5. Peter the Great Hung the Corpse of His Sister’s Lover Outside Her Bedroom Window
Killing his own son was not the only ruthless thing Peter the Great did towards a member of his own family. In 1698, when a young Tsar Peter was still getting a feel for his power, the Streltsy regiments – a sort of medieval Russian Praetorian Guard – rebelled, and made contact with his half-sister, Sophia Alkesyevna. Sophia had ruled as regent when Peter was a child, but resisted surrendering her power when Peter grew up and sought to rule in his own right. So he locked her up in a monastery.
Ten years later, in 1698, a lover of Sophia led the Streltsy in a failed uprising while Peter was out of the country. Peter rushed back to Russia, but the rebellion had already collapsed by the time he returned home. Upon reaching Moscow, he brutally suppressed and broke the Streltsy, who were tortured and executed by the thousands. Peter took a hands-on approach, and played an active part in the executions, personally chopping off the heads of rebels with an ax in what is now Moscow’s Red Square. He also strung up the bodies of executed Streltsy outside Sophia’s monastery, and left the corpse of her lover dangling from a rope directly outside her window.
