Sally Metzler
Chicago, Illinois, United States

Courageous and voracious in her quest for power, Empress Catherine the Great (1729–1796) dominated the world stage of politics in the second half of the eighteenth century. The daughter of a Lutheran German prince, she traded her homeland, changed her religion, and even her language, sedulously studying Russian and impressing all with her fluency. She eventually conquered vast swaths of lands, among them the Crimea and Ukraine, and established an empire that centuries later at one time extended from the Gates of Brandenburg to the Bering Straits.

She meticulously recorded the first thirty years of her life, three years before she ascended the throne as Empress. Composed in French, her memoirs were placed in a sealed envelope addressed to her son Paul. Various family members attempted to suppress and even destroy her memoirs, but eventually, in 1859, the Russian exiled author Alexander Herzen published them in London.¹ This historical diary provides insight into the daily life of a Russian royal against the backdrop of the dramatic events shaping history. Sparing few details, she recounts myriad topics, such as the tedium of court existence, her frequent illnesses, the dissipation and imbalance of her husband Peter III, court intrigue and gossip, as well as the not infrequent deplorable living conditions of Russian royal residences in which she and her husband resided while Empress Elizabeth ruled.

Of balls, dances, and lavish dinners there were many. However, days could also pass when Catherine found herself shut in her room, suffering from ennui or neglect. During her confinement after giving birth to her son Paul, she writes: “I had a very hard time. … I remained on my lit de misère…I had sweated abundantly and begged…to change my linen and put me back in my own bed…the midwife did not come. When she saw me still lying on the labours bed she cried out with indignation. It was enough to kill me, she said. I had been in tears ever since the birth had taken place…because I had been so cruelly abandoned, lying in discomfort after a long and painful labour. … Nobody worried about me…I was half dead with fatigue and thirst. I did not see a soul again…nor did anyone come to ask after me. The Grand Duke in his rooms did nothing but drink with whoever came to see him, while the Empress was busy with the child.”² Amazingly, on orders of Empress Elizabeth, Catherine’s baby son was whisked away from her immediately after birth and placed under the watchful eye of the Empress and her entourage. Catherine would have to wait forty days until she could hold her son, whom she “found beautiful and the sight of him made my heart rejoice.” But her joy was fleeting, as the Empress again carried him away shortly thereafter.³

Though in want of attention and love from her husband Peter and often from her mother-in-law, Catherine persevered and endured the vicissitudes of imperial life until she out-maneuvered everyone and ascended the throne to rule Russia and its ever-increasing dominions.

Lustful and imperious, Empress Catherine the Great inspired fierce loyalty among many of her subjects and entourage. Curiously, she left behind a list of court members annotated with the predicted cause of death that was among the extraneous letters published in her memoirs. In some instances, she predicted a straightforward cause of death, such as apoplexy for Count Bruce.⁴ Others were to die from asthma (Count Munich), indigestion (Perfileiv), constipation (Kusmin), and congestion of the brain (General Alexander Naryshkine). In other examples, she amusingly assigns a personality trait or habit that in her mind would be the ruin of the person rather than any medical defect, such as Countess Rumiantsev, whom Catherine predicted would die while shuffling cards. For Madame Stackelberg, surprise would be her ruin. Additional amusing manners of death listed by Catherine: abstinence (Monsieur d’Osterwald); laughter (Madame Zinoviev); “eating his words” (Cherkassov); sighing (Ilia Vsevolodsky); “after searching for Slavonic words” (Kasitzky); and “pierced eardrums, caused by too many concerts” (Jelagine). The distinguished Count Nikita Panin (1718–1783), admired for his expertise in foreign affairs and whom Catherine referred to as “her encyclopedia,” was forecasted to die “if he were in a hurry,” no doubt a remark on his steady and methodical manner (figure). His influence stretched over Catherine, particularly during the earlier years of her reign, as he served as governor of her son Paul, and his expertise in foreign affairs provided dependable counsel to Catherine. Devoted to the point of intense jealousy, he purportedly attempted to become her lover on several occasions, but to no avail. The more cryptic predictions embrace the demise of Field Marshall Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1718–1783),⁵ attributed to “the itch.”⁶

Catherine includes herself in this list. She predicts “complacency” as her cause of death. Legends and outlandish rumors abound as to what actually brought her demise. Among the more unsavory stories recounts that a stallion crushed her during attempted coitus with the animal. Rather, a stroke killed her, after an ambitious thirty-four-year reign that left an indelible mark on history.

End notes

1. Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II. Written by herself, with a preface by A. Herzen. Translated from the French, published by Trübner & Co, London,1859.
2. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great, ed Dominque Maroger, Collier Books, New York, 1961, pp. 178-179.
3. Memoirs, p. 182.
4. Memoirs, p. 287.
5. Golitsyn stemmed from a formidable Russian family, the House of Golitsyn. Falling out of favor during the reign of Empress Anna, his prospects rose when Empress Elizabeth ascended, as in 1757, she appointed him to a command in the army fighting Prussia in the Seven Years’ War. Golitsyn continued to prosper professionally under Catherine the Great, who in 1762 awarded him the Order of Saint Andrew and the title of the Adjutant General. Among the steady list of accomplishments, he served as the General Governor of Saint Petersburg Governorate (1780–1783); in 1757, he was appointed to a command in the army fighting Prussia in the Seven Years’ War. Later, he entered the close circle of Catherine’s confidants.
6. Here is the list of remaining court figures not mentioned above and Catherine’s forecast of their deaths: Count Ivan Chernishev: the death of the just; Mme. Palensky: regret; Mme d’Osterwald: penury; M. Stackelberg: jaundice; Mme. Protassov: in childbirth; Strekalov: too much English stout.