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cahnMore diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
"Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-21 10:45 am (UTC)Elizabeth making Peter her heir was atually one of her rare political masterstrokes, because it removed him as her rival - he was ahead of her in the sucession as defined by her own mother - , without granting him all the sympathies the imprisoned Ivan and his siblings (and parents) got. The story of Anna Leopoldovna and her children is tragic in both books. Something I did not know or had forgotten: Anton Ulrich, EC's brother, Anna's unwanted husband and father of her children, fathered a lot of other children as well during those decades of imprisonment. On the female servants. Who then become servants to the imprisoned family. (They went as far as the ship to Denmark with their half siblings when the later were finally released but weren't alllowed to actually enter Denmark, because they were Russian citizens - this, btw, seems to have been Danish bureaucracy, not Russian cruelty. What then became of then, our author does not say.) On the less represensible and nobler side, Anton Ulrich really did refuse to be released without his children when Catherine offered this to him upon her ascension and prefered remaining with them.
What I also had forgotten or didn't know: Julia Mengden originally did go with Anna Leopoldovna, but then Elizabeth separated the two. She thought Anna Leopoldovna did know where the fabled jewles and riches of Anna Ivanova's lover Biron were hidden and in her letter instructed her official to tell Anna Leopoldovna that if she didn't share this knowledge, Julia would be tortured, but Anna L. really did not know.
Elizabeth could be petty and greedy like that - another Elizabeth deed was that when in her later years a dying job on her hair went wrong and she had to cut it, she ordered all the ladies of the court to cut their hair and wear wigs as well - , but she must have been very charming and attractive in general; Catherine (II), who has a lot of criticial things to say about her, and who only met her when Elizabeth was in her mid 30s, nonetheless reports in her memoirs how magnetic she was and how one could not look away when she was in the room, and how Elizabeth looked great both in male and female dressing. This of course was true for Catherine as well. As opposed to Elizabeth, who always had been a beauty, even as a girl, former Sophie hadn't been as a girl (where she'd been repreatedly told she was unattractive) and there are somewhat contradictory reports on her looks even through her 20s, when they were at their best (for every glowing Poniatowski like rave, there's a "small eyes, slight hook in her nose" critique from soneone else), but she, too, was magnetic, and she was far more calculating and self disciplined and smart than any of the previous empresses, with an eighteen years long time (between her arrival in Russia and her ascension to the throne) providing more than enough training ground.
One Catherine detail which had not been known to me before were her instructions on how to raise her grandkids. Remember, just like Elizabeth had taken newborn baby Paul immediately away from his mother (Catherine) and raised him herself until her death, Catherine when Paul's (second) wife produced future Czar Alexander and his brother Constantine immediately took the boys away and took them for herself. And one thing I noticed in the instructions to their teachers she wrote and which our author quotes is is this:
To forbid and discourage Their Highnesses from inflicting any harm on themselves and any other human; hence it shouild be proscribed that anyone be beaten or scolded in their presence and they shouild not be allowed to beat up, pinch, or scold a man or beast or to hurt anyone in any other way. It should not be allowed that Their Highnesses torture or kill innocent animals such as birds, butterflies, dogs, cats or otherws or that they damage anything on purpose, but they should get accustomed to taking care of a dog, bird, squirrel or any other pet at their disposal and to working for the benfits of these down to the potted flowers, which they should water.
Now, aside of these instructions making pedagogical sense, what it immediately made me think of, but which our author does NOT mention, is that this is utterly unlike the education Catherine's husband received (young Peter definitely was beaten and scolded), AND unlike what she claims in her memoirs he was allowed to do. Because one of the things Catherine says which the pro-Peter historians doubt is that he tormented animals in her presence. (Including dogs.) So Catherine's need to vilify her late husband not withstanding, these instructions made me believe the animals thing could very well have been true.
In conclusion, thank you, Mildred, these were two instructive books. Since the author is remarkably not nationalistic - for example, when talking about the Anna Ivanova period is remembered as the time where Germans dominated the court, he points out that firstly, the Germans in question all came originally from different German states, had lived in Russia for many years and were at each other's throats, i.e. were rivals, not a unified German party, and secondly, it was in this very era that the Russian nobility got the massive concessions from the government which plagued every ruler since because they daren't take all those privileges away again, so the Russian nobles had the least cause to complain, as opposed to the general Russian population -, I am somewhat afraid to check whether he's still alive, and how he's doing these days....
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-21 01:08 pm (UTC)Yeah, and I was even more impressed by him pointing out that the way Sophie was punished by her governess for not being diligent at her studies was that the governess would read an interesting book silently, whereas if Sophie had done a good job, the governess would read out loud as a reward...whereas young Peter was deprived of dinner, tied to a table, or made to kneel down on dried peas with bare knees until his feet swelled up. Says Anisimov, This might be one of the reasons that Peter III and Catherine were very different people.
Not the only reason, but I agree with "one of." Much like Lehndorff saying that FW's upbringing had an influence on the negative side of Fritz's character.
Julia Mengden originally did go with Anna Leopoldovna, but then Elizabeth separated the two. She thought Anna Leopoldovna did know where the fabled jewles and riches of Anna Ivanova's lover Biron were hidden and in her letter instructed her official to tell Anna Leopoldovna that if she didn't share this knowledge, Julia would be tortured, but Anna L. really did not know.
Yep, this has come up! I believe Julia actually volunteered to go with Anna rather than be separated from her, which is why torturing her made such a good threat.
UGH ELIZABETH.
what it immediately made me think of, but which our author does NOT mention, is that this is utterly unlike the education Catherine's husband received (young Peter definitely was beaten and scolded), AND unlike what she claims in her memoirs he was allowed to do.
Oh, that is interesting! I like the way you make very convincing connections.
In conclusion, thank you, Mildred, these were two instructive books.
I'm glad! Like you, I found him readable, opinionated, and informative, if not without flaw, and I was hoping the Empress Elizabeth book was good too (and I'm glad to hear it had more depth; Five Empresses was fun and all, but I would have liked more serious history to be included too.)
Since the author is remarkably not nationalistic...I am somewhat afraid to check whether he's still alive, and how he's doing these days....
Surprisingly well, at least according to his university page! 74 years old, tenured professor at the HSE University campus in St. Petersburg, tons of publications, named Best Teacher in 2014 and 2015, Winner of the HSE University Best Russian Research Paper Competition in 2021...
Of course, what's not listed on the page (or even what's listed in Russian that may give clues), I cannot say. But at least not in prison, mysteriously dead, mysteriously disappeared, or in exile.
Thank you for the write-ups of these two books!
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-21 02:24 pm (UTC)The Elizabeth biography does have more detail on all the politics, and a few battles - Kunersdorf and Zorndorf especially. Incidentally, the bibliography "for further reading" given at the end doesn't say, because it's for an English reading audience, but I bet A. used German sources as well and at least can read German, because he actually works in a Schiller quote at one point without listing it as such, to wit: "The Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go." ("Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit getan, der Moor kann gehen." It's from Schiller's second play, "Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua", and the "Moor" in question is Muley Hassan.)
Something of which there's way more in the biography, for example, is about the Shuvalovs - not just Elizabeth's lover Ivan S. but mainly Peter Shuvalov his cousin, the ruthless brain of the family operation, who actually had some good ideas for economic reforms like a customs reform which put Russia ahead of France (only got rid of old fashioned feudal customs with the French Revolution) and Germany (by which he means the HRE and successive German states - only in the mid 19th century could you travel without having to go through customs and paying at every little fiefdom.
Oh, and something else there's more about is a gruesome case from the last years of Elizabeth's reign which didn't go to trial until Catherine's reign. It reminded me of Delphine Lalaurie, the serial killer from New Orleans who abused and murdered her slaves to a degree that even the pre Civil War South objected. Similarly, in serf-oppressing Russia the following was too much:
In 1756 after the deaht of her husband, Captain of Cavalry Gleb Saltykov, twenty -five-year-old Darya Nikolevna Saltykova inherited all his estates and a house in Moscow. Having greedily gained authority, this 'monster of the human species' as she was termed later in the decree of Catherine II tortured not just dozens of people. Witnesses testified that Saltychikkha personally killed or ordered to be killed no less than 100 persons. The Justice Collegium, after investigating and evaluating all the testimony, concluded that Saltykova was the morderess 'if not of all hundred persons reported by denouncers, then undoubtedly of the 50 persons about whom checking has provided information that positively inclones to her incrimination." The Justice Collegium statedfurther: "Among the number of those murdered were two or three men, the rest were all women. Several of these women were beaten to death by stable hands or other serfs of Saltykova who punished them with excessive cruelty upon the orders of the mistress, but for the most part she killed them herself, punishing with loegs, boards, rolling pins, etc. The women were subjeted to punishments primarily for inept washing of floors and linen."
Perhaps most noteworthy in Saltykova's crimes was not her fantatical, obviously pathological cruelty, but the fact that the murders were committed by a sadistic noblewoman not on some remote godforsaken estate but openly in Moscow on Kurznetskaia Street, and that many including police officials knew about them.
Makes you call for revolution, doesn't it. Oh and I thought you might like this passage:
Frederick II's, policy, which was built on calculation of the inertia of some states and the confusion of others, and which included elements of adventurism, choice, and the lightning-quick changes of allies depending on the demands of the moment, by its very nature was unacceptable to Bestushev-Rinumin and incited his sharp opposition. IN his view, there was no stateman in Europe with such an 'inconstant, aggressive, turbulent and outrageous character and manner' as the King of Prussia.
Pre- later 20th century German historians: Der Einzige!
19th century Prussian historians in particular: The various stupid favourites of the weak woman prevented the Czarina Elizabeth from remaining Fritz' ally. Can't think of another reason than Austrian bribery.
Anisimov: Fritz was undoubtedly the most brilliant monarch of his age, but good lord, that character.
Oh, that is interesting! I like the way you make very convincing connections.
Like I said: these are all sound principles in general, and would that more royals in particular had been raised to follow them, but they are also pretty specific instructions written by a woman who lived for eighteen years with a man raised directly in contrast to them and who may or may have not been cruel to powerless creatures as a result. On a lighter note, it amuses me she made sure to include the princes should be responsible for watering their own plants.
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-22 11:57 am (UTC)I actually deleted sentences to that effect, like "what's listed in Russian that may give clues" used to be "I can't say if he's compromised his ideals or gotten more conservative in his old age and is now writing paeans to Putin." Let's hope!
I bet A. used German sources as well and at least can read German, because he actually works in a Schiller quote at one point without listing it as such, to wit
Oh, neat! His webpage only lists English and French, but hey, my LinkedIn doesn't list German either. ;)
Anisimov: Fritz was undoubtedly the most brilliant monarch of his age, but good lord, that character.
LOL, yep! Anisimov's take in a nutshell.
(Me: That's my Fritz. <3 :'D)
On a lighter note, it amuses me she made sure to include the princes should be responsible for watering their own plants.
Yes, that's a nice detail. Good job, Catherine.
Fritz: Princes
the worst of Hohenzollernsshould be responsible for not accidentally hitting dogs with homemade arrows.Seydlitz: Kings should be responsible for not intentionally hitting their horses between the eyes with sticks, FRITZ.
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-22 12:57 pm (UTC)It amused me that when listing all the paradoxes, he included "wrote a book called 'The Anti-Machiavel' with a self explanatory title, then spent the rest of his life acting against its beautiful principles". Thus joining the overwhelming majority of historians who did not actually read The Anti-Machiavel.
If I ever get around to writing The Rokoko Babysitting story, I'm so including not just the dog incident but also Fritz starting to write the Anti-Machiavell and little Heinrich mouthing off at him, thus causing some instant rewrites.
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-22 05:42 pm (UTC)Wait, what's this? That doesn't seem very in character.
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-26 12:29 pm (UTC)Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-23 04:59 am (UTC)...wow. That's just... yeah.
Pre- later 20th century German historians: Der Einzige!
19th century Prussian historians in particular: The various stupid favourites of the weak woman prevented the Czarina Elizabeth from remaining Fritz' ally. Can't think of another reason than Austrian bribery.
Anisimov: Fritz was undoubtedly the most brilliant monarch of his age, but good lord, that character.
Heeeee!
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-23 04:55 am (UTC)OMG!!!! So, I used to feel sorry for Anton Ulrich, but now I... really... don't as much :( (I mean, I still feel sorry for the imprisonment and his family and all that! But definitely WAY less sorry about him being with a wife who wasn't into him.)
Because one of the things Catherine says which the pro-Peter historians doubt is that he tormented animals in her presence. (Including dogs.) So Catherine's need to vilify her late husband not withstanding, these instructions made me believe the animals thing could very well have been true.
*nods* I had that same reaction when reading her words, without knowing exactly what Catherine had said about Peter -- that it's exactly the kind of thing you would say if you had actually seen someone do that and were terrified of your kids (or, well, your grandkids that you stole from their mom) turning out like that, and I wondered if that was a specific thing Peter had done. So, yeah, I agree totally with you here.
Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II
Date: 2022-08-23 07:52 am (UTC)Same here. I mean, sadly servants being molested and raped was probably all too common even in households where the people they served weren't state prisoners limited to a few rooms, but that's no excuse.
that it's exactly the kind of thing you would say if you had actually seen someone do that and were terrified of your kids (or, well, your grandkids that you stole from their mom) turning out like that
Especially since Catherine's son Paul had dealt with his insecurity about his biological descent by trying to be as much like Peter as possible. I mean, a harsh upbringing doesn't necessarily lead to tormenting animals (you can also, like Fritz, become an animal lover and kick your servants instead), but it's not exactly unheard of, either. Anisimov, who as mentioned is a firm believer in the traditional image of Peter, says he "amused himself by tormenting dogs" even into his 30s.