At this point the country was divided into factions with the old reactionary party, the Galitzins, Dolgorukis, and other ancient families struggling to control the throne. Catherine, however, by her will, named Peter, the grandson of her husband, as her heir to the crown. He was a lad of eleven years, the son of Alexis, by Peter the Great's first marriage with a woman whom he had always hated.
This Alexis had been brought up in opposition to his father, having imbibed the spirits of opposition from his mother. When he grew to manhood that feeling broke out in open revolt and he was tried for treason and sentenced to death. Immediately after, he died suddenly from poison, and few doubt that his end had been brought about at the instigation of his father.
It was not without some justice, therefore, that Catherine designated his son as her successor, naming, in default of Peter and his issue, her daughter Anna, who had married the Duke of Holstein, and her other daughter Elizabeth, in succession. The country was ruled by a regency, exercised by a council, consisting of the tow daughters, the Duke of Holstein, Menzikoff and seven or eight other dignitaries of the empire. Menzikoff still continued to be the all-important personage, and, before Catherine's death, had obtained her consent to a marriage between his daughter and the youthful Peter II, who was to be her heir.
But his authority was gradually undermined by the Dolgorukis and he was first banished to his estates, and afterward to Berzeoff in Siberia, where he died in 1729. The Dolgorukis were now in the ascendancy and the Czar was betrothed to Natalia, one of this family. He showed every inclination to undo his grandfather's work, and the court was removed to Moscow to the disparagement of St. Petersburg. Soon after, however, in January, 1730, the young prince was seized with smallpox and died.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
