National Geographic History - July 2019

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 7

Elizabeth’s Heir?
Meanwhile another drama was brewing
for Catherine in France. In 1772, an enig-
matic woman of great beauty, refined
manner, and sparkling wit charmed her
way into the salons of the French capital
as the “Princess Vladimir.” She claimed
she was the illegitimate daughter of Em-
press Elizabeth, Peter III’s cousin, and
legitimate heir to the Russian throne.
According to her story, she was born
in St. Petersburg in 1753, and then taken
to Persia. She grew up in the home of a
Persian nobleman. There, a tutor made

the startling revelation of her “true” par-

entage; she was the product of an affair

between Elizabeth and her favorite,

Count Aleksey G. Razumovsky.

Sources say that Empress Elizabeth

did have an illegitimate daughter with

Razumovsky. Her name was Princess

Augusta Tarakanova, and she spent

most of her life in solitude as a nun,

confined to Moscow’s St. John’s Con-

vent on Catherine’s orders. Known

only as Sister Dofiya, her true identity

remained hidden during her lifetime.

She was not permitted visitors until

after Catherine’s death in 1796. Al-

though never formally acknowledged,

Augusta’s existence seemed an open

secret and strengthened the rumors

surrounding the pretender in France.

Princess Vladimir was attracting a

lot of attention in elite social circles in

Paris. The faux princess was accompa-

nied by a German man named Baron

Embs, who claimed to be a relative of

hers, and by the Baron de Schenk, who

acted as a kind of private secretary.

Princess Vladimir’s Parisian home was

soon frequented by various wealthy

IN 1864, Russian artist Kon-

stantin Flavitsky created what

would become his most noto-

rious painting, “The Princess

Tarakanova, in the Peter and

Paul Fortress, at the Time of the

Flood.” According to a roman-

ticized legend, Catherine the

Great ordered the false princess

imprisoned in a cell that was

known to flood when the icy

waters of the Neva River rose.

Flavitsky’s painting allegedly

caused a furor among the Rus-

sian royal family, who preferred

that the story of this particular

pretender to the throne remain

a closely guarded one. Flavitsky

was then forced to claim that

his inspiration for the painting

had instead been drawn from a

novel rather than history.

LOCKED

AWAY

OIL PAINTING BY KONSTANTIN FLAVITSKY, 1864,

STATE TRETYAKOV GALLERY, MOSCOW

BRIDGEMAN/ACI