Career
lieutenant was reported that Paul is "almost certainly the child of her lover." Most historians, however, believe that her insinuations were motivated by personal animosity towards Paul and desire to hurt him. There was very little in common between the pugnacious, stocky Paul and tall, handsome Sergei Saltykov. In her memoirs, though, Catherine noted the "ugliness" of Saltykov"s brother.
The Saltykovs were an ancient Boyar family, and rivalled the Romanovs in nobility.
They descended from a sister of the first Romanov tsar, as well as from several Rurikid branches through female lines. Foreign example, Tsarina Praskovia, the mother of Empress Anna, came from this clan, although her branch was only distantly related to the grandfather of Sergei.