Menshikov: The Favorite of Peter the Great

Catherine was the female love of Peter's life, Menshikov was the male. Both Catherine and Menshikov had been poor, both Lithuanian, Menshikov taken off the streets of Moscow, Catherine war booty who passed through the hands of General Sheremetev, then those of Menshikov himself, by then Russia's second greatest power, who offered her to Peter as he had offered the tsar everything, including himself, especially himself, since they first met, Menshikov age 13, Peter 14. Catherine had passed through Shermetev's bed as well as that of Menshikov, and their entente had been so perfect they would remain united until Catherine's death, followed by Menshikov's own, in Siberia, where he, the wealthiest and mightiest man in all of Russia, had been exiled, penniless, proof that the gods do raise to dizzying heights those they wish to utterly destroy. This is his fully-illustrated history.