TSAREVICH ALEXEY PETROVICH (1690-1718), AUTOGRAPH

Letter to an unknown person. Toruń (Poland). 27 February 1712. 1 sheet folded in half; 17.5 x 29 cm. Paper without watermarks, black ink. On the reverse side of the sheet, at the bottom, in a different handwriting, probably that of a secretary, there is a note of receipt: ‘received on the 29th (?) day of February’. Traces of folding in four, temporary stains. In the upper right corner of the page with text, the number ‘9’ is written by hand, and in the upper right corner of the reverse side, also by hand, ‘No. 385’. “Monsieur, I have received letters from Prince Grigory Fedorovich addressed to me and to you, and I have read yours, and he writes exactly as he does to me and to you, from which you can see our business. I also received a large package from Prince Alexander Lukich addressed to you, and thinking that there was nothing strange in it, I opened it and read it, and he writes the same, and I am sending all this to you, herewith /Alexei/ From Toruni, 27 February 1712.” (translated from Russian) Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich (Alexei Petrovich Romanov; 1690-1718), heir to the Russian throne, eldest son of Peter I and his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina. In 1700 Peter the Great entered into war against Sweden and, after defeating the Swedes in 1709 at Poltava, sent an expeditionary force under the command of Alexander Menshikov to Western Pomerania. The supply of A.D. Menshikov’s army was handled by Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, heir to the throne. The Tsarevich’s headquarters were in the city of Thorn (Toruń), from where the letters presented at the auction originate. In 1711-1713, Russian troops successfully besieged Szczecin and Kolberg (Kolobrzeg) and landed on the island of Rügen. The mission of supplying the army was one of the few state tasks entrusted to the heir. The fate of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich is undoubtedly one of the most tragic in the history of the Russian succession. Condemned by Peter I for treason and escape in 1718, he died under unclear circumstances while imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.