town from an anticipated attack by the British government, with whom the relations of Russia at the beginning of the reign of Catherine I were strained. Though frequently threatened with terrible penalties by Peter the Great for his incurable vice of peculation, Apraksin nevertheless contrived to save his head, though not his pocket, chiefly through the mediation of the good-natured empress, the Swedish-born common-law wife and later formal wife of Peter I, Catherine I, sole ruling Empress of Russia from 1725 to 1727. She remained his friend to the last, grateful probably, because of his helping to place the flexible and astute Catherine I on the throne on the death of Peter. Legacy According to R. N. Bain, Apraksin was the most genial and kind-hearted of all Peter's pupils. He is said to have never made an enemy. He died on November 10, 1728, aged 67, and was interred in the family sepulchre at the Chrysostom Monastery of Moscow, where his grave was destroyed by the Communists in the 1930s. Notes References Robert Nisbet Bain, The Pupils of Peter the Great (London, 1897). Apraksin, Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin, Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin, Fyodor Matveyevich Imperial Russian Navy admirals Counts of the Russian Empire Baltic Fleet Russian military personnel of the Great Northern War Members of the Supreme Privy Council People of the Russo-Persian Wars