural working class, which required measures to alleviate its fate and improve its well-being. At her very accession to the throne, Catherine reduced the peasants’ per capita salary by four kopecks per revision soul, and this was done out of necessity, since arrears of more than a million had accumulated over the past year, and in two-thirds of the current year only half of what was due was collected collect. In 1727, the Supreme Privy Council decided, also due to the conviction that it was impossible to collect from the peasants the required amount, which follows from the per capita salary throughout Russia: to eliminate the military (generals, staff and chief officers) from collecting the per capita salary and remove them from the districts , placing settlements near the cities, and entrusting the per capita collection to the governors who govern the provinces and depend on the governors, with the participation, together with the governors, of a staff officer from the army. Simultaneously with the removal of the military from the collection of per capita money, the position of zemstvo commissars was abolished and their offices were destroyed, and at the same time the people's courts. The execution and trial were entrusted to the governors under the authority of the governors, and the highest authority to which appeals could be filed against the governors was the Justice Collegium. The Manufactory Collegium was destroyed, and in its place a council of factory owners was established, who were supposed to come to Moscow and serve without pay. The government generally intended to abolish many offices and government positions, “because the multiplication of rulers and offices is burdensome for the people and requires many costs,” this reason is given in the protocol of the Supreme Privy Council. To ensure order in the calculation of income and expenses, the previously abolished Audit Board was resumed and a milking office was established. Omissions in the collection of government payments accumulated and increased, which forced the emergence of this institution. We have no reason to indicate the degree of participation that Catherine I personally took in the issue of relieving the people from the burdens of capitation payments and military arbitrariness. But in general, since she put her name on the decrees, then, of course, we must assume that if their content was composed by others, she nevertheless sympathized with their meaning. Knowing how, at every opportunity, under Peter she appeared on the side of those who, due to their position, needed good-natured representation for them, we can safely admit that during the original possession of supreme power in matters related to alleviating the lot of the people, Catherine’s kind female heart acted .

Catherine I. Engraving 1724

Feofan Prokopovich and Feodosius Yanovsky

But not in all matters of her reign, when decisions were made on her behalf, Catherine’s personal participation can be reliably recognized. Blatantly outrageous acts were committed, and although officially they came from her, she was as much to blame here as the blame can fall on a weak or minor person sitting on the throne, when orders are made in his name that he either did not think about, or did not think about at all. knew. We can safely include the case of Archbishop Theodosius Yanovsky of Novgorod under Catherine into the category of such cases. This man, one of the smart and bright archpastors of the Peter the Great, the favorite of the late sovereign and the executor of his plans, had an obstinate and quarrelsome disposition, and therefore he was surrounded by ill-wishers and no one loved him. This was taken advantage of by the Pskov bishop Feofan Prokopovich, an extremely intelligent and learned man, but cunning and insidious, who did not stop at any path to his own elevation. By the way, it happened to him that Theodosius, in accordance with his restless disposition, uttered some expressions that should not have pleased the supreme authorities, and in April 1725 Theophanes filed a denunciation against his comrade; Previously, he had been on friendly terms with him: they both prepared for the death of Peter the Great. Theodosius, in a conversation with Feofan and other synod members, grumbled about the dislike of secular dignitaries towards the clergy, threatened God’s punishment on Russia for this, criticized the actions of the former emperor, condemned his excessive desire to follow secret affairs, which “shows in him a tormenting heart, thirsty for human blood ", recalled how he was "fickle and unreasonable: today he conceives one great thing, tomorrow he will start even more, from the slander of soulless people and informers about all clergy and secular persons, he began to have a bad opinion of himself as unfaithful, had secret spies who over they supervised everyone and sometimes embarrassed him so much that he could not sleep at night, for this reason he was afraid of everyone, for not very important words he ordered execution by death, but it was possible, even without such bloodshed in the words of vile people, to rely on the providence of God in everything.” Speaking about the uselessness of harsh measures, he expressed himself: “How many people have been executed, but theft does not decrease, the conscience in people is not tied up, it is necessary to teach through schools, and from this they will know God and what sin is; only this cannot be done without money, but the tool is iron ( i.e. for executions) it’s not a big wonder: give two hryvnia!” Regarding the death of the sovereign, Theodosius noted that the disease “came to him from immense misogyny.” When the highest authority appointed divine services, the Novgorod bishop made the following remark about this: “What tyranny! Worldly power forces spiritual prayer! This is contrary to the word of God: the Apostle Paul begs Christians to pray for the Tsar, but does not force him; I will serve out of fear, so that I They weren’t sent into exile, but will God hear such a prayer?” Other clergy, asked about Theophan's denunciation, confirmed his denunciation: among these clergy was Theophylact Lopatinsky, the Tver bishop, who later himself experienced from Theophan a fate similar to the one that he and Theophan now prepared for the unfortunate Theodosius. The accused confessed and asked for pardon, but he had no intercessors. With his restless disposition and careless tongue, he had already managed to arm the mighty Menshikov against himself.

Once, when the guards did not want to let him into the palace, he said in a temper: “I myself am better than the Most Serene Prince!” Menshikov knew about this incident and now, when Feodosius was in danger, he did not open his mouth in favor of the obstinate bishop. In addition, Theodosius was also accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of church property in the frames of images and silver utensils. On May 11, 1725, Catherine was presented with a death sentence for approval - “for the obscene and obscene words he committed against the Church of God and Her Majesty’s decrees.” But Catherine “to commemorate His Majesty” abolished the death penalty throughout the state and ordered: “Theodosius from the Synodal rule, the Novgorod diocese and the archimandrite of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery should be dismissed and exiled to a distant monastery, namely Korelsky at the mouth of the Dvina, where it is impossible to keep him under guard and give him two hundred rubles a year for food and clothing.” But his evil enemies treated him even harsher than what was prescribed in the decree. He was defrocked and, with the rank of a simple monk under the name of the monk Theodos, was sent to the place of imprisonment and put in a stone prison with a small window, giving him only bread and water for food. The sufferer, sent to the Korelsky monastery in September 1725, died in February of the following year from hunger, grief and lack of fresh air, persecuted by envious people and enemies, not arousing compassion in anyone because of his perky and quarrelsome disposition. No one pursued him with such bitterness as Feofan Prokopovich, although he had apparently previously been on friendly terms with the Novgorod bishop; but Theophanes had in mind to take the place of the deposed Theodosius, and therefore, more than anyone else, he was afraid that Theodosius would not receive forgiveness and would again enter into favor with the supreme power; That’s why Theophanes needed to expel Theodosius Yanovsky from the world as quickly as possible.

Catherine I and Menshikov

Menshikov did not stop at any path leading to the satisfaction of his greed and ambition. But His Serene Highness encountered opposition from other nobles, especially from the Duke of Holstein. Because of this, Catherine did not immediately endow him with the riches that he sought. Even under Peter, he had large accounts for the treasury, and for a long time he could not get these accounts removed from him. He wanted to add land and villages in Little Russia to his vast possessions - and he did not receive that. Under Catherine I, he had the opportunity to become a sovereign duke in Courland; old Ferdinand was then considered the Duke of Courland; he had been living outside the borders of his duchy for many years, because he did not get along with his subjects. But besides him, the Dowager Duchess Anna Ivanovna, the niece of Peter the Great, lived in Mitau, surrounded by Russians; The affairs of Courland were managed by the Russian sovereign. Meanwhile, on the basis of state law, Courland was considered a fief of the Polish Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which, due to internal strife and a long-term external war, was not strong enough to put pressure on the country, which was considered its property, during Peter’s lifetime. But Peter was gone; the old man who bore the ducal title was close to death; Important changes awaited Courland. In Poland, the lords interpreted that since the house of Kettlers, which ruled in Courland, was finally dying out, under which Courland became a Polish fief, now the Courland region, as an escheated fief possession, should join the direct possessions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and be divided, like the latter, into voivodeships. But the Polish king Augustus II, also the Saxon prince-elector, wanted to deliver the Duchy of Courland to his natural son Moritz at the choice of the Courland diet, and in this the king’s aspirations ran counter to the views of the Polish lords. In general, the Polish lords rarely got along with their kings, protecting themselves from the kings’ inherent desires to strengthen monarchical power. And now the lords were ready to resist any royal aspirations of this kind.

Poland's neighbors, Prussia and Russia, were equally opposed to both the intentions of the Polish king and the views of the Polish nation. Both of them did not want to allow the expansion of the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; they were not inclined to contribute to the strengthening of the Saxon House; finally, both wanted to place their candidates in the Duchy of Courland. The Polish king secretly sent Moritz to Courland. The Courland nobility liked Moritz; it was ready to elect him, but offered him a condition: to marry the Dowager Duchess Anna Ivanovna. Everything was as lucky as possible for both Moritz and the Courlanders: Anna Ivanovna really liked Moritz. The people of Courland began to gather to convene a Diet and elect Moritz as duke. But they found out about this in Russia and looked unfriendly at this intention of the Courlanders. On May 31, 1726, the Supreme Privy Council sent a decree to the Russian resident Bestuzhev to try with all his might to convince the people of Courland not to choose Moritz, but to choose the Holstein prince, the son of the deceased Bishop of Lubsky. The deputies who came to the Sejm did not listen to Bestuzhev, assuring that Catherine I was merciful to Anna Ivanovna and would do everything for her at her request, and imagining for their part that if they did not elect a duke now, the Poles would hasten to declare Courland an escheated fief and annex it to the Polish possessions, and this will not be considered beneficial for Russia. On June 18, 1726, the Diet of Courland unanimously elected Moritz duke.

At this time, Menshikov decided to become the Duke of Courland himself. This desire existed even under Peter, but then it was inconvenient to put pressure on it, but now Menshikov more boldly proposed his plan to Catherine when the question arose about electing a new duke in Courland. Catherine, for her part, considered it too intrusive to force the people of Courland to choose Menshikov, but put him among the candidates pleasing to Russia instead of Moritz, giving the choice of these candidates to the Courland Sejm itself. At the end of June, still probably not knowing about the final choice of Moritz in Mitau, the Supreme Privy Council sent Menshikov to Courland and at the same time ordered the Russian ambassador, Prince Vasily Dolgoruky, to go there as well. They had to offer the Courlanders: if they want to live on friendly terms with Russia, then let them choose either the Holstein prince, the son of the Bishop of Lyubsk, or Prince Menshikov, or one of the two princes of Hesse-Homburg, who were then in Russian service. But Menshikov went to Courland with the intention of conducting the matter in such a way that they would choose not someone else, but certainly his person. On June 28, Menshikov arrived in Riga, and Anna Ivanovna arrived there from Mitava and, without entering the city, stopped behind the Dvina and sent to ask Menshikov to come to her. Menshikov has arrived. Anna Ivanovna began to ask him to petition the Empress for permission to marry Moritz and confirm the latter in the ducal dignity assigned to him by the Courland Diet.

- Your Highness! - Menshikov told her, “It would be indecent to enter into a marital union with him, since he was born from a mistress, and not from a legal wife; it would be dishonorable for you, and for Her Majesty our Empress, and for our entire state, and it is impossible to allow Prince Moritz into the dukedom for the harmful interests of Russian and Polish. Her Majesty Empress Catherine I deigns to work for the interests of the Russian Empire, so that it will always be safe from this side, and for the benefit of the entire Principality of Courland, so that it will remain under Her Majesty’s high patronage with its faith and fidelity in eternal times, and For this purpose, I deigned to indicate the successors that are written in the instructions of Prince Dolgoruky, so that Your Highness would know about such a high permission of Her Majesty the Empress and choose the best from it.

“I,” said the duchess, “will obey the will of Empress Catherine I and leave my previous intention.” If the will of the empress is such that one of those proposed in the instructions of Prince Dolgorukov should be duke, then I most earnestly wish that you are elected duke, because at least I hope to be at peace in the possession of my villages; and if someone else is chosen, I don’t know whether he will be kind to me, and I’m afraid that he will take away my widow’s food from me.

Anna Ivanovna, speaking such words, was being cunning; she did not at all want Menshikov to increase power; She had not tolerated him for a long time and considered him her enemy. She had something else on her mind. She planned to go to St. Petersburg and personally ask Catherine I for herself, setting up the Duke of Holstein to intercede for her.

After a conversation with Menshikov, Anna Ivanovna left for Mitava, and after her departure, Prince Vasily Lukich Dolgoruky and the Russian resident, who was constantly in Courland, Pyotr Bestuzhev, came from Mitava to Riga for a meeting with Menshikov. Prince Dolgoruky informed Menshikov that he had made proposals to the Courland ranks to act in accordance with the instructions received from the Russian government, but did not meet with their desire to comply with the will of the Russian Empress. The people of Courland did not want to elect Menshikov as duke, making the excuse that he was not a natural German and not of the Lutheran faith; they did not want to elect the Holstein prince, citing the fact that he was still a minor and had only reached the age of thirteen; They also did not want the Hesse-Homburg princes serving in Russia.

Menshikov reprimanded Bestuzhev for the fact that, while in Mitau, he allowed the choice of Prince Moritz without protest on his part; then Menshikov himself went to Mitava, accompanied by a significant military convoy.

The day after Menshikov arrived in Mitava, Prince Moritz appeared to him.

“Empress Catherine I wishes,” Menshikov told him, “for the Courland officials to gather again and make a new choice: that’s what I came here for.”

“This is an impossible matter,” answered Moritz; - the diet is over; the officials dispersed; If now they are collected and forced to new elections, then the elections made by him will not have legal force. I was chosen as a city in accordance with the ancient form of government in Courland, and if after my election I am not a duke, then Courland must, like an escheated fief, be annexed to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and divided into voivodeships or be conquered by Russia.

“Nothing like that will happen,” said Menshikov, “Courland will have its ancient form of government, but should not seek other protection than Russia.”

On the same day, Menshikov called the Sejm Marshal, the Chancellor and several influential members of the Sejm to his place and told them that they must certainly reconvene the Sejm and hold new elections, otherwise he threatened with the entry of the Russian army into Courland and the exile of the stubborn ones to Siberia. According to German sources, during Menshikov’s stay in Mitau, matters with Moritz came to the point of a military skirmish. Menshikov sent to take Moritz, and Moritz, locked himself in the house, fought off the Russians, and at the same time several people were killed.

But when Menshikov let Catherine I know about his decision announced to the Courlanders, the Supreme Privy Council did not look entirely approvingly at such a decisive tone. It was dangerous to bully Prussia and Poland at once, and the kind of behavior that Menshikov adopted as a representative of Russia towards the Courlanders was could irritate both powers. To greater detriment to Menshikov’s intentions, the Dowager Duchess Anna Ivanovna arrived in St. Petersburg on July 23 and stayed with the Duke of Holstein. She raised both him and the entire imperial family to their feet. She complained bitterly about Menshikov's arbitrariness and arrogance. The Duke of Holstein, always loved by his mother-in-law, took the cause of the Duchess of Courland to heart. Under his influence, Catherine very friendly received and listened to Anna Ivanovna and became irritated against Menshikov to such an extent that many, having learned about this, expected something bad for the prince; they even said that the empress would order his arrest. But everything, however, was limited to the fact that Catherine ordered a reprimand to be sent to him, pointing out that with his harsh actions in Courland he could bring Russia to an untimely quarrel with the Prussian and Polish kings and the Polish Commonwealth. Catherine I demanded him back to St. Petersburg for advice on important matters. Menshikov returned. His enemies thought that now, as they say, the star of his happiness would set, but fate delayed its judgment on him. Menshikov had a friend Bassevich, minister of the Duke of Holstein, who had great influence on the latter. This man, in tune with Menshikov, inspired his duke that in his position it was much better to get along with Menshikov, since Menshikov’s enemies were supporters of the party of Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, and if this party prevailed, it would not benefit either the duke or his Holsteins . The Duke trusted Bassevich, whom he had long been accustomed to consider as his sincere well-wisher. The Duke himself began to ask the Empress for Menshikov, and Catherine, as if condescending to her son-in-law’s petition, returned Menshikov’s former mercy and disposition; The Duke imagined that with his generosity he had defeated his rival and obliged him with eternal gratitude. But Menshikov was not the type to be touched by a feeling of gratitude to the Duke: after that he began to hate him even more, having experienced that the Duke enjoyed great power from the Empress. But, knowing how to hide his real feelings, he became kind to the duke, did not resist when the duke received command of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, and with his feigned friendliness towards the duke gained Catherine’s favor. The empress's favors to him not only did not diminish, but increased. The Empress herself again thought of delivering the Duchy of Courland to him by choice, but in agreement with Poland; However, Menshikov himself, having failed, abandoned his ambitious plans for Courland and turned to another path that would lead him to a greater height than the one to which achieving the ducal title could take him. Menshikov decided to enlist the favor of the Grand Duke's party, but decided to act in such a way that Catherine and other members of the imperial family would not immediately see harm to themselves; Knowing the lack of character of the empress, he hoped to influence her and induce her to make orders in favor of the Grand Duke that would at the same time be useful to himself.

From the very moment she assumed autocratic autocracy, Catherine was not distinguished by either firmness, insight, or love for business. Previously, when she was Peter’s wife and assistant and was in constant moral subordination to him, she, pleasing her husband in everything, seemed mobile, hardworking, capable of enduring hardships; Now she was becoming lazy, careless, effeminate, prone to luxury and empty amusements, and, what was worse, having previously become accustomed to obeying Peter and not having her own will, now she also had no will and obeyed everyone who knew how to get close to her. Catherine I was led by either the Duke, Menshikov, Tolstoy, Yaguzhinsky, Golovkin and others, depending on the circumstances. The longer she reigned, the lower she sank. After the sovereign, gifted with a terrifying iron will and incomprehensible insight, the throne was occupied by Catherine I, who resembled the king sent by Zeus to the kingdom of the frogs, in the famous fable. At the end of July 1726, the envoy of the Polish king and Saxon prince-elector Augustus, Lefort, wrote in his dispatch: “At court, days constantly turn into nights; they have fun in all sorts of ways. No one talks about business; the most capable and most important people do not take part in "not for any work except in such a way as to get off your shoulders as soon as possible. Everyone is terribly dissatisfied with not receiving their salaries; the government owes everyone eight months." In mid-December of the same year, he wrote: “The more I look at the various circumstances of the present reign, the less I see traces of the former diligence, vigilance and fear. True patriots previously contributed to the common good, their advice was accepted and weighed, now the fatherland has no king, they dominate luxury, bliss, laziness. The Supreme Council exists only in name; the Duke of Holstein would like to seize the reins of government, but he is not allowed, and for four weeks now the Supreme Council has not met. Only the spirit of disagreement brings people together, and private gain dominates over the common good. Nothing is being done, all vigilance is aimed only at emptying the treasury. Costs increase indefinitely, everyone spends as much as they can, nothing is done without cash" (R.I.O.Sb., vol. III, p. 455). On January 18, 1727 it is written: “For eighteen months the Persian army has not received a penny, and the navy for nine months, the guard for about two years; civil officials are also paid very poorly. The court took possession of the sums assigned to the army, and in addition everyone who Maybe he’s taking as much as he wants from the treasury for his own benefit.” To top off the decline of power, Catherine’s health began to get worse and worse since the winter. They said that back in the summer of 1726, dashing people gave her something, but such rumors were not based on correct data, which history would currently have the right to base on. There is no doubt that Catherine was ill from December until her death.

Meanwhile, as if to verify Menshikov’s actions in Courland, Lieutenant General Devier was sent there. This appointment shows that it was directed by hands hostile to Menshikov. Anton Devier, Peter's former chief of police, Menshikov's son-in-law (married to his sister), was at the same time his sworn enemy. But Devier could not do anything bad to Menshikov in Mitau, and when he returned to St. Petersburg in February 1712, he saw that Menshikov had already become so high that he could do almost everything with Catherine. Menshikov asked the empress to take ownership of the city of Baturin and the estates belonging to Mazepa, assigned to the Gadyatsky castle (Protocols of the Verkhovna Rada of the Soviet Union, Reading 1858, vol. III, 42 - 43), and in December 1726 they were removed from it all the accounts that were listed on it even under Peter the Great. True, Menshikov did not succeed in begging for the title of Generalissimo, which he had long sought, but he persuaded Catherine that she agreed to make him the father-in-law of the heir to her throne.

Question about the heir of Catherine I

Until now, everyone considered Menshikov in no way capable of taking the side of Grand Duke Peter, and yet this side was strong among the nobles, and, most importantly, in favor of the Grand Duke there was generally the conviction of the Russian people, who could not sympathize with the strange order of succession to the throne, introduced by Peter the Great, and could not give up respect for the right of primogeniture. Menshikov knew that the idea of ​​declaring Grand Duke Peter the heir to the throne after Catherine I would be accepted with enthusiasm throughout Russia, and after his failure in Courland he himself came to this idea, but wanted to strengthen his security by marrying the Grand Duke to his daughter. Whether someone else gave Menshikov this idea or whether he himself came up with it - we don’t know, but it is true that Menshikov found strong accomplices in this - the powerful representative of the old boyars, Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Golitsyn, many other nobles and two foreign ministers, whose courts were It was desirable and beneficial for Grand Duke Peter to become emperor: the first of these foreign ministers was the Tsar's envoy Rabutin, the second was the Danish envoy Westphalen. The first sovereign, Emperor Charles VI, desired the accession of Peter, because Peter, through his mother, was the nephew of the empress; the second sovereign, the Danish king, wanted the same thing in order to reject the election to the Russian throne of the Duke of Holstein, whom Catherine loved very much and for this love could make her successor; The Danish king did not like the duke due to a long-standing enmity towards the Holstein house. The Tsar's court wanted Grand Duke Peter to become emperor to such an extent that Rabutin promised Menshikov the first fief in the empire if Menshikov managed to persuade the Empress to appoint Peter as his successor to the throne. Menshikov began to influence the empress and began by obtaining permission from Catherine to marry his daughter to Peter, although the latter, being still a minor, could not soon consummate this marriage. By the way, Menshikov had the following circumstance: Menshikov’s daughter was conspired to marry the Polish native Sapega, who was awarded the title of field marshal in St. Petersburg. Sapega was a remarkably handsome and dexterous fellow. Catherine wished to marry him to her niece, the daughter of her brother Karl Skowronsky, whom she had just granted the dignity of count. Menshikov, as if in reward for taking away his daughter's groom, asked to give her another - the Grand Duke. Catherine agreed. In general, having become an autocratic empress, from time to time she became more and more pliable, and then she became weaker in health, and it is not surprising that it was not difficult for Menshikov to force such consent from a sickly and almost feeble-minded woman.

The upcoming marriage of the Grand Duke with Menshikov’s daughter was not connected with the appointment of Peter as heir to the throne, and perhaps Catherine gave in to Menshikov’s request so easily because she did not see anything related to important state issues here. But everyone, having learned about the empress’s consent to such a marriage, clearly saw where things were going and what Menshikov was preparing for himself in the future. First of all, both of Catherine’s daughters were horrified, threw themselves at their mother’s feet and pointed out to her the disastrous consequences of her compliance with the plans of the ambitious man. Catherine said that the marriage of Grand Duke Peter with Menshikov’s daughter would not change her secret intention, which she harbors regarding the appointment of an heir, but it is now impossible to change the word of consent given to Menshikov.

Then the party hostile to Menshikov began to plot with the goal of preventing Catherine I from leaving her son-in-law Menshikov as heir at all costs. Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy, who so recently acted hand in hand with Menshikov, has now joined Menshikov’s enemies. The participants in this conspiracy were Devier, General Buturlin, Grigory Skornyakov-Pisarev, General Ushakov, the terrible head of the Secret Chancellery under Peter, Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin, and Prince Ivan Alekseevich Dolgoruky. The Duke of Holstein also knew about the plot and naturally sympathized with it.

The beginning, it seems, was made by the Duke of Holstein: this can be seen from the testimony of Devier, published in the appendices to the history of Catherine I. (Uch. Zap. Imp. Ak. Sciences. Book II, issue I, p. 246). The Duke, having met Devier, asked him: does he know about the matchmaking of Grand Duke Peter?

“I heard about it partly,” answered Devier, “but whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.”

The Duke said: “Will this be good and will it be useful to Her Majesty Catherine I? It is necessary to inform Her Majesty about this with the circumstance; Tolstoy told me this: Her Majesty needs to have precautions; His Serene Highness is strong, he has troops in his command and a Military Collegium under the command , and if this happens as he wants, he will come into full force, and then ask Her Majesty to take the former queen from Schlutenburg, and she is a person of the old custom, she can change everything in the old way, with an angry disposition. "Perhaps he will want to offend Her Majesty and her children. So Tolstoy told me. Yes, I myself admit that it is not good, and Her Majesty must be told about it, as she wishes, so that she knows."

“Not bad,” answered Devier; - the empress needs to know about that. Why don’t you report to Her Majesty yourself?

“I,” answered the Duke, “have already let Her Majesty know something, except that I deigned to remain silent.”

Devier said: “When you find time, report to Her Majesty.”

After the Easter holiday, Tolstoy came to Devier and first talked about how to beg mercy from the Empress for his guilty son, and then, with an air of frankness, he asked Devier: “Did His Royal Highness the Duke tell you anything?”

“He told me something,” Devier said.

“Do you know,” asked Tolstoy, “that the Grand Duke’s courtship is being carried out on the daughter of his Serene Highness?”

“I know,” answered Devier, “but in part, but I don’t really know, I only see that his lordship treats the Grand Duke kindly.”

Tolstoy said: “It is necessary to report everything to Her Majesty in detail and show her what can happen in the future; His Serene Highness is still so great, in mercy, and if this happens according to the will of Her Majesty, won’t there be some kind of disgust for Empress Catherine after that?” ? After all, he will want good for the Grand Duke more than for her; besides, he is very ambitious; it may happen that he will make the Grand Duke heir and order his grandmother to be brought here, and she is a woman of a special character, hard-hearted, and will want to sweep away the anger and deeds that were in the blessed memory of the sovereign, - to refute, for this it is necessary to report to Her Majesty in detail, as she deigns, as long as everyone knows about it; I myself want to report, and I ask you, if you find the time, report it too. I think it would be better when Her Imperial Majesty, for her own interest, deigns to crown Tsarevna Elizabeth Petrovna or Anna Petrovna, or both together, in her presence, and when this happens, Her Majesty will be more trustworthy, and then, as the Grand Duke learns, then It will be possible to send him overseas for a walk and send him to other states for training, just as other European princes are sent.”

But when it came to deciding which of the two princesses to choose as Catherine I’s heir, both friends differed in their views. Devier stood for the eldest, the duchess, and said: “She has a fair disposition, is touching and accepting, and has a great mind, is a lot like her father and has a fair amount of humanity, and the other princess is at least pretty good, but she will be angrier.” But Tolstoy was for Elizabeth: “Anna’s husband,” he said, “the Duke of Holstein, is unloved among us as a foreigner, and he himself looks at Russia only as a means of gaining the Swedish throne. Elizabeth Petrovna must be elevated, but Grand Duke Peter still is small, let him study, then travel abroad, and in the meantime, Tsarevna Elizabeth will be crowned and established on the throne.”

Devier and Tolstoy had similar conversations with the Buturlins, Skornyakov-Pisarev, Ushakov and the Duke of Holstein. Everyone was talking about the need to report to the empress, point out to her the danger from Menshikov and convince her to appoint one of her daughters as heir to the throne in advance. Devier expressed a desire to sit among the members of the Supreme Privy Council, and the Duke of Holstein expressed a desire to receive the rank of generalissimo. Meanwhile, everyone only talked to each other, without starting an explanation with the empress; and so days after days passed, until finally, on April 10, the Duke of Holstein sent to Tolstoy to invite him for a meeting at Andrei Ushakov’s house. Tolstoy, not finding Ushakov at home, drove down the street, and suddenly the Duke of Holstein overtook him, invited him into his carriage and ordered him to go to his house. Ushakov was already there.

“You know,” said the Duke, “Empress Catherine has become very ill, and there is little hope for recovery.” If she dies without disposing of the succession to the throne, then we will all be lost; Is it possible now to quickly convince Her Majesty to declare her daughter as heir?

“They didn’t do this before,” said Tolstoy, “now it’s too late, when the empress is dying.”

“True,” Ushakov said to this.

Ever since Catherine fell ill and her illness inspired fears, Russian nobles hid behind each other, pretended to be sick, trying to keep themselves away from business so as not to get caught in a mess. Apraksin, Golitsyn, Golovkin, Menshikov, Osterman - all were feigning illness, depending on the calculation, when they found it useful for themselves. By the end of April, Catherine's health condition became hopeless. Menshikov took possession of the dying woman and tried not to allow anyone to see her. In this state of affairs, it was not difficult for him, on behalf of the empress, to accuse Devier of obscene words and misconduct and set up a commission of inquiry over him. Menshikov calculated that if he caught Devier, his other accomplices would open up behind him and be caught. The commission appointed to interrogate Devier consisted of the following persons: Chancellor Golovkin, Actual Privy Councilor of Prince Golitsyn, Lieutenant General Mamonov and Prince Yusupov, with the participation of the commandant of the St. Petersburg fortress Famintsyn. The interrogation took place in the fortress.

The matter was set up as if the investigation about Devier arose from the testimony of the crown princesses.

Anton Devier was accused of the fact that on April 16, when the empress felt especially bad and “all the well-wishing subjects were sad,” he “was not sad, but was having fun.” So, for example, he spun the Empress’s crying niece Sofya Karlovna, as if dancing with her, and said: “There is no need to cry”; sitting down on the bed next to the Grand Duke, he whispered something in his ear, and when at that time Tsarevna Elizabeth entered, he did not give her “due slavish respect” and “with his evil insolence” said: “What are you sad about? Drink a glass guilt!" And to the Grand Duke, as the latter announced, he said: “Let’s go with me in a carriage, it’s better for you to be free, and for your mother not to be alive!” And he also joked with the Grand Duke, saying that “His Highness conspired to marry, and they will drag after his bride, and he will become jealous.”

These accusations were made in order to find a reason to start a search for another matter and through such a search to find out: in what force the evil words were spoken, where, with whom and when he was in council and what evil intention he had.

According to the legal customs of that time, Devier was subjected to torture. Devier did not endure physical torture and opened up to everyone with whom he had conversations about preventing Grand Duke Peter from marrying Princess Menshikova and about Peter’s removal from succession to the throne after Catherine I.

On May 6, Menshikov informed the Supreme Privy Council of a decree on behalf of the Empress, deciding the fate of Devier and his accomplices. Devier and Skornyakov-Pisarev were ordered to be deprived of their ranks, honor and property, punished with a whip and exiled to Tobolsk; Tolstoy, together with his son Ivan, was sent to be imprisoned in the Solovetsky Monastery, Buturlin and Naryshkin, deprived of their ranks, were sent to live in the villages without a break; Prince Ivan Dolgoruky and Ushakov - transferred to field regiments.

Death and will of Catherine I

Catherine I ended her life on the very day when Menshikov issued a decree allegedly approved by the empress to execute Devier and his accomplices. It goes without saying that the dying empress was not guilty of this either in soul or body. The illness tormented Catherine since winter; in the spring it intensified; On April 16, everyone thought that the empress would die then; The nobles and guards officers spent the whole night in the palace chambers. Then, by order of the empress, it was ordered to distribute 15,000 rubles to the poor, release prisoners from prisons and pray in churches for the empress. At a time when everyone expected Catherine I to give up her breath, she fell into a sleep that lasted five hours, and after that she seemed to feel better; there was little hope for recovery. Her daughter Anna Petrovna was constantly near the sick empress. In early May, doctors noticed that the empress had an abscess in her lungs. This abscess broke, and on the 6th of May, at nine o’clock in the afternoon, Catherine died quietly and calmly. Judging by the described signs of the course of her illness, she died of consumption. She died at the age of forty-four. (Weber. Das veranderte Russland, III, 81, 82).

Menshikov immediately declared a will, as if drawn up by the will of the late empress. The throne was left to Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich. We will not examine this will, since it actually belongs to the next reign. We think that Catherine participated in drafting it as much as in approving the sentence over Devier and his comrades.

Personality assessment of Catherine I

The era of Peter the Great can truly be called the era of miracles. We are not even talking about such phenomena as the emergence of a strong military fleet in a state that did not have a single seagoing vessel until that time, the formation of a large and well-armed army that won brilliant victories over the first commander of its century, the establishment of factories and factories in the country , where until that time there were only the primary beginnings of a handicraft industry to satisfy the simple needs of the common people's life - the education of scientists, artists, statesmen and diplomats from a people who had a weak degree of literacy - all these are phenomena that are all too well known and have long been all sorts of ways are appreciated: new talk about them may seem like fruitless rhetoric. But we will point to that circle of people who came into closer contact with the person of the great Transformer: and here we will be introduced to individuals in whose fate there was something extraordinary, marvelous, mysterious. We are involuntarily struck by the fate of a poor commoner boy who sold pies on the Moscow streets; he subsequently became the owner of many lands and slaves, the owner of thirteen million capital, reached the status of the most omnipotent man in the state, he lacked only a scepter and a crown: and this man, deprived of everything, dies a poor exile in the Siberian tundra. But another boy, a beggar, an orphan, wanders the streets of another city, Kyiv: later - this is the mighty hierarch, famous both for his intelligence and his machinations, Feofan Prokopovich. And here is a poor Tula gunsmith who accidentally straightened Peter’s pistol: he later became the founder of the richest house in Russia. And how many others were raised by Peter, made powerful nobles, and then, after Peter, following Menshikov, who spent the rest of their sad lives in Siberia! But no one was as close to Peter as Catherine. How wonderful, how unusual is the fate of this woman. A commoner, a poor orphan, who, out of Christian philanthropy, received shelter and a piece of bread from good people, Catherine grows up, finds a groom, gets married, and prepares to live by work in accordance with the circle in which she was born. Suddenly fate scatters her desires to the wind, destroys the union of family love that has just taken place, fate draws Catherine as a pitiful captive to a foreign land, to strange people. For what? Is it for the purpose of being left as a soldier’s laundress or a slave in some manor’s house? No. In order to make her the wife of one of the greatest sovereigns on earth and, after his death, make her the autocratic owner of an extensive monarchy. Doesn't this look like a fairy tale? In fact, if someone, in the form of a fairy tale, told such a woman’s fate, the narrator would be accused of the extreme improbability of the fiction. And yet this is not a fairy tale, but a historical fact. Fate seemed to indicate to Catherine a calling - to live for Peter, to be necessary for a great man, and thereby render a great service to Russia and all humanity. We said above that we do not know the extent of Catherine’s participation in military and civil enterprises, as stated by Peter, but we are sure that she was really his assistant to the extent that this great man needed the softening, calming influence of a woman’s soul. Peter found this feminine soul in Catherine. Whether he would have found her if fate had not brought him together with the Livonian captive - we do not undertake to guess about it; but it is true that Peter did not find this feminine soul either in Evdokia Lopukhina, or in Anna Mons, or in many other female persons with whom he met by chance and for a short time. Only Catherine tied him to her. Catherine alone managed to be a worthy friend of this great genius, who fully understood and appreciated the moral dignity of women, although he temporarily descended into the mud of cynicism and debauchery: this mud could not, clinging to his powerful nature, spoil him. Only a friend like Catherine needed Peter; the great man himself was aware of this and that is why he exalted his “Katerinushka” so highly. She did all her work, fulfilled the secret calling of her earthly life; she lived with Peter for twenty years, patiently endured the cross of his obstinate and wild disposition, the cross was sometimes very heavy, kindly and lovingly served him as a comforting angel in all the paths of life, sat vigilantly at the head of his deathbed for many days and nights and closed her eyes great friend. Here Catherine’s earthly calling ended. She was left without Peter in this world; people then raised her to such a height that she could no longer maintain herself; and in this external greatness Catherine became completely superfluous in the world; One can acknowledge the special mercy of Providence to her that she outlived her husband by only two years and three months. Who knows what would have awaited her in this whirlpool of machinations of temporary workers colliding with each other, insidious self-lovers, greedy covetous people who tried to drown each other in order to become higher themselves. In any case, Catherine's role was not brilliant, rather pitiful, and perhaps even deplorable. Fate saved her from this temptation; Catherine died by the way, leaving behind a bright memory in history - as a long-term companion of the great Russian sovereign, dearly loved by him, and as a kind woman, always, as far as possible, ready to alleviate the misfortunes of others and who did no harm to anyone.

We have not read the actual file concerning this conspiracy, which belongs to the secret files of the state archives; We did not have access to these cases and therefore, of necessity, must be guided by the information reported from this case by Messrs. Arsenyev and Solovyov, and moreover, news from foreigners. The Frenchman Villardeau says that Tolstoy, in a strong speech, presented Catherine with danger, but could not reject her. The excerpts from the investigative file, known to us, which we further use, do not allow us to trust Villardo. It is clear that Tolstoy did not have the opportunity to talk about this with the empress.

When writing the article, I used an essay by N. I. Kostomarov - “Ekaterina Alekseevna, the first Russian Empress”

The focus of Russian diplomats was the traditional Black Sea problem and the active protection of conquests in the Baltic.

Russian-Turkish War 1768-1774.

April 1769 - the first two campaigns under the command of A.M. Golitsyn were unsuccessful, although before his departure he still took Khotin (September 10) and Iasi (September 26). Then Russian troops took Bucharest. Soon Moldova swore allegiance to Russia.

After a series of victories by I.F. Medema, Kabarda swore allegiance to Russia.

In 1770 Russia won even greater victories over Turkey. Russian troops occupied Izmail, Kiliya, Akkerman and others.

1770, June 25-26; July 7 and July 21 – victories of the Russian fleet at Chesma and P.A. Rumyantsev’s troops at Larga and Kagul.

July 1771 – Yu.V. Dolgoruky was announced about the approval of eternal friendship with Russia, as a result, Russia formed its own peace conditions, which did not suit Austria.

In June 1774 Russian troops again raided the Danube. The Turks suffered several defeats at once.

§ The Crimean Khanate was declared independent;

§ The fortresses of Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn pass to Russia;

§ The Black and Marmara Seas were declared free for merchant ships of Russian citizens;

§ Georgia is freed from the heaviest tribute by young men and women sent to Turkey;

§ Türkiye pays Russia 4.5 million rubles. for military costs.

1783 – liquidation of the Crimean Khanate, the entry of its territory into Russia. Founding of Sevastopol.

Russian-Turkish War 1787-1791.

August 21, 1787 The Turkish fleet attacked Russian patrols near Kinburn. The defeat of the Turks, the disruption of their attempt to capture Crimea from the sea and destroy Sevastopol.

1788 - the actions of the Russian army focused on the assault on the Turkish fortress of Ochakov, since the main forces of the Turkish fleet were stationed in the harbor. In the battle near Snake Island, under the command of F.F. Ushakov, the Russians won. December - successful assault on Ochakov;

§ Türkiye ceded to Russia all the lands of the Black Sea region up to the Dniester River, gave up Ochakov;

§ Türkiye was obliged to compensate for damages for raids in the North Caucasus;

§ Moldavia, Bessarabia and Wallachia remained in the hands of the Porte, and the question of the protectorate of Georgia was not resolved.

Russian-Swedish war 1788-1790.

Summer of 1788 The Triple Alliance was created, directed against Russia (England, Prussia, Holland); finally, Prussia, England and Turkey achieved an attack on Russia by Sweden.

June 1788 - Swedish troops besieged the fortresses of Neishlot and Friedrichsgam, and the Swedish fleet entered the Gulf of Finland;

July 1788 – the battle of the island of Gogland, a Russian victory, thereby the Russians stopped Gustav III’s attempt to take possession of St. Petersburg;

1789 – Russian troops launched an offensive in Finland, Russian victory;

1772 - the first partition of Poland, according to which Russia received Eastern Belarus with borders along the Western Dvina, Druta and Dnieper.

1793 – the second partition of Poland, according to which Russia received Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine;

1794 – uprising in Poland under the leadership of T. Kosciuszko;

1795 – the third partition of Poland, according to which Russia received Western Belarus, Lithuania, Courland and part of Volyn;