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Okay, so Ivan V, Pyotr the Great's half-brother and co-czar, was a pathetic shadow of Pyotr. He was/is regarded by many as close to an imbecile. By his wife, Praskovya Feodorovna Saltykova, he had five daughters - Maria, Anna, Ekaterina, Feodosia and Praskovia. Except for Ekaterina, none of them left surviving issue, and his line was finally ended with his great-granddaughter, the deaf Ekaterina Antonovna of Brunswick, dying in Horsens in Denmark in 1806.

Now, what if Ivan had fathered a son? How would there being a non-retarded (for the sake of our POD, let's assume none of Ivan's problems were genetic) male successor to the senior of the co-czars affect Pyotr Velikiy's reign?
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