Terrible Tsarinas

an unsettling discussion. Secluded in her apartments in the Win-

ter Palace, she had difficulty speaking and even putting together

her thoughts. Behind her back, it was whispered that Her Maj-

esty’s premature senility was the price to be paid for her excesses

< 27 >

Terrible Tsarinas

in food, drink and lovemaking. Johann Lefort, Saxony’s top diplo-

mat in St. Petersburg, wrote to his government on March 8, 1727,

in picturesque and suggestive French: “The Tsarina apparently is

suffering a severe attack of swelling of the legs, all the way up to

the groin, which cannot bode well; this [ailment] is considered to

be of bacchic origins.”4 Despite of the doctor’s warnings, Cath-

erine’s son-in-law baited her with questions regarding her inten-

tions. But she was unable to answer him, nor even to understand

him. On April 27, 1729, she complained of a painful pressure in

the chest. Her eyes were wild, and she became delirious. Having

taken a cold look at her, Charles Frederick called in Tolstoy:

“If she passes away without having dictated her will, we are

lost! Can’t we persuade her to designate her daughter, immedi-

ately?”

“If we have not already done so, it is too late now!”5 the other

answered.

The empress’s friends and family members watched for 48

hours, waiting for her to draw her last breath. Her daughters and

Peter Sapieha were at the bedside. She would hardly regain con-

sciousness when the blackouts returned, longer each time and

more profound. Menshikov was kept current, hour by hour, on

the state of the tsarina. He convoked the Supreme Privy Council

and set about drafting a testamentary proclamation that the Em-

press would only have to sign, a mere little bit of scribble, before

dying. Under the authority of the Serene Prince, the members of

this restricted assembly agreed on a text stipulating that, accord-

ing to the express will of Her Majesty, the tsarevich Peter Alex-

eyevich, still a minor and promised in marriage to Miss Maria

Menshikov, would, at the proper time, succeed the Empress Cath-

erine I and would be assisted, until he came of age, by the Su-

preme Privy Council instituted by her. If he should die without

posterity, the document specified, the crown would redound to

< 28 >

Catherine’s Reign: A Flash of Flamboyance

his aunt Anna Petrovna and to her heirs; then to his other aunt,

Elizabeth Petrovna, and to any heirs she might have. The two

aunts would be members of the aforementioned Supreme Privy

Council until the day their imperial nephew reached the age of 17.

The formula conceived by Menshikov would give him the upper

hand, through his daughter, the future tsarina, in managing the

country’s destiny.

This indirect confiscation of power galled Tolstoy and his

usual collaborators, including Buturlin and the Portuguese adven-

turer Devier. They tried to respond, but Menshikov foiled their

maneuver and counteracted by accusing them of the crime of lese-

majesty. His paid spies gave him a positive report: the majority of

Tolstoy’s buddies were engaged in the plot. Under torture, the

Portuguese Devier admitted to everything he was asked (the tor-

turer must have handled the knout with considerable dexterity).

He and his accomplices had publicly scorned the grief of Her Maj-

esty’ daughters and had participated in clandestine meetings with

the intention of upsetting the monarchical order. In the name of

the failing Empress, Menshikov had Tolstoy arrested; he was shut

up in the Solovetsky Monastery, on an island in the White Sea;

Devier was dispatched to Siberia; as for the others, they were sim-

ply sent back to their lands and told to stay there. Duke Charles

Frederick of Holstein was not officially charged but, out of pru-

dence and pride, he and his wife Anna, so wrongfully swindled,

removed to their estate at Yekaterinhof.

The young couple had hardly left the capital when they were

recalled: the tsarina had taken a turn for the worse. Decency and

tradition required that her daughters attend her. Both came at a

run to witness her final moments. After long suffering, she died

on May 6, 1727, between 9:00 and 10:00 in the evening. At Men-

shikov’s orders, two regiments of the Guard immediately encir-

cled the Winter Palace to prevent any hostile demonstration. But

< 29 >

Terrible Tsarinas

nobody thought of protesting. Nor of crying, for that matter.

Catherine’s reign, which had lasted only two years and two

months, left the majority of her subjects indifferent or perplexed.

Should one regret or be pleased at her demise?

On May 8, 1727, Grand Duke Peter Alexeyevich was pro-

claimed emperor. The Secretary of the imperial cabinet, Makarov,

announced the event to the courtiers and the dignitaries assem-

bled at the palace. The terms of the proclamation, concocted with

diabolic skill under Menshikov’s leadership, linked the concept of

choosing the sovereign (instituted by Peter the Great) with that

of heredity, in conformity with the Muscovite tradition.