Sergei Saltykov


Count Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov was a Russian officer who became the first lover of Empress Catherine the Great after her arrival in Russia.

Life

In her memoirs, Empress Catherine II implies very strongly that he was the biological father of her son, Paul I of Russia. It was reported that Paul is "almost certainly the child of her lover." However, Paul greatly resembled his official father Peter III of Russia in character and appearance. 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 which rivaled the Romanovs in nobility. Sergei Saltykov was also descended from several branches of the Rurik dynasty through the female line as well as from Tatiana Feodorovna, the sister of the first Romanov tsar Michael I. Tsarina Praskovia, the mother of Empress Anna, also came from this clan, although her branch was only distantly related to the grandfather of Sergei.
Sergei's wife Matryona Balk was named after her grandmother Modesta Mons, and was the sister of Anna Mons and Willem Mons. Modesta had been publicly whipped in 1718 and exiled to Siberia after Peter the Great had learnt about her brother Willem's affair with his wife Catherine.

Ancestry