“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 16
Commonplace Book – Page: 157
“Memoirs of the Catherine the Great” – Chapter 16: The Storm (1759)
- Carnival: A Russian play is performed at Court theater. The Grand Duke then forbids her to go. She sends a letter to the Empress, who grants her an audience.
- Meanwhile, Mme Vladislavov is removed of her duties to Catherine. Catherine Ivanovna, in concern for Catherine, arranges to have her uncle, the Empress’ own confessor, to repeat to the Empress the entire truth of Catherine’s misery.
- 12:00 am-1:30 am: Count Alexander Shuvalov accompanies Catherine to the Empress’ rooms. The Empress takes her side over the passionate fury of the Grand Duke.
- To pass the time until her second interview with the Empress, she read “Histoire de Voyages” and the first volumes of the “Encyclopaedia.”
- April 17: Prince Charles of Saxony comes for a second visit to St. Petersburg.
- Finally at 3:00 pm, Catherine is allowed to see her children. She then goes to her second interview. There was no talk of Catherine’s departure, the Grand Duke was subdued, and Catherine is allowed to see her children once a week. (Princess Anne died suddenly a couple of years later and Catherine then becomes pregnant by Gregory Orlov, Bobrinski is born in April, 1762.)
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 15
Commonplace Book – Pages: 155-156
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 15: The Clouds Gather (1758-1759)
- End of April: Court goes to Oranienbaum. Prince Charles of Saxony joins the Russian Army as a volunteer. He leaves July 4.
- Catherine arranges a feast for the Grand Duke. She has a chariot built by Antonio Rinaldi which can hold an orchestra of 60 men. The Court poet arranges the verses and Araja, the music. The feast is held on July 17, and the chariot pulled by 20 oxen. Everyone dances until 6:00 am.
- August 14, 1758: The Battle of Zorndorf. “One of the bloodiest routs of the century, as each side lost more than 20,000 men, killed or missing.” (The Russians are thrown back to the Polish frontier.) More than 1,200 officers are lost. General Fermor is replaced by Count Peter Saltikov to command the Army in Prussia.
- September, 1758: The Empress is walking to the parish church from the Palace of Tsarkoe Selo, when she falls unconscious. She is given a blood-letting by the surgeon on the spot but doesn’t wake up. The doctor, a Greek named Condoidis, is late to arrive. The surgeon’s name was Fousadier, a French emigre. Two hours later she awakens, but recognizes no one and is unintelligible.
- September: Catherine is heavily pregnant, therefore the Grand Duke must lead all balls and ceremonies. The father of the child is Poniatovski.
- October: She receives news from the Great Chancellor, Count Bestujev, that the King of Poland is recalling Poniatovski. “Count Bestujev had serious altercations on that subject…he discovered that Vice Chancellor, Count Worontsov and Ivan Shuvalov conspired in this manner.”
- December 8, 9: Catherine begins her labor pains. Shuvalov brings the Empress and Mme Vladislavov convinces the Grand Duke to leave. This is around 2:00 am, she sleeps till morning and then at supper she goes into confinement. 10pm-11pm she gives birth to a girl and the Empress names her Anna Petrovna, after the Grand Duke’s mother.
- On the sixth day the child is baptized, Catherine and the Grand Duke receive 60,000 rubles each.
- January 1, 1759: Peter Shuvalov, as Grand Master of the Artillery, asks for Catherine’s approval for the firework display.
- Towards the end of carnival, Count Alexander Stroganov marries Countess Anna Worontsov; Leon Naryshkine marries Mlle Zakrevski; Count Burturline marries Countess Marie Worontsov.
- Count Bestujev is arrested because of the Shuvalovs and Michel Worontsov, “who are egged on by Count Esterhazy and the Marquis de l’Hopital. They think he is more inclined for an alliance with England. He’s relieved of “all his decorations and rank…and sent back to his house a prisoner.” A Bernadi, Jelagine and Adadurov are also arrested.
- Bernadi: A jeweller; Italian; high intelligencer; carries and secures many messages
- Jelagine: Former A.D.C. to the Great Master of the Hunt, Count Rasumovski; loyal; honest; a friend to Poniatovski
- Adadurov: loyal; once taught Catherine Russian; two or three years before had been in the service of Nikita Trubetskoi, the Public Prosecutor.
- The judges at his trial are Marshal Buturline, the Attorney-General; Prince Trubetskoi, General Count Alexander Shuvalov and Wokov as secretary. Bestujev is charged only with “lese majeste”, that he tried to cause discord between the Empress and Their Imperial Highnesses. Meanwhile Count Poniatovski is asked to be recalled.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 14
Commonplace Book – Pages: 154-155
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 14: Intrigues Renewed (1756-1758)
- After leaving Oraneinbaum, they are visited by Prince and Princess Galitzine and M. Betsky.
- Autumn: Sir Hanbury-Williams goes back to England. He had gotten Count Bestujev to sign a treaty of alliance between Russia and England. However, Bestujev loses the authority and Russia adheres to the convention in Versailles between France and Austria.
- The Shuvalovs gain power. Worontsov, a great supporter, had received old furniture previously used by Madame de Pompadour as a bribe from Louis XV.
- Towards the end of 1756, Count Poniatovski comes back to Petersburg as Minister of the King of Poland.
- Under the influence of Brockdorff, the Grand Duke has a certain Elensheim in Holstein arrested, with no accusation or evidence.
- Brockdorff: tall; long neck; thick, flat head; red hair; “wore a wig of brass wire”; small eyes; “the corners of his mouth came down to his chin”; “almost no lids or eyebrows”; “encouraged the Grand Duke more towards drink”
- “Egyptians”: At this time, a name sometimes applied to “Bohemians” or gypsies.
- Towards Spring, 1757: M. Pechlin, the Grand Duke’s Holstein Minister dies. M. von Stambke, a confidante of Count Bestujev replaces him.
- Spring, 1757: Court goes to Oranienbaum. The Holstein troops made to camp in the village. (“never exceeded 1,300″)
- July, 1757: “Memel had surrendered to the Russian troops by the Agreement of June 24″
- August: News comes of the Battle of Gross – Jaegerndorf. (August 19, the Prussians were defeated by the Russian Army under the command of Marshal Apraxine)
- Later, Marshal Apraxine is found to be in flight, throwing away or burning his ammunition and dismantling his guns. Catherine believes it is because the Empress’ failing health. He believed the war would come to an immediate end if the Empress died.
- Director-General of Works, General Fermor leaves for Petersburg. He was appointed to the Army, having previously been Quartermaster to General Munich. Brigadiers Rosanov and Mordvinov become his assistants.
- Marshal Apraxine has a stroke and dies shortly after being recalled.
- General Fermor continues and occupies Koenigsburg.
- The Shuvalovs convince Leon Naryshkine to join their side, bribing him with the Order of St. Anne.
- April 5, 1758: Prince Charles of Saxony, son of Augustus III of Poland, candidate for the Duchy of Kurland, arrives in St. Petersburg. Count Ivan Chernishev is appointed to attend him.
-For the next 3 or 4 days, Catherine stays in bed with a high fever, and shows symptoms of pregnancy.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 13
Commonplace Book – Pages: 153-154
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 13: The Handsome Pole (1755-1756)
- Sir Hanbury-Williams, the British ambassador, comes to Russia, along with a Count Poniatovski, a Polish man. (Stanislas-August Poniatovski was born 1732 and was 25 when he arrived)
- Autumn: Leon Naryshkine falls ill with brain fever.
- Winter: Catherine suffers from wisdom teeth.
- December 17: Leon Naryshkine and Catherine sneak out to visit his sister-in-law. They find her visiting with Count Poniatovski.
- December 18: The Empress’ birthday.
- 1756: “Preparing for war with the King of Prussia” (The beginning of the Seven Years’ War. The Empress Marie Theresa of Austria, allied to Russia, France, Sweden, Poland, Saxony, attempted to recapture Silesia, lost in the previous war)
- Spring: Marshal Apraxine leaves to command an army to enter Prussia.
- The Grand Duke falls in love with Mme Teplov, niece of the Rasumovskis.
- Mme Schmidt: Wife of one of the Court’s trumpeters; “incredibly large and massive”; ruled over the old ladies-in-waiting “with a rod of iron”; Princess of Kurland was in charge of them in public
- Mme Shuvalov: “the pillar of salt”; thin; small; constrained; “her skirts were always too narrow and an inch shorter than they should have been”
- Countess Golovkine: daughter of Mme Shuvalov; dressed in the same fashion as her mother; “adornments were skimpy”; “always gave an impression of stinginess.”
- Diet of 1756: “almost all the leaders of the Russian party were beheaded”; persecutions from the French party, “Hats”
- Winter: Count Poniatovski is appointed as Polish envoy, the Mission of Saxony, but remains in Count Bestujev’s control.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 12
Commonplace Book – Pages 151-153
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 12: Birth of the Heir (1753-1755)
- November 1, 1753: 3:00 pm: The Palace catches fire. No one seems to have been hurt as everyone was evacuated and soldiers had immediately fired a musket to alarm everyone. The Empress goes to Pokrovskoe and Catherine goes to Choglokov’s.
- Mme Choglokov’s house: “Wind blew in on all sides”; “windows and doors were half rotten”; “the floor had cracks and gaps three or four fingers wide”; “it was filled with vermin”
- The Fire: The stokers came in to light the stoves in the main hall and it was filled with smoke. They put water on it, but the smoke only increased. Catherine’s books were saved, the Empress lost 4,000 dresses, the Grand Duke’s secret wine cupboard was saved; most of the furniture was saved.
- Catherine stays at Choglokov’s for 6 weeks then moves to the Bishop’s House. It had very old stoves and a fire started “two or three times…but each time were put out.” She gets a sore throat and high fever while she’s there.
- The Empress joins them at the Bishop’s House for the new year.
- Princess Gagarine obtains permission to marry Dmitri Matushkin.
- February, 1754: Catherine shows signs of pregnancy.
- Easter Day: M. Choglokov suffers from colic and gets worse.
- April 21: Choglokov is declared beyond recovery and taken to his house.
- April 25: M. Choglokov dies. At the moment of his death, a bird flew in and perched itself near Mme Choglokov. It left and she claimed it was her husband’s soul. No one could find the bird again.
- Alexander Shuvalov, Head of the State Inquiry Tribunal (the Secret Chancery) resumes Choglokov’s duties with the Grand Duke.
- May 10, 11: They leave Moscow for St. Petersburg.
- September 20: Catherine gives birth to a son. The Empress takes the child away, it is named Paul and Catherine is very neglected.
- A “magic charm” had been found near the Empress’ mattress. Suspicion falls on Anna Dumacheva and she is exiled to Moscow.
- On the sixth day her son is baptized, meanwhile “he had almost died from an ulceration in the mouth.”
- On the seventeenth day, Serge Saltikov is appointed to take the news of the newborn to Sweden. Princess Gagarine’s wedding is fixed for the coming week.
- November 1, 1754: Catherine’s six weeks of confinement ends. She reads “Histoire de l’Allemagne” and “Histoire Universelle” by Voltaire. Also 2 volumes of Baronivs, Montesquieu’s “Esprit des Lois” and “Annals” by Tacitus.
- December 26: Catherine gets a fever and stays through the New Year, 1755.
- Serge Saltikov returns from Sweden, but it is intended that he should go as Russian minister to Hamburg in place of Prince Alexander Galitzine. He then goes to a Freemason lodge with Count Roman Worontsov.
- February 10: Catherine appears in public and shows hostilities to the Shuvalovs.
- M. Brockdorff appears in Russia. “He held the office of Chamberlain to the Grand Duke in his capacity as Duke of Holstein.”
- After Easter, the Court goes to Oranienbaum. The gardener for Oranienbaum, Lambert, makes a prediction to Catherine, fixing a date when she would come to the throne.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 10-11
Commonplace Book – Pages: 150-151
“Memories of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 10: Coquetries and Gallantries (1750)
- New Year’s Day, 1750: Catherine’s Kalmuk hairdresser catches smallpox
- March 17: The Empress went to Gostilitza; the seat of Count Rasumovski, “to celebrate the Count’s birthday and we were ordered to Tsarkoe Selo.”
- Mlle Balk, lady-in-waiting to the Empress, married M. Serge Saltikov, the Grand Duke’s Chamberlain.
- Easter: After being made to eat a dozen oysters the night before, Catherine suffers from a “violent colic” and remains in bed.
- The Empress is caught between four favorites: Count Rasumovski, Shuvalov, a chorister named Kachenevski, and Beketov.
- The Count de Bernis, the Austrian Ambassador, Count Lynar, the Belgian envoy, and General Arnheim, the envoy from Saxony, all arrive in Russia. Count Hamilton, Knight of Malta, is in Bernis’ retinue.
- Count Lynar: erudite; foppish; tall; fair; “almost red-haired”; “very white skin”; had 18 children; “wore clothes of the lightest shades”
- M. Choglokov: “a disagreeable toad;” blond; fat; stout; “heavy in mind”
- The Grand Duke gives her a small, English poodle
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 11: Awaiting the Heir (1751-1753)
- Her and the Grand Duke become friends with the Count de Bernis.
- Count Beketov takes a fancy to some choirboys, and is ordered to stay in Peterhof, but suffers from a brain fever. He is then transferred to the Army.
- September, 1751: The Empress appoints M. Leon Naryshkine as Gentleman of the Bedchamber (his father, Semyon, was the Marshal whom welcomed Catherine to Russia)
- M. Leon Naryshkine: “a born clown;” witty; “superficial but widespread knowledge and a unique way of interpreting everything;” “capable of giving dissertations on any subject”
- They move to the Winter Palace in September. Count Zakhar Chernishev came back to Petersburg. He corresponds flirtatiously with Catherine until the end of 1751.
- Lent: She has a violent altercation with Mme Choglokov. She had given to the Empress two pieces of rich material sent to Catherine by her mother.
- Serge Saltikov: 26; distinguished gentleman; vain; a Russian dandy; ignorant; “without taste or merit” (He was only driven by ambition, in vain did Catherine expect tenderness from him)
- At this time, the Grand Duke falls in love with Marthe Chafirov.
- December 14, 1752: The Court leaves Petersburg for Moscow. Catherine left with a few slight symptoms of pregnancy.
- Catherine arrives in Moscow, but having violent hemorrhages along the way. Meanwhile Mme Choglokov remains in Petersburg and has her eighth child, a girl.
- April 25: The Empress celebrates the anniversary of her coronation in Moscow.
- Zakhar Chernishev and Nikolai Leontiev challenges each other to a duel. Count Chernishev is badly wounded in the head, Leontiev is arrested.
- May, 1753: Catherine shows signs of pregnancy; she goes to Liberitsa. Towards St. Peter’s Day, it ends in a miscarriage in Moscow.
- During their time in Moscow, several lackeys and minor courtiers go insane. They are placed near Boerhave’s apartments.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 9
Commonplace Book – Pages 149-150
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 9: Intrigues (1749)
- Middle of December: They go to Moscow. Turns out, Count Lestocq had been accused of accepting 10,000 rubles as a bribe from the King of Prussia and of poisoning a man named Oetinger. He was tortured and exiled to Siberia.
- December 25: They are allowed to miss Mass, the temperature was 28-29 degrees. Spots appear on her face, but Dr. Boerhave gives her oil of talcum to mix with water and wash her face with. “10 days later, I was cured.”
- : “The Empress is overtaken by an attack of constipation.” 10 days later, one of the Empress’ ladies-in-waiting is married.
- General Apraxine’s third daughter dies of smallpox.
- She reads “L’Histoire de l’Allemagne by Father Barre, the Canon of St. Genevieve, and the works of Plato.
- During their time in Moscow, Andre Chernishev is released with the rank of lieutenant.
- In Perovo, in spring, Catherine is overcome with a violent sickness. The Empress has a fit of colic. Both recover and the Empress walks 30 miles on a pilgrimage to the Troitza monastery.
- When the Empress reaches Taininskoe, Count Rasumovski, a younger brother of the favorite, confesses his love for Catherine, but he is happily married.
- Towards St. Peter’s Day, they join the Empress in Bratovchina. For Catherine’s sunburn, the Empress recommends a bottle of lemon, egg whites and French brandy. Catherine then recommends it for “lishai,” “flechten,” or “herpes.”
- The Empress makes a journey to Sophien. Her jester’s name is Aksakou and she’s mortally afraid of mice.
- They remain at Rayova till August. There, Catherine is overcome with toothache and remained in bed for 10 days.
- September: Catherine goes with the Empress to Voskressensky monastery. Shuvalov, Gentleman of the Bedchamber is the new favorite.
- Upon returning, she gets a sore throat and high fever. After recovering, she attends the wedding of Countess Rumiantsev’s niece, “who was marrying Alexander Naryshkine, the chief cup-bearer.”
- The Shuvalovs rise in power. The Empress has a new attachment to Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov. (Son of Marshal Shuvalov, who himself had been the favorite.) They didn’t like Count Bestujev and considered Count Rasumovski a rival.
- Baturine: in debt; a gambler; becomes acquainted with the Grand Duke; contemplates killing the Empress, setting fire to the Palace and bringing the Grand Duke to the throne; the Grand Duke had nothing to do with this; he is sentenced to imprisonment in the fortress of Schlusselburg; in 1770, Catherine would deport him to Kamchatka, he flees and is “killed while pillaging the island of Formosa.”
- December 13: The Court leaves for St. Petersburg. Catherine develops a violent toothache. Boerhave, the son of the former Boerhave, extracts the tooth but a piece of the jawbone, “the size of a shilling” goes with it. She suffers for 4 weeks.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 8
Commonplace Book – Page 148
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 8: A Disunited Couple (1748-1749)
- 5th week of Lent: Mme Choglokov gives birth to her 7th child. Meanwhile, M. Choglokov is having an affair with a Mlle Koshelev.
- Wednesday, a week later: Catherine shivers violently; her head and limbs ache, and she gets a fever. She is then diagnosed with smallpox; 24 hours later it is just measles
- April 21, 1748: Catherine’s birthday; now 20 years old. She’s recovered but with a bad cough.
- Beginning of May: At 8:00, the Palace of Tsarskoe Selo begins to collapse, “the foundation of the house crumbling to pieces.” She and the Grand Duke make it out safely. An officer of the Guards called Levashov had carried her out. Princess Gagarine was badly cut by falling bricks. Three servants on the ground floor were killed by the falling ceiling. Sixteen workmen in the basement were crushed.
- Sacrosomo, a Maltese Knight comes to Russia and passes notes to Catherine from her mother, she then responds to them by passing notes to the “cellist, d’Ologlio.”
- During the Summer, they go to Peterhof and it is discovered that Mlle Koshelev is pregnant by M. Choglokov. Mme Choglokov eventually forgives him, “for the sake of the children” and he is not dismissed.
- After 8 days in Oranienbaum, Catherine feels overheated and her head “grew heavy.” With much sleep, she recovers. She reads the “Memoirs of Brantome” and the “Life of Henry IV” by Perefixe.
- Mme Krause is dismissed and retired to live with her son-in-law, Sievers, the Marshal of the Court. She is replaced by Mme Vladislavov, mother-in-law of Chancellor Pugovisikov, head clerk to Count Bestujev.
- Count Lestocq is arrested and taken tot he Fortress. Count Bestujev, his enemy, General Stephen Apraxine and Count Alexander Shuvalov are appointed to examine. No evidence is found. Nevertheless, he is exiled, his house given to Count Apraxine and all his property confiscated.
- Winter: A Finn, called Caterina Petrovna, brings a letter to Catherine from Andre Chernishev. She sends him money and gifts.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 7
Commonplace Book – Pages: 146-147
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 7: A Sterile Couple (1745-1748)
- Count Brummer and Chamberlain Bergholz are removed from the Grand Duke’s entourage, and General Prince Basile Repnine is appointed his escort.
- The Empress rages severely at Catherine. Her and the Grand Duke have been married about a year and still no pregnancy. Catherine has been upset for quite sometime and attempts suicide. A maid catches her and talks her out of it.
- The Grand Duke, after Catherine arrives in Moscow, obtains three valets-de-chambre, all three sons of grenadiers in the Empress’ bodyguard. One of them is named Andre Chernishev. Both the Grand Duke and Catherine become fond of him. The others think Andre and Catherine are in love.
- As Catherine is confronting Andre about this, Count Devier, (then Chamberlain to the Empress) summons her to the Grand Duke. The next day the three Chernishevs are sent to Orenburg and Mme Choglokov is appointed as Catherine’s lady-in-waiting.
- Court: “there was no coversation…and everybody cordially hated everybody else…science and art were never touched on…half the Court could hardly read…surprising if more than a third could write.”
- The Grand Duke takes a fancy to Mme Cedersparre.
- The Empress wants to go to Riga, but at the last minute changes her mind and returns to St. Petersburg. Two years, after Catherine’s accession, she finds an old chest and in it a long German paper, “written by a fanatic, a mad Lutheran, who begged the Empress in the name of God…to not go to Riga, where some people were waiting to kill her.”
- August: Simon Theodorski, Bishop of Pskov, questions her and the Duke about Andre Chernishev and tells the Empress it was all innocent.
- A ball is held in Oranienbaum and the Empress is in Tsarskoe-Selo.
- She reads the Letters of Mme de Sevigne and also becomes fond of Voltaire.
- She then suffers from continuous headaches and insomnia. Dr. Boerhave examines her skull and says that “though I was 17, my head was that of a child of six and that I should…not expose it to the cold…the [bones] would grow together when I was 25 or 26.”
- In winter, the Empress orders everyone to follow her on a pilgrimage to Tikhvin. Count Rasumovski has an attack of gout. Andre Chernishev and his brothers, at this time, are also under arrest at Ribachala Sloboda.
- Mme Choglokov’s husband: “thoroughly evil-minded”; arrogant; brutal; stupid; conceited; malicious; pompous; secretive; silent; “object of terror”; “with never a smile on his lips”
- The Prince Bishop of Lubeck is appointed bailiff, to administer the Grand Duke’s estates in Germany
- Lent, 1747: They go with the Empress to Gostilitsa. A few days later, Catherine learns that her father is dead. Count Santi tells the Empress that she had asked him “why Ambassadors had not offered me their condolences,” when she did not and the Master of Ceremonies is reprimanded accordingly.
- Court Chamberlain, Count Devier is made brigadier in the Army and dismissed. Vilbois, a gentleman-in-waiting is made colonel and is also dismissed.
- Winter: Prince Alexander Galitzine, Catherine’s Chamberlain, and Princess Daria Gagarine, her lady-in-waiting, are married.
- January 6: Catherine wakes with a sore throat and a fever. By the end of the day, it’s determined she has the measles.
- Lent: “another four men were removed from [the Grand Duke's] entourage, among them the three pages whom he liked best.”
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 6
Commonplace Book – Pages: 145-146
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 6: The Wedding (1745)
- The date chosen for the wedding is August 21
- August 15: The Empress takes communion with the Grand Duke and Catherine at the Church of the Virgin of Kazan. They then go to St. Alexander Nevsky monastery.
- August 21: Catherine rises at 6 am. At 8:00, she goes to the Empress’ apartments to get dressed. After her hair is done, the Empress places the Grand Ducal crown on her head. Her dress is of “silver moire,” embroidered in silver on all hems. A ball is held at the Winter Palace.
- Mme Krause is appointed chief of maid to Catherine by the Empress. She convinces the other maids not to speak to Catherine.
- September 5: The Empress goes to Gostilitsa, ‘Count Razumovski’s country place’ and sends the Grand Duke and Catherine, and her mother to Tsarkoe Selo.
- Catherine’s mother, on her departure, is given 60,000 rubles, but owes 70,000 rubles more. The Empress, upon her death, will owe 657,000 rubles. Catherine has an income of 30,000 rubles.
- Her mother, finally leaving, had gotten pregnant by Count Betsky, and leaves without saying goodbye.
- The Empress then dismisses Mlle Jukova. Catherine’s mother had feared that she had grown “too attached to a girl who wasn’t worthy.” Count Zakar Chernishev is then removed because her mother fears “that he may fall in love with the Grand Duchess.” Catherine then finds a suitable husband for Jukova, a sergeant in the Guards named Travine, but the two are exiled to Astrakhan.
- December 17: Catherine develops a toothache. M. Korsakov, a naval captain, gives her a nail and says to make the “gum bleed where it hurts.” She does, he leaves and takes the nail with him, “and this tooth has never since given me any trouble.”
- January, 1746: A carnival ball is given by Chief of Police, Commissioner Tatishchev, “in a house that belonged to the Empress, called Smolni Dvoretz. After the ball, the Grand Duke gets a fever and is bled several times.
- During Lent, 1746, the Grand Duke confesses his love for Mlle Karr, one of the Empress’ ladies-in-waiting, who later married the Empress’ Equerry, Prince Galitzine.
- The Grand Duke is caught spying on the Empress and she scolds him harshly. Catherine refuses to spy so she is not scolded. Mme Krause tells Catherine that the Empress “behaved today like a real mother.” She also says that next time, she and the Duke should say “Vinovaty Matushka” (We beg your pardon, Maman).
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 4-5
Commonplace Book – Pages: 144-145
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 4: Betrothal
- Her and her mother return to Moscow, and she is converted to the Greek Orthodox faith with the help of the Bishop of Psau, Simon Theodorski, on June 28. On St. Peter’s Day she is betrothed to the Grand Duke.
- During her conversion ceremony, the Abbess of the Novodevichi Convent is named as her godmother. Catherine is given the name Sophie of Novogorod. Her ring from the Duke is 12,000 rubles while his is 14,000 rubles.
- The Empress, much later, becomes displeased that Catherine has “contracted so many debts,” or so M. Lestocq tells her. Her mother refuses to help her. Here, she spends money buying things for others, especially her mother, the Grand Duke and Countess Runiantseu.
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 5: Catherine, her Fiance, and Her Mother
- November, 1744: The Grand Duke catches the measles.
- December 18, 1744: The Empress’ birthday is celebrated at Tver.
- December 19, 1744: The Grand Duke faints and catches smallpox.
- Count Gyllenburg recommends that Catherine read “Lives of Great Men” by Plutarch, “the Life of Cicero” and the “Causes of Greatness and Decadence of the Roman Republic” by Montesquieu.
- February, 1745: The Grand Duke returns from Shatilovo, and he is horribly pock-marked, swollen, and his head shaven.
- February 10, 1745: The Grand Duke’s birthday. He is 17.
- The Prince August writes to his sister, Catherine’s mother, that he wants to come to Russia. Her mother knows he wants to gain administration of Holstein so she tells him that “instead of forming a cabal against his brother and joining with the enemies of his sister in Russia he had better enter the service of the Dutch and get killed with honor on the battlefield.” The letter is read by Count Bestujev and the Empress, and Prince August is granted permission to come to Russia.
- Araja: The Empress’ Italian choirmaster; clavichord instructor
- Catherine’s maids (all Russian): Maria Petrovna Jukova (kept the key to the jewels); Fraulein Schenk (kept the linen); Mlle Balior (kept the lace); the elder Skorokhodova (the clothes); the younger Skorokhodova (the ribbons); one of the dwarves (the powder and combs); another dwarf (rouge, hairpins, mouches)
- Her mother, two days after the first week of Lent, takes ill and faints from bloodletting
- May, 1745: The Empress and the Grand Duke go to the Summer Palace. Catherine and her mother stay in a stone building on the Fontanka River. After a few weeks they all move to Peterhof.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 3
Commonplace Book – Pages: 143-144
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 3: Invitation au Voyage (1744)
- Jan 1, 1744: Her mother is invited by the Marshal of the Duke of Holstein’s Court, Brummer, on behalf of the Empress Elizabeth to come to Russia.
- At Court, the Count Bestujev wanted the Grand Duke to marry a Princess of Saxony, daughter of August III, King of Poland. Count Brummer, Count Lestocq, Marshall Rumiantsev, and several others, wanted the Grand Duke to marry one of the daughters of the King of France.
- They then go to Court, and Catherine spends much time, a surprise to everyone, talking to His Majesty at dinner.
- In Mitau, she and her mother meet M. Voejkou, a colonel commanding the Russian troops in Kurland. In Riga, they meet M. Naryshkine, Marshal Lascy and General Saltikov and his wife, Princess Anne of Mecklenburg. Then they go from Dorpat to Narva to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
- Vice Chancellor, Count Bestujev: “more feared than loved”; great intriguer; suspicious; firm; “intrepid in principles”; “occasionally tyrannical”; “an implacable enemy”; petty; loyal to his friends; Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs
- At Court, the Marquis de la Chetardie stood for France, Sweden and Prussia.
- Count Lestocq: “one of the principle actors in the revolution that brought Empress Elizabeth”; crafty; full of malice; “his heart is dark and evil”
- 7-8pm, Feb 9, 1744: They arrive at Annenhof Palace (burnt down in 1753, rebuilt in 6 weeks, burnt down again in 1771 during a plague.) She meets the Prince of Hesse-Homburg (A.D.C., Field-Marshal, Chief of Court)
- Empress Elizabeth: beautiful; majestic; large; stout; smooth and “not embarrassed” in her movements
- February 10: The Grand Duke’s birthday
- Count Rasumouski: Master of the Hunt; “handsome”; Elizabeth’s lover; nicknamed the “Night Emperor”
-Grand Duke: Lutheran; childish; was in love with one of the Empress’ ladies-in-waiting, Mme Lopukhin (she had been involved in a plot to dispose Elizabeth, therefore had her tongue cut out and banished to Siberia); imprudent
-13th day after arrival in Moscow: Catherine catches pleurisy. She shivers violently and goes unconscious with a high fever. Her mother refuses the doctors to bleed her. The Empress finally orders the bleeding. For 27 days she goes in and out and meanwhile is bled 16 times. The “abscess that had formed in my right side” had burst.
-April 21, 1744: Catherine’s birthday. Finally strong enough to appear in public.
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 2
Commonplace Book – Pages: 141-143
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 2: The School of Life
- 1739: Visits her uncle, the future King of Sweden and then Bishop of Lubeck. (He was the elder brother of Catherine’s mother, Adolf-Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp.) She also meets the Grand Duke, Peter Fedorovich. (His mother was the daughter of Peter the Great and died of consumption two months after his birth. Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein was his father. When he died, Peter was left in the care of Catherine’s uncle.)
- Peter Fedorovich: good-looking; well-mannered; 11 yrs old at this time; courteous; pale; delicate; deceitful and hypocritical; “great inclination for drink”; hot-tempered; rebellious; disliked his tutors; Catherine doesn’t repugn the idea of marrying him
- 8 yrs old onwards: Catherine’s mother often takes her to Brunswick, to visit the Duchess of Brunswick-Luneburg. (She lived to be 80, and died in 1767 or 1768.) In Brunswick she meets “the famous grandmother of the Duke Charles.”
- Bolhagen: Vice-Governor to her father; adviser; intimate friend; Johanna-Elizabeth didn’t like him; extremely thrifty
- 1736: Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Catherine’s second cousin, married the Prince of Wales, son of George II of England.
- Princess Hedwig-Sophie-Augusta: Her mother’s elder sister; Mother Superior of Quedinburg; loves dogs, especially ‘mops’ (a kind of pug); owned 16 dogs at least and a large number of parrots; small in stature; stout; wrote in French and German
- Aunt, father’s sister: over 50; very tall; thin; a heavily corseted waist; maintained that
- “The winter of 1740 was a very hard one; it was compared to that of 1709, the coldest in the memory of man.”
- 1740: Anne, Empress of Russia dies, and shortly after Charles VI, Emperor of the Romans
- 1742: In Stettin, her father has a stroke, “which affected all his left side.” After his recovery, they go to an observation camp near Brandenburg and to Dornburg. Her brother dies, age 12.
- Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau: Commander; his wife, daughter of an apothecary; his daughters, Princess Wilhelmine and Princess Henriette
- 1745: A second daughter dies, age 3. Her father’s second cousin, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Johann-August dies as well.
- 1743: Her family goes on a tour of Jever, and then onto Varel (both in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.) In Varel, her family stays with the mother of Countess Bentinck.
- Countess Bentinck: Rode astride; Catherine (14) becomes very attached which displeases her parents; irresistible; fascinating; “sang, laughed and pranced like a child”; “well into her 30s”; separated from her husband
- Her uncle, Prince Georg-Ludwig, a younger brother of her mother, falls in love with her. He proposes to her, but she will only marry with her parents consent (she was 14, he was 24) It would never be approved of and so the relationship ends (it was all innocent.)
“Memoirs of Catherine ‘the Great’ II of Russia” As Written in Her Own Hand – Ch. 1
Commonplace Book – Pages: 140-141
“Memoirs of Catherine the Great” – Chapter 1: The First Years
- “I was born on April 21, 1729 (forty-two years ago) at Stettin in Pomerania…My mother almost died in bringing me into the world and it took her 19 irksome weeks to recover.”
- Catherine’s wet-nurse was the wife of a Prussian soldier – “19, gay, pretty”
- “I was placed in the care of a lady who was the widow of ‘Herr von Hohendorf”…showed little sense regarding my mother”; very abrupt; “fond of raising her voice”
- Magdeleine Cardel: Placed in her care at 2 yrs old; French refugee; sycophantic and obsequious disposition; slightly false; “took great care…to gain approval of herself.”
- Catherine becomes secretive for her age. Her mother has a son, 18 months after her birth.
- 3 yrs old: “My father and mother took me to visit my grandmother in Hamburg” (this was her maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, born Albertine-Frederique of Baden-Durlach, who after the death of her husband, the Lutheran Bishop of Lubeck, resided usually in Hamburg.) The only thing she remembers from this trip is seeing a German opera and crying loudly after seeing the actress cry.
- 4 yrs old: Magdeleine Cardel marries a lawyer named Colhard. Catherine is place in the care of Cardel’s younger sister, Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth Cardel: “a paragon of virtue and wisdom”; “had a natural spiritual quality”; a kind heart; educated mind; patient; gentle; just; loyal; “she did not flatter me”; “put me back to the alphabet”
- 1734: Her mother gives birth to a second son. The first had become lame and only lived to the age of 12 when he died of purpuric fever. He had been examined by famous German doctors in Aix, Teplitz, and Karlsbad. His autopsy revealed he had a sprained hip – “could only have happened shortly after his birth.”
- Until she was 7, she was “prone to a rash which covers the head and hands and frequently occurs with children, called ‘zolotukha’ in Russian” (probably the dermatitis commonly called impetigo.) The disease might also be of a scrofulous nature.) “The cure is more dangerous…no remedy…applied to me…My head…was shaved, the scalp powdered, and I had to wear a bonnet. I had to wear gloves…”
- 7 yrs old: “One night as I knelt and prayed I began to cough so violently…When I was well enough…it was discovered…that I had in the meantime assumed the shape of the letter Z; my right shoulder was much higher than the left, the backbone running in a zigzag and the left side falling in…The first step was to swear everybody to secrecy concerning my condition.”
- For a cure, a local hangman, “under a pledge of great secrecy,” said that “on an empty stomach, a girl should come and rub my shoulder and backbone with her saliva.” He then made a corset for her, “which was never removed day or night…Besides this he made me wear a large black ribbon which went under the neck, crossed the right shoulder round the right arm, and was fastened in the back…After 18 months I began to show signs of recovery…I was 10 or 11 when I was at last allowed to discard this…framework.”
- She learns religion, history, geography, French and German
- She can easily read music, but is tone-deaf when it comes to singing
- “My mother, Johanna-Elizabeth-Holstein-Gottorp was married in 1727 at the age of 15 to my father, Christian-August von Anhalt-Zerbet. He was then 42.”
- Christian-August: “very thrifty”; preferred solitude; serious; austere; great popularity; religious; lover of justice; “honest, both in principle and practice”; solid and straightforward; common sense; great erudition; loved reading
- Johanna-Elizabeth: extravagant; exceedingly generous; fond of entertainment and social life; beautiful gay; frivolous; great popularity; religious; lover of justice; brilliant wit; “much more at ease in the grand monde”; “brought up by the Duchess Elizabeth-Sophie-Marie von Brunswick-Luneburg, her godmother and relative.” After losing Schleswig, my grandfather had to give up one daughter to his sister’s husband’s second wife. (This man was the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp-Ettin, young brother of Frederick IV, Prince of Holstein-Gottorp, and he had lost some of his dukedom in 1658 to Sweden.)
- 1766: Catherine visits the Duchess Elizabeth-Sophie-Marie and also meets Frederick-William I, King of Prussia, who ruled 1716-1740.
- 1737: Catherine visits her mother in Berlin for the first time and there, she meets Queen Elizabeth of Brunswick (who married in 1732 the Crown Prince, future Frederick II. She also meets the Prince Royal, Henry of Prussia, younger brother of Frederick II.
