Terrible Tsarinas

spect for the empress, that hoyden who was openly flaunting her

relations with the ex- muzhik Razumovsky. Her Majesty’s turpi-

tude was, he said, the talk of the town.

Elizabeth would have been merely amused by the trouble in

the Grand-Ducal household if her daughter-in-law had quit

brooding for long enough to find a way to get pregnant. But, after

nine months of cohabitation, the young woman was as flat in the

belly as she had been on her wedding day. Could she still be a vir-

gin? This prolonged sterility seemed like an attack on Elizabeth’s

personal prestige. In a fit of anger, she called in her unproductive

daughter-in-law, said that she alone was responsible for the non-

consummation of the marriage, accused her of frigidity, clumsi-

ness and (following suit from the chancellor, Alexis Bestuzhev)

went as far as to claim that Catherine shared her mother’s politi-

cal convictions and must be working secretly for the king of Prus-

sia.

The grand duchess protested, in vain. Elizabeth announced

that, from now on, the grand duke and she would have to shape

up. Their lives, intimate as well as public, would now be subject

to strict rules in the form of written “instructions” from Chancel-

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Elizabethan Russia

lor Bestuzhev, and the execution of this program would be en-

sured by “two people of distinction”: a master and a mistress of

the court, to be named by Her Majesty. The master of the court

would be charged with instructing Peter in propriety, correct lan-

guage and the healthy ideas that were appropriate to his station;

the mistress of the court would encourage Catherine to adhere to

the dogmas of the Orthodox religion under every circumstance;

she would keep her from making the least intrusion in the field of

politics, would keep away from her any young men liable to dis-

tract her from her marital commitment, and would teach her cer-

tain feminine wiles that might enable her to awaken the desire of

her husband, so that, as one reads in the document, “by this means

our very high house may produce offspring.”1

Pursuant to these draconian directives, Catherine was for-

bidden to write directly to anyone. All her correspondence, in-

cluding letters to her parents, would be subjected to review by the

College of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the few gentlemen

whose company sometimes distracted her in her loneliness and

sorrow were removed from the court. Thus, by order of Her Maj-

esty, three Chernyshevs (two brothers and a cousin, all good-

looking and pleasant of address) were sent to serve as lieutenants

in regiments cantoned in Orenburg. The mistress of the court,

responsible for keeping Catherine in line, was a German cousin of

the empress, Maria Choglokov, and the master of the court was

none other than her husband, an influential man currently on a

mission in Vienna. This model household was intended to serve

as an example to the ducal couple. Maria Choglokov was a para-

gon of virtue, since she was devoted to her husband, appeared to

be pious, viewed every issue from the same perspective as Bestuz-

hev — and at the age of 24 already had four children! If need be,

the Choglokovs might be backed up by an additional mentor,

Prince Repnin, who would also be charged with imbuing Their

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Terrible Tsarinas

Highnesses with wisdom and a preference for all things Russian,

including the Orthodox faith.

With such assets working in her favor, Elizabeth was sure

she would breach the divide in this household; but she very soon

saw that it is as difficult to engender reciprocal love in a disparate

couple as it is to institute peace between two countries with op-

posing interests. In the world at large as in her own house, mis-

understanding, rivalry, demands, confrontations and rifts were

the rule.

From threats of war to local skirmishes, from broken treaties

to troop concentrations at the borders, it happened that, after the

French armies enjoyed a few victories in the United Provinces,

that Elizabeth agreed to send expeditionary forces to the borders

of Alsace. Without actually engaging in hostilities with France,

she wanted to encourage it to show a little more flexibility in ne-

gotiating with its adversaries. On October 30, 1748, through the

peace treaty of Aachen, Louis XV gave up the conquest of the

Netherlands and Frederick II retained Silesia. The tsarina left the

field, having gained nothing and lost nothing, but having disap-

pointed everyone. The only sovereign who was pleased with this

result was the king of Prussia.

By now, Elizabeth was convinced that Frederick II was en-

tertaining in St. Petersburg, within the very walls of the palace,

one of his most effective and most dangerous partisans: the Grand

Duke Peter. Her nephew, whom she never could stand, was be-

coming more foreign and more odious by the day. To cleanse the

atmosphere of Germanophilia in which the grand duke was sub-

merged, she set out to eliminate from his retinue all the gentlemen

from Holstein, and to remove the others who might try to replace