Sergei Saltykov (1726–1765)

Count Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov (Сергей Васильевич Салтыков; c. 1726 – 1765) was a Russian officer (chamberlain) who became the first lover of Empress Catherine the Great after her arrival in Russia.

In her memoirs, Empress Catherine II implies very strongly that he was the actual father of her son, Paul I of Russia. It was reported that Paul is "almost certainly the child of her lover." However, Paul greatly resembled his official father Peter III of Russia in character and appearance. There was very little in common between the pugnacious, stocky Paul and tall, handsome Sergei Saltykov. In her memoirs, though, Catherine noted the "ugliness" of Saltykov's brother.

The Saltykovs were an ancient Boyar family, and rivalled the Romanovs in nobility. He was also of Romanov Blood. His family the Saltykovs descended from a sister of the first Romanov tsar, Tatiana Feodorovna Romanova, well as from several Rurikid branches through female lines. For example, Tsarina Praskovia, the mother of Empress Anna, came from this clan, although her branch was only distantly related to the grandfather of Sergei.

Sergei's wife Matryona Balk was named after her grandmother Modesta Mons, and was the sister of Anna Mons and Willem Mons. Modesta (better known under her Russian name Matryona) had been publicly whipped in 1718 and exiled to Siberia after Peter the Great had learnt about her brother Willem's affair with his wife Catherine.