Catherine the Great (73 page)

born on St Isaac’s feast day 179

his play regiments 46

installed as de facto sole ruler 12

and St Petersburg 41, 42, 44, 45

in the Great Northern War 9, 288

Table of Ranks (1722) 15

succession law (1722) 316

crowns his second wife (1724) 5

and the Dormition Cathedral 16

Russian orders of chivalry 18

introduces women to Russian public society 71

reforms 75

‘emancipation’ of the nobility (1762) 118, 271

envisaged comprehensive code 157

death (1725) 43

statue commissioned by C 181, 204, 257

his ‘little boat’ displayed 204

and St Alexander Nevsky 246

single most powerful symbol of Russia’s superhuman potential 257

portraits of 331

and C’s attempts to legitimise her reign 334

Peter III, Tsar of Russia 16, 17, 22, 36, 47, 49, 73, 195, 215, 296, 320, 332

Elizabeth declares him her heir 35

education 63–4

sixteenth birthday 46, 48

engaged to C 10, 52

first serious argument with Johanna Elisabeth 53

health 54–6, 58, 63, 124

appearance 56

marries C (1745) 56–63

birthday 77, 118

name day 77, 112, 123

puerile behaviour 79, 117

question of Paul’s paternity 92

relationship with Elizabeth Vorontsova 92, 104, 115, 124

C’s misery as his consort 100

and Anna Petrovna’s birth 104

accession 114

daily routine 114–15

and Elizabeth’s funeral 116–17

pro-Prussian 117, 118, 120

emancipates nobility from compulsory state service 118–19

plans to attack the Danes 120, 121

insults C at a banquet 122, 143

overthrown and assassinated 4, 11–14, 123–5, 161, 315, 321

paltry burial 317, 319

Paul’s resentment of C’s treatment of him 218, 319

requiem service at the Winter Palace 319

funeral with C 319–20

Peter of Courland, Duke 230

Peter-Paul Cathedral, St Petersburg 3, 5, 42, 115, 116, 299, 314, 319

Peter-Paul Fortress, St Petersburg 3, 44, 57, 127, 204, 327

Peterhof, near St Petersburg 78, 82, 95, 100, 108, 112, 113, 123, 124, 140, 178–9, 208, 211, 215, 216, 234, 235, 250, 256, 258, 267, 275, 278, 334

English Park 265

Petrov, Metropolitan Gavriil 127, 161, 162, 178, 221, 267, 294, 315

Petrov, Vasily 17–18

Petrovsky Palace, Moscow 88, 273

Petrovsky woods 169

Philip II, Duke, of Pomerania-Stettin 24

Philip V, King of Spain 37

philosophes
153, 154, 162, 201, 222, 224, 310, 323, 326, 333

Picart, Pieter 256

Picquet (dancer) 279

Pietism 26, 27, 28, 38, 51

Pitt, William, the Younger 298, 299, 311

Plague of 1771 206–7, 209, 215

Plutarch 310

Lives
67, 306

Podobedov, Metropolitan Amvrosy 320, 322

Podolia 290

Poissonnier, François 108–9

Pokrovskoye 127

Poland

C’s support for Orthdox fanatics in 183

Chernyshëv eager to annexe Polish territory 185

C’s ambitions in 186, 187

Frederick the Great’s ambitions 186, 207

first partition 217, 250

Potëmkin’s claims in 255

Potëmkin builds up his estates in 290

Fox’s support 299

new constitution 301

complexity of the Polish question 309

second partition 309

massacre of Poles at Praga 309

third partition 309–10

Polar Star
(Decembrist journal) 324

Polevoy, Nikolay 327

police boards 255

Police Ordinance 255

Polish Deputies 267

Pöllnitz, Baron 29

Polotsk 251, 252, 278

Poltava 287

battle of (1709) 41, 93

Pomerania 24

Poniatowski, Count Stanislaw August 100, 106, 113, 118, 132, 286

Hanbury-Williams’ protégé 93

as C’s lover 93–4, 95, 103

personality 93

and birth of Anna Petrovna 104–5

returns to Poland 106

C promises to make him king 185

elected King of Poland (1764) 186

C renews her acquaintanceship with him 284, 287

and the new Polish constitution 301

shattering of his dreams of autonomy 309

Poroshin, Semën 140, 147, 152

Postal Chancellery 8, 158

Potëmkin, Grigory 6, 203, 236, 246, 252, 260, 269, 291, 306

relationship with C 6, 27, 229, 231–2, 234, 238, 241, 265, 301

besieges the Turks on the Danube 229

supplants Vasilchikov 229

first presented to C 230–31

appearance 232

links with the clergy 232

incipient rivalry with Panin 236

and Orlov’s illness 242

and Anichkov Palace 242

and Zorich 243

celebration of Constantine’s birth 249

obsession ‘with the idea of raising an Empire in the east’ 249

supports a rapprochement with Austria 250

arranges marriages for his nieces 255

C’s gift of a Sèvres service 262

and Crimean rebellion 263

Governor General of the Tauride 263–4

comforts the bereaved C 268

and Yermolov 270

visits Moscow with C 272, 274

insatiable ambitions in the South 280

and Dmitryev-Mamonov 280

and Samuel Bentham 282

headquarters at Kremenchug 286

re-enactment of Peter the Great’s victory over the Swedes (1709) 287–8

hypochondria 288–9

his Polish estates 290, 309

and Radishchev’s book 292

and the second Russo-Turkish War 288–9, 291, 294, 296, 297, 303

and Tauride Palace 46, 299, 331

reputation for corruption 301, 334

on Zubov 307

death 303–4, 309, 317

his estate 304–5

glassworks 311

Danilevsky’s claim 330 ‘Potëmkin villages’ 286

Potocki, Ignacy 301

Potsdam 33, 37, 204, 217

Poussin, Nicolas 304

Praga, Warsaw 309

Prechistensky Palace, Moscow 214, 238

Prejudice Overcome
(allegorical ballet) 191

Preobrazhensky Guards 44–5, 100, 123, 217, 305

Prokopovich, Feofan 131

Protasova, Anna 269, 274, 315

Protestantism 248, 312

Provincial Reform 239–40, 241, 250, 251, 254, 271, 273

Prozorovsky, Prince 308

Prussia

defensive alliance with Russia 187, 250

implacable enemy of Austria 187

Prussian army: 8th infantry regiment 25

Pruth, battle of the (1711) 77

Pskov 251, 265

publishing, independent 277, 310

Pugachëv, Yemelyan 238, 239, 256, 328, 330

appearance 228

seizure of Iletsk 228

sets up ‘College of War’ at Berda 228

C makes light of his rebellion 229, 232

forced to abandon his headquarters 233

regroups in the Urals 233

final rally 235, 236

betrayed by the Cossacks 236

trial and execution 237, 308

Pulkovo 209, 234

Pushchin, Vice Admiral Peter Ivanovich 158, 274, 286

Pushkin, Alexander 161, 324, 328

History of Pugachëv
327

‘Table-Talk’ 328

Q

Quarenghi, Giacomo 262–3, 265, 267, 278–9, 315

R

Radishchev, Alexander 292, 294, 300–301

Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow
272, 291–2

Raphael 304

Holy Family
193

loggias 245, 262, 278

Rastrelli, Francesco Bartolomeo 47, 69, 138, 150, 151, 158, 259, 295, 319

designs the stone Winter Palace 55

demolition of his Summer Palace 57, 320

and C’s wedding 60, 61

pyramid of fire device 78, 91

St Petersburg summer house 81–2

Golovin Palace resurrection 88

completes transformation of Peterhof 95

temporary leave from Russia 135

fails to be confirmed in the rank of major general 135–6

leaves Russia for good 136

Raynal, Guillaume:
History of the Two Indies
292

Razumovsky, Aleksey 69, 76, 85, 95, 99–100, 113

a Ukrainian of Cossack extraction 14

Elizabeth’s lover 14

Elizabeth’s Grand Master of the Hunt 14, 48

Gostilitsy estate 45, 82

appearance 48

Kozelets estate 53

and C’s marriage 59, 60, 61

and C’s coronation 14, 19

and Yelagin 131

Razumovsky, Andrey 245

Razumovsky, Kirill 95, 99–100, 123, 133, 142, 190, 233, 239, 268, 328

Red Square, Moscow 6, 17

Red Staircase, Moscow 8, 9, 10, 13, 21, 52, 239

Reiffenstein, Johann Friedrich 261

Reims Cathedral 16

Rembrandt van Rijn 193

Abraham and Isaac
261

Return of the Prodigal Son
193

Repnin, Prince Nikolay 128, 186, 235, 269, 302–3, 311

Repnin, Princess 255

Reval 85, 155, 204, 218, 290, 293

Reynolds, Sir Joshua 225

Ribas, Admiral 333

Ribas, José de 296

Richardson, William 152, 179–80, 183, 190, 198

Riga, Latvia 39, 153

Riger, Justus 81

Rimsky-Korsakov, Ivan 144, 243, 261

Rinaldi, Antonio 45, 104, 147–8, 179, 181, 197, 209, 210, 216, 262, 318, 319

Rogerson, Dr John 265, 266, 267, 281, 290, 315

Romanov dynasty

founded (1613) 62, 164

dynastic pretensions 66

Saltykovs and Naryshkins marry into 14

Rome 6, 254, 258, 261, 279, 306

Ropsha country estate 124, 125, 145, 315

Rosa, Madame 279

Rosicrucians 276, 277, 308

Rossbach, battle of (1757) 105, 184

Rossi, Carlo 97

Rossignol, Antoine 156

Rostokino 273

Rostov 151

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 32, 222

Le devin du village
256

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts [The First Discourse
] 154

Emile
129

Rowlandson, Thomas 297

Royal Society, London 23–4

Rubens, Peter Paul 193, 304

Rulhière, Claude Carloman de 64

Rumyantsev, Count Nikolay 323

Rumyantsev, Count Peter 154, 197, 203–4, 206, 235, 241, 242, 245, 251, 252, 281, 284, 293, 309, 321

Rumyantseva, Countess Maria 65, 73, 144, 255

Rus 54

Russia

the second emergent power in the Baltic 25

diplomatic alliance with Austria (1726) 35

C journeys to (1744) 37–40

celebrates peace with Sweden (1744) 65

financial problems 75, 121, 129

aftermath of Seven Years’ War 128–9

cultural Westernisation 152, 201

defensive alliance with Prussia (1764) 187, 250

defensive alliance with Denmark (1765) 188

C defends criticism of citizens 201

Black Sea conquests 207

conceived by Diderot as a
tabula rasa
227

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

Anglo-Russian relations at an all-time low 298

commercial treaty with France (1787) 298

joins anti-French coalition (1798) 301–2

Russian Academy 199, 264, 275, 324, 326

Russian Archive
(journal) 329

Russian Court 35

the roots of Russia’s Baroque Court culture 71

in Moscow 10, 43, 46

ceremonials in church 16, 79–80

visits Gostilitsy 45

the Court choir 48, 150, 294

lavish presents to C on her recovery from pleurisy 49

shot through with intrigue 65

‘nocturnalisation’ of Court life 70–71

assemblies 71

dress 71, 72–3, 74

reception days 71–2

gift-giving 73

financial matters 73–5