(According to A. Nizovsky)

On one of the autumn days of 1742 (according to other versions - June 15, 1748; or in 1744; or in 1750) in the small Church of the Sign in the village of Perovo near Moscow (and according to another version - in the Moscow Church of the Resurrection in Barashakh), the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress and Autocrat of All Russia Elizabeth secretly married a Cossack Ukrainian son, the former singer Alexei Rozum, and now Count Alexei Grigoryevich Razumovsky. The wedding was performed in front of witnesses, the "young" were given documents testifying to the conclusion of the marriage. A few days after the wedding, the empress granted Razumovsky the rank of field marshal and moved with him to St. Petersburg, where the empress's husband settled in a palace specially built for him, known as Anichkov.

Long time later, Moscow old-timers pointed to an unusual crown that topped the cross over the Church of the Resurrection in Barashy, and claimed that Empress Elizabeth was married here, and in memory of this event a marriage crown was placed on the cross. And the secret wedding of Elizabeth with Razumovsky allegedly took place nearby, in the house built by Rastrelli, which for a long time later was occupied by the 4th Moscow gymnasium. Here Razumovsky lived for some time with his royal wife.

So, the secret marriage of Elizabeth and Alexei Razumovsky "took place" - there is practically no doubt about this. But were there any offspring from this marriage? Here, alas, we enter the realm of rather shaky hypotheses.

It is only known for certain that Count Alexei Grigoryevich Razumovsky died childless.

But even if we, having at our disposal the long-declassified state archives of the 18th century, cannot say anything definite about this, then what were contemporaries supposed to think? After all, rumors about the children of Elizabeth and Razumovsky from the end of the 1760s. went all over Russia.

How much did the secret marriage of the empress have had "fruits"? They said different things: Elizabeth had a son and a daughter from Razumovsky; two sons and a daughter; two daughters and a son. Of course, no one could say for sure.

Concerning the son of Elizabeth and

Razumovsky, “Prince Tarakanov”, there were rumors that this “prince” Princess Tarakanov spent his entire life in one of the monasteries of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, bitterly complaining about his fate, and died at the beginning of the 19th century.

True, according to another version, his last name was Zakrevsky and he made himself a brilliant career in St. Petersburg, becoming a privy councilor and president of the medical college.

But, of course, the fate of Princess Tarakanova, the daughter of Elizabeth and Razumovsky, became the most romantic legend. This legend intertwined the stories of at least two women who performed under this name. One of them, Augusta Tarakanova, is better known as the nun Dosifei, the second is the legendary beauty Elizaveta Tarakanova, depicted in the textbook painting by G. Flavitsky.

But this did not exhaust the number of "Princess Tarakanovs". Rumor claimed, for example, that the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Count Razumovsky, known under the name of Varvara Mironovna Nazaryev, died for a long time in the Nizhny Novgorod suburb of Puchezh and in 1839 died. For most of her life, she lived as a nun at the Pushavin Church of Puchezh, enjoying great respect from the inhabitants.

The mysterious nun known as "Princess Tarakanova" lived as a hermit and died in Moscow's Nikitsky Monastery in the early 19th century.

Traditions about the "daughter of Elizabeth and Razumovsky" were told in the convents of Arzamas, Yekaterinburg, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Ufa - mysterious women "belonging to the upper class" were brought here to live at different times. As a rule, these women were "insane", which did not prevent popular rumor from surrounding them with all sorts of legends.

Why the daughter of Elizabeth and Razumovsky received the name Tarakanova is not known for certain. It was assumed that the origin of the surname is connected with the birthplace of Count Razumovsky - the Tarakanovka settlement (which never existed in reality). Other researchers believe that the surname Tarakanov came from the distorted surname Daragan: it is known that the sister of Count A. G. Razumovsky Vera Grigoryevna was married to a Cossack colonel E.F. Daragan. Their children were brought to St. Petersburg and lived at the court. It is possible that this surname was born from here: Daragan - Daraganova - Tarakanova.

The legend of Princess Tarakanova has been circulating in Russia and Europe for more than half a century. In Europe, and then in Russia, publications began to appear, the authors of which seemed to be trying to outdo each other in writing fables. The heap of rumors around the name of Princess Tarakanova was put to an end by a member of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities, Count V.N. Panin, who turned to Alexander II with a proposal to declassify the investigation materials in the case of Princess Tarakanova. These materials were published by V.N. Panin in "Readings in the Society of Russian History and Antiquities" (1867, book 1).

In the early 1770s. in Europe, a young woman appeared to be very attractive, according to contemporaries, appearance and very obscure origin. However, her origin and true name remained a mystery.

It is possible that she was originally from Germany. Later, some claimed that she was the daughter of an innkeeper from Prague, while others said that she was the daughter of a Nuremberg baker. She called herself differently: Frank, Shel, Tremouille, etc.

The mysterious woman was in her early 20s, but many indicate she was at least seven years older. Her real age and, consequently, her date of birth also remained unclear.

Where exactly the adventuress visited before 1772, who called herself Elizabeth II in the winter of 1773/74 (after the name of her mother, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna), is unknown. She told A. G. Orlov that from Russia she went through Riga and Koenigsberg to Berlin, where she opened herself to Frederick II. After that, Orlov reported to Empress Catherine II, she "was in France, spoke with the ministers, making little known about herself."

If we compare the versions that have come down to us that the impostor put forward, then her biography looked like this. In infancy, the "daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna" was taken first to France, to the city of Lyon, and then to the Duchy of Holstein, to the city of Kiel. In 1761, she again ended up in St. Petersburg, but Peter III, having ascended the throne and fearing his rival, sent her to Siberia (or Persia). It was then that she learned about her origin, but, fearing to return to Russia, she began to wander around Europe in order to achieve recognition of her rights.

The first real traces of the stranger are found in Berlin, from where she arrived in Paris through Ghent and London in 1772. Here she called herself Ali Emete, Princess of Vladimir from the Caucasus (in some letters she still calls herself “the owner of Azov, the only heiress of the very ancient Voldomir family”), and claimed that she was extremely rich, as she owns “Persian treasures”. The lady was accompanied by a certain Baron Shenk, probably her lover, a man with an extremely dubious reputation, a swindling beast, as it turned out later, who used "Ali Emete" as a tool "for various deceptions." Soon, a circle of several more similar swindlers and cheaters formed around the mysterious lady.

In Paris, "Princess Vladimirskaya" lived in grand style, made acquaintance with many influential and not very influential people, among whom, in particular, was a Polish emigrant, the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Mikhail Oginsky, who was looking for an ally in the person of France in restoring independence divided and absorbed by the neighboring powers of Poland.

But before the start of the "Polish intrigue" with an impostor in the title role, it was still far away. “We can affirmatively say that Oginsky neither at that time nor after did not encourage her to be called the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna,” writes Count V.N. Panin.

The turbulent life of the “Princess Vladimirskaya” in Paris ended with her completely entangled in debt and was forced to flee to Frankfurt am Main, where, however, she was immediately imprisoned. She was rescued by Count F. Limburgsky, who fell head over heels in love with the adventurer and seriously wanted to marry her. Taking advantage of his cordial patronage, she lived for about a year and a half in his county of Oberstein.

In December 1773, for the first time, a rumor spread that under the name of "Princess of Vladimir" there was a direct heir to the Russian throne - Princess Elizaveta Alekseevna Tarakanova, daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna and her favorite Count Razumovsky, the fruit of their legal, albeit secret, marriage. It is likely that the root cause that forced the impostor to take on the name of "Princess Tarakanova" was an elementary need for funds that accompanied her all her life, and all her life she was in debt, like in silks. The Count of Limburg, despite his love for the adventurer, did not indulge her with money, but he had one string on which he could play deftly: the fact is that the count had claims to Holstein (Schleswig-Holstein) - "the birthplace of the Russian emperors", a small duchy whose name so often appears on the pages of Russian history of the 18th century...

Apparently, the Count of Limburg, in principle, had nothing against such a transformation of his mistress, although he warned her against rash actions. But near the “Princess Tarakanova” someone called “the Mosbach stranger” had already appeared, and who, upon closer examination, turned out to be a poor and humble Polish emigrant gentry, Mikhail Domansky, associated with the so-called General Confederation. This meeting for Elizabeth turned out to be fateful and fatal ...

But first, a few words about her new patrons.

In 1768, the King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, signed the Warsaw Treaty of Eternal Friendship with Russia. Many provisions of the treaty caused displeasure of the Polish magnates. Using the support of Austria and France, on February 16 (29), 1768, the opponents of the king created a confederation in the city of Bar (Podolia) and declared Stanislav Poniatowski deposed. The king and the Senate of the Commonwealth called on Russian troops for help. The Confederates turned to Turkey for help, but the sultan refused them and sent decrees to the Crimean Khan and the Moldavian ruler forbidding them to interfere in Polish affairs.

A.V. played a decisive role in the defeat of the Confederates. Suvorov. After the defeat, the leaders of the Bar Confederation fled in August 1772 to Germany and France, where they founded the General Confederation. Nearly 10,000 captured Confederates were sent to the hinterland of Russia. About 7 thousand confederates, including their leaders - Count Pototsky and A. Pulavsky, were in Kazan.

Captured Confederate leaders enjoyed great privileges. A. Puławski, for example, was given a palace to live in. After the start of the Pugachev uprising, Catherine II promised the confederates to release them if they took part in the fight against the rebels. Many noble Confederate gentry voluntarily took the side of the government.

Ordinary Confederates are another matter. They did not see anything good either from their superiors or from the Russian government and willingly joined the ranks of the Pugachev army. This once again emphasizes the deeply social nature of the Pugachev movement. It is significant that the Polish Confederate General S.K. Stanislavsky, having switched to the Russian service, brutally cracked down on Confederate soldiers who, in one form or another, showed sympathy for the Pugachev rebels.

In the winter of 1773/74, while "Princess Elizabeth" was traveling through Europe, the émigré leaders of the General Confederation began to develop delusional plans for an invasion of Russia, seeking to exploit Russia's ongoing war with Turkey. The Confederate plan called for a combined attack on Russia from three or four sides. One of the main roles, according to their calculations, was to be played by Pugachev. The Confederates planned to establish contact with him through A. Pulavsky, who for some time was in Pugachev's camp. But Pugachev and the Pugachevites, like all truly Russian people, had great hostility and suspicion towards any foreigners, and Pulavsky, having achieved nothing, lagged behind the Pugachevites. There was no real ground under the plans of the Confederates - the emigrants had neither the strength, nor the means, nor significant international support. But there was a "legitimate heir to the Russian throne" ...

In turn, the impostor, when news of the Pugachev uprising began to come to Europe, developed a frenzied activity. In 1774, she began to spread rumors that Pugachev was her own brother and was acting in concert with her. Then she began to say that it was her paternal brother, “Prince Razumovsky”, who took the name of the Don Cossack Pugachev and raised an uprising to erect a legitimate pretender to the Russian throne. But the closer the Russian throne seemed to her, the more insistently she separated herself from her kinship with Pugachev. In 1775, she already declared to the English envoy in Naples that Pugachev was not her brother, but a Don Cossack, who had received a “brilliant European education” through the care of her mother, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

“It is difficult to state with certainty that there are direct connections between Elizabeth II and her supporters with the plans of the fugitive leaders of the Confederates. But the fact that the activities of those and others not only coincided in time, but also echoed - no doubt, ”A.S. Mylnikov, author of the book "The Temptation of a Miracle: "The Russian Prince", His Prototypes and Pretender Doubles".

Of course, Polish emigrant circles had a decisive influence on the transformation of the international adventurer into an impostor "Princess Tarakanova." It is possible that the very idea of ​​calling herself the daughter of Empress Elizabeth was given to her by Mikhail Domansky, who back in 1769 heard from some Russian officer that Elizaveta Petrovna had a daughter from a secret marriage with Razumovsky.

The proximity of Mikhail Domansky with the impostor soon grew into something more. In any case, he became the most devoted person to her. And at the beginning of 1774, a larger figure appeared near “Princess Tarakanova” - Prince Karl Radziwill, Marshal of the General Confederation, governor of Vilna, a person very popular among the gentry.

The impostor's correspondence with Radziwill began as early as 1773. It is characteristic that in one of his letters Radziwill calls her "called by Providence to save Poland." And the first meeting of "Princess Tarakanova" with Radziwill took place in Venice, in the house of the French consul. The impostor arrived in Venice at the end of May 1774 under the name of Countess Pinnenberg. She was surrounded by a small retinue, including Domansky, Colonel Baron Knorr, who became the "marshal" of her "court", the English adventurer Montagu and others.

Radziwill rather transparently hinted to the impostor that she could be very useful for the interests of the Confederates. Since she, as “the legitimate daughter of the late Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna,” has an inalienable right to the Russian crown, the Confederates are ready to help her, and in return, having become the Russian Empress, “Elizabeth II” will have to return the Commonwealth to Belarus and force Prussia and Austria to restore Poland within 1772

The action plan developed by Polish emigrants with the participation of French volunteers was as follows: the impostor with Radziwill and a group of Polish and French volunteers went to Constantinople, where, under the banner of "Princess Tarakanova", a Polish-French volunteer corps was created, at the head of which the "princess" arrived at the theater hostilities of the Russian-Turkish war and refers to the Russian army as "the rightful heir to the throne" ...

Brad, of course. But playing this nonsense seized the impostor like a small child.

She sent letters to different countries, in which she assured that she had many adherents in Russia, and so on. She again began to lead her usual luxurious and cheerful life, and her house in Venice quickly gained a reputation for being "jolly". As a result - again debts, lack of funds, desperate attempts to get money.

In June 1774, the ship with the impostor, Radziwill and volunteers on board finally set off for Constantinople, but due to bad weather and diplomatic complications, the entire crew was stuck in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) for a long time, settling in the house of the French consul.

In Dubrovnik, the impostor continued to lead a “merry life” and at the same time play the role of a “Russian heiress,” whom she seemed to be very fond of.

Her "careless" behavior repeatedly led Radziwill to despair.

The first quarrels began.

Meanwhile, the impostor had a plan to establish contact with the command of the Russian squadron, located off the coast of Italy. “I will try,” she wrote on July 10, 1774, to one of her correspondents, “to take possession of the fleet located in Livorno; it's not very far from here. I need to announce who I am, because they have already tried to spread the rumor about my death ... I will publish manifestos, distribute them throughout Europe, and the Porte will openly announce them to the public.

My friends are already in Constantinople, they are doing what they need.”

While in Dubrovnik, the impostor explained her rights to the Russian throne as follows: “I was born in 1753 and lived with my mother until the age of nine.

When she died, her nephew, Prince Holstein-Gottorp, assumed control of the Russian Empire and, according to my mother's will, was proclaimed emperor under the name of Peter III. I was only supposed to take the throne upon reaching the age of majority and put on the Russian crown, which Peter put on, without having the right to do so. But six months after the death of my mother, the wife of the emperor Catherine deposed her husband, declared herself empress and was crowned in Moscow with the ancient crown of the kings of Moscow and all Russia, which belongs to me.

The appearance of a new impostor seriously alarmed Catherine II. After all, the impostor did not just pretend to be the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna, but also claimed the rights to the Russian throne. “The appearance of another “legitimate” heir to the Russian throne once again reminded the world of the usurpation of the throne by Catherine and ultimately undermined the prestige of Northern Semiramis in the West,” writes N. Pavlenko.

Catherine II took vigorous measures to neutralize the impostor. She ordered Count A.G. Orlov, who was with the Russian squadron in the Mediterranean Sea, to arrest the princess - "to catch the name that has riveted upon itself at all costs" - and transport her to Russia. “If possible,” the Empress wrote to Orlov, “lure her to a place where you would be smart to put her on our ship and send her here behind guard.” In the event of the failure of this venture, Catherine even allowed Orlov to bombard Dubrovnik from ship guns: first it was necessary to demand that the city authorities extradite the “creature”, and if they refuse, “then I allow you to use threats, and if punishment is necessary, that several bombs should be thrown into the city can".

Developing a plan to arrest the impostor, Ekaterina and Orlov were preoccupied with seizing the papers that were with her. In one of her letters to Orlov, the princess reported that she had copies of the original wills of Peter I, Catherine I and Elizabeth. And in August 1774, the impostor bluntly told Orlov that she was going to publish in European newspapers the named documents, which, in particular the will of Elizabeth Petrovna, allegedly confirm her rights to the Russian throne. According to the historian V.P. Kozlov, these papers were the fruit of the collective creativity of the Polish emigration, who advocated the restoration of a divided Poland, “but it is possible that, to some extent, both the Holstein court and someone in Russia who were interested in building on Russian throne of representatives of this dynasty.

Meanwhile, the discord in the camp of the impostor became more and more serious. News came to Dubrovnik that the Turkish army had been defeated and Turkey was seeking peace with Russia. What kind of "volunteer corps" is there! France, an unfaithful ally of the Confederates, volunteered to mediate the Russo-Turkish peace negotiations. In addition, there was no money: Italian bankers refused financial assistance to the impostor.

The enraged "princess" wrote a letter to the Turkish Sultan, demanding that he continue the war, but Radziwill did not even begin to send this letter. He already realized that he was in the stupidest position by contacting this lady. Opponents of Radziwill in the leadership of the General Confederation raised their heads, and a hail of reproaches rained down on him. In addition, the Polish and French volunteers who were with him, irritated by the dissolute impostor and aimless sitting in Dubrovnik, corresponded with Paris and Venice and received from their friends "the most unsatisfactory news" about the impostor. And the French resident in Venice "dared to speak of her in a very strange way" ...

In short, the shares of "Princess Tarakanova" fell to zero, and when the news came of the conclusion of the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace between Russia and Turkey, Radziwill began to think only about how to save his own face.

The confederation quarreled with Radziwill, Radziwill - with the "princess". The imposter tried desperately to find ground under her feet. Her former idea - to master the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean - did not give her rest. Through the Englishman Montagu, she sends a personal letter to Count A. Orlov. Attached to the letter was a manifesto on behalf of “Elizabeth II, Princess of Russia by the grace of God” and a copy of the forged “Will of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna”, in which Elizabeth allegedly bequeathed the rights to the Russian throne to her daughter. In a letter to Orlov, the impostor wrote that the brilliant successes of the popular uprising, started by her brother, "now called Pugachev," encourage her, as the legitimate heir to the Russian throne, to present her rights. She is assisted in this by the Turkish Sultan and many monarchs of Europe. She has many followers in Russia. In conclusion, the "princess" promised Orlov her patronage, the greatest honors and "most tender gratitude."

Realizing that the impostor was looking for contact with him, Orlov sent his emissary to Dubrovnik. In the meantime, in October 1774, the final break between the “princess” and Radziwill took place. Taking the remnants of his "volunteers", the prince left for Venice in early November. Only the faithful Domansky, Jan Chernomsky and the former Jesuit Ganetsky remained with the impostor. The "princess" went to Naples, and from there to Rome, where Ganetsky had some connections. There, with the help of Ganetsky, she managed to meet some people from the papal entourage and start a luxurious life again. The "heir to the Russian throne" became interested in the influential Cardinal Albani. But here, unfortunately. Pope Clement XIV died and everyone was not up to the "princess" ...

And Count Orlov already had in his hands the order of Empress Catherine "to seize the name that had riveted upon itself at all costs." His adjutant I. Khristinek, sent to Rome, in January 1775 found the impostor and entered into negotiations with her, calling himself a lieutenant of the Russian fleet. He hinted that Count Orlov had a "very active interest" in the fate of "the daughter of the Empress Elizabeth."

The meeting between Orlov and the "princess" took place in February 1775 in Pisa, where the impostor arrived under the name of Countess Silinskaya (Zelinsky). Orlov rented a house for her in Pisa in advance. Here Orlov first saw the famous adventurer.

She was of medium height, lean, stately, with black hair, brown eyes, slightly squinting, and aquiline nose. In her appearance, she resembled an Italian. The Changeling was fluent in French and German, could speak English and Italian, but did not know Russian at all, was poorly versed in Russian history, considered the sister of her "mother" Empress Anna Ioannovna (she confused with Anna Petrovna, mother of Peter III), and called her “father” the Ukrainian hetman (in fact, the brother of the favorite, Kirill Razumovsky, was the hetman).

Since then, their meetings have become daily. Orlov behaved with the "princess" very obligingly, he always appeared to her in dress uniform, with a sash over his shoulder. The two of them went on country walks, attended the opera, appeared in public places. Soon rumors spread around the city that the Russian count and the beautiful princess were lovers.

It is usually said that Orlov pretended to be in love with the “princess”, but how far his pretense extended and where the line between falsehood and true feeling ended, and whether this was a true feeling, we do not know. Orlov offered her a hand, a heart and his services, "everywhere, wherever she demanded them", swore to elevate her to the Russian throne. The impostor was fascinated by Orlov, but the marriage proposal caused her hesitation. Maybe she felt something with her female intuition? But on the whole, the loving and ambitious adventuress had no reason not to believe in the sincerity of the assurances of her new admirer. On February 21, 1775, after breakfast at the English consul, Orlov invited the impostor to get acquainted with the Russian ships stationed on the Livorno roadstead. The squadron greeted Princess Elizabeth II with royal salutes, music and shouts of "Hurrah!". The impostor boarded the flagship Three Hierarchs. In the cabin of Admiral Greig, the retinue of the impostor and the command of the squadron raised goblets filled with wine to Elizabeth's health. "Princess" was happy as never before.

She was invited on deck to admire the maneuvers of the squadron. Captured by the spectacle of "her" fleet, the impostor did not even notice how Orlov and Greig disappeared somewhere...

- By the nominal order of Her Majesty Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, reigning in Russia, you are under arrest!

The impostor looked in amazement: an unfamiliar guards captain stood in front of her, and she was surrounded by a stern guard ... The shock was so strong that Elizabeth lost consciousness.

She came to her senses only in a locked cabin, which was guarded by sentries.

Waves hit the side of the ship: in full sail, he went to Russia.

Together with Elizabeth, Domansky, Charnomsky, a maid and a valet were captured. In May 1775, the captive was taken to Kronstadt. From here she was transported to St. Petersburg and on May 26 was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. To investigate the case of the impostor, a special commission was created, headed by Prince A.M. Golitsyn. The main goal of the commission was to find out who led the impostor intrigue - "who is the head of this comedy."

The commission listened to the testimony of the impostor: her name is Elizabeth, she is 23 years old, where she was born - does not know who her father and mother are - also does not know. Until the age of nine, she lived in the capital of Holstein, Kiel, and then, accompanied by a woman and three men, she was transported through Livonia and St. Petersburg to Persia, where she lived for 15 months. The people assigned to her explained to her that all these movements of hers were made at the behest of Emperor Peter III.

Some time later, a certain "Tatar" appeared to Elizabeth and suggested that she run away. For four days she walked with him, until the headman of some village took pity on the fugitives and gave them a horse. They arrived on it in Baghdad, where they were sheltered by the rich Persian Gamet.

Once, the “Persian Prince Gali” came to Gamet and took Elizabeth to Isfahan, where he “revered her very well as a noble person and repeatedly told her that she was the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna, and the father was called differently, who Razumovsky, and who - different." Elizabeth lived in Isfahan until 1769.

Then troubled times came in Persia and its patron was forced to flee. She agreed to go with him to Europe. Their path lay through Russia, and Elizabeth was forced to change into a man's dress on the way so that no one would know about her origin. Through St. Petersburg and Riga, the travelers reached Koenigsberg, and from there proceeded to Berlin and London. From London, "prince" Gali returned to Persia, leaving the impostor "precious stones, gold in bullion and cash a great number."

After living in London for five months, Elizabeth moved to Paris, where she lived under the name of a Persian princess, and then wished to return to Holstein in order to firmly settle there. The duke of Holstein found out about her appearance in Kiel and invited Elizabeth to become his wife, but she, "not knowing anything truly about her breed, wanted to be informed about it in advance." To this end, she was going to go to Russia, but instead ended up in Venice, where she met Prince Radziwill ...

“With the natural speed of her mind, with extensive knowledge in some areas, and finally, with an attractive and at the same time imperious appearance, it is not surprising that she aroused trust and reverence in people for herself,” Golitsyn wrote to the Empress.

The “princess” endured the conclusion extremely hard, she was constantly seized by bouts of hysteria. From her cell, the impostor wrote desperate letters to the Empress and Prince Golitsyn. “I am exhausted,” she cried tearfully, asked Catherine for a personal meeting, asked for mercy, vowed to spend the rest of her life in a monastery ...

But her letters did not move anyone. In addition, Elizabeth put forward such bizarre versions of her life in them that Golitsyn, reading them, simply clutched his head. So, Elizabeth claimed that she was born in the mountains of the Caucasus, she was a Circassian by birth, and was brought up in Persia. She left Persia, intending with the help of Russia to acquire a strip of land along the Terek, invite French and German settlers there and establish a small border state in the Caucasus, which would serve for Russia as "a link with the East and a bulwark against the wild mountaineers." In this venture, she was allegedly assisted by the Count of Limburg.

At the next interrogation, Golitsyn began to exhort the impostor to abandon the crazy versions and finally tell who she was and where she came from.

“It can easily be that I was born in Circassia,” the “princess” stood her ground.

- I have clear evidence that you are the daughter of a Prague innkeeper, which I advise you to confess! Golitsyn insisted.

– I have never been to Prague! - said the consumptive "princess". - And I'm ready to scratch out the eyes of anyone who dares to attribute such an origin to me!

“Shamelessly persists in lies,” the secretary noted in the protocol of interrogation.

“She is an insidious, deceitful, shameless, evil and shameless person,” Golitsyn repeated. The methods of his investigation, not extending to torture, nevertheless were aimed at breaking the prisoner morally. She was restricted in food, clothing, and other daily necessities. All this could not but affect the health of Elizabeth. From the second half of October, it began to noticeably weaken. Already on October 26, 1775, Golitsyn informed the Empress that the prisoner "has been in weakness for a long time, now she has come into such a poor state of health that the doctor who uses her despairs of her cure and says that she, of course, will not live long."

In November, the impostor was relieved of her burden by her son. His successors were Prosecutor General Prince A.A. Vyazemsky and the wife of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Looking ahead, we say that this illegitimate son of Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky and "Princess Tarakanova", was allegedly later known as Alexander Alekseevich Chesmensky. He served in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment and died at a young age.

In early December, it became clear that the impostor was dying. At her request, she was confessed by an Orthodox priest. The "princess" was dying hard, the agony lasted almost two days. On December 4, Elizabeth passed away.

The impostor, who died of transient consumption, was secretly buried on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the Alekseevsky ravelin, taking the secret of her origin to the grave.

Arrested along with the "princess" her entourage - Domansky, Charnomsky, a servant and a valet - after interrogations were sent abroad. Each of them was given fifty rubles for the journey, and all of them were forbidden to come to Russia under pain of death.

Subsequently, a rumor appeared that Princess Tarakanova died on September 10, 1777 during a flood in St. Petersburg. This legend inspired G. Flavitsky to create the painting "Princess Tarakanova", which has become a classic. However, the image of the mysterious prisoner brought to life a whole sea of ​​other legends... In 1785, by order of Empress Catherine II, an elderly woman was delivered to the Moscow Ivanovo Monastery - of medium height, thin, with traces of rare beauty on her face. An unknown person was tonsured a nun under the name of Dosifei. No one knew her real name or her origins. It was only evident that she was of "noble origin, high education." They said that this is Princess Augusta Tarakanova, the daughter from the secret marriage of Empress Elizabeth with Count Alexei Grigoryevich Razumovsky ...

According to legend, she was born a year or a year and a half after the wedding of Elizabeth with Razumovsky. For some reason, the “princess” called herself Matveevna by her patronymic. Until 1785, this Augusta Matveevna Tarakanova, according to her, lived abroad.

When and how she got there is unknown. It is likely that it could; occur after the death of Elizabeth (she died on December 25, 1761).

The idea that somewhere abroad lives the “genuine” (as opposed to the “inauthentic” - impostor Elizaveta Tarakanova) daughter of Elizaveta Petrovna; disturbed Catherine II no less than other worries with Ivan Antonovich, the Braunschweig family, Peter III and a crowd of impostors. The constant struggle with the annually appearing pretenders to the throne, courtiers, intrigues and conspiracies, probably, in the end led the empress to the idea that "Princess Tarakanova" should be returned to Russia and isolated.

How the operation to deliver the princess to Russia was carried out is known only from the words of the nun Dosifei herself. In a somewhat allegorical form, speaking of herself in the third person, she subsequently told this story to G.I. Golovina: “It was a long time ago. There was one girl, the daughter of very, very noble parents. She was brought up far beyond the sea, in the warm side, received a brilliant education, lived in luxury and honor, surrounded by a large staff of servants. Once she had guests, and among them was a Russian general very famous at that time. This general offered to ride in a boat along the seaside. We went with music, with songs, and as soon as we went to sea, a Russian ship stood ready there. The general says to her: would you like to see the structure of the ship? She agreed, entered the ship, and as soon as she entered, she was taken by force to the cabin, locked up and put on guards. This was in 1785."

Further, according to legend, the captured princess was brought to St. Petersburg and presented to the empress. Catherine talked with her for a long time, talked about Pugachev, about the impostor Tarakanova - Princess Vladimirskaya, about state upheavals that are possible if "enemies of the existing order" use her name, and, finally, announced that in the name of tranquility in the country, "Princess Tarakanova "should retire from the world and live in a monastery in solitude," so as not to become an instrument in the hands of ambitious people. The Ivanovo Monastery in Moscow was chosen as the place of detention, which, by decree of Empress Elizabeth of June 20, 1761, served as a place "for the care of widows and orphans of noble and distinguished people."

August was sent to Moscow. Catherine II ordered the abbess of the monastery "to receive and keep the newcomer in special secrecy, to tonsure and not allow anyone to see her." Princess Tarakanova was tonsured under the name of Dosifei and in the first years of her confinement in the monastery was kept in great secret. Except for the abbess, confessor and cell attendant, no one had the right to enter her. The windows of the cell where Dosithea lived were constantly drawn with curtains. A portrait of Empress Elizabeth hung on the wall of the cell until the very last day of Dosithea's life.

The story of Augusta-Dosifei practically repeats the story of Elizaveta Tarakanova in its main features. It seems that Augusta once “heard a ringing” somewhere, but clearly did not know “where he was”, and so that she would not ring at all corners, she was hidden in a monastery. In general, the fate of Dosifei does not differ from the fate of other similar "princesses of the Tarakanovs", sent as "insane" to various monasteries in Russia.

Dosifeya did not participate in the common services and meals of the sisters of the convent, and only sometimes a service was held especially for her in the small gate church of Our Lady of Kazan. During the service, the doors of the church were locked.

The moral state of Dosifei was very difficult: she was constantly afraid of something, at any rustle or knock she shuddered, turned pale and "trembled all over."

After the death of Empress Catherine II, Dosithea's position improved somewhat. Visitors began to be allowed to visit her without hindrance; Metropolitan Platon, a number of high-ranking officials, and allegedly even one of the members of the imperial family visited Dosithea.

Dosithea died in 1808 at the age of 64, after a twenty-five-year imprisonment, and was buried in Moscow's Novospassky Monastery. A portrait of the nun Dosithea was kept for a long time in this monastery, on the reverse side of which someone made an inscription: “Princess Augusta Tarakanova, in the monastery of Dosithea, tonsured in the Moscow Ivanovo Monastery, where she died for many years of her righteous life, buried in the Novospassky Monastery.”

During the reconstruction of the Novospassky Monastery in 1996, the burial place of the nun Dosifei was opened, and her remains were studied by employees of the Republican Center for Forensic Medical Examination and the well-known forensic professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences V.N. Zvyagin.

Studies have shown that, firstly, the stories about the beauty, or "former beauty", of the alleged Princess Augusta Tarakanova are without any foundation: she could not be called a beauty. Dosifea was a disabled child: hunchbacked after an injury suffered in childhood, in addition, chubby and short in stature. Along her front teeth were horizontal grooves - a consequence of stress, starvation or injury.

So, the beautiful legend is over? Doctor of Historical Sciences A.K. Stanyukovich, head of the excavations at the Novospassky Monastery, believes that it is too early to put an end to it: Dosifei’s tombstone could have been displaced, for example, during the looting of the monastery by the French in 1812 and ended up over the grave of some other old woman. In addition, the skull of Dosithea is so poorly preserved that it was simply impossible to identify it with absolute certainty. In other words, in the case of "Princess Augusta Tarakanova" there remains some uncertainty, leaving room for fiction ...

Princess Tarakanova... The mention of this name by most readers is probably associated with the beautiful painting by Flavitsky, which is on display at the Tretyakov Gallery. A solitary cell in the Peter and Paul Fortress... The icy torrents of the St. Petersburg flood lash through the bars of the window. The unfortunate woman climbed onto the prison bed, which is about to disappear under the water, and pressed herself against the wall in despair. Her luxurious dress contrasts sharply with the wretched decoration of the casemate. Two rats are looking for salvation at the feet of the prisoner. Her head is thrown back, her hair is loose, her arms hang helplessly along her body.

By the way, about the hands... If you come closer to the picture and look closely, you will find an amazing thing: the princess has four of them. Two that hang down and two more folded across the chest. They are visible under the top layer of paint. This is how the artist first wrote them, but then he found a position more in line with the hopeless mood of the canvas and rewrote the hands again.

The painting at one time made a lot of noise, was unusually popular and traveled from exhibition to exhibition. Once on the road, the canvas was not protected from the rain, and the first pair of hands, hidden for the time being by the top layer of paint, clearly stood out. The canvas was repeatedly restored, but to no avail: hands treacherously appear again and again.

However, our story is not at all about this feature of the picture, but about a completely different mistake of the artist - historical. And for starters, a very characteristic fact: in the catalog of the academic exhibition of 1864, where the painting was exhibited for the first time, by order of Emperor Alexander II, they indicated: "The plot of this painting is borrowed from a novel that has no historical truth."

So who did Flavitsky depict in his painting? An impostor who "riveted a name on herself" or, in modern terms, pretended to be Princess Tarakanova. Who this princess is, we will tell at the end, but for now - about the impostor.

The origin of this legendary person is very vague. It is possible that she was originally from Germany. Some historians call her the daughter of a Prague innkeeper, others - a Nuremberg baker, and still others claim that she was the fruit of the love of the Persian Shah and his Georgian concubine. Some knew her as Mademoiselle Franck, others as Madame Tremouille. Either she is called Alina, or she is named Shel. Now she appears as the Countess Silinskaya, then the Princess of Azov. The places of residence are changing just as rapidly: Kiel and Berlin, Ghent and London ... And everywhere there are rich admirers who do not spare money for the charming charmer. Many of the admirers soon found themselves not only without their savings, but also in debtor's prisons, and the clever swindler once again changed her name, pedigree, title and place of residence.

The first mention of the mysterious princess (without mentioning her name) is found on the pages of the book of the French diplomat and writer Jean Henri de Caster "The Life of Catherine II, Empress of Russia" (1797). Naturally, according to an old Russian habit, the book was banned, although it was read by all educated Russian contemporaries. In the absence of his own historical books, and because the forbidden fruit is sweet, the book of de Caster, who himself had never been to Russia and only retold what he had received from the second and even third hands, was popular. How could a layman know about the secret marriage and illegitimate children of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna? From the then "samizdat". From such an essay, where the truth was bizarrely mixed with half-truths and lies, people learned about the fruit of the love of Empress Elizabeth and her favorite Alexei Razumovsky.

The former secretary of the Saxon embassy at the court of Catherine II, Georg Adolf von Gelbig, in his sensational book "Russian Chosen from the Time of Peter I (1680) to Paul I (1800)" declared the mysterious person to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth and her other favorite, Ivan Shuvalov. Perhaps he was the first to add to the title of princess the surname Tarakanov, which she never bore. The meek princess lived quietly in Italy and did not dream of the throne at all, but only suffered from a lack of funds, but the treacherous Russian officers paid her debts in order to lure the girl into a trap. The barbarians sent the princess to Russia, where the poor thing died in the Shlisselburg prison. The unfortunate father did not dare to open up to his daughter.

In 1859, the Moscow journal "Russian conversation" published excerpts from the letters of the Italian abbot Roccatani (compiled in the 20s of the XIX century) about the stay in Rome in early 1775 of the "unknown Princess Elizabeth", who called herself the daughter of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and seeking support from the Polish ambassador and the papal curia. At the end of his message, the abbot, personally acquainted with this lady, reported that she had left for Livorno, where the Russian navy was anchored.

The exact date of birth of "Princess Elizabeth", who knew neither Russian nor Polish, but spoke German well and preferred to write in French, is unknown. During the investigation in 1775, she herself claimed that she was 23 years old. It turns out that she was born in 1752. “However, this date is not confirmed by anything, and it seems that, indicating her age, the prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress was cunning,” notes the writer and historian Igor Kurukin. reported that she was born in 1745, which means that she was then 28 years old, and by the time the investigation began, all thirty.<...>She was between 20 and 30 years old.

Major General Alexei Ivanovich Tarakanov really existed, but could he take the child of the Empress to raise and give him his name? He was sent to Kizlyar, where he stayed until November 1742, after which he served in Moscow, then received a leave of absence for two years, and from the 50s. 18th century was not in active service.

The "wanderer", or "adventurer", as Catherine II certified her in letters to the investigator Golitsyn, had nothing to do with the real "Princess Elizabeth". I. Kurukin, the author of the biography of "Princess Tarakanova", concludes: "The captive of the Peter and Paul Fortress eclipsed with her person the one about whom the authorities and researchers, perhaps, had more reason to worry: the mysterious nun Dosifei, the alleged daughter of Empress Elizabeth and Alexei Razumovsky, who was born around 1746, lived in honorable isolation in the Moscow Ivanovsky Monastery and was buried in the family tomb of the Romanov boyars in the Novospassky Monastery.

In connection with such a turbulent biography of the "princess" unintentional distortions of reality are quite acceptable. For the simple reason that it is difficult to understand what is true in her biography and what is fiction. Her contemporaries give mutually exclusive facts, and even in the current literature one can find a wide variety of descriptions of her adventurous life. What novels have not been written about her, what films have not been made! .. Because this beautiful mysterious woman provided very rich food for fantasy.

So who was she anyway? If we compare all the data that have come down to us, then her biography looked like this. In infancy, she was taken first to France in Lyon, and then to the Duchy of Holstein, in Kiel. In 1761, she again ended up in St. Petersburg, but Peter III, having ascended the throne and fearing his rival, sent her to Siberia (or Persia). It was then that she learned about her supposedly high origin, but, fearing to return to Russia, she began to wander around Europe in order to achieve recognition of her rights.

The first real traces of the stranger are found in Berlin, from where she arrived in Paris through Ghent and London in 1772. Where exactly this charming adventuress visited before 1772 is unknown. She told Alexei Orlov that she had gone from Russia through Riga and Koenigsberg to Berlin, where she opened herself to Frederick II. After that, Orlov reported to Empress Catherine II, she "was in France, spoke with the ministers, making little known about herself."

In Paris, she called herself Ali Emete, Princess of Vladimir from the Caucasus (in some letters she still refers to herself as "the owner of Azov, the only heiress of the very ancient Voldomir family"), and claimed that she was extremely rich, as she owns "Persian treasures" - one by one According to legend, she was brought up by her uncle in Persia, and when she came of age, she moved to Europe. Her future plans include the search for the Russian inheritance. And again, a charming person who is fluent in many European languages, draws well and plays the harp, is surrounded by numerous fans. They willingly pay for her stay in Paris for two years, and the false Elizabeth knows no refusal of anything.

The turbulent life of the "princess of Vladimir" in Paris ended with her completely entangled in debt and was forced to flee to Frankfurt am Main, where, however, she was immediately imprisoned. She was rescued by Count F. Limburgsky, who fell head over heels in love with the adventurer and seriously wanted to marry her. Taking advantage of his cordial patronage, she lived for about a year and a half in his county of Oberstein.

In 1773, for the first time, a rumor spread that under the name of "Princess of Vladimir" was hiding the direct heir to the Russian throne - Princess Elizaveta Alekseevna Tarakanova, daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna and her favorite Count Razumovsky, the fruit of their legal, albeit secret, marriage. It is likely that the root cause that forced the impostor to take on the name of "Princess Tarakanova" was the elementary need for funds that accompanied her all her life.

Polish emigrant circles had a decisive influence on the transformation of the international adventurer into an impostor "Princess Tarakanova". It is possible that the very idea of ​​calling herself the daughter of Empress Elizabeth was given to her by the Polish gentry emigrant Mikhail Domansky, who back in 1769 heard from some Russian officer that Elizabeth Petrovna had a daughter from a secret marriage with Razumovsky.

The proximity of Domansky with the impostor soon grew into something more, in any case, he became the most devoted person to her. And at the beginning of 1774, a larger figure appeared near "Princess Tarakanova" - Prince Karl Radziwill, Marshal of the General Confederation, governor of Vilensky, a person very popular among the gentry, a man more than wealthy and ambitious. It was after meeting with him that she declared herself the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and to the heap - the sister of Emelyan Pugachev.

Correspondence between the "princess" and Radziwill began as early as 1773. It is characteristic that in one of his letters Radziwill calls her "called by Providence to save Poland." And the first meeting of "Princess Tarakanova" with Radziwill took place in Venice, where the impostor arrived in 1774 under the name of Countess Pinnenberg. She was surrounded by a small retinue, including Domansky, Colonel Baron Knorr, who became the "marshal" of her "court", the English adventurer Montague and others.

Radziwill rather transparently hinted to the impostor that she could be very useful for the interests of the Confederates. Because she, as "the legitimate daughter of the late Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna" has an inalienable right to the Russian crown, then the Confederates are ready to help her, and in return, becoming the Russian Empress, "Elizabeth II" will have to return the Commonwealth to Belarus and force Prussia and Austria to restore Poland within 1772

The plan developed by Polish emigrants with the participation of French volunteers was as follows: the impostor with Radziwill and a group of Polish and French volunteers went to Constantinople, where, under the banner of "Princess Tarakanova", a Polish-French volunteer corps was created, at the head of which the "princess" arrived at the theater of military actions of the Russian-Turkish war and refers to the Russian army as "the rightful heir to the throne" ...

Brad, of course. But playing this nonsense seized the impostor like a small child. She sent letters to different countries, in which she assured that she had many adherents in Russia, and so on. She again began to lead her usual luxurious and cheerful life. As a result, again debts, lack of funds, desperate attempts to get money.

And as before, the newly-appeared pretender to the Russian throne is looking for support and help in the implementation of her plans from Radziwill, but she soon becomes convinced that he is only capable of making beautiful speeches in front of like-minded people. And the "All-Russian Princess" decides to act independently. She then addresses a lengthy message and seeks a meeting with the Sultan, then she tries to negotiate with the cardinal himself, then she develops a plan to establish contact with the command of the Russian squadron, located off the coast of Italy. “I will try,” she wrote on July 10, 1774, to one of her correspondents, “to take possession of the fleet located in Livorno ... I need to announce who I am, because they have already tried to spread the rumor about my death ... I will publish manifestos, distribute them Europe, and the Porte will openly announce them to the public.

The impostor explained her rights to the Russian throne as follows: “I was born in 1753 and lived with my mother until the age of nine. Peter III. I was supposed to ascend the throne only upon reaching the age of majority and put on the Russian crown, which Peter put on, without having the right to do so. But six months after the death of my mother, the wife of the emperor Catherine deposed her husband, declared herself empress and was crowned in Moscow to me belonging to the ancient crown of the tsars of Moscow and all Russia.

These actions and texts, of course, receive publicity in Russia and cannot leave Catherine II indifferent. Moreover, Catherine was seriously alarmed: after all, the impostor not only pretended to be the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna, but also claimed the rights to the Russian throne. The appearance of another "legitimate" heiress to the world once again reminded of Catherine's usurpation of the throne and ultimately undermined her prestige in the West.

And now Catherine, pretty frightened by Pugachev's just suppressed rebellion, takes vigorous measures to neutralize the impostor: she instructs Count Alexei Orlov to "grab the tramp" and put an end to her claims to the throne. "If it is possible," she wrote to Orlov, "lure her to a place where you would be smart enough to put her on our ship and send her here behind guard." In the event of the failure of this venture, Catherine even allowed Orlov to bombard Dubrovnik from ship guns, where the “princess” was at that time: first it was necessary to demand that the city authorities extradite the “creature”, and if they refuse, “then I allow you to use threats, but if the punishment is necessary, that you can throw several bombs into the city.

Developing a plan to arrest the impostor, Ekaterina and Orlov were preoccupied with seizing the papers that were with her. In one of her letters to Orlov, the princess reported that she had copies of the original wills of Peter I, Catherine I and Elizabeth. And in August 1774, the impostor bluntly told Orlov that she was going to publish in European newspapers the named documents, which, in particular the will of Elizabeth Petrovna, allegedly confirm her rights to the Russian throne.

Orlov embarks on a cunning plan: to become another admirer of the newly-minted Princess Tarakanova and offer her not only money, but also a hand.

It is generally accepted that Orlov pretended to be in love with the "princess", but how far did his pretense stretch and where did the line between falsehood and true feeling end, and was this true feeling - who knows? .. Orlov offered her his hand, heart and his services, "everywhere, wherever she would not demand them," and vowed to elevate her to the Russian throne. The Changeling was fascinated by him, but the proposal of the hand caused her hesitation. Maybe she felt something with her female intuition? But on the whole, the loving and ambitious adventuress had no reason not to believe in the sincerity of the assurances of her new admirer. On February 21, 1775, after breakfast at the English consul, Orlov invited the impostor to get acquainted with the Russian ships that were on the raid in Livorno. The squadron greeted the princess "Elizabeth II" with royal salute, music and shouts of "Hurrah!". The impostor boarded the flagship "Three Hierarchs". In the cabin of Admiral Greig, the retinue of the impostor and the command of the squadron raised goblets filled with wine to the health of "Elizabeth". "Princess" was happy as ever. She was invited on deck to admire the maneuvers of the squadron. Captured by the spectacle of "her" fleet, the impostor did not even notice how Orlov and Greig disappeared somewhere...

In general, "Princess Tarakanova" was arrested. According to one version - only herself, according to another - together with Orlov, - to divert eyes. According to one version - after the wedding, according to the second - instead of it.

In 1775, the captive was taken to Kronstadt, from where she was transported to St. Petersburg and on May 26 was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. To investigate the case of the impostor, a special commission was created, headed by Prince A.M. Golitsyn. The main goal of the commission was to find out who led the impostor intrigue - "who is the head of this comedy."

At first, she was given several rooms, fed from the commandant's kitchen, and even placed at the disposal of two maids and a personal doctor. Catherine was not happy with such a manifestation of humanism and demanded that Golitsyn complete the investigation as soon as possible. There were constant interrogations, the testimony from which became the basis of legends about the fate of "Princess Tarakanova." “With the natural quickness of her mind, with extensive knowledge in some areas, and finally, with an attractive and at the same time imperious appearance, it is not surprising that she aroused trust and reverence for herself in people,” Golitsyn wrote to the Empress.

The prisoner begged the field marshal for a personal meeting with Catherine, but achieved the opposite: she was placed in a single casemate on bread and water. It was this sad stage in the life of the impostor that Flavitsky captured in his painting "Princess Tarakanova". And he did it very realistically and convincingly.

So what historical mistake of the artist did we promise to talk about at the beginning of our article? Exclusively about the fact that the unfortunate woman could not die from the flood on September 10, 1777, during which part of the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress collapsed, and rumors circulated around the capital that the prisoners had drowned. For one simple reason: she died of consumption two years before this natural disaster. It happened on December 4, 1775. The prisoner was secretly buried on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, taking with her to the grave both the secret of her birth and her true name, without even revealing herself to a priest before her death.

No rituals were performed at her burial.

Now, as promised, let's talk about the "real" Princess Tarakanova.

In 1785, by order of Catherine II, an unknown woman was brought to the Moscow monastery. She was still not old, of medium height, thin, with traces of rare beauty preserved on her face. No one knew her real name or origin. It was only evident that she was of "noble origin, high education." They said that this is Princess Augusta Tarakanova, that she was born a year or a year and a half after the secret marriage of Empress Elizabeth with Count Alexei Grigoryevich Razumovsky.

For some reason, the "princess" called herself Matveevna by her patronymic. Until 1785, this Augusta Matveevna Tarakanova, according to her, lived abroad. When and how she got there is unknown. It is likely that this could have happened after the death of Elizabeth on December 25, 1761.

The idea that somewhere abroad lives the "genuine" (as opposed to the "inauthentic" - the impostor Elizaveta Tarakanova) daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna, worried Catherine II no less than other worries. The constant struggle with the annually appearing pretenders to the throne, courtiers, intrigues and conspiracies eventually led the empress to the idea that "Princess Tarakanova" should be returned to Russia and isolated.

How the operation to deliver the princess to Russia was carried out is known only from the words of the nun Dosifei herself. In a somewhat allegorical form, speaking of herself in the third person, she subsequently told this story to G.I. Golovina: “It was a long time ago. There was a girl, the daughter of very, very noble parents. She was brought up far beyond the sea, in a warm side, she received an excellent education, lived in luxury and honor, surrounded by a large staff of servants. Once she had guests, and among them - one Russian general, very famous at that time. This general offered to ride in a boat on the seaside. Let's go with music, with songs, and as soon as we went out to sea, a Russian ship stood ready. The general said to her: "Is it possible to see the device of the ship? She agreed, entered the ship, and as soon as she entered, she was taken by force to the cabin, locked up and put on guards. This was in 1785."

Further, according to legend, the captured princess was brought to St. Petersburg and presented to the empress. Catherine talked with her for a long time, talked about Pugachev, about the impostor Tarakanova - the aforementioned Princess of Vladimir, about state upheavals that are possible if "enemies of the existing order" use her name, and, finally, announced that in the name of peace in the country " Princess Tarakanova "should retire from the world and live in a monastery in solitude," so as not to become an instrument in the hands of ambitious people. The Ivanovo Monastery in Moscow was chosen as the place of detention, which, by the decree of Elizabeth of June 20, 1761, served as a place "for the charity of widows and orphans of noble and distinguished people."

Catherine II ordered the abbess to "receive and keep the newcomer in special secrecy, give her tonsure and not allow anyone to meet her." Princess Tarakanova was tonsured under the name of Dositheus and was kept a great secret during the first years of her confinement in the monastery. Except for the abbess, confessor and cell attendant, no one had the right to enter her. The windows of her cell were constantly covered with curtains. A portrait of Empress Elizabeth hung on the wall until the very last day of Dosithea's life.

The story of Augusta-Dosifei practically repeats the story of Elizaveta Tarakanova in its main features. It seems that the “fake” impostor once “heard the ringing” somewhere, but clearly did not know “where it is”, and so that the “real” impostor Augusta would not ring at all corners, she was hidden in the monastery.

Dosithea did not participate in the common services and meals of the sisters of the convent, and only sometimes a service was held specially for her in a small church at the gate. During the service, the doors of the church were locked.

The moral state of Dosifei was very difficult: she was constantly afraid of something, at any rustle or knock she shuddered, turned pale and "trembled all over."

After the death of Catherine II, Dosifei's position improved somewhat. Visitors began to be freely allowed to visit Dosifei, Metropolitan Platon, a number of high-ranking officials, and allegedly even one of the members of the imperial family visited Dosithea.

Dosifeya died on February 4, 1810 at the age of 64, after a quarter of a century of imprisonment, and was buried in the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow, in the tomb of the Romanov boyars. A portrait of the nun was kept in this monastery for a long time, on the reverse side of which someone made an inscription: "Princess Augusta Tarakanova, in the monastery of Dositheus, she was tonsured in the Moscow Ivanovo Monastery, where, after many years of her righteous life, she died." On the tombstone is only the monastic name and the day of death.

It seems that the secret of the "Princesses Tarakanovs" has not yet been disclosed and leaves room for imagination.

How the painting overshadowed the real biography of the upstart

Konstantin Flavitsky. Princess Tarakanova in the Peter and Paul Fortress during the flood

In the story of Princess Tarakanova, the realities of the gallant age, the spirit of palace coups and the talent of a Russian painter are intricately intertwined. Everyone remembers the picture exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery Konstantin Flavitsky"Princess Tarakanova in the Peter and Paul Fortress during the flood." However, the princess herself not only did not drown in the fortress, but she never even called herself by that name.

Nun of royal blood

According to legend, the surname "Cockroaches" or "Tarakanova" was given to children born to the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who, although she did not officially marry, had favorites, and with one of them, Alexey Razumovsky, even allegedly entered into a secret marriage on November 24, 1742. From this marriage, even as if there were children, and one of the daughters of the queen was called august. She received the surname Tarakanov and took the tonsure under the name of an old woman. Dosifei in the Ivanovsky Monastery, where she lived from 1775. Dosithea really was a strange nun - the monastery received a lot of money for her maintenance, strangers were not allowed to her, she now and then received very distinguished visitors. The mysterious lady died already during the reign AlexandraI, and they buried her with splendor, unusual not only for a nun, but also for a wealthy laywoman. And they buried her in the Novospassky Monastery, in the ancient tomb of the family Romanovs.

Where did the story of the flood in the Peter and Paul Fortress come from - and who did Flavitsky depict on his famous canvas?

Mysterious impostor

In the 70s of the 18th century, a certain woman was announced in Europe, who began to spread rumors left and right that she was the very daughter of Razumovsky and Elizabeth. She even declares her inalienable right to the Russian throne. Where she came from and who she really was is still unclear; either the daughter of a German baker, or the daughter of an innkeeper from Prague - in general, an ignoble family.

During her travels in Europe, this adventurer appeared to be a girl Franc then a girl Shel, then generally a Persian Ali-Emete. Visiting Paris, was called a princess Volodymyrskaya. It was then that she began to threaten for the first time CatherineII, which has not yet really recovered from the terrible Pugachev rebellion. They just dealt with one impostor who claims to the throne and has gathered a huge army, which the active army could not cope with for two years - and then a girl appears with her threats.

Smart and beautiful

Apparently, the impostor was a very attractive woman: with dark luxurious hair, black eyes, with a slight squint, which, as is often the case with smart women who know how to present themselves, only added to her charms, and also witty, free in circulation, able to carry on a conversation. The Lithuanian hetman lost his head from her, many noble people patronized her.

In 1775, this woman fled from evil creditors to Italy - and there she launched such a decisive campaign of struggle for the Russian throne that Catherine was seriously excited. The Empress ordered Alexey Orlov, who was just with the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean, find a cheeky one at any cost and deliver to St. Petersburg.

fatal meeting

As soon as Orlov appears in Italy, "Princess Volodimirskaya" herself is going to meet him - apparently in the hope that the one who helped Catherine II ascend the Russian throne is able to promote the future ElizabethII(yes, she also called herself that). About what goals Orlov was looking for her, she had no idea.

They met in Pisa - and began to communicate very nicely: appear together in public, travel. There were rumors that there was a love affair between them. Was she, now it is not clear; however, Orlov rented a house for the "princess". And once he took and invited me to visit a Russian ship. There, according to one version, she was captured, according to another - Orlov married her right on the ship in order to calmly take the impostor out of Europe (this version was used Zorin in the play "Royal Hunt"). The wedding, however, was fake; a sailor who took a cup for courage was dressed up as a priest.

In the Peter and Paul Fortress

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, the false princess was in for an unpleasant surprise: instead of the throne of the Russian state, she was offered cramped quarters in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The prince interrogated the impostor Golitsyn. She, however, confessed nothing. But she constantly wrote letters to the Empress, in which she demanded a meeting (“This person went crazy,” said Catherine, having learned about this).

It soon became clear that the woman claiming the throne was, firstly, on demolitions, and secondly, she was ill with tuberculosis (consumption, as this disease was then called). It became clear that it was not even necessary to kill her - soon the impostor herself would leave this world, unable to withstand the St. Petersburg climate and the Peter and Paul casemates.

In December 1775, the prisoner gave birth to a son and soon died indeed. Her son grew up under the surname Chesme, became a military man - he lived, however, not for long, but, contrary to the unspoken laws of that time, he was not killed by a baby.

False princess and false flood

And then who died in the Peter and Paul Fortress during the flood, which, by the way, was not in 1775, but in 1777, after the death of the impostor? And no one. At least not a single pseudo-princess suffered during the disaster.

When Flavitsky exhibited his famous painting in 1864, a scandal erupted: the story of the impostor was not disclosed, kept secret, and here is the canvas depicting her death. It was not very clear how the representatives of the ruling dynasty should react to this picture. AlexanderII found a way out - he ordered to consider the official version that the picture was written on the plot of some not very well-known novel, that is, the story of Princess Tarakanova is completely fiction.

Bought the painting soon after. Tretyakov, in whose gallery it is to this day.

22.11.2016| 16:46

The premiere of a film about Princess Tarakanova took place at the Museum of One Picture. The identity of this woman is shrouded in mystery for the third century. The image of the adventurer, posing as the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and sister of Emelyan Pugachev, was captured by Konstantin Flavitsky.

The filmmakers did not set themselves the task of telling about the fate of the rebel Tarakanova. They wanted to convey to the public the story of how Flavitsky's masterpiece ended up in Penza.

“We remember Nikolai Seliverstov, the former governor of Penza, who bequeathed a collection of paintings to the city. Among them was "Princess Tarakanova", - said the director of the film "The Secret of the Old Picture" Larisa Trushina.

The plot for the work of Flavitsky was the legend of the death of Tarakanova during the flood in St. Petersburg on September 21, 1777. Although this legend does not correspond to historical reality (the princess died of consumption two years earlier), but thanks to the artist, it was this version of the death of the impostor that was fixed in the people's memory.

“No one has lifetime photographs and portraits of Princess Tarakanova, no one knows her real name and who she was. This woman is a mystery,” said the director of the Art Gallery. K. A. Savitsky Kirill Zastrozhny.

The actors of the Penza Drama Theater starred in the film "The Secret of the Old Picture". The roles of the princess were played by Anna Arzyamova, Prince Alexander Golitsyn, who interrogated Tarakanov in the Peter and Paul Fortress, was played by Pavel Tachkov, and Grigory Mazur acted as the host.

By the way, the previous film, which told about the history of the portrait of Varvara Rimskaya-Korsakova, which was shown at the Museum of One Picture, gathered a record number of viewers - 20 thousand people - and brought the institution 650 thousand rubles.

Guest | 22.11.2016 19:33|

If this is a fictional artistic and literary image, then why blather?

Guest | 22.11.2016 19:34|

That's how it works. We talk about history, but falsification comes out

Guest | 22.11.2016 19:40|

"The identity of this woman has been shrouded in mystery for the third century. The image of an adventurer, posing as the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and sister of Emelyan Pugachev, was captured by Konstantin Flavitsky."

This is according to Penzainform, she is the daughter of the Empress and the sister of a rebellious serf - a smerda

Guest | 22.11.2016 19:43|

“No one has lifetime photographs and portraits of Princess Tarakanova, no one knows her real name and who she was. This woman is a mystery,” said the director of the Art Gallery. K. A. Savitsky Kirill Zastrozhny))))))))

Only Kirya does not know, and any loser knows her name

Princess Tarakanova (calling herself Princess Elizabeth Vladimirskaya; between 1745 and 1753 - December 4, 1775, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) - an unknown person who posed as the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Alexei Razumovsky. In 1774, she announced her claims to the Russian throne and for some time found support from supporters of the Bar Confederation. Kidnapped by order of Catherine II in Livorno by Alexei Orlov and brought to St. Petersburg. During the investigation, she pleaded not guilty and did not disclose her origin. She died in custody in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Guest | 22.11.2016 19:46 |

Guest | 22.11.2016 20:16|

Guest wrote:

and for them there is no difference between Count Alexei Razumovsky and the peasant Emelyan Pugachev

And she is not. Razumovsky was from the peasants, they took from the choristers.

Guest | 11/23/2016 09:19|

Guest wrote:

If this is a fictional artistic and literary image, then why blather?

right! and DO NOT READ "WAR AND PEACE", all the same, these are fictional characters.

Guest | 23.11.2016 10:36|

So many disagreements about the image of the "princess". And it's about the painting. Gotta watch the movie.

Guest | 23.11.2016 19:50|

But there should be no disagreement about the image of Medinsky

The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences clarified the number of officials elected as academicians

President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Vladimir Fortov said that up to seven civil servants received the title of academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences in October. It is reported on Wednesday, November 23, "Interfax".

“A man five or seven, like this. It depends on how you count,” Fortov said. He added that the further work of officials in government positions depends on the decision of President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier on Wednesday, at a meeting of the Council on Science and Education, the head of state demanded that Fortov answer why employees of the presidential administration, ministries and the Federal Security Service were included in the number of academicians and corresponding members. Putin threatened to resign high-ranking officials who did not heed the Kremlin's recommendation.

According to the President, it is impossible to effectively combine work in public authorities with serious scientific research. He explained that his statement regarding officials and governors elected to the RAS applies only to those who did so after October 15, 2015.

Guest | 23.11.2016 19:52|

governors elected to the RAS apply only to those who did so after October 15, 2015)))))

Guest | 23.11.2016 21:39|

Putin demanded that the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, answer why officials from the presidential administration, ministries, and the FSB were included in the number of academicians and corresponding members. “Why did you do it? They are such prominent scientists that the Academy of Sciences cannot do without them?” - Interfax quotes the head of state.

Fortov assured that they all met the requirements. The President, in turn, stressed that at the end of last year he instructed not to combine scientific activity with public service. Conscientious officials should not have free time for scientific activities, the head of state noted.

The ban on election to the Russian Academy of Sciences applies to all officials, including governors, Putin said after the meeting.

Guest | 11/24/2016 00:02|

Meeting of the Council for Science and Education

At the end of our today's meeting, I have one technical, personnel question. Vladimir Evgenievich knows that at the end of last year I made a request to my colleagues and to the president of the Academy of Sciences. The request was that in the past, many representatives of various levels of government took part in the elections to the Academy of Sciences, including top officials.

I asked my colleagues to refrain from participating in the election of new members of state academies of sciences due to the fact that people who hold positions in government bodies, especially at the top levels, are employed or should at least be seriously employed , otherwise they are not able to fulfill their official duties, and they can engage in scientific research only in their free time, which, in fact, is not left for people who conscientiously work in administrative positions.

The question arises: can they engage in scientific research in full with the desired result? Nevertheless, some of our colleagues from the Office of the Presidential Affairs, from the Ministry of Education, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the Ministry of Defense, from the Federal Security Service (FSB) and from some other departments took part in the election and were elected.

Vladimir Evgenievich, I have a question for you and other representatives of the Academy of Sciences: why did you do this? Are they such prominent scientists that the Academy of Sciences cannot do without them? First question. And the second question: what should I do now?

V. Fortov: They all said that they had received permission from their leaders.

Vladimir Putin: No, that was not the issue. Are they such great scientists that they should be correspondent members and academics?

Vladimir Fortov: Mr President, they passed the entire competition without any exceptions or exclusions. I reported to you that the election technology is such that this person must be heard six times and vote for him six times, in this way.

Discussion news closed

The zigzags of Russian history and the spirit of adventurism of the gallant age have created a real legend about Princess Tarakanova. But the true origin of the young lady remained under a veil of secrecy. This is not surprising, because, in fact, the beauty did nothing. Contrary to the popular picture, the girl did not die during the flood, she did not have a wedding with Orlov, and the girl never used the name "Princess Tarakanova".

Childhood and youth

The biography of such a character as Princess Tarakanova is still not known for certain. Some say that she herself was not aware of her own origin, knowing only that she was born between 1745 and 1753. Information about the exact date of birth and parents is not available.

It is important that the young lady herself never used the nickname of Princess Tarakanova, as she was described by the French diplomat Jean Henri Castera, followed by Gelbig and other writers. Under this bright pseudonym, she appears in fiction.

Based on archival records, the princess was thin in appearance, had dark hair and resembled an Italian. Possessing extraordinary beauty, which was not spoiled even by strabismus, and a sharp mind, she was always popular with men. But the adventuress, possessing an irrepressible craving for luxury, simply brought her fans to ruin, using their means.

According to Tarakanova, she was small in stature, with brown eyes and freckles on her face. She spoke French, German and English well. She assured me that she knew Arabic and Persian well.

According to the Marquis Tommaso d'Antichi, who met the girl in Rome, Tarakanova is German by nationality. And the English envoy announced that the princess was the daughter of a Nuremberg baker. The historian Dyakov, based on the correspondence between Tarakanova and the German Count of Limburg, which was conducted in French, considers the girl a Frenchwoman.

The adventurer herself constantly changed stories about her own origin. Obviously, she adjusted this information each time in accordance with the next “image”. The assumption that the princess came from the lower classes contradicts her outstanding education, as well as manners, tact and knowledge of languages. The girl was zealously interested in art, well versed in architecture, drew and played the harp.

Legend

For the first time, the future impostor appeared in Kiel around 1770, from where she moved to Berlin. There she lived for a short time under the name Fraulein Frank. The girl was forced to leave for Ghent after an unpleasant story, the details of which are unknown. Here the princess met the son of a merchant named van Tours, bringing the young man almost to ruin.

Due to persecution by creditors, the cheat moved to London with her lover, who left his lawful wife for her. The girl was called Madame de Tremouille, and van Tours helped her get a loan from the merchants. When problems began with new and old creditors, the man changed his name and fled to Paris.

A couple of months later, the princess went there, calling herself Princess de Voldomir (in literature, this name is often replaced with Princess Vladimirskaya or Elizabeth Vladimirskaya), but already accompanied by a new admirer - Baron Schenk. The girl claimed that she was from Persia, where her uncle raised her, and she came to look for the Russian inheritance.

It was clear that the lady had a noble origin: in confirmation of this, an excellent upbringing, versatile development and command of languages ​​spoke.

In Paris, the girl found new admirers, and Rochefort de Valcour was especially persistent and proposed to the beauty. But soon troubles with creditors overtook the princess, her former lovers went to a debtor's prison.

She fled to Frankfurt, but she failed to escape from justice: Tarakanov was expelled from the hotel, she was threatened with imprisonment. But this time, Philippe Ferdinand de Limburg came to the rescue, who fell in love with the princess at first sight: he settled all matters with creditors and invited her to move to his castle.

The princess agreed, once again changing her name and calling herself Sultana Ali-Emete, or Alina (Eleanor), Princess of Azov. The girl freely disposed of the income from the count's possessions and made new acquaintances with important people. The princess moved away from her former admirers, seriously deciding to become the wife of Count Limburg, who bought the county of Oberstein, where the girl became an unofficial mistress.

In order to finally bind a man to herself, Tarakanova announced her pregnancy, so the count soon made an official proposal to the girl. But then documents were needed that would confirm the origin of the bride, and the princess had to convert to the Catholic faith. The adventurer got out of her way, inventing a legend about her life.

Around this time, Count Limburg found himself in a difficult financial situation due to the expenses of his beloved, and information about the early adventures of the princess began to come to him. After making inquiries, it turned out that Alina was lying, calling Alexander Golitsyn a guardian, so Limburg lost his patience and decided to break up with his bride. In response to this act of the groom, the princess announced a trip to St. Petersburg in order to officially certify the origin.

However, Tarakanova moved to Oberstein, changed servants and started a profitable business, finally losing interest in the count. As it turned out in the future, the princess sent her forces to claim the Russian throne. In December 1773, a rumor spread that the daughter of Alexei Razumovsky, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, was hiding under the name of Princess Voldomir.

In May of the following year, the girl left Oberstein to reach Istanbul, but stopped in Ragusa. Tarakanova planned to publish a fake will, in which the princess acted as the heiress of the empire, but her idea failed. Left in debt and without support, the princess involved Alexei Orlov in her game. She wrote a letter to the man, all with the same "fable", and he passed on the information. The decision was made to lure the self-proclaimed princess onto a ship and send her to Russia.

However, by that time Tarakanova had already settled on the Field of Mars and led a secluded life. The health of the princess was undermined, but she continued to secretly recruit followers and send out letters. Deprived of funds and in despair, Tarakanova asked for a loan from Hamilton, opening up to him. But along the chain, this paper came to Alexei Orlov, who was unsuccessfully looking for an impostor princess.

In order not to frighten off the princess, they promised her to pay off her debts and invited her to Pisa for negotiations. At first, Tarakanova refused, but because of her debts, she was threatened with a prison, so she was forced to agree. The woman spoke about her intentions to take the veil as a nun and move away from political affairs.

Princess Tarakanova in the Peter and Paul Fortress

Being on a short trip by ship in the direction of Livorno, Princess Tarakanova was arrested. Already in custody, the woman wrote a letter to Orlov, because she was told that he was also detained, where she asked him to help get out.

The arrest of the person caused indignation in the world, nevertheless, the Russian ship with the arrested person weighed anchor. Before arriving at the English port, the woman behaved calmly, but during the stay she suffered a nervous breakdown and fainted. When the prisoner was carried out on deck, she jumped up and tried to jump into a boat that was sailing nearby, but she was detained.

Alternative version

There is another version of the development of events: allegedly, the captive of the Peter and Paul Fortress overshadowed the one in relation to which there were more significant reasons for concern. She was the mysterious nun Dosithea, the alleged daughter of Elizabeth and Razumovsky, who was born around 1746.

She lived in isolation at the monastery and was buried in the family tomb of the Romanov boyars in the Novospassky Monastery. However, the life of a recluse is not so exciting and adventurous, it lacks violent passions and adventures, so it is not so exciting.

Death

By justice, Princess Tarakanova was sentenced to life imprisonment. But in exchange for a confession of guilt and the truth about her origin, she was promised freedom. Having refused the offer, she no longer claimed kinship with the royal family. Nevertheless, the woman could not move away from the history of the noble family, because the disturbing aura of mystery is the only thing that aroused interest in her.

The princess took this riddle to the grave: the prisoner died of natural causes from tuberculosis on December 4, 1775, without opening the veil of the secret of origin and without admitting the crimes even at confession. Princess Tarakanova was buried in the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Fortress, no rituals were performed.

The woman's companions were released in January of the following year, the servants and maids were given a salary. Subordinates were secretly taken abroad as part of several groups.

Memory

• 1864 - painting by the artist Konstantin Flavitsky "Princess Tarakanova"
• 1868 - book by P. I. Melnikov "Princess Tarakanova and Princess Vladimirskaya"
• 1883 - book by G. P. Danilevsky "Princess Tarakanova"
• 1910 - the film "Princess Tarakanova"
• novels "Princess Tarakanova", "The Last of the House of Romanov"
• play by Leonid Zorin "Royal Hunt"
• In the finale of the musical "The Blue Cameo", Princess Tarakanova gains freedom and marries Orlov.
• In 2012, the musical "Count Orlov" based on the myth of love between Alexei Orlov and Elizaveta Tarakanova was staged at the Moscow Operetta Theater.