Catherine the Great

(Stanislaus II Augustus, King of Poland, c. 1790? by Marcello Bacciarelli, oil on canvas, © by permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery)

Sergei Saltykov, Catherine’s first lover and the possible father of her son Paul. Catherine described Saltykov in her memoirs as “handsome as the dawn,” an opinion not wholly confirmed by this portait.

Gregory Potemkin, covered with medals, titles, land, palaces, and responsibilities by a passionately loving Catherine

(Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum; photo by Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, Yuri Molodkovets)

Gregory Orlov, Catherine’s third lover, who was with her for eleven years and helped to put her on the throne

Catherine preparing to march on Peterhof, where she would force Peter III to abdicate

(Equestrian Portrait of Catherine II (1729–96) the Great of Russia (oil on canvas) by Vigilius Erichsen (1722–82), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres, France/The Bridgeman Art Library)

Catherine’s coronation portrait. She is wearing her new imperial crown.

(RIA Novosti)

Paul, Catherine’s son, in one of the Prussian uniforms he delighted in wearing

(Portrait of Paul I, 1796–97 by Stepan Semenovich)

Voltaire at Ferney, during the years near the end of his life when he poured letters and praise on Catherine

Emelyan Pugachev, the false Peter III

The older Gregory Potemkin, the most important man in Catherine’s life

(Portrait of Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739–91), c. 1790 by Johann Baptist I Lampi (1751–1830), Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/The Bridgeman Art Library)

Emperor Paul I

An aging Catherine with one of her greyhounds in the park at Tsarskoe Selo

(Walking in the Park at Tsarskoye Selo (with the Chessmen Column in the Background), 1794 (oil on canvas) by Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757–1825), Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia/The Bridgeman Art Library)

The Falconet statue of Peter the Great, created at Catherine’s command to emphasize her connection with the great reforming tsar.

The inscription on the pedestal, in Russian on one side and Latin on the other, reads, TO PETER THE FIRST, FROM CATHERINE THE SECOND.

(Equestrian statue of Peter I (1672–1725) the Great, 1782, by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–91), St. Petersburg, Russia; Photo Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library)

41

Panin, Orlov, and Elizabeth’s Death

AS THE EMPRESS’S HEALTH deteriorated, Catherine considered her own political future. It seemed certain that Elizabeth would make no change in the succession and that Peter would follow his aunt on the throne. Catherine would be alone; her friends and political allies had been stripped away. The chancellor, Bestuzhev, had been disgraced and exiled. General Apraksin, also disgraced, was dead. Hanbury-Williams, the British ambassador, had returned home; now, he too was dead. Her lover, Stanislaus Poniatowski, had departed for Poland and bringing him back would be impossible. With Peter’s incompetence now clear, Catherine could not help pondering what political role she might play in a new reign. It could be as Peter’s wife and adviser, doing what she had done in helping him to manage the affairs of Holstein. But if Peter acted on his determination to marry Elizabeth Vorontsova, Catherine would have no role. If, somehow, Peter were to be replaced in the line of succession and Paul were to come to the throne, she might act as regent until the boy grew up. A more distant possibility of which Catherine sometimes dreamed was that she would play the supreme role herself. Which path would be open to her was unclear, but one thing was certain: whatever happened, she would need allies.

People were coming to her. One, surprisingly, was Ivan Shuvalov, the favorite of the failing Elizabeth, who began courting the grand duchess in a manner that led to suspicion that he would like to play the same role with the future empress that he had with Elizabeth. She was attracting other, less calculating and less obvious, new adherents and, eventually, a significant trio of dissimilar people gathered around her. One was a fastidious, sophisticated diplomat; another a young war hero; and the third, a passionate and impetuous young woman. Coming from different backgrounds, exhibiting different qualities, there was a single constant: all were Russians, a useful thing for an ambitious German woman with no Russian blood.