From the death of Peter the Great in 1725 until the accession of Peter III in 1762, the three Empresses, Catherine I, Anna Ioannovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, effectively ruled the Russian Empire, the largest Empire of the age and occupying one-sixth of the world’s surface. Over that thirty-seven-year period, the much-weakened Anglo-Russian naval affinity was gradually repaired, with Great Britain coming to the gradual realisation that Russia was an obvious counterpoise to French ambitions in the Baltic. Admittedly, Catherine I did little to heal that breach, but during the reign of Anna Ioannovna commercial trade between the two countries, following the signing of the 1734 treaty, was put on a regulated footing, with a mutual defence pact agreed seven years later. This pact, which required Russia to provide a military force to aid Great Britain in the event of an attack on her European possessions, and Britain to bring into the Baltic a sizeable naval squadron to defend Russian territory if under threat, clearly indicated that the government of George II in London was now seeing Russia as a clear ally against France. The War of Polish Succession (1733–35), fought during the early part of Anna Ioannovna’s reign, demonstrated to Russia the value of the support that could be given to Russia by Great Britain; a perceived threat that Britain might send into the Baltic a squadron of warships was sufficient to prevent the French reinforcing their forces in defending Danzig (now Gdańsk) when under siege by a large Russian army. Even when Great Britain and Russia were in alliances opposed to each other, as occurred during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, the basic relationship between Britain and Russia remained more or less undisturbed; the Russian Empire continuing to supply the bulk of naval stores required by the Royal Navy and British merchant marine, and Russia using the resulting income to support her own military and naval endeavours.

Catherine I (r.1724–27)

Following his death from a bladder infection in February (NS) 1725, Peter the Great was succeeded, upon his own wishes, by his second wife, who ruled as Yekaterina I Alekseyevna, better known in the English-speaking world as Catherine I.