Born as an elder daughter of Fyodor Petrovich Saltykov [ru] and of a certain Yekaterina Fyodorovna or of Anna Mikhailovna Tatischeva[1][2] The marriage of Ivan V was arranged by his sister, the regent Sophia, who wished to ensure the next heir to the throne through Ivan and his faction of the family rather than from his half brother and co-Tsar, Peter.

Sophia was at the time the ruler of Russia in place of the two Tsars: the underage Peter and the mentally challenged Ivan.

At the wedding, her father changed his name from Alexander Saltykov to Feodor in order to give Praskovia the patronymic Feodorovna, which was associated with the icon by Romanov and considered suitable for an empress.

Their lack of sons before a time when female succession was possible in Russia allowed Peter to usurp full power from Ivan more easily than may otherwise have been the case.

Praskovia Saltykova and her surviving three daughters retired from court and settled in the imperial country estate of Izmailovo outside Moscow.

Although she was raised in the old Russian Terem culture, she adjusted to the Westernized reforms of Peter out of respect for his authority as Tsar, an office she regarded to be holy.

She also helped Tsarina Evdokia to set up the celebrations of Tsar Peter's birthday and name day in her palace of Izmaylovo.

In 1708, Praskovia Saltykova moved with her daughters and her entire household to the new capital of Saint Petersburg on the Tsar's orders, where their own palace had been allotted to them by the Neva.

In contrast to many other female relations of Peter, Praskovia never refused to attend the Westernized entertainments, such as theater plays and masquerade balls, or to dress herself and her ladies-in-waiting in costumes on such occasions or to drink alcohol in gender-mixed parties, which was a part of Peter's reforms of upper class social and court life.

When Tsar Peter investigated the case, her servants who had acted on her orders were arrested and Yushkov was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod.