Terrible tsarinas

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Terrible Tsarinas proposed to inflict on her daughter-in-law, she asked Alexander Shuvalov, her lover Ivan Shuvalov and even the Grand Duke Peter, the culprit’s husband, to hide behind large folding screens. She did not invite Alexis Razumovsky to this strange family event - he was still Her Majesty’s designated confidant, Her “sentimental memory,” but his star had faded recently and he had to yield place, in “significant ways,” to younger, more vigorous newcomers.

Thus, “the Catherine-and-Peter issue” was outside his sphere of involvement.

This interview was critical, in Elizabeth’s view, and she arranged every detail with the meticulous care of a seasoned impresario. Just a few small candles shone in the half-light, accentuating the nerve-wracking character of the meeting. The empress deposited the exhibits in a gold dish: letters from the grand duchess, confiscated from Apraxin and Bestuzhev. Thus, from the first moment, the schemer would be thrown off balance.1 However, nothing went as the empress had planned. As soon as she stepped across the threshold, Catherine fell to her knees, wringing her hands and wailing in her sorrow. Between sobs, she claimed that no one in the court cared for her, nobody understood her, and her husband could do nothing but invent ways of humiliating her in public. She begged Her Majesty to allow her to leave for her home country. The tsarina reminded her that it is a mother’s duty to remain at the sides of her children, no matter what - to which Catherine retorted, still weeping and sighing: “My children are in your hands and could not receive better care than that!” Touched at a sensitive point by this recognition of her talents as a teacher and protectress, Elizabeth helped Catherine to her feet and gently reproached her for having forgotten all the marks of interest and even affection that she had once lavished upon her. “God is my witness, how I wept when you on your deathbed,” she said. “If I had not loved you, I would not have