Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia
Sophia Alekseyevna was a Russian princess who ruled as regent of Russia from 1682 to 1689. She allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Golitsyn, to install herself during the minority of her brother Ivan V and half-brother Peter I. She carried out her regency with a firm hand. The activity of this "bogatyr-tsarevna", as Sergey Solovyov called her, was all the more extraordinary, as upper-class Muscovite women, confined to the upper-floor terem and veiled and guarded in public, invariably were kept aloof from any open involvement in politics.
1680s portrait
Ilya Repin's 1879 painting portrays Sophia after her fall from power, confined to a cell in the Novodevichy Convent. Also in the painting, outside the window, a hanging Strelets shows the fate of those who sought to reinstate her.
Ivan V Alekseyevich was Tsar of all Russia between 1682 and 1696, jointly ruling with his younger half-brother Peter I. Ivan was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, while Peter was the only son of Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina. Ivan's reign was solely titular because he had serious physical and mental challenges.
Ivan V of Russia
Ivan V and Peter I being crowned as joint Tsars of Russia
Portrait of Ivan V
Praskovia Saltykova, Portrait by Ivan Nikitin.