Page 73 of Catherine the Great


  42. THE BRIEF REIGN OF PETER 111

  1 “I did not think”: Bain, Peter III, 40

  2 “If, my little friend, you will take my advice”: Dashkova, 1:38

  3 “The moderation and clemency”; Bain, Peter III, 49

  4 “I can find nobody here”: Ibid.

  5 “the chief instrument of the Prussian party”: Ibid., 56

  6 “at a dinner”: Ibid.

  7 “resolved to get free”: Ibid., 57

  8 “We must make peace”: Ibid., 63

  9 “honor of all the valiant officers”: Ibid., 74

  10 “nothing was omitted”: Ibid.

  11 “out of compassion”: Ibid., 77

  12 “the maintenance of solemn engagements”: Ibid., 79

  13 “Frankly, I distrust these Russians”: Ibid., 116

  14 “If the Russians had wanted”: Ibid., 117

  43. “DURA!”

  1 “It does not appear”: Bain, Peter III, 123

  2 “The empress is abandoned”: Ibid., 130

  3 “pot-house wench”: Ibid., 126

  4 “broad, puffy, pock-marked face”: Ibid.

  5 “Dura!”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 27

  6 “It was then that I began to listen”: Bain, Peter III, 192

  7 “Your Majesty can have your revenge”: Ibid., 134

  8 “You already know too much”: Kaus, 214

  9 “Matushka, Little Mother, wake up!”: Anthony, 165

  10 “Matushka, forgive us”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 29

  11 “Heaven be praised!”: Dashkova, 1:81

  12 “like a fifteen-year-old boy”: Ibid., 1:98

  13 “I go now with the army”: Alexander, 9

  14 “Didn’t I always tell you”: Bain, Peter III, 154

  15 “We no longer have an emperor!”: Ibid., 160

  16 “I accept the offer”: Ibid., 161

  17 “I, Peter, of my own free will”: Kaus, 233

  18 “like a child being sent to bed”: Ibid.

  44. “WE OURSELVES KNOW NOT WHAT WE DID”

  1 “the greatest misfortune of my life”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 31

  2 “By what right”: Dashkova, 1:89

  3 “I realized with unspeakable pain”: Ibid., 1:90

  4 “I beg Your Majesty”: Peter’s letters from Ropsha to Catherine, Anthony, 176–77

  5 “Matushka, Little Mother”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 32,

  6 “His face wore an expression”: Oldenbourg, 252

  7 “We ourselves know not what we did”: Kaus, 244

  8 “My horror at this death”: Dashkova, 1:107

  9 “On the seventh day of our reign”: Kaus, 246

  10 “might spare her health”: Troyat, 139

  11 “Peter III had lost the few wits”: Bain, Peter III, 191

  12 “it teaches us to be sober”: Cronin, 156

  13 “The empress was quite ignorant of this crime”: Haslip, 133

  14 “What do they say in Paris”: Anthony, 180

  45. CORONATION

  1 “The least soldier of the guards”: Alexander, 67

  2 “You only did your duty”: Cronin, 172

  3 “I implore Your Majesty”: Dashkova, 1:97

  4 “the Princess Dashkova played only a minor part”: Haslip, 144,

  5 The exchange between Catherine and Betskoy is from Dashkova, 1:101–2, and Kaus, 240

  6 “a woman of middle height”: Scott Thomson, 85–86

  7 “the Lord has placed the crown”: Grey, 119

  8 “I cannot go out”: Ibid.

  46. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CHURCH

  1 “In the Treasury”: Waliszewski, 313

  2 “an ignominious peace”: Kaus, 239

  3 “no suitable costume”: Ibid.

  4 “Concerning the peace”: Ibid.

  5 “such a vast and limitless empire”: Haslip, 137

  6 “Full reports will be brought to me”: Ibid.,

  7 “Belonging herself to the nation”: Ibid.

  8 “I cannot say that you are lacking”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 44

  9 “the eye of the sovereign”: Ibid., 40

  10 “In the Senate”: Ibid., 44–45

  11 “You must know”: Ibid., 58

  12 “sat like dumb dogs without barking”: Ibid., 116

  13 “stretch out their hands”: Kaus, 254

  14 “Our present sovereign”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 116

  15 “Stop his mouth!”: Ibid. 301 Andrew the Liar: Ibid., 117

  16 “You are the successors”: Kaus, 255

  47. SERFDOM

  1 “For sale, a barber”: Oldenbourg, 285

  2 “Anyone wishing to buy”: Waliszewski, 304

  3 “For sale: domestics and skilled craftsmen”: Grey, 122

  4 “If we do not agree”: Ibid., 164

  5 “There! You have the people free!”: Cronin, 262

  6 “What has disgusted me”: Grey, 122

  7 “I punished him”: Smith, Pearl, 105

  8 “This is one of my fiddlers”: Ibid. 312 “a miracle of color”: Ibid., 70

  9 “I had the most tender”: Ibid., 71

  48. “MADAME ORLOV COULD NEVER BE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA”

  1 “The men who surround me”: Haslip, 143

  2 “Perhaps you are right”: Alexander, 74

  3 “Tell Her Imperial Majesty”: Kaus, 271

  4 “everyone should go about his own business”: Ibid., 273

  5 “If the empress wants me to lay my head”: Haslip, 149

  6 “It is my earnest desire”: Dashkova, 1:128

  7 “There would never”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 9

  8 “You will not be surprised”: Haslip, 178

  49. THE DEATH OF IVAN VI

  1 “Take care!”: Kaus, 277

  2 “If the prisoner is insubordinate”: Ibid.

  3 “The prisoner is somewhat quieter”: Ibid.

  4 “painful and almost unintelligible stammering”: Ibid., 278

  5 “The prisoner shall not be allowed”: Ibid., 280

  6 “Release us”: Ibid.

  7 “Compliance with your request”: Ibid.

  8 “Make your own career, young man”: Ibid., 282

  9 “Not long had Peter III possessed”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 35

  10 “If the others agree”: Kaus, 285

  11 “Where is the emperor?”: Alexander, 91

  12 “See, my brothers”: Kaus, 285

  13 “The ways of God are wonderful”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 36

  14 “she left here with an air”: Waliszewski, 264

  15 “As regards the insult”: Kaus, 287

  16 “loyally performing their duty”: Ibid., 288

  17 “The manifesto she has issued”: Troyat, 167

  18 “It seems to me that if I were on the throne”: Ibid.

  19 “I am tempted to say to you”: Ibid.

  50. CATHERINE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

  1 “Whatever style I possess”: Haslip, 157

  2 “The victorious nation never profits”: Durant, 10:151

  3 “Oh, mighty God, I believe”: Ibid., 9:750

  4 “Tell them I am very sick”: Ibid., 10:133

  5 “the highest and coldest garret”: Ibid.

  6 “hanged, drowned, broken on the wheel”: Ibid., 9:731

  7 “It took two hours”: Ibid., 9:733

  8 “I shall be coming to Paris”: Ibid., 10:392

  9 “For my part, I am consoled”: Ibid., 10:139

  10 “He governed the whole civilized world”: Ibid., 9:784

  11 “Since Voltaire died”: Anthony, 229

  12 “these are family matters”: Gorbatov, 70

  13 “I believe we must moderate”: Ibid.

  14 “Semiramis of the North”: Durant, 9:448

  15 “try to persuade the octogenarian”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 336

  16 “in certain ways … a hundred”: Gorbatov, 177

  17 “You and M. Diderot??
?: Durant, 9:719

  18 “Go on, brave Diderot”: Ibid.

  19 “It would be cruel”: Gooch, 60

  20 “I prostrate myself”: Troyat, 177

  21 “we are three who would build you altars”: Ibid., 178

  22 “Thirty years of labor”: Ibid.

  23 “I never thought”: Gorbatov, 156

  24 “That door will be opened to you”: Oliva, 119

  25 “my good lady”: Troyat, 207

  26 “an extraordinary man”: Durant, 9:448

  27 “I have listened”: Troyat, 207

  28 “Now you sit beside Caesar”: Ibid., 209

  29 “Madame, I am positively in disgrace”: Reddaway, 198

  30 “Live, Monsieur”: Ibid., 199

  31 “returned to her in chains”: Ibid., 200

  51. THE NAKAZ

  1 “one of the most remarkable political treatises”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 151

  2 “Russia is a European state”: Ibid., 153

  3 “it is much better to prevent than to punish crimes”: Reddaway, 225

  4 “productive of nothing”: Ibid., 288

  5 “The use of torture is contrary”: Ibid., 231

  6 “without any sensible inconveniences”: Ibid., 232

  7 “What right can give anyone authority”: Ibid., 244

  8 “All punishments by which the human body”: Ibid., 227

  9 “Some judges should be of the same rank”: Ibid., 232

  10 “a civil society requires a certain established order”: Ibid., 256

  11 “Why should they bother to be clean”: Haslip, 162

  12 “These are axioms which will bring down walls”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 158

  13 “I let them erase what they pleased”: Ibid.

  14 “Since the Law of Nature”: Reddaway, 256

  15 “I have decked myself out in peacock’s feathers”: Grey, 147

  16 “I have robbed Montesquieu”: Troyat, 179

  17 “would have been capable”: Troyat, 182

  18 “the finest monument of the age”: Gooch, 67

  19 “A masculine, nervous performance”: Troyat, 182

  20 “I must warn Your Majesty”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 151

  52. “ALL FREE ESTATES OF THE REALM”

  1 “By this institution, we give to our people”: Alexander, 102

  2 “you will receive a letter”: Ibid., 103

  3 “There can be nothing more pleasant”: Ibid., 108

  4 “These laws, about which so much has been said”: Ibid., 109

  5 “There are so many objects”: Ibid.

  6 “Here, the people along the Volga”: Ibid., 110

  7 “The town rose high on a hill”: Kerensky, 3

  8 “to glorify yourselves and your country”: Alexander, 112

  9 “I brought them together to study laws”: Troyat, 181

  10 “Have they really already lost”: Alexander, 115

  11 “The peasant has his feelings”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 176

  12 “The majority of votes”: Ibid., 159

  13 “And have their throats cut from time to time”: Ibid., 160

  14 “cannot have in present circumstances”: Ibid.

  15 “A general emancipation”: Alexander, 116

  16 “What had I not to suffer”: Anthony, 215

  17 “The idea that the principal purpose”: Madariaga, Catherine, 34

  53. “THE KING WE HAVE MADE”

  1 “I am sending Count Keyserling”: Kaus, 262

  2 “fortunate anarchy”: Alexander, 123

  3 “There is a vast difference between melons”: Kaus, 264

  4 “to resort, if need be, to force of arms”: Ibid., 265

  5 “without the slightest mercy”: Alexander, 126 367 “Do not laugh at me”: Kaus, 263

  6 “I beg you most urgently not to come here”: Coughlan, 228

  7 “a thousand inconveniences”: Ibid.

  8 “in the hands of the brothers Orlov”: Ibid., 229

  9 “I beg of you to listen to me”: Kaus, 263

  10 “the new king we have made”: Ibid., 266

  54. THE FIRST PARTITION OF POLAND AND THE FIRST TURKISH WAR

  1 “a real thunderbolt for the country and for me”: Coughlan, 233

  2 “to prevent a quarter of their nation”: Gooch, 64

  3 “what does one have to endure”: Alexander, 129

  4 “at the risk of repeating myself”: Haslip, 182

  5 “I cannot keep writing to you”: Ibid.

  6 “in Poland one only has to stoop”: Anthony, 203

  55. DOCTORS, SMALLPOX, AND PLAGUE

  1 “If you go to a village”: Cronin, 167

  2 “the same attention to cleanliness”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 560

  3 “I am quite sick”: Alexander, 144

  4 “It has been four years”: Ibid., 143

  5 “You couldn’t cure a flea bite”: Cronin, 169

  6 “Well done, ma’am!”: Ibid., 169

  7 “You know I am a child”: Alexander, 145

  8 “uncommon merit, beautiful, and immensely rich”: Ibid.

  9 “I am very upset”: Ibid.

  10 “Having this hour learned”: Ibid.

  11 “of all that I ever saw of her sex”: Cronin, 168

  12 “a secret everybody knows”: Alexander, 146

  13 “except for some slight uneasiness”: Ibid., 147

  14 “My objective was”: Ibid.

  15 “our argumentative charlatans”: Ibid., 148

  16 “fine and zealous”: Reddaway, 135

  17 “The famous Eighteenth Century”: Ibid.

  18 “We have spent a month in circumstances”: Alexander, 158

  56. THE RETURN OF “PETER THE THIRD”

  1 “freedom of the rivers”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 243

  2 “I give eternal freedom”: Oldenbourg, 299

  3 “If God permits me to reach St. Petersburg”: Kaus, 296

  4 “this godless turmoil”: Alexander, 170

  5 “The great sovereign”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 270

  6 “Whomever you represent”: Kaus, 298

  7 “a common highway robber”: Oldenbourg, 301

  8 “exploits of a brigand”: Troyat, 213

  9 “Marquis de Pugachev”: Alexander, 177

  10 “this new husband who has turned up”: Haslip, 211

  11 “for more than six weeks I have been obliged”: Grey, 162

  12 “this motley crowd”: Alexander, 171

  13 “What need is there to flog”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 249

  14 “Orenburg has already been besieged”: Alexander, 171

  15 “Leave the peasants”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 248

  16 “the suspicion of foreigners”: Alexander, 174

  17 “inhabited by all the good-for-nothings”: Ibid.

  18 “Since you like hangings so much”: Ibid.

  57. THE LAST DAYS OF THE “MARQUIS DE PUGACHEV”

  1 “If God gives me power over the state”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 271

  2 “Why does he call himself Tsar Peter?”: Cronin, 180

  3 “Extremely shaken”: Alexander, 176

  4 “the insolent windbag”: Ibid.

  5 “You see, my friend, that Count Panin”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 264

  6 “bad news travels faster than good”: Alexander, 177

  7 “How dare you raise your hands”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 255

  8 “infernal monster”: Oldenbourg, 302

  9 “Sir, are you master or servant?”: Alexander, 178

  10 “refrain from all questioning under torture”: Madariaga, Russia in the Age, 267

  11 “Pugachev has lived like a scoundrel:” Oldenbourg, 304

  12 “Please help to inspire everyone”: Alexander, 179

  13 “they wanted to break Pugachev on the wheel”: Ibid.

  14 “all that has passed to eternal oblivion”: Ibid., 180
r />   58. VASILCHIKOV

  1 “He must appear”: Kaus, 311

  2 “good looking, amiable, and a complete nonentity”: Haslip, 198

  3 “He is capable of killing me”: Oldenbourg, 310

  4 “a kind of male cocotte”: Kaus, 313

  5 “he must send Vasilchikov away”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 21

  6 “It was a random choice”: Kaus, 311

  59. CATHERINE AND POTEMKIN: PASSION

  1 “If I become a general”: Soloveytchik, 43

  2 “Sir Lieutenant General and Chevalier”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 8

  3 “Any news at court?”: Soloveytchik, 67

  4 “I do not understand what has reduced him”: Ibid., 68

  5 “the state and yourself, Madam”: Ibid., 69

  6 “he had conducted himself indiscreetly”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 9

  7 “After a year spent in great sorrow”: Ibid., 9–10

  8 “I remain unmotivated by envy”: Ibid., 18

  9 “Sir Lieutenant General”: Ibid., 20

  10 “Mr. Vasilchikov, the favorite”: Soloveytchik, 73

  11 “The thing to do now, my sweet”: Ibid., 75

  12 “I’m not surprised”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 19

  13 “I don’t understand what kept you”: Ibid., 17

  14 “I only ask you not to do one thing”: Ibid., 19

  15 “I have parted from a certain excellent”: Soloveytchik, 78

  16 “No, Grishenka”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 24

  17 “There is no reason to be angry”: Ibid., 27

  18 “Oh, my darling, you should be ashamed”: Ibid., 35

  19 “Allow me, my precious dear”: Smith, Ibid., 78

  20 “Does it appear, sir”: Soloveytchik, 101

  21 “certain sacred and inalienable rights”: Montefiore, 139

  22 “I kiss you and embrace you … dear husband”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 38

  23 “pray come and cuddle with me”: Ibid., 40

  60. POTEMKIN ASCENDING

  1 “There has been no instance”: Soloveytchik, 107

  2 “Do you remember how”: Ibid., 110

  3 “I have noticed that your mother”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 61

  4 “On Sunday, I happened to be seated”: Soloveytchik, 112

  5 “As long as my bed remains”: Ibid., 119

  6 “If there are no mistakes”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 50

  7 “This is really too much!”: Soloveytchik, 131

  8 “It is a hundred years”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 55

  9 “The rebellion in a great part”: Soloveytchik, 143

  61. CATHERINE AND POTEMKIN: SEPARATION

  1 “My dear friend, I don’t know why”: Smith, Love and Conquest, 51