Catherine the Great (69 page)

I
t may never be possible to acknowledge all the influences which lie behind the publication of a book such as this. I certainly cannot do so here. But I should never have begun it without help from Jon Jackson and Sam Johnson, and I could not have finished it without support from Catherine Beaumont. Much of it was written while I was chairman of the School of History at the University of Leeds, and I am deeply indebted to all my former colleagues there for their tolerance and encouragement. In particular, I received invaluable bibliographical advice from Simon Burrows, John Chartres, Emilia Jamroziak and Phil Withington (now of Christ’s College, Cambridge), and unstinting support from John Childs, Gordon Forster, John Gooch, Katrina Honeyman, Kevin Linch, Graham Loud, Angela Softley, Edward Spiers, Andrew Thompson, Ian Wood and Anthony Wright. Richard Davies is an incomparable fount of wisdom in the Special Collections Department of the Brotherton Library, which boasts some of the most impressive Russian holdings in the United Kingdom. Among friends and colleagues in the international Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia, Paul Keenan generously permitted me to quote from his unpublished doctoral thesis, and I owe a continuing and mounting debt to Roger Bartlett, Anthony Cross, Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, Joachim Klein, Isabel de Madariaga, Gary Marker, Gareth Jones, Patrick O’Meara, Viktor Zhivov and Andrei Zorin. For all its imperfections, this book would have been much the weaker without their help and example.

Though I have made regular journeys to Moscow and St Petersburg in recent years, much of the reading for this book was done in the Cambridge University Library, the British Library and the National Library of Finland on visits made
possible by the University of Leeds. In Helsinki, I owe a profound debt to Marina Vituhnovskaja, Timo Vihavainen, Irina Lukka and her colleagues. In Cambridge, my friends Derek Beales and Tim Blanning still inspire just as much awe and respect as they did when they taught me thirty years ago. In London, my late friend Lindsey Hughes and her husband Jim Cutshall gave me some of the most memorable evenings of my life and much more besides. If there were any justice in the world, Lindsey would occupy the chair I now hold.

Three special obligations remain. Peter Carson has been an unfailingly patient publisher, even when he had grounds to be apoplectic. At home, Stephanie, Oliver and Rachel have been equally uncomplaining, even when the writing took longer than they had any reason to expect. The dedication acknowledges a debt that I shall never be able to repay, to two people who have sustained me for as long as I can remember. I owe them everything.

Simon Dixon
London, October 2008

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

A

Ablesimov, Alexander:
The Miller-Sorcerer, Cheat and Matchmaker
256, 279

Académie des inscriptions
210

Academy of Dijon 154

Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, 264

Adams, John Quincy 324

Addison, Joseph 198

Admiralty, St Petersburg 43, 44, 127, 258

Admiralty College, St Petersburg 75, 128

Adodurov, Vasily 51, 105

Adolf Friedrich, Prince Bishop of

Lübeck, King of Sweden 35, 56, 57, 59, 60

Aepinus, Professor Franz 197, 248

Alcibiades 306

Aleksey Mikhailovich, Tsar of Russia 13, 19, 62, 157, 165

Alekseyev, Archpriest Peter 277

Alexander I, Tsar of Russia 134, 273, 284, 299, 317, 320, 320–21, 329

birth (1777) 246

C’s love for him 247, 249, 268, 323

education 248, 249

personality 249

marries Princess Louise 313

promises to rule according to C’s

‘heart and laws’ 321, 325

portraits of 331

Alexander II, Tsar of Russia 323, 329, 330

Alexander III, Tsar of Russia 2, 329, 331, 332

Alexander Nevsky monastery, St

Petersburg 44, 45, 100, 125, 127, 221, 244, 253, 294, 313, 314, 317

Church of the Annunciation 319

Alexander of Macedon 246

Alexandra, Grand Duchess 313, 314

Algarotti, Francesco 42–3

All Sorts
(journal) 198–9

Amsterdam 82, 195

Amvrosy, Archbishop 207, 208, 212

Amvrosy, Metropolitan
see
Podobedov

Ancelin, Nicolas 319

Andrew, St, Apostle 17, 247

Angiolini, Gasparo 191

Anglo-Russian trade treaty (1734, renewed 1766) 187

Anhalt, Count 327

Anhalt-Dessau, Prince Leopold of 26

Anhalt-Dessau, Leopold III Friedrich Franz of 32

Anhalt-Dessau, princes of 33

Anhalt-Köthen, Leopold, Prince of 32

Anhalt-Zerbst, Auguste Christine Charlotte, Princess of (C’s sister) 26

Anhalt-Zerbst, Christian August, Prince of (C’s father) 220

marries Johanna Elisabeth (1727) 29

military service 23, 25, 35

birth of C 23

personality 25

representational display 32

private apartments at Zerbst 33–4

separation from C 37

exhorts C to keep her religious beliefs 38

death (1747) 66

Anhalt-Zerbst, Elisabeth, Princess of (C’s sister) 26

Anhalt-Zerbst, Friedrich August, Prince of (C’s brother) 26, 33

Anhalt-Zerbst, Johanna Elisabeth, Princess of (née Holstein-Gottorp; C’s mother) 44–5, 46, 88, 105

marries Christian August (1727) 29

birth of C 23

her other children 26

visits her relatives 28–9, 30

match-making for C 34–5

travels with C to Russia 39–40

meets Empress Elizabeth 47

behaviour during C’s illness 49, 50

Bestuzhev affair 50

C’s baptism 52

first serious argument with Grand Duke Peter 53

birthday 54

status-consciousness 55

C’s wedding 56, 58, 59, 61–2

leaves the Russian Court 64

death (1760) 107

Anhalt-Zerbst, Sophie Auguste

Friderike, Princess of
see
Catherine

II the Great, Empress of Russia

Anhalt-Zerbst, Wilhelm Christian Friedrich, Prince of (C’s brother) 26, 27

Anichkov Palace, St Petersburg 128, 149, 242

Anna, Empress of Russia 3, 8, 14, 43, 44, 45, 47, 54, 55, 56, 66, 69, 71–5, 78, 81, 115, 123, 149, 230, 295

Anna Petrovna, Grand Duchess (C’s illegitimate daughter) 104–5, 106

Anna Petrovna (sister of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia)
see
Holstein-Gottorp, Anna Petrovna, Duchess of Antropov, Aleksey 7

Apraksin, Admiral 55, 99–100, 102, 105–6

Aptekarsky Island 57

Araja, Francesco 104

Bellerofont
77

Mithridates
79

Scipio
62

architecture

a golden age of Baroque church-building 79

recurrent alterations to imperial palaces 81

disaster at Gostilitsy 82, 84

effects of the Russian climate 82–3

resurrection of the Golovin Palace 88–9

heyday of private building projects

in St Petersburg 95

C’s ambitions for urban reconstruction 211–14

Arseny, Metropolitan, of Rostov 52

Assebourg, Baron von 219, 220

Assemblies of the Land 159

Astrakhan 169

Augustus, Emperor 211

Augustus III, King of Poland 185, 186

Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony 31

Austria

diplomatic alliance with Russia (1726) 35

implacable enemy of Prussia 187

incorporation of the Polish enclave of Zips 207

education model 248

Russia’s need for a rapprochement with 250

formal alliance with Russia (1781) 253, 269, 290

Avdotino estate, near Moscow 308

Azov 239

B

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Brandenburg Concertos 32

Well-Tempered Clavier 32

Bachaumont, Louis Petit de:
Mémoires secrets
194

Bad Neuheim 331

Baden-Durlach, Louise, Princess of 313

Baedeker, Karl 25

Bakhchisaray 287

Balkan Slavs 196

Balta, sacking of (1768) 183

Baltic lands 9, 40, 217

Baroque style 59, 160, 179, 205, 259

Baryatinsky, Prince Fëdor 124, 125, 315, 319

Bashkir tribal leaders 228

Bashkiria 228, 254

Basil the Great, St 17

Batyushkov, Konstantin 324, 326

Bauer, General 203, 220, 223, 258, 265, 273

Bayle, Pierre 68

Historical and Critical Dictionary
67, 310

Bazhenov, Vasily 212, 213, 214, 230, 239, 258, 276

Beardé de l’Abbaye, M. 154–5

Beaumarchais, Pierre 224

Beccaria, Cesare 182, 198, 223

On Crimes and Punishments
157, 199

Belaya Tserkov estate 322

Belorussia 270

Beloselsky, Prince Andrey 140, 141

Bender 204, 211

Bentham, Jeremy 156–7, 199, 261, 282

Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
157

Bentham, Samuel 282, 286

Bentinck, Countess 34

Berch, Carl Reinhold 42

Berda 228, 235

Berezovsky, Maxim 150

Berlin 29, 37, 231, 245, 254

Court of 25, 30, 204

Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Count Aleksey

Petrovich 14, 35, 50, 56, 66, 79, 97, 99–100, 102, 105, 109, 113, 115, 132, 133, 140, 185

Betskoy, Ivan 129, 132, 140, 155, 179, 208, 245, 256, 257, 262–3, 333, 334

General Plan for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes
130

Bezborodko, Alexander 184–5, 250, 251, 253, 254, 268, 270, 277, 281, 290, 298, 311, 320, 333

Bibikov, Alexander 161, 164, 171, 229, 230, 232, 233, 236, 325

Bielfeld, Jakob Friedrich, Freiherr von 162

Political Instruction
112

Bielke, Frau Johanna 204, 208, 210, 211, 218, 229, 230, 238, 244

Bilbasov, Vasily 1–2, 331

Bismarck, Prince Otto von 332

Blackstone, William 286, 325

Blanning, Tim 32, 75–6

Blessing of the Waters at Epiphany 115, 149–50

Blok, Alexander 331

Blondel, Jean 136

Board of Public Welfare 240

Bobrinsky, Aleksey Grigoryevich (C’s illegitimate son) 6, 120, 265, 285, 287, 331

Boerhaave, Abraham 49, 99

Boerhaave, Herman 49

Bolotov, Andrey 239

Bonecchi, Giuseppe 62, 77

Book on the Duties of a Man and Citizen, The
248

Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia 15

Borovichy 274

Boswell, James:
Corsica
196, 199

Bourbon kings 31

Brandenburg-Prussia 24

Brandt, Johann 81

Branicka, Countess Alexandra (née Engelhardt) 255, 284, 311, 322

Branicki, Count 255

Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de 67

Bratovshchina 85, 170

Bratslav 290

Brenna, Vincenzo 320

Breteuil, Louis-Auguste de Tonnelier, baron de 20

Britain

and War of American Independence (1775–83) 263

Anglo-Russian relations at an all-time low 298

Brompton, Richard 249

Bronnaya crown estate 129, 197

Brown, Lancelot ‘Capability’ 94

Bruce, Count 204, 268, 272, 276–7, 285

Bruce, Countess Praskovya 118, 144–5, 197, 233, 255

Buckinghamshire on 144

C’s trusted friend 144–5

banished from Court (1779) 144

Brühl, Count Heinrich von 193

Brummer, Grand Marshal 36

Brunswick, dukes of 30

Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elisabeth Sophie Marie, Dowager Duchess of 29

Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Juliana Maria, Duchess of, Queen of Denmark 37

Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Court of 29, 30, 65

Buch, Iver 312

Buchanan, Sir George 332

Buckinghamshire, John, 2nd earl 7, 10, 22, 126–7, 144

Bühren, Ernst 72, 230

Bulgarians 174

Burney, Dr Charles 177

Busch, Johann (John Bush) 210

Butler, Martin 9

Buturlin, Count Peter 142

Buturlin, Field Marshal 114

Byron, George Gordon, Lord:
Don Juan
296

Byzantine calendar 17

Byzantine empire 250

Byzantium 206

C

Cadet Corps 128, 148, 205, 265, 327

Cagliostro, Count (Giuseppe Balsamo) 276

Calas family 153

Cameron, Charles 210, 258–9, 320

Canitz, Julius von 168

Cardel, Elisabeth (Babet) 26, 27, 28, 34

Cardel, Magdalena 26

Caroline, Landgravine 220, 221

Catharinaea sublimis
333

Cathcart, Lord 138, 179, 181–2, 192, 196, 200–201, 208, 219, 241

Cathedral of St Isaac, St Petersburg 179, 180–81

Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow 5, 20, 213

Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, Moscow 5, 20, 213, 277

Cathedral of the Dormition, Kiev 54

Cathedral of the Dormition, Moscow 4, 5, 7, 9, 13–17, 52, 160, 171, 183, 213, 237, 273, 288

Cathedral of the Dormition, Smolensk 282

Cathedral of the Dormition, Vladimir 15

Cathedral Square, Moscow 8, 9, 10, 14, 20

Catherine I, Empress of Russia 5, 52, 62, 77, 143, 179

Catherine II the Great, Empress of Russia

birth (21 April 1729; as Princess Sophie Auguste Friderike of Anhalt-Zerbst) 4, 23, 333

appearance 10, 27, 49, 58, 180, 302, 314, 332

health 24, 49, 72, 82, 85, 89, 149, 157, 192, 239, 243, 267, 289–90, 294–5, 303

childhood 24, 28–9

education 26–7, 28

journeys to Russia (1744) 37–40

meets Empress Elizabeth 47–8

accepted into the Russian faith 51–2

engaged to Grand Duke Peter 10, 52

name day (24 November) 54, 77, 101, 147, 191, 254, 255

marries Peter (1745) 56–63

mounting debts 73, 97–8

birthday 77, 89, 112, 160, 177, 233, 266, 270, 271, 279, 289, 290, 300, 307

relationship with Zakhar Chernyshëv 86, 269

pregnancies by Sergey Saltykov 87

third pregnancy 89

birth of Paul 91–2

affair with Poniatowski 93–4, 95, 103

maturing political aspirations 100–103, 112, 113

pregnant by Poniatowski 103, 106

birth of Anna Petrovna 104–5

and Bestuzhev’s arrest 106

death of Anna Petrovna 106

pregnant by Orlov 112, 114, 117, 118, 120

birth of Aleksey Grigoryevich 6, 120

Peter III insults her at a banquet 122, 143

coup (1762) 11–14, 20, 22, 118, 122–4, 316

ceremonial re-entry into the capital 127–8

early reforms 125, 129–30, 155

long-serving state secretaries 130–32

coronation (1762) 4–22, 125, 136

correspondence with Voltaire 28, 153, 154, 158, 168–9, 175, 182, 191, 202, 203, 204, 206, 208, 209, 211, 217, 218, 224, 237, 244, 321

Volga expedition 155, 156, 158–69, 175, 235

accession anniversaries 169–70, 242, 256, 288

denies any expansionist ambitions 185–6, 250

and Poniatowski’s election as king of Poland 186

inoculation against smallpox 24, 188–90

art collection 192–4, 260–63

Greek project 206, 250, 263

‘plantomania’ 210

urban reconstruction 211–14

Vasilchikov becomes her new favourite 216, 217

improved relations with Paul 218–19

correspondence with Grimm 25, 223–4, 238–9, 245, 246, 247, 251–4, 256–7, 259–62, 265, 266, 269, 275, 277, 280, 283–4, 293, 295, 302, 304, 305, 310, 312, 313, 314, 330, 333

relationship with Grigory Potëmkin 6, 27, 229, 231–2, 234, 238, 241