On the contrary it served as a pretext for Ivan to interfere in Lithuanian affairs.
These people came for the most part from the northern parts of the black earth zone of middle Russia, and to a smaller extent from the Lithuanian governments and the Ural governments of Perm and Vyatka.
Russia had annexed the six Lithuanian Governments between 1772 and 1795 and united them as the" Litovskaya Gubernia "in 1797, that is to say, before the Treaty of Vienna conceded her the kingdom of Poland in 1815.
After a short campaign a peace was concluded and Ivan's daughter was given in marriage to the Lithuanian grandprince, but the matrimonial alliance did not improve the relations between the two countries.
To avert the danger of a man of this type succeeding to the throne Peter made a law by which the reigning sovereign might choose his successor according to his own judgment, and two years later he caused his second wife, Catherine Catherine, the daughter of a Lithuanian peasant, to 1, be crowned with all due solemnity, " in recognition of the courageous services rendered by her to the Russian Empire."
