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# I have found a most ludicrous discrepancy in the text of Gavriil Gerakov's book "Memorable Events in Russian History from the Birth of Peter the Great to His Death"
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/nashel-ochen-nelepoe-nesootvetstvie-v-tekste-knigi-gavriila-gerakova-dostopamiatnye-proisshestviia-v-rossiiskoi-istorii-s-rozhdeniia-petra-velikogo-do-konchiny-ego/
- Published: 2024-04-13T10:33:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:34:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Books, Monarchies, Observations, Saint Petersburg

Gerakov writes that Peter married Catherine (Alexeyevna, that is, Marta) of the Skavronsky family in May 1707, and that on 18 December 1709 the Tsesarevna Elizabeth Petrovna was born to them. This is untrue. Peter was wedded to Catherine only in February 1712, and the betrothal was announced in 1711\. The children Catherine bore before the wedding were illegitimate: these were Catherine, Anna and Elizabeth. They came to be called "children legitimised by the wedding". This was never a secret and was never disputed.

In my view, this fact from a book of 1807 is an example of a foolish and naive attempt to falsify history. We surely cannot suppose that Gerakov simply erred by some five years, or called the beginning of cohabitation a marriage?

Why, then, this lie? Perhaps not so much to legitimise the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, since officially she had no descendants, as to shore up the legitimacy of Anna Petrovna, the elder of the surviving daughters of Peter and Catherine, for the ruling dynasty descended precisely from Anna Petrovna through her son Peter III. Alexander I was Anna Petrovna's great-grandson.

But however that may be, it is all very strange.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_11896@13-04-2024_13-33-10.jpg)