Peter I is dead in 1710

Ivan III married Sophia Paleolog without it.
In fact, the custom (aped from Byzantine tradition) was allegedly BROUGHT by Sophia.
And then, other than 2nd match of Ivan the Terrible, it was followed in letter if not in spirit (the Eudoxia Streshneva selection was the only non-rigged one in ENTIRE Romanov history, and even then she was merely a lady-in-waiting/companion to one of original contestants); Boris Godunov tried to go away with the tradition, looking for the wife for his son outside Russia (in Georgian/Armenian kingdoms IIRC).

4. What to do about St-Petersburg? Russia got 2 major ports, Riga and Revel (plus some smaller ones including Narva). However, location of St-Petersburg has some advantages in the terms of being better adjusted to the traditional Russian trade routes to the Baltic coast so the site can be further developed as an additional trade port.
It pretty much becomes the Novgorod-oriented trade center, probably the city proper moves further inland to the banks of Okhta River, where it is better protected from floods.

When I tried to model Alexei's reign when helping @VVD0D95 with his Panthers & Lions project, I thought that it would look much like "Anna Ioannovna, but completely legitimate and male".
 
It is quite possible that Alexei ends up with appointing a Patriarch instead of creating a Synod. However, experience of his (quite devoted) grandfather demonstrated that Patriarch is not a sacred cow and if he has too high opinion about his place in Russia, he can be replaced without too much hassle. Anyway, the top level of the Russian priesthood already trained to do what they are told by a ruler so a trouble is not to be expected.
There may be concessions here and there, though - like "appointing Patriarch in exchange for increasing the number of bishoprics" (the bishoprics system was already poorly suited to growing Russian territory by 1670ies, let alone 1710ies when much more territories were conquered/added). The increase of their numbers was the thing mostly opposed by top clergy, ended only by creation of Synod, but I believe that some bargaining is possible.
 
In fact, the custom (aped from Byzantine tradition) was allegedly BROUGHT by Sophia.
And then, other than 2nd match of Ivan the Terrible, it was followed in letter if not in spirit (the Eudoxia Streshneva selection was the only non-rigged one in ENTIRE Romanov history, and even then she was merely a lady-in-waiting/companion to one of original contestants); Boris Godunov tried to go away with the tradition, looking for the wife for his son outside Russia (in Georgian/Armenian kingdoms IIRC).


It pretty much becomes the Novgorod-oriented trade center, probably the city proper moves further inland to the banks of Okhta River, where it is better protected from floods.

When I tried to model Alexei's reign when helping @VVD0D95 with his Panthers & Lions project, I thought that it would look much like "Anna Ioannovna, but completely legitimate and male".


Well, Anne with a little bit more competence and preferably without messing with the Ottomans. Involvement in the War of Polish Succession probably pretty much inevitable.

Actually, there was one process that could be started few decades earlier than in OTL: improving the horses. Those available in Petrian time were quite small and not well suited for the military service. When Munnich introduced the cuirassires into Russian cavalry the problem became even worse because big horses had to be bought abroad and, IIRC, situation was not completely remedied even by the time of the 7YW, which noticeably handicapped Rlussian cavalry. Few more decades of purchases and active breeding of the domestic stock would be quite helpful.
 
Family:

Alexei - 20 years old, undisputed successor, not married yet but already betrothed to emperor’s niece. Going to marry her within a year.

Catherine - presumably secretly married to Peter in 1707 (but this may not count, in OTL he later married her officially); there are 2 daughters, Anna and Elizabeth
There are also Alexei's unmarried cousins, Anne (betrothed to the Duke of Courland, who TTL has no uncle-in-law to enter drinking contest with and probably survives) and Ekaterina (definitely ATL marriage there, if any non-morganatic one is arranged for her) (not counting Praskovia, who in any case would likely stay at home).
I think that Courland marriage stays as is, it's too late to cancel without making a big fuss, but fate of Ekaterina is interesting (as is possible family life for Anna and Kettler line continuation, which may make impact on TTL War of Polish Succession).
 
Last edited:
That said, the Anna's marriage to the Duke of Courland will probably be delayed to 1711, for mourning reasons.
 
There are also Alexei's unmarried cousins, Anne (betrothed to the Duke of Courland, who TTL has no uncle-in-law to enter drinking contest with and probably survives) and Ekaterina (definitely ATL marriage there, if any non-morganatic one is arranged for her) (not counting Praskovia, who in any case would likely stay at home).
I think that Courland marriage stays as is, it's too late to cancel without making a big fuss, but fate of Ekaterina is interesting (as is possible family life for Anna and Kettler line continuation, which may make impact on TTL War of Polish Succession).

Any particular reason Katya WOULDN'T be married abroad. IIRC from Anisimov's bio, Courland wanted Katya and it was only because her mom begged Pyotr (Katya was apparently her favourite) that he was married to Anna instead. Now, I admit, as you say, its probably too late to swap Anna/Katya out for Courland, but would Alexei necessarily withdraw her hand from the foreign market entirely?
 
Any particular reason Katya WOULDN'T be married abroad. IIRC from Anisimov's bio, Courland wanted Katya and it was only because her mom begged Pyotr (Katya was apparently her favourite) that he was married to Anna instead. Now, I admit, as you say, its probably too late to swap Anna/Katya out for Courland, but would Alexei necessarily withdraw her hand from the foreign market entirely?

No Mecklenburg match at the very least.
 
@alexmilman what benefit gives St. Petersburg versus simply expanding Narva instead.

Keep in mind that Narva was Peter's 1st target in the GNW and this goes back all the way to Ivan IV who tried to build the Russian port there. By Peter's time it was the main (Swedish) port through which the Russian imports/exports were happening. Only after the 1st siege of Narva failed Peter started looking for an alternative and made a dedicated effort to clear the traditional path from Novgorod to the Baltic coast.

As @Valena noticed, Narva was less conveniently located as far as the Russian trade routes were involved but, OTOH, Swedish Nyen (on which site St. Petersburg was built) was not a competitor and even lost its status as administrative center even if a modern fortress had been built there in 1677. Why this happened I can't tell. Perhaps proximity to the Russian border (city was badly damaged in 1656) was considered a serious minus? OTOH, there were numerous villages and manors outside the fortifications (as I understand, all destroyed during the GNW) so it seems unlikely that the locals lived in a constant fear. Anyway, a lesser convenience seemingly was not considered a major problem in the case of Narva because Novgorod remained the main Russian "connection point" in Narva-based trade.

As far as port is going, strictly speaking Narva was not a port: it was well upstream the river (as a result, during the 2nd siege Russians were able to block an attempt to bring supplies by the sea). The port is Narva Joesuu in the mouth of Narva River, something like 10 km from Narva. To my completely dilettantish view, the harbor of Narva seems to be too open and not protected from a possible naval attack, which is not the case with St-Petersburg. OTOH, as I already mentioned, geography of St-Petersburg, while providing a better protection, results in a low concentration of a salt in a sea water and in the case of the wooden ships (especially built from the low quality materials) this results in an early rot.

Also keep in mind that it was not just "Narva or else": by the time St-Petersburg was made a capital Russia got the major ports of Riga (the biggest port on the Baltic) and Revel. Peter was artificially killing trade through these ports in a favor of St-Petersburg but they remained quite important in post-Petrian Russia regardless their "peripheral" positions toward the traditional Russian trade routes which probably indicates that readjusting the old patterns was not such a big problem.

Now, going back to your question, IMO building a port by expanding Nyen would make a perfect sense but building a capital was a completely different project and it took few decades to start shaping it into a real "imperial capital":construction of the Winter Palace was completed in 1762 and at the the banks of Neva started getting granite facings during the reign of Catherine II (project lasted for few decades and granite had to be carried over the distance of 120+ km from Vyborg (
). So, IMO, the main question was/is: did it make sense to build a capital there? IMO, it did not but Peter was a person obsessed with his own ideas and resistance would be ill-advised. Of course, later, it was an issue of his legacy and the process kept going on no matter the cost.
 
Any particular reason Katya WOULDN'T be married abroad. IIRC from Anisimov's bio, Courland wanted Katya and it was only because her mom begged Pyotr (Katya was apparently her favourite) that he was married to Anna instead. Now, I admit, as you say, its probably too late to swap Anna/Katya out for Courland, but would Alexei necessarily withdraw her hand from the foreign market entirely?

IMO, even without Peter's great plans for the Baltic domination, this would make sense: Courland was next door to the Russian Baltic provinces. Anyway, why would Alexei start getting such an isolationist? It seems that he appreciated advantages of the Western life and the dynastic marriages were a traditional way to make friends.
 
IMO, even without Peter's great plans for the Baltic domination, this would make sense: Courland was next door to the Russian Baltic provinces. Anyway, why would Alexei start getting such an isolationist? It seems that he appreciated advantages of the Western life and the dynastic marriages were a traditional way to make friends.
Mecklenburg match makes no sense apart from Petrine ambitions, while Couronian one is a go (though postponed to 1711 for mourning reasons, likely resulting in the young's Duke survival).
 
Mecklenburg match makes no sense apart from Petrine ambitions, while Couronian one is a go (though postponed to 1711 for mourning reasons, likely resulting in the young's Duke survival).

Which leaves a question about Catherine and her daughters, Anna and Elizabeth (both are children by the end of 1710). One of the possible scenarios is similar to one of the family of Ivan VI: send them far away and keep under the close watch. OTOH, if Alexei is a really mild person, Catherine is sent to a nunnery and the girls are getting some kind of a noble upbringing as Tsar’s bastards: taking into an account that Peter did not yet officially married their mother they are not competitors to the throne.
 
They are GIRLS first of all, were they boys they would have been treated Ivan VI style - but underage girls are NOT contenders to the throne, bastards or not - except for some wild Menshikov scheme, they are going to get zero support from anyone. So their arrest etc makes no sense and it would be much easier to brought them up in customary noble fashion with emphasis on church education, probably entrust them to the care of Natalia Alexeevna, as Alexei himself was/
 
They are GIRLS first of all, were they boys they would have been treated Ivan VI style - but underage girls are NOT contenders to the throne, bastards or not - except for some wild Menshikov scheme, they are going to get zero support from anyone. So their arrest etc makes no sense and it would be much easier to brought them up in customary noble fashion with emphasis on church education, probably entrust them to the care of Natalia Alexeevna, as Alexei himself was/

Of course, it can be argued that the whole family of Ivan VI had been imprisoned, including females, but, OTOH, their status was completely different: they were legitimate children (stories about Peter’s early marriage to Catherine are rather shaky,why would he marry her the second time) and belonged to the influential ruling family, which could make them useful tools in the attempts to overthrow Elizabeth. OTOH, Peter’s illegitimate daughters from a washerwoman has been nobodies (in OTL the fact that Catherine was a crowned empress who reigned on her own did a lot to strengthen Elizabeth position (she was officially recognized as Tsesarevna).

Now, getting back to Alexei, he inherits a low intensity war in which Russia is on a winning side and the burden of military activities is shifting to the new players, mostly Denmark and Prussia but both Saxony and Hanover also have their interests. In OTL, while dealing with Stenbock required Russian intervention, the Russians had been asked to keep out of the siege os Stralsund and Peter already had to give Stettin to Prussia. In other words, his policies in the region resulted in what later became a pattern: Russia fighting for somebody else’s interests. The only remaining meaningful theater was Finland, which had been mostly occupied before Charles returned (and which was returned to Sweden by peace treaty).

We may assume that (just to make things different from OTL) that Alexei is scaling down Russian activities in Pomerania immediately after Stenbock (the only reasonably serious Swedish force at that time) is dealt with. Russian troops are leaving Germany but probably retain at least some military presence in the PLC helping August to deal with the pro-Stanislav confederates. Most probably, not-interference into the German affairs would help to maintain the friendly relations with the Brits and Dutch (in OTL at least the Brits ended up siding with the Swedes even if not doing too much).

OTOH, more troops could be sent to Finland and the same goes for the intensified seaborn operations conducted by the galley fleet (IIRC, their main goal was to cripple Swedish ironworks along the coast).

With the exception of Menshikov (not sure that he would be compatible with Alexei), Alexei is surrounded with his father’s people and his highest-ranking real associate, Alexander Kikin, was a ....er... quite “progressive” figure judging by his career and his palace in St Petersburg

upload_2019-5-11_10-34-5.jpeg


IMO, a reasonable thing to assume would be approximately the same domestic policies with a lesser experimenting in the area of economy. In OTL,probably the most successful area in Russian economy was a textile industry to which, after few Peter’s disastrous experiments, government almost stopped paying attention. Mining and metallurgy, had been an area of an intensive profiteering by the high-ranking court personages and, while for a while Russia became one of the greatest iron producers, most of that production had been sold abroad (more profit in gold then bothering with producing things and selling them in Russia) and Russia had to buy the finished products. Part of the schema was declaring the found resources a state property and then giving them away to the high-ranking court personages who would be interested in the immediate profit rather than in arranging for long-term proper exploitation. Not sure that Alexei would have brains, knowledge and character to change system dramatically but even the lesser interference would be beneficial.

Now, about the domestic administration. The Boyar Duma while not officially disbanded is pretty much non-existent and replasec by the Collegium (IIRC), which is pretty much a council of the ministers. Would Alexei create Senate or its equivalent?

Any other ideas? (I need to think about them)
 
Of course, it can be argued that the whole family of Ivan VI had been imprisoned, including females, but, OTOH, their status was completely different: they were legitimate children (stories about Peter’s early marriage to Catherine are rather shaky,why would he marry her the second time) and belonged to the influential ruling family, which could make them useful tools in the attempts to overthrow Elizabeth. OTOH, Peter’s illegitimate daughters from a washerwoman has been nobodies (in OTL the fact that Catherine was a crowned empress who reigned on her own did a lot to strengthen Elizabeth position (she was officially recognized as Tsesarevna).
The key difference between daughters of Anna Leopoldovna and the situation we are discussing is that 1710 is before Peter jetissoned old succession laws, so female succession was considered unthinkable - even if they were legit Tsarevnas.

Other than this, I agree with your analysis. Need to think about economics reforms.
 
The key difference between daughters of Anna Leopoldovna and the situation we are discussing is that 1710 is before Peter jetissoned old succession laws, so female succession was considered unthinkable - even if they were legit Tsarevnas.

Other than this, I agree with your analysis. Need to think about economics reforms.

AFAIK, there were not written laws even before Peter (who typically made a messy situation into a complete mess) but there were certain traditions (which allowed for Tsar’s election in an absence of a direct male heir). Of course, there was no orecedent of a female rulers but female regents were a reality so at least a notion of a female doing de facto ruling was generally accepted. One of the formal arguments in favor of Catherine (vs Peter Alexeevich) was that she is already familiar with the state affairs and crowned as an empress by her late husband while Peter is just a child who will be her successor. Of course, this argument probably would go nowhere without a presence of the Guards threatening to kill everybody who opposes her candidacy but we can stick to a formal side of an issue. :). Of course, in the case we are talking about situation is different: Catherine is formally a nobody, not even a wife, and her daughters are just royal bastards while a legitimate heir is a grown up male who was involved in his father’s activities for years. I doubt that even Menshikov would dare to voice any protest or that he could get support of the Guards to something so obviously illegal.

As for Alexei’s marriage, if Charlotte is dying “on schedule” he is free to marry whoever he wants or to take an official mistress. IMO, even for a domestic marriage he would not have to go through traditional brides show (unless he really wants to) even if because the habits already changed and the sharade does not make sense: potential noble brides, instead of being hidden from a public eye, are parading their “assets” on the assemblies, court functions and other public events. OTOH, as a ruler of the successful big state Alexei is an attractive marriage candidate for, at least, the German ruling families all the way up to the imperial family. For the Hapsburgs he may be an useful ally in the case of a potential war with the Ottomans and the lesser figures could be expecting his support in whatever they are interested in (was there some eligible brides in the Brandenburg House, Denmark, etc.? Following royal connections is not my hobby). As for the domestic bride, the field is widely open all the way to his OTL choice (after experience of his father there would be no eyebrows raised) : he could keep her as a mistress or eventually, if his reign is stable enough, marry her officially (Peter got away with it) because there is already a legitimate and quite blue blooded heir to the throne.
 
Regarding eligible Danes - there is this girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_Amalie_of_Denmark
She nearly married Louis XV (which would have required conversion) - the problem with it was her Danish nationality and Danes being constantly at war with Sweden, the French ally.
The oldest eligible Brandenburg ones are in single digits by late 1710ies.

Re. Efrosinia - would they ever meet TTL with different schedule of Alexei as a Tsar?
 
Regarding eligible Danes - there is this girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_Amalie_of_Denmark
She nearly married Louis XV (which would have required conversion) - the problem with it was her Danish nationality and Danes being constantly at war with Sweden, the French ally.
The oldest eligible Brandenburg ones are in single digits by late 1710ies.

Re. Efrosinia - would they ever meet TTL with different schedule of Alexei as a Tsar?

She was presumably a Finnish POW given him as a gift by his former tutor, Prince Vyazemski in 1714 or 1715 while Charlotte was still alive. The pattern is quite similar to one of his father but I agree that if he is Tsar the things may happen differently. For example, there could be a strong insistence on him marrying a true Orthodox with a competition among the leading families having the eligible brides but would he be willing to give any of these families such an advantage? After all, unlike his son who had two Russian brides picked for him by those in charge, he was a grown up man with a mind of his own. And his own experience with Catherine may give him second thoughts about providing his children with a stepmother so he may end up with just having one or many mistresses, which was much less troublesome on more than one account.
 
Depending on how things progress, Alexei may NEED to remarry in mid-1720ies, if Tsarevna Natalia dies on schedule and he is left with a single heir to the throne (before that, Natalia can be viewed as spare if you squint).
 
Top