Tsarevna Praskovya Ivanovna of Russia

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.[1] The court official Bergholtz described her in his journal as a pretty brunette to her appearance, and the noblewoman Rondo noted that despite her bad health, she was truly quite beautiful only shortly before her death.

In contrast to that of her sisters, Peter the Great did not arrange a dynastic marriage for Praskovya. By the consent of her mother, she was married to a Rurikid noble, general prince Ivan Dmitriev-Mamonov (1680-1730). They had one son in 1724, who died circa 1730. The marriage was an informal, private marriage and not made public, nor was the birth or existence of her son.

According to Polovtsev, Praskovya was so accustomed to adjusting to the will of her mother, living in her household, that she had difficulty adjusting to an independent life after the death of her mother. When her mother died in 1723, the shyness and indecision of Praskovya was demonstrated in her difficulty in handling the estate of her dead mother, and she started to hand out bribes to influential people of the court. She now became a part of the household of Catherine I.

During the reign of Peter II, Praskovya Ivanovna established her own court and reportedly lived extravagantly on the generous allowance awarded her from the Imperial treasury, which in 1728 amounted to 12,000 rubles. In 1728, she was also granted her own residence in Moscow.

In 1730, her sister Anna Ivanovna succeeded to the throne as sovereign empress, after their older sister's claims was refused: the claim of Praskovya, being the younger sister, came after that of her sister Anna. Her sister's succession resulted in an increased allowance for Praskovya Ivanovna.

• Liriyskiy, Gertsog (1989). "Zapiski o prebyvanii pri imperatorskom rossiyskom dvore v zvanii posla korolya ispanskogo" [Memoirs of the visit to the Imperial Russian court as ambassador of the King of Spain]. In Limonov, Yu. A. (ed.). Rossiya XVIII v. glazami inostrantsev [Eighteenth century Russia in the eyes of foreigners] (in Russian). Leningrad: Lenizdat. pp. 189–260.