Some other great Tsar - a Feodor III-based Russian ATL

Zotov was an underqualified guy, if 1682 is just a normal year, then the teacher of Royal children will be somebody like Sylivester Medvedev (repressed in OTL in 1689).
But that's a minor nitpick
Treaty of Nerchinsk with no changes from OTL? I think the competent negotiator (considering more reinforcements were sent in 1682-1683) can keep at least northern part of OTL Amur oblast (left bank of upper flow of Amur). Though how much the government will be able to do with Baikal gold fields is up to them.

Also I'm surprised how the OTL timid housewife turned into shrewd Mama Bear TTL. I expected her brothers to be the ones more running the show. Also, if Galytzine goes to Siberia, there is no way for him to have the fuckup of 1687. In OTL he did as the favorite of the Regent, here nobody expects the Chancellor to take the command of the army (and it is unlikely to be allowed by Apraxin family, with no 1682 massacre the head of invasion will likely be somebody of Dolgorukov or even Khovansky family, not having piss-off with Samoilovich and ergo not doing stupid things as the result). It's likely to be the Sheremetev show, and OTL Sheremetev was some of the most competent generals the Russian nobility provided in this period. Also, pretty please kill off Lefort in some of campaings of the period - this drunkard is one of the most shameful foreign generals of the period ever.

Like the choise of Maria Kurakina and Darejan of Imeriti as wives for princes!


As to Athanase's successor, I was pondering this a bit, and decided that Job, OTL Metropolitan of Novgorod, may work (and for A&D I planned for him to directly succeed Marcellus, as TTL Athanase is not wanting Patriarch position for reason of it being "too busy"). There is a Russian article on the bishop: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Иов_(митрополит_Новгородский)

Thanks for the feedback. I will take all of these points into account and edit the previous post accordingly. As for Marfa Apraksina, being a mother, Dowager Tsarina and regent almost all at once can change a person for better or worse. I did consider putting the Apraksin brothers on the regency council, as well as Artemon Matveyev, but I thought I should keep the regency on an even footing between the progressives and conservatives.

And as for different generals, I was also considering someone like Grigory Romodanovsky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Romodanovsky).
 
I think he'll work. In A&D I had him in command of TTL Crimean Campaign with Sheremetev being second fiddle for him, and Galytzine being limited to meddling with foreign affairs (and being overly ambitious, playing off the whole "Russian Mazarin" thing).
Is Patrick Gordon still a Tsar's favorite (was OTL)? Is he still in charge of Peter's military education?
 
I think he'll work. In A&D I had him in command of TTL Crimean Campaign with Sheremetev being second fiddle for him, and Galytzine being limited to meddling with foreign affairs (and being overly ambitious, playing off the whole "Russian Mazarin" thing).

Yeah, I plan to keep Galitzine around until his natural death. Having read about him, he was a better diplomat than general, and his ideas for reform seem more in line with Feodor III's ideas than Peter's.

Is Patrick Gordon still a Tsar's favorite (was OTL)? Is he still in charge of Peter's military education?

Crap! I'll add him now! This just goes to show how woefully unprepared I am.

The previous post has now been fully updated.
 
Another thing - if Russia controls Perekop by now, in the next 10 years after this it can pretty much install pet Khans at its discretion, if not annex the thing altogether. The economy of Khanate is crippled, they can't raid southern frontier of Russia now. Sucks to live on peninsula with desert isthmus.
 
Another thing - if Russia controls Perekop by now, in the next 10 years after this it can pretty much install pet Khans at its discretion, if not annex the thing altogether. The economy of Khanate is crippled, they can't raid southern frontier of Russia now. Sucks to live on peninsula with desert isthmus.

That's sort of the direction I'm going for - a somewhat Westernized Russian expanding mainly east into Central Asia and the Middle East. Charles XII of Sweden might still attack, and there might still be attempts at taking Sweden's Baltic possessions, but ITTL, the Russian fleet is going to be based more along the Black and Caspian seas. Now that I think of it, that actually gives me a little idea for the ATL War of Spanish Succession...
 
Russia may (and would) try to return lands lost to Sweden in 1613 - the loss of Ingria was somewhat of a shame of Romanovs, but there totally won't be 15+ years war of OTL, and the capital isn't going anywhere from Moscow. But it would be more based on taking Ingria and Estonia, and the Port-Nevsk will be quite more inland compared to OTL Petersburg - in place of the Swedish fortress. The war with Crimea&Turks is a good chance to modernize army, and then take just tasty pieces, without need to build "Amsterdam but in Russia", and reconstructing old "Novgorod to Narva/Port-Nevsk" trade route existing since Viking times as the alternative to White Sea one.
Novgorod may rise to (regional) prominence again, but this will be not the idea fix of rulers. Just taking back disputed lands, and not grabbing Finland etc.

As for general expansion direction I agree. That quite fits with what I planned for Russia in A&D, though Central Asia things will get... a bit complicated, with Persia as the most prominent Muslim power of the region after Ottoman screw in A&D timeline.
 
Russia may (and would) try to return lands lost to Sweden in 1613 - the loss of Ingria was somewhat of a shame of Romanovs, but there totally won't be 15+ years war of OTL, and the capital isn't going anywhere from Moscow. But it would be more based on taking Ingria and Estonia, and the Port-Nevsk will be quite more inland compared to OTL Petersburg - in place of the Swedish fortress. The war with Crimea&Turks is a good chance to modernize army, and then take just tasty pieces, without need to build "Amsterdam but in Russia", and reconstructing old "Novgorod to Narva/Port-Nevsk" trade route existing since Viking times as the alternative to White Sea one.
Novgorod may rise to (regional) prominence again, but this will be not the idea fix of rulers. Just taking back disputed lands, and not grabbing Finland etc.

I'd imagine Denmark and Saxony-Poland-Lithuania would still want try to divvy up Swedish territories between them with or without Russia. I could also eventually see Russia taking Ingria, Estonia and Livonia from Sweden, and possibly Courland from Poland depending on certain circumstances.

As for general expansion direction I agree. That quite fits with what I planned for Russia in A&D, though Central Asia things will get... a bit complicated, with Persia as the most prominent Muslim power of the region after Ottoman screw in A&D timeline.

Yeah, Nader Shah will be appearing in some form in this TL. He's just too fascinating a person to ignore.

In terms of Central Asian expansion, I was thinking more around the Caspian Sea - Georgia, Armenia, and the Khanate of Khiva - which is where Peter went IOTL, especially Khiva when gold was discovered on the Amu Darya River. In terms of the Ottomans and the Crimea, it would probably be easiest, and best, to annex the Crimean Khanate ASAP, or at least before the reign of Ahmed III.

So why exactly would they try to take Muslim lands when the Russian East is freely opened to them?

Not just any Muslim lands - lands with gold, oppressed Christian minorities, and a gateway to the Black Sea, Mediterranean trade and maybe even a chance at taking Constantinople itself. The Russian Far East won't be ignored, but there's also potential Qing counterattacks to worry about.
 
A smart Tsar (wanting Ingria & Estonia, optimally Livonia but this is conflict with PLC, and Courland, like Khiva, is better off as vassal so far) would wait until Karl XII enters some adventuring (like his attempt at Catholic Stuart restoration), and screws up there. Ingria was a relative backwater of Swedish holding, and just grabbing the tastier poor-defended pieces is better than the OTL 20-years bloodshed, especially since Russia will get the chance to modernize the army during the conflicts of 1680ies-1690ies. So "I signed up, I got what I needed, I get off the train".
 
Khiva is useful thing to mess with Chinese interests indirectly - while the Treaty of Nerchinsk stipulated (and will stipulate TTL) that Russia shall not aid Dzungar Khanate against China, there is nothing saying that Russia can't resell modern weaponry to them via Khiva merchants. The sufficiently messy situation in China-Dzungar border will keep Qing from the ideas of Western Dauria reconquest.
 
By the way, what shall you do about Terem? While the elder generation of Tsarevnas by now is too old for anything but internal marriage diplomacy (though it were Tsarina's sisters normally used for this, and Sophia is just having affair (Galytzine is a married man with family)), there are still younger one to come. And Peter married dynastically in European sense - to a bona fide Princess, though from exiled family.
 
Also, there is one person who will be on Regency council for Ilya if Sophia is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatyana_Mikhailovna_of_Russia
The most respected grandaunt of the young Tsar. Just a placeholder, but her being the most senior member of Royal family entitles her to the Council seat. Two Tsarevnas of two generations being in the council will do a lot to undermine the idea of Terem, not to mention anti-Muslim propaganda ("Yes, women shall keep their modesty, but we shall not do this as Tatars do").
 
A smart Tsar (wanting Ingria & Estonia, optimally Livonia but this is conflict with PLC, and Courland, like Khiva, is better off as vassal so far) would wait until Karl XII enters some adventuring (like his attempt at Catholic Stuart restoration), and screws up there. Ingria was a relative backwater of Swedish holding, and just grabbing the tastier poor-defended pieces is better than the OTL 20-years bloodshed, especially since Russia will get the chance to modernize the army during the conflicts of 1680ies-1690ies. So "I signed up, I got what I needed, I get off the train".

I'll cover the Russian views on Sweden during the next update.

Khiva is useful thing to mess with Chinese interests indirectly - while the Treaty of Nerchinsk stipulated (and will stipulate TTL) that Russia shall not aid Dzungar Khanate against China, there is nothing saying that Russia can't resell modern weaponry to them via Khiva merchants. The sufficiently messy situation in China-Dzungar border will keep Qing from the ideas of Western Dauria reconquest.

Got it.

By the way, what shall you do about Terem? While the elder generation of Tsarevnas by now is too old for anything but internal marriage diplomacy (though it were Tsarina's sisters normally used for this, and Sophia is just having affair (Galytzine is a married man with family)), there are still younger one to come. And Peter married dynastically in European sense - to a bona fide Princess, though from exiled family.

Also, there is one person who will be on Regency council for Ilya if Sophia is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatyana_Mikhailovna_of_Russia
The most respected grandaunt of the young Tsar. Just a placeholder, but her being the most senior member of Royal family entitles her to the Council seat. Two Tsarevnas of two generations being in the council will do a lot to undermine the idea of Terem, not to mention anti-Muslim propaganda ("Yes, women shall keep their modesty, but we shall not do this as Tatars do").

The Terem will be on it's way out. But first I have to cover a certain European war.
 
The Terem will be on it's way out. But first I have to cover a certain European war.
Can't wait for this. I think that French/British diplomacy would want two Northern powers to collide into each other a bit (what happened OTL) to keep them properly distracted from helping any of the Spanish Succession sides.
 
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