I'm going to go. He's a sures, yes,

a ras, it yes shawras.

We're hush a hush. Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast.

Episode 30, the all joking, all drunken synod of fools and gestures.

Last episode, we left Sophia in the Nova Da Vinci convent with Peter and a sickly half-brother Ivan at the head of the government.

But, was Peter ready to rule Russia?

The answer is a resounding no. He was only 17 and he was

unready and more importantly unwilling to assume the power that was his to take.

He wanted to stay in Priobrajenskoy and play, as well as hang out with the foreigners

in the Western or German quarters, much to the dismay of Patriarch

Joachim and his mother Natalia, who wanted to rid Russia of all the Western influences

at first Tsar Alexi and later Sophia pushed.

Peter's mother, her brother Lev Nariqen, Emelian Ukrainesev and Boris Kolitsen formed the ruling group.

Other Boyor families joined in the job feeding frenzy following the vacuum with the removal of many of but not all of

Sophia's followers. The problem was that the new people in control were not very

competent and some were quite corrupt. They worked at enriching

themselves for the next five years, forgetting about the continued Crimean

Tartar raids into the Ukraine, the stagnant economy, and passing no new laws despite

the overwhelming need for them.

Patriarch Joachim kept as tight a reign as possible on Peter, which made the young man chafe.

He wanted to be with the foreigners, but Joachim would have nothing of it. Then suddenly the patriarch died. In a battle

between Peter and the Church he wanted to select an intellectual man to the Patriarchate

...