Terrible Tsarinas

Terrible Tsarinas

Henri Troyat

Member of the French Academy

Terrible Tsarinas

—

Five Russian Women

in Power

Translated by Andrea Lyn Secara

Algora Publishing

New York

Algora Publishing, New York

© 2001 by Algora Publishing

All rights reserved. Published 2001.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 1-892941-54-6

Editors@algora.com

Originally published as Terribles tsarines © Editions Grasset &

Fasquelle, 1998.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 2001-003133

Troyat, Henri, 1911-

[Terribles tsarines. English]

Terrible tsarinas : five Russian women in power / by Henri Troyat.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-892941-54-6 (alk. paper)

1. Russia—History—1689-1801. 2. Russia—Kings and

Rulers—Biography. 3. Empresses—Russia—Biography. I. Title: Five

Russian women in power. II. Title.

DK127 .T76613 2001

947'.05'0922—dc21

2001003133

Algora Publishing

wishes to express appreciation

to the French Ministry of Culture

for its support

of this work through the

Centre National du livre.

New York

www.algora.com

Other Works by Henri Troyat

Individual Novels

FAUX JOUR (Plon)

LE VIVIER (Plon)

GRANDEUR NATURE (Plon)

L’ARAIGNE (Plon) — Prix Goncourt 1938

LE MORT SAISIT LE VIF (Plon)

LE SIGNE DU TAUREAU (Plon)

LA TÊTE SUR LES ÉPAULES (Plon)

UNE EXTRÊME AMITIÉ (La Table Ronde)

LA NEIGE EN DEUIL (Flammarion)

LA PIERRE, LA FEUILLE ET LES CISEAUX (Flammarion)

ANNE PRÉDAILLE (Flammarion)

GRIMBOSQ (Flammarion)

LE FRONT DANS LES NUAGES (Flammarion)

LE PRISONNIER No 1 (Flammarion)

LE PAIN DE L’ÉTRANGER (Flammarion)

LA DÉRISION (Flammarion)

MARIE KARPOVNA (Flammarion)

LE BRUIT SOLITAIRE DU CŒUR (Flammarion)

TOUTE MA VIE SERA MENSONGE (Flammarion)

LA GOUVERNANTE FRANÇAISE (Flammarion)

LA FEMME DE DAVID (Flammarion)

ALIOCHA (Flammarion)

YOURI (Flammarion)

LE CHANT DES INSENSÉS (Flammarion)

LE MARCHAND DE MASQUES (Flammarion)

LE DÉFI D’OLGA (Flammarion)

VOTRE TRÈS HUMBLE ET TRÈS OBÉISSANT SERVITEUR (Flammarion)

L’AFFAIRE CRÉMONNIÈRE (Flammarion)

LE FILS DU SATRAPE (Grasset)

Series of Novels

LES SEMAILLES ET LES MOISSONS (Plon)

LES HÉRITIERS DE L’AVENIR (Flammarion)

TANT QUE LA TERRE DURERA. . (La Table Ronde)

LE MOSCOVITE (Flammarion)

VIOU (Flammarion)

Novellas

LA CLEF DE VOÛTE (Plon)

LA FOSSE COMMUNE (Plon)

LE JUGEMENT DE DIEU (Plon)

DU PHILANTHROPE À LA ROUQUINE (Flammarion)

LE GESTE D’ÈVE (Flammarion)

LES AILES DU DIABLE (Flammarion)

Biographies

DOSTOÏEVSKI (Fayard)

POUCHKINE (Perrin)

L’ÉTRANGE DESTIN DE LERMONTOV (Perrin)

TOLSTOÏ (Fayard)

GOGOL (Flammarion)

CATHERINE LA GRANDE (Flammarion)

PIERRE LE GRAND (Flammarion)

ALEXANDRE I (Flammarion)

IVAN LE TERRIBLE (Flammarion)

TCHEKHOV (Flammarion)

TOURGUENIEV (Flammarion)

GORKI (Flammarion)

FLAUBERT (Flammarion)

MAUPASSANT (Flammarion)

ALEXANDRE II (Flammarion)

NICOLAS II (Flammarion)

ZOLA (Flammarion)

VERLAINE (Flammarion)

BAUDELAIRE (Flammarion)

BALZAC (Flammarion)

RASPOUTINE (Flammarion)

JULIETTE DROUET (Flammarion)

Essays, Travel and Other Writings

LA CASE DE L’ONCLE SAM (La Table Ronde)

DE GRATTE-CIEL EN COCOTIER (Plon)

SAINTE-RUSSIE, réflexions et souvenirs (Grasset)

LES PONTS DE PARIS, illustré d’aquarelles (Flammarion)

NAISSANCE D’UNE DAUPHINE (Gallimard)

LA VIE QUOTIDIENNE EN RUSSIE AU TEMPS DU DERNIER TSAR (Hachette)

LES VIVANTS, théâtre (André Bonne)

UN SI LONG CHEMIN (Stock)

CONTENTS

I. Catherine Shows the Way 3

II. Catherine’s Reign: A Flash of Flamboyance 15

III. Machinations around the Throne 33

IV. The Surprise Accession of Anna Ivanovna 63

V. The Extravagant Anna 75

VI. One Anna after Another 99

VII. Elizabeth’s Triumph 127

VIII. An Autocrat at Work and Play 149

IX. Elizabethan Russia 175

X. Her Majesty and Their Highnesses 193

XI. Another Catherine! 215

Index 241

The Romanov Family Tree 246

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Terrible Tsarinas

< 2 >

I

CATHERINE SHOWS THE WAY

A despondent hush fell upon the Winter Palace. While the

stupor that marks the death of a sovereign is usually followed of

an outburst of joy when the name of the successor is proclaimed,

this time the minutes ticked by and the courtiers’ dejection, their

uncertainty, stretched until the verge of alarm. It was as though

Peter the Great were still dying. Some people even seemed to

think that, without him, Russia had no future. Contemplating the

enormous corpse, its hands clasped and eyes shut forever, all the

notables who had come running at the news were astonished that

this man of monstrous energy and audacity, who had pried the

country out of its age-old lethargy and provided it with an ad-

ministration, a police force, and an army worthy of a modern

power, who had sloughed off the weight of Russian traditions and

opened the nation to Western culture, and built a capital of end-

less splendor on a wasteland of mud and water, had not taken the

trouble to name a successor.