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
«177»
Terrible Tsarinas seeing how unhappy his wife had become, Peter would draw closer to Catherine and that her tears would succeed where ordinary coquetry had failed. But, from one day to the next, the lack of understanding between the spouses grew deeper. Upset by his inability to fulfill his marital duty, as Catherine invited him to do every night with a sweetly provocative smile, he took revenge by claiming - with all the cynicism of an army grunt - that he had other women, and that he even had a strong attachment elsewhere. He told her that he had something going on with some of her ladies-in-waiting, who supposedly held him in great affection.
In his desire to humiliate Catherine, he went as far as scoffing at her subservience towards the Orthodox religion and for her respect for the empress, that hoyden who was openly flaunting her relations with the ex-muzhik Razumovsky. Her Majesty’s turpitude was, he said, the talk of the town.
Elizabeth would have been merely amused by the trouble in the Grand-Ducal household if her daughter-in-law had quit brooding for long enough to find a way to get pregnant. But, after nine months of cohabitation, the young woman was as flat in the belly as she had been on her wedding day. Could she still be a virgin? This prolonged sterility seemed like an attack on Elizabeth’s personal prestige. In a fit of anger, she called in her unproductive daughter-in-law, said that she alone was responsible for the nonconsummation of the marriage, accused her of frigidity, clumsiness and (following suit from the chancellor, Alexis Bestuzhev) went as far as to claim that Catherine shared her mother’s political convictions and must be working secretly for the king of Prussia.
The grand duchess protested, in vain. Elizabeth announced that, from now on, the grand duke and she would have to shape up. Their lives, intimate as well as public, would now be subject to strict rules in the form of written “instructions” from Chancel«178»
Elizabethan Russia lor Bestuzhev, and the execution of this program would be ensured by “two people of distinction”: a master and a mistress of the court, to be named by Her Majesty. The master of the court would be charged with instructing Peter in propriety, correct language and the healthy ideas that were appropriate to his station; the mistress of the court would encourage Catherine to adhere to the dogmas of the Orthodox religion under every circumstance; she would keep her from making the least intrusion in the field of politics, would keep away from her any young men liable to distract her from her marital commitment, and would teach her certain feminine wiles that might enable her to awaken the desire of her husband, so that, as one reads in the document, “by this means our very high house may produce offspring.”1 Pursuant to these draconian directives, Catherine was forbidden to write directly to anyone. All her correspondence, including letters to her parents, would be subjected to review by the College of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the few gentlemen whose company sometimes distracted her in her loneliness and sorrow were removed from the court. Thus, by order of Her Majesty, three Chernyshevs (two brothers and a cousin, all goodlooking and pleasant of address) were sent to serve as lieutenants in regiments cantoned in Orenburg. The mistress of the court, responsible for keeping Catherine in line, was a German cousin of the empress, Maria Choglokov, and the master of the court was none other than her husband, an influential man currently on a mission in Vienna. This model household was intended to serve as an example to the ducal couple. Maria Choglokov was a paragon of virtue, since she was devoted to her husband, appeared to be pious, viewed every issue from the same perspective as Bestuzhev - and at the age of 24 already had four children! If need be, the Choglokovs might be backed up by an additional mentor, Prince Repnin, who would also be charged with imbuing Their
«179»
Terrible Tsarinas Highnesses with wisdom and a preference for all things Russian, including the Orthodox faith.
With such assets working in her favor, Elizabeth was sure she would breach the divide in this household; but she very soon saw that it is as difficult to engender reciprocal love in a disparate couple as it is to institute peace between two countries with opposing interests. In the world at large as in her own house, misunderstanding, rivalry, demands, confrontations and rifts were the rule.
From threats of war to local skirmishes, from broken treaties to troop concentrations at the borders, it happened that, after the French armies enjoyed a few victories in the United Provinces, that Elizabeth agreed to send expeditionary forces to the borders of Alsace. Without actually engaging in hostilities with France, she wanted to encourage it to show a little more flexibility in negotiating with its adversaries. On October 30, 1748, through the peace treaty of Aachen, Louis XV gave up the conquest of the Netherlands and Frederick II retained Silesia. The tsarina left the field, having gained nothing and lost nothing, but having disappointed everyone. The only sovereign who was pleased with this result was the king of Prussia.
By now, Elizabeth was convinced that Frederick II was entertaining in St. Petersburg, within the very walls of the palace, one of his most effective and most dangerous partisans: the Grand Duke Peter. Her nephew, whom she never could stand, was becoming more foreign and more odious by the day. To cleanse the atmosphere of Germanophilia in which the grand duke was submerged, she set out to eliminate from his retinue all the gentlemen from Holstein, and to remove the others who might try to replace them. Even Peter’s manservant, a certain Rombach, was thrown into prison on a trumped up pretext.
Peter comforted himself after these affronts by indulging in
«180»
Elizabethan Russia extravagant whims. He began playing his violin ceaselessly, scraping away for hours, tormenting his wife. His rhetoric became so bizarre that sometimes Catherine thought he’d gone mad; she wanted to flee. Whenever he saw her reading, he would rip the book from her hands and order her to join him in playing with his collection of wooden soldiers. Having recently developed a passion for dogs, he moved ten barbet spaniels into the marital bedroom, over Catherine’s protests. When she complained about their barking and their odor, he insulted her and refused to sacrifice his pack for her.
Isolated, Catherine sought in vain for a friend or, at least, a confidant. She finally turned Lestocq, the empress’s doctor, secure in his tenure, who showed some interest and even sympathy for Catherine. She hoped to make him an ally against the “Prussian clique” as well as against Her Majesty, who was still reproaching her for the sterility that was beyond her control. Unable to correspond freely with her mother, she asked the doctor to see her letters on their way, more privately. However Bestuzhev, who hated Lestocq and saw him as a potential rival, was delighted to hear from his spies that the “quack” was flouting the imperial instructions and rendering services to the grand duchess. Backed by these revelations, he contacted Razumovsky and accused Lestocq of being an agent in the pay of foreign chancelleries; and he said that Lestocq was trying to take the shine off the favorite’s reputation with Her Majesty. This denouncement agreed with denunciations made by a secretary to the doctor, a certain Chapuzot who, under torture, acknowledged everything that he was asked. Confronted with this sheaf of more or less convincing evidence, Elizabeth was put on her guard. For several months already, she had avoided being under
