spect for the empress, that hoyden who was openly flaunting her
relations with the ex-
tude was, he said, the talk of the town.
Elizabeth would have been merely amused by the trouble in
the Grand-Ducal household if her daughter-in-law had quit
brooding for long enough to find a way to get pregnant. But, after
nine months of cohabitation, the young woman was as flat in the
belly as she had been on her wedding day. Could she still be a vir-
gin? This prolonged sterility seemed like an attack on Elizabeth’s
personal prestige. In a fit of anger, she called in her unproductive
daughter-in-law, said that she alone was responsible for the non-
consummation of the marriage, accused her of frigidity, clumsi-
ness and (following suit from the chancellor, Alexis Bestuzhev)
went as far as to claim that Catherine shared her mother’s politi-
cal convictions and must be working secretly for the king of Prus-
sia.
The grand duchess protested, in vain. Elizabeth announced
that, from now on, the grand duke and she would have to shape
up. Their lives, intimate as well as public, would now be subject
to strict rules in the form of written “instructions” from Chancel-
< 178 >
lor Bestuzhev, and the execution of this program would be en-
sured by “two people of distinction”: a master and a mistress of
the court, to be named by Her Majesty. The master of the court
would be charged with instructing Peter in propriety, correct lan-
guage and the healthy ideas that were appropriate to his station;
the mistress of the court would encourage Catherine to adhere to
the dogmas of the Orthodox religion under every circumstance;
she would keep her from making the least intrusion in the field of
politics, would keep away from her any young men liable to dis-
tract her from her marital commitment, and would teach her cer-
tain feminine wiles that might enable her to awaken the desire of
her husband, so that, as one reads in the document, “by this means
our very high house may produce offspring.”1
Pursuant to these draconian directives, Catherine was for-
bidden to write directly to anyone. All her correspondence, in-
cluding letters to her parents, would be subjected to review by the
College of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the few gentlemen
whose company sometimes distracted her in her loneliness and
sorrow were removed from the court. Thus, by order of Her Maj-
esty, three Chernyshevs (two brothers and a cousin, all good-
looking and pleasant of address) were sent to serve as lieutenants
in regiments cantoned in Orenburg. The mistress of the court,
responsible for keeping Catherine in line, was a German cousin of
the empress, Maria Choglokov, and the master of the court was
none other than her husband, an influential man currently on a
mission in Vienna. This model household was intended to serve
as an example to the ducal couple. Maria Choglokov was a para-
gon of virtue, since she was devoted to her husband, appeared to
be pious, viewed every issue from the same perspective as Bestuz-
hev — and at the age of 24 already had four children! If need be,
the Choglokovs might be backed up by an additional mentor,
Prince Repnin, who would also be charged with imbuing Their
< 179 >
Highnesses with wisdom and a preference for all things Russian,
including the Orthodox faith.
With such assets working in her favor, Elizabeth was sure
she would breach the divide in this household; but she very soon
saw that it is as difficult to engender reciprocal love in a disparate
couple as it is to institute peace between two countries with op-
posing interests. In the world at large as in her own house, mis-
understanding, rivalry, demands, confrontations and rifts were
the rule.
From threats of war to local skirmishes, from broken treaties
to troop concentrations at the borders, it happened that, after the
French armies enjoyed a few victories in the United Provinces,
that Elizabeth agreed to send expeditionary forces to the borders
of Alsace. Without actually engaging in hostilities with France,
she wanted to encourage it to show a little more flexibility in ne-
gotiating with its adversaries. On October 30, 1748, through the
peace treaty of Aachen, Louis XV gave up the conquest of the
Netherlands and Frederick II retained Silesia. The tsarina left the
field, having gained nothing and lost nothing, but having disap-
pointed everyone. The only sovereign who was pleased with this
result was the king of Prussia.
By now, Elizabeth was convinced that Frederick II was en-
tertaining in St. Petersburg, within the very walls of the palace,
one of his most effective and most dangerous partisans: the Grand
Duke Peter. Her nephew, whom she never could stand, was be-
coming more foreign and more odious by the day. To cleanse the
atmosphere of Germanophilia in which the grand duke was sub-
merged, she set out to eliminate from his retinue all the gentlemen
from Holstein, and to remove the others who might try to replace
