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
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
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
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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.
