Background
She was the elder daughter of Tsar Alexis and his second wife, Natalia Naryshkina, and the sister of Peter the Great. Natalia shared the difficulties of her mother and brother during the regency of her half-sister, Tsarevna Sophia.
She was the elder daughter of Tsar Alexis and his second wife, Natalia Naryshkina, and the sister of Peter the Great. Natalia shared the difficulties of her mother and brother during the regency of her half-sister, Tsarevna Sophia.
Her position was also raised after Peter separated from his first spouse Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1698 and she thereby became the hostess of Peter’s court. lieutenant was at her court that Peter met his lovers Anisya Kirillovna and Varvara Mikhailovna. In 1708, she moved to Saint St. Petersburg, but she was often in Moscow as her own palace was not ready (it was built in 1713).
Peter gave her the Gatchina estate and built the first palace there for her.
Natalia founded the first hospital in Saint St. Petersburg in her house. In 1706-1707, she founded the first Russian theatre in Moscow in her house, with actors taken from the staff of her and Praskovia Saltykova’s court: the first public Russian theatre was later founded after her example in 1709.
In Saint St. Petersburg, she arranged theatre performances for the court and nobility from 1710. She also wrote plays.
Among those confirmed to be by her are:
«Комедия о святой Екатерине» (The Comedy of Saint Catherine)
«Хрисанф и Дария» (Chrysanthus and Darius)
«Цезарь Оттон» (Caesar Otto)
«Святая Евдокия» (Saint Evdokia)
In her work as a playwright, she served her brother"s reforms: her plays compared the old customs negatively to the reforms.
She was present at the conversion of her second sister-in-law Catherine to the Russian Orthodox faith. In 1715, there were signs that the relationship between the siblings had worsened, and she visited her former sister-in-law Eudoxia in her exile. She died of a stomach catarrh.
She is portrayed in the novel Peter I by Aleksey Tolstoy.