Sofia Alekseyevna of Russia (died 1704)

Sophia Alekseyevna was a Russian princess who ruled as regent of Russia from 1682 to 1689. She allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Golitsyn, to install herself during the minority of her brother Ivan V and half-brother Peter I. She carried out her regency with a firm hand. The activity of this "bogatyr-tsarevna", as Sergey Solovyov called her, was all the more extraordinary, as upper-class Muscovite women were confined to the upper-floor terem, veiled and guarded in public, and invariably kept aloof from any open involvement in politics.