Sophia's Positive Achievements

“During the time that Sophia was regent of Russia there were many positive achievements” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
The statement that Sophia had many positive achievements as a Regent can be questioned. However I am going to discuss which of Sophia’s actions can be seen as achievements.
Firstly, when Sophia first became Regent she made it seem as if she was actually running the country, for example she sat on a diamond encrusted throne and also she wore a crown of pearls on her head. She also made the Swedish ambassadors kiss her hand when they came to visit her. She beckoned the ambassadors as if she really was ruling the country. This shows that she was taking to role as Regent very seriously and wanted to emphasise
her own importance, maybe because she wanted to stay ruler of Russia. However, she knew this would never happen as when Peter came of age he would take the throne. Although Sophia ran the state in private, when in public she hid behind the two Tsars, Peter and Ivan. She was rarely seen publically but when she was she liked people to know what she was and how important she was for the country. I think that this point agrees with the statement that Sophia had many positive achievements as Regent and I believe that this is one of them because she made people aware of whom she was and although she ruled in private, from inside the palace walls, it didn’t stop her from being able to control what the 2 young Tsars said and did. We know this because that she controlled them because we know that on Ivan and Peter’s joint throne, there was a hole in it behind Peter’s head where Sophia would tell him what to say.
The War with Turkey was another chance for Sophia to show how powerful and strong she was as a Regent and that she had a right to be ruling the country while Peter and Ivan were too young.
In 1685 Sophia made an agreement with Poland which meant that Russia were able to keep Kiev. However this came at a price due to the fact that Sophia soon declared war on the Ottoman Empire and agreed to launch an attack on the Sultan’s vassal, which was part of the Ottoman Empire. A positive that came from the declaration of this war was that they were able to join a coalition with major European powers. For year the Tartars (Turks) had been attacking Russian territory and taking Russian people as slaves to be sold in Turkey. So therefore a main principle aim for the war against the Tartars was to stop these raids. In May 1687, a Russian army of 100,000 men marched south to attack the Tartars. The Tartars smoked out the Russian Army and the army general, Golitysn, decided to retreat. Golitysn treated this as a success as the Khan had fled into the remote mountains after being terrified of the attack from the Russians. However the second campaign against the Tartars was a failure which caused a large number of people who opposed Sophia’s rule to question whether she was the right person to rule the country. I believe that this wasn’t a positive achievement for Sophia because they didn’t win either battle and after the Wars people began to question the rule of
Sophia.
There was also an increasing threat to Sophia from Peter. He refused to recognise the so called “achievements” of Golitysn and this was the first sign that he was slowly becoming mentally stronger and was starting to question the rule of Sophia as Regent. Sophia hated the fact that Peter practiced war games and was enthusiastic about ship building. Although Sophia hated this she did nothing to stop it as there was a constant flow of cannons to Peter. Moreover, Sophia realised that Peter’s threat to the throne was now greater than ever due to the fact that he had now married and therefore was becoming of age so that he could rule the country. However Sophia had tried to increase her power in many ways as she referred to herself as an autocrat on all official documents. Although Sophia had the protection of the Streltsy, they wouldn’t attack Peter as he was the heir to the throne. Sophia had a painting of her done were she was wearing the crown. This infuriated Peter even further and ended up with him sending her to the Novodevichy convent where she lived the rest of her days. I think this wasn’t a positive achievement of Sophia's rule as Regent as he did nothing to try and prevent Peter from taking her off the throne and she ended up just infuriating him.