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{{Infobox royalty
| name = Sophia Alekseyevna
|
| image = Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia.jpg
| caption = 1680s portrait
| succession =
| reign = 8 June 1682 – 22 September 1689
| reign-type = Regency
| predecessor =
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1704|7|14|1657|9|27|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Novodevichy Convent]], [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]]
| burial_date =
| burial_place = [[Archangel Cathedral]]
| religion = [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]]|
'''Sophia Alekseyevna''' ({{lang-rus|Со́фья Алексе́евна|p=ˈsofʲjə ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvnə}}; {{OldStyleDate|27 September|1657|17 September}}{{spaced ndash}}{{OldStyleDate|14 July|1704|3 July}}<ref name="dlib.rsl.ru">[http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01004169063#page13?page=13 Родословная книга Всероссiйскаго дворянства]</ref>) was a Russian princess who ruled as [[regent]] of [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]] from 1682 to 1689. She allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince [[Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn|Vasily Golitsyn]], to install herself during the minority of her brother [[Ivan V of Russia|Ivan V]] and half-brother [[Peter the Great|Peter I]]. She carried out her regency with a firm hand. The activity of this "[[bogatyr]]-[[tsarevna]]", as [[Sergey Solovyov (historian)|Sergey Solovyov]] called her, was all the more extraordinary, as upper-class Muscovite women, confined to the upper-floor ''[[Terem (Russia)|terem]]'' and veiled and guarded in public, invariably were kept aloof from any open involvement in politics.<ref>
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==Rise to regency==
Although Sophia emerged from the shadows during the dynastic struggles of 1682, her prior influences can help to explain her ascendance to the regency. At the previous change of ruler in 1676, Sophia may have acted in the interest of her brother, Feodor, as various rumours exist of her pleading then with her father, the dying Tsar Alexis, not to proclaim Peter his heir. Feodor's capability to lead Russia was questioned, based on his weak nature and poor health. His mental ability developed quite nicely over time, as he was taught by Simeon Polotsky. During Feodor III's brief reign (
As the young Tsar Feodor's health began to decline, more individuals rose up to counsel him, and Sophia found her influence steadily declining. Taking advantage of a court never open to a woman in her situation, she utilized her connections, making allies and formally planning on securing the throne. When Feodor died on {{OldStyleDate|7 May|1682|27 April}}, Sophia immediately returned to the political scene. She attended her brother's funeral and caused a commotion while doing so. In Sophia's age, the female relatives of the tsar were kept away from the court and other political spheres, and funerals traditionally took place without women. Sophia stormed into the funeral, insisting on her presence and simultaneously setting off a chain of events that would result in her regency.<ref>[http://mikv1.narod.ru/text/BeLetopisec.htm Беляевский летописец]</ref>
The Miloslavsky party, grouped around the family of Feodor and Sophia, took advantage of the [[Moscow Uprising of 1682|Streltsy uprising]] {{OldStyleDate|25 May|1682|15 May}} to place Sophia on the seat of power. Tsar Alexis had left behind two families by his two wives, and each of the two branches had at least one male heir. As the clans of Alexis' two wives were in conflict, Sophia devised a plan to ensure power for herself and her family. Promoting the case of her full brother Ivan as the legitimate heir to the throne, Sophia attempted to convince the patriarch and the boyars that they should reverse their recent decision to crown Peter. Insisting that Peter's proclamation broke monarchic laws by skipping over her brother, who would have been next in line to rule if not for his ineptitude, she proposed a shared crown with Ivan and herself.<ref name="ReferenceA">Hughes, Lindsey, ''Sophia: Regent of Russia 1657-1704''. (c) 1990</ref>
Upon the court's swift and unanimous rejection of this proposal, Sophia reached out to the discouraged military troop, the [[streltsy]], for their aid and support. The unjust dismissal of Ivan's rights acted as a catalyst to the already displeased and frustrated troops. Multiple issues, including merciless motivational tactics and lack of rest, drove the streltsy to violent opposition against the "unjust" election of Peter. As the fighting ceased and Peter's life was left forever scarred by the blood spilt by his [[Naryshkin family|Naryshkin relatives]], the streltsy achieved their initial demands.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
In the aftermath of the streltsy rebellion, on 25 June 1682 the [[Patriarch Joachim of Moscow|Patriarch Ioakim]] crowned the incompetent Ivan as senior tsar ([[Ivan V of Russia|Ivan V]]) and Peter, only nine years old, as junior tsar. Sophia had been deemed
==Romantic life==
Sophia's relationship with Prince Golitsyn was not necessarily a romantic attachment.<ref>Paul Bushkovitch. ''Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671-1725''. Cambridge University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|9780521805858}}. Page 138.</ref> Golitsyn had a wife and a large family at a time when the boyars were still attached to the [[Domostroy]], a matrimonial code from [[Ivan IV]]'s reign. Several early 18th-century memoirs gave birth to rumours that Golitsyn had been Sophia's lover. Some see the evidence for this in the tone of Sophia's correspondence with him in 1689.<ref>A letter of quoted by Massie 1980, p. 89</ref>
In any case, a romantic interaction between the two could not begin when they met under Feodor's rule. Feodor entrusted great confidence in Golitsyn, and there remains no evidence Sophia and Vasily acted against customs that would have kept them apart until after his death. There is no suspicion of any relations until the letter in 1689, even during the period of Golitsyn's rise to power.<ref name="Hughes, Lindsey">Hughes, Lindsey.</ref>
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When the [[Old Believers]] joined the rebels in the fall of 1682 and demanded the reversal of [[Raskol|Nikon's reforms]], Sophia lost control of the unsteady Streltsy to her once ally, Prince [[Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky (Tararui)|Ivan Khovansky]]. After aiding Sophia in May, Khovansky used his influence with the troops to force her court to flee the [[Moscow Kremlin]] and seek refuge in the [[Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra]]. The [[streltsy]] rebels, who instigated the rebellion, hoped to depose Sophia and to make Prince Ivan Khovansky a new regent, to satisfy their increasing desire for concessions. Calling together the gentry militia, Sophia suppressed the so-called [[Khovanshchina]] with the help of [[Fyodor Shaklovityi]], who succeeded Khovansky in charge of the Muscovite army. Silencing the dissatisfied parties until Peter reached his age of majority, Sophia executed Khovansky and the other figureheads of the attempted rebellion.<ref name=crull />
During the seven years of her regency, Sophia made a few concessions to [[posad]]s and loosened detention policies towards runaway peasants, which caused dissatisfaction among the nobles. She also made an effort to further the organization of the military. Intrigued by baroque style architecture, Sophia held responsibility for the promotion of the foreign district, and the creation of the [[Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy]],{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} the first Russian higher learning institution.
The most important highlights of her foreign policy, as engineered by Golitsyn, were the [[Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686]] with [[Poland]], the 1689 [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] with [[China]], and the [[Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689|Crimean campaigns]] against [[Turkey]]. Although spearheaded by Prince Golitsyn, Sophia's reign oversaw two of the earliest diplomatic treaties and underwent inner growth and progress. Despite her other achievements, Sophia's influence and effect on a young Peter remains as the most historically significant portion of her reign, as the rebellion of 1682 bred a distrust in nobility that came to define his leadership.
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[[Category:1704 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century regents]]
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[[Category:Regents of Russia]]
[[Category:House of Romanov]]
[[Category:17th-century women
[[Category:17th-century Russian people]]
[[Category:17th-century Russian women]]
[[Category:18th-century women from the Russian Empire]]
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