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suddenly: to crown his chosen bride Catherine, little Katya, with-

out delay. But this claim struck Prince Vasily Vladimirovich as

exorbitant, and he protested in the name of all the family.

“Neither I nor any of mine will wish to be her subjects! She

is not married!”

“She is promised in marriage!” retorted Alexis.

“That’s not the same at all!”

A heated debate erupted. Prince Sergei Dolgoruky suggested

raising the Guard to support the cause of the tsar’s fiancée. Turn-

ing toward General Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, he ex-

claimed:

“You and Ivan control the Preobrazhensky regiment. To-

gether, the two of you can make your men do whatever you want!”

“We would be massacred!” retorted the General; and he

walked out of the meeting.

After he left, another Dolgoruky, Prince Vasily Lukich, a

member of the Supreme Privy Council, sat down by the fireplace

where an enormous wood fire as burning and, on his own author-

ity, drafted a will for the tsar to sign — while he still had the

strength to read and sign an official document. The other mem-

bers of the family flocked around him and suggested a sentence

here, a word there to refine the text. When he was done, someone

in the group spoke up, voicing the fear that their adversaries

would dispute the authenticity of the document. A third Dol-

goruky, Ivan, Peter’s little friend and the fiancé of Natalya Shere-

metiev, came to the rescue. Did they need the tsar’s signature?

Aha! He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to

his relatives.

“Here is the tsar’s handwriting,” he said, cheerfully. “And

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here is mine. You yourselves would not be able to tell them apart.

And I know how to sign his name as well; I often did so as a joke!”

The onlookers were flabbergasted — but not indignant.

Dipping a quill into the inkwell, Ivan signed Peter’s name at the

bottom of the page. They all leaned over his shoulder and mur-

mured with wonder.

“That is exactly the hand of the tsar!”13 they exclaimed.

Then the conspirators exchanged half-reassured glances and

prayed God that they would be spared the necessity of actually

using this forgery.

From time to time, they sent emissaries to the palace for an

update on the tsar’s condition. The news was grimmer and grim-

mer. Peter died at one o’clock in the morning, Monday, January

19, 1730, at the age of 14 years and three months. His reign had

lasted just over two and a half years. January 19, 1730, the day of

his death, is the date he had set a few weeks before for his mar-

riage with Catherine Dolgoruky.

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Machinations around the Throne

Footnotes

1. Cf . Brian-Chaninov: Histoire de Russie.

2. A traditional term designating the daughter of the tsar.

3. Cf. Daria Olivier, op. cit.

4. Cf. Waliszewski, L’Héritage de Pierre le Grand.

5. Cf. Daria Olivier, op. cit.

6. Details provided by Essipov: “L’Exil du prince Menshikov,” Annales de la

Patrie, 1861, and cited by Waliszewski, op. cit.

7. Almost 2500 lbs.

8. Waliszewski, op. cit.

9. Menshikov’s two other children, his son Alexander and his daughter

Alexandra, were recalled from exile only under the following reign.

10. The future Peter III, who would marry Catherine the Great.

11. Cited by Soloviov: Histoire de Russie, quoted by K Waliszewski , op. cit.

12. Ibid.

13. Details found in the State Archives (Moscow) file on the Dolgoruky scan

dal, and quoted by Kostomarov in his Monograph and by K. Wal-

iszewski, op. cit.

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< 62 >

IV

THE SURPRISE ACCESSION OF ANNA IVANOVNA

The same uncertainty that had embarrassed the members of

the Supreme Privy Council upon the death of Peter the Great

gripped them again in the hours following the demise of Peter II.

In the absence of a male heir and an authentic will, who could re-

place the late ruler without sparking a revolution among the aris-

tocracy?

The usual notables were gathered at Lefortovo Palace in

Moscow, with the Golitsyns, Golovkins and Dolgorukys at the

center. But nobody had the nerve, at first, to voice an opinion —

as if all the titled “decision-makers” felt guilty for the tragic de-

cline of the monarchy. Taking advantage of the general confusion,

Vasily Dolgoruky chose his moment and, hoisting his sword, gave

a rallying cry: “Long live Her Majesty, Catherine!” And he cited

the recently fabricated will, to justify this proclamation of victory.

Thanks to this intrigue, the Dolgorukys had a chance of attaining

the highest position in the empire. The goal was worth a little

cheating. But the clan of those who opposed that choice struck

back at once: Dmitri Golitsyn stared down Vasily Dolgoruky and

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sharply asserted that the will was false.

And he looked as though he could somehow prove it. The

Dolgorukys, fearing that the document would not stand up to se-

rious examination and that they would then be liable to serious