Catherine II Alekseevna (1729 - 1796), German princess Sophia Frederick Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst - since 1762 the Russian empress.

From the age of 16, Catherine married her 17-year-old cousin Peter, nephew and heir to Elizabeth, the ruling Empress of Russia (Elizabeth herself had no children).

Peter was completely insane and also impotent. There were days when Catherine even thought about suicide.

Catherine II and Peter III

After ten years of marriage, she gave birth to a son. In all likelihood, the father of the child was Sergei Saltykov, a young Russian nobleman, Catherine's first lover.

As Peter became completely insane and increasingly unpopular with the people and at court, Catherine's chances of inheriting the Russian throne looked completely hopeless. Peter, in addition, began to threaten Catherine with a divorce. She decided to organize a coup d'état. In June 1762, Peter, who by that time had already been emperor for half a year, was seized by another crazy idea. He decided to declare war on Denmark. To prepare for military operations, he left the capital. Catherine, guarded by a regiment of the imperial guard, left for St. Petersburg, and declared herself empress. Peter, shocked by this news, was immediately arrested and killed. Catherine's main accomplice was her lovers Count Grigory Orlov and his two brothers. All three were officers of the imperial guard.

During her more than 30 years of rule, Catherine significantly weakened the power of the clergy in Russia, crushed a major peasant uprising, reorganized the state administration apparatus, introduced serfdom in Ukraine, and added more than 200,000 square kilometers to Russian territory.

Even before marriage, Catherine was extremely sensual. So, at night she often masturbated, holding a pillow between her legs. Since Peter was completely impotent and completely uninterested in sex, the bed for him was the place where he could only sleep or play with his favorite toys. At 23, she was still a virgin. One night on an island in the Baltic Sea, Catherine's lady-in-waiting left her alone (possibly at the direction of Catherine herself) with Saltykov, a well-known young seducer. He promised to give Catherine great pleasure, and she really did not remain disappointed. Catherine was finally able to give free rein to her sexuality. Soon she was already the mother of two children. Naturally, Peter was considered the father of both children, although one day his close associates heard such words from him: “I don’t understand how she becomes pregnant.” Catherine's second child died shortly after his real father, a young Polish nobleman who worked at the British embassy, ​​was expelled from Russia in disgrace.

Three more children were born to Catherine from Grigory Orlov.

Grigory Orlov

Fluffy skirts and lace each time successfully hid her pregnancy. The first child was born to Catherine from Orlov during Peter's lifetime. During childbirth, a large fire was set up near the palace by Catherine's faithful servants to distract Peter. It was well known to everyone that he was a great lover of such spectacles.

The remaining two children were brought up in the homes of Catherine's servants and ladies-in-waiting. These maneuvers were necessary for Catherine, since she refused to marry Orlov, as she did not want to end the Romanov dynasty. In response to this refusal, Gregory turned Catherine's court into his harem. However, she remained faithful to him for 14 years and finally abandoned him only when he seduced her 13-year-old cousin.

Catherine is already 43 years old. She still remained very attractive, and her sensuality and voluptuousness only increased. One of her faithful supporters, cavalry officer Grigory Potemkin, swore his loyalty to her until the end of his life, and then went to the monastery. He did not return to social life until Catherine promised to make him her official favourite.

Empress Catherine II and Grigory Potemkin

For two years, Catherine and her 35-year-old favorite led a stormy love life filled with quarrels and reconciliations.

When Catherine got tired of Gregory, he, wanting to get rid of her, but not lose his influence at court, managed to convince her that she could change her favorites as easily as any of her other servants. He even swore to her that he himself would be engaged in their selection.

Such a system worked great until Ekaterina turned 60. A potential favorite first got to be examined by Ekaterina's personal doctor, who checked him for any signs of a venereal disease. If a favorite candidate was recognized as healthy, he had to pass another test - his masculinity was tested by one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting, whom she herself chose for this purpose. The next step, if the candidate, of course, reached it, was moving into special apartments in the palace. These apartments were located directly above Catherine's bedroom, and a separate staircase, unknown to outsiders, led there. In the apartments, the favorite found a significant amount of money prepared in advance for him. Officially, at court, the favorite had the position of Catherine's chief adjutant. When the favorite changed, the outgoing "night emperor", as they were sometimes called, received some kind of generous gift, for example, a large sum of money or an estate with 4,000 serfs.

Over the 16 years of the existence of this system, Catherine has changed 13 favorites. In 1789, 60-year-old Catherine fell in love with a 22-year-old officer of the Imperial Guard Platon Zubov. Zubov remained the main object of Catherine's sexual interest until her death at the age of 67.

There were rumors among the people that Catherine died while trying to have sexual relations with a stallion.

In fact, she died two days after suffering a severe heart attack.

Peter's impotence is probably explained by the deformity of his penis, which could be corrected with surgery.

Saltykov and his close friends once got Peter drunk and persuaded him to undergo such an operation. This was done in order to explain Catherine's next pregnancy. It is not known whether Peter had sexual relations with Catherine after that, but after a while he began to have mistresses.

Stanislav August Poniatowski. White General.

He died in 1865.

He was buried in the Main Temple of the Prior of the White (Maltese) Order

On Nevsky Prospekt, house 38. Where Paul I was buried.

In 1764, Catherine made the Polish Count Stanisław Poniatowski, her second lover, who had once been expelled from Russia, King of Poland. When Poniatowski was unable to cope with his internal political opponents, and the situation in the country began to get out of his control, Catherine simply erased Poland from the world map, annexing part of this country and giving the rest to Prussia and Austria.

The fate of the rest of Catherine's lovers and favorites turned out differently.

Grigory Orlov went crazy. Before his death, it always seemed to him that he was being haunted by the ghost of Peter, although the assassination of the emperor was planned by Alexei, brother of Grigory Orlov.

The history of the "secret office of Catherine the Great" has not yet been told.

Peter Vodic, who now lives in Belgium and is the author of several extremely interesting investigative films, heard this story from his father and did real detective work. His father told him that during the war, friends who had been in Tsarskoye Selo showed him very strange photographs of very strange furniture.

He came to Russia and tried to find out what happened to the furniture from those five rooms. Alas, he did not find out anything. Museum workers flatly refused to talk about this topic and stated that Catherine the Second did not have any "secret offices". Then, nevertheless, they took me to Gatchina and showed fifteen scattered exhibits from the Hermitage funds. A snuffbox, several figurines, a shield with erotic medallions. “Of course,” one historian who does not work in the Hermitage coldly said, “Ekaterina, being a person of impeccable taste, would not limit herself to such an eclectic set, but you will never know where the rest of the exhibits are.” The staff of the Hermitage talked about paintings, engravings, petty curiosities, but the fact of the existence of furniture was completely denied.

However, it is known that in the thirties a collection of erotic art belonging to the Romanov family was cataloged. This collection was shown to selected visitors to the museum, evidence of this has been preserved. But there is no catalog. He, like the entire collection, was allegedly destroyed in 1950, when the Stalinists cleared the memory of the Romanovs from "Bolshevik slander." Judging by the stories, a significant part of the exhibits belonged to the 18th century, but who are these storytellers? What did they understand about art?

The Hermitage employees admit that Catherine designed a kind of boudoir for Platon Zubov, but they immediately deny that at least something came from this office to the 20th century.
However, it is not. There is a well-known story about how Alexander Benois, who worked in the Hermitage, showed St. Petersburg intellectuals an officially non-existent rarity - a wax copy of Potemkin's member, and Vasily Rozanov, by the way, damaged it with his sweaty fingers.

Whether it will be possible to find the "erotic study" or whether it will remain a legend, no one can now say with confidence. We talked with Vodich about all this for several hours in a row, considering various possibilities, but we came to the conclusion that only chance can clarify the situation.
This, alas, is the tradition of modern supermuseums - to hide and sometimes even destroy artifacts of erotic art. Yes, in times of rampant pornography and endemic libertianism, culture tragers tremblingly preserve the traditions of bigotry and hypocrisy. And the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Pinakothek in Munich, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, not to mention the Prado in Madrid and the Vatican in Rome, in the near foreseeable future will, like two hundred years ago, keep erotic art for seven Swiss locks, away from the eyes of the immodestly curious public.

The conspiracy has been revealed! We are dead! - with such an exclamation, Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova burst into Catherine's bedroom and froze on the threshold. The Empress was washing her lace cuffs in the pelvis.
- Empress, what are you doing?
- Can't you see, I'm erasing. What surprises you? I was prepared not for the Russian empresses, but, God forbid, for the wife of some German prince. Therefore, they taught to wash and cook ...

The future empress of the vast Russian empire, Catherine the Great, was born not in a luxurious palace, but in an ordinary German house and received a bourgeois education: she was really taught to clean and cook.

Her father, Prince Christian-August, was the younger brother of a sovereign German prince, but due to a constant lack of money, he was forced to take a job. And Sophia-Augusta-Frederica-Emilia, as Catherine was called in her childhood, despite her royal origin, played in the city square with the children of burghers, received slaps from her mother for poorly polished boilers and respectfully kissed the hem of the dress of the wives of wealthy citizens, if they went into house.

Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp and Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst are the parents of the future Empress Catherine the Great.

Catherine's mother, John Elisabeth, was a domineering and riotous woman. It was even rumored that Catherine's real father was none other than Frederick the Great himself. He also proposed the candidacy of the young Princess Sofikhen as a wife to the Russian heir to the throne, Peter, when he heard a rumor that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was looking for a bride for her nephew, to whom she intended to leave the throne.

This is what the future Catherine the Great looked like when she arrived in Russia, being a simple German princess Sophia Augusta Frederica. Portrait by Louis Caravaca

So the little German princess from the dirty city streets ended up in the shining gold of the Russian Imperial Palace. Having received the name Catherine in baptism, the future wife of the heir to the throne began to study with the best court teachers and fabulously succeeded not only in the Russian language, but also in the art of flirting.

Having inherited from her mother an indefatigable sexual temperament, Catherine launched her seduction at the Russian court. Even before the wedding, she flirted so openly with the court don Juan Andrei Chernyshev that, in order to avoid rumors, Elizabeth was forced to send the poor count abroad.

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna at the age of 16 (1745). Groot painting

As soon as Catherine turned sixteen, Elizaveta Petrovna hurried to marry the German princess to Peter, making it clear to her that her only duty was to give birth to an heir.

After the wedding and a magnificent ball, the young people were finally taken to the marriage chambers. But Catherine woke up, as she lay down - a virgin. Peter remained cold to her both on their wedding night and for many months afterwards. Some are looking for the reasons for such an attitude towards his wife in the infantilism and dementia of Peter, others in his tragic love.

Peter III with Catherine II

Peter fell in love with the maid of honor Natalia Lopukhina, whose mother was Elizabeth's personal enemy. Lopukhina Sr. was Anna Ioannovna's favorite lady of state and catered to the Empress in every possible way, humiliating her hated daughter-in-law, Princess Elizabeth.

The historical anecdote has survived. Balls were often held in the Lopukhins' house. Elizabeth was also invited there. Once Lopukhina bribed Elizabeth's maids and offered them a sample of yellow brocade with silver, from which the princess sewed her dress for the ball.

When Elizabeth entered the living room, there was an explosion of laughter. The walls, chairs, armchairs and sofas in the room were upholstered in the same yellow and silver brocade. The humiliated princess rushed out of the palace and sobbed for a long time in her bedroom.

Natalya Fyodorovna Lopukhina. Engraving by L. A. Seryakov.

Some authors explain the hostile attitude towards Lopukhina on the part of Elizabeth Petrovna by successful rivalry in amorous affairs. Subsequently, trying to explain to themselves the reasons for the disgrace that befell her, contemporaries recalled another case:

One day, Lopukhina, famous for her beauty and therefore arousing the jealousy of the empress, decided, whether out of frivolity or in the form of bravado, to appear with a rose in her hair, while the empress had the same rose in her hair.

In the midst of the ball, Elizabeth forced the guilty one to kneel, ordered the scissors to be brought, cut off the criminal rose along with the strand of hair to which it was attached, and, having rolled two good slaps on the guilty person, continued to dance. When she was told that the unfortunate Lopukhina had fainted, she shrugged her shoulders: “ Nothing to her fool!

Empress Elizabeth I Petrovna Romanova

When Peter asked his royal aunt for permission to marry Lopukhina's daughter, Elizabeth decided to take revenge. She accused Lopukhina of high treason, and the court sentenced the unfortunate countess to death. Elizabeth, by her "great mercy", mitigated the punishment. Lopukhina the elder was shamefully whipped on Trinity Square, her tongue was cut out, and she was exiled to Siberia.

After this tragic story with the mother of his beloved, Tsarevich Peter went crazy. But Catherine did not seek to please her husband: she quickly found solace in the arms of the Swedish envoy Count Polenberg. Empress Elizabeth turned a blind eye to the relationship of the young: she needed an heir, but Catherine still could not get pregnant.

Meanwhile, in the bed of an eighteen-year-old princess, one favorite replaced another: Kirill Razumovsky, Stanislav Poniatovsky, Zakhar Chernyshev (brother of Andrei exiled abroad), Lev Naryshkin and the Saltykov brothers, who knew a lot about love. Their mother, nee Golitsyna, was famous throughout Petersburg for drunkenness and debauchery in the soldiers' barracks - there were rumors that she had three hundred lovers among the empress's grenadiers.

Lev Alexandrovich Naryshkin - the famous court joker and rake of the times of Peter III and Catherine II.

After a few years of marriage, a miracle happened - Catherine became pregnant. Sergei Saltykov openly boasted that he was the father of the future heir, and was expelled from St. Petersburg. Later in Sweden, he spread terrible rumors about the debauchery of the Russian princess and assured that she herself hung on his neck, made appointments, and he supposedly deceived and did not come, which made Catherine suffer unspeakably.

Elizaveta Petrovna was so pleased with the good news that she gave her pregnant daughter-in-law one hundred thousand rubles and a lot of jewelry. The poor German princess, who came to Russia with three dresses and half a dozen handkerchiefs, began to squander the Russian treasury with money.

The born baby was named Pavel and immediately taken away from the young mother. However, Catherine was not interested in her son and never loved him. It is still unknown who was the real father of Paul - they call Zakhar Chernyshev, and Lev Naryshkin, and other lovers of the princess. Among the guesses, an amazing fact is noted: Pavel is unusually similar to his official father, Pyotr Fedorovich - which History does not joke about ...

Peter III and Paul I

After the death of Elizabeth, Peter III ascended the throne and declared that for depraved behavior he would exile Catherine to a monastery, and he would marry Elizabeth Vorontsova, his mistress. But by that time, with the help of her favorites, Catherine had woven a huge network around Peter.

Chancellor Panin, Prince Baryatinsky, Catherine's lover Grigory Orlov and four of his brothers organized a conspiracy against the emperor. But then one of the conspirators got scared and decided to warn the emperor - Peter did not attach any importance to his words, for which he paid not only with the throne, but also with his life.

At the court of Catherine II in Russia, favoritism became a new position, as at the court of Louis XIV in France, and bed careerists were recognized as people who served the fatherland and the throne. For their love efforts, they received palaces and considerable financial resources from the Russian treasury.

The bedroom of Elizaveta Petrovna was inherited for a long twenty years by her successor Catherine.

But Catherine was a passionate woman and could not live without a man. In her palace there was a special room with a huge bed. If necessary, a secret mechanism divided the bed into two parts with a wall - the favorite remained on the hidden half, and on the second, the empress, who had not cooled down from love pleasures, received ambassadors and ministers.

Catherine had a weakness for huge, gigantic men with a sensual face. Potential lovers were represented to the Empress by Chancellor Panin and Countess Bruce, who at court was called the “assay lady”.

Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin

Panin was Catherine's constant lover - he was smart, not demanding, not jealous. He appeared in the bedroom of the empress no more than once a week, and in his free time in his harem, consisting of serf concubines - every day he acquired a new girl, and gave away those who were bored to friends or sold them.

For Catherine, he chose tall soldiers who were not distinguished by intelligence, so as not to create rivals for himself. Once Panin and Countess Bruce recommended the handsome Potemkin.

Catherine was embarrassed by the fact that the lieutenant-general had only one eye (Grigory Orlov once knocked out his second in a fit of jealousy), but the countess convinced Catherine that Potemkin was going crazy with love for the empress.

Empress Catherine II and His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky

After a night of love, Catherine promoted Potemkin to lieutenant general, gave him a magnificent palace and a million rubles for its arrangement. This is how bed careers were made in one night under Catherine.

But it seemed to Potemkin that the imperial gifts were not enough - once at dinner he demanded that Catherine make him a member of the State Council. Catherine was horrified:
But my friend, that's impossible!
- Perfectly! Then I go to the monastery. The role of your kept woman does not suit me!
Catherine began to cry and left the table. Potemkin did not come to the favorites' room. Catherine cried all night, and the next morning Potemkin was appointed senator.

Once Potemkin left for St. Petersburg on business for a few days. But the Empress could not be left alone for a long time. Once in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, Catherine woke up at night from the cold. It was winter, and all the wood in the fireplace had burned down. She slept alone - Potemkin was in St. Petersburg on business.

Catherine II in Tsarskoye Selo park for a walk. Painting by artist Vladimir Borovikovsky

Not finding the servants behind the screen, Catherine went out into the corridor, along which the stoker was walking with a bundle of firewood on his shoulders. The sight of this young Hercules of enormous stature, carrying firewood like a feather, took Catherine's breath away.
- Who are you?
- Court stoker, Your Majesty!
"Why didn't I see you before?" Fire up the fireplace in my bedroom.

The young man was delighted with such favor of the empress and lit a huge fire in the fireplace. But Catherine was not satisfied:
“Don’t you understand how to keep the Empress warm?”
And the stoker finally understood. And the next morning, he received an order to grant him the hereditary nobility, ten thousand peasants, an order never to return to St. Petersburg and change his surname to Teplov - in memory of how he warmed the empress.

In her old age, Catherine reached complete debauchery. Hefty men were no longer enough for her - and she turned her passion to a young gypsy, presented to her by Potemkin.

Countess Natalya Alexandrovna Zubova (née Suvorova) is the only daughter Field Marshal Suvorov , who affectionately called her "Suvorochka".

Rumors circulated at court about how the empress treated her maids and young peasant women. At the final exam at the Smolny Institute, the Empress drew attention to a beautiful graduate, who turned out to be Suvorov's daughter.
Give your daughter to me as a favorite.
Having heard about the adventures of the Empress, Suvorov replied:
- Mother, to die for you - I will die, but I will not give you my Suvorochka!
The angry empress sent the old man along with her daughter to their estate, forbidding them to appear at court - which was exactly what Suvorov needed.

In the absence of Potemkin, Catherine had many lovers: Ambassador Bezborodko and his secretaries Zavadovsky and Mamonov, the nephew of the midwife Zorich, guard officers Korsakov and Khvostov, and finally, the provincial youth Alexander Lanskoy.

Potemkin accidentally saw the twenty-year-old Lanskoy and introduced him to the Empress. The young man had an angelic appearance: huge blue eyes filled with sadness, blond curls, a slight blush on his cheeks and coral lips. He would have looked like a girl if not for his huge height and broad shoulders.

Alexander Dmitrievich Lanskoy. Portrait by D. G. Levitsky (1782).

He accepted Catherine's attention as the concern of his mother, besides, he was too loyal to his state to refuse something to the empress. He was ashamed of the position of the imperial concubine, but over time became attached to Catherine with all his heart. The Empress was touched by such reading love of an innocent young man who had not known women at all before her.

Her aging heart was so jealous of Sashenka that Catherine locked her lover in several rooms, surrounding her with unheard of luxury. The Empress awarded Lanskoy with the title of count, huge lands, tens of thousands of peasants. But the young man in love did not need ranks and wealth - he was probably the only favorite who loved the empress like a woman. And the empress said to Potemkin:

- My soul, I'm going to marry Lansky.
What did he do to deserve such an honor?
“He never cheated on me.
Potemkin lowered his eyes. He himself cheated on Catherine almost every day with different women.

A month later, Lanskoy took to his bed. And not one court doctor could make an accurate diagnosis. Catherine knew that her lover was poisoned on behalf of Potemkin. Catherine wrote to her friend:

“I, sobbing, have the misfortune to tell you that General Lansky is gone ... and my room, which I loved so much before, has now turned into an empty cave.”

Virgilius Eriksen. Catherine II in mourning.

After the death of her beloved, the empress walked around the palace like a shadow. She abandoned all state affairs and did not receive anyone. It was so unlike her ... Apparently, the love that she did not know in her youth overtook her in her old age.

The only topic that the Empress kept up the conversation was about Alexander Lansky, the only place she visited was his grave. She spent many hours at Lansky's grave in anguish and tears. Potemkin was furious. He was jealous - and to whom, to the deceased? In fits of anger, Potemkin circled like a kite among the guards officers. Finally, he chose Alexander Yermolov, made him his adjutant and sent him to Catherine.

His calculation was justified: Yermolov occupied the favorites' room, which had been empty for almost half a year. Still, Catherine was a woman, and the desire to love overcame her grief for the loss. Noticing that one of the ladies-in-waiting was secluded with Eromlov, Catherine ordered the soldiers to flog the aristocrat to the point of blood in the presence of the other eleven ladies-in-waiting - so that it would not be customary.

Alexander Petrovich Ermolov, favorite of Catherine II, lieutenant general, chamberlain.

Tall and slender, blond, with a good complexion, Yermolov drew attention to himself with his handsome appearance, and only a wide, flat nose, for which Potemkin nicknamed him " le negre blanc' ruined his face.

Yermolov was too stupid, arrogant and narcissistic, besides he liked to play and often ran away from the empress to gambling houses and to prostitutes.

Potemkin himself, disappointed in Yermolov, successfully arranged for his rapid fall. The Empress willingly got rid of the boring favorite, inviting him on June 29, 1786 to go abroad on a trip. Not possessing the greed of other favorites, Yermolov received relatively little: 4,000 souls and about 400,000 in money; he did not care about the enrichment of all his relatives, as others did.

His place was soon taken by another adjutant of Potemkin - Alexander Mamonov.

Graph Alexander Matveevich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1788)

"Priceless Sasha" - so called Empress Mamonov. But Sasha began to disappear somewhere more and more often. He was not there on that ill-fated night when the tired Catherine returned from a meeting of the Council. She waited for him half the night, but greeted him playfully:

“Where are you, dear sir, deigned to disappear?”
“Mother Empress…” his tone and facial expression did not bode well. “You have always been kind to me, and I am frank with you. I can no longer carry out my duties near Your Majesty.

Catherine's face changed:
"What's the matter, are you kidding me?"
“Not at all, your majesty. I fell in love with another and ask your gracious permission to marry her. Her name is Princess Shcherbatova.

What can an aging woman who has lost her former attractiveness answer when a young lover says that he fell in love with another, good and young?
- I give you permission to marry. Moreover, I will arrange your wedding myself.

“... before the evening exit, Her Majesty herself deigned to betroth Count A. M. Mamonov to Princess Shcherbatova; they, on their knees, asked for forgiveness and are forgiven". The groom was granted 2,250 souls of peasants and 100,000 rubles and ordered to leave Petersburg the very next day after the wedding.

Having settled in Moscow, Dmitriev-Mamonov was at first pleased with his fate, but a year later he decides to remind Catherine of himself, writes pitiful letters to her, asks her to return his former favor, to allow him to come to St. Petersburg. The reply of the empress soon convinced him that his hopes were in vain.

The legend that Catherine, out of jealousy, sent bailiffs dressed in women's clothes to Shcherbatova, who brutally flogged her in the presence of her husband, is not true.

His Serene Highness Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov is the last favorite of Catherine II.

Meanwhile, a new and last favorite reigned in the palace - in 1789, the dizzying career of 22-year-old second-captain Platon Zubov began. He inherited the room of favorites from his brother, Valerian Zubov, who was the empress's lover for a very short time.

June 21, 1789, through the mediation of the lady of state Anna Nikitichna Naryshkina, the wife of Oberschenk Alexander Alexandrovich Naryshkin, Zubov, " passed through the top”, received a special reception from the Empress, and since then spent every evening with her.

Three days later, on June 24, Zubov received 10 thousand rubles and a ring with a portrait of the Empress, and ten days later, on July 4, 1789, he was promoted to colonel, granted to the adjutant wing of Her Imperial Majesty and settled in the palace, in the wing adjutant quarters, which were previously occupied by Count Dmitriev-Mamonov.

Those around him hated him, but the empress showered alms on her last favorite: on October 3, 1789, Zubov was appointed cornet of the Cavalier Guard Corps with promotion to major general; Orlov and the Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav, September 8, 1790 - the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, March 12, 1792 promoted to lieutenant general and appointed Adjutant General of Her Imperial Majesty.

Platon Alexandrovich Zubov - Most Serene Prince of the Roman Empire, Chief of the First Cadet Corps, Yekaterinoslav, Voznesensky and Taurida Governor-General.

Diploma of the Roman Emperor Franz II, dated January 27 (February 7), 1793, Senator, Privy Councilor Alexander Nikolayevich Zubov and his sons, Adjutant General, Lieutenant General Platon, Major General Nikolai, Chamber Junker Dmitry and Major General Valerian Aleksandrovichi, elevated, with their descendants, to the dignity of a count of the Roman Empire. The adoption of the aforementioned title and its use in Russia in the same year was followed by the Highest permission.

Platon Zubov was arrogant, arrogant and loved only one thing in the world - money. Having received unlimited power, he mocked Tsarevich Pavel, completely sure that he would not get the throne. Potemkin planned to kill the new favorite, but did not have time - he died.

"Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tauride. From a rare engraving by Skorodumov.

The war with the Turks undermined Potemkin's health, he caught malaria in the Crimea. Catherine again showered him with orders and distinctions, but above all with money, which, however, he never had in abundance, because he generously distributed them.

When the war ended, he once again visited St. Petersburg. On the way back, he fell ill. He fainted, suffocated. Suddenly he decided that he must certainly visit Nikolaev - he himself founded this city and loved it very much; he believed that the forest air there would heal him. October 4, he set off.

Before leaving, no matter how difficult it was for him, he wrote a message to Catherine: “My beloved, my almighty Empress. I no longer have the strength to endure my suffering. Only one salvation remains: to leave this city, and I gave the order to deliver me to Nikolaev. I don't know what will happen to me." On October 5, 1791, on the second day of the journey, Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin died. He was 52 years old.

"The death of Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tauride. From the engraving by Skorodumov

The Empress sobbed for a long time and inconsolably, arranged a magnificent funeral for her former favorite and ordered two monuments to be erected to him. During the reign of Catherine from the Russian treasury, palaces and jewelry worth nine million rubles and forty thousand peasants passed into Potemkin's pocket.

After the death of Potemkin, during which Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov did not play, however, a prominent role in public affairs, the importance of Zubov increases every day. Many of the posts previously held by Potemkin are being transferred to him.

On July 23, 1793, he was awarded a portrait of the Empress and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, on July 25, 1793 he was appointed governor-general of Yekaterinoslav and Tauride, on October 19, 1793 - general feldzeugmeister and general director over fortifications, on October 21, 1793 - chief of the Cavalier Guard Corps, January 1, 1795 he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir I degree.

Portrait of Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov. Lumpy Senior I.B. 1790s

All affairs were handled by his three secretaries: Altesti, Gribovsky and Ribas. Count Zubov himself, on August 18, 1795, receives huge estates in the newly annexed Polish regions - Shavelsky savings in 13669 souls of serfs with an income of 100 thousand rubles. And soon, after the annexation of the Duchy of Courland, Zubov was granted the Ruental (Rundal Palace) ducal palace built by Rastrelli.

By the end of the reign of Empress Catherine II, His Serene Highness Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov became the bearer of the following high-profile title:

« Feldzeugmeister General, director general over fortifications, over the Black Sea Fleet, Voznesenskaya light cavalry and the Black Sea Cossack army commander-in-chief, Adjutant General of Her Imperial Majesty, Chief of the Cavalier Guard Corps, Yekaterinoslav, Voznesensky and Tauride Governor-General, Member of the State Military Collegium, Imperial Educational home honorary philanthropist, honorary lover of the Imperial Academy of Arts and orders of the Russian St. Apostle Andrei, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir I degree, the Royal Prussian Black and Red Eagle, the Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav and the Grand Duke Holstein St. Anna cavalier».

This last favorite of Catherine II was a participant in the assassination of Emperor Paul I.

Catherine II. Artist Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov.

On November 16, 1796, as usual, Catherine, getting out of bed and drinking coffee, went to the toilet room, and, contrary to her usual habit, stayed there longer than usual.

The valet on duty of the Empress Zakhar Zotov, sensing something unkind, quietly opened the door of the dressing room and saw with horror the body of Catherine lying on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her complexion was purple, and wheezing came from her throat. The Empress was transferred to the bedchamber. During the fall, Catherine dislocated her leg, her body became so heavy that six people of the room servants did not have enough strength to lift him onto the bed. Therefore, a red morocco mattress was laid on the floor and the dying empress was laid on it.

The Empress had a brain hemorrhage, according to the terminology of the XVIII century - "apoplexy." According to the Kammer-Fourier magazine - this kind of diary-chronicle of the life of Her Majesty, - “ suffering continued uninterruptedly, sighing of the womb, wheezing, at times eruption from the larynx of dark sputum».

Despite the fact that Catherine did not regain consciousness, the Chamber Fourier journal reports that the Empress was confessed by her confessor, communed with the holy mysteries and unction with oil by Metropolitan Gabriel. True, it remains unclear how a person lying in an unconscious state can confess and take communion ...

Meanwhile, the doctors continued to conjure over the motionless thing that used to be Empress Catherine - her body: they applied Spanish flies to her legs, put emetic powders in her mouth, let "bad blood" out of her hand. But all was in vain: the empress’s face turned purple, then filled with a pink blush, her chest and stomach constantly rose and fell, and the court lackeys wiped the sputum flowing from her mouth, straightened her arms, then her head, then her legs.

Doctors predicted that death would come at 3 o'clock the next day, and indeed, at this time, Catherine's pulse noticeably weakened. But her strong body continued to resist the impending death and lasted until 9 pm, when the life physician Rogerson announced that the Empress was ending, and the happy Pavel, his wife, older children, the most influential dignitaries and room servants lined up on both sides of the morocco mattress.

At 9:45 in the afternoon, Great Catherine sighed for the last time and, along with others, appeared before the judgment of the Most High. For we will all be there: those who have titles occupy a whole paragraph, and those who do not have them at all ...

Catherine combined a high intellect, education, statesmanship and commitment to "free love". She is known for her connections with numerous lovers, the number of which (according to the list of the authoritative Ekaterinologist P. I. Bartenev) reaches 23.

Catherine's love affairs are marked by a series of scandals. So, Grigory Orlov, being her favorite, at the same time (according to M. M. Shcherbatov) cohabited with all her ladies-in-waiting and even with his 13-year-old cousin.

The favorite of Empress Lanskoy used an aphrodisiac to increase "male strength" (kontarid) in ever-increasing doses, which, apparently, according to the conclusion of the court physician Weikart, was the cause of his unexpected death at a young age. Her last favorite, Platon Zubov, was a little over 20 years old, while Catherine's age at that time had already exceeded 60.

Historians mention many other scandalous details (“a bribe” of 100 thousand rubles paid to Potemkin by the empress’s future favorites, many of whom were his adjutants before, testing their “male strength” by her ladies-in-waiting, etc.

Contemporaries, including foreign diplomats, were bewildered by the rave reviews and characteristics that Catherine gave to her young favorites, for the most part devoid of any outstanding talents. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “ neither before Catherine, nor after her, debauchery reached such a wide scale and did not manifest itself in such a frankly defiant form.

It is worth noting that in Europe Catherine's "debauchery" was not such a rare phenomenon against the background of the general licentiousness of the mores of the 18th century. Most kings (with the possible exception of Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Charles XII) had numerous mistresses. However, this does not apply to reigning queens and empresses.

Louis XVI

So, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa wrote about “ disgust and horror”, which are instilled in her by such persons as Catherine II, and this attitude towards the latter was shared by her daughter Marie Antoinette.

As K. Valishevsky wrote in this regard, comparing Catherine II with Louis XV, “ the difference between the sexes until the end of time, we think, will give a deeply unequal character to the same actions, depending on whether they are committed by a man or a woman ... moreover, the mistresses of Louis XV never influenced the fate of France».

There are numerous examples of the exceptional influence (both negative and positive) that Catherine's favorites (Orlov, Potemkin, Platon Zubov, etc.) had on the fate of the country, starting from June 28, 1762, until the death of the Empress, as well as on its domestic, foreign policy and even on military operations.

According to N.I. Pavlenko, in order to please the favorite Grigory Potemkin, who envied the glory of Field Marshal Rumyantsev, this outstanding commander and hero of the Russian-Turkish wars was removed by Catherine from command of the army and was forced to retire to his estate.

Another, very mediocre commander, Musin-Pushkin, on the contrary, continued to lead the army, despite his blunders in military campaigns (for which the empress herself called him "a real blockhead") - thanks to the fact that he was "the favorite of June 28", one of those who helped Catherine seize the throne.

In addition, the institute of favoritism had a negative effect on the morals of the higher nobility, who sought benefits through flattery to a new favorite, tried to make “his man” into lovers to the empress, etc. A contemporary M. M. Shcherbatov wrote that Catherine’s favoritism and debauchery II contributed to the decline in the morals of the nobility of that era, and historians agree with this.

A heavy death, preceded by a mystical incident, befell the Russian ruler Catherine II. One of the most gifted women in world history, with whom it was considered a great honor to be in correspondence with the most prominent minds of that time, Catherine took a painful agony of thirty-six hours.

November 2, 1796, according to the Duke de Doudeauville (de Doudeauville), the Empress was visited by a ghost in the form of herself. At night, the ladies-in-waiting, who were on duty at the door of Catherine's bedroom, saw that the Empress, dressed in a night dress and with a candle in her hands, was entering the throne room. Next, they heard a call from the bedroom, which called the servants on duty. The ladies-in-waiting opened the doors and saw the empress lying in bed.

It turned out that she heard someone's steps and they prevented her from sleeping. Having learned about the strange vision, Catherine ordered to get dressed and, accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting, went to the throne room. There, in a hall lit by a greenish glow, another Catherine appeared. She sat on the throne and was silent. The real empress managed to shout out an order for the guards to open fire on the ghost, and fainted.

On the morning of November 5, that is, two days after that, Catherine II got out of bed, went to the toilet room and lingered in it for a long time. The valet on duty of the Empress Zakhar Zotov, after waiting half an hour, looked inside and found her on the floor. Sprained leg, purplish face, wheezing.

It was required to transfer the empress to the bedchamber, but "her body turned out to be so heavy that six people were barely enough just to put her on the floor in the named room." On a red morocco mattress, she presented a heavy sight. “Her eyes were closed, she wheezed a lot, and her chest and stomach were constantly rising and falling. On the arrival of the doctors, they opened blood from her arm; from there slowly flowed blood, black and thick.

The empress was given emetic powders, but they did not bring any benefit. They called her confessor Father Savva. However, it was not possible to introduce the Empress to the Holy Mysteries. A stormy foam came from her mouth, and Father Savva began reading prayers for the departure.

The doctors declared that there was no hope. The dull chores of seizing the imperial documentation began, which continued until that time, until it became clear that the death of the empress was coming. The invited metropolitan immediately read the funeral, but after that “the agony of Her Majesty, revealed by constant wheezing, raising the stomach and fetid dark-colored matter, from time to time flowing out of the mouth, with eyes closed, lasted thirty-six hours without the slightest interruption.”

Catherine II died the next day, November 6 at 9:45. She was 67 years old. According to the terminology of the 18th century, the empress suffered an "apoplexy", and if it is more understandable, a cerebral hemorrhage occurred. “... blood poured onto the brain from two sides: on the one hand, black, thick and curdled in the form of a liver, and on the other, liquid, flowing out of a ruptured vein. They also found two stones in the bile, which spilled over the whole heart ... "

After the funeral of Catherine II, an unkind rumor spread in narrow court circles about other causes of her death. The most malicious nobles said that the empress was ruined by a sinful passion for men, to which she allegedly gave herself up to her last days. Then a version appeared about an injury received from fragments of a chamber pot, which broke under the heavy weight of the empress. However, both should be attributed rather to court gossip. Only one version, excluding apoplexy, can be given due attention.

The dressing room, in which Catherine II lost consciousness, was equipped with a "stool" built from an ancient Polish throne. Previously, it belonged to the first Polish kings, the Piasts, and was taken out of Poland on the personal instructions of Catherine. This happened after the Third Partition of Poland, when an uprising led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko was suppressed.

According to rumors, the valet on duty, Zakhar Zotov, found the Empress bleeding. She had a severe stab wound, which was inflicted by a blow from below. It was assumed that inside the former throne was a Polish avenger. It was he who hit the empress with a battle cleaver, after which he managed to safely leave the Winter Palace. Thus, the throne, as a symbol of the lost Commonwealth, became the source of death for Catherine.

Interestingly, on November 5, when it was time to inform the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, about his mother’s illness, and Zubov was sent to Gatchina for this purpose, Paul was horrified at first. He decided that the visitor had the goal of arresting him. However, having learned what was the matter, Pavel hugged Zubov and kissed him.

After the death of the empress, Paul's first order was something strange. He ordered to bury Catherine II together with Peter III, whom she hated during her lifetime. The grave of Peter III, which was located in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, was opened, and Paul arranged a mystical ritual over the remains - he placed the royal crown on the head of his dead father. After that, Catherine II and Peter III were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

According to P. A. Vyazemsky, “the English minister at the court of Catherine, who was present at her funeral, said:“ On enterre la Russie ”, which in French meant“ Bury Russia.

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During World War II, in one of the palaces of Tsarskoye Selo, a group of Soviet soldiers stumbled upon rooms decorated in a completely crazy erotoman style. One of the walls was completely hung with variously shaped phalluses carved from wood, along the walls were armchairs, bureaus, chairs, screens decorated with pornographic images.

The soldiers - the oldest was only twenty-four years old - were amazed and snapped several films with their "watering cans". Young guys did not loot and did not break furniture, they just took a couple of dozen photos as a keepsake. Most of the cassettes disappeared in the fire of the war, but a few shots did fall into the hands of Peter Vodich, who lives in Belgium and is the author of several extremely interesting investigative films.

He came to Russia and tried to find out what happened to the furniture from those five rooms. Alas, he did not find out anything. Museum workers flatly refused to talk about this topic and stated that Catherine the Second did not have any "sex-secret offices". Then, nevertheless, they took me to Gatchina and showed fifteen scattered exhibits from the Hermitage funds. A snuffbox, several figurines, a shield with erotic medallions. “Of course,” one historian who does not work in the Hermitage coldly said, “Ekaterina, being a person of impeccable taste, would not limit herself to such an eclectic set, but you will never know where the rest of the exhibits are.” The staff of the Hermitage talked about paintings, engravings, petty curiosities, but the fact of the existence of furniture was completely denied.

However, it is known that in the 1930s a collection of erotic art belonging to the Romanov family was cataloged. This collection was shown to selected visitors to the museum, evidence of this has been preserved. But there is no catalog. It, like the entire collection, was allegedly destroyed in 1950. Judging by the stories, a significant part of the exhibits belonged to the 18th century, but who are these storytellers? What did they understand about art?

The Hermitage employees admit that Catherine designed a kind of boudoir for Platon Zubov, but they immediately deny that at least something came from this office to the 20th century.

However, it is not. There is a well-known story about how Andrei Ivanovich Somov, who worked in the Hermitage, showed St. Petersburg intellectuals an officially non-existent rarity - a wax copy of Potemkin's penis, and Vasily Rozanov, by the way, damaged it with his sweaty fingers. And so, by chance and almost by chance, but certain people, whose names I would not like to name for certain reasons, stumbled upon a really large-scale collection of erotica and pornography - the “secret office”.


Whether it will be possible to find the "erotic study", or whether it will remain a legend, no one can say with confidence now. We talked with Vodich about all this for several hours in a row, figuring out different possibilities, but we came to the conclusion that only chance can clarify the situation.

It is, alas, a tradition of modern supermuseums to hide and sometimes even destroy artifacts of erotic art. Yes, in times of rampant pornography and endemic libertianism, culture tragers tremblingly preserve the traditions of bigotry and hypocrisy. And the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Pinakothek in Munich, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, not to mention the Prado in Madrid and the Vatican in Rome, in the near foreseeable future will, like two hundred years ago, keep erotic art for seven Swiss locks, away from the eyes of the immodestly curious public.