In the rupture that followed, the people deserted Sophia and flocked about Peter.

He placed his sister in a monastery, where, after fifteen years of fruitless intrigue and conspiracy, she was to die.
Then, conjointly with his unfortunate brother, he commenced his reign (1689).
If Sophia had freed herself from the customary seclusion of Princesses, Peter emancipated himself from the usual proprieties of the palace.
Both were scandalous.

One had harangued soldiers and walked with her veil lifted, the other was swinging an ax like a carpenter, rowing like a Cossack, or fighting mimic battles with his grooms, who not infrequently knocked him down.

In 1693 he gratified one great thirst and longing.

With a large suite he went up to Archangel--and for the first time a Tsar looked out upon the sea! He ate and drank with the foreign merchants, and took deep draughts of the stimulating air from the west.