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Authors: Catherine the Great
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reached the year 1368 or 1369” and complains that Ivan Elagin’s (1725–93) historical essay ends with 1389. 86 She wrote
Notes Concerning Russian History
(1783–84), based on Tatishchev’s history, for her grandsons and the general reader, and rebutted Russia’s critics: “These notes concerning Russian history were composed for youth at a time when books on so-called Russian history are being published in foreign languages, which should rather be called prejudiced works.” 87 In the 1790s, Catherine continued to work on, along with her memoirs, her history, while overseeing its translation into German. In 1794, when she began the final memoir, she wrote to Grimm that “the passion for history has carried away my pen.” 88 Thus this final memoir became much more a historical document than her previous memoirs.
CATHERINE’S HISTORICAL LEGACY
After Catherine’s death in 1796, historians were not as fortunate as Voltaire had predicted they would be with Catherine’s legacy because of political circumstances and the still underdeveloped nature of Russian historiography. 89 Under the repressive rule of her son, Paul I (reigned 1796–1801), and her grandsons Alexander I (reigned 1801–25) and Nicholas I (reigned 1825–55), historians did not have access to her papers. 90 Unable to write recent history, Russia’s budding historians continued to work on history before 1700. Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826), Russia’s first imperial historiographer, left off at the year 1611 in his twelve-volume
History of the
Russian State (1818–29), recently reissued and still a bestseller. 91 In contrast, under Catherine, there had been a boom in Russian and translated biographies of Peter the Great, with twenty-four in all and eight in 1788 alone. 92 It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century, after the death in 1855 of the reactionary Nicholas I, that a handful of historians had the material, training, and skill to write full histories of Russia that reached Catherine’s reign. 93 However, no full history of Catherine and her reign has ever been published in Russia. In the one major attempt, Vasily Bilbasov (1838–1904), due to problems with the censors, published only the first two volumes (covering 1729–64) of
History of Catherine II,
and volume 12 (on publications abroad about her) (1890–96). 94
The void of information on her reign left by serious history was filled by European popular biographies that include such lurid titles as
The Secret History of the Loves and Principal Lovers of Catherine II, Empress of Russia
(1799),
The Romance of an Empress
(1892),
The Favorites of Catherine the Great
(1947), and
The Passions and Lechery of Catherine the Great
(1971). The most salacious representations of Catherine are primarily French and British. In France, the tradition of Salic law prohibited women rulers; moreover, the backlash against the beheading of Marie Antoinette in 1793 affected Catherine’s European reception as a woman on the throne. Catherine’s first two scholarly biographers set the tone and provided the material for later works. In his very negative
The Life of Catherine II, Empress of Russia
(1797), the French journalist Jean-Henri Castéra was most influenced by the recent publication of Rulhière’s long-suppressed account of her 1762 coup and interviews with those who had been at Catherine’s court. He portrays all of her actions as undertaken for the sake of trysts with her lovers rather than for politics and survival. His English translator, Tooke, doubled the size of the book by adding much scholarly material from German and Russian histories that substantially corrected Castéra’s bias against both Russia and England; Castéra then retranslated it back into French with his own improvements. The biography was banned in Russia, but Russian translations circulated in manuscript. 95 Along with many false details, Tooke also describes secret, true events, such as Catherine’s
Notes Concerning Russian History
(1783–84), based on Tatishchev’s history, for her grandsons and the general reader, and rebutted Russia’s critics: “These notes concerning Russian history were composed for youth at a time when books on so-called Russian history are being published in foreign languages, which should rather be called prejudiced works.” 87 In the 1790s, Catherine continued to work on, along with her memoirs, her history, while overseeing its translation into German. In 1794, when she began the final memoir, she wrote to Grimm that “the passion for history has carried away my pen.” 88 Thus this final memoir became much more a historical document than her previous memoirs.
CATHERINE’S HISTORICAL LEGACY
After Catherine’s death in 1796, historians were not as fortunate as Voltaire had predicted they would be with Catherine’s legacy because of political circumstances and the still underdeveloped nature of Russian historiography. 89 Under the repressive rule of her son, Paul I (reigned 1796–1801), and her grandsons Alexander I (reigned 1801–25) and Nicholas I (reigned 1825–55), historians did not have access to her papers. 90 Unable to write recent history, Russia’s budding historians continued to work on history before 1700. Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826), Russia’s first imperial historiographer, left off at the year 1611 in his twelve-volume
History of the
Russian State (1818–29), recently reissued and still a bestseller. 91 In contrast, under Catherine, there had been a boom in Russian and translated biographies of Peter the Great, with twenty-four in all and eight in 1788 alone. 92 It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century, after the death in 1855 of the reactionary Nicholas I, that a handful of historians had the material, training, and skill to write full histories of Russia that reached Catherine’s reign. 93 However, no full history of Catherine and her reign has ever been published in Russia. In the one major attempt, Vasily Bilbasov (1838–1904), due to problems with the censors, published only the first two volumes (covering 1729–64) of
History of Catherine II,
and volume 12 (on publications abroad about her) (1890–96). 94
The void of information on her reign left by serious history was filled by European popular biographies that include such lurid titles as
The Secret History of the Loves and Principal Lovers of Catherine II, Empress of Russia
(1799),
The Romance of an Empress
(1892),
The Favorites of Catherine the Great
(1947), and
The Passions and Lechery of Catherine the Great
(1971). The most salacious representations of Catherine are primarily French and British. In France, the tradition of Salic law prohibited women rulers; moreover, the backlash against the beheading of Marie Antoinette in 1793 affected Catherine’s European reception as a woman on the throne. Catherine’s first two scholarly biographers set the tone and provided the material for later works. In his very negative
The Life of Catherine II, Empress of Russia
(1797), the French journalist Jean-Henri Castéra was most influenced by the recent publication of Rulhière’s long-suppressed account of her 1762 coup and interviews with those who had been at Catherine’s court. He portrays all of her actions as undertaken for the sake of trysts with her lovers rather than for politics and survival. His English translator, Tooke, doubled the size of the book by adding much scholarly material from German and Russian histories that substantially corrected Castéra’s bias against both Russia and England; Castéra then retranslated it back into French with his own improvements. The biography was banned in Russia, but Russian translations circulated in manuscript. 95 Along with many false details, Tooke also describes secret, true events, such as Catherine’s
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