Terrible tsarinas

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Her Majesty and Their Imperial Highnesses severe attack of “apoplexy” just at the conclusion of his first interrogation. Before dying, and while denying his culpability, he admitted having corresponded with the grand duchess, Catherine.

However, Elizabeth had formally forbidden her daughter-in-law from writing to anyone without informing those who were charged with keeping watch over her; this was, therefore, an unforgivable crime of rebellion.

Those close to the tsarina stoked her suspicions against the grand duchess, Chancellor Alexis Bestuzhev and even Stanislaw Poniatowski, who were all suspected of intelligence on behalf of Prussia. Vice Chancellor Vorontsov, whos e niece was the grand duke’s mistress and who, for a long time, had dreamed of replacing Bestuzhev, singled out Catherine - he blamed her for all of Russia’s diplomatic and military misfortunes. He constantly attacked the Shuvalov brothers (whose nephew Ivan was Elizabeth’s favorite). Even the ambassador of Austria, Count Esterhazy, and the ambassador of France, the Marquis de l’Hopital, supported the denigration campaign against Alexis Bestuzhev.

How could the tsarina fail to be impressed by such eager denunciations? After having listened to this concert of reproaches, Elizabeth made her decision.

One day in February 1759, while Bestuzhev was attending a ministerial briefing, he was accosted and arrested without explanation. During a searching of his residence, investigators discovered some letters from the grand duchess and Stanislaw Poniatowski. Nothing compromising, certainly; however, in this climate of obscure revenge, the pettiest evidence was sufficient for settling scores. Of course, in every country, anyone who meddles in high politics runs the risk of being cast down as quickly as he may have risen to the top. But, among the so-called civilized nations, the risks are limited to a reprimand, dismissal or early retirement; in Russia, the land of disproportion, culprits could be