Legends of Catherine II of Russia

The flamboyant and central character of Russian Empress Catherine II of Russia, as well as the dramatic changes the country underwent during her long rule, gave rise to many urban legends, most casting her in an unfavorable light. Some stories were loosely based on true events, others were clearly false. The palace intrigue of her son Paul I of Russia was a fertile ground for such rumors.

History

Catherine II, then known as Sofie, journeyed to Russia from Germany with her mother in January, 1744. When they reached the Russian border, a carriage met them there sent by Empress Elizabeth, aunt of the future Peter III who later married Sofie. They continued their journey into Russia in a more dignified way for members of royalty. When the two arrived in St. Petersburg, they left soon, after a short break for they wanted to be there for the Grand Duke's birthday, February 10th.

The Empress Elizabeth took a great liking to Sofie when she met her. But her nephew, Peter, who was very undeveloped mentally and physically from having no proper parenting and love and spent his time playing childish games, hated the country he was to reign, and admired Frederick the Great of Prussia, who was a sort of hero to him.

Several stories about the circumstances of her death at the age of 67 probably originated soon after. A common story states that she died as a result of her voracious sexual appetite while attempting sexual intercourse with a stallion - the story holds that the harness broke and she was crushed. This is a completely untrue story Fact|date=October 2008.

This story coexists with another, less physically impossible but also totally unsubstantiated, tale: that Catherine did engage in a sexual relationship with a stallion, but at a younger age.

Another story, that she died on a toilet when the seat broke under her, is true only in small part: she did collapse in a bathroom from a stroke, but after that she died being cared for in her bed. This tale was widely circulated and even jokingly referred to by Aleksandr Pushkin in one of his untitled poems. ("Наказ писала, флоты жгла, / И умерла, садясь на судно." — literal translation: "Decreed the orders, burned the fleets / And died boarding a vessel", the last line can also be translated as "And died sitting down on the toilet".)

Rumors of her private life had a large basis in the fact that she took many young lovers, even while in old age. This was not unusual by the court standards of the day, nor was it unusual to use rumor and innuendo of sexual excess politically. One unfavorable rumor was that Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov and her later lovers were chosen by prince Potemkin himself, after the end of the long relationship Catherine had with Potemkin, where he, perhaps, was her morganatic husband. After Mamonov eloped from the 60-year-old Empress with a 16-year-old maid of honour and married her, the embittered Catherine reputedly revenged herself of her rival "by secretly sending policemen disguised as women to whip her in her husband's presence". [John T. Alexander. "Catherine the Great: Life and Legend." Oxford University Press, 1989. Page 222.]

According to some contemporaries close to Catherine, Countess Bruce was prized by her as an "eprouveuse", or "tester of male capacity". [Arthur Asa Berger. "The Art of the Seductress". iUniverse, 2001. Page 70.] Every potential lover was to spend a night with Bruce before he was admitted into Catherine's personal apartments. Their friendship was cut short when Bruce was found "in an assignment" with Catherine's youthful lover, Rimsky-Korsakov, ancestor of the composer; they both later withdrew from the imperial court to Moscow.

A long-surviving story about the Potemkin villages was false, even though it became eponymous. It states that Potemkin built fake settlements with hollow facades to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea and New Russia, the territories Russia conquered under her reign. Modern historians, however, consider this scenario at best an exaggeration, and quite possibly simply malicious rumors spread by Potemkin's opponents. [cite web|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031114.html|title=Did "Potemkin villages" really exist?|last=Adams|first=Cecil|publisher=The Straight Dope|date=2003|accessdate=2007-03-11]

ome other narratives

* Not a native speaker of Russian, Catherine once misspelled the word "eщё" (pronounced|ɪʃˈʧo 'more'), consisting of three letters, as "истчо" (/istcho/), consisting of five letters, and that allegedly gave rise to a popular Russian joke: how can five mistakes occur in a word of three letters? (The letter ё was not widely accepted until the 1940s).
*After Catherine granted to Kazan's Muslims the right to build mosques, the city's Christian leadership decided that mosques were being built too high – higher than churches. They sent a petition to Catherine asking her to prohibit the construction of high minarets. As the legend goes, Catherine replied that she was the tsarina of the Russian land and that the sky was beyond her jurisdiction.

References

;General
*М. Евгеньева, "Любовники Екатерины." - Москва: Внешторгиздат, 1989 (in Russian, M. Yevgen'yeva, "Lovers of Catherine", Moscow, Vneshtorgizdat, 1989);Inline