9,300 killed, 15,000 prisoners. Russian army – 1400 dead. Captured Swedes are marching defeated through the streets of Moscow. They will return home, due to the ongoing war, only after many years.
In 1710, without waiting for the end of the armistice, wishing to return Azov as soon as possible, and in response to Peter’s too zealous demands to expel Karl from Bendery, Turkey declares war on Russia.
It occurs to Peter that the peoples of Wallachia and Moldavia will be happy, having got rid of the Ottomans, to accept his protectorate, or even complete absorption. In March 1711, taking in addition to the 80-thousandth army, a friend of his heart, Ekaterina Alekseevna, deep in position, he set off on the Prut campaign. Already in mid-July, from the raids of the Tatars, disease, lack of food and water, the army is reduced to 56 thousand. Even before the start of major battles, it becomes clear that it is time to retreat. An almost 170,000-strong Turkish army and a 20,000-strong detachment of the Crimean Tatars press the Russian army against the Prut River. The military camp is under continuous fire from 160 cannons. The Grand Vizier is quite complacent. For a bribe, he agrees to the terms of peace proposed by Peter. Manages to bargain for more than the king expects, already quite willing to lose all northern conquests. This is the return of Azov to the Turks, the destruction of Taganrog and other Russian settlements near the Sea of Azov. The best ships of the southern fleet are sold to the Sublime Port. The rest have to be set on fire.
…In 1712 Peter will be married to his mistress Martha Skavronskaya, the widow of a Swedish dragoon, now Catherine.
In 1718, the son of Peter the Great, Alexei, takes refuge in one of the castles of Naples. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire allows the emissary of the Russian monarch to speak with the Tsarevich. The diplomat presents false evidence that the extradition of Alexei by the Austrian government has already been decided. The prince agrees, not knowing that his request for help to Charles the Twelfth has received the king’s approval. The entire Swedish army could be given to the rightful heir. At home, Alexei is immediately arrested. He dies in prison from torture, stroke, exacerbation of tuberculosis, it is not known exactly. Three priests, with whom he conferred, are killed. The Tsarevich abdicates the throne in favor of the son of Peter the Great from his marriage to Catherine, as well as Peter, who later dies at the age of four. His only son, born in a marriage with the German princess Charlotte, again Peter, would later become the Russian emperor.
.In the same year, the first full-fledged census («revision») of the population starts. Some lists include peasants and disenfranchised courtyard slaves. The idea is to raise the latter to the level of the former. But it turns out differently. The landlord must pay tax on each servant. It’s clear. But the peasants, who have their own means of production, and the skills that make it possible to earn money, wherever, now have to pay through the landlord. A person is freed from the need to personally lay out one and a half rubles for himself and his sons every year, but falls into real slavery to the nobleman, the head of the accounting department.
…Peter the First roughly understands what happened. It even seems that he does not like this turn of events. But to stop what is happening, in view of the monolithic opposition of the nobles, the powerful sovereign is no longer able to.
In 1721, the Nystadt Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and Sweden. Russia returns the conquered Finland, pays compensation for the rest of the northern territorial acquisitions. At the same time, Peter takes the title of emperor.
In 1722 Peter the Great carried out the Persian campaign. The reason was attacks on merchants and a Russian reconnaissance detachment. The global goal is to restore trade routes to Central Asia and India by conquering the Caspian Sea and adjacent territories. India itself is also a mouthwatering bite. The forces of the Russian army – 30 thousand people, 200 guns, 270 transport ships. Derbent, Baku, the territories of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan have been under the rule of Peter the Great for only ten years. In 1732—1735, in order to avoid a new major war with the Ottoman Empire, these areas were returned to Persia
Catherine the First. She is Marta Samuilovna Skavronskaya, after the adoption of Orthodoxy – Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova (1684 – 1727). For female wisdom (one might say – not for a model appearance), she is acclaimed by Field Marshal Sheremetev, and then by Alexei Menshikov. In 1703, during a visit to a friend, Peter the Great notices Martha and takes her to his place.
Peter begins to think about a successor. He and his brother Ivan the Fifth have no more sons. The new decree, allowing the monarch to appoint any person, including a woman, as heir to the throne himself, causes some ferment in society. In the same 1724, the tsar’s kidney stone disease was aggravated. Catherine is suspected of adultery. Her candidacy for a high post is being questioned.
In February 1725 Peter the Great dies.
For two years Catherine the First (Skavronskaya), the king’s widow, has ruled. She exhausts her strength at balls and feasts, and in 1727 she leaves the sublunary world.
The last representative of the Romanovs in a straight line, eleven-year-old Pyotr Alekseevich, the son of Tsarevich Alexei who died in prison, ascends the throne. Almost immediately A. Menshikov, the «semi-sovereign ruler,» betrothed him to his 16-year-old daughter Maria.
The new rulers, not lovers of hasty changes, are moving the capital back to Moscow. The military fleet is in decline. The boyars and the Supreme Privy Council rule, and not an heir, prone to wine since childhood. Locally and centrally, the nobles do whatever comes to their mind.
Peter II (1715 – 1730), son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and German princess Sophia-Charlotte. He ascends to the throne at the age of eleven, studies hardly an hour a day, does not show interest in state affairs, kills thousands of rabbits while hunting, dies at fourteen.
In 1730, Peter II died of hypothermia and fever, which complicated the disease with smallpox. This actually ends the Romanov dynasty.
At the Privy Council, the Dolgoruky presents a forged testament to the emperor; to give the rights to the throne to the bride of Peter II, Ekaterina Dolgoruka. The powerful Golitsyns make their competitors laugh. Anna Ioannovna, daughter of Peter the Great’s brother, Ivan the Fifth, widow of the Duke of Courland, becomes Empress.
In 1735, another war starts with Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. The Russian army captures Azov and Ochakov. With an interval of a year or two, three trips to the Crimea are carried out. The army even reaches Bakhchisarai, the capital of the khanate, but returns due to lack of food and water. The cholera epidemic that broke out in 1736 reduces a significant part of the army, as well as the entire population of the peninsula. The European allies are withdrawing from the war. According to the Belgrade Peace Treaty of 1737, Russia loses all conquests, except for Azov, subject to the tearing down of its fortifications. Exit to the Black Sea and trade are allowed exclusively on Turkish ships.
Laughing at the Dolgoruky, trying to make the monarchy manageable, the Golitsyn brothers fall into disgrace on charges of high treason.
Anna Ioannovna (1693 – 1740), Russian empress, fourth daughter of Ivan the Fifth and Tsarina Praskovya Fyodorovna.
In 1740 Anna Ioannovna dies from an attack of urolithiasis. According to the will, the son of the empress’s sister, two-month-old Ioann Antonovich, becomes the emperor.
