Vulgar and intimate loss of empresses. Pleasures of the Ancient World

As a soldier, rude and promiscuous - and practically monogamous; vengeful cuckold - and tender lover; the father of hundreds of illegitimate children - and a lonely man, betrayed by those closest to him in the bed of love. This is how the facts that have come down to us paint the image of Peter.

Peter the Great was not only a great man, but also a rather sick man, with an unhealthy psyche. Like all epileptoids, he had a restless, extremely unbalanced disposition, an irresistible craving for travel, an iron will and powerful passions.

Evdokia Lopukhina

The court ladies were engaged in the sexual education of the boys of the royal family in imperial Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. But this was all after Peter. And at the court of his mother, the widow of Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna, such exercises would have seemed impious to everyone. Ancient splendor and piety were especially revered here, which is why the young king could not even dream of any sexual pleasures before marriage. True, even then Aleksashka Menshikov was in his servants, who had had sexual experience since the age of 14 (which he himself admitted more than once). But Tsar Peter Alekseevich, at the thought of carnal pleasures, then only blushed and brushed it off. And in the same way, completely trusting in the choice of his mother, he married at the age of 17 Evdokia (Avdotya) Lopukhina.

The Lopukhins were thin-born and poor nobles, and this was for the best, Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna reasoned, they would see a benefactor in the tsar and would not get into politics. In addition, Evdokia-Avdotya was an extremely quiet, well-behaved and beautiful girl, a real pava from Russian fairy tales.

At first, everything went as the old queen planned: the daughter-in-law regularly gave birth to children (of whom, however, only Tsarevich Alexei survived) and did not look for the soul in her “light-Petrushenka”. Yes, but he got bored very quickly with his silent and stupid wife. Three years later, both queens - mother and wife - found out that Peter had a "foreign woman", Anna Mons, "Monsikha" wound up on the side of Peter. We will talk about this outstanding woman ahead. And here we will only finish the sad story of the abandoned tsarina Evdokia Lopukhina.

Peter was so carried away by Anna Mons that he almost forgot to think about his lawful wife. He did not even answer her tearful letters. And when he returned from his first trip abroad, he posed the question point-blank: divorce, which means freedom for him, and imprisonment in a monastery for her. Evdokia began, it was, to persist. The king did not stand on ceremony with her - he took away his son, and exiled herself to Suzdal, to a convent.

Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof. Artist N.N. Ge

A turbulent time began for his transformations, among which for ten years he completely forgot about the nun Elena, as they now began to call the former queen. And suddenly - like a bolt from the blue: it was revealed that in her imprisonment the nun had an affair with one officer, a certain Glebov! And more than that, this Glebov was among the conspirators who planned to overthrow Peter and give power to his son from Evdokia Lopukhina - Tsarevich Alexei. Glebov was put on a stake, Tsarevich Alexei was strangled in the casemate, and the nun Elena was sent to the North, to a distant monastery and left with her only a dwarf servant.

Here, Evdokia Lopukhina spent many years, survived both Peter and his second wife Catherine, and was finally returned to Moscow by her grandson Peter II. He surrounded the grandmother with honor. - but what was this honor to her when her whole life turned out to be trampled down? ..

Black-eyed "Monsikha"

Here we will talk about the main love of Tsar Peter Alekseevich. But first, a few words about some other circumstances of his personal life.

In his treatment of women, Peter quickly adopted the habits of the rough environment of sailors, soldiers and artisans. It was convenient and hassle free. At Menshikov's palace or at his sister Natalya's, he always found hay girls at his service, whom he paid like an ordinary soldier: a penny "for a hug." It is difficult to say now what was meant by the word "hug" - sexual intercourse or a date. But as a result of these “penny” hugs, about 400 “wives” and “girls” had children from Peter! When asked where her child came from, such a lucky woman answered: “The sovereign bestowed mercy.”

This did not prevent both mothers and their children from eking out a modest, almost poor existence. But the one whom Peter almost made his lawful wife - Anna Mons - did not have children from him, but she had a palace, estates, and a lot of jewelry. Moreover, she took bribes for assistance in settling all sorts of lawsuits, because not a single official dared to oppose the “royal sweetheart”.

So who was this Anna Mons? There are different information about her origin, it is only known that her father was a craftsman, but died early. The mother was left with three children in her arms: two girls (Anna and Matrena) and a boy (his name was Willem - and he will also play a fatal role in Peter's life). The children were wonderfully beautiful, smart, lively, graceful. And extremely smart. Probably, for some time Anna led the life of a courtesan - in any case, she was credited with a lot of lovers. Among them was Franz Lefort, a friend of Peter, who introduced the tsar to Annushka. The meeting took place in Nemetskaya Sloboda in Moscow.

From that moment on, the neat and neat European Sloboda became, as it were, a model of the future Russia for the Tsar-Transformer, and Anna Mons became the ideal of a woman. Anna Mons was so beautiful, graceful, feminine that one contemporary wrote in delight: “She makes all men fall in love with her, without even wanting it herself!”

Her relationship with the king lasted about ten years. Peter was already planning to make Anna his legal wife and queen, but it suddenly turned out that she had been cheating on him for a long time with one elegant German, Saxon Koenigsek, from whom she even had a daughter! It was discovered only after the sudden death of Koenigsek - he drowned during the crossing.

Anna Mons was arrested, but by the way, the king was inclined to forgive her. He loved his Annushka too, too much! My? No, you can’t command your heart, and the already forgiven Anna Mons firmly announced to him that she wanted to marry the Prussian envoy Kaiserling. The tsar retreated - however, then he had already met his future second wife Catherine.

Anna lost her husband early, fell ill with consumption. But even sick, she could not do without love pleasures, She took a handsome Swede to her maintenance. Now she paid for the joy of love, and very generously ...

Catherine the First

Mistress Maid

Ambassador Kaiserling still begged forgiveness from Peter for Anna Mons, and in Menshikov's chambers, among other "girls", the ruddy Katerina Trubacheva was already marked by the king. However, the Russians called her that, before they came to the Baltic, to her homeland, the girl was called Marta Skavronskaya. The past of this "girl" was quite stormy and frivolous.

She lost her parents early and was taken in by Pastor Gluck. In his house, she helped the pastor with the housework. The pastor had his disciples. One of them later recalled that Martha made them too small sandwiches, saving food. But she was generous with every kindness. And to such an extent that the pastor no longer knew how to get away with it. It was then that a Swedish dragoon turned up, whom Martha married - hardly a girl. But the war separated the newlyweds, the dragoon disappeared somewhere. Ten years later, when Martha became the Russian Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, the Swede laid claim to his wife. However, her new husband, Pyotr Alekseevich, did not wallow with him: he punished him with a whip and exiled him to Siberia.

But first, the young beauty was captured by the Russians. She was taken as a concubine by some soldier who bludgeoned her, then the commander-in-chief Count Sheremetev took the woman away from him. Then old Sheremetev assigned it to Menshikov. Having had plenty of fun with her, Menshikov, just in case, gave her as a concubine and to the tsar. Such was Danilych's custom in general: to give his mistresses to the sovereign. Perhaps which of them will become the queen, then she will no longer forget him, Menshikov, her lover and benefactor.

And this time Menshikov did not fail! Katerinushka managed to get into the soul of the king with her caress and fun. They say she alone could console him during an outburst of rage. She simply approached the king, laid his head on her chest, and he, like a child, fell asleep almost immediately.

Soon Katerinushka Trubacheva became the favorite, and then the legal wife of Peter.

Amazing correspondence between them! The terrible tsar sends flowers and mint leaves to his wife, which she liked so much, and at some point even reproaches her for being inattentive to him, not answering all letters. Peter grew old and needed her more and more. And Ekaterina Alekseevna ...

The clouds gathered over her at the very moment of her highest triumph. In May 1724, Peter crowned his wife as Russian empress. And in the Secret Order there was already a denunciation, which came to the king only six months later. From him, Peter learned that his wife had been cheating on him with her chamberlain for a long time, and the whole Court, the whole of Peter knew about it. And that chamberlain's name is Willem Mons! Yes, yes, it was the brother of that very "Monsikha" who almost herself did not become the Russian Tsarina (yes, perhaps, she would have become - she just did not want to!)

The investigation continued for several days. Willem Mons was accused only of embezzlement. During the interrogation, he nobly kept silent about his connection with the queen. Peter was grateful to him for this. But still, Willem Mons was beheaded a few days later.

The king brought the unfaithful wife to the place of execution, and her muscle did not flinch. On that day in the evening she was betrothed her eldest daughter to a German duke and was cheerful, serene. A loving wife and mother… Returning from the celebrations to her rooms, she found a jar of alcohol on the table. The head of Willem Mons floated in alcohol.

But Catherine did not betray her feelings. It is understandable: her own life hung in the balance, and she was not only a woman and a mistress, she was the wife of the king and the mother of his children ...

Pyotr Alekseevich also took this into account, and forgave his wife.

Soon he died - now doctors say that from syphilis.

Before his death, he shouted: "Give everything back! .." - but to whom, he did not have time to say.

And his unfaithful wife succeeded him.

However, the throne did not bring her happiness. Catherine began to age and decline rapidly. Peter loved it when women drink, and now she was drinking alone. Swollen, disheveled and always drunk, she wandered around the palace. Menshikov ruled on her behalf. He was said to have become her lover again.

God gave her two more years of life ...

In November 1703, the first merchant ship, the Dutch "fleeboat", which arrived from Friesland with a cargo of salt and wine, entered the mouth of the Neva. The captain was offered a banquet in the house of the St. Petersburg governor, he and his people were showered with gifts; but earlier he had to take advantage of the hospitality of the pilot, who brought the ship into the harbor. He dined with him and his wife in a nondescript house on the very bank of the river, was treated to national dishes, supplemented by some delicacies borrowed from his native country, and in conclusion did not want to be indebted for courtesy and generosity: he took a piece of buttery cheese from his travel bag , a piece of canvas and offered them to the hostess, asking permission to kiss her.

Do not be stubborn, Katya, - said the pilot, - the canvas is glorious, and you will get such shirts as you never dreamed of in your youth.

At that moment the Dutchman heard the sound of an open door behind him, turned around and almost fainted: on the threshold stood a man, obviously a noble dignitary, embroidered with gold, hung with orders, and bowing to the ground, answering the words of welcome addressed to him by Katya's husband, Perhaps this anecdote may seem doubtful; in any case, it must be attributed to a later time: in 1703, Catherine, apparently, did not yet take a place at the hearth of her future husband. But other than that, the story is quite plausible; he draws Peter in his favorite company. To appear as a pilot on Dutch and other ships, to treat their captains at his table, to mystify them by the simplicity of his situation and his treatment, was always in Peter's habits. As for the house on the Neva embankment, it exists i: now. It was built by Dutch workers on the model of those seen by the traveler in 1697 in Saardam. Roughly hewn logs support a low roof, where resin wood shingles have replaced beautiful red tiles. On the lower floor, above which there is an attic, there are two rooms, separated by a narrow corridor, and a kitchen. There are seven windows in total. On the outside, the house is painted in Dutch style with red and green paint. At the end of the roof and at two corners, decorations in a martial spirit: a mortar and exploding bombs, all wooden; inside there is a white canvas on the steppes, and the bad window frames are painted with bouquets of flowers. The room to the right served as an office and reception room, to the left - a dining room and a bedroom.

Now, on the site of the latter, a chapel has been built, where people come to pray and put a candle in front of the image of the Savior; under which Elizabeth inscribed the first words of the Lord's Prayer. Numerous pilgrims always crowd in this chapel. In another room, some reminiscences are collected: wooden furniture made by a great husband and - alas! - Finished in 1850, a wardrobe, two chests of drawers, a table, a bench, on which Peter usually sat in front of the door to breathe fresh air and admire his flag, fluttering opposite on the bastions of the Peter and Paul Fortress; also the utensils and tools he used.

The house, barely eighteen meters by six, was neither roomy nor luxurious, and was dear to its owner. When the king had to part with him in order to move to the palace, also very modest, as already mentioned, he was very sorry for him. Generally, although Peter

he loved to build cities, but did not find any pleasure in living in them. In 1708, he decided to arrange for himself a more rural residence in the unattractive surroundings of his beloved capital. In the beginning, he chose a remote corner on the banks of the Strelna - a small river, fast-flowing and cold. Here he built himself in one summer, taking part in the work himself, a house, already more comfortable, with two halls and eight rooms: now Catherine was already with him and children appeared. There are no traces left of the house. But a huge linden tree was preserved nearby, in the branches of which a gazebo was arranged, where they climbed the stairs. Pyotr climbed in there to smoke and drink tea from Dutch cups, listening to the tune of a samovar, also taken from Holland, because this utensil, which has since become a national treasure in Russia and distributed in Europe under this new name, is also of Dutch origin. In Russia, it is only heated with coals, in a cheaper way, instead of being heated with alcohol, as is customary in its homeland. In the neighborhood of the linden, majestic oaks rise under the name: "Petrovsky Nursery". They were planted by the king himself. Not far from them, pine trees flaunt, grown by him from seeds collected in the Garussky mountains and overshadowing the entrance to the palace, which later appeared in this secluded corner, called Strelna. After the coronation of Catherine, already the empress, she had to reckon with the new requirements of her position and think about the placement of the court. But then Peter immediately got tired of his dacha. It was getting too crowded and noisy. He hurried to get rid of her, giving the princess Anna (1722), and he himself moved to Peterhof. Alas! the imperial retinue and courtiers followed him there as well. And in Peterhof, in turn, a palace arose, more and more luxurious, with a French-style park and fountains, an imitation of Versailles. Peter refused to live in this palace himself; a Dutch house was built for him nearby, still bearing that name, still very simple, although already far from the original unpretentiousness, with a slight imprint of Flemish luxury. The walls of the bedroom, which is very narrow, are faced with tiles, purely glazed; the floor is covered with oilcloth with flowers, and the fireplace is decorated with lovely samples of Delft porcelain. From the bed, Peter could see Kronsloot and admire the ships of his fleet. A few steps away was a small bay, from where, on a boat, through a canal, the tsar sailed to the mouth of the Neva.

Thanks to Peter's habits of nomadic life, the number of his country houses grew. A house was built in Tsarskoe Selo, wooden, like all the others, in six rooms, which he sometimes occupied with Catherine. A rather dubious legend derives the name of this area, which later became so famous, from the name of a certain Sarah, to whom Peter allegedly sometimes came to drink milk. "Saari-mojs", the Finnish name of the place, meaning "upper village", or "sublime", seems to indicate a more reliable etymology of the word. In Reval, again, a wooden house preceded the heavy and clumsy palace built at the end of the reign. Peter avoided the palace whenever possible. The house, which has survived to this day, consists of a bedroom, a bathhouse, a dining room and a kitchen. The bedroom has a double bed, rather narrow, with a platform at the foot. Three batmen were stacked on this platform, protecting the sovereign's sleep.

Peter, as you know, did not like to sleep for a long time. As a rule, at five o'clock in the morning we find him already on his feet, an hour or two earlier if there were urgent business; a secret meeting, hastily dispatching a courier, or supplying a departing envoy with additional instructions. Getting out of bed, the king walked around the room for half an hour, in a short dressing gown that did not cover his bare legs, in a white knitted cap trimmed with green ribbons. At this time, he was no doubt discussing and distributing the work of the day in his head. When he finished, his secretary Makarov came in and read the daily reports submitted by the heads of institutions. Then Peter had a quick, but hearty, breakfast and left on foot if the weather was good, or left in a single cart, very modestly harnessed by one horse. He went to the docks to inspect the ships under construction, then invariably ended his journey with a visit to the Admiralty.* There he drank a glass of vodka, ate a bagel, and again worked until one o'clock, that is, until dinner. In the small palace, now surrounded by the St. Petersburg summer garden, the kitchen was located next to the dining room, and food was served through a window in the wall. Peter could not stand the presence of numerous servants at the table, and this feature is also purely Dutch. When he dined alone with Catherine, what happened

most often, the servants consisted of one page, chosen from among the youngest, and a maid, the most devoted to the empress. If several guests were present at the table, the chief cook, .Felten, served the dishes himself with the help of one or two batmen. Finally, when dessert was served and a bottle of wine was placed in front of each guest, the order was given to all who served to leave.

That's what dinners are like. There were no others in the king's house. During the celebrations, they dined at Menshikov's, who presided over sumptuous meals, where up to two hundred meals prepared by French chefs were served, with an abundance of gold dishes and valuable porcelain. There were two dining rooms in the large summer palace: one on the lower floor, the other on the second; both with adjoining kitchens. Peter bothered in 1714 to take care of the equipment of these kitchens with petty care. He ordered them to be arranged, comparatively, with rather extensive tiles laid out on the walls, “so that,” he said, “it would be pleasant for the hostess to follow the cooking and, if necessary, cook with her own hands.” Not being a blue stocking - in the house of her former owners, they say, she was more involved in washing - Catherine had culinary talents.

Peter ate a lot. In October 1712, in Berlin, he dined with the crown prince, having already dined with his chancellor, Golovkin, and in both places he ate with great appetite. Talking about the last feast, the envoy of the King of Poland, Manteuffel, praises the king, who “ surpassed himself

himself,” because “he didn’t growl, didn’t p, didn’t pick his teeth;

at least I didn’t see or hear that”... And, in order to give a hand to the queen, he even put on “quite dirty gloves.” The king carried his instrument with him: a wooden spoon with ivory trim, a fork and an iron knife with a green bone handle. He loved most of all national simple dishes: cabbage soup, porridge, black bread, he never ate sweet dishes and fish, which his stomach could not digest; in Lent he ate fruits and pies. The last three years of his life, yielding to the insistence of doctors, he sometimes completely refused wine or reduced his use of it. From this arose a reputation for abstinence, celebrated by some travelers who visited Russia at this time, among other things by Lang, who accompanied the king during the Persian campaign. Then he drank sour cabbage soup, flavored with English balsam, but could not resist the temptation to drink

several glasses of vodka. However, such intervals of moderation were short; he quickly returned to his former habits, avoiding only the mixing of spirits and sticking to Medoc and Cahors. Finally, on the advice of the Scottish doctor Ereskins, who used him for drinking, he settled on Hermitage wine.

The royal stables were simply furnished. In the carriage sheds of the palace, we see two four-seater carriages for the empress and the familiar one-wheel carriage for the emperor - that's all. This odnokolka was red, very low. In winter, it was replaced by small sleds. Peter never rode in a carriage, except to honor some distinguished guest, and in that case he used Menshikov's carriages. The temporary worker's departure was magnificent. Even when he rode out alone, six horses, harnessed in crimson velvet, adorned with gold and silver, drew his gilded fan-shaped carriage; his coat of arms was emblazoned on the doors; a princely crown crowned the top; runners and footmen in luxurious liveries walked in front, pages and musicians followed behind, dressed in velvet liveries embroidered with gold; six chamber junkers rode near the doors of the carriage, and a platoon of dragoons completed the procession.

Peter was completely alien to such luxury. His usual costume, when he was not wearing a uniform, differed little from the peasant dress. In summer it consisted of a caftan of thick dark cloth from the Serdyukov factory, which was under the patronage of the tsar, a taffeta waistcoat, woolen stockings, as you know, darned, rough shoes with thick soles and very high heels, with steel or leather buckles; on the head is a triangular felt or velvet hat. In winter, the hat was replaced by a lambskin hat, shoes - by soft deerskin boots; the caftan was made on fur - sable on the floors, squirrel on the back and in the sleeves. Only during campaigns did the tsar wear the uniform of the captain of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment: a caftan of thick green Dutch cloth, lined without taffeta of the same color (now blue), with a narrow gold galloon and large copper buttons; vest made of very thick suede. A hat of galloon, a sword with a copper hilt without gilding in a black scabbard, a collar of plain black leather. However, Peter loved the white, thin linen made in Holland, and only in this respect he decided to change his predilection for simplicity, dependent in part on thrift-

sti which, as one can imagine, stemmed from higher considerations. When Catherine unfolded before him the magnificent coronation dress, which we have already mentioned, he, having flared up, with an angry movement grabbed and shook the clothes embroidered with silver so that that a few sequins fell on

Look, Katya, - he said then, - all this will be swept away, but this is almost the salary of one of my grenadiers?

Holland failed to instill in Peter his love and habits of cleanliness and home order. In Berlin in 1718, the queen ordered the furniture to be removed from the Montbijou house intended for Peter, and the precaution was not superfluous. The dwelling itself had to be repaired after his departure. "Jerusalem ruin reigned there," said the MacCountess of Bayreus. Only in one respect does instinctive repulsion disagree with unscrupulous habits, in which the proximity of the East was reflected in the king's home environment: he could not bear insects, which then - how, alas! and now, too often, Russian dwellings swarmed. At the sight of a cockroach, Peter almost fainted. The officer, to whom he came to dine, showed him a cockroach, which he, thinking to please the guest, nailed it in a conspicuous place. Peter jumped out from behind the table, fell on the poor fellow with club blows and left.

Peter's entertainment corresponded to tastes. There was little grace in them. He did not like hunting, in contrast to his ancestors, the exterminators of bears and wolves, passionate lovers of falconry. This semblance of war offended his practical mind. He did not like a real war either and submitted to necessity only for the sake of the expected benefit. However, once at the beginning of his reign, he was carried away to hunt with greyhounds; but he set his own conditions: that there were neither those who arrived, nor the hounds. The demand was fulfilled, and he played a cruel joke on his friends, taking pleasure in letting them feel the conventional side of such entertainment. The dogs would not obey without the horsemen and houndsmen, they threw themselves under the horses' feet, rushed in the packs, pulling the riders from their saddles. A minute later, half of the hunters lay on the ground, and the hunt ended in general confusion. Next

The day before, Peter himself offered to resume yesterday's pleasure, but the hunters who had fallen into a trap refused. Most of them were badly hurt and forced to lie in bed.

Piotr hated cards - "the pleasure of cheaters", in his words. For the sea and land forces there was a strict order, under the threat of the most severe punishments, not to lose more than a ruble in the evening. Sometimes, in order to please foreign sailors, his guests, he agreed to play the part of the Dutch "gravias". He played willingly and "well at chess. He smoked and sniffed tobacco. In Koppenbrugge in 1647, he exchanged snuffboxes with the Elector of Brandenburg. But his main pleasure and predominant passion was water. In St. Petersburg, when the Neva was already three-quarters covered with ice and there was no more than a fathom of unfrozen space left, he stubbornly continued to sail on the first boat that came across. Often, also in the dead of winter, he ordered a narrow channel cut through the ice and indulged in his favorite sport. In 1706, having arrived in his capital and found the streets flooded and he clapped his hands like a child on the floor of the room intended for him, two feet full of water. serious illness, but even in this case he insisted that the treatment would be more successful during the voyage, and in Riga in 1723, suffering from an attack of severe fever, which forced he was to leave the ship, ordered to move his bed to the frigate. Having lain there throughout his illness, he attributed his recovery to this method of treatment. Towards the end of his life, even for an afternoon rest, he stretched out on the bottom of the boat, which he usually found everywhere at his service.

However, all the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, following the example and his efforts, were provided with the means to travel by water. He appointed high-ranking dignitaries yachts with two twelve or four eight-oared boats, the rest of the boats are simpler, depending on the rank. He personally wrote the charter for the use of these courts. On the days appointed in advance, when the tsar's flag flew at all four corners of the capital, the entire flotilla, under pain of a heavy fine for those absent, was to gather near the fortress. At the signal given by a cannon volley, they moved on:

Admiral Apraksin - at the head of a yacht painted white and red; behind him - the royal boat, where Peter, in a white sailor's suit, was sitting at the helm. Catherine usually accompanied him. On some of the richly decorated ships sat musicians. Thus, they went to Strelna, Peterhof, Oranienbaum, where a banquet awaited the sailors,

Like later Great Catherine, Peter was very fond of animals, especially dogs. In 1708, a poor village priest named Kozlov was tortured in the Preobrazhensky order for obscene speeches about the person of the tsar; witnesses heard his story, how he saw the sovereign kissing a dog in Moscow. And there really was such a case: the poor priest had the misfortune to pass along the street at the moment when the tsar's favorite dog, Finette, rushed into the carriage of his master and began to rub his muzzle against his mustache, meeting no resistance from his side. Finette, called Lisette by some contemporaries, who obviously confused her with the king's favorite mare, had a rival in the face of a Great Dane, a effigy of which is among the things carefully preserved in the gallery of the Winter Palace, a gift from the Shah of Persia. The mare, small in stature but with steely muscles, shared this honor with the Great Dane. She served Peter near Poltava. It is said that Finetta once had a political role. Under pain of death, it was forbidden to submit petitions to the king. And so, the friends of one official, sentenced to whipping for crimes in office, managed to tie a witty appeal to the mercy of the sovereign to the collar of a lovely animal. The invention was crowned with success, the example aroused imitation, but Peter quickly weaned the imitators.

A great man often found pleasure and amusement in rather bad company; it must, however, be confessed that he is not at all accustomed to good society, the Margravess of Bayrete is a terrible gossip and the most evil tongue of the eighteenth century; however, there must be some truth in her rather amusing account of meeting the Tsar while the latter was in Berlin in 1718. Peter, who had already had the opportunity to meet the Margravess five years ago

butt, recognizing her, rushed to her, grabbed her in an armful, covering her face with furious kisses. She fought back, hit him in the face, but he did not let her go. She complained, she was advised to be patient, she submitted, but avenged herself, mocking the wife of an ill-mannered monarch and her retinue. When the queen was four hundred so-called "ladies". They were for the most part German servants who performed the duties of ladies, maids, cooks and laundresses. Almost all of these persons held richly dressed children in their arms, and when asked whose children they were, they answered, bowing in Russian from the waist: “The Tsar honored me” ...

The habits and manners adopted by Peter in the German Sloboda were of a somewhat higher order, in comparison with the social level of old Muscovy, little suited to the tone of the courtyards of the refined society of the West. But Peter never interrupted his old acquaintances. In January 1723, while living in Moscow, he divided his evenings between an old friend, the wife of the postmaster Fadenbrecht, to whom he ordered food and drink to be brought, Dr. the sixteenth year went on, and at which they danced until five o'clock in the morning. And this is still an elected society! On March 29, 1706, on the first day of Easter, Peter wrote to Menshikov and forced him to attach the hand of friends who had gathered around him on such a big holiday to the letter. And among the members of this close circle we find a simple soldier, two batmen, and finally a peasant who, due to illiteracy, replaces his signature with a cross, asking for the addition "that he received permission to get drunk for three days."

This does not prevent him from being, in fact, very indulgent. nym to his personal servant. Nartov tells a story about cabinets invented by the sovereign to lock them together with the beds of batmen, who, despite repeated orders and threats, stubbornly continued to spend the night outside the house, wandering around the brothels. Peter hid the keys under his pillow and got up at night to inspect the sleeping cells of his invention, accompanied by Nartov. One fine night, all the cells were empty. Amazement and terrible anger: “Thus the wings of the villains grew. Tomorrow I'll break them off with a truncheon." Morning came, the guilty appeared before the sovereign, but he contented himself with a promise, in case of repetition, to put them in a prison, better guarded and less convenient.

The personal staff of the king consisted of six batmen, including: Tatishchev, Orlov, Buturlin, Suvorov; two couriers for distant parcels, valet Poluboyarinov, secretary Makarov and two assistant secretaries: Cherkasov and Pamyatin. Nartov was also included in this state as an assistant to the king in ivory carving and sawing out of wood, to which Peter often devoted several hours a day. All these people were an exception to the general rule, according to which everyone who had to deal with the sovereign hated him as much as they feared him; but the close servants of Peter the Great adored him, as did the servants of Great Catherine later.

The situation was different with his associates, at the same time usually his favorites: with the exception of Menshlkov, who did not retain such a title for long. For them, temporary indulgence, even weakness, reaching extreme limits, invariably ended in a sharp change of mood and terrible vicissitudes of fate. While all was going well, they were his spoiled children; Peter cared for their health and well-being with vigilant attention; even took care of their marriage. When the catastrophe with the unfortunate Alexei made Alexander Rumyantsev, one of the detectives involved in the capture of the tsarevich, a favorite, one boyar offered him his daughter as his wife, promising her a significant dowry. The son of a small estate nobleman in the Kostroma province, Rumyantsev was poor.

Have you seen the bride? asked Peter.

No, they say she is not stupid.

You have a bride; and here is the groom.

Without further conversations, Matveeva married Rumyantsev. According to some contemporaries, she was already - at the age of nineteen - the sovereign's mistress, and a windy mistress! Having convicted her of infidelity shortly before, Peter chose such a means to put a watchman on her too fragile virtue, without first sparing the beauty from a hefty punishment of “manu propria”.

But later chapters will better explain to the reader how much historical certainty or permissibility lies in this dark area of ​​Peter's intimate life.

Every person is unique. Even the most similar twins have differences, if not in appearance, then in preferences and character. And these preferences are very interesting. Today we will talk not just about the love of various dishes or clothes, we will talk about the sexual preferences of the most famous personalities in our history. However, we will not touch on banalities, but will discuss only the most unusual sexual quirks of great people.

rulers of the Russian state

It was this Russian emperor who abolished serfdom, in honor of which he was named the "Liberator". But in addition to his political successes, Alexander II became famous for his intimate relationships, which, most often, were very short-term. A striking exception was only Catherine Dolgorukaya, with whom the emperor fell in love with no memory. Then she was only 16 years old. Many years later, after the legal wife of Alexander II, Maria, died, the lovers secretly got married. It was a small digression into history. Unusual is the fact that for 15 years, when Alexander and Catherine were together, they indulged in sexual pleasures only on a very hard couch, rarely using the bed. As one of the surviving letters of Ekaterina Dolgoruky tells, it was there that the lovers fell into a frenzy of passion, reveling in each other's caresses.

Since we are talking about emperors, let us also remember Peter III, the husband of Catherine II. He had a very unusual oddity, for which, some historians classify his sexual orientation as non-traditional. The fact is that Peter III could not achieve an erection until his wife put on a male military uniform, and not any, but an enemy one, that is (for that time), the uniform of a German soldier.

Did you know that many historians and experts believe that two Russian rulers died of syphilis - Ivan the Terrible and Lenin!

great creators

The well-known proletarian writer Maxim Gorky was faithful to high ideas not only in relation to his homeland, but also in matters of sex. No, of course, he did not refuse him, however, in his youth, when his peers were already discovering the wonderful world of sexual pleasures with might and main, Maxim behaved a little differently. He also went to "public establishments", but did not take an active part in the action itself, instead, he watched everything, moving to the wall and ... singing folk songs at the same time.

He believed that, in this way, he would be able to help atone for the sins of all those who indulged in orgies before his eyes. Gorky thought that he could distract them from their dirty work and direct them to the true path of purification and love, but not to sex, but to the Fatherland.

Another great Russian writer, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, was known as a supporter of rather aggressive sex.

Turgenev even compared him with the Marquis de Sade himself. Such inclinations of the writer were confirmed by his second wife Anna Snitkina. According to her, among other things, her husband asked her to describe in detail all the sensations that she experienced while having sex with him. She also emphasized that Fyodor Mikhailovich was insanely aroused by the fact that young Anna found him a sexually attractive man.

The reign of the Romanov dynasty began with the demonstrative execution of a three-year-old child and ended with the execution of an entire family.

Between these atrocities lay centuries full of wild and unbridled scenes. Conspiracies, torture, murder, betrayal, lust and orgies - remember the known facts and be surprised at what you did not know.

Mikhail Fedorovich (from 1613 to 1645)

The first of the Romanovs was crowned king at the age of 16, and at that time he could hardly read. The following year, by his decree, the three-year-old son of Marina Mnishek was hanged in Moscow - allegedly the grandson and heir of Ivan the Terrible, to whom individual cities managed to swear allegiance. This was after the heavy Troubles, and the fear of new possible impostors forced the competitor to be eliminated publicly.

Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676)

The father of the future Emperor Peter the Great was a religious maniac, sometimes he prayed for six hours in a row and cracked down on those who missed church services: without asking about the reasons, he ordered them to be thrown into an icy river.

Peter I (1682-1725)

Lifetime portrait of 44-year-old Peter, artist Antoine Pen

Many terrible scenes are described in history, when Peter showed himself to be violent, inhumanly cruel and inadequate to the point of madness. Here are just some of the facts.

Shooting executions. 26-year-old Peter himself cut off heads in front of a huge crowd and forced each of his retinue to take up an ax (unless the foreigners refused, justifying themselves by the fact that they were afraid to incur the hatred of the Russians). Mass executions actually turned into a grand show: the crowd was poured free vodka and it roared with delight, expressing devotion and love to the dashing sovereign. In a drunken stupor, the king immediately invited everyone who wanted to be the executioners, and many agreed.

"Morning of the Streltsy Execution", Vasily Surikov

Death of Tsarevich Alexei. Acutely in conflict with his eldest son, Peter forced him to abdicate and began to zealously investigate his misdeeds, for which he specially created the Secret Chancellery. 28-year-old Aleksey was sentenced to death for treason and, after the verdict, he was tortured in prison: in the presence of his father, he received 25 lashes with a whip. According to some reports, he died from this. And Peter the next day feasted noisily, with an orchestra and fireworks, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava.

"Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof", Nikolai Ge

Execution of a mistress. The next year, Peter sent his former mistress, one of the most beautiful ladies-in-waiting at court, Maria Hamilton (Gamontova), to the chopping block, having learned that she twice provoked miscarriages and strangled the third baby. Although at that time she was already living with another, the king, apparently, suspected that the children could be from him, and was furious at such "murder". At the execution, he behaved strangely: he raised the severed head of Mary, kissed it and calmly began to lecture the people on anatomy, showing the organs affected by the ax, after which he again kissed the dead lips, threw his head into the mud and left.

Maria Hamilton before her execution, Pavel Svedomsky

Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740)

The niece of Peter I, like himself, was a big hunter for entertainment with the participation of dwarfs and "fools" - court jesters. If many of them really were distinguished by their wit, then the inventions of the Empress herself, which led her into stormy fun, were rather obscene.

Once, for example, one of her favorites, the Italian violinist Pietro Miro, nicknamed Pedrillo (Petrillo, Petrushka), laughed off an attempt to ridicule his ugly wife, saying that his “goat” was pregnant and would soon bring “kids”. It immediately occurred to Anna Ioannovna to put him to bed with a real goat, dressed for laughs in a peignoir, and to force the whole yard to bring them presents. Pedrillo, who pleased his mistress, enriched himself by several thousand rubles on that day alone.

“Jesters at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna”, Valery Jacobi (Pedrillo on the left, depicted with a violin, in the center of the picture in a yellow caftan, the famous jester Balakirev jumps above all)

The Empress generally adored all sorts of obscenities, especially gossip and stories of a pornographic nature. Knowing this, specially selected girls were sent to the court, capable of conducting such conversations and inventing more and more stories with juicy details.

Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-1762)

The daughter of Peter I from childhood was known as a beauty and only did what she had fun, but she took care of her own appearance, remaining almost uneducated. She never read, and even in adulthood she did not know that Great Britain is an island.

Most of all, Elizabeth was occupied with masquerades and especially the so-called "metamorphoses", where all the ladies had to appear in men's clothes, and men in women's. Moreover, the empress was convinced that her court rivals had ugly legs and that in men's leggings everyone except her made themselves a laughing stock.

One of her successful rivals, the lady of state Natalya Lopukhina, who was considered a beauty, Elizabeth "mercifully" saved from the death penalty, ordering instead to be whipped, her tongue torn out and exiled to Siberia. Officially, Lopukhina was arrested and tortured in the case of a political conspiracy, but unofficially it was the empress's revenge for repulsed cavaliers and ridicule in her youth.

Natalya Fedorovna Lopukhina, engraving by Lavrenty Seryakov

Finally, Elizabeth doomed to a terrible existence the legitimate heir to the throne, appointed before her death by Anna Ioannovna. Emperor Ivan VI was only a year and a half old when Peter's daughter staged a coup and secretly ordered him to be thrown into prison, forever separating him from his parents and protecting him from human contact. The “famous prisoner,” as he was called after the strictest ban on mentioning his name, was stabbed to death by guards at the age of 23, already under Catherine II.

Catherine II (1762-1796)

33-year-old Catherine overthrew and arrested her own husband and second cousin Peter III, with whom relations did not work out from the very beginning. They were married when she was 16 and he was 17. According to one version, he was infantile almost to the point of dementia and avoided marital duty for 9 years, allegedly not knowing what to do in bed with a woman. According to another version (and Catherine admitted this in biographical notes), he did not love her and did not make attempts to get closer. At the same time, he openly made mistresses and even planned to marry one, but died under unclear circumstances 10 days after the deposition.

Coronation portrait of Emperor Peter III, Lucas Conrad Pfanzelt

Meanwhile, the unfortunate marriage made Catherine herself the greatest mistress on the Russian throne. She gave birth to her first child, the future Emperor Paul I, only 10 years after the wedding, which gave rise to rumors that he was not from Peter, although he looked like him. From different lovers, the empress had two more children, and she gave birth to one in complete secrecy from her husband - in order to distract the emperor and take him away from the palace, her faithful valet set fire to her own house.

Modern painting "The Triumph of Catherine", Vasily Nesterenko (on the right hand of the Empress, her famous favorite, Prince Grigory Potemkin)

The “lecherous empress” brought her last favorite at the age of 60: it was the 21-year-old nobleman Platon Zubov, whom she enriched inexpressibly and who, five years after her death, participated in the murder of her son Paul I.

Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov, artist Ivan Eggink

Alexander I (1801-1825)

The 23-year-old grandson of Catherine came to power as a result of a conspiracy against his own father: he was convinced that if Paul was not overthrown, he would destroy the empire. At the same time, Alexander did not allow the murder, but the performers - officers flushed with champagne - decided otherwise: in the middle of the night they struck the emperor with a powerful blow to the temple with a golden snuffbox and strangled him with a scarf. Alexander, having learned about the death of his father, sobbed, and then one of the main conspirators said in French: “Enough childishness, go reign!”

Alexander II (1855-1881)

Having ascended the throne, Alexander, who had previously lived in a happy marriage with many children, began to have favorites, from whom, according to rumors, he had illegitimate children. And at the age of 48, he began to secretly meet with the 18-year-old Princess Katya Dolgorukova, who years later became his second wife.

Their extensive erotic correspondence has been preserved - perhaps the most frank on behalf of the head of state: “Waiting for our meeting, I am again trembling all over. I represent your pearl in the shell"; “We possessed each other the way you wanted. But I must confess to you: I will not rest until I see your charms again ... "

Drawing of the emperor: nude Ekaterina Dolgorukova

Nicholas II (1894-1917)

The most terrible secret was and remains the death of the family of the last Russian emperor.

For many years after the execution in the basement without trial, the Soviet authorities lied to the whole world that only Nikolai was killed, and his wife, four daughters and son were alive and well and "transported to a safe place where nothing threatens them." This gave rise to popular rumors about the allegedly saved princesses and Tsarevich Alexei and contributed to the emergence of a huge army of impostor adventurers.

In 2015, at the insistence of the Church, the investigation into the death of the royal family began "from scratch." A new genetic examination has confirmed the authenticity of the remains of Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the three Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia, found near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Reconstructed from the remains of the faces of Nicholas II and Princess Anastasia

Then they began to compare them with the genetic materials of Alexei and Maria, found in 2007. The timing of their burial depends on the readiness of the Church to recognize the remains.

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The conspiracy has been revealed! We are dead! - with such an exclamation, Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova burst into Catherine's bedroom and froze on the threshold. The Empress was washing her lace cuffs in the pelvis.
- Empress, what are you doing?
- Can't you see, I'm erasing. What surprises you? I was prepared not for the Russian empresses, but, God forbid, for the wife of some German prince. Therefore, they taught to wash and cook ...

The future empress of the vast Russian empire, Catherine the Great, was born not in a luxurious palace, but in an ordinary German house and received a bourgeois education: she was really taught to clean and cook.

Her father, Prince Christian-August, was the younger brother of a sovereign German prince, but due to a constant lack of money, he was forced to take a job. And Sophia-Augusta-Frederica-Emilia, as Catherine was called in childhood, despite her royal origin, played in the city square with the children of burghers, received slaps from her mother for poorly polished boilers and respectfully kissed the hem of the dress of the wives of wealthy citizens, if they went into house.

Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp and Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst are the parents of the future Empress Catherine the Great.

Catherine's mother, John Elisabeth, was a domineering and riotous woman. It was even rumored that Catherine's real father was none other than Frederick the Great himself. He also proposed the candidacy of the young Princess Sofikhen as a wife to the Russian heir to the throne, Peter, when he heard a rumor that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was looking for a bride for her nephew, to whom she intended to leave the throne.

This is what the future Catherine the Great looked like when she arrived in Russia, being a simple German princess Sophia Augusta Frederica. Portrait by Louis Caravaca

So the little German princess from the dirty city streets ended up in the shining gold of the Russian Imperial Palace. Having received the name Catherine in baptism, the future wife of the heir to the throne began to study with the best court teachers and fabulously succeeded not only in the Russian language, but also in the art of flirting.

Having inherited from her mother an indefatigable sexual temperament, Catherine launched her seduction at the Russian court. Even before the wedding, she flirted so openly with the court don Juan Andrei Chernyshev that, in order to avoid rumors, Elizabeth was forced to send the poor count abroad.

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna at the age of 16 (1745). Groot painting

As soon as Catherine turned sixteen, Elizaveta Petrovna hurried to marry the German princess to Peter, making it clear to her that her only duty was to give birth to an heir.

After the wedding and a magnificent ball, the young people were finally taken to the marriage chambers. But Catherine woke up, as she lay down - a virgin. Peter remained cold to her both on their wedding night and for many months afterwards. Some are looking for the reasons for such an attitude towards his wife in the infantilism and dementia of Peter, others in his tragic love.

Peter III with Catherine II

Peter fell in love with the maid of honor Natalia Lopukhina, whose mother was Elizabeth's personal enemy. Lopukhina Sr. was Anna Ioannovna's favorite lady of state and catered to the Empress in every possible way, humiliating her hated daughter-in-law, Princess Elizabeth.

The historical anecdote has survived. Balls were often held in the Lopukhins' house. Elizabeth was also invited there. Once Lopukhina bribed Elizabeth's maids and offered them a sample of yellow brocade with silver, from which the princess sewed her dress for the ball.

When Elizabeth entered the living room, there was an explosion of laughter. The walls, chairs, armchairs and sofas in the room were upholstered in the same yellow and silver brocade. The humiliated princess rushed out of the palace and sobbed for a long time in her bedroom.

Natalya Fyodorovna Lopukhina. Engraving by L. A. Seryakov.

Some authors explain the hostile attitude towards Lopukhina on the part of Elizabeth Petrovna by successful rivalry in amorous affairs. Subsequently, trying to explain to themselves the reasons for the disgrace that befell her, contemporaries recalled another case:

One day, Lopukhina, famous for her beauty and therefore arousing the jealousy of the empress, decided, either out of frivolity or in the form of bravado, to appear with a rose in her hair, while the empress had the same rose in her hair.

In the midst of the ball, Elizabeth forced the guilty one to kneel, ordered the scissors to be brought, cut off the criminal rose along with the strand of hair to which it was attached, and, having rolled two kind slaps on the guilty person, continued to dance. When she was told that the unfortunate Lopukhina had fainted, she shrugged her shoulders: “ Nothing to her fool!

Empress Elizabeth I Petrovna Romanova

When Peter asked his royal aunt for permission to marry Lopukhina's daughter, Elizabeth decided to take revenge. She accused Lopukhina of high treason, and the court sentenced the unfortunate countess to death. Elizabeth, by her "great mercy", mitigated the punishment. Lopukhina the elder was shamefully whipped on Trinity Square, her tongue was cut out, and she was exiled to Siberia.

After this tragic story with the mother of his beloved, Tsarevich Peter went crazy. But Catherine did not seek to please her husband: she quickly found solace in the arms of the Swedish envoy Count Polenberg. Empress Elizabeth turned a blind eye to the relationship of the young: she needed an heir, but Catherine still could not get pregnant.

Meanwhile, in the bed of the eighteen-year-old princess, one favorite replaced another: Kirill Razumovsky, Stanislav Poniatovsky, Zakhar Chernyshev (brother of Andrei exiled abroad), Lev Naryshkin and the Saltykov brothers, who knew a lot about love. Their mother, nee Golitsyna, was famous throughout St. Petersburg for drunkenness and depravity in the soldiers' barracks - there were rumors that she had three hundred lovers among the empress's grenadiers.

Lev Alexandrovich Naryshkin - the famous court joker and rake of the times of Peter III and Catherine II.

After a few years of marriage, a miracle happened - Catherine became pregnant. Sergei Saltykov openly boasted that he was the father of the future heir, and was expelled from St. Petersburg. Later in Sweden, he spread terrible rumors about the debauchery of the Russian princess and assured that she herself hung on his neck, made appointments, and he supposedly deceived and did not come, which made Catherine suffer unspeakably.

Elizaveta Petrovna was so pleased with the good news that she gave her pregnant daughter-in-law one hundred thousand rubles and a lot of jewelry. The poor German princess, who came to Russia with three dresses and half a dozen handkerchiefs, began to squander the Russian treasury with money.

The born baby was named Pavel and immediately taken away from the young mother. However, Catherine was not interested in her son and never loved him. It is still unknown who was the real father of Paul - they call Zakhar Chernyshev, and Lev Naryshkin, and other lovers of the princess. Among the guesses, an amazing fact is noted: Pavel is unusually similar to his official father, Pyotr Fedorovich - which History does not joke about ...

Peter III and Paul I

After the death of Elizabeth, Peter III ascended the throne and declared that for depraved behavior he would exile Catherine to a monastery, and he would marry Elizabeth Vorontsova, his mistress. But by that time, with the help of her favorites, Catherine had woven a huge network around Peter.

Chancellor Panin, Prince Baryatinsky, Catherine's lover Grigory Orlov and four of his brothers organized a conspiracy against the emperor. But then one of the conspirators got scared and decided to warn the emperor - Peter did not attach any importance to his words, for which he paid not only with the throne, but also with his life.

At the court of Catherine II in Russia, favoritism became a new position, as at the court of Louis XIV in France, and bed careerists were recognized as people who served the fatherland and the throne. For their love efforts, they received palaces and considerable financial resources from the Russian treasury.

The bedroom of Elizaveta Petrovna was inherited for a long twenty years by her successor Catherine.

But Catherine was a passionate woman and could not live without a man. In her palace there was a special room with a huge bed. If necessary, a secret mechanism divided the bed into two parts with a wall - the favorite remained on the hidden half, and on the second, the empress, who had not cooled down from love pleasures, received ambassadors and ministers.

Catherine had a weakness for huge, gigantic men with a sensual face. Potential lovers were represented to the Empress by Chancellor Panin and Countess Bruce, who at court was called the “assay lady”.

Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin

Panin was Catherine's constant lover - he was smart, not demanding, not jealous. He appeared in the bedroom of the empress no more than once a week, but in his free time in his harem, consisting of serf concubines - every day he acquired a new girl, and gave away those who were bored to friends or sold them.

For Catherine, he chose tall soldiers who were not distinguished by intelligence, so as not to create rivals for himself. Once Panin and Countess Bruce recommended the handsome Potemkin.

Catherine was embarrassed by the fact that the lieutenant-general had only one eye (Grigory Orlov once knocked out his second in a fit of jealousy), but the countess convinced Catherine that Potemkin was going crazy with love for the empress.

Empress Catherine II and His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky

After a night of love, Catherine promoted Potemkin to lieutenant general, gave him a magnificent palace and a million rubles for its arrangement. This is how bed careers were made in one night under Catherine.

But it seemed to Potemkin that the imperial gifts were not enough - once at dinner he demanded that Catherine make him a member of the State Council. Catherine was horrified:
But my friend, that's impossible!
- Wonderful! Then I go to the monastery. The role of your kept woman does not suit me!
Catherine began to cry and left the table. Potemkin did not come to the favorites' room. Catherine cried all night, and the next morning Potemkin was appointed senator.

Once Potemkin left for St. Petersburg on business for a few days. But the Empress could not be left alone for a long time. Once in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, Catherine woke up at night from the cold. It was winter, and all the wood in the fireplace had burned down. She slept alone - Potemkin was in St. Petersburg on business.

Catherine II in Tsarskoye Selo park for a walk. Painting by artist Vladimir Borovikovsky

Not finding servants behind the screen, Catherine went out into the corridor, along which a stoker with a bundle of firewood on his shoulders was just walking. From the sight of this young Hercules of enormous growth, carrying firewood like a feather, Catherine took her breath away.
- Who are you?
- Court stoker, Your Majesty!
"Why didn't I see you before?" Fire up the fireplace in my bedroom.

The young man was delighted with such favor of the empress and lit a huge fire in the fireplace. But Catherine was not satisfied:
“Don’t you understand how to keep the Empress warm?”
And the stoker finally understood. And the next morning, he received an order to grant him the hereditary nobility, ten thousand peasants, an order never to return to St. Petersburg and change his surname to Teplov - in memory of how he warmed the empress.

In her old age, Catherine reached complete debauchery. Hefty men were no longer enough for her - and she turned her passion to a young gypsy, presented to her by Potemkin.

Countess Natalya Alexandrovna Zubova (née Suvorova) is the only daughter Field Marshal Suvorov , who affectionately called her "Suvorochka".

There were rumors at court about how the empress treated her maids and young peasant women. At the final exam at the Smolny Institute, the Empress drew attention to a beautiful graduate, who turned out to be Suvorov's daughter.
Give your daughter to me as a favorite.
Having heard about the adventures of the Empress, Suvorov replied:
- Mother, to die for you - I will die, but I will not give you my Suvorochka!
The angry empress sent the old man along with her daughter to their estate, forbidding them to appear at court - which was exactly what Suvorov needed.

In the absence of Potemkin, Catherine had many lovers: Ambassador Bezborodko and his secretaries Zavadovsky and Mamonov, the nephew of the midwife Zorich, guard officers Korsakov and Khvostov, and finally, the provincial youth Alexander Lanskoy.

Potemkin accidentally saw the twenty-year-old Lanskoy and introduced him to the Empress. The young man had an angelic appearance: huge blue eyes filled with sadness, blond curls, a slight blush on his cheeks and coral lips. He would have looked like a girl if not for his huge height and broad shoulders.

Alexander Dmitrievich Lanskoy. Portrait by D. G. Levitsky (1782).

He accepted Catherine's attention as the concern of his mother, besides, he was too loyal to his state to refuse something to the empress. He was ashamed of the position of the imperial concubine, but over time he became attached to Catherine with all his heart. The Empress was touched by such reading love of an innocent young man who had not known women at all before her.

Her aging heart was so jealous of Sashenka that Catherine locked her lover in several rooms, surrounding her with unheard of luxury. The Empress awarded Lanskoy with the title of count, huge lands, tens of thousands of peasants. But the young man in love did not need ranks and wealth - he was probably the only favorite who loved the empress like a woman. And the empress said to Potemkin:

- My soul, I'm going to marry Lansky.
What did he do to deserve such an honor?
“He never cheated on me.
Potemkin lowered his eyes. He himself cheated on Catherine almost every day with different women.

A month later, Lanskoy took to his bed. And not one court doctor could make an accurate diagnosis. Catherine knew that her lover was poisoned on behalf of Potemkin. Catherine wrote to her friend:

“I, sobbing, have the misfortune to tell you that General Lansky is gone ... and my room, which I loved so much before, has now turned into an empty cave.”

Virgilius Eriksen. Catherine II in mourning.

After the death of her beloved, the empress walked around the palace like a shadow. She abandoned all state affairs and did not receive anyone. It was so unlike her ... Apparently, the love that she did not know in her youth overtook her in her old age.

The only topic that the empress kept up the conversation was about Alexander Lansky, the only place she visited was his grave. She spent many hours at Lansky's grave in anguish and tears. Potemkin was furious. He was jealous - and to whom, to the deceased? In fits of anger, Potemkin circled like a kite among the guards officers. Finally, he chose Alexander Yermolov, made him his adjutant and sent him to Catherine.

His calculation was justified: Yermolov occupied the favorites' room, which had been empty for almost half a year. Still, Catherine was a woman, and the desire to love overcame her grief for the loss. Noticing that one of the ladies-in-waiting was secluded with Eromlov, Catherine ordered the soldiers to flog the aristocrat to the point of blood in the presence of the other eleven ladies-in-waiting - so that it would not be customary.

Alexander Petrovich Ermolov, favorite of Catherine II, lieutenant general, chamberlain.

Tall and slender, blond, with a good complexion, Yermolov drew attention to himself with his handsome appearance, and only a wide, flat nose, for which Potemkin nicknamed him " le negre blanc' ruined his face.

Yermolov was too stupid, arrogant and narcissistic, besides he liked to play and often ran away from the empress to gambling houses and to prostitutes.

Potemkin himself, disappointed in Yermolov, successfully arranged for his rapid fall. The Empress willingly got rid of the boring favorite, inviting him on June 29, 1786 to go abroad on a trip. Not possessing the greed of other favorites, Yermolov received relatively little: 4,000 souls and about 400,000 in money; he did not care about the enrichment of all his relatives, as others did.

His place was soon taken by another adjutant of Potemkin - Alexander Mamonov.

Graph Alexander Matveevich Dmitriev-Mamonov (1788)

"Priceless Sasha" - so called Empress Mamonov. But Sasha began to disappear somewhere more and more often. He was not there on that ill-fated night when the tired Catherine returned from a meeting of the Council. She waited for him half the night, but greeted him playfully:

“Where are you, dear sir, deigned to disappear?”
“Mother Empress…” his tone and facial expression did not bode well. “You have always been kind to me, and I am frank with you. I can no longer carry out my duties near Your Majesty.

Catherine's face changed:
"What's the matter, are you kidding me?"
“Not at all, your majesty. I fell in love with another and ask your gracious permission to marry her. Her name is Princess Shcherbatova.

What can an aging woman who has lost her former attractiveness answer when a young lover says that he fell in love with another, good and young?
- I give you permission to marry. Moreover, I will arrange your wedding myself.

“... before the evening exit, Her Majesty herself deigned to betroth Count A. M. Mamonov to Princess Shcherbatova; they, on their knees, asked for forgiveness and are forgiven". The groom was granted 2,250 souls of peasants and 100,000 rubles and ordered to leave Petersburg the very next day after the wedding.

Having settled in Moscow, Dmitriev-Mamonov was at first pleased with his fate, but a year later he decides to remind Catherine of himself, writes pitiful letters to her, asks her to return his former favor, to allow him to come to St. Petersburg. The reply of the empress soon convinced him that his hopes were in vain.

The legend that Catherine, out of jealousy, sent bailiffs dressed in women's clothes to Shcherbatova, who brutally flogged her in the presence of her husband, is not true.

His Serene Highness Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov is the last favorite of Catherine II.

Meanwhile, a new and last favorite reigned in the palace - in 1789, the dizzying career of 22-year-old second-captain Platon Zubov began. He inherited the room of favorites from his brother, Valerian Zubov, who was the empress's lover for a very short time.

June 21, 1789, through the mediation of the lady of state Anna Nikitichna Naryshkina, the wife of Oberschenk Alexander Alexandrovich Naryshkin, Zubov, " passed through the top”, received a special reception from the Empress, and since then spent every evening with her.

Three days later, on June 24, Zubov received 10 thousand rubles and a ring with a portrait of the Empress, and ten days later, on July 4, 1789, he was promoted to colonel, granted to the adjutant wing of Her Imperial Majesty and settled in the palace, in the wing adjutant quarters, which were previously occupied by Count Dmitriev-Mamonov.

Those around him hated him, but the empress showered alms on her last favorite: on October 3, 1789, Zubov was appointed cornet of the Cavalier Guard Corps with promotion to major general; on February 3, 1790, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne; Orlov and the Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav, September 8, 1790 - the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, March 12, 1792 promoted to lieutenant general and appointed Adjutant General of Her Imperial Majesty.

Platon Alexandrovich Zubov - Most Serene Prince of the Roman Empire, Chief of the First Cadet Corps, Yekaterinoslav, Voznesensky and Taurida Governor-General.

Diploma of the Roman Emperor Franz II, dated January 27 (February 7), 1793, Senator, Privy Councilor Alexander Nikolayevich Zubov and his sons, Adjutant General, Lieutenant General Platon, Major General Nikolai, Chamber Junker Dmitry and Major General Valerian Aleksandrovichi, elevated, with their descendants, to the dignity of a count of the Roman Empire. The adoption of the aforementioned title and its use in Russia in the same year was followed by the Highest permission.

Platon Zubov was arrogant, arrogant and loved only one thing in the world - money. Having received unlimited power, he mocked Tsarevich Pavel, completely sure that he would not get the throne. Potemkin planned to kill the new favorite, but did not have time - he died.

"Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tauride. From a rare engraving by Skorodumov.

The war with the Turks undermined Potemkin's health, he caught malaria in the Crimea. Catherine again showered him with orders and distinctions, but above all with money, which, however, he never had in abundance, because he generously distributed them.

When the war ended, he once again visited St. Petersburg. On the way back, he fell ill. He fainted, suffocated. Suddenly he decided that he must certainly visit Nikolaev - he himself founded this city and loved it very much; he believed that the forest air there would heal him. October 4, he set off.

Before leaving, no matter how difficult it was for him, he wrote a message to Catherine: “My beloved, my almighty Empress. I no longer have the strength to endure my suffering. Only one salvation remains: to leave this city, and I gave the order to deliver me to Nikolaev. I don't know what will happen to me." On October 5, 1791, on the second day of the journey, Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin died. He was 52 years old.

"The death of Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tauride. From the engraving by Skorodumov

The Empress sobbed for a long time and inconsolably, arranged a magnificent funeral for her former favorite and ordered two monuments to be erected to him. During the reign of Catherine from the Russian treasury, palaces and jewelry worth nine million rubles and forty thousand peasants passed into Potemkin's pocket.

After the death of Potemkin, during which Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov did not play, however, a prominent role in public affairs, the importance of Zubov increases every day. Many of the posts previously held by Potemkin are being transferred to him.

On July 23, 1793, he was awarded a portrait of the Empress and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, on July 25, 1793 he was appointed governor-general of Yekaterinoslav and Taurida, on October 19, 1793 - general feldzeugmeister and general director over fortifications, on October 21, 1793 - chief of the Cavalier Guard Corps, January 1, 1795 he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir I degree.

Portrait of Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov. Lumpy Senior I.B. 1790s

All affairs were handled by his three secretaries: Altesti, Gribovsky and Ribas. Count Zubov himself, on August 18, 1795, receives huge estates in the newly annexed Polish regions - Shavelsky savings in 13669 souls of serfs with an income of 100 thousand rubles. And soon, after the annexation of the Duchy of Courland, Zubov was granted the Ruental (Rundal Palace) ducal palace built by Rastrelli.

By the end of the reign of Empress Catherine II, His Serene Highness Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov became the bearer of the following high-profile title:

« Feldzeugmeister General, Director General over fortifications, Chief Commander over the Black Sea Fleet, Voznesenskaya Light Cavalry and the Black Sea Cossack Army, Her Imperial Majesty Adjutant General, Chief of the Cavalier Guard Corps, Yekaterinoslav, Voznesensky and Taurida Governor General, Member of the State Military Collegium, Imperial Educational home honorary philanthropist, honorary lover of the Imperial Academy of Arts and orders of the Russian St. Apostle Andrei, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir I degree, royal Prussian Black and Red Eagle, Polish White Eagle and St. Stanislav and Grand Ducal Holstein St. Anna gentleman».

This last favorite of Catherine II was a participant in the assassination of Emperor Paul I.

Catherine II. Artist Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov.

On November 16, 1796, as usual, Catherine, getting out of bed and drinking coffee, went to the toilet room, and, contrary to her usual habit, stayed there longer than usual.

The valet on duty of the Empress Zakhar Zotov, sensing something unkind, quietly opened the door of the dressing room and saw with horror the body of Catherine lying on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her complexion was purple, and wheezing came from her throat. The Empress was transferred to the bedchamber. During the fall, Catherine dislocated her leg, her body became so heavy that six people of the room servants did not have enough strength to lift him onto the bed. Therefore, a red morocco mattress was laid on the floor and the dying empress was laid on it.

The Empress had a brain hemorrhage, according to the terminology of the XVIII century - "apoplexy." According to the Kammer-Fourier magazine - this kind of diary-chronicle of the life of Her Majesty, - “ suffering continued uninterruptedly, sighing of the womb, wheezing, at times eruption from the larynx of dark sputum».

Despite the fact that Catherine did not regain consciousness, the Chamber Fourier journal reports that the Empress was confessed by her confessor, communed with the holy mysteries and unction with oil by Metropolitan Gabriel. True, it remains unclear how a person lying in an unconscious state can confess and take communion ...

Meanwhile, the doctors continued to conjure over the motionless thing that used to be Empress Catherine - her body: they applied Spanish flies to her legs, put emetic powders in her mouth, let "bad blood" out of her hand. But all was in vain: the empress’s face turned purple, then filled with a pink blush, her chest and stomach constantly rose and fell, and the court lackeys wiped the sputum flowing from her mouth, straightened her arms, then her head, then her legs.

Doctors predicted that death would come at 3 o'clock the next day, and indeed, at this time, Catherine's pulse noticeably weakened. But her strong body continued to resist the impending death and lasted until 9 pm, when the life physician Rogerson announced that the Empress was ending, and the happy Pavel, his wife, older children, the most influential dignitaries and room servants lined up on both sides of the morocco mattress.

At 9:45 in the afternoon, Great Catherine sighed for the last time and, along with others, appeared before the judgment of the Most High. For we will all be there: those who have titles occupy a whole paragraph, and those who do not have them at all ...

Catherine combined a high intellect, education, statesmanship and commitment to "free love". She is known for her connections with numerous lovers, the number of which (according to the list of the authoritative Ekaterinologist P. I. Bartenev) reaches 23.

Catherine's love affairs are marked by a series of scandals. So, Grigory Orlov, being her favorite, at the same time (according to M. M. Shcherbatov) cohabited with all her ladies-in-waiting and even with his 13-year-old cousin.

The favorite of Empress Lanskoy used an aphrodisiac to increase "male strength" (contarid) in ever-increasing doses, which, apparently, according to the conclusion of the court physician Weikart, was the cause of his unexpected death at a young age. Her last favorite, Platon Zubov, was a little over 20 years old, while Catherine's age at that time had already exceeded 60.

Historians mention many other scandalous details (“a bribe” of 100 thousand rubles paid to Potemkin by the empress’s future favorites, many of whom were his adjutants before, testing their “male strength” by her ladies-in-waiting, etc.

Contemporaries, including foreign diplomats, were bewildered by the rave reviews and characteristics that Catherine gave to her young favorites, for the most part devoid of any outstanding talents. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “ neither before Catherine, nor after her, debauchery reached such a wide scale and did not manifest itself in such a frankly defiant form.

It is worth noting that in Europe Catherine's "debauchery" was not such a rare phenomenon against the background of the general licentiousness of the mores of the 18th century. Most kings (with the possible exception of Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Charles XII) had numerous mistresses. However, this does not apply to reigning queens and empresses.

Louis XVI

So, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa wrote about “ disgust and horror”, which are instilled in her by such persons as Catherine II, and this attitude towards the latter was shared by her daughter Marie Antoinette.

As K. Valishevsky wrote in this regard, comparing Catherine II with Louis XV, “ the difference between the sexes until the end of time, we think, will give a deeply unequal character to the same actions, depending on whether they are committed by a man or a woman ... moreover, the mistresses of Louis XV never influenced the fate of France».

There are numerous examples of the exceptional influence (both negative and positive) that Catherine's favorites (Orlov, Potemkin, Platon Zubov, etc.) had on the fate of the country, starting from June 28, 1762, until the death of the Empress, as well as on its domestic, foreign policy and even on military operations.

According to N.I. Pavlenko, in order to please the favorite Grigory Potemkin, who envied the glory of Field Marshal Rumyantsev, this outstanding commander and hero of the Russian-Turkish wars was removed by Catherine from command of the army and was forced to retire to his estate.

Another, very mediocre commander, Musin-Pushkin, on the contrary, continued to lead the army, despite his blunders in military campaigns (for which the empress herself called him a “real blockhead”) - due to the fact that he was a “favorite on June 28”, one of those who helped Catherine seize the throne.

In addition, the institute of favoritism had a negative effect on the morals of the higher nobility, who sought benefits through flattery to a new favorite, tried to make “his own man” into lovers to the empress, etc. A contemporary M. M. Shcherbatov wrote that Catherine’s favoritism and debauchery II contributed to the decline in the morals of the nobility of that era, and historians agree with this.

Egyptian Queen Cleopatra- one of the wisest mistresses, far from being a beauty in appearance. Cleopatra, perhaps the most scandalous character of the Ancient World. The night of love with the queen cost the man his life, however, those who wanted to experience all the passion of the fatal beauty did not become less from this. Every man was determined to conquer Cleopatra with her strength and skill, and in the morning not only stay alive, but also become her lawful husband and king of Egypt. But Cleopatra was uncompromising: she did not leave a life to any of her lovers.
Egyptologists call Cleopatra not only an adherent of free love, but also experienced fellatrix (fellatio from lat. fello- suck), or, more simply, Cleopatra gave an amazing blowjob. Perhaps it was for this reason that the ancient Greeks gave her the name Meriohane- translated from Greek. — " open-mouthed", "one that opens its mouth wide"; "broad-mouthed"; "woman with ten thousand mouths". Cleopatra also called Haylon— "thick-lipped".

Thais of Athens- cheeky hetaera seduced Alexander the Great. She went down in history as an impregnable beauty, although she was a prostitute. Macedonian she lured him by the fact that she did not want to sell her body to him for any wealth and gifts. " Penetrate into the heart - conquer me and the whole world" she said to the great conqueror.

Voluptuous Marquise de Pompadour mistress of the French king Louis XV, is still considered one of the most tireless and skillful mistresses. The secret of her passion is in celery. Her daily menu included two of the strongest aphrodisiac— chocolate and celery root. The lady drank a cup of hot in the morning chocolate with root powder celery, and during the day I ate a salad from celery, apples and walnuts. It is not known for certain whether she knew about the exciting effect of these products, but she had sex five to ten times a day and with different partners. By the way, in many countries, peasants hung a bunch celery at the head of the bed on their wedding night.
Marquise de Pompadour (Jeanne Antoinette Poisson) at the age of nine, it was predicted that she would have a relationship with the king himself. Its origin is not exactly known. According to one version, she was not from a wealthy family at all, but she was very lucky to find herself a patron in the face of a nobleman. Her meeting with the king Louis XV happened at the masquerade. The king was intrigued by the behavior of the girl who hid her face under the mask, and when she took it off, it finally struck the monarch. Progress towards the goal further was not easy, but Jeanne nevertheless achieved her goal, becoming the official favorite of the king. She continued her vigorous activity - she took up the development of art, becoming the greatest patron for many writers and artists of that time. Marquise de Pompadour remained until her death Louis not just a mistress, always brilliant and original, but also a friend, which is very rare.