Terrible tsarinas

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Elizabethan Russia In the days that followed, she studied Catherine, vainly looking for signs of conjugal satisfaction. The bride appeared increasingly thoughtful and disillusioned. Questioning her chambermaids, Elizabeth learned that, every evening, after having joined his wife in bed, instead of cherishing her, the grand duke would amuse himself with the wooden figurines on his bedside table.

And often, they said, he would abandon the grand duchess on the pretext of a headache to go have a drink and a laugh with some of his friends in a nearby room. Sometimes he even played with the servants, ordering them about as if they were soldiers on parade.

These may all have been harmless infantile pleasures, but they must have been offensive, and worrisome, for a wife who was only waiting to be undressed.

Catherine may have been languishing untouched at the side of a husband who shirked his duties; but her mother was carrying on shamelessly. In just a few months in St. Petersburg, she managed to become the mistress of Count Ivan Betsky. She was thought to be pregnant by him, and people were saying that even if the grand duchess should be long in giving the empire an heir, her dear mother would soon be presenting her with a little brother or sister. Offended by the misconduct of this woman who, out of regard for Catherine, should have moderated her passions during her stay in Russia, Elizabeth firmly invited her to leave the country where she had exhibited only dishonor and stupidity. After a pathetic scene, with excuses and justifications on one side and icy contempt on the other, Johanna packed her bags and returned to Zerbst without saying good-bye to her daughter, who was sure to have reproached her.

Although having been dismayed by her mother’s extravagances all this time, Catherine felt so alone after Johanna’s departure that her melancholy transformed into a quiet despair. Witnessing this collapse, Elizabeth still struggled to believe that upon