Terrible tsarinas

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Machinations around the Throne kings and to continue without delay to Orenburg, in the remote province of Riazan.6 Reaching that city at the border between European Russia and Western Siberia, on November 3, Menshikov, his heart in his throat, got his first view of the place to which he had been relegated. The house, enclosed behind the crenellated walls of a fortress, looked perfectly suited to serve as a prison. Sentinels were assembled to guard every exit. An officer was charged with surveillance over the family’s comings and goings. All of Menshikov’s correspondence was inspected before being forwarded. Menshikov refused to admit defeat; he tried to redeem himself by sending messages of repentance to those who had condemned him.

However, at roughly the same time, the Supreme Privy Council received a report from Count Nicholas Golovin, Russia’s ambassador in Stockholm. This confidential document denounced some of the Serene Prince’s recent intrigues. Prior to his dismissal, he apparently had picked up some 5,000 ducats from the English for informing Sweden of the dangers posed by Russia’s support for the Duke of Holstein’s territorial claims. This treason by a Russian dignitary to the benefit of a foreign power opened the way with a new series of denouncements and heavy blows. Hundreds of letters, some signed, some anonymous, piled up on the table at the Supreme Privy Council. Emulating each other, ganging up on someone who was down, everyone reproached Menshikov for his suspicious sources of income and for the millions of gold coins discovered in his various houses. Johann Lefort even thought it useful to let his government know that the silver vessel seized on December 20 in a secret cache at Menshikov’s principal residence weighed 70 poods7 and that they hoped to find additional treasures during subsequent searches. The accumulated evidence of abuse of power, embezzlement, theft and treason merited that the Supreme Privy Council sanction him