Marfa was one of six daughters of Tsar Alexis of Russia, along with her sisters Evdokia, Sofia, Ekaterina, Maria, and Feodosia.

Unusually for the time and place, the Tsar wished his daughters to be well-educated and politically aware.

[4] In the Streltsi rebellion, rebels had planned to depose Peter the Great and place Sophia, his sister, on the throne.

[5] Sophia, who had been regent during Peter's youth, was willing to cooperate and become ruler, and Marfa, who evidently knew of the plot, supported her.

[8] Hundreds of people were tortured and executed, and, though Sofia and Marfa avoided that fate (as it was deemed improper to torture his sisters), Peter the Great punished them by forcing them to become nuns, and confining them in a convent.