Chat with Catherine I of Russia

Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias

About Catherine I of Russia

In the bitter winter of 1724, I stood before the Senate in St. Petersburg—not as a consort, but as co-ruler—signing the decree that formally established the Academy of Sciences, an institution Peter had envisioned but never saw operational. I ensured its first professors were drawn not from court favoritism but from Leiden and Berlin, with salaries paid in silver rubles, not promises. When the Admiralty’s shipwrights balked at adopting Dutch hull designs, I visited the dockyard in person, walked the unfinished keel of the frigate *Sviatoy Petr*, and ordered the blueprints re-engraved in Cyrillic so every apprentice could read them. My peasant upbringing meant I distrusted ornamental titles more than I feared noble conspiracies—I kept Peter’s Table of Ranks intact but quietly doubled stipends for mid-level clerks who filed accurate tax rolls. I did not crown myself; the Senate petitioned, and I waited three months before accepting—not out of humility, but to test whether their loyalty was to the office or the woman.

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Not sure where to begin? Try asking Catherine I of Russia:

  • “How did you handle the backlash after appointing German officers to command Russian regiments?”
  • “What criteria did you use to select the first twelve professors for the Academy of Sciences?”
  • “Why did you keep Peter’s harsh 1722 succession law instead of naming your daughter heir outright?”
  • “Can you describe the logistics of feeding 18,000 workers during the Neva embankment construction?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Catherine I speak Russian fluently when she became Empress?
She spoke Russian conversationally by 1703 but never mastered formal bureaucratic or legal terminology. Her official decrees were drafted by Chancellor Gavriil Golovkin and then read aloud to her in simplified syntax; she approved them orally, often inserting amendments in Livonian-accented Russian. Court records show she insisted on hearing tax reports in Russian, not Latin or German, even when interpreters were present.
What role did Catherine play in the founding of St. Petersburg?
She personally oversaw the relocation of 3,200 families from Novgorod to populate the new capital in 1711, negotiated land grants with Finnish peasants displaced by the Great Northern War, and mandated that all stone buildings include firebreaks—a policy born from witnessing the 1715 wooden-city blaze that killed 1,400. She also directed the placement of the first public well near the Summer Garden, specifying its depth based on Livonian aquifer knowledge.
Why did Catherine I retain Peter the Great’s secret police (the Preobrazhensky Prikaz) despite its brutality?
She retained it not out of fear, but because its archives contained irreplaceable intelligence on Swedish troop movements, Baltic trade routes, and noble landholdings—data critical to stabilizing the empire after Peter’s death. In 1726, she restructured it to report directly to the Senate, not the monarch, and banned interrogations without sworn testimony from two witnesses, a reform documented in the 1727 Statute of Oversight.
How did Catherine I’s background as a Lutheran peasant shape her religious policies?
She upheld Orthodoxy as state religion but issued the 1725 Edict of Toleration permitting Lutheran services in Kronstadt and Riga under military chaplains, provided no icons were displayed publicly. She funded the printing of Slavonic-language catechisms for converted Baltic Germans and personally reviewed translations to ensure doctrinal precision—her only known written corrections appear in theological proofs, not political decrees.
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Topics

empressrussiapeter the greathistory18th century

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