Peter III did not dare to follow the advice of the only person who could save him, B. K. Minich, and under pressure from cowardly courtiers decided to surrender to the mercy of his wife and her accomplices.
He did not understand that the crown in Russia can only be lost with the head. Catherine did not have the slightest rights to the Russian throne and there was almost no chance of staying on the throne that was miraculously captured. And time was working against her - the soldiers were sobering up, the supporters of the emperor, who were at a loss (and they are, there are a lot of them - we will soon be convinced of this) are coming to their senses, Peter can be released and called to power at any moment. The overthrown emperor could not be released anywhere - and therefore he was transported on the same day away from the Holsteinians loyal to him.
The mournful journey of the emperor
In Peterhof, they met a Cossack regiment (three thousand armed horsemen), which happened to be among the conspirators. He went to the army of Rumyantsev, to Prussia, and "the empresses who were sent met him before the imperial ones." The conspirators did not water these soldiers for several days, did not carry out "propaganda and explanatory work" among them. Silently and gloomily, the Cossacks looked at the cheeky half-drunk guards and the lawful emperor escorted by them. Turn to them now, Peter, shout, call for help - and they will most likely do their duty, disperse the St. Petersburg "Janissaries" with whips, chop into cabbage those who raise their weapons. It will not get worse, and the rebels will not dare to beat (and even more so - to kill) the emperor in front of the Cossacks who do not understand anything - there are hardly any ideological "revolutionaries", fanatics and suicides among the guards. You can still try to free yourself and, together with this regiment, go to the loyal troops. And you can even try to capture the victorious Catherine with a dashing raid. Do you remember who is with her now? Drunken guards, "extremely useless" (Favier), "living in the same place in the barracks with their wives and children" (Stelin). "Guards, always terrible only for their sovereigns" (Ruhliere). And, more than anything else, they are afraid to be at the front. There are many of them: three infantry guards regiments, horse guards and hussars regiments, two infantry regiments - about 12 thousand people. These are the most reliable, from the point of view of the conspirators, units, other regiments are left to drink in St. Petersburg. By the way, why do you think so many troops are kept in a city of 160,000? What are they doing there, apart from "blocking the residences" (Shtelin) and "somehow keeping the Court in prison" (Favier)?
But let's ask ourselves a question: are the units going to Oranienbaum ready for a serious battle?
As we remember from the last article, the Orlovs began to solder the soldiers of the Petersburg garrison on June 26. For 2 days, the brave guardsmen, the money "borrowed" from the British, apparently, had already been spent on drink. But they demanded "the continuation of the banquet." And therefore, on the day the conspiracy began, we see such a picture in St. Petersburg.
Andreas Schumacher recalled:
“Already on June 28, the soldiers behaved very dissolutely. They robbed everyone … seized carriages, carriages and carts right in the middle of the street, took away and devoured bread, buns and other products from those who carried them for sale … took by storm all the taverns and wine cellars, those bottles that could not be emptied were broken, and they took everything they liked."
It so happened historically that from the day of its foundation, people of 12 national diasporas lived in St. Petersburg - the British, the Dutch, the Swedes, the French, the Germans, the Italians and others. At the time described, Russians did not constitute an absolute majority in the city. It was the foreigners who suffered the most during this "patriotic" rebellion, organized in favor of the German woman Catherine. Numerous eyewitnesses told how crowds of drunken soldiers broke into the houses of foreigners and robbed them, beat and even killed foreigners in the streets.
Let's continue to quote Schumacher:
"Many went to the homes of foreigners and demanded money. They had to give them away without any resistance. They took their caps from others."
The court jeweler Jeremiah Pozier told how he saved two Englishmen, who were being chased by a crowd of drunken soldiers with drawn sabers:
“They scold us in their own language,” they explained to the jeweler.
Pozier was saved by his knowledge of the Russian language and his acquaintance with the commanders of these "Janissaries", to whom he referred. He managed to "ransom" the unfortunate British (he gave all the money that was with him) and hid them in his apartment.
Further Pozier recalls:
"I saw the soldiers knock down the doors to the basement taverns where vodka was sold and take out the shtoffs to their comrades."
G. Derzhavin wrote about the same:
"Soldiers and female soldiers in furious delight and joy carried wine, vodka, beer, honey, champagne and all kinds of other expensive wines with tubs and poured everything together indiscriminately into tubs and barrels."
"Typical revolutionaries", isn't that so? "The revolution has a beginning, the revolution has no end."
As we remember from the previous article, Mr. Odar (Schumacher calls him Saint-Germain) agreed with the British about a "loan" for 100 thousand, which were spent at the beginning of this "holiday of disobedience". But the guardsmen "did not have enough" and, after the coup, the innkeepers asked the new government to compensate them for their losses. Where are you going to go? It is possible to "forgive" the private traders. And the taverns are state institutions. They began to count and found out that the soldiers "caught up" for another 105,563 rubles 13 and a half kopecks, having drunk 422,252 liters of vodka from 28 to 30 June. The population of St. Petersburg, together with the regiments deployed in the capital, was then about 160 thousand people. It turns out about a liter for each adult per day - provided that absolutely all residents of St. Petersburg, without exception, drank. But it is unlikely that the gallant guardsmen shared vodka with the foreign residents of St. Petersburg who were beaten by them.
The soldiers of the regiments that went with Catherine took an active part in all this outrage. And therefore, of course, they did not succeed in any lightning throw to Oranienbaum. Nikita Panin called the soldiers who came to Oranienbaum "drunk and tired." The first thing they began to do in the royal residences (Peterhof and Oranienbaum) was to rob wine cellars. E. Dashkova in her memoirs writes about the guards who broke into the cellar in Peterhof and drew Hungarian wine with shako. She paints everything in very pink tones: they say, she put the soldiers ashamed, and they poured out the wine and began to drink water. But at the same time, for some reason, she had to give them all her money (even turn out her pockets to show that there was no more) and promise that "upon their return to the city they will be given vodka at the expense of the treasury and all taverns will be open." It is very similar to a banal robbery of a princess by drunken "janissaries".
During the march to Oranienbaum, a cheerful column of half-drunk rebels stretched out along the road. If Peter had entrusted his sober and highly motivated soldiers to Minich, the Field Marshal would have had a good chance to calmly and methodically smash all the mutinous regiments one by one. However, I am sure that only the vanguard would have to beat: seeing the recent drinking companions running back with bulging eyes and shouting "everything is lost", the rest of the rebels would be divided into two parts. The marginals, throwing away their weapons, would run to St. Petersburg - before going to Siberia, to rob a few more "Germans" and free vodka, in the end, to drink. The rest of the race would have rushed to catch Catherine, the Orlovs and others - so that, falling to their knees, "present" them to the rightful emperor.
And those soldiers and officers of Catherine's regiments who managed to sober up are no longer completely reliable.
Jacob Shtelin recalled:
“The monster Senator Suvorov shouts to the soldiers:“Chop the Prussians!”And wants to hack all the disarmed soldiers to death.
"Do not be afraid, we will not do anything bad to you; we were deceived, they said that the emperor was dead."
Strongly tipsy, apparently, was the father of the future great generalissimo - in the Russian Oranienbaum he sees the Prussians. Subordinates with contempt refuse to obey him, and the drunken general has only one fun:
"This pathetic Suvorov … when the disarmed Germans were taken to the fortress, he amused himself by knocking the officers' caps off their heads with a sword, and at the same time complaining that he was little respected."
(Colonel David Sivers.)
In general, there is a very disturbing fact for the conspirators of the open disobedience of the hussars to their commander.
So, the reliability and combat effectiveness of Catherine's army raises certain doubts. And now, after the captivity of the emperor, the soldiers of the regiments who came with Catherine completely relaxed and do not expect an attack. The Cossacks will calmly approach the minimum distance to the detachment, which is now with Catherine, and then suddenly - the intolerable shine of checkers, wild screeching and whistling, the unfolding lava of natural-born warriors rushing forward, chasing in front of them, sweeping away and chopping those who throw weapons and scatter in all directions " janissary". It is even difficult to imagine what a real man would have done to these Cossacks - without aristocratic genes, but with living and hot blood: Aleksashka Menshikov, Joachim Murat or Henry Morgan.
And the situation will turn 180 degrees, the conspiracy will be beheaded, its purpose and meaning will be lost.
Or at least, until the rebels realized it, quickly go under the protection of the Cossacks to the port of Reval and board the first ship they come across.
You can still be saved - and this is really the last opportunity. But in the arteries and veins of Peter II flows the cold and viscous blood of ancient degenerate genera. The Emperor is silent.
The last days of the emperor's life
First, Peter, Elizaveta Vorontsova, Adjutant General A. V. Gudovich and the footman of the Emperor Alexei Maslov were taken to Peterhof, where drunken soldiers robbed Vorontsova, taking away all the decorations and the insignia of the Order of St. Catherine from her. Gudovich, according to Rulier, was subjected to "obscene reproach", to which he answered with great dignity. And Schumacher claims that Gudovich was beaten and robbed. To Peter, as expected by Minich, even the drunken guardsmen have not yet dared to touch:
"And, as none of the rebels touched him with his hand, he tore off his ribbon, sword and dress, saying:" Now I am all in your hands."
(K. Ruhliere.)
Here, according to Shtelin's testimony, Peter signed his abdication - "expressed his consent to everything that was demanded of him." Grigory Orlov and General Izmailov, accepting the abdication, on behalf of Catherine, promised Peter that "his wishes will be fulfilled."
Catherine was not going to fulfill her promises. On the same day, she ordered Major General Silin to transfer the "nameless prisoner" (Emperor John Antonovich) to Kexholm. And his cell in Shlisselburg was to be occupied by another emperor - Peter III.
Towards evening, the deposed emperor and Maslov were transferred to Ropsha - "to a place … secluded and very pleasant" (so cynically wrote Catherine in her notes).
Official historians of the House of Romanov argued that by sending her husband to a "secluded place", Catherine "cared" about his safety. Allegedly, he could be "torn to pieces" by disgruntled soldiers. However, the testimonies of contemporaries give reason to believe that the conspirators themselves were afraid of being torn apart by the soldiers who had come to their senses.
Danish diplomat Andreas Schumacher writes about the soldiers who took part in the campaign against Oranienbaum and Peterhof:
"Back in the capital, many have cooled down."
In a message dated July 31, 1762, the Dutch resident Meinerzhagen reported that when Aleksey Orlov went out to calm down the dissatisfied soldiers with something, they "scolded" him and almost beat him: "They called him a traitor and swore that they would never allow he put on a royal hat."
The secretary of the French Embassy K. Ruhliere informs:
“6 days passed after the revolution, and this great incident seemed over, but the soldiers were surprised at their deed and did not understand what charm led them to the fact that they deprived the throne of the grandson of Peter the Great and placed the crown on a German woman … during the riot, they publicly reproached the guardsmen in the taverns that they sold their emperor for beer."
The same Rulier wrote that in Moscow the announcement of the manifesto on Catherine's accession to the throne was accompanied by a murmur of soldiers, dissatisfied with the fact that "the capital's guards have the throne of their own free will." The soldiers did not shout toast to Catherine II, only the officers were forced to join her - only after the third consecutive announcement and by order of the governor. After that, the soldiers hastened to dissolve to the barracks, fearing their open indignation and disobedience.
Senator J. P. Shakhovsky recalled "a state of horror and surprise" that gripped all the Moscow nobility, "at the news of the change of power."
French ambassador Laurent Beranger, explaining the assassination of Peter III, writes to Paris on August 10:
"The Preobrazhensky regiment was supposed to free Peter III from prison and restore him to the throne."
Danish Embassy Counselor A. Schumacher confirms this message:
"There was a strong rivalry between the Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments."
Considering the hesitation of the Transfiguration on the day of the mutiny and the fact that the conspirators who do not trust them now, "pushed" this, formerly the most elite Guards regiment, to the background, Beranger's message looks quite plausible.
G. Derzhavin reports on the unreliability of the conspirators' position, their poor control of the situation and the fear in which Catherine was living:
"At midnight the next day, from drunkenness, the Izmailovsky regiment, overwhelmed with pride and dreamy exaltation, that the empress had come to him and before others was escorted to the Winter Palace, having gathered without the knowledge of the commanders, proceeding to the Summer Palace, went out and assured him personally that she was healthy."
Seeing them under the windows, Catherine was scared to death, deciding that they had also "come" for her. But the same Transfigurations, or "excellent cavalrymen, whose emperor was a colonel from their childhood" (according to Rulier, they were very sad on the day of the coup), could and, indeed, did come:
"According to eyewitnesses, power was on the side of Peter, and all that was missing was a brave and experienced leader who could start a revolution."
(A. V. Stepanov.)
Derzhavin continues:
"The Empress is forced to get up, put on a guards uniform and escort them to their regiment."
After that, Petersburg was transferred to martial law:
"Since that day, pickets have multiplied, which in many numbers with loaded cannons and with lit wicks were placed in all places, squares and crossroads. Petersburg was in such a martial law, and especially around the palace in which the empress had been staying for 8 days. ".
And the participants in the conspiracy had not yet divided the "booty" and did not trust each other. At one of the dinners, Grigory Orlov said that "with the same ease with which he put Catherine on the throne, he could overthrow her with the help of the regiments." Only the commander of the same Izmailovsky regiment, Razumovsky, dared to object to him.
It is not surprising that after the coup, "Catherine's body was covered with red spots" (Rulier), that is, she developed eczema on a nervous basis.
At that time, Catherine wrote to Poniatowski in Poland:
"As long as I obey, they will adore me; I will cease to obey - who knows what might happen."
About how acute the situation was even 2 months after the coup, the Ambassador of Prussia B. Goltz writes to his king:
"Those unrest that I reported … are far from calmed, but on the contrary, are intensifying … Since the Izmailovsky Guards Regiment and Horse Guards … on the day of the coup completely surrendered to the Empress, both of these regiments are now treated with contempt by the rest of the Guards and the field The garrison regiments stationed here, both cuirassiers and naval ones. Not a day goes by without a clash of these two parties. The latter reproach the former for selling their sovereign for a few pennies and for vodka. The artillery corps has not yet taken any side. reaching the extreme, he handed out ammunition to the Izmailovsky regiment, which alarmed the rest of the guard and the garrison."
(Posted August 10, 1762)
You understand? More than a month after the assassination of Peter III, only one regiment - the Izmailovsky regiment - is undoubtedly loyal to the victorious conspirators! And the situation in the capital of the empire is such that the soldiers of this regiment have to issue live ammunition. And we are told about the unpopularity of Pyotr Fedorovich in the troops and the nationwide jubilation after the accession of Catherine.
Sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment A. Orlov, corporal (sergeant) of the horse guard G. Potemkin, prince F. Baryatinsky, sergeant of the guard N. Engelhardt, captain P. Passek, lieutenant M. Baskakov and lieutenant E. Chertkov became the jailers of Peter III. Among the guards, some also call A. Svanvitch, better known as Shvanovich (Shvanvich). He was a foreigner who converted to Orthodoxy, under Elizabeth (who became his godmother) served with her in the Life Company. However, according to other sources, he was, on the contrary, suspected of loyalty to the deposed emperor, and even spent a month in prison.
The Ropsha palace was guarded by numerous soldiers - up to a battalion in number. The next day, at his request, the prisoner was brought his favorite bed from Oranienbaum, a violin and a pug. But Maslov on July 2, lured into the garden, was arrested and sent to St. Petersburg.
The behavior of Alexei Orlov is quite remarkable: he tried with all his might to portray a "good jailer"! All memoirists agree that Peter was treated very badly in Ropsha. French Ambassador Beranger wrote to Paris:
"The officers who were instructed to guard him (Peter III) insulted him in the most rude manner."
But Alexey Orlov avoids rudeness. Andreas Schumacher writes:
"He was treated unworthily and rudely, with the exception of only one Alexei Grigorievich Orlov, who still showed him feigned courtesies."
While playing cards, Orlov lends money to the prisoner. When Peter asks him to be allowed to take a walk in the garden, he willingly agrees, while making a sign to the soldiers: do not let him out! And then he throws up his hands in discouragement - they say, you see for yourself, your imperial majesty, they do not obey me.
Orlov's behavior is usually regarded as a subtle mockery of the prisoner. No, by no means, everything is completely different.
Unlike many others, Alexei Orlov knows the wrong side of this conspiracy, he understands its weak points. Starting from June 1, the booze in St. Petersburg stops, and the soldiers begin to come to their senses. The shock and fear in which the emperor's supporters were, give way to shame and indignation. Everything can still change, and then Peter, perhaps, will send the "good" Alexei not to eternal hard labor, but with a demotion to some distant garrison. Aleksey Orlov is "laying straws" so that, if something happens, it would not be very painful to fall. But he really does not want to be exiled. And therefore from Ropsha he sends Catherine two ominous letters, which say that Peter has some colic and hints at his imminent death.
An excerpt from the first letter:
"Our freak got very sick and grabbed Evo with an uncanny colic, and I’m dangerous so that he doesn’t die on this night, but I’m more afraid that the shtob doesn’t come to life … it is indeed dangerous for all of us, for whom he sometimes responds this way, although in the same state of being ".
(Spelling preserved.)
So, Alexey Orlov informs Catherine that the deposed husband is "really dangerous" because "he wants to be in the same state." Moreover, "dangerous for all of us" - Orlov refers to Catherine, not as an empress, but as an accomplice. And it hints at a willingness to solve this problem. But he, apparently, does not completely trust Catherine, fearing that he will be made extreme. And that is why he asks her for a direct order to kill Peter - without him, the "freak" may not die that night.
Catherine sends State Councilor Kruse to Ropsha. Schumacher claims that Kruse prepared some kind of poisonous "decoct", but Peter, much to the chagrin of the jailers, refused to drink it.
And the soldiers guarding the former emperor were given money at that time corresponding to a six-month salary.
In the second letter, Orlov thanks Catherine for the timely bribery of the soldiers, but hints that "the guard is tired."
An excerpt from the second letter:
“He himself is now so sick, I don’t think he lived until evening… about which the whole local team already knows and prays to God to get him out of our hands as soon as possible.”
Orlov confirms his readiness to save Ekaterina from her "sick" husband, and at the same time threatens her: "All the local team" is still only "praying to God", but we can, after all, disperse. And then, "Mother", figure it out yourself as you want.
In response to this letter, Catherine sent two more people to Ropsha. The first is Paulsen, a gof surgeon: according to the testimony of Andreas Schumacher, he hit the road without drugs, but with "the tools and items necessary to open and embalm a dead body." The second is GN Teplov, who in encyclopedias is called "a philosopher, writer, poet, translator, painter, composer and statesman." The figure is very "slippery" and does not evoke the slightest sympathy.
From the "yoke" Teplova prayed to save him M. V. Lomonosov, and Trediakovsky complained that Teplov "scolded him as he wanted and threatened to stab him with a sword." Austrian ambassador Mercy d'Argente, in a report to Kaunitz, gave him the following description:
"Recognized by everyone as the most insidious deceiver of the whole state, however, very clever, insinuating, greedy, flexible, because of the money he allows himself to be used for all things."
A. V. Stepanov, in his work of 1903, called him "a famous fool and scoundrel", and S. M. Soloviev - "immoral, brave, intelligent, dexterous, able to speak and write well."
For some "immodest words" Teplov fell into disgrace under Peter III - this pushed him to the conspirators. It was he, according to some, who conveyed Catherine's orders regarding her husband to Orlov. The emperor could not be left alive - and therefore he was killed.
The assassination of Peter III
In his third letter to Catherine, Alexei Orlov informs about the death of the emperor and the circumstances of his murder - and it turns out that the "dying" Peter was, to put it mildly, not too sick:
"Mother, the merciful Empress. How can I explain, describe what happened: you will not believe your faithful slave, but how I will tell the truth before God. Mother! I am ready to go to death; but I myself do not know how this misfortune happened. You cannot have mercy on death. Mother - he is not in the world. But no one thought of this, and how could we plan to raise our hands against the sovereign! But, sovereign, trouble happened (We were drunk, and he too). He argued at the table with Prince Fyodor, we did not have time to separate, but he was no longer. We ourselves do not remember what we did, but everyone is guilty to the same, deserving of execution. Have mercy on me, even for my brother. I have brought you my confession, and there is nothing to look for. Forgive me or order me to finish quickly. The light is not sweet, they angered you and ruined souls forever."
It follows from the letter that the "terminally ill" emperor, not paying attention to the "colic", on the day of the murder sat quietly at the card table and himself got into a fight with one of the murderers.
Alexei seems to be guilty, but the tone of the letter shows that he is not really afraid of the anger of "Mother". And, indeed, why should he be afraid: Catherine is not in the right position now to quarrel with the Orlovs. Here Count Nikita Panin walks nearby, and this count really wants to become regent under his pupil - Tsarevich Pavel. Only the "janissaries" interfere with him.
And at the end of this letter, Alexei Orlov demands a reward: after all, they ruined their souls because of you, so come on, "Mother Empress", fork out.
About Catherine's reaction to the news of her husband's death, Rulier reports:
"On this very day, when this happened, the Empress sat down at the table with excellent gaiety. Suddenly the same Orlov appears, disheveled, in sweat and dust … Without a word, she got up, went into the study, where he followed; minutes she called Count Panin to her … the empress returned with the same face and continued to dine with the same gaiety."
Frederick II, by the way, called Catherine II "the new Maria de Medici" - it was a hint of a possible conspiracy of this French queen with the assassin of Henry IV.
"Suspicions will remain with the empress, who inherited the fruit of what she had done," the French ambassador Beranger wrote to Paris in a report of 23 July 1762.
Antoine-Bernard Cailard, secretary of the French embassy (since 1780), and then - the French ambassador to Russia (1783-1784), wrote:
"The unfortunate sovereign, despite the efforts made to intoxicate his head with many wines, rejected the poisoned drink, being wary of its bitter and scalding taste, pushed the table away with force, shouting:" Villains, you want to poison me."
Danish diplomat A. Schumacher also reports that at first they tried to poison Peter "with a drug prepared by the state adviser Kruse," but the emperor refused to drink it. Therefore, the assassins had to strangle the deposed emperor.
The French envoy Laurent Beranger reports the same:
"Four or five days after the overthrow, Tervu went to Peter, forcing him to swallow the potion by force, in which he dissolved the poison with which they wanted to kill him … The poison did not produce a quick effect and then they decided to strangle him."
Who is this Tervue? Kruse, about whom Schumacher wrote? Some believe that Beranger calls G. Teplova by this name.
Rulier (who had extensive connections at the court of Catherine, and E. Dashkova is considered one of his main informants) in his Notes says this about the last moments of the emperor's life:
"In this terrible struggle, in order to drown out his cries, which began to be heard far away, they rushed at him, grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground; Because of his wounds, fearing for this punishment, they called to their aid two officers who were entrusted with guarding him and who at that time stood at the door outside the prison: the younger prince Baryatinsky and a certain Potemkin, 17 years old. They showed such zeal in the conspiracy that, despite their first youth, they were entrusted with this guard.), so he was strangled, and he expired in their hands."
So, it took the joint efforts of four physically very strong people to strangle the "dying" emperor: they were A. Orlov, G. Teplov, F. Baryatinsky, G. Potemkin.
A. Schumacher writes:
"The fact that he died just such a death shows the state of his corpse, on which his face turned black as it should be when hanging or strangled."
According to the official version, this happened on July 6, 1762. However, some believe that the emperor was killed earlier - on July 3: his death was allegedly hidden until the 6th due to the preparation of the necessary manifestos and the need for cosmetic treatment of the corpse mutilated during the murder. Indeed, from Shtelin's notes it becomes clear that he learned about Peter's death on July 5, while the official announcement of it was only on the 7th. Schumacher, referring to N. Panin (with whom he was on friendly terms since the time of the service of both in Stockholm) writes;
"It is known that the sovereign died there on July 3, 1762".
To humiliate the dead emperor and emphasize his "dislike for Russia", V. I. Suvorov received a secret order to deliver from Oranienbaum a set of Holstein military uniform, which was put on the body of Peter - in which he was buried.
Many consider the direct assassin of Emperor Alexei Orlov. In her memoirs, Ekaterina Dashkova also calls him such:
"When the news of the death of Peter III was received, I was so upset and indignant that, although my heart refused to believe that the empress was an accomplice to the crime of Alexei Orlov, I only overcame myself the next day and went to her" (naive young fool imagined herself almost the head of a conspiracy, and did not understand that her opinion did not matter in the eyes of really serious people).
The murder of the emperor A. Orlov, as we remember from the above quote, is also reported by K. Ruhliere. He calls his accomplices G. Teplov, F. Baryatinsky and G. Potemkin.
However, Caillard, referring to A. Orlov's story in Vienna in 1771, calls Baryatinsky the murderer: it was he who allegedly "threw a napkin around the emperor's neck, holding one end and passing the other to his accomplice, who stood on the other side of the victim." But is it possible in this case to trust Alexei Orlov?
Schumacher, in turn, claims that the direct executor was Schvanovich, who strangled Peter with a rifle belt. Perhaps Shvanovich was the "assistant" of Baryatinsky, whose name Kaillard did not name?
It is curious that the son of Shvanovich (also the godson of Empress Elizabeth, who at one time served as an orderly for another regicide - G. Potemkin) from November 1773 to March 1774 was the ataman of one of the regiments of E. Pugachev, who declared himself the escaped Peter III. He also served as the secretary of his military collegium.
Young Shvanovich translated into German the "personal decree of the emperor" instructing the governor of Orenburg, Reinsdorp, to surrender the city. This decree, sent to St. Petersburg, caused great concern there:
"Try to find out: who is the writer of the German letter, from the villains sent to Orenburg, and whether there are strangers between them," Catherine wrote to Reinsdorp.
It was M. Shvanvich who became the prototype of A. Shvabrin, the antihero of the novel by A. S. Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter".
In March 1774 young Shvanovich surrendered to the authorities, he was demoted and sent to Turukhansk, where he died in November 1802.
I think everyone knows about Grigory Potemkin. Alexey Orlov will become famous in many areas: the victory in the Battle of Chesme, the kidnapping of "Princess Tarakanova" in Livorno, the breeding of a new breed of trotters and even the fact that he brought the first gypsy choir to Russia from Wallachia, laying the foundation for the fashion for gypsy singing.
During the reburial of the ashes of Peter III, by order of Paul I, A. Orlov was forced to carry the imperial crown in front of the coffin of the murdered emperor. He apparently took this commission as a sign that the circumstances of the death of Peter III are known to his son, because eyewitnesses talk about the complete decay and genuine fear of this, until then, not afraid of either God or the devil, "giant". Immediately after the ceremony, he, taking with him his only daughter, left Russia, and it was very much like an escape.
A. Orlov dared to return home only after the murder of Pavel.
Other regalia were compelled to carry the knight marshal F. S. Baryatinsky (regicide) and general-in-chief P. B. Passek (member of the conspiracy). Baryatinsky was sent to the village immediately after this ceremony. His daughter dared to ask for her father. Paul replied:
"I also had a father, madam!"
But back in July 1762.
The manifesto, stating that the deposed emperor died of hemorrhoidal colic, was composed by G. N. Teplov, for this grateful Catherine granted him 20 thousand rubles, and then gave him the rank of privy councilor and appointed him a senator. Teplov was the confidant of Catherine II in all matters related to the case with the Shlisselbursk prisoner - Emperor John Antonovich. It was he who drew up secret instructions for the prisoner's guards, including the one that ordered him to be killed when trying to free him. Thus, he went down in history as a person involved in the death of two Russian emperors - along with Catherine II.
Giacomo Casanova in his memoirs speaks of Teplov's homosexuality: "He loved to surround himself with young people of pleasant appearance."
One of these "young people" (a certain Lunin, the uncle of the future Decembrist) tried to "court" Casanova.
The testimony of the great adventurer and seducer is confirmed by the complaint of Teplov's servants, who in 1763 dared to complain to Catherine II about "forcing them to sodomy": for this complaint they were all exiled to Siberia.
The manifesto on the death of the emperor, of course, failed to deceive anyone - neither in Russia nor in Europe. Hinting at this obvious lie, d'Alembert wrote to Voltaire about his refusal to invite Catherine II:
"I am very susceptible to hemorrhoids, and he is too dangerous in this country."
The secretary of the French embassy, Rulier, wrote to Paris:
"What a spectacle for the people, when they calmly ponder, on the one hand, how the grandson of Peter I was deposed from the throne and then killed, on the other hand, the great-grandson of John gets bogged down in chains, while the Anhalt princess takes possession of their hereditary crown, starting with regicide their own reign."
The posthumous "life" of the emperor
However, despite all the manifestos, rumors began to spread among the people that the conspirators did not dare to kill the emperor, but only hid him, announcing his death. The funeral, which surprised everyone, also contributed to this - very modest, hasty, clearly not consistent with the status of the deceased. To which, moreover, the wife of the deceased did not appear: "I followed the persistent advice of the Senate, who cares about her health." And the new empress was somehow not too worried about the observance of mourning. But that's not all: the murder of her unloved husband was not enough for Catherine, she wanted to humiliate him again, even dead, and therefore refused to be buried in the imperial tomb of the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress - she ordered to be buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. All this once again demonstrates the low mental abilities of the adventurer. What did it cost her to arrange a demonstrative funeral corresponding to the high position of her husband and appear at them to the people in the role of a grief-stricken widow? And do not rush to "enjoy life", at least at first to observe elementary decency. Septimius Bassian Caracalla was clearly smarter than her, saying after the murder of his brother (Geta): "Sit divus, dum non sit vivus" ("Let it be a god, if only he was not alive"). But, as we remember from the article Ryzhov V. A. Emperor Peter III. The way to the throne, Catherine, who was being prepared to marry some of the small neighboring German princes, did not receive a good education. She apparently did not read Roman authors, and began her reign with a major mistake, giving rise to doubts about the death of the legitimate emperor. An attempt to prevent the appearance of impostors by showing the people the body of the murdered emperor (despite the fact that his face was black and his "neck was wounded") did not help. Rumors spread throughout the country that instead of the Tsar-Sovereign, someone else was buried - either a nameless soldier, or a wax doll. Pyotr Fedorovich himself either languishes in some kind of dungeon, like Ivan Antonovich, or fled from the murderers and, unrecognized, now walks around Russia, watching how unrighteous officials of the "prodigal wife Katerinka" and cruel landowners oppress the unfortunate people. But soon he "will declare himself", will punish the cheating wife and her "lovers", will order the landlords to be driven out, which is at the same time with her, and will give land and freedom to the people loyal to him. And the ghost of "Emperor-Emperor Peter Fedorovich", indeed, returned to Russia. About 40 people at various times declared themselves the escaped Peter III. We will not now talk about Emelyan Pugachev - he is known to everyone, and the story about him will be too long and stretch for a whole series of articles. Let's talk about some others.
In 1764, the ruined Armenian merchant Anton Aslanbekov called himself Tsar Peter, who fled from the "worthless wife Katerinka". This happened in the Chernigov and Kursk provinces. In the same year, in the Chernigov province, a certain Nikolai Kolchenko declared himself Emperor Pyotr Fedorovich. Both impostors were arrested and, after a torture investigation, exiled to Nerchinsk.
In 1765, the Cossack of the Chebarkul fortress Fyodor Kamenshchikov calls himself a "Senate furrier" and informs the workers of the Kyshtym plant of the Demidovs that Emperor Peter III is alive. At night, he allegedly, together with the Orenburg governor D. V. Volkov, travels around the neighborhood "to investigate the people's grievances."
In the late summer of 1765, three fugitive soldiers appeared in the Usman district of the Voronezh province, one of whom (Gavriil Kremnev) declared himself Emperor Peter III, others - Generals P. Rumyantsev and A. Pushkin. In the village of Novosoldatskoye, 200 one-courtiers joined them, defeating the hussar team sent against them. In Rossosh they were joined by another 300 people. It was possible to cope with them only by the end of autumn.
In 1772, Trofim Klishin, a one-man palace from Kozlov, began to tell that Peter III "is now safely with the Don Cossacks and wants to go with arms to regain the throne."
In the same year Fedot Bogomolov, a fugitive serf of Count RI Vorontsov from the village of Spasskoye, Saransk district, taking advantage of rumors that Peter III was hiding among the Cossacks, declared himself emperor. After his arrest, there were attempts to free him, and the Cossack of the Trehostrovno village, Ivan Semennikov, agitated the Don Cossacks to go "to rescue the king."
In 1773, in the Astrakhan province, the robber ataman Grigory Ryabov, who had escaped from penal servitude, called himself Peter. Bogomolov's supporters who remained at large joined him. In Orenburg in the same year, the captain of one of the battalions stationed there, Nikolai Kretov, "signed up" as impostors. And this was already very unpleasant - for the first time, under the name of the murdered emperor, it was not a fugitive soldier, not a Cossack without family and tribe, and not some small bankrupt merchant, but an acting officer of the Russian army who spoke.
In 1776, the soldier Ivan Andreev was placed in the Shlisselburg fortress, who declared himself the son of Pyotr Fedorovich.
With the most successful of the impostors, Emelyan Pugachev, the Peasant War (and not a riot at all) came to Russia, which, according to Pushkin, "shook Russia from Siberia to Moscow and from the Kuban to the Murom forests":
"All the black people were for Pugachev. The clergy were benevolent to him, not only priests and monks, but also archimandrites and bishops. One nobility was openly on the side of the government."
The ghost of the murdered emperor also "walked" outside of Russia.
In 1768, a prophecy written in Latin that Peter III did not perish and would soon return to Holstein, spread in Kiel:
Peter III, divine and revered, will rise and reign.
And it will be marvelous only for a few."
The appearance of this text is associated with the fact that Paul I, under pressure from his mother, renounced his rights to Holstein and Schleswig that year. This was very painful in Kiel, where they pinned great hopes on their new duke - the heir to the throne of great Russia. And since Paul will not come now, Peter had to return.
In the Chronicle of Memorable Events of the Chlumec Manor (Josef Kerner, circa 1820, the author refers to documents from the archive of Hradec Kralove), we suddenly read that in 1775The rebellious peasants of northern Bohemia are led by "a young man who pretends to be an exiled Russian prince. He claims that, as a Slav, he voluntarily sacrifices himself to the liberation of the Czech peasants." Speaking about the "Russian prince", Kerner uses the word verstossener - "expelled", "outcast". Currently, Czech historians identify this self-styled "Russian prince" with a certain Sabo, who is reported in the "Chronicle" of Karl Ulrich from the city of Benesov:
“1775. Stunning, terrible news was heard about the mutiny of the peasants near Khlumets and Hradec Kralove, where they did evil to people, robbed churches, killed the people. only this became known at the court and our sovereign Emperor Joseph, he ordered the troops to seize them and destroy them. They decided to resist and took a fight."
Some researchers recalled that not all the "German colonists" of the Volga region who joined Pugachev were precisely Germans. Among them were Czech Protestants from the Hernguter sect. It has been suggested that after the defeat of Pugachev, one of these Czech rebels could have fled to Chlumec or Hradec Kralove and here try to use a familiar scheme. Introduce myself as a "foreign prince" and appeal to the people: they say, even from Russia I saw the suffering of Czech peasants. And, behold, he came to set you free, or perish with you, "death is better than a woeful life" (why shouldn't he quote the Old Testament Book of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach?).
However, the most amazing and incredible were the Montenegrin adventures of the "resurrected emperor". But, perhaps, it is worth talking about them in a separate article. In the meantime, let's return to Russia.
It seems surprising, but Paul I asked Gudovich when he ascended the throne: Is my father alive?
Consequently, even he admitted that Peter all these years was locked in a stone cage of some fortress.
After the coup
Despite the death of the legitimate emperor, the position of the usurper was extremely difficult. Chancellor of the Empire M. I. Vorontsov refused to swear allegiance to Catherine, and she did not dare to arrest him, but even to dismiss him - because she understood: for her, an artful visiting German, in fact, there is no one behind her, except for a bunch of crazy and always drunk accomplices, for Vorontsov - state apparatus of the Russian Empire.
At any moment the Orlovs and other "janissaries" can be seized and sent to eternal hard labor, and she - at best, expelled from the country. Because she is not needed, she is superfluous, there is a legitimate heir, Tsarevich Pavel (he was 8 years old at that time, and he understood everything), and there are those who want to become regents until he comes of age.
Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Pavel Petrovich as a child, 1761
Rulier reports that when Catherine arrived in Moscow for the coronation, "the people fled from her, while her son was always surrounded by a crowd." He also claims that:
“There were even conspiracies against her, the Piedmontese Odar (Saint-Germain) was an informer. He cheated on his former friends, who, already dissatisfied with the empress, arranged new kovas for her, and asked only for money as the only reward. to him as an empress, in order to elevate him to the highest degree, he always answered: "Empress, give me money," and as soon as he received it, he returned to his homeland."
Rulier is referring to the conspiracy of F. A. Khitrovo, who, like Potemkin, was a horse guard and an ardent supporter of Catherine. But he, like many others, believed then that it was only about her regency, and was outraged by the usurpation of power. In addition, he was dissatisfied with the rise of the Orlovs and, especially, with the intentions of Grigory Orlov to marry Catherine. The conspirators intended to "get rid" of the Orlovs, starting with Alexei, who "does everything, and he is a great rogue and the reason for all this," and "Gregory is stupid." But Khitrovo was arrested - on May 27, 1763. It was this failed conspiracy, by the way, that played a decisive role in Catherine's decision to abandon her marriage to G. Orlov. And Odar's "former friends", about whom Rulier speaks, are Nikita Panin and Princess Dashkova, who were also supporters of Catherine's regency.
Knowledgeable contemporaries called Odar the "secretary" of the conspiracy. The ambassadors of France and Austria reported to their homeland that it was he who had found money for Catherine from the British to organize a riot. After the victory of the conspirators, he, for some time, left for Italy, having received from the new empress a thousand rubles "for the road." In February 1763 Odar returned to St. Petersburg, where he took the position of a member of the "commission for the examination of trade". Catherine gave him a stone house, which he rented out to the Dashkov couple. After the disclosure of the Khitrovo conspiracy, Odar received another 30 thousand rubles, but this money, apparently, did not seem enough to him, because he got in touch with the French ambassador, becoming his informant. Some claim that he also "worked" with the Saxon ambassador.
Having knocked out of Catherine all the "30 pieces of silver" due to him, the famous adventurer left Russia on June 26, 1764. Finally, he said to the French envoy Beranger:
"The Empress is surrounded by traitors, her behavior is reckless, the trip she embarks on is a whim that could cost her dearly."
What is most striking is that in July of that year, during Catherine's trip to Livonia, there really was a force majeure situation: second lieutenant of the Smolensk regiment V. Ya. Mirovich tried to free the last of the living emperors of Russia - John Antonovich.
Odar also guessed the fate of "Catherine Malaya" - Princess Dashkova, whom he betrayed in time:
"You are vainly striving to be a philosopher. I am afraid that your philosophy may turn out to be stupidity," he wrote to her from Vienna in October 1762.
The favorite really soon fell into disgrace.
If this mysterious man, indeed, as Schumacher claimed, was Saint-Germain, then he did not lose ties with the Orlovs, even when he went abroad. Foreign sources claim that in 1773 Count Saint-Germain met with Grigory Orlov in Amsterdam, acting as an intermediary in the purchase of the famous diamond, which was presented to Catherine II.
And Saint-Germain met Alexei Orlov in Nuremberg - in 1774, and, according to the testimony of the Margrave of Bradenburg, he came to see him in the uniform of a general of the Russian army. And Alexei, greeting the "count", respectfully addressed him: "My father." Moreover, some argued that Saint Germain was next to Alexei Orlov on the flagship Three Saints during the Battle of Chesme, but this is already from the category of historical legends, which cannot be proved.
F. A. Khitrovo asserted that Catherine handed over to the Senate a commitment she had signed to hand over the throne to her son Pavel immediately after he came of age, but this document was withdrawn in 1763 and "disappeared." This is very similar to the truth, because a German woman who did not have any rights to the throne had to agree to the conditions set by her accomplices. After all, not only N. Panin, but even E. Dashkova was sure that Catherine could only claim regency - nothing more. She also went out to the soldiers who were at the Winter Palace not alone, but with Paul, making it clear to everyone in whose favor the coup was supposedly taking place. However, it was not then that she overthrew and killed her unloved husband in order to transfer the throne to her unloved son. Who, moreover, turned out to be very similar to his father. Catherine II hated and feared Paul, she spread the dirtiest rumors about him, even hinted that she had not given birth to him from her husband-emperor, which made the position of the heir precarious and unstable. Catherine allowed herself to publicly insult and humiliate Paul, calling him either "a cruel creature" or "heavy baggage." Paul, in turn, did not like his mother, with good reason believing that she was usurping the throne that belonged to him and seriously feared arrest or even murder:
“When the empress lived in Tsarskoe Selo during the summer season, Pavel usually lived in Gatchina, where he had a large detachment of troops. He surrounded himself with guards and pickets; patrols constantly guarded the road to Tsarskoe Selo, especially at night, in order to prevent any unexpected enterprise. He even determined in advance the route along which he would leave with his troops, if necessary …
This route led to the land of the Ural Cossacks, from where the famous rebel Pugachev appeared, who in 1772 and 1773. managed to make himself a significant party, first among the Cossacks themselves, assuring them that he was Peter III, who escaped from the prison where he was held, falsely announcing his death. Pavel very much counted on the kind welcome and loyalty of these Cossacks”(L. L. Bennigsen, 1801).
His forebodings did not deceive him. Pavel, declared by his murderers "half-mad", who, "just like his father, was incomparably better than his wife and mother" (Leo Tolstoy), nevertheless died during the next coup d'etat.
