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
Anna of Russia necessary for someone to be in an important position in the military. As time went on though, the program was later improved by other emperors and empresses, such as Catherine the Great. They began to include the arts and sciences into their schooling, rather than just the knowledge that is considered necessary for only a career in the military. Started by Peter the Great, Anna continued to fund the Russian Academy of Science. The point of this school was to further the sciences in Russia and to help bring the country that was so far behind up to where the