History of Russia deficit required borrowing, primarily from Amsterdam; five percent of the budget was allocated to debt payments. Paper money was issued to pay for expensive wars, thus causing inflation. For its spending, Russia obtained a large and glorious army, a very large and complex bureaucracy, and a splendid court that rivaled Paris and London. However, the government was living far beyond its means, and 18th-century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country." Peter I was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine I (1725–1727), who was merely a figurehead for a powerful group of high officials, then by his
Tsarevna Praskovya Ivanovna of Russia Tsarevna Praskovya Ivanovna of Russia Praskovya Ivanovna (1694–1731) was a Russian tsarevna, daughter of Tsar Ivan V of Russia and Praskovia Saltykova. She was the niece of Tsar Peter the Great and the sister of Empress Anna Ivanovna. Praskovya's father died in 1696 and she was raised with her sisters, Catherine and Anna, at the estate awarded to her mother by Tsar Peter, Izmaylovo Estate in Moscow. She was tutored in literature and the sciences by German teachers. Praskovya was described by the Spanish ambassador in comparison to her sisters as lacking in intelligence, in addition to being very sickly.