IVAN V.' (1666-1696), tsar of Russia, was the son of Tsar Alexius Mikhailovich and his first consort Miloslavzkoya. Phys ically and mentally deficient, Ivan was the mere tool of the party in Muscovy who would have kept the children of the tsar Alexis, by his second consort Natalia Naryshkina, from the throne. In 1682 the party of progress, headed by Artamon Matveyev and the tsaritsa Natalia, passed Ivan over and placed his half-brother, the vigorous and promising little tsarevich Peter, on the throne. On May 23, however, the Naryshkin faction was overthrown by the stryeltsi (musketeers), secretly worked upon by Ivan's half-sister Sophia, and Ivan was associ ated as tsar with Peter. Three days later he was proclaimed "first tsar," in order still further to depress the Naryshkins, and place the government in the hands of Sophia exclusively. In 1689
the name of Ivan was used as a pretext by Sophia in her attempt to oust Peter from the throne altogether. During the reign of his colleague Peter, Ivan V. took no part whatever in affairs, but devoted himself to religious exercises. On Jan. 9, 1684, he married Praskovia Saltuikova, who bore him five daughters, one of whom, Anne, ultimately became empress. He died on Jan. 29, 2696.
See R. Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, 1905) ; M. P. Pogodin, The First Seventeen Years of the Life of Peter the Great (Rus.) (Moscow, 1875).