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
Michael of Russia Michael of Russia Michael I of Russia (Russian: Михаи́л Фёдорович Рома́нов, "Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov") () became the first Russian Tsar of the House of Romanov after the zemskiy sobor of 1613 elected him to rule the Tsardom of Russia. He was the son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov (later known as Patriarch Filaret) and of Xenia (later known as "the "great nun"" Martha). He was also a nephew of Feodor I (the last Rurikid Tsar) through his great-aunt Anastasia Romanovna (his paternal grandfather's sister) and through marriage with Tsar Ivan IV of Russia. His accession marked the end of the Time