Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov

 

Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov (1673–1729)

He was a Russian statesman and military leader, known for being Peter the Great's closest friend and collaborator. He is one of the most fascinating figures of the Russian Empire due to his rise from extreme poverty to absolute power.

Of humble origins (it is said that he sold pastries on the streets of Moscow), he became the Tsar's personal servant and participated in his youth "play regiments."

Military and Political Power: He distinguished himself in the Great Northern War, especially at the Battle of Poltava (1709), reaching the rank of Generalissimo.

After Peter I's death in 1725, he promoted the accession to the throne of Catherine I (who had been his mistress before the Tsar) and ruled the empire in her name for two years. A brief succession crisis ensued as the Tsar had not named an official heir. Thanks to the support of the imperial troops and her ally Alexander Menshikov, Catherine was proclaimed empress, becoming the first woman to rule the Russian Empire in her own right.

She attempted to marry her daughter to the young Tsar Peter II, but fell victim to the intrigues of the old nobility. He was arrested in 1727, stripped of his immense fortune, and exiled to Siberia, where he died in poverty.