Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / Peter the Great's Secret Decree on Imperial Succession
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Peter the Great's reforms — the navy, the Table of Ranks, the beard tax — but there's one law he passed that arguably had a bigger impact on Russian history than almost anything else he did, and it's often overlooked. I'm talking about the decree on imperial succession he issued in February 1722. Luna: The one that let the tsar choose his own heir? Lucas: Exactly. The Ukaz o nasledii prestola. It abolished the old tradition of primogeniture — the eldest son inherits the throne — and declared that the reigning monarch could appoint anyone they deemed worthy. On paper, it sounds like a sensible reform: Peter wanted to ensure that the most capable person ruled, not just the firstborn. But in practice, it triggered a century of instability and palace coups that nearly tore the dynasty apart. Luna: And it all started because of his son, didn't it? Tsarevich Alexei. Lucas: That's the real backstory. Alexei Petrovich was Peter's eldest son by his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina, whom Peter had forced into a convent early in his reign. Alexei grew up deeply resentful of his father's westernizing reforms, surrounded by conservative boyars and clergy who hated Peter's changes. He was intelligent but timid, and he openly preferred the old ways. Peter saw him as a threat to everything he'd built. Luna: So Peter saw his own son as the embodiment of the opposition. Lucas: Exactly. By 1716, the tension had become unbearable. Alexei fled Russia — first to Vienna, then to Naples — under the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, who was his brother-in-law. Peter was furious. He sent his most trusted diplomat, Pyotr Tolstoy, to lure Alexei back with promises of pardon. Alexei returned in 1718, but instead of forgiveness, he was arrested and put on trial for treason. Lucas: The investigation was brutal. Alexei was tortured repeatedly in the Peter and Paul Fortress — the Petropavlovskaya krepost — and he implicated dozens of associates, including his mother and her family. In June 1718, he was sentenced to death. But before the sentence could be carried out, Alexei died in his cell — officially from a stroke, though rumors of execution or torture-induced death have never fully gone away. Luna: So Peter killed his own son, essentially. And then he realized he had no clear heir. Lucas: Exactly. Alexei was dead. Peter's second son, Peter Petrovich, had died as a toddler in 1719. That left only his daughters from his second wife, Catherine — Anna, Elizabeth, and Natalia — and his grandson, Alexei's son, also named Peter. Peter the Great didn't trust the boy, who was only seven and, in his eyes, might grow up to be another conservative threat. So instead of letting the old succession rules apply, he simply abolished them. Lucas: The 1722 decree declared that the sovereign had the absolute right to name his successor, and that any heir appointed was legitimate regardless of birth order or gender. It was a radical assertion of autocratic power — Peter was saying that the throne wasn't a family heirloom, it was an instrument of the state, to be wielded by whoever the tsar chose. Luna: But he never actually used it, did he? He never named a successor. Lucas: That's the tragic irony. In January 1725, Peter fell gravely ill — possibly from a bladder infection or kidney failure. He lingered in agony for days, but he was unable to speak or write clearly. According to legend, he managed to scrawl the words 'Give everything to...' on a slate, but couldn't finish the sentence. He died on February 8, 1725, without naming an heir. Luna: So the law he created to prevent a crisis actually caused one. Lucas: Exactly. Immediately after his death, the court split into factions. The old aristocracy, led by the Golitsyn and Dolgorukov families, wanted to place Peter's grandson — the nine-year-old Peter Alexeyevich — on the throne. But Peter's close associates, especially Aleksandr Menshikov and the Preobrazhensky Regiment, backed his wife Catherine. With the Guards regiments behind her, Catherine was proclaimed Empress Catherine I — the first woman to rule Russia in her own right. Luna: And that set the pattern for the whole century — palace coups backed by the Guards. Lucas: Precisely. The 1722 decree made every succession a contest of wills, because there was no fixed rule. After Catherine's short reign, the throne passed to Peter II — Alexei's son — who died of smallpox at 14. Then to Anna of Courland, Peter the Great's niece, who was imposed by the Supreme Privy Council but then overthrew them. Then to Ivan VI, a baby, who was deposed and imprisoned. Then to Elizabeth, Peter's daughter, who seized power in a coup in 1741. Lucas: Each time, the Guards regiments — the dvorianskaia gvardiia — were the kingmakers. They were the ultimate arbiters of who ruled, because the decree gave no clear line. And that instability was exactly what Peter had tried to avoid. Luna: It's interesting — Peter wanted to break the old boyar tradition and create a merit-based system, but the result was just a different kind of chaos. Lucas: For anyone coming with us through these conversations — about Eastern Europe, about the tangled story of power and reform — the 1722 decree is one of those turning points that explains so much about the dynasty's fragility. And it ties into something I wanted to mention. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you might have wondered how we keep making these deep dives without ads or sponsors. The answer is simple: a small group of listeners who chip in through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: It's true. That support is what lets us spend hours on a single decree like this one, instead of rushing through a whole reign in ten minutes. Lucas: So if this kind of history matters to you, consider joining them. No pressure — just knowing the show is supported by people who actually listen to it keeps us going. Okay, back to the succession mess. The decree stayed in effect for 75 years, through the reigns of Anna, Elizabeth, Peter III, and Catherine the Great. It was finally repealed by Paul I in 1797. Luna: Paul I, who was obsessed with order and legitimacy — he hated the fact that his mother, Catherine, had come to power through a coup. Lucas: Exactly. Paul was determined to prevent another palace coup. On the day of his coronation, he issued a new law of succession that restored primogeniture in the male line, with a strict order of inheritance. He also established the imperial family statute, which regulated marriages, titles, and finances for every Romanov. It was a direct repudiation of Peter's decree — and of his mother's reign. Luna: But Paul was assassinated in 1801, so his law didn't exactly end the instability. Lucas: No, but it did create a clear line of succession on paper. After Paul, every tsar until Nicholas II inherited according to that law — with the exception of his eldest son Alexander I, who technically should have been followed by his brother Constantine, but renounced. The messy part was that Constantine's renunciation wasn't made public, which caused the Decembrist crisis in 1825. But that's a story for another episode. Luna: So Peter's decree was a solution to a personal problem — his son — that ended up creating a systemic problem for the whole dynasty. Lucas: Exactly. It's a perfect example of how one ruler's attempt to control the future can backfire catastrophically. The decree remained in force through the era of palace coups — what historians sometimes call the 'Bironovshchina' after Anna's favorite, Ernst Johann von Biron — and it wasn't until Paul that Russia returned to a fixed succession. But the damage was done: the precedent that the throne could be seized by force and the Guards' support was established, and it never fully went away. Luna: Even the last tsar, Nicholas II, inherited a system that still bore the scars of Peter's decree. Lucas: Absolutely. The Romanovs never fully escaped the shadow of 1722. So when you think about Peter the Great, remember that his greatest reform might also have been his most dangerous — a law that gave the autocrat absolute power over the succession, but also made the throne a prize to be fought over rather than a sacred trust to be passed down.