Misplaced Pages

#185814

44-479: Peter ordered the construction of the tower to commemorate his triumph over his half-sister Sofia in 1689, after the Streltsy uprising had been crushed. The tower received its name in honor of Lavrentii Pankrat'evich Sukharev, whose regiment of streltsy had supported Peter. The brick tower was built from 1692 through 1701 under the direction of the architect Mikhail Ivanovich Choglokov  [ ru ] . It

88-515: A minor nobleman , by his wife, whose name is uncertain – it was either Yekaterina Fyodorovna or Anna Mikhailovna Tatishcheva . Ivan's marriage was arranged in the traditional style of Russian rulers: he selected a bride from a parade of potential candidates . Praskovia Saltykova, who came from a rather obscure Russian noble family , had been raised in a middle-class household and adhered to conventional values and moral standards. She bonded strongly with her gentle and simple-minded husband and became

132-522: A compromise was found by declaring Ivan and Peter as co-rulers, with a regency government until the boys came of age. Sofia Alekseyevna, who had been influential at court during her brother Feodor's reign, was named regent. On 25 June 1682, less than two months after the death of Feodor III, Ivan and Peter were crowned in the Cathedral of the Dormition as co-Tsars. A special throne with two seats

176-401: A court never open to a woman in her situation, she utilized her connections, making allies and formally planning on securing the throne. When Feodor died on 7 May [ O.S. 27 April] 1682, Sophia immediately returned to the political scene. She attended her brother's funeral and caused a commotion while doing so. In Sophia's age, the female relatives of the tsar were kept away from

220-467: A girl, eliminating any potential claim to the throne from that branch. Tensions between the two factions continued to grow, until Peter I turned 17 years of age, when his Naryshkin relatives demanded that Sophia step down. In response, Shaklovityi advised Sophia to proclaim herself tsarina and attempted to induce the Streltsy to a new uprising. Most of the Streltsy units deserted central Moscow for

264-434: A shared crown with Ivan and herself. Upon the court's swift and unanimous rejection of this proposal, Sophia reached out to the discouraged military troop, the streltsy , for their aid and support. The unjust dismissal of Ivan's rights acted as a catalyst to the already displeased and frustrated troops. Multiple issues, including merciless motivational tactics and lack of rest, drove the streltsy to violent opposition against

308-578: A water-supply system from the village of Mytishchi to Moscow. The Mytishchi Water Conduit, built between 1779 and 1804, ended near the Sukharev tower to dispense water. Between 1826 and 1835 engineer major-general Nikolai Ivanovich Yanish ( Russian : Николай Иванович Яниш ) repaired and expanded the Mytishchi Water Supply. At this time two steam-engine powered pumps and a cast-iron tank holding 5000 (buckets) gallons of water were built on

352-407: A young Peter remains as the most historically significant portion of her reign, as the rebellion of 1682 bred a distrust in nobility that came to define his leadership. Sophia Alekseyevna's regency retained the trappings of a typical regent, and the true tsar was growing into his position with every passing year. At the age of 16, Peter I demanded that Golitsyn report to him regarding all matters, and

396-443: Is blamed (perhaps unfairly, as a tactic of defamation) for the murders of Peter's uncles on his mother's side of the family. Due to this and other factors, tension arose between the factions of the two co-tsars. Ivan being both incapable and disinterested, Peter came into his own and functioned as though he were the sole tsar. The eventual result was that, over time, the outward signs of deference and power which Ivan had enjoyed during

440-566: The Naryshkin family prepared for their long-awaited ascension to power. In 1688, Peter began to promote within his clan, and Sophia remained powerless to halt the gradual shift in control. During this time period, the regent disregarded the young tsar, letting him train his Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky Guards in Preobrazhenskoe . Although some historians claim Sophia made conscious attempts to neutralize Peter, and remove him from

484-526: The Novodevichy Convent without formally taking the veil. Sophia may have made one last attempt at securing power, although her involvement is unclear. Regardless of her conscious intent, her fate was sealed ten years later, when the Streltsy attempted to reinstate her in the Kremlin during Peter's absence from the country. This uprising was suppressed with an iron hand, and soon the corpses of

SECTION 10

#1732771935186

528-468: The "unjust" election of Peter. As the fighting ceased and Peter's life was left forever scarred by the blood spilt by his Naryshkin relatives , the streltsy achieved their initial demands. In the aftermath of the streltsy rebellion, on 25 June 1682 the Patriarch Ioakim crowned the incompetent Ivan as senior tsar ( Ivan V ) and Peter, only nine years old, as junior tsar. Sophia had been deemed

572-445: The 9-year old Peter Alekseyevich from bypassing his 16-year-old elder brother Tsarevich Ivan and inheriting the throne. Although Sophia emerged from the shadows during the dynastic struggles of 1682, her prior influences can help to explain her ascendance to the regency. At the previous change of ruler in 1676, Sophia may have acted in the interest of her brother, Feodor, as various rumours exist of her pleading then with her father,

616-506: The age of 27, Ivan was described by foreign ambassadors as senile , paralytic and almost blind . He died two years later, on 8 February 1696, and was interred in the Archangel Cathedral . It was fortuitous to Peter's faction that Ivan produced several daughters but no sons, as there was no confusion regarding the succession of the crown upon his death. His co-ruler was left to become supreme ruler of Russia; with Ivan's death,

660-656: The coup against her half-brother Peter I . This event led to the peace between China and Russia in the Nerchinsk Treaty . Vanessa Redgrave portrayed the character of Sophia Alekseyevna in the 1986 miniseries Peter the Great . Her performance received an Emmy award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries. Ivan V of Russia Ivan V Alekseyevich ( Russian : Иван V Алексеевич ; 6 September [ O.S. 27 August] 1666 – 8 February [ O.S. 29 January] 1696)

704-414: The court and other political spheres, and funerals traditionally took place without women. Sophia stormed into the funeral, insisting on her presence and simultaneously setting off a chain of events that would result in her regency. The Miloslavsky party, grouped around the family of Feodor and Sophia, took advantage of the Streltsy uprising 25 May [ O.S. 15 May] 1682 to place Sophia on

748-744: The creation of the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy , the first Russian higher learning institution. The most important highlights of her foreign policy, as engineered by Golitsyn, were the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 with Poland , the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk with China , and the Crimean campaigns against Turkey . Although spearheaded by Prince Golitsyn, Sophia's reign oversaw two of the earliest diplomatic treaties and underwent inner growth and progress. Despite her other achievements, Sophia's influence and effect on

792-541: The dying Tsar Alexis, not to proclaim Peter his heir. Feodor's capability to lead Russia was questioned, based on his weak nature and poor health. His mental ability developed quite nicely over time, as he was taught by Simeon Polotsky. During Feodor III's brief reign (1676–1682), many historians argue, Feodor actually "ruled under the protectorate of Sophia his sister". As the young Tsar Feodor's health began to decline, more individuals rose up to counsel him, and Sophia found her influence steadily declining. Taking advantage of

836-547: The famous flea market in 1925. It is said that Lenin felt that the market was a "breeding ground for speculation". "The bride of the Ivan Velikiy " (as Muscovites used to call the tower) was demolished in 1934 by order of Lazar Kaganovich , Secretary of the Moscow City Committee . It took place during reconstruction of the city ordered by Joseph Stalin , that gave birth to Stalinist architecture . It

880-586: The mainstay of his life. She proved to be an exemplary wife to a mentally challenged man. Her moral character, simple lifestyle, charity, piety and non-involvement in politics were admired by all. She earned the lifelong respect of her powerful brother-in-law, Peter the Great , who entrusted the care and education of his own two daughters to her, imploring her to bring them up to be just like herself. Ivan's purported debility did not prevent him from producing robust offspring, and Praskovia bore him five daughters, three of whom lived to adulthood. Their children were: At

924-550: The move. Rumors spread around Moscow that Feodor III had been poisoned and Ivan strangled by boyars so that the 10-year-old Peter could become Tsar. These rumours fomented the Moscow Uprising of 1682 , and the streltsy stormed the Kremlin . These disturbances subsided only after Ivan appeared in person in the city, and proved to everyone that he was alive and well. The streltsy demanded that Ivan be named tsar, and

SECTION 20

#1732771935186

968-422: The other figureheads of the attempted rebellion. During the seven years of her regency, Sophia made a few concessions to posads and loosened detention policies towards runaway peasants, which caused dissatisfaction among the nobles. She also made an effort to further the organization of the military. Intrigued by baroque style architecture, Sophia held responsibility for the promotion of the foreign district, and

1012-699: The period of Golitsyn's rise to power. When the Old Believers joined the rebels in the fall of 1682 and demanded the reversal of Nikon's reforms , Sophia lost control of the unsteady Streltsy to her once ally, Prince Ivan Khovansky . After aiding Sophia in May, Khovansky used his influence with the troops to force her court to flee the Moscow Kremlin and seek refuge in the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra . The streltsy rebels, who instigated

1056-455: The policies during her regency. Sophia's relationship with Prince Golitsyn was not necessarily a romantic attachment. Golitsyn had a wife and a large family at a time when the boyars were still attached to the Domostroy , a matrimonial code from Ivan IV 's reign. Several early 18th-century memoirs gave birth to rumours that Golitsyn had been Sophia's lover. Some see the evidence for this in

1100-534: The political world, her involvement remains unclear. Sophia and her party had discussed crowning her as tsarina, and in August 1687 had tried persuading the Streltsy to petition on her behalf. Denied their aid, Sophia and her supporters found themselves on the decline in 1688, as the Crimean war brought rioting and unrest to Moscow. To worsen the situation, Peter had married, readying himself for rule, and Ivan V fathered

1144-481: The rebellion, hoped to depose Sophia and to make Prince Ivan Khovansky a new regent, to satisfy their increasing desire for concessions. Calling together the gentry militia, Sophia suppressed the so-called Khovanshchina with the help of Fyodor Shaklovityi , who succeeded Khovansky in charge of the Muscovite army. Silencing the dissatisfied parties until Peter reached his age of majority, Sophia executed Khovansky and

1188-610: The rebels were suspended in front of Sophia's windows. Having taken the veil, she was kept in the strictest seclusion, with other nuns not allowed to see her except on Easter Sunday. She died in the Novodevichy Convent six years later. Sophia Alekseyevna appears as a minor character in the wuxia novel The Deer and the Cauldron by Jin Yong . In the novel, the protagonist Wei Xiaobao went to Russia and helped her in

1232-459: The regency slowly withered away, and he became a non-entity in the Russian court. For the last decade of his life, Ivan was completely overshadowed by the more energetic Peter I. He spent his days with his wife, Praskovia Saltykova , caring about little but "fasting and praying, day and night". In late 1683 or early 1684, Ivan married Praskovia Saltykova , daughter of Fyodor Petrovich Saltykov ,

1276-623: The seat of power. Tsar Alexis had left behind two families by his two wives, and each of the two branches had at least one male heir. As the clans of Alexis' two wives were in conflict, Sophia devised a plan to ensure power for herself and her family. Promoting the case of her full brother Ivan as the legitimate heir to the throne, Sophia attempted to convince the patriarch and the boyars that they should reverse their recent decision to crown Peter. Insisting that Peter's proclamation broke monarchic laws by skipping over her brother, who would have been next in line to rule if not for his ineptitude, she proposed

1320-689: The second floor of the tower to improve the water pressure. Pipes from the tower led to fountains. One of these fountains, called Sheremetev, was located in the Sukharev square near the tower. A large market, the Sukharevka, bustled around the tower in the 19th century. In 1921 the Soviet government turned the tower into the Moscow Municipal Museum , which later became the Moscow City Museum. The Soviet government closed down

1364-464: The sole intellectually mature member of the ruling family at the time of Feodor's death, making her the favourite to govern on behalf of the child Peter and of the inept Ivan. Using political and practical knowledge she had acquired by Feodor's side, Sophia convinced the nobles and the patriarch of her capacity to rule Russia. As Sophia had arranged before Tsar Feodor's death, Vasily Golitsyn was installed as de facto head of government, executing most of

Sukharev Tower - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-415: The struggle for power within the family had finally ended. In 1730, more than 30 years after Ivan's death, his second surviving daughter, Anna, Duchess of Courland , was invited to the throne of Russia by the country's privy council. She ruled for more than 10 years, and was succeeded by Ivan's infant great-grandson Ivan VI ; however, a palace coup engineered in 1741 by Ivan's niece Elizabeth resulted in

1452-487: The suburb of Preobrazhenskoye and later for the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra , where the young tsar was living. Feeling the power slipping from her hands, Sophia sent the boyars and the Patriarch to Peter, asking him to join her in the Kremlin. He flatly refused her overtures, demanding Shaklovityi's execution and Golitsyn's exile. After Sophia agreed to surrender her senior boyars, she was arrested and forced to withdraw to

1496-464: The tone of Sophia's correspondence with him in 1689. In any case, a romantic interaction between the two could not begin when they met under Feodor's rule. Feodor entrusted great confidence in Golitsyn, and there remains no evidence Sophia and Vasily acted against customs that would have kept them apart until after his death. There is no suspicion of any relations until the letter in 1689, even during

1540-466: The upper story his astronomical observatory , the first in Russia. The fourth floor had a clock and a state coat-of-arms. "An attractive typically Muscovite, wide exterior staircase led to a gallery on the first floor and surrounding the building." Catherine the Great (reigned 1762-1796) allowed Moscow merchants to use the tower premises for storehouses and shops. Catherine ordered the construction of

1584-526: The upper-floor terem , veiled and guarded in public, and invariably kept aloof from any open involvement in politics. Sophia was the third surviving daughter of Tsar Alexis by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya . She was the only one of her sisters educated by Simeon Polotsky , who also taught Tsar Alexis' heirs Tsarevich Alexei and Tsarevich Feodor . After the death of her brother Tsar Feodor III on 27 April 1682, Sophia unexpectedly entered Russian politics, trying to prevent her young half-brother,

1628-420: The youngest son of Tsar Alexis and Maria Miloslavskaya. Only two of his older brothers survived childhood; his eldest brother, Alexei , died aged 15 in 1670, therefore his second brother, Feodor , became tsar upon the death of their father. When Feodor died in 1682 without issue, the court was faced with a crisis of succession, because Ivan, the next-oldest brother, was thought to be "infirm in body and mind." It

1672-456: Was Tsar of all Russia between 1682 and 1696, jointly ruling with his younger half-brother Peter I . Ivan was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya , while Peter was the only son of Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina . Ivan's reign was solely titular because he had serious physical and mental challenges. Ivan V was born in 1666 in Moscow ,

1716-466: Was a Russian princess who ruled as regent of Russia from 1682 to 1689. She allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Golitsyn , to install herself during the minority of her brother Ivan V and half-brother Peter I . She carried out her regency with a firm hand. The activity of this " bogatyr - tsarevna ", as Sergey Solovyov called her, was all the more extraordinary, as upper-class Muscovite women were confined to

1760-454: Was anxious that every outward sign of respect and deference be paid to Ivan, which was a subtle way of undermining the influence of Peter's faction in court. Thus, every wish or opinion expressed by Ivan was deferred to, and his general prestige in court remained intact during the years of Sophia's regency. As Peter grew up, he and his faction, led by his mother's Naryshkin family, contended with Regent Sophia for influence and power. Indeed, Sophia

1804-502: Was commissioned for the occasion (now on display in the Kremlin Armoury ). While Ivan was 16 years old at this time, his co-ruler Peter I was only 10. Ivan was considered the "senior tsar", but actual power was wielded by Sophia Alekseyevna , Ivan's full sister and Peter's half-sister, for the next seven years. Sophia was always considerate of Ivan, although she is never known to have consulted him on any important matter. She

Sukharev Tower - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-582: Was not a fortress but rather a ceremonial gateway into the city. The first floor formed an arched entrance to the city. The second floor contained guardrooms. Originally these served as barracks for Sukharev's regiment of streltsy, but the streltsy were disbanded at the end of the 17th century. The third floor housed the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation . The school was part of Peter's grand plan to introduce western education to Russia. Choglokov did some remodeling in 1701. Count Yakov Bruce made

1892-602: Was proposed that he be passed over in favor of his younger half-brother, Peter, who was only 10 years old at this time, but was healthy in mind and body, and could be expected to provide adequate leadership in adulthood. The church and the Naryshkins (family of Peter's mother, Natalya Naryshkina ) supported Peter's proposed ascension to the throne. However, the family of Ivan V's mother (the Miloslavski) and Ivan's older sister, Sofia Alekseyevna , in particular, disputed

1936-549: Was said that the tower blocked traffic. Over the years Moscow authorities several times considered building a replica of the tower, but no decision has been made. 55°46′22″N 37°37′56″E  /  55.77278°N 37.63222°E  / 55.77278; 37.63222 Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia Sophia Alekseyevna (Russian: Со́фья Алексе́евна , IPA: [ˈsofʲjə ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvnə] ; 27 September [ O.S. 17 September] 1657 – 14 July [ O.S. 3 July] 1704 )

#185814