[Music] [Music] quite honest trade customer that never seen so many nobles they were n boys from the National Assembly in Moscow come to beg the great nun Martha to allow her son to take his rightful place as the next Czar of Russia [Music] Michael Romano is the only one who hadn't stained his cocaine during the Time of Troubles he was their only hope if he refused Aniki would return Russia they said could not endure such grief again [Music] [Music] in 1598 is our Fyodor son of Ivan the Terrible died childless he was the last of the Rurik dynasty rulers of Russia for more than 700 years his younger brother Dmitri had died seven years earlier in suspicious circumstances the National Assembly elected Boris Godunov as the next saw wood arrival soon emerged an imposter claiming to be the last czars dead younger brother this so-called false dmitri seized the throne and married the polish noblewoman Larina mashek within a year the false Dmitri was slain in a palace coup and marina fled Moscow in exile she recognized a second false dmitri as her husband and bore him a son even [Music] Russia was leaderless and Sweden and Poland took advantage of her weakness attacking on two fronts Russia lost Corellia Novgorod and Smolensk amid the anarchy and devastation only 10% of Russian lands were still being farmed famine and fear stormed the land without a strong legitimate ruler it seemed the Russian state would soon cease to exist [Music] towards the end of the brutal winter of 1613 delegates of the country's National Assembly traveled to Moscow where they would decide the fate of the motherland [Music] the Zemke sabor or National Assembly was Russia's Parliament of the 16th and 17th centuries brought together to advise on the most important political issues in 1613 the Assembly had about 1,000 delegates drawn from the nobility clergy merchants and free townsman the decisive vote was held on March 3rd after lengthy debate the sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov was elected Tsar Michael's father was Fyodor Nikita - Romanov cousin of Tsar Feodor the son of Ivan the Terrible this gave him a strong claim to the throne when Boris Goodenough took the throne he saw Michael's father as a potential threat and forced him to become a monk under the name of Phil aret Michael's mother zenya became a nun taking the name Martha Villa retros to the rank of Bishop was imprisoned by the poles while on a diplomatic mission his polish captors didn't bother to inform him that his son had been made Tsar of Russia [Music] the people of Moscow meanwhile were informed at the National Assembly's decision through public announcements in Red Square michael feodorovich Romanov it was declared was the new sovereign of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy and Czar of all the Russia's [Music] Michael had grown up amid the 15 year anarchy known as the Time of Troubles when he was just four he was taken from his parents and sent to the country later his mother came to take Michael back and together they went to live a quiet life in the apat EF monastery 200 miles northeast of Moscow [Music] hoarse and exhausted ambassadors bearing the holy icon of Our Lady of sin Fyodor spent hours persuading the Romanoff's to accept power finally he consented [Music] after many years of lawlessness and violence a new Tsar ascended to the Russian throne michael feodorovich Romanov founder of the Romanov dynasty by God's will Tsar and ruler of all Russia [Music] the coronation of czar Michael the first was held on July 22nd 1613 [Music] chapter one Michael the first feodorovich there was no going back for Michael Romanov he ascended the steps of the Cathedral of the Assumption the son of a noble and descended them as czar the state he was to rule was on the verge of collapse so the Youngs are followed his intuition and ruled not as an autocrat but in consultation with his advisors on his initiative the National Assembly which had formally met once every few years began to meet more regularly to offer him advice despite the expectations of many Michael didn't become a puppet of the noble factions at court he remained his own man biding his time when one Dutch visitor suggested that Michael should take firm measures against his enemies he answered don't you know that our Russian bears never hunt in the first year of life they only hunt when they are older Michael faced three rival claimants to the throne to the north a Swedish King Carl Philip to the west the Polish Prince Vlad Aswath and in the south a three year old even son of marina Manisha and the second false dmitri the boys claim was upheld by three thousand cossacks led by the adventurer even Zaretsky but their followers soon deserted their cause and he and the boy were handed over to the tsar soldiers and brought to Moscow to meet their fate the executions took place in front of a huge crowd by the city's Surikov gate the Dutch traveller Elias hitman remembered it for the rest of his life zorroski was impaled on a stake then Dimitri's son was brought out the snowstorm was blowing wet snow slapping the boy on the face he kept asking where are you taking me those carrying the child kept him calm and brought him like a lamb to the slaughter to the gallows poor boy was hanged as a thief the Tsar's enemies could have used the boy to foment Civil War costing Russia back into the Time of Troubles Michael would take any measure no matter how brutal to prevent that anarchy had been avoided but war seemed inescapable Swedish troops were besieging the scoff three hundred and sixty miles west of Moscow Michael ordered his diplomats to negotiate peace at any price in 1617 the Treaty of stub off was signed and the city of Novgorod and surrounding lands were returned to Russia the next threat was a Polish army advancing on Moscow led by Prince Vlad Aswath in person the poles reached the walls of the Kremlin itself the Citadel at the heart of the city [Music] Russian spies learned that the poles were digging a mine under the power back gate but the Tsar ignored the pleas of his advisers and refused to abandon the city weighing on his mind was not just the fate of the city but a personal dilemma polls still held his father prisoner ichael knew if he left Moscow he would lose the throne if he lost the throne he would never see his father again on December 1st 1618 Poland and Russia signed the troops of Delina region from the asthma teacher knock-off was returned but many issues remained unresolved Smolensk remained under Polish control and Prince Vlad Aswath refused to renounce his claim to the Russian throne [Music] but Russia was exhausted by war it desperately needed peace a breathing space and time to rebuild however the treaty was a personal triumph for Michael under its terms all prisoners taken during the Time of Troubles were to be returned amongst them his father it was nine years since their separation Michael had always looked up to his father and tried to emulate him now he was finally to be reunited with this legendary figure the Metropolitan Bishop Villa ret [Music] the father could see that his son had become a real Tsar of Russia God's chosen ruler ten days later the Tsar made his father patriarch of Moscow the head of the Russian Orthodox Church from henceforth they would rule together as father and son the influence of the Tsar's mother the once all-powerful great nun Martha began to wane she no longer had any say in affairs of state and had less and less access to her son the Tsar was now in his twenties four grown man accordingly it was announced that by God's will the great rulers are Michael had reached the age of adulthood and the time had come for him to take a wife [Music] the Czar's mother had found a bride for her son but Michael made his own decision years ago during his exile he had fallen in love with masha clop of her the daughter of one of his Guardians and promised to marry only her the Tsar's decision was announced that his bride-to-be was found rooms within the palace the seljuq Hoff brothers relatives of the Tsar's mother were put in charge of her safety but just before the wedding Masha suddenly fell dangerously ill the palace was alive with rumor and suspicions the soldier coughs summoned the best foreign doctors who announced that a terrible disease was devouring the royal bride from within and no cure was possible [Music] people were soon whispering that the Tsar's mother was behind it because she was opposed to the marriage [Music] in any event masher eventually recovered only to be exiled to Siberia for apparently concealing an illness from the Tsar's advices an investigation later concluded she'd been poisoned by the salty coughs who were dismissed from court but the whole affair put Michael off any thought of marriage for many years when czar Michael turned 28 his relatives began to worry without an heir the future of the dynasty was in doubt once more his mother had a candidate this time reluctantly Michael agreed to the match and was married to princess maria dal kuru cava [Music] but four months later Maria fell sick and died the cause never fully established after this latest disaster Michael dismissed his mother from any involvement in his marital affairs and instead arranged for the traditional election of a Russian royal bride the advice he received was to watch the girls carefully from afar appraising their aged complexion eyes and hair look for signs of injury or illness and ensure she's healthy in mind and kind by nature the tradition of electing a Tsar's bride was essentially a beauty contest involving thousands of candidates from noble families first royal officials sorted applicants on the basis of their height the size of head and size of feet then senior nobles and court doctors inspected the girls in the capital finally 10 to 20 of the most beautiful girls were brought to the court where they were introduced to the Tsar in person when Michael announced his decision his advisors were speechless he chose F dakea stretch neva as his queen she hadn't even been in the contest she was the maid of one of the candidates and the daughter of a poor nobleman from bitter experience Azhar decided to handle all the arrangements himself the identity of his bride was kept a closely guarded secret and she was brought to the palace just three days before the wedding [Music] sir it'sa EV dakea the Russian Cinderella proved to be kind considerate and loving she bore Michael ten children who only four survived infancy three daughters and the son Alexei it was enough to ensure the dynasty would live on [Music] Michael and the land were at peace for a short while [Music] Michael was determined to reclaim Russian lands lost during the Time of Troubles it would mean war with Poland first he reorganized the army introducing new weapons and equipment based on developments in Europe in particular Michael learned from the Swedish army the strongest in Europe new regiments were formed with eight companies of 200 men each had 120 musketeers and 80 pikemen new muskets were bought which weighed four kilograms instead of six so they could be fired without her support by 1632 10 new regiments had been formed with a strength of 17,000 [Music] it was one thing to create a new army it was another to teach it how to win on the battlefield Russian forces were defeated outside Smolensk and after two years of war both sides sought a settlement the 1634 Treaty of Hualien of kur brought no territorial gains for Russia apart from the town of sip yes ceded by the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth Russia also paid an indemnity of 20,000 rubles in exchange for which King wladis worth of Poland renounced his claim to the Russian throne Russia itself was gradually becoming a more prosperous society thanks to Michael's efforts English and Dutch specialists came to Russia to share their expertise they lived in the foreign districts of the big cities such as Moscow's famous German quarter and invested capital in local enterprises Russians refer to the Germans or often any foreigner as Nimitz from the Russian word nimoy meaning mute because they couldn't speak Russian in the tenth year of his reign Czar Michael invited English geologists to investigate iron and copper ore deposits in the Ural Mountains eight years later the first state steelmaking plant was opened in the region [Music] twelve years after that a Dutch entrepreneur built an armory at Tula 100 miles south of Moscow could still in operation today Russia soon began to export arms to some of the most developed countries in Europe [Music] [Music] the average wage at this time was 3 kopeks a day for which one could buy three chickens or 45 eggs or one and a half kilos of salmon a sheepskin coat cost 50 kopecks for about 2 weeks wages a pair of boots was 10 days wages while a cow cost 2 rubles for about 2 months wages abroad Russian state was gaining greater influence in 1625 Shah Abbas the ruler of Persia sought to win favor by sending the patriarch of Russia a holy robe this sacred relic was believed to be the one worn by Christ before his crucifixion later taken by one of the Roman soldiers present patriarch filler at the Tsar's father ordained a week's fasting to mark its arrival before presenting the holy robe to the sick 67 people were said to have been miraculously cured in the first six months alone [Music] robe itself was later placed in a Cathedral within the Kremlin today a part of the robe can be seen in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow after the barbarism of the Time of Troubles the Romanov sought to nurture a cultural revival within Russia one of patriarch filler its first degrees was to restore the czars once vast library now largely destroyed scholars were sent to search for books in distant monasteries and to make copies of rare manuscripts and returned with them to Moscow [Music] just thirty years after the Time of Troubles Russia was back to the level of prosperity she'd enjoyed before the state had slid into Anarchy trade and productivity were on the rise people had enough to eat and felt safe it was an age of economic and political stability Tsar Michael had achieved the impossible and brought the Russian state back from the brink on July 12th 1645 Bazaar celebrated his 49th birthday that morning after church Michael seemed to have a presentiment of his own approaching death he publicly forgave all those who had ever insulted or sinned against him and ordered a general amnesty for all prisoners on coming home the first Romanoff's are of russia said goodbye to his wife and son and died peacefully later that day [Music] Russia mourned its much-loved ruler for three days many thousands from all ranks and walks of life came to pay their respects before his coffin services were held in his honor in all the churches of the land alexei mikhaylovitch michael's eldest son and heir was as young as his father had been when he ascended to the throne but the country he inherited had been utterly transformed famine civil war and destruction no longer stalked the land Russia was now stable and prosperous [Music] new ruler of this reinvigorated state tsar alexei was handsome intelligent virile and devout ahead they great victories and bloody revolts remarkable achievements and fatal mistakes alexei mikhaylovitch was destined to become one of Russia's most controversial rulers [Music] [Applause] chapter 2 Alexi the first Mikhaylovich the young czar was not overawed by his new responsibilities it was a role he prepared for since early childhood his education had begun at the age of six after learning the alphabet he was taught to read using stories from the Bible the Prince's household included 20 stewards six teachers and 18 musicians as well as bodyguards acrobats and jesters when Alexei was seven he was given a set of miniature weapons an arc of us a bow and arrows swords armor made in Germany and musical instruments maps and engravings from Western Europe alexis chief Tudor was a nobleman named Boris Morozov he encouraged his pupil to broaden his outlook and introduced him to Western culture many Europeans were invited to the Tsar's court including interpreters diplomats and scholars Alexie's personal doctor an Englishman named Samuel Collins admired his patient greatly the Emperor is handsome and strongly built he has fair hair and doesn't shave his beard he is tall with noble bearing he can be cruel when angry but he is mostly kind and gentle he has an excellent memory and is devout one could name him among the most kind and wise rulers but for the cloud of advisors and Noble men who surround him and turn his good intentions to evil during the first years of his reign Alexei pursued many passions much of his time was spent visiting remote monasteries to perform acts of worship he also collected rare and exotic birds captain elk farm had experimented with new agricultural techniques he tried to grow melons almonds cotton and grapes but without doubt his greatest love was hunting with his Falcons the Czar owned no fewer than 3000 Vulcanus each of which it was said he knew by name his household included 100 Falconer Zaveri drank paid between 6 and 60 rubles a year not including bonuses all were members of the Department of secret Affairs which handled the czars amusements and private business the head falconer avinasi Matus King was a Lexie's close friend the upkeep of the muse and hunting stables cost the Treasury 75 thousand rubles a year equivalent about 10 million dollars today on the road the Tsar's hunting party was more than half a mile long first came 300 stewards mounted on richly decorated horses three abreast they were followed by 300 Guardsmen in crimson caftans five abreast in five hundred armored cavalry three abreast next came forty parade horses in ornately decorated harnesses followed by the reserved carriage horses and finally bazaar himself in his English carriage accompanied by courtiers and hangers on no more than a few dozen young Alexei was enjoying himself in a manner worthy of us are he left affairs of state to his tutor Boris Morozov but the nobles jealous of Morozov influence Birds the Czar to marry since a married man had no need of a tutor but Morozov was not to be so easily at manoeuvered when the Tsar expressed his desire to marry the greatest beauties were brought to him from across Russia he picked his favorite but when she was brought to him a second time in court clothes Morozov instructed the servant to tie her headscarf so tightly that the girl quickly fainted it was declared that the girl had fainting sickness to conceal this from the Tsar was a crime her father was exiled to Siberia and her family fell from favour [Music] marah's off an elderly widower then asked the Tsar to help him pick his own bride and introduced him to the mere /ca sisters Alexei fell in love with the eldest sister Maria and married her while Marisol married Anna young enough to be his granddaughter so strengthening further his ties to Alexei [Music] Alexia's family life proved a source of great joy to him Maria was five years his senior which he proved a perfect match and ideals the Ritzer they lived together for 20 years and had 13 children as ours gentle manners earned him the nickname the most quiet but his reign itself would prove anything but the clouds of war and revolt were gathering On June 1st 1648 Alexei and his court were returning to Moscow from the Trinity sand Sergius monastery when the procession reached the city gates they found the way blocked by a huge crowd the people of the city had come to present a petition to the tsar complaining of the excesses of his bureaucrats but the Tsar refused to speak to them his guards drove them away and arrested the ringleaders the next day the Czar was returning from another monastery when he was again met by a huge crowd they pushed his guards aside broke through to the Czar's coach and seize control of the horses the 19 year old alexei was face to face with his subjects for the first time despite being surrounded by an angry mob he remained calm he listened to their complaints and promised to stamp out government corruption and to dismiss all bribe takers and embezzlers from office top of their list with the Tsar's old tutor Boris mazzaroth [Music] in the course of two years Morozov had amassed a huge personal fortune and made himself the second richest person in Russia as chief treasurer of the state he reduced spending by slashing the wages of all bureaucrats forcing many to accept bribes simply to survive he appointed friends and allies to offices of state but only after they paid him an enormous bribe but Mehra's offs most dangerous policy had been to raise the tax on salt salt was the universal food preservative when its price rose fourfold everyone was affected and the poorest were threatened with starvation the events that followed were reported in all the courts of Europe one account was left by a Dutch traveler to Russia thought to be a spy a crowd of people forced their way into the palace court-yard the guard sided with the people and burst into Mara sophs house they trampled everything underfoot through his belongings from the windows and ransacked the place taking all they could they shouted furiously this is our blood marah's off himself escaped into one of his Majesty's chambers and hid there there were revolts across Russia boost yog and self you got skin the north to Kursk in the south Tsar was under siege in his own palace pregnant Tsar Ritzer nearly miscarried she gave birth five months later but their first child died within the year [Music] to appease the people Tsar ordered the execution of many corrupt officials but not Maris off Alexei would not sacrifice his beloved tutor and instead exiled him to a monastery 300 miles north of Moscow in response to the salt riots the National Assembly was urgently convened within the Kremlin it advised the Tsar that only a comprehensive new legal code could restore order a special commission was established in which the Tsar himself took an active role the result was a sabor Nicola genja a legal code that sought to consolidate all the state's existing laws into a single document for the first time it would prove a cornerstone of Russian law for centuries to come codes 25 chapters and nearly thousand articles were copied and glued together into a single role 309 metres long after its approval 1,200 copies were printed and one sent to every major city the code entrenched the privileges of the nobility who became the only people legally allowed to own serfs the status of these peasants was made permanent and hereditary the suborn Yahoo lasagna was enforced for almost 200 years from 1649 until 1832 [Music] when the rioting finally abated Boris Morozov quietly returned from exile but his place as a Lexi's closest advisor had been taken by another the 43 year old Abbot of Nova Spassky monastery nikan nikan made a great impression on the devout Tsar soon he was ordained metropolitan Bishop of nagaraj three years later alexei appointed him patriarch head of the entire Russian Orthodox Church with the Tsar's backing the new patriarch began a large-scale reform of the Russian Church he can't believe that over the last four centuries the rituals and beliefs of his native church had become riddled with corruption and abuse and were increasingly at odds with the rites performed by the Greek Orthodox Church the morality and conduct of Russian priests and monks had also been called into question [Music] the cones reforms were intended to bring the Russian church back into line with its own early practices and those of the Greek Orthodox Church Russians were now to cross themselves using three fingers and not two they were told how many times to bow during services what musical instruments could be played in church and how to correctly spell the name Jesus Christ for a deeply conservative church such reforms were no small matter they led to sharp divisions within the church so-called old believers denounced them as heresy and continued to practice the old forms of worship in secret but ultimately it was their leader arch priest a bakhoum who would be burnt as a heretic nakhon support grew steadily until by the end of Alexie's reign his course had become impossible to resist diehard opponents remained but many more embrace the practical benefits of his reforms such as restoring discipline among the clergy and promoting education [Music] Czar Alexi had supported Nikon's reforms but the patriarchy began to overreach himself becoming involved in every aspect of government from politics to diplomacy and the conduct of military campaigns meanwhile the patriarchs enemies at court spread rumors to undermine him relations between the head of the church and the head of state reached a new low when tsar alexei failed to attend the patriarch service at the Cathedral of the Assumption it could mean only one thing patriarch Nikon had fallen from favor and could no longer count on the Tsar's support [Music] yiquan left for the new jerusalem monastery a day's journey from Moscow where he planned to await the Tsar's apology but it never came instead czar appointed a new patriarch in 1666 a great synod was held in Moscow attended by the most senior priests of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church the synod dismissed patriarch Nikon from his post but at the same time excommunicated his great adversary arch priest avec une and upheld nikon's entire program of church reform marah's off and now nikon work on tsar alexei this passion of youth lover of falconry loving husband and father would now rule alone for the first time little did he know he was about to face one of the most turbulent periods in all of Russian history the first threat would come from the south and the Cossack renegade Stefan rosin rosin was a Cossack chief or at a man from the dawn region he had a long record of insurrection and banditry along the Volga River and around the Caspian Sea but in 1670 he aimed at nothing less than the creation of a new free state for the cossacks after he seized the towns of Zarate's in and choked asked thousands rallied to his cause government troops were eventually able to stamp out the rebellion and razzin was betrayed to the authorities by his Cossack rivals he was brought to Moscow and executed even while he struggled with church reform and Cossack rebellion tsar alexei faced war against the old enemy poland since the time of troubles commonwealth of poland and lithuania had occupied former russian lands including the important city of Smolensk [Music] while the Tsar was away with the army the dreaded news arrived that plague had broken out in Moscow the Czar's family and court were hurriedly evacuated to the monastery of Trinity Lavra of sin Sergius and the capital was quarantined by the 1670s Moscow was one of the largest cities in Europe before the epidemic its population was around 300 thousand which made it about the same size as Paris Naples had a population of 270,000 London and Amsterdam about 200,000 Venice and Antwerp about a hundred and fifty thousand Rome Genoa and Prague 100,000 in five months the plague claimed 150,000 lives about half the population of Moscow bodies piled up in the streets but the army still had to be paid and the Treasury was in plague-ravaged Moscow if the epidemic spread to the troops it would be a disaster so the Tsar came up with the idea of literally laundering the money he ordered the silver coins to be washed with soap and lye for they were distributed to the troops plague never reached the army the war with Poland lasted 13 years Russians managed to win back some territory on their western border but an empty treasury forced the Czar to seek an armistice in the truce of Andrews off Russia won back Smolensk genic off and other lands lost more than 50 years ago in the Time of Troubles eastern Ukraine also became part of the Russian state to refill his Treasury tsar alexei decided to reform the currency because of the country's shortage of gold and silver he introduced a copper coin but the same value as a silver coin wages were now paid out in copper while taxes were still gathered in silver the copper coins soon began to lose much of their value but the Tsar's mints continued to produce them within five years in Moscow a single silver ruble was worth 12 or even 15 copper rubles at the end of July 1662 when the Czar was at his palace at calamansi a few miles outside Moscow posters appeared in the city calling those responsible for minting copper coins thieves and traitors people of Moscow traveled to calamansi Oya to see the Tsar when he left church he was surrounded by a huge angry crowd but Alexei kept his composure he promised the people that the issue would be resolved he even swore an oath to it the crowd began to disperse bazaars guards led him away but more protesters kept arriving from Moscow angrier and shouting insults at the Tsar for a while alexei listened to their jeers in silence troops were already moving into position when the Tsar saw that they encircled the crowd gave the order the slaughter began [Applause] 2,500 people were killed at calamansi Oya in just a few hours the revolt was suppressed but the copper coinage had to be withdrawn the state even offered compensation at five kopecks or 5% to the ruble czars agents interrogated and tortured suspects for months to find out who had been behind the riots 150 were hanged about 1000 were sent into exile with the letter be branded on their faces a boon Tov sheikh rebel czar Ritzer was pregnant during the copper riot as she'd been 14 years before during the salt riot it was said the shock took its toll on her later when the Surratt's are died in childbirth the baby girl died just five days later [Music] after the revolt tsar alexei became deeply suspicious he created a special section of the department of secret affairs that combined the functions of counterintelligence secret police of censorship and the prison it oversaw the work of all other state departments and was based not with them in the kremlin and at its own headquarters a few streets away at Lubyanka torture was used routinely during its interrogations it also relied on a large network of paid informers including state bureaucrats shopkeepers and innkeepers [Music] the Tsar had his own office within the department from where he increasingly handled all affairs of state the department of secret Affairs also continued to run the Tsar's household and entertainments and produce the day reports first weather reports in Russian history by the end of his reign Alexei had surrounded himself with flatterers and yes-men who competed with each other to sing the praises of their glorious monarch his public appearances became increasingly formal and magnificent with new ceremonies devised in detail by the xyp [Music] Czar recently widowed seemed set on the path towards aging despotism and ever-increasing isolation but an encounter one evening as he dined at the house of his friend Artem on matveyev turned everything on its head as per custom czars first cup was presented by the hosts young ward the 19 year old Natalia nourish kana czar was instantly captivated by her beauty and became determined to make her his wife but proper protocol had to be observed the selection of a new royal bride was announced and 74 women of great beauty were brought to Moscow for the Tsar's appraisal only one of them knew the result had already been decided [Music] Natalia Naru Chicana had won the SARS heart the selection was a mere formality [Music] wedding took place in the Kremlin in the Cathedral of the Assumption on February 1st 1671 a year and a half later the Newser Ritzer gave birth to a son the boy would be known to history as Peter the Great in his newfound joy tsar alexei decided to realize a long cherished dream to build russia's first professional theater the theater was built in the village of preobrazhenskaya on the outskirts of Moscow aster you and Gregory from the city's German quarter was invited to write its first play entitled the comedy of artaxerxes based on the story of Esther from the Bible all parts were played by students from the Lutheran School the first performance took place on October 30th 1670 to play lasted an exhausting 10 hours tsar Ritzer and princesses watched from behind a screen that hid them from sight soon five more plays had been staged all based on stories from the Bible as well as the first ballet Orpheus tsar alexei was filled with a new zest for life and a horror of growing old he started to study medical textbooks and to use herbs to mix his own potions he would listen attentively to his doctors and became obsessed with bloodletting which was believed to restore the balance of the body's humors necessary for good health he strongly recommended the practice for all his courtiers it was said he sometimes let his favourite falcon make the incision as the bird in January 1676 Alexi caught a cold which he decided to treat himself but his health deteriorated rapidly and within a week his condition was without hope On January 29th Bazar received the last rites and blessed his eldest son Theodore as his heir and the next Czar of Russia [Music] he died the following night aged 46 [Music] alexei romanov weathered many storms leave behind a state that was rich strong and stable his successors would build upon his legacy carrying on the work of reform and modernization none more so than his youngest son Peter the Great whose achievements would eclipse those of his father Alexei died in the prime of his life with many great ambitions unfulfilled the country felt bereaved as though it had lost a father heir to this mighty Russian state feodor alexeyevitch wasn't even able to attend his father's funeral unaided his ill health meant he had to be carried to the cathedral on a special litter looking at the sickly face beneath the Czar's fur hat some whispered a warning prepare yourselves soon the nobles will be back in charge and another Time of Troubles will be upon us [Music] year was 1674 in the private theater of tsar alexei taylor of the byzantine princess bulk area was being retold long ago she had been the elder sister of a byzantine emperor seven-year-old boy given to daydreaming [Music] so she ruled in place of her little brother and proved to be wise and fair [Music] the tale delighted its royal audience but one teenage Princess Sofia was spellbound this was her own dream brought to life on stage she had no idea where and how far that dream would lead her [Music] few years later when Zara Lexi's eldest surviving son took the throne as feared or the third house of Romanov seemed secure and stable the succession was not in dispute Lexy himself had named and blessed the door as his successor from his deathbed there was one thing though that worried the people the young Tsar had had to be carried to his coronation in a litter he could barely walk on his own as feared or ascended the throne many had called openly hinted that the young czar was not long for this world chapter 1 Theodore the third Alekseyevich heard or had suffered from chronic scurvy since childhood it led to anemia the blood disorder that left him profoundly weak it also caused his limbs to swell and led to the abnormal development of his bones and cartilage scurvy is caused by an acute deficiency of vitamin C in the 17th century it was common during Wars or long sea voyages first Romanoff's however seemed to have had a rare hereditary form of the disease because of his ill health Theodore was forced to spend much of his time indoors unable to take part in games or sport instead he developed an interest in the sciences his tutor was a philosopher and poet Simeon polotsk II and Fyodor was extremely well educated for his time young czar excelled in theology philosophy rhetoric and poetry he spoke fluent polish and read avi and in the original Latin Theodore owned a large music library sang well and was a talented composer but his greatest passion was for horse breeding when Theodore was only three he was not given a toy horse like most other three-year-olds but a real horse because he was the son of a Tsar little boy was in or for the rest of his life he would be obsessed with everything to do with horses he adores parents hoped that riding would improve the princes health but instead their worst nightmare came true one of his father's friends we are noble art Amnon Madhvi F witnessed the accident and he was 13 Fyodor decided to travel to the countryside like sledge along with his eyes and sisters he was given a hot tempered horse to pull the sledge which he mounted there were so many people in the sledge that the horse couldn't move it it reared threw the rider off and he fell under the sledge he ran over feodor alexeyevitch with all its weight and crushed his chest Fyodor survived Japan to his woes he suffered chest and back pain for the rest of his life Theodore was an enthusiastic follower of the latest European trends he wanted to be a reformer to sweep away all that was outdated and backward in Russia and bring in all the latest fashion and innovations from the West but his illness left him effectively sidelined a virtual prisoner in his own palace control of government fell into the hands of the Tsar's uncle even with a Slav ski at his family his rival Artem on map EF brilliant diplomat and sworn enemy of the Miller Slav ski clan was sent into exile under the Youngs our power once more lay with the boy our Nobles milah Slav ski dismissed the Department of secret Affairs and the Department of accounting format instruments of royal government he himself took over two key government departments the great Treasury which controlled state finance and the Department of ambassador's in charge of foreign policy as well as other minor departments other departments were distributed amongst his friends and relatives some of whom held up to half a dozen different government posts in just a few years a number of government departments increased from 42 to 60 the total number of bureaucrats rose from 882 to 2762 this new bloated administration was riddled with corrupt and lazy officials many of whom owed their place at the Miller /ki family it was love at first sight on Palm Sunday during the celebration of Christ's entry into Jerusalem a solemn procession bearing icons and a crucifix crossed Red Square and entered the Kremlin Cathedral amid the crowd one girl caught the eye of the 18 year olds our she stood out less for her beauty and for her proud and noble bearing Tsar was captivated the girl was found her name was Agatha a guru shets Kea the daughter of a petty nobleman who now lived with her uncle in Moscow Theodora instructed the uncle to keep his niece safe and not allow her to marry without his permission but the Tsar's choice of bride did not suit them in a /e family they wanted him to marry a girl from their own family not the daughter of some even call foraged provincial noble fifty years later the historian Vasily tatischeff investigated the facts and reported even - laughs Sookie slandered agafia in front of the Tsar blaming the both she and her mother were known to be guilty of several obscene acts but the girl found out about this unjust accusation and when questioned by officials declared that no one should be in any doubt as to her honour and swore to it on her life [Music] reassured by this news Czar decided to pay a secret visit to his chosen one he took a trip through the hills outside Moscow so on his way back he could pass by Agra FIA's house as if by accident Pekka fears relatives told the girl to stand in the window and for the first time their eyes met [Music] Theodore took the first independent decision of his life the scheming and deceitful even Milla /ki was dismissed from court he was no longer welcome in the Tsar's presence to respect tradition a formal presentation of Bridal candidates was arranged for the Czar but everyone knew the name of the winner before the contest even began tsar candidates and the organizers but it was unthinkable to overlook the ancient custom theodore now 19 and married was at last recognized as having reached his majority and assumed the full authority of the tsar now he would take control of his own fate and push forward his own ideas on how russia should be governed [Music] his first act was to summon all the nobles of the realm the most senior nobles the boyars his advisers the oconee chief and the members of the council they were to meet at one o'clock to begin the work of reform beginning with taxation the supporters are standing army a variety of small taxes were replaced with a single new tax every household was now expected to pay 90 kopeks per year the equivalent of 72 kilograms of grain or 26 kilograms of beef because of the acute shortage of cash the Tsar sold the rights to collect this tax to tax farmers helping to quickly replenish the Treasury by 1680 state revenues totaled more than 1.2 million roubles customs and excise duties accounted for 53 percent of revenue direct taxation raised 44 percent and other minor taxes accounted for the remainder next came a population census completed in 1678 it identified 5.6 million people living in russia with this only included taxpayers in the Heartland regions if non taxpayers were added plus those in new settlements on the fringes of Russia and across Siberia as well as the Cossacks the total population was approximately 12 million this made Russia one of the world's most populated countries and largest in terms of territory by the end of the Romanov dynasty in 1917 this population had grown Eightfold to 103 million next was boundary reform existing boundaries were checked and new ones established settling disputes over land ownership and fixing the boundaries of private estates royal estates and church lands next army reform most settle parts of Russia were divided into nine new military districts from now on every regiment was tied to one of these districts or stationed there and did its recruiting there 20 years later this system would be the basis for even more sweeping reforms by Theodore's younger brother eater the great that helped fight injustice the court of petitions was reopened a person of any rank or position could file a complaint to the chamber of judgment and to the Czar personally when Fyodor heard that some petitions compared the zart of God he was indignant he said that it was indecent to write such words and that if anybody dared to write again in that style he would not regard their petition with favor Tsar Feodor also reformed the Penal Code and abolished a range of barbaric punishments including the cutting off of hands feet and fingers prisoners who would have received these punishments were now sent to Siberia instead where they helped to settle and develop the vast empty lands that lay beyond the Ural Mountains Moscow a city built of wood used to be destroyed by fire about once every generation in the reign of Tsar Feodor large parts of the city were rebuilt in stone for the first time the State Treasury offered 10-year interest-free loans to pay for the work bazar would personally visit the site of fires to see the loans issued most of these medieval mortgages were never repaid but they helped to build 10,000 new houses creating a new city of stone finally the system of precedence by which the boy our Nobles could inherit government posts by virtue of rank alone was abolished from now on appointments would be based on merit and the Tsar's judgment those as it was put whom the great sovereign indicates tsar solemnly burned the great books of rank which catalogued the pedigree and precedence of all russia's noble families in a great bonfire in the courtyard of his palace desire had ushered in a new age in which good government took precedence over the boyars ancient privileges Tsar Feodor was a man in a hurry he introduced polish fashion at court some courtiers even began to shave their beards encouraged the founding of Russia's first university based on European lines he built a fortress it is ium to guard the southern border against Tatar raids and opened the first state arms houses in Russian history he began work on reforming the courts sometimes it seemed his illness had deserted him but it never entirely left him Fyodor knew it was a race against time and there was much work to be done war in the south against the Ottoman Turks and Crimean Tatars proved costly it was a conflict that might have been avoided with the help of ottoman matveyev czars most experienced diplomats but for now he remained in exile in 1677 a 100,000 strong crimean Turkish army invaded Ukraine it was met by a russian ukrainian army with a strength of 57,000 men despite being outnumbered almost two to one they managed to repel the Turkish invader the following year a Turkish army 200,000 strong was defeated by a Russian army of 120,000 the Russian generals were unable to capitalize on these victories in 1681 the Treaty of Manchester I was signed between Russia the Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate eastern Ukraine and the city of Kiev remained in Russian hands Anitra river became the new border with the ottomans while a buffer zone was created between the Nitra and boog river the war had exhausted the Tsar but with peace his health began to improve what's more his beloved Queen his Tsar Itza was pregnant with their first child baby was expected that summer but their happiness was not to last there were complications with the birth AG afiyah died three days later on July 14 1681 infant son outlived his mother by just six days Theodore was thrown into despair his always frail health now began to deteriorate with alarming speed [Music] fyodor knew he needed an air to ensure a peaceful succession when the time came and seven months later he married again this time his bride was a 14 year old girl named Martha apraxia Theodore did not even have the strength to stand during the wedding ceremony just ten weeks later he was dead at the age of 20 his final decline was so rapid he didn't have time to leave instructions about his succession Theodore had the potential to become Russia's first enlightened monarch to lead Russia into the main current of European civilization he had everything that was required education determination character everything except health Tsar Feodor the third ruled Russia for just five years but in that time he created the basis for one of the strongest armies in the world introduced a system of social welfare reduced taxation expanded the borders of his realm transformed Moscow from a city of wood into a city of stone and laid the foundations of a secular system of education he approved the foundation of Russia's first university but died before he could sign the Charter Theodore's death paved the way for a power struggle between two boyer families Mila slovsky's relatives of Zara Lexi's first wife later it's a Maria and the nourish King's family of Alexis second wife Natalia [Music] milah slovsky's candidate for Tsar was Maria's son Prince even a 15 year old boy half blind and disabled the nourish kin supported Natalia's son Peter healthy and clever but only 10 years old an hour after Theodore's death the boy asked Council with the support of patriarch yogi declared Prince Peter to be the new Tsar of Russia his mother's family the nourish Kings seemed to have won the day for those at court it meant one boy our family was out and another was in but for one person expelled the ruin of all their dreams chapter 2 Sofia alekseevna Safiya alekseevna aspired to what most young women aspire to freedom happiness laughs but her fate was not that of any ordinary woman she was a Russian princess daughter of tsar alexei sister of the lake Fyodor in 1680 to nine princesses lived in the Tsar's palace they were color Tatyana Autopia Martha Sofia yekaterina Maria feodosia and Natalya none were permitted to marry no Russian man was of sufficient rank and foreigners did not share their Orthodox faith princesses spent their lives in their chambers in strict isolation from outsiders they only left the palace for church or other important ceremonies in their carriages they sat behind closed curtains and if they went anywhere on foot they were shielded from public gaze by drapes held up by their attendants they're only amusements were the swings of the palace park in summer sledging in winter and performances by the court musicians their lives were devoted to family worship and decorum princesses finish their education at the age of 10 they were told to read and write arithmetic and theology Sophia begged her father to let her continue to study alongside her brother Fyodor their teacher Simeon Polotsk II remembered her as curious and clever and that she studied philosophy theology rhetoric polish and Latin she read widely and even wrote her own plays Sophia's heroine was poked area a 5th century Byzantine princess who'd ruled as regent for her younger brother it was once Safina dream for herself her brother Sofia door had occasionally listened to her advice but no more his death gave Sophia a long-awaited chance Sofia was counting on her disabled brother even becoming Tsar then she could become the Russian pool carrier and rule for him as regent but the nourish kins were about to thwart this plan by placing Peter not even on the throne so Sofia decided to intervene her plan centered on the Streltsy musketeer units that were the core of the Russian standing army there were twenty six regiments twenty-two and a half thousand men stationed in Moscow their privileges included not having to pay taxes and being allowed to carry out private business when not on active service a private soldier was paid between three and five rubles a month equivalent to between six hundred and one thousand US dollars today an officer was paid four times as much between fifteen to twenty rubles a month while a colonel weigh between 30 and 60 rubles some unscrupulous Colonels dipped into their soldiers wages to augment their own pay Streltsy wages were paid irregularly and late officers not only skimmed off some of their soldiers pay they sometimes made them work like serfs on their own estates streltsy had been pushed to breaking point situation princess Sofia plan to use to her advantage meanwhile the nourish king's most able supporter artem on matveyev had just returned to moscow from exile this news persuaded Saphir to act without delay her supporters told the Streltsy that the marushin said poison tsar feodor and strangled his son prince even at the insistence of patriarch yo Keem princes even and Peter both perfectly well was shown to the public but the Streltsy were out for blood they broke into the palace looking for the nourish kings and their supporters Prince even hid in a corner while Prince Peter clung to Ottoman matveyev Streltsy pushed the young Prince aside and dragged matveyev away a servant of the patriarch witnessed the revolt and later described the scene Ottoman matveyev was hacked to pieces boy a uri dul guru cough was dragged behind the gates and stabbed to death next day his body was also cut into pieces the Streltsy ransacked the treasury and entered the Tsar's chambers with weapons looking for boy our Nobles to kill they smashed down a door to the patriarchs chambers and threw his steward from the window where he hanged from the end of a rope [Music] the Streltsy revolt traumatized young Peter he would neither forget nor forgive [Music] the massacre lasted for three days the victims included prominent nourishing supporters including two of Prince Peters uncles - government ministers czars personal doctor at about 100 others May 19th Streltsy demanded outstanding wages totaling 240 thousand rubles May 23rd they presented a new ultimatum to Prince's Yvonne and Peter should sit on the throne together finally on May 29th they made their final demand Princess Sofia was to become regent until Peter was of age Russia had its princess Bulgaria sophia was playing with fire just six weeks before peter had been proclaimed tsar and the Streltsy had sworn allegiance to him now they had butchered his close relatives and handed power to her princess had used armed men to clear her path to power she wasn't the last to do so in Russia which he went down in history as the first the new Princess Regent realized her position was extremely precarious and moved quickly to shore up her support first she ordered the payment of all outstanding debts to the Streltsy even melting down some of the Tsar's silverware to meet the cost then Sofia gave all the key posts to her allies the ambassador's department which handled foreign affairs was given to her favorite can foresee legal it's in streltsy Reiter cavalry and great treasury department's effectively control of the army as well as state finances were given to count even kovarsky nicknamed the windbag levansky a veteran general and favorite of the Streltsy soon realized that his new position gave him almost unlimited power the temptation he could not resist so began the Kovan chena the bloody summer of 1680 - when power in Moscow resided with kovarsky and his Streltsy troops the Russian capital had been occupied by its own army Princess Sophia had unleashed a dangerous power struggle that threatened to topple Russia into anarchy thankfully the Streltsy were not the only military force in Russia now she would turn to the nobles [Music] on the day of the Feast of the Transfiguration Princess Regent Saphir left the kremlin under the guise of visiting the Donskoy monastery just across the Moscow River but instead she left the city and made for the monastery of Trinity st. sergius where she planned to take refuge from the safety of the monastery Sofia sent letters across the land condemning this new strut see revolt and summoning all the oil Nobles to her aid by the end of the 17th century the nobleman's army or militia totalled fourteen and a half thousand men this amounted to ten percent of the army these men had received their lands in exchange for military service each year they were expected to turn out for review mounted on their own horse equipped with their own arms and accompanied by several armed serfs they were obligated to join the army on campaign whenever required main part of the army 77,000 men or 50 percent the so called regiments of the new order these were writer Dragoon and hasar cavalry units made up mostly of foreign mercenaries the troops now in revolt the Streltsy Musketeers made up 35 percent of the army [Music] time was running out focus on ski his arrogant behavior had made him many powerful enemies the princess Regents agents caught him in a tavern and brought him to their mistress outside Moscow [Music] he was pushed to his knees before the princess Regent read his crimes of treason and mutiny and beheaded his position as head of the Streltsy department we'll go to Fyodor Shukla Vitti Sophia's new favorite the Streltsy revolt was over Princess Regent returned to Moscow and took residence in the Kremlin with Tsar even while Peter regarded as the juniors are moved to the palace of preobrazhenskaya a villager preobrazhenskaya covered an area 22 dirtiness or 24 hectares a wooden Palace had been built there 20 years earlier and was the furthest royal residence from the Kremlin Moscow's foreign quarter lay between the Kremlin and the palace at preobrazhenskaya the young Tsar Peter devoted himself to wargames forming the local boys into so-called toy regiments they would one day grow up to become a famous preobrazhensky guards regiments fragile balance was achieved with tsar peter and his mother living at their country palace and Sophia and Tsar Ivan living in the Kremlin a double throne was made for the joint rulers with a small window at the back during audiences with foreign ambassadors advisers whispered to the young Tsar's through the window telling them what to say Peter was clever but still young while it was much harder for his half-brother even like many of the children from Zara Lexi's first marriage even suffered from poor health possibly linked to scurvy leaving him weak and lethargic he also had some form of intellectual disability and was almost blind these severe health issues left him with little enthusiasm or interest in governing the state so Princess Regent Sophia ruled with the help of her favorite and lover Vasily galitsin who now bore the grand title guardian of the Tsar's Great Seal and the state's great ambassadorial affairs with Sophia's backing galitsin worked out a breath-taking program of reform that was a hundred and fifty years ahead of its time it's starting point was the abolition of serfdom but such radical ideas were impossible to realize at that time any attempt to free the serfs would have triggered a wholesale revolt of the nobles contemporaries called Vasily galitsin the great he favored western-style reforms spoke five languages fluently was a superb diplomat and had a great breadth of knowledge what's more he was said to be the most handsome man in Moscow sophia was completely in love with him and wrote to him almost every day in her letters she told him how she prayed for his good health and urged him not to exhaust himself with endless work her gratitude she wrote was impossible to express without him none of her achievements would have been possible galitsin urged Sophia to continue her brother Theodore's reforms but she never fully grasped the need for such changes what's more she faced stubborn opposition from the boy our Nobles [Music] nevertheless it was Sofia who opened Russia's first Institute of higher education the Slavonic Greek Latin Academy based on the Institute founded by Fyodor his first professors were two Greek brothers both of them renowned scholars a degree took 12 years the main disciplines were Greek Latin grammar rhetoric philosophy and theology the Academy was situated in the buildings of the Zionist Spassky monastery today it is the site of the Russian State University for the Humanities the Academy later spawned the Lomonosov Moscow State University the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow theological Academy in 1686 negotiations began with Russia's Western neighbor the polish-lithuanian Commonwealth galitsin led a series of long and grueling discussions which eventually led to the signing of a treaty of eternal peace in Moscow this bound the kingdoms of Princess regent Sophia and Qingyuan sobieski an alliance and was to prove the crowning achievement of Russian foreign policy in the 17th century Russia's gains included the regions around Smolensk and China cough as well as parts of eastern Ukraine and the cities of Zaporozhye and Kiev the Treaty of eternal peace contained one additional clause Russia was to join the holy League military alliance against the Turkish Ottoman Empire this obliged Russia to go to war against the Crimean Khanate an ottoman ally but galitsin was not in favor of war and wanted to delay as long as possible despite his misgivings Saphir placed galitsin in charge of the army for the forthcoming campaign she dreamed of great victories that would unite Russia behind her and cover her beloved galitsin in glory no sooner had he left for the front and Sofia began to write to him in her letters she called galitsin by his pet name vasenka and worried endlessly about his safety it was only when she embraced him with her own arms she wrote that she would no peace again in May 1687 a 100,000 strong Russian army joined forces with Don and Zaporozhye cossacks and advanced towards the Isthmus of Perico they found the fields had all been burnt leaving no food for the horses some said it was the Cossacks not the enemy who burnt the land in fear of Russia's growing power campaign was cut short the next year an even bigger Russian army advanced South Wars only battle was fought on May 15th after which the Tatars retreated and the Russians advanced America when the news reached Sophia in Moscow she was ecstatic her letters back to galitsin overflowed with love and adulation and longing for the day they would be reunited [Music] they're litsen however could advance no further in fact he was already on his way back to Moscow the scorched earth tactics of his enemy had starved his army of food and water leading to the loss of half his men even though there had been no major battles the campaign was in fact a complete disaster ghal it's ins role in this catastrophic defeat would not be forgotten later when he was sent into exile one of the main charges against him would be his ruinous handling of the Crimean campaign [Music] on the eve of the day back he suffered the worst blow of all the betrayal of his beloved [Music] while colet's him was away fighting Sophia had fallen for another man the cynical and scheming Fyodor Shak levity to flatter Sophia he had brought the famous Ukrainian artist Alexander Terrace image to Moscow to paint her portrait he depicted the princess wearing a regal crown sceptre in hand and behind her a double-headed eagle [Music] Sofia adored it she ordered the portrait to be engraved in copper so Coffey's could be printed and sent to all the courts of Europe by now Sofia was styling herself by the grace of God a great sovereign lady the pious tsarevna great princess Sofia alekseevna autocrat of the great little and the white Russia's at state ceremonies and ambassadorial receptions she no longer felt the need to stand at a respectful distance behind the Tsar's throne it was said her inspiration was the English Queen Elizabeth the first as soon as our even turned 18 Sophia arranged his marriage to the 20 year old Roscoe via saltykova Sophia was counting on the birth of a male heir to cement the Millis laughs key branch of the Romanov dynasty in power rival Naru shin branch had of course had the same idea Peter was not quite 17 when his mother the Dowager Sorensen Natalya married him off to the 19 year old year takia la pagina she was neither clever nor educated but healthy the outcome of these marriages would shape the future of the Romanov dynasty for generations to come [Music] Yvonne inpress kavya had five daughters but only three survived infancy yekaterina Anna Empress Kavya and her later became Empress of Russia the Catarina's daughter anna leopoldovna who came region for the young even the sixth but he was the last male of the Romanoff Millis laughs keyline Peter and Yaya Kia had three sons but only the eldest Alexei built his son became Emperor Peter the second but he was the last mayor of the romanovna Ruskin line on May 30th 1689 tsar peter came of age Sophia was now supposed to step down as regent but she had no intention of giving up power instead Sackler VT began spreading false rumors amongst the Streltsy regiments claiming that the nourish Kings planned to assassinate Sophia and Tsar even and send the Streltsy away to garrison remote fortresses the Streltsy were unhappy but would not risk open revolt then chat levity let it be known that those who joined his conspiracy would be paid two rubles for each private 10 for each officer 100 for each colonel plus the right to plunder the houses of their victims Moscow was on a knife edge on the night of August 7th loyal streltsy officers arrived at peter's palace they told him that check Levite II was planning to use the Streltsy to murder Peter and his family he's our reacted with horror and outrage before fleeing to safety he wrote a letter to even his brother and joint ruler our sister Princess Sofia runs our country as she wills bandits like Chantal of VT and his friends plan to murder us and our mothers now brothers are we shall rule our country on our own since we are both men our sister has nothing more to do it it is shameful czar to be men to have someone else rule in our place that evening princess Sofia received a report that Peters Palace said preobrazhenskaya was empty Tsar Peter his mother pregnant wife and entire court had left for the monastery of Trinity sent Sergius his so-called toy regiments now composed of young men followed him there together with one loyal Streltsy regiment rumors began to fly around Moscow everyone was on edge but quickly the mood began to turn against Sofia August 13th Sofia sent an emissary to Peter foyer even throw you off the young Tsar would not negotiate August 16th booyah Peter preserve ski visited the monastery with the same result August 20th Sofia begged patriarch yo Akeem to visit Peter he went but did not return he stayed with Peter boyars officials and even Streltsy began to flock to Peter's rival court August 27th Sofia left to negotiate with her brother in person she realized that she shouldn't that her humiliation would likely be in vain but she could not simply sit and wait six miles from the monastery near the spot where she had had the Streltsy leader kovarsky executed seven years before he was meant by Toria cooled off her own emissary from just two weeks ago he handed her Peter's order to turn back [Music] August 31st Sofia returned to the Kremlin where she gathered the Streltsy in the square she told them that Peters advisors sought to divide them by inventing plots against Peters life but that she was confident of their loyalty to her her speech made little impact only loyal Schack levity remained by her side September 4th foreign regiments under General Gordon went over to Peters side September 6 streltsy arrests in feodosia cavite and took him to Peter for sentencing [Music] September 7th a Sealy galitsin came to see Peter the Czar refused to meet him and sent him into exile September 8th the title of Tsarevna royal princess was officially stripped from Sofia September 9th Troy Haku Roth informs a fear of the Tsar's well she was to enter the monastery of Nova Davichi and remain there for the rest of her life September 12th shack Lafitte II was beheaded by the main road and side the Trinity monastry October 16th czars Court boyars and army returned to Moscow and Peter the first took up the reins of government his elder brother even the fifth remained joint ruler taking part in ceremonies and his strength allowed but his health continued to decline soon even found it difficult to walk and was almost completely blind he died seven years later on February the 8th 1696 aged just 29 Princess Sophia lived under guard in a tower of the Nova deechi monastery she received food from the Tsar's table as well as an allowance of two thousand six hundred rubles a year the same as the other royal princesses a small staff of servants lived with her an old nanny few Clark's and nine maids for nine years Sophia lived quietly in the monastery reflecting on her years of power and the fate of her two lovers one executed the other exile to the north but she also continued to intrigue exchanging secret letters with her supporters from June 16 98 Peter was in Holland learning to build ships in the back home poor treatment led 4000 streltsy to kill their officers and march on Moscow intending to restore Saphir to the throne they were met by government troops the preobrazhenskiy regiment seminoff ski regiment the LeFort off regiment the foreign regiment under general gordon and the nobles militia under general Shan the Streltsy were defeated at New Jerusalem 30 miles from Moscow and reprisals began general Shan conducted the initial investigation he had a hundred and thirty struts he hanged 140 whipped and sent into exile and 1960 banished to remote regions but in August Peter returned to Moscow and renewed the investigation he had another 2000 strout's he executed and 600 more flogged and branded streltsy corpses were hung from the walls of the Kremlin and Sophia's residence the Nova Davichi monastery Streltsy property was plundered and even the 16 regiments that didn't take part in the revolt were disbanded Princess Sofia was forced to take the veil under the name of Susanna boyars close to her were interrogated and then banished a distant monasteries her allowance was slashed a staff changed and security tightened the bodies of three Streltsy hung by the window of her cell for five months [Music] once she had struck terror at court won the favor of any man she wanted held the power to invoke and quell revolts waged Wars and concluded brilliant peace treaties she dreamed of becoming a real ruler like the Byzantine princess Bulgaria whose tale had captivated her as a child she had defied all the odds to make her dream a reality becoming the first Russian princess to escape her secluded existence the first to live life and wield power but in the end her downfall was complete for seven years of rule she spent 15 years in a monastery cell she died in 1704 aged 46 and was buried in the cemetery of the novodevichy monastery by the time of her death great changes were sweeping over the country she had once ruled changes that would transform Russia forever the history of the old Russian state was at an end the history of a new Russian Empire was beginning [Music] [Music] Peter Tsar of Russia was exploring the boat sheds when he discovered a type of boat he'd never seen before he asked the bunt right who had built this remarkable craft he was told it was an English boat its construction allowed it to sail into the wind as well as away from it Peter was amazed all his victories were to defy tradition expectation common sense and sometimes even the laws of physics the spirit of his reign was summed up with the words inscribed on his medals even the impossible is possible Peter was 10 years old when he first came face-to-face with a violent mob rebels from the Streltsy infantry regiments dragged away his friends and relatives and butchered them like cattle the trauma caused Peter to suffer from convulsions for the rest of his life no one could have guessed that this terrified boy would one day sweep away the old Russia and build a new one in its place chapter 1 Peter the first Alekseyevich Peter was the youngest son of tsar alexei the first and not expected to inherit the throne alexei died when peter was just four and was succeeded by his eldest son theodore the third but when Fyodor died just six years later the nobles decided ten-year old Peter would succeed him by passing the middle brother fifteen year old even was severely disabled after a revolt by the Streltsy regiments real power fell into the hands of their ambitious sister Sofia who ruled as Princess Regent Peter and his mother the dowager's are Ritzer Natalia was sent to live on the Preobrazhensky estate on the outskirts of Moscow there Peter formed all the boys his own age into a toy regiment for his elaborate war games young Tsar was obsessed with war not just with armies but navies too he took his toy regiment to Lake Loschiavo 80 miles north of Moscow where they learned to build and sail boats and experiment with naval tactics [Music] ZAF heater was remarkable in many ways but most obviously in physical stature at 6 foot 7 or 204 centimeters he towered nearly half a meter over most of his contemporaries what's more his gigantic body had unusual proportions he had very long arms with massive hands but small feet narrow shoulders and a small head his face was handsome but became contorted when he was worried or anxious the legacy of his childhood traumas with his life pita was filled with inexhaustible energy he could barely stand still and was always looking for some exciting activity to throw himself into unlike his older brothers who didn't get expert tutors he didn't even finish his education and made spelling mistakes his entire life and his mother Tsaritsa Natalia received her Restless son's letters from Lake Viejo they made her both laugh and cry this is a letter for my dearest mother czar Itza and great Duchess Natalia Carol Avila from her boy petrushka who is working constantly thanks to your prayers were all well the lake is no longer covered with ice and all the boats are being repaired we need rope though I beg you to send me 700 fathoms of rope and we'll be able to proceed with that I ask for your blessing Peter was fascinated by everything to do with craftsmanship by the age of 18 he knew smithing carpentry wood turning and shoe making he'd studied military science fortification and shipbuilding and learned German by speaking to men from the foreign quarter this was an area of Moscow set aside for foreigners established in 1652 when Peter's father Tsar Alexei ordered all non Orthodox Christians to move to a new settlement outside the city the new foreign quarter was built just outside the walls along the Yauza River it was self governed and home to Europeans of all nationalities most were military men doctors or craftsmen all seeking professional opportunities in Russia the foreign quarter was just a few miles from Peter's palace at preobrazhenskaya everyday he saw the spires of its Lutheran churches and heard the sounds of bustling activity from within its walls unable to contain his curiosity any longer about how these Europeans lived he decided to pay a visit he would soon make himself at home [Music] [Music] the Swiss soldier Franz LeFort was an experienced officer handsome capable and well-connected he was also a society host of some note and Tsar Peter became a regular guest at his house France LeFort soon joined the Tsar's inner circle becoming one of Peters most trusted friends and advisors he also introduced Peter to his servant Alexander Menshikov destined to become another of the Tsar's closest confidants and then there was an amongst the daughter of a dutch wine merchant who soon became peter's lover Peter became a regular visitor to the foreign Quarter learning to speak German and Dutch dancing with girls drinking wine and smoking his pipe naturally when his mother found out she was horrified in the hope of encouraging him to settle down she decided Peter should get married his bride was the 19 year old give Doki aloo patina she seemed an ideal match Oh beautiful sensible and extremely pious but just two months after the wedding the new husband left for Lake pleasure a vow meanwhile unrest was brewing in Moscow Princess Regent Sofia was refusing to relinquish power and her agents were trying to incite Streltsy troops to murder Peter and his family at preobrazhenskaya when loyal Streltsy officers arrived one hot August night to warn him of the plot against his life Peter lost his nerve he ran out into the courtyard wearing only his nightshirt mounted a horse and rode off into the forest on his own the next morning it emerged he'd ridden to the monastery of Trinity sent Sergius he sent word for his family his court and all boil troops to join him there nobles and Generals sick of Sophia's rule sided with Peter sophia was banished to a monastery and peter took power [Music] his first challenge was war Russia had recently agreed to join Poland and Austria as a member of the Holy League an alliance of Christian states fighting the Muslim Ottoman Empire their ultimate goal was to capture the Ottoman capital Constantinople Sophia had waged two wars against the Ottomans ally the Crimean Khanate in 1695 Peter decided to attack the Ottomans themselves targeting the fortress of ass off which blocked Russia's access from the Don River to the Sea of Azov Peter would fulfill his obligation to the Holy League while winning a strategic port for Russia for the first time the Russian army moved not by land but by river traveling down the Volga and Dawn on specially constructed barges Peter himself held the rank of senior artillery officer and was the Army's chief gunner at first it all seemed just a grander version of his wargames and mock battles but not for long two attempts to storm the fortress were repulsed and Peter was forced to order a retreat all winter new vessels were built and launched from Voronezh in the dawn's upper reaches by spring of sixty ninety six the first Russian fleet consisting of two large warships 23 all powered galleys and one and a half thousand smaller vessels sailed down the dawn to as off the fortress was now besieged not just from land but from sea as well within a month this combined assault forced the Turks to surrender the fortress the Russians also won their first naval victory defeating an ottoman fleet that attempted to break the siege Peter returned to Moscow in triumph but he needed allies to continue his war against the Ottoman Empire he formed a ground embassy to travel to Europe which he would accompany himself traveling incognito under the name Peter mikhaylov Peter appointed his head steward Fyodor Ramadan offski to take over his duties in Moscow inferring on him jokingly the title Prince Caesar he was entrusted with the care of the Tsar's family Czar it'sa yebda Kea and this six year old son Prince Alexei Peter's actions were with that precedent the court was horrified but no one dared to object many years later the engineer and Rana Tov described the reaction in his memoirs who ever heard or read of a ruler who having taken the throne left behind his crown and scepter entrusted rule to one of his nobles and left to wander through strange lands it was completely unheard of but this is what happened in Russia at last bazaar got to see the world that he had read and dreamed about since his youth Europe fascinated Peter not so much the art or the music which rather bored him but everything to do with science technology and industry and he wanted to try everything with his own hands in the netherlands peter mikhaylov got a job as a carpenter in a shipyard to learn how the dutch build their ships in england he also visited the docks to study shipbuilding foreigners didn't know what to make of him this strange gangly Russian who wanted to go everywhere see everything and tried for himself [Music] he was curious about everything how whales were hunted how the sick were treated how paper was made wherever he went he tried to persuade specialists to move to Russia to share their expertise with his people some even agreed but Peters main goal to find allies for his war against the Turks failed Europe's great powers were too busy preparing for their own war to settle the issue of Spanish Succession no one had time for an alliance with far-off Russia but in Poland Peter did manage to find an ally to fight Sweden his northern rifle augustus king of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and elector of Saxony was said to be the strongest man in Europe when the two rulers met they agreed to dine together one observer later recalled that when King Augustus saw that a silver dish on the table wasn't clean he picked it up and rolled it into a tube with his bare hands Tsar Peter thinking the Polish King was trying to intimidate him picked up another silver plate and did exactly the same [Music] the two rulers began picking up and bending all the dishes within reach as they sat down laughing sarpy to joked brother Augustus we been silver fairly but it will be much harder work to bend Swedish iron Peter hoped that a victorious war against Sweden would allow Russia to reclaim former territories in the Baltic particularly the Eastern Shore of the Gulf of Finland this would give Russia access to the Baltic and a sea route to Europe but Peters festivities were interrupted by bad news from home in the summer of 1698 the Streltsy troops whose revolted so scarred him as a child rebelled once more [Music] rebel regiments were now marching on the capital to Moscow they declared will destroy the foreign quarter and beat the foreigners who reject our Orthodox faith from Moscow come hell or high water for we have a higher purpose we will keep the Tsar out of Moscow and kill him for his faith in these foreigners [Applause] Peter traveled 300 miles in four weeks to reach Moscow but by the time he arrived his deputy Fyodor abaddon offski had defeated the rebels and began dealing with the ringleaders a hundred and thirty Streltsy were executed 150 more flogged and exiled to Siberia but it was not enough for Peter he ordered new interrogations and more torture some of which he attended personally a public mass execution was arranged in Moscow 800 Streltsy were beheaded in Red Square hundreds more were hanged from the walls of the Kremlin Peter beheaded five rebels himself noblemen and foreign diplomats witnessed the bloodbath around 2,000 strumsy were executed in total 800 flogged and sent to Siberia strengths II was now a word that Peter equated only with anarchy and revolt after the executions he decided to make some changes both in his own life and his kingdom he forced his unloved wife yebda kiya to become a nun and entrusted the care of their eight-year-old son Alexei to his sister Natalia Peter began to live openly with his Dutch lover and Aman's the conservative Russian nobility was shocked the Peter didn't care then Peter made it compulsory for all nobles and townsman to shave their beards off and wear european-style clothes the only people allowed to keep their beards were peasants priests of the Orthodox Church and those who paid a hefty beard tax a beard permit costs 600 rubles a year for a nobleman worth about a hundred thousand dollars today and 30 rubles for a servant or five thousand dollars today Peter also forced his court to adopt European customs wives and daughters had to wear European dresses everyone had to know how to dance and make polite conversation courtiers had to brush their teeth every morning drink coffee shun traditional Russian food like pickled cabbage and eat more Dutch dishes Peter reformed the calendar so that years were no longer counted from the date of creation but from the birth of Christ like the rest of Europe overnight yes 7208 became 1700 a new year was moved from September the 1st to January the 1st in honor of the occasion the Tsar instructed his people to decorate fir trees entertain their children and go sledging adults he instructed were not to drink and fight there were enough days of the year for that already the first New Year festivities led to a huge fire that almost burned down Moscow Peter was not concerned he didn't care much for old Moscow besides he was preoccupied with preparations for his war against Sweden a secret alliance with the polish king or Gustus a second and the King of Denmark and Norway Frederick the fourth had now been signed both Kings looked on czar Peter as the junior partner their adversary was the 18-year old King Karl the 12th of Sweden a lover of hunting and parades who no one took seriously in the spring of 1700 ruler of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth launched an offensive in the Baltic and laid siege to the Swedish held city of Riga but for the King of Denmark the war quickly took a disastrous turn when the Swedish fleet appeared unexpectedly outside Copenhagen unable to defend his capital the Danish King was forced to make peace with Sweden soon Augustus was forced to withdraw from Riga leaving Peter with his ill-trained forces to face the greatest army in Europe alone [Music] Russian troops were besieging nava on the Baltic coast but they didn't have enough artillery to break down its walls after two weeks the main Swedish army began to close in as it approached Peter appointed the Juke tu crois as commander-in-chief and left for Novgorod he was not there to see the outnumbered Swedish infantry attacked through the blizzard and inflict a crushing defeat on the Russian army he didn't see the surrender of his hired foreign officers or the moment his men cast their banners at the feet of the Swedish King Peter had lost one army now he had to forge a new one [Music] his military reforms would create Russia's first Regular Army a professional force made up of full-time conscript soldiers military service was required from all nobles and peasants were expected to send one man from every 20 households who served for life troops were rigorously trained in drill while Peters toy regiment formed the basis for two new elite units the prayer regen ski guards and seminoff ski guards soldiers also received new weapons repairs and flintlock muskets instead of the old our key buses in ten years the Russian army was expanded to a strength of two hundred thousand men supported by a force of 100,000 Cossack cavalry Peter had created the largest and most modern army in Russian history after the catastrophe at Nava Peter needed to replenish the Treasury quickly he reduced the amount of silver in the coins providing more cash in the short term but devaluing the currency driving prices up he was pushing the country to the edge of another rebellion he was making people dress up like heretics forcing them to cut off their beards and now forcing them to pay for his disastrous war were rumors that bizarre who'd returned from abroad was a different man the real Tsar it was said was in prison far across the sea others openly called him the Antichrist Peter didn't care instead he ordered church bells to be taken down and melted into cabin ETA's draconian taxes were bleeding Russia dry and triggering riots and revolts across the land but the money paid for two large warships the beginning of the Russian Baltic Fleet and allowed him to open foundries in the Urals that was soon supplying the army and navy with modern cannon the introduction of modern artillery combined with the effect of reforms and spending increases soon brought results Russia could now wage war against Sweden as an equal victories followed with the Russian army capturing the fortresses of notre berg mean chance nava and marian blog on the eve of this last victory the Tsar received bitter news his mistress Anna Mons who'd lived with him like a wife for 10 years had been cheating on him the passion of their youth was long gone but her betrayal was still painful to Peter his loyal friend and associate Prince Menshikov helped desire to overcome his heartbreak by finding him a new mistress the beautiful and charming Martis Gavron skier recently liberated by Russian forces from the fortress city of Marienberg martyr turned out to be the woman that Peter needed in his life two years later he brought her to preobrazhenskaya as his bride where she converted to orthodoxy and took the name Catherine alexeyevna this kind and gentle woman who had once served as a housemaid and remained illiterate all her life would bear Peter 11 children and in time be crowned Empress of Russia for now the great northern war ground on an hare island where the river neva flows into the Gulf of Finland the Russians began to build a fort with six fast ian's named the Peter and Paul Fortress it guarded the first Russian port on the Baltic Sea this was destined to be the site of a new Russian capital st. Petersburg in six months the first foreign ship would arrive at the port three years later the first warships would be launched from the city's Admiralty shipyard peter's dream of dominating the Baltic Sea was within reach the construction of the Czar's new capital was beset with difficulties and needless to say hugely expensive first the marshes had to be drained then numerous dams and dikes put in place to protect the land from flooding it took 20,000 logs to build just one dike today it would take 20 freight trains to deliver this much timber each year 40,000 laborers arrived to help build the new city and for the first time the czar authorized the use of thousands of Christmas as convict labour they were formed into labor battalions working for up to 15 hours a day and even around-the-clock during the white nights of summer in 15 years these brutal conditions would claim the lives of an estimated 100,000 workers Europe paid little attention to Peters victories all they saw was a greedy tsar of the Muscovites seizing a piece of boggy shoreline and hurriedly settling in there they were much more interested in his enemy Carl the 12th of Sweden waging war in the heart of Europe against the Polish King Augustus in 1706 Carl defeated August's forced him to give up his throne and then turned on Russia two armies met on June 27th 1709 four miles outside Poltava [Music] both monarchs led their armies in person in the eve of battle Carl addressed his troops he promised them that the next day they'd eat at the table of the Tsar of Russia he's prepared many dishes for us go where glory calls czar Peter also spoke to his troops soldiers a time has come that will decide the fate of our motherland do not think you are fighting for Peter you are fighting for the state he is entrusted with for your families your motherland for our Orthodox Church the Swedish army at Poltava had a strength of 8,000 infantry 8000 cavalry and just four cannon the Russian army consisted of 25,000 infantry 9,000 cavalry and 73 cannon the battle raged for 10 hours and ended in a brilliant victory for the Russian army Russian losses were 1,300 men killed and 3,300 wounded the Swedes suffered 8,000 casualties almost twice as many as the Russians while 4,000 were taken prisoner and 17,000 more lost during the retreat the Battle of Poltava ended 100 years of Swedish military dominance in Europe though Kyle remained a threat as long as he still commanded a powerful navy the rest of Europe however was forced to recognize that Russia long regarded as wild and backward was now a force to be reckoned with [Music] Peter had turned his back on Moscow its onion domes winding streets and apple orchards his favorite place in the whole world was now st. Petersburg Peter described these boggy windswept islands as paradise he liked to oversee as much of the work as possible himself including the construction of the summer palace inspired by the stately homes and Gardens he'd visited in Europe everyday Peter spent here was a happy one as he watched his new capital rise up around him the order that every cart entering the city had to bring three large stones with it weighing not less than five pounds these were used to turn streets of mud into the city's first paved roads Peter could already see the great palaces wide boulevards parks and promenade that would one day make this city the Venice of the north but Peters quest to modernize Russia was far from complete everything had to change finances bureaucracy laws there was no master plan it would be step by step as dictated by necessity and the most pressing need was for money ETA's tax reform centered on the creation of a poll tax to be paid once a year by every male subject in the realm peasants had to pay seventy-four kopacz about a hundred dollars today while those living in towns had to pay nearly double 1.2 roubles about $200 today peasants in some parts of the country were now taxed for the first time including inhabitants of the far north Siberia and the Volga region state revenue tripled providing Peter with the money necessary for further reforms Peter saw his work as a sacred duty and himself as the motherland's faithful servant he expected the same from all his subjects regardless of rank from the grandest noble to the humblest peasant to ensure the smooth running of the state he created the post of fiscal a secret Informer who sniffed out corruption which was then punished brutally to deter others but bribe taking and embezzlement remained endemic for every 100 rubles collected in state taxation scarcely 30 reached the state treasury the greatest embezzler of all was the Tsar's close friend Prince Menshikov whose income almost equalled that of the state Peter finally lost all patience declaring that if someone stole even just enough money to buy himself a piece of rope that rope would be used to hang them Menshikov talked him down warning that if he passed such a law he'd soon have no subjects left PETA was involved in drawing up statutes and charters for many new bodies from the Academy of Sciences to the Admiralty as well as issuing hundreds of decrees czar legislated on almost every aspect of Russian life from the type of boot polish used to the width of cloth that was produced profits of merchants the proper way to construct stoves farming implements the correct form of wedding the treatment of the sick what sort of coffin should be used to bury the dead and how many times a week a sauna should be heated and there were more each new law stipulated the punishment for breaking it a fine for talking in church the death penalty for treason Peter it was clear his subjects were like children who couldn't be trusted to run their lives without his supervision he didn't ask their opinion of course nor did he ask the opinion of his son Alexei whose life he also governed in every small detail Tsarevich Alexei was the son of Peters first wife lived okiya who was banished to a convent when he was 8 he was raised instead by his aunt Princess Natalya Peter tried to involve Alexei in affairs of state and took him on campaign when he was just 12 boy showed early promise with an aptitude for languages and mathematics with Peters bullying behavior caused Alexei to fear and eventually loathe his own father and secretly wish him dead [Music] the Tsar's enemies persuaded Alexi to flee to Vienna he was signing his own death warrant Russian agents soon found him and brought him back to face his father's judgment the prince was terrified under torture he named all those he knew to be enemies of the Tsar and renounced his right to inherit the throne he had fled it emerged because he was convinced his father intended to have him killed the prince was imprisoned in the peter and paul fortress On June 25th 1718 a court found Alexi guilty of treason and sentenced him to death the next day the prince was found dead in his cell the official cause of death was an apoplectic fit the real cause cannot be proved what is known is that the prince was cruelly tortured for days during his interrogation the day after his son's death Peter celebrated the ninth anniversary of the Battle of Poltava those close to him could see his grief I suffer for the entire motherland he wrote my enemy's play vile tricks against me it's hard for people to believe in my innocence as they know none of the facts but God sees the truth Peter could see with brutal clarity how precarious his achievements were if he died everything would collapse and the Tsar was not a well man the opinion of Peters doctor the rent is bloomin trust was that his 44 year old patient suffered from chronic bronchitis inflammation of the bowels chronic kidney disease kidney stones swollen liver and damaged nerves Peter wasn't good at following diets or cutting down on alcohol instead he went too sparse to take the local mineral water heater was now spurred on by a sense of his own mortality first he needed to end the great northern war now in its 20th year even after Carl the 12th fell in battle Sweden would not make peace and refused to recognize Peters Baltic conquests Russia would first have to defeat Sweden's Navy in 1714 at gank at the Russian galleys won their first victory over the Swedes six years later at brendham they captured four Swedish frigates Sweden then signed an alliance with Britain and a joint Anglo Swedish squadron approached Russia's Baltic Fleet base at revel it was then forced to withdraw in 1721 the war ended with the Treaty of NICHD at Sweden recognize Russian ownership of ingria which became the province of st. Petersburg Livonia Baden Latvia and southern Estonia estland now northern Estonia and part of Corellia Russia had its Baltic Sea outlet and with it the status of a European power [Music] rushon Senate asked Peter to accept the title father of the nation Peter the Great Emperor of all Russia the moment marked the end of the Russians Adam and the birth of the Russian Empire but what future for the house of Romanov few of Peters children has survived infancy his heir Peter died at the age of three he had two adult daughters Anna and Elizabeth and a grandson little Peter the son of the late czarevitch Alexei but Peter didn't want the boy to succeed him yet fearing he would become the puppet of his enemies who would try to undo all his reforms Peter decided to change the ancient customs of succession he issued a decree allowing a ruler to choose their successor let the ruler be always free it said to choose to whom they will give their inheritance in the spring of 1720 for at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin Peter solemnly crowned his wife Catherine as Empress did it mean he intended to leave the throne to her za made no mention of the matter soon after the coronation Peter learned that Catherine had been unfaithful to him and that her lover was the brother of his former dutch mistress Anna Mons it was a heavy blow Catherine was Peters greatest love and closest companion she was the only one able to calm his outbursts of rage the German diplomat count Henning Friedrich bazevich witnessed such a scene more than once he used to have fits caused by a dark thought entering his head that someone was trying to kill him these episodes were a nightmare for those closest to him the newer fit was coming when his mouth started to shake they would immediately send for the Empress she would start talking to him and the sound of her voice calmed him down she used to make him sit down and would then take his head in her hands brushing it gently it was like magic he'd fall asleep in a matter of minutes so as not to disturb him she'd hold his head against her chest and sit without moving for two or three hours after that he'd wake up fresh and invigorated Peter had never been a faithful husband on campaign he would bed the servants and the soldiers wives had even established a set fee for their services one bucket per night nor did the ladies of court escape desires attention in his father's day women were kept out of sight now instead of being treated like slaves it was said they were worshipped like goddesses the many sudden changes to Russian customs social norms and dress were soon being blamed for a collapse in morality Czar himself set a terrible example his lovers included Mary Hamilton a lady-in-waiting countess Abdul Chia Cherne Shova antis Maria rumyantseva the Romanian countess maria Cantor Mia Elizaveta scindia all of whom slept with Peter with the full knowledge of their fathers or husbands Catherine had tolerated all of the Czar's affairs and never reproached him for them with that was expected Peter had Catherine's lover arrested and charged with accepting bribes to avoid public disgrace the investigation was Swift he was found guilty in five days and dead in eight Peeta had his severed head preserved in alcohol and placed in a jar then it was rumoured he delivered this gruesome gift to Catherine's chambers in person Emperor and Empress did not speak for nearly a year he neither dined nor slept together but in the autumn of 1724 Peter's health suddenly got worse it continued to ignore his doctor's advice now he would pay the price On January the 16th Peter was too ill to leave his bed he called for the Empress he talked for three hours all that time Catherine knelt beside him at last they made peace and forgave each other the next day Peter was in excruciating pain but the doctors could provide no relief his screams echoed through the palace Catherine did not leave his bedside On January 22nd in between fits Peter confessed his sins five days later he asked for a desk to write his will he didn't know that in the next room generals and Senators were discussing the succession for many of them it was a matter of life and death 1/2 Dukes Dolgoruky Ellison and Rhett Neen were for the 10-year old Peter they Prince Alexei son the other half knew men like menshikov and Tolstoy who'd led the investigation against Prince Alexei feared his son would seek to avenge his father he wanted the Empress to take the throne Peter wrote just two words give everything and fainted at 4:00 a.m. the Senate decided the throne must go to Catherine she was still at the Tsar's bedside at ten past five he died in her arms [Music] [Music] for the lowborn sir it sir to succeed her husband caused a stir but nothing to do with Peters rain could shock the Russians anymore she would be Russia's second female ruler in 30 years and there was great sympathy for Catherine her life was a fairy tale a housemaid who'd captured the heart of a czar become his Queen and Empress [Music] chapter 2 Catherine the first alexeyevna [Music] the Empress knew nothing about ruling estate she couldn't even read and write the only thing she ever mastered was how to sign her own name but that was enough to authorize the founding of a Russian Academy of Sciences as Peter had always dreamed and to authorize be to sparing x' expedition to the far east on the whole catherine left the governing to others and devoted herself to parties and drinking she drank ferociously with many lovers and danced till dawn a typical day for the Empress began when she rose from bed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon she dined at 8 then took a walk in the summer garden she usually went to bed around 10 o'clock the next morning the court was dominated by the serene counter legs and ER daniela which menshikov it was he who had first introduced catherine to peter then he had put her on the throne now he held the reins of power he ruled through a new body a supreme Privy Council formally its role was to advise the Empress but in reality it ran the country [Music] Catherine didn't attend the council meetings she had no interest she listened to its reports but for no more than half an hour any longer gave her a headache the Empress is dissolute lifestyle soon led to serious health problems she put on weight and suffered from kidney disease and a heightened pulse it was plain to see that Catherine would not live much longer so menshikov began to plan for the future persuading the Empress to sign a will by which Prince Peter would inherit the throne but only after he married menshikov's daughter on May the 6th 1727 Catherine the first died she would be remembered as a kind and marries a Ritzer and a loyal companion of Peter the Great many had believed that without peter the great's iron will Russia would revert to being a second-rate power on the margins of Europe but Peters reforms had created an unstoppable momentum of their own in st. Petersburg palaces were rising along the shores of the Baltic gardens were planted and wide boulevards paved they were the first in Russia to be lit by oil lamps cannon-armed Russian warships stood out at sea while Russia got its first printed newspaper via de masti with a circulation of between two hundred and four thousand merchants goods travelled from San Petersburg to Moscow along newly dug canals advanced schools of artillery medicine and navigation were opened and the Academy of Science is established in the Urals nine foundries produced seven million pounds of cast iron a year and two hundred thousand pounds of copper they supplied Russia's new armaments industry turning out muskets and cannon for what was now one of the largest most powerful armies in Europe [Music] Peter had dragged Russia from the Middle Ages into the modern world but his new state would now have to prove its resilience and whether the storm of dynastic crisis and intrigue it would be 40 years before there was another Russian ruler to match Peter the Great [Music] the court of 18th century Imperial Russia was a place of etiquette and excess stunning bores and carnivals jesters and fireworks [Music] most popular dance was the quadrille in which the dancers constantly changed their partners around these courtiers spun a huge Russian Empire its rulers coming and going like partners in the dance this was Russia's age of Palace revolutions [Music] the year 1727 few years after the death of Peter the Great Peter had forged an empire through iron will and firm rule without him it seemed to have lost its purpose state revenue was collapsing ships stood unfinished in the shipyards the army lacked vital equipment government bureaucracy was riddled with corruption supreme Privy Council ruled the state it consisted of a handful of nobles and chiefly looked after their own interests and on the throne twelve-year-old boy chapter 1 e 2 the second Alexeyevich e 2 the second was the son of Prince Alexei and the German princess Sophie Charlotte of brunswick-lüneburg making him the grandson of Peter the Great his mother died soon after childbirth his father when he was just 2 his older sister Natalia was his only close family Peter seemed unlikely to inherit the throne as Peter the Great had two other sons Peter and Paul but they both died in infancy making Peter the last male of the Romanov dynasty glein Peter was born into an environment devoid of love or affection his parents cared little for each other while his father lived in terror of his grandfather Peter the Great indifferent nursemaids gave him wine to stop him crying his tutors were not much better he was taught some German and Latin but that was the extent of his learning even his Russian was bad nevertheless by the age of seven he was well acquainted with the lavish entertainments of court young Peter wasn't interested in the army the Navy or science only in having fun it didn't worry those around him on the contrary it served their interests they wanted a czar they could control a czar who was in their pocket it was only a question of whose pocket he ended up in when peter ii became emperor in 1727 he was immediately taken under the wing of his serene highness alexander danilevich menshikov he'd been a close friend and associate of Peter the Great and his widow empress catherine the first who was the most influential man in russia [Music] shortly before Catherine's death menshikov had persuaded the Empress to sign a will that made young Peter her heir there was one condition on coming of age Peter was to marry menshikov's daughter Maria then menshikov's control of the young Tsar would be total of course no one asked for Peters opinion on any of this [Music] soon after his coronation the twelve-year-old Peter found himself engaged was 16 year old Maria Mancha Cova the Emperor's bride received the title Imperial Highness and an annual allowance of thirty four thousand rubles peter ii found his fiancee deeply uninteresting in his letters he referred to her as the stone statue or the porcelain doll meanwhile menshikov moved the young Tsar into his own sand Petersburg palace to shield him from any unwanted external influence and assigned him a governor Baron Andrei Ivanovich Osterman deputy minister of foreign affairs but the Emperor's studies didn't last long Menshikov suddenly fell seriously ill and in his absence Peter fell in with a young rake even dull guru cough who encouraged him to flee menshikov's stifling supervision tsar quickly fell under the influence of dal guru cough and his powerful family who were bitter rivals of Menshikov with their encouragement he and his governor baron Osterman moved out of menshikov's palace and into the peterhof palace he also broke off his engagement to Maryam and she Cova soon a special commission found Menshikov guilty of embezzling state funds he was stripped of all his titles honours estates and property and sent with his family into internal exile in Siberia dal-gu coughs with the wily baron Osterman now held the reins of power the sovereign tsar peter was free to indulge in his new favorite sport hunting unlike his great-grandfather Alexei the first who loved falconry Peter the second hunted without any expertise or knowledge it didn't matter to him how or what he hunted what mattered was riding fast and making a lot of noise all this would have been entirely natural for his age if it hadn't been for his constant drinking sprees nobody cared about his health except his sister Natalia she was the only person who truly loved the boy Emperor and tried to stop him drinking but aged just 14 she died of tuberculosis with no one to stop him Peter began regularly binge drinking with his guards he was tall and well-developed for his age and women were also made available to him Peter then fell in love with his aunt Elizabeth daughter of Peter the Great nobody was going to let Peter marry Elizabeth first of all the church prohibited marriages between such close relatives second even dull guru cough had already chosen a bride for him his sister Catherine thus way the Emperor's decision even provided proof that his aunt Elizabeth was already in love with an officer of the guards a hot-headed teenager felt that Elizabeth had betrayed him who made a point of turning his attention to Catherine Dahl guru kava once more the Tsar found himself the pawn in other people's games [Music] while the court was absorbed in imperial love matches the vast Russian Empire was left virtually leaderless state finances were in chaos the army was disintegrating Russia's international standing was in freefall European ambassadors reported on the situation in Russia it makes no sense to make an alliance at this time Tsar thinks only about his own amusement these officials think only of how to ruin each other everybody lives without a care it's unclear how such a vast state can maintain itself without any support Russia's huge bureaucracy had been left to fend for itself because the body that was supposed to wield power in Russia that effectively ceased to function the Supreme Privy Council had been established by Katherine the first to help her rule the Empire or to be more exact to rule it for her officially it was only supposed to advise the monarch but in reality it was now governing russia during peter ii reign six Nobles sat on the Supreme Council count gavrila golovkin the guillotines Prince Dmitry and Prince Mikhail the dunkaroo coffs Prince Vasily Vladimirovich and Vasili lukitch and Baron Osterman Peter now 14 years old had no idea about the problems his country faced and the dagger drew coughs did everything to keep it that way the father Prince Alexei using his son even to keep Peter distracted they intended to make the Emperor their puppet and turn the clock back by undoing all peter the great's modernizing reforms Peter had already agreed to stop new naval construction persuaded it was a waste of money and moved the capital from San Petersburg back to Moscow where the hunting was far superior only a few steps remained [Music] in November 1728 the Emperor's engagement to even sister Princess Catherine doll guru kava was announced [Music] as Catherine arrived at the palace for the official engagement the carriage caught under a low gate in front of guards and onlookers the gilded crown on the carriage roof was torn off and fell into the gutter in the weeks leading up to the wedding dal-gu Rokoff princes kept the emperor constantly entertained best he had time to reconsider his decision On January 6th thirteen days before the wedding Peter went to the traditional blessing of the Moscow River at the ceremony he played the part of the chivalrous Knight standing on the footboard of Princess Catherine's carriage for hours in freezing weather next day he had a burning fever then he was diagnosed with smallpox [Music] smallpox also known by its latin name very oliveira had been present in europe at a low level for a thousand years but in the 18th century higher population levels and the greater movement of people across the continent caused it to spread like wildfire smallpox victims developed spots on their face and limbs and the rich both men and women wore heavy makeup to mask the scars they left but it was more than just a cosmetic issue smallpox was a killer in Europe the virus infected more than half the population about 80 million people killing one in six the Emperor's health had been ruined by a dissolute lifestyle his fever and weakened immune system allowed the smallpox to progress quickly in just one week it was clear Peter would not survive [Music] dal-gu coughs were in despair it looked as if all their efforts had been in vain their grand schemes come to nothing as the Emperor Lay Dying LeFort off palace stood empty and silent decorated for a wedding it would never take place his dog Iruka friends meanwhile were desperately looking for a way to cling to power they decided to make the emperor sign a will naming his betrothed the Grand Duchess Catherine doll guru cava as his successor if they had succeeded the ruling house of Russia would have passed from the house of Romanov to the house of dagger gucoff but the emperor was not able to sign the will on January the 18th 1730 the eve of his planned wedding he suddenly sat up and ordered his sledge to be harnessed I want to go and see my sister he said they were his last words he died the next day the Supreme Privy Council reacted with indignation to the idea of handing the throne to the dunkaroo coffs the Romanoff's were the ruling dynasty of russia if the male line was broken they would turn to the female line the female line of the Romanoff's lived on through the two daughters of Peter the Great Anna and Elizabeth they were also three daughters of even the fifth Peters half-brother and joint ruler who died young they were Catherine Anna and plus Kavya Anna had married the Duke of Holstein in 1728 she bore him a son Karl Peter Ulrich but she died soon after childbirth Catherine had married the Duke of Mecklenburg and had a twelve-year-old daughter Elizabeth Catarina Cristina Anna was the widow of the Duke of Courland and had no children Escoffier was married to general dmitry heft mamonov council discussed the suitability of the candidates long into the night finally at 6:00 a.m. they chose anna duchess of Courland and daughter of Eve and the fifth widowed at the age of 17 she lived in Yale Java the Auriga she had no money and no allies in Moscow blessed with neither great charm nor intellect the council believed they could soon bend her to their will to avoid any surprises the council prepared a list of conditions which Anna would have to sign before sheet of the throne according to these conditions the Empress would not have the right to declare war make treaties introduce new taxes or spend state revenue make promotions above the rank of colonel give out land sentence Nobles to death get married or appoint her successor all these powers would reside in the Supreme Privy Council the Empress would have control only over her own income and her palace guards [Applause] [Music] on the morning of January 19 1730 the death of Peter the second was announced publicly at the same time a delegation set off from Moscow to see Anna nine days later she signed the conditions Russian autocracy had been abolished in its place oligarchy the rule of an elite view Anna arrived in Moscow where she was greeted by her guards the preobrazhenskiy regiment Anna declared that she was to be their chief spoke privately with the officers she learned many interesting things from these conversations she was told the people of Moscow were outraged by the conditions that had been imposed upon her and that the Privy Council was despised by many of the nobles just days ago anna had been an impoverished forgotten duchess in out-of-the-way courland now she was within a stone's throw of becoming Empress of Russia she sensed her moment [Music] she gathered her guards and senior Nobles in the palace hall and showed them what she thought of the conditions [Music] chapter 2 Vanna Ian Avner within a week the Supreme Privy Council was dismissed within a month Prince Alexei dal guru Cove and his son even were exiled to the Siberian town of berestov where their sworn enemy Menshikov had died the year before the day after becoming Empress and are demanded to see all the items confiscated from the famously wealthy menshikov she picked out jewelry for herself worth twenty three thousand rubles 138 million today about four million u.s. dollars she appointed a Russian architect of Italian parentage Bartolomeo rest rally to build two new palaces for her a wooden winter palace in the Kremlin and a stone summer palace on the yowser river to help her settle in [Music] anas German Chamberlain and Spearin followed his mistress to Moscow he was Anna's favorite and her lover the fact that he was married with three children didn't concern her Anna herself was the secret mother of his youngest son Karl amst which is why the boy was brought to Moscow [Music] later they were joined by Byron's wife and elder sons together they formed Russia's and Orthodox new imperial family the typical day fat Empress Anna began at 8 a.m. when she took her coffee she worked between 9 and 10 receiving ministers and signing decrees then she went riding with Viren and at noon she had lunch with him his wife and children then she went to bed for an hour rest of the day was solely for her own amusement Anna found many unusual ways to entertain herself one of her favorite was shooting crows this was why a loaded musket was left by each of the palace windows the impressed did you just shoot Birds she also hunted bears with a spear but there were also more sophisticated entertainments at court Italian operas and theatres in Hanna's reign the first Russian dance school was founded but nothing delighted the Empress quite as much as watching her court jesters and dwarfs fighting jesters first appeared in Russia in the reign of Ivan the Terrible a century later Alexei the first right to play chess against his own jester an acrimonious Hunchback named alpha Tsar Peter the Great's jesters included a former officer of the preobrazhenskiy regiment even Bela craf who advised the Tsar on serious issues and a Jew who'd converted to Christianity yonder Costa who debated theology with the Tsar the position of court jester flourished during the reign of empress Anna now there were more than ever Ballack rep and Acosta were joined by the Italian musician Pietro Petrillo and noblemen who'd been demoted to jesters Prince Nikita Falcon ski Prince Mikhail galitsin and count Alexia practising a troupe of entertainers also featured 10 dwarves one kalmyk woman and two event women from Russia's easternmost regions the Empress acquired a taste for exotic and spectacular parties lavish banquets masquerades and fireworks the only thing she frowned on was drinking alcohol had caused the early death of her young husband the Duke of Courland after he had tried to keep pace with Peter the Great's drinking at their own wedding celebration the Empress created a ministerial cabinet to handle the business of government it was the Supreme Privy Council in all but name just with new faces only the wily Baron Osterman kept his place becoming the elder statesman of Anna's government the Empress herself barely followed affairs of state but beyond who now held the title Duke of courland took an active role in cabinet business one cabinet minister Artemi velinski wrote the Empress is a fool it's impossible to get any decision from her Duke beer on as he pleases for opposing beer on velinski was charged with treason and executed the very thought of a palace revolution terrified Anna she had peter the great's daughter elizabeth watched to look for any hint of conspiracy and she reestablished the secret Chancellery of investigations founded by Peter but abolished by his successor its role was to sniff out any trace of political dissent its agents were everywhere and were rightly feared any careless word particularly about the Empress could lead to arrest and inevitably torture in the course of Anna's 10-year reign secret Chancellery arrested and tortured about 28,000 suspects those 20,000 were exiled to Siberia and Kamchatka 5000 went missing 2,000 died during torture and more than 1,000 were executed the Empress was suspicious of her guards too especially the preobrazhenskiy regiment they'd put her on the throne they could depose her too so she created a second guards regiment his mile off ski the new regiments officers were recruited from her native Duchy of Courland and took over guard duty at the palace preobrazhenskiy regiment was sent to fight the Turks at Belgrade in 1739 the treaty was signed to end the four-year conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire under its terms as off and parts of Ukraine became part of Russia but Russian warships and merchant ships were forbidden from sailing in the Sea of Azov all the black sea the war cost the Russian army about 46,000 man only about six thousand or one in eight of those men fell in battle the remaining 40,000 died from disease starvation and neglect Anna didn't concern herself with these details she was glad the war was over but her main concern was moving the court from Moscow back to San Petersburg in 1737 Moscow had been devastated by a great fire the Kremlin you take her at the surrounding white town part of the earth town almost all the modern city centre was burnt to the ground at the time the great tsar bell had been standing in the kremlin foundry the scaffolding around it caught fire when water was poured onto it a bell burst from the sudden temperature change anas winter palace also burned down but six months later the Empress was celebrating her birthday in a new Winter Palace built for her by Bartolomeo rest rally in Saint Petersburg the state apartments consisted of more than 100 rooms all of them decorated in the most lavish style under Anna's reign expenditure on the court reached 260 thousand rubles per year worth about 42 million dollars today running costs of Duke beer on stables were a hundred thousand rubles about 17 million dollars while small-scale expenditures by the Empress totaled forty two and a half thousand rubles for seven million dollars incredibly the Empress spent as much on jewelry as it cost to maintain the Academy of Sciences about forty seven thousand rubles great million dollars just a tenth of that some was spent on public education a measly four and a half thousand rubles Anna's most decadent celebration was held for the wedding of two of her court jesters in a palace of ice on Anna's whim the 53 year old Mikhail galitsin was to marry a 20 year old kalmo girl named Abdul shibuya Nineveh the bill for the party came to 30,000 rubles a house of ice 17 metres long and 3 metres high was built between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace six ice cannon and two mortars stood by the entrance by the gates there were ice sculptures of elephants and dolphins while everything inside the house even the furniture was made of ice before the wedding a masked procession passed through the city streets playing horns and Bal iliacus it included representatives from across the Empire Ukrainians from the south and Nimitz from the far north bride and groom traveled in a cage mounted on top of an elephant and after the wedding were left in the bedroom of the Ice Palace [Music] the French ambassador Marquis de Lucia tardy was one of the guests only in this country is there such fun to be had the bride and groom were taken to an ice house it was kept worn with straw the light that shone in through the ice from all sides was extraordinary all who saw it were amazed one of the few not enjoying themselves was the Empress's beautiful cousin Princess Elizabeth now treated with open suspicion Princess Elizabeth was adored by the gods she was godmother to their children and lent some of the money but most importantly she was peter the great's daughter [Music] her popularity had become a threat to Anna's plans for the succession Anna wanted the throne to remain with her father's line at aviv and the fifth half-brother and joint ruler with peter the great so anna announced that her heir would be the future son of her 14 year old niece Elizabeth Katarina Kristina even though at the time she wasn't even married Elizabeth took the name anna leopoldovna after converting to orthodoxy and a20 married the Duke of Brunswick Anton Ulrich someone to Russia for that purpose soon the couple had a son yun Antonovich when the new heir to the Russian throne was just two months old in prasanna fell seriously ill with kidney stones [Music] inflammation and infection set in just two weeks after the first symptoms on October 17 1740 Anna died one of her last acts was to sign a decree appointing a region for the infant Emperor the Duke of Courland and spear on [Music] Russian people felt no great loss of the death of Empress Anna her reign would be remembered for excess frivolity and cruelty nevertheless it was Anna who pushed forward the development of San Petersburg many of its grandest and most famous buildings including the Peter and Paul Cathedral the Admiralty with its high spire and the fountains of the Peterhof Palace were completed in the 1730's under the supervision of the Italian architects Rastrelli and Rosalie Italian musical theater made its first appearance in Russia while the Academy of Sciences published a regular newspaper some Petersburg news as well as the first Russian scientific journals elsewhere the foundations of Russian literature were being laid by poets such as Tretyakov ski and the young Lomonosov the Empress herself of course was interested only in much cruder forms of entertainment she had neither the intellect energy nor charisma to be an effective ruler a position that after all came to her almost by chance and within two weeks of her death all the plans she had laid for her succession had collapsed like a house of cards no one was satisfied by the appointment of Anna's lover and Spearin as regent to the infant Emperor even the sixth and so the guards intervened again on the night of November 9th 1740 Field Marshal Count von Munich and 80 Guardsmen burst into the Winter Palace he sealed the exits and sent his adjutant to find beer on [Music] according to the adjutant's report Viren was sleeping soundly when they arrived when he was awoken he tried to hide under the bed but the soldiers dragged him out he struck out in an effort to break free but the soldiers answered his blows with musket butts he was then stripped naked and tied up and carried to the guardhouse where he was loaded into the field marshals waiting carriage he was carried out past the very rooms in which Anna's coffin was still lying by 6 a.m. the palace coup was over Russia had a new Regent the infant emperor's mother the 21 year old anna leopoldovna rumored to be even less intelligent than her aunt the late Empress Anna was madly in love with a Saxon diplomat named Kent lino Russian Nobles feared they had another biron on their hands when lino was given the post of grand Chamberlain he then briefly returned to Saxony to settle his affairs at home but before he could return the Russian throne changed hands once more Peter the Great's daughter Elizabeth had finally made her move many people knew about the plot to put Elizabeth on the throne who Diaz warned and are about it every day she paid little attention until finally she decided to speak with Elizabeth herself Elizabeth was her half cousin once-removed and ten years her senior meeting warned Elizabeth that she was suspected she had to act fast she summoned a few trusted men donned a gilded breastplate over her parade uniform and went to the barracks of the preobrazhenskiy regiment you remember whose daughter I am she cried are you ready to die for me guards responded with loud cheers Elizabeth led them to the Winter Palace where the guards also quickly switched their allegiance she entered the bedroom of anna leopoldovna with the words sister it's time to get up then she went to the nursery of the infant emperor Yvonne she ordered her men not to wake him she took even in her arms kissed him and said you're not to blame little one nobody knew what to do with him Elizabeth left the winter palace with the child in her arms chapter three Elizabeth Petrovna little even the sixth became Russia's man in the iron mask almost all his short tragic life was spent in closely guarded confinement first in ranan burg then in karma gory and then in solitary confinement in the shlisselburg fortress where he was held as a prisoner with no name even spent seven years in a cell with no natural light with only the Bible to read at the age of 24 he was murdered by his guards during a failed rescue attempt his parents spent the rest of their lives under guard in kama gory far to the north so that no one was ever tempted to restore their family to the throne in the aftermath of the palace revolution even the sixth fate was not yet known Elizabeth had many important decisions to make first she announced that she would restore the laws and state bodies established by her father Peter the Great the Senate resumed its work as a legislative and judicial body the ministerial cabinet was dismissed Elizabeth would learn to keep a close eye on all her advisors who ensure none grew too powerful or dared challenge her authority during her magnificent coronation Elizabeth became the first Russian monarch to place the crown upon her own head a moment rich in symbolism [Music] foreigners who'd helped Elizabeth gain power hoping for special treatment were disappointed the new Empress wasn't going to dance to anyone else's tune on one occasion her agents intercepted a letter sent by her old friend the French ambassador Marquis de Chatard II the smallest matters terrify her weakness and instability this is the essence of all the Tsar it's as actions Markey was sent home within 24 hours the Empress never forgot who'd really put her in power the guards now she entrusted her life to them creating a special unit to act as her bodyguard leap company was an elite unit made up of the 300 grenadiers and 64 officers that had put Elizabeth on the throne these men could do virtually whatever they liked were made for terrible guards often drinking on duty falling asleep and even leaving their posts but the empress excused them anything she herself was the unit's commanding officer its officers were her friends and closest allies including the brothers Peter and Alexander Suvorov and her lover Alexei razumovsky Alexei razumovsky held no political rank at all but if he'd wanted he could have become the most influential man in Russia wielding power did not interest him he was good-natured and entirely without ambition the Empress's happiness was his only concern the son of a Cossack farmer from northern Ukraine he had a fine singing voice and was extremely handsome he became Elizabeth's constant companion he was cheerful calm and dependable and they were devoted to each other Rosa maaske gave Elizabeth a taste for Ukrainian cuisine and her cooks prepared borscht with garlic and dumplings for her almost every day the Empress liked to eat well and had certain peculiar habits for example she always had a radish with a glass of vodka ate something fatty late at night drank a lot of coffee a personal coffee maker carl severs was obliged to follow her everywhere to make coffee for her the Empress adored sweet things too confectioner's were hired from France and Italy to create fantastic sculptures from sugar and sponge like her mother Catherine the first Elizabeth was a night owl and stayed up long after the balls had finished and there was always the lingering fear of a nighttime palace coup Elizabeth never slept in the same room twice and her apartments were constantly being altered new doors and windows were cut through the walls staircases were moved all measures to create new escape routes and to confuse any potential conspirators [Music] this deep fear was masked by a busy schedule of court entertainments on mondays music for dancing on wednesdays Italian music on Tuesdays and Fridays theatres Elizabeth loved balls and masquerades and could happily dance through the night she liked to devise her own magical or comical themes for instance making all the men come dressed as women the women as men all the guests would be made to look ridiculous except Elizabeth herself whose shapely legs were universally admired the Empress was a great beauty but hugely vain her courtiers were expected to pay her endless compliments while ladies feared to dress too well in case they were thought to be competing with her to ensure she was always the most magnificently attired Elizabeth would issue strict rules before a ball stipulating certain colors or hairstyles that only she was permitted to wear the Empress's wardrobe was reported to include no fewer than 15,000 dresses she never wore a dress twice and sometimes changed several times in a single evening merchants importing expensive textiles from abroad were obliged to bring them to the Empress first so she could select the finest fabrics for herself [Music] the Rococo style was the latest fashion in Europe which meant frilly shirts for the men and for the women whalebone corsets to create tiny waists and huge skirts supported by Kane who petticoats fantastically elaborate hairdos were all the rage some of them 60 centimetres high and shaped to resemble fancy hats flower beds or even ships and windmills small flasks of water holding live flowers were sometimes tied into the hair at night it was recommended to cover such constructions with a night cap to prevent lice from crawling in impress Elizabeth also demanded palaces to equal anything in Austria or France this is where the genius of Bartolomeo rest rally came in the son of a famous Italian sculptor Rastrelli moved to San Petersburg as a teenager and his work soon found favor with the Empress Anna as senior court architect he was kept on by Elizabeth and his projects became yet more daring and grand his designs included the new Winter Palace Smolny Cathedral grand Peterhof Palace Anna Saskia sello palace the cost was astronomical the Palisades asked his hello alone cost 1.6 million rubles equivalent of about 270 million dollars today this at a time when the Russian economy was crippled by corruption and a currency crisis Russians uncertain of the future had begun to hoard more and more currency every year the state increased coin production but they simply vanished into the economy there were approximately 54 million coins in circulation but none of them were circulating many industries such as the extremely lucrative salt trade were state sanctioned monopolies run by influential officials and Friends of the Empress like Peter Shuvalov corruption had reached extraordinary levels almost all of elizabeth's ministers also received wages from foreign countries whose taking payments from foreign governments included the Chancellor Alexei boss - Jeffrey omen and the Vice Chancellor me Carver on Soph it was once said over and soft that he was on sale to the first bidder the Empress needed foreign money - word spread that she was willing to sign conventions for subsidies these unequal agreements Russia agreed to enter a war on one side or another in exchange for cash payments Russia had become in effect a state for hire one thing Elizabeth refused to sign was any death warrant when she came to power she'd sworn that she'd have no one executed and was true to her word an entire generation of noblemen grew up without fear of the scaffold slowly but surely the Russian economy began to modernize the first banks opened offering loans at six percent per annum industry was expanding rapidly Russia was producing two million pewds or 33,000 tons of cast iron a year half of which was sold overseas the Russian population was rising five million and a quarter of a century as she aged Elizabeth became increasingly worried about losing her looks she sought reassurance in the arms of a court page 18 years her junior named Ivan Shuvalov her infatuation with this handsome youth soon turned to love a former favorite razumovsky quickly understood without scandal or acrimony he quietly withdrew from court the new favorite was much like the old calm gentle and good-natured and absolutely loyal to the Empress he asked for neither money nor positions however unlike razumovsky Suvorov was highly educated he corresponded with the French philosopher helvetius and was passionate about improving the state of Russian education thanks to his influence Elizabeth authorized the founding of the Russian Academy of Arts and Moscow University but the life of the Mary Empress was not all balls and parties she had another passion foreign policy [Music] in the 1740s the warlike King Frederick of Prussia was seeking to expand his realm at the expense of his neighbors and to establish Prussia as a great power most of the other European powers were determined to stop him and formed themselves into an alliance driving forces behind the Alliance were Maria Theresa Empress of Austria Elisabeth Empress of Russia and Madame pompadour mistress of the King of France Frederick famous for his low opinion of women was nevertheless an intellectual and a wit who nicknamed the alliance against him League of the three petticoats the three women had led their countries into one of the greatest conflicts in European history the Seven Years War Russia joined the fray in 1757 launching an attack on East Prussia after meeting the Russian army in battle frederick declared to stop a Russian soldier you need two bullets one to kill him another to bring him down following a decisive victory against the Prussian army at kunis Dorf Russian forces took control of Eastern Prussia the following year 1760 Russian troops briefly occupied Frederick's capital Berlin the war seemed to be virtually won but suddenly inexplicably military operations were called to a halt [Music] on Christmas Eve 1761 Elizabeth had a sudden sensation that she was dying all her life the word death had terrified her but now she was perfectly calm she made her confession till communion and bid farewell to relatives and friends she gave her last advice to her heir Peter feodorovich and his wife Catherine he friends on Christmas Day she died Elizabeth was laid in her coffin wearing a silver dress with lace sleeves golden crown on her head beautiful and serene as she had been in her youth but those at the funeral were fixated instead on a strange behavior of the new emperor Peter the third he either walked too slowly or ran laughed or grimaced it was whispered that he'd already ordered Russian troops out of Prussia and offered his idol King Frederick peace with no demands it didn't seem to matter to him that thousands of Russian soldiers would have died in vain there were soon doubts about the new Emperor's sanity and what he might do one thing seemed certain the endless parties the glamour and frivolity of Elizabeth's court or a thing of the past but some already looked to Peter the Third's young wife Catherine and wondered if that glorious age could not be reclaimed [Music] [Music] [Music] you
This is an awesome documentary!!! I’ve seen it a couple times 👍
Agreed. Excellent