Peter the Great always knew Menshikov to be a vile and thieving man. But they had been close since their youth. Peter had caught Menshikov red-handed, pulled his hair, and beaten him with a truncheon on more than one occasion, but he still continued to steal. Menshikov, however, grasped all the Tsar’s wishes on the fly, was always ready to oblige, even the most vile, carried out any orders, and was indispensable to Peter.
During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, during the empire’s rise, the people were literally bled dry, taxes and levies were imposed on everyone, their last possessions were taken away, people went broke, fled, went into hiding…
The budget for the first essentially peaceful year, 1724, was 8,654,727 rubles (53% of which was the per capita tax—what the entire people paid, straining their last strength).
Of these 8,654,727, the majority went to the army and navy—5,796,493.
Remember these numbers.
After Peter’s death in 1725, Menshikov supported Catherine the Great. During her reign, he was the most influential man in the empire. Upon the accession of the young Peter II, he became, in effect, regent, planning to marry his daughter to the emperor, thereby becoming related to the Romanov dynasty. But he got carried away. In 1727, he was arrested and his property was inventoried.
The following was found on the person of Peter the Great’s closest associate, Generalissimo, Admiral, Governor-General of St. Petersburg, President of the Military Collegium, and His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov:
Cash alone amounted to 4,000,000 rubles, deposits in Amsterdam and London banks amounted to 9,000,000 rubles, diamonds and jewelry worth 1,000,000 rubles, three sets of 24 dozen silverware (three times 288 complete sets of silver cutlery and plates—that’s several tons), and 105 poods of gold plate (1,700 kg).
In addition, there were 90,000 peasant souls (male only), the towns of Oranienbaum, Yam, Koporye, Ranenburg, Pochep, and Baturin (with all the income from them), and countless palaces, estates, and foreign possessions in Europe. In Little Russia, the confiscation included four cities, 88 villages, 99 hamlets, 14 settlements, and a volost. In Ingria, there were 16 manors (estates), 98 villages, and so on. In Moscow, there were palaces, houses, 200 shops… and so on for several more pages.
In cash alone, more than one and a half years’ worth of the war-ravaged Russian Empire’s budget was found in the possession of one official at one time! This is far from an isolated incident in Russia, but it is quite illustrative.
I don’t want to project it onto the present day; it’s the case itself. Incidentally, Peter’s old soldier Franz Lefort, who introduced Menshikov to the Tsar, never amassed any wealth during his entire service in Russia, and he turned over all the enormous bribes he was offered under the guise of gifts to the treasury.
N. B.: Based on online and archival materials.
Illustration: Portrait of Alexander Menshikov (1673-1729), Unidentified painter, 1750
