24. The Emperor Who Went Out of His Way to Show His Sister Who Was Boss
Peter the Great ascended the throne as a child, and throughout much of his youth, his elder sister Sophia Alekseyevna ran Russia as regent. She got used to power, but as Peter, he grew up, he began asserting his independence. When Sophia resisted surrendering her power, he had her locked up in a monastery. In 1698, while Peter was still getting a feel for his power, the Streltsy regiments – a sort of medieval Russian Praetorian Guard – rebelled, and sought to overthrow Peter and replace him on the throne with Sophia.
A lover of Sophia led the Streltsy rebellion while Peter was out of the country, forcing him to rush back to Russia. By the time he got back home, the rebellion had already collapsed. Upon reaching Moscow, he brutally suppressed and broke the Streltsy, who were tortured and executed by the thousands. Peter played an active part in the executions, personally chopping off the heads of rebels with an ax in public, in what is now Moscow’s Red Square. He spared Sophia’s life, but strung up the bodies of executed Streltsy outside her monastery, and left the corpse of her lover dangling from a rope directly outside her window.
