GERMINATING OF SEED--CATHERINE EMPRESS
The chief objection to a wise and beneficent despotism is that its
creator is not immortal. The trouble with the Alexanders and the
Charlemagnes and the Peters is that the span of human life is too short
for their magnificent designs, which fall, while incomplete, into
incompetent or vicious hands, and the work is overthrown. Peter's rest
in his mausoleum at Sts. Peter and Paul must have been uneasy if he saw
the reigns immediately succeeding his own. Not one man capable of a
lofty patriotism like his, not one man working with unselfish energy
for Russia; but, just as in the olden time, oligarchic factions with
leaders striving for that cause which would best protect and elevate
themselves. Menschikof, Apraxin, Tolstoi promoting the cause of
Catherine that they may not suffer for the death sentence passed upon
Alexis; Galitsuin and others seeing their interests in the succession
of Peter, son of Alexis and grandson of the Emperor.
Catherine's harmless reign was over in two years (1727) and was
followed by another, equally brief and harmless, by the young Peter II.
The wily Menschikof succeeded in betrothing his daughter to the young
Emperor, but not in retaining his ascendency over the self-willed boy.
We wonder if Peter saw his great minister scheming for wealth and for
power, and then his fall, like Wolsey's, from his pinnacle. We wonder
if he saw him with his own hands building his hut on the frozen plains
of Siberia, clothed, not in rich furs and jewels, but bearded and in
long, coarse, gray smock-frock; his daughter, the betrothed of an
Emperor, clad, not in ermine, but in sheep-skin. Perhaps the lesson
with his master the Carpenter of Saardam served him in building his own
shelter in that dread abode. Nor was he alone. He had the best of
society, and at every turn of the wheel at St. Petersburg it had
aristocratic recruits. The Galitsuins and the Dolgorukis would have
joined him soon had they not died in prison, and many others had they
not been broken on the wheel or beheaded by Anna, the coarse and vulgar
woman who succeeded Peter II., when he suddenly died in 1730.
Anna Ivanovna was the daughter of Peter's brother Ivan V., who was
associated with him upon the throne. She had the force to defeat an
oligarchic attempt to tie her hands. The plan had originated with the
Galitsuins and Dolgorukis, and was really calculated to benefit the
state in a period of incompetent or vicious rulers by having the
authority of the Crown limited by a council of eight ministers. But it
was reactionary. It was introducing a principle which had been
condemned, and was a veiled attempt to undo the work of the Ivans and
the Romanoffs, and to place the real power as of old in the hands of
ruling families. The plan fell, and the leaders fell with it, and a
host of their followers. The executioners were busy at St. Petersburg,
and the aristocratic colony in Siberia grew larger.
Anna's reign was the period of a preponderating German influence in
politics and at court. Germans held high positions; one of them,
Gustav Biron, the highest and most influential of all. Anna's
infatuation for this man made him the ruling spirit in her reign and
the Regent in the next, until he had his turn in disgrace and exile.
Added to the dissatisfaction on account of German ascendency was a
growing feeling that the succession should come through Peter, instead
of through Ivan, his insignificant associate upon the throne. Such was
the prevailing sentiment at the time of Anna's death (1740). The
Tsaritsa named Ivan, a grand-nephew, the infant son of her niece Anna,
her successor under the Regency of Biron, the man who had controlled
the policy of the administration during her reign.
This was only a brief and tragic episode. Biron was swiftly swept out
of power and into exile, and succeeded in the Regency by Anna, the
mother of the infant Emperor; then, following quickly upon that, was a
carefully matured conspiracy formed in the interest of Elizabeth
Petrovna, the beautiful daughter whose marriage with the young Louis
XV. had been an object of the great Peter's hopes.
In this connection it is well to mention that the terminations _vich_
and _vna_, so constantly met in Russian names, have an important
significance--_vich_ meaning son of, and _vna_ daughter of. _Elizabeth
Petrovna_ is Elizabeth the daughter of Peter, and _Peter Alexievich_ is
Peter the son of Alexis. In like manner Tsarevich and Tsarevna are
respectively the son and daughter of the Tsar; Czar, Czarevich, and
Czarevna being the modern form, and Czarina instead of Tsaritsa. The
historian may for convenience omit the surname thus created, but in
Russia it would be a great breach of decorum to do so.
By a sudden _coup d'état_, Elizabeth Petrovna took her rightful place
upon the throne of her father (1741). In the dead of night the
unfortunate Anna and her husband were awakened, carried into exile, and
their infant son Ivan VI. was immured in a prison, where he was to grow
up to manhood,--shattered in mind by his horrible existence of twenty
years,--and then to be mercifully put out of the way as a possible
menace to the ambitious plans of a woman.
Of the heads that dropped by orders of Elizabeth it is needless to
speak; but of one that was spared there is an interesting account.
Ostermann, a German, had been vice chancellor to the Empress Anna, and
had also brought about the downfall of Biron the Regent. Now his turn
had come. He was taken to the place of execution with the rest; his
gray head was laid upon the block, his collar unbuttoned and gown drawn
back by the executioner--when a reprieve was announced. Her Gracious
Majesty was going to permit him to go to Siberia. He arose, bowed,
said: "I pray you give me back my wig," calmly put it on the head he
had not lost, buttoned his shirt, replaced his gown, and started to
join his company of friends--and of enemies--in exile.
Elizabeth was a vain voluptuary. If any glory attaches to her reign it
came from the stored energies left by her great father. The marvel is
that in this succession of vicious and aimless tyrannies by shameless
women and incompetent men, Russia did not fall into anarchy and
revolution. But nothing was undone. The dignity of Moscow was
preserved by the fact that the coronations must take place there. But
there was no longer a reactionary party scheming for a return to the
Ancient City. The seed scattered by Peter had everywhere taken hold
upon the soil, and now began to burst into flower. A university was
founded at Moscow. St. Petersburg was filled with French artists and
scholars, and had an Academy of Art and of Science, which the great
Voltaire asked permission to join, while conferring with Ivan Shuvalof
over the History of Peter the Great which he was then engaged in
writing. There were no more ugly German costumes; French dress,
manners and speech were the fashion. Russia was assimilating Europe:
it had tried Holland under Peter, then Germany under Empress Anna; but
found its true affinity with France under Elizabeth, when to write and
speak French like a Parisian became the badge of high station and
culture.
So of its own momentum Russia had moved on without one strong competent
personality at its head, and had become a tremendous force which must
be reckoned with by the nations of Europe. In every great political
combination the important question was, on which side she would throw
her immense weight; and Elizabeth was courted and flattered to her
heart's content by foreign diplomatists and their masters. Frederick
the Great had reason to regret that he had been witty at her expense.
It was almost his undoing by turning the scale against him at a
critical moment. Elizabeth did not forget it and had her revenge when
she joined Maria Theresa in the final struggle with Frederick in 1757.
And Frederick also remembered it in 1760, when, as he dramatically
expressed it, "The Barbarians were in Berlin engaged in digging the
grave of humanity."
But all benefit from these enormous successes was abandoned, when the
commanding Russian officer Apraxin mysteriously withdrew and returned
with his army to Russia. This was undoubtedly part of a deeply laid
plot of which Frederick was cognizant, and working in concert with a
certain distinguished lady in Elizabeth's own court--a clever puller of
wires who was going to fill some important chapters in Russian history!
The Empress had chosen for her successor her nephew Peter, son of her
only sister and the Duke of Holstein. The far-seeing Frederick had
brought about a marriage between this youth and a German Princess,
Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst. Then the Future Emperor Peter III. and his
German bride took up their abode in the palace at St. Petersburg, she
having been rechristened _Catherine_, upon adopting the Greek faith. A
mutual dislike deepened into hatred between this brilliant, clever
woman and her vulgar and inferior husband; and there is little doubt
that the treacherous conduct of the Russian commander was part of a
plan to place her infant son Paul upon the throne instead of his
father, and make her Regent. Elizabeth's death was apparently at hand
and the general mistrust of Peter's fitness for the position opened the
way for such a conspiracy--which, however, is not known, but only
suspected.
The one merciful edict which adorns this reign is the "abolishing of
the death penalty." But as the knout became more than ever active, we
are left to infer that by a nice distinction in the Russian mind death
under that instrument of torture was not considered "capital
punishment."
It is said that when the daughter of the austere Peter died, she left
sixteen thousand dresses, thousands of slippers, and two large chests
of silk stockings--a wardrobe which would have astonished her mother at
the time she was serving the table of the Pastor Glück. Elizabeth
expired in 1761, and the throne passed to Peter III., grandson of Peter
the Great and Catherine I.
The first act of the new Tsar was a delightful surprise to the
nobility. He published a manifesto freeing the nobles from the
obligation of service imposed by Peter the Great, saying that this law,
which was wise at the time it was enacted, was no longer necessary, now
that the nobility was enlightened and devoted to the service of their
ruler. The grateful nobles talked of erecting a statue of gold to this
benign sovereign, who in like manner abolished the Secret Court of
Police and proclaimed pardon to thousands of political fugitives. The
Birons were recalled from Siberia, and the old Duke of Kurland and his
wife came back like shades from another world, after twenty years of
exile.
But this pleasant prelude was very brief. The nobles soon found that
their golden idol would have to be made instead of very coarse clay.
Nothing could exceed the grossness and the unbalanced folly of Peter's
course. He reversed the whole attitude of the state toward Germany.
So abject was his devotion to Frederick the Great that he restored to
him the Russian conquests, and reached the limit which could be borne
when he shouted at one of his orgies: "Let us drink to the health of
our King and master Frederick. You may be assured if he should order
it, I would make war on hell with all my empire." He was also planning
to rid himself of Catherine and to disinherit her child Paul in favor
of Ivan VI.; and with this in view that unfortunate youth, who after
his twenty years' imprisonment was a mental wreck, was brought to St.
Petersburg.
Catherine's plans were carefully laid and then swiftly executed. The
Emperor was arrested and his abdication demanded. He submitted as
quietly as a child. Catherine writes: "I then sent the deposed Emperor
in the care of Alexis Orlof and some gentle and reasonable men to a
palace fifteen miles from Peterhof, a secluded spot, but very pleasant."
In four days it was announced that the late Emperor had "suddenly died
of a colic to which he was subject." It is known that he was visited
by Alexis Orlof and another of Catherine's agents in his "pleasant"
retreat, who saw him privately; that a violent struggle was heard in
his room; and that he was found lying dead with the black and blue mark
of a colossal hand on his throat. That the hand was Orlof's is not
doubted; but whether acting under orders from Catherine or not will
never be known.
This is what is known as the "Revolution of 1762," which placed
Catherine II. upon the throne of Russia. Her son Paul was only six
years old; and in less than two years Ivan VI., the only claimant to
the throne who could become the center of a conspiracy against her
authority, was most opportunely removed. It was said that his guards
killed him to prevent an attempted rescue. No one knows or ever will
know whether or not Catherine was implicated in his "taking off." But
certainly nothing at the time could have pleased her better.