Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia - Sophia's Downfall

Sophia's Downfall

Sophia Alekseyevna’s regency retained the trappings of a typical regent, and the true tsar was growing into his position every year. At the age of 16, Peter I demanded that Galitzine report to him regarding all matters, and 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 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 dull Peter, and remove him from 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. Denying 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 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, his Naryshkin relatives demanded Sophia to 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, however, deserted downtown Moscow for 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 Galitzine's exile.

After Sophia agreed to surrender her senior boyars, she was arrested and forced to withdraw into the Novodevichy Convent without formally taking the veil. Sophia may have plotted one last attempt at securing power, although her involvement is unclear. Regardless of her conscious effort, 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 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 day. She died in the Novodevichy Convent 6 years later.