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NOTES

Catherine’s life divides into two halves almost equal in length. From 1729 to 1762, she was a German princess and a Russian grand duchess; from 1762 until her death in 1796, she was the empress of Russia. The primary source of information about the first half of her life is her own Memoirs, which begin with her earliest recollections and continue to 1758, when she was twenty-nine and under stress at the court of Empress Elizabeth. Naturally, her memoirs display the subjective perspective of any memoir writer; even so, they are invaluable.

Catherine wrote her memoirs in French, and at least four translations have been published in English. The first of these was by Alexander Herzen, a celebrated Russian author and exile in London; this work appeared in 1859. An American, Katharine Anthony, retranslated and edited the memoirs and published them in London and New York in 1927. Catherine’s memoirs in the original French were edited and published by Dominique Maroger in Paris, then translated into English by Moura Budberg, appearing in New York in 1955. Modern Library brought out a new translation by Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom in 2005 that put Catherine’s reminiscences in correct chronological sequence, which Catherine herself and previous translators never achieved. I have used the first three of these translations. They are identified in the notes as follows: Maroger and Budberg’s version is denoted simply as Memoirs. Herzen’s translation is identified as Herzen. The Anthony translation is denoted by Memoirs (Anthony).

1. SOPHIA’S CHILDHOOD

 1 “that idiot”: Haslip

 2 “It was told me”: Memoirs, 25–26

 3 “He lived to be only twelve”: Ibid., 41

 4 “Very early it was noticed”: Anthony, 27

 5 “circumcision”: Ibid., 31

 6 “every night at dusk”: Memoirs, 30

 7 “I am convinced”: Anthony, 27

 8 “All my life”: Memoirs, 30

 9 “He always brought with him”: Anthony, 27

10 “Music to my ears”: Memoirs, 31

11 “She had a noble soul”: Ibid., 26

12 “the pupil”: Oldenbourg, 8

13 “One cannot always know”: Kaus, 11

14 “A large number of parrots”: Memoirs, 36

15 “I don’t know whether”: Anthony, 13

16 “agreeable and well-bred”: Memoirs, 33

17 “I knew that one day”: Ibid., 34

18 “Madame, you do not know”: Ibid., 49

19 “Galloped until”: Ibid., 38

20 “I was never caught”: Ibid.