National Geographic History - July 2019

8 JULY/AUGUST 2019

PROFILES

and noble suitors, including wealthy

Frenchmen and Polish aristocrats,

some of whom opposed Catherine’s

reign. A captivating adventuress, the

“princess” lived richly at their expense.

But the glittering Paris sojourn end-

ed as suddenly as it had begun. “Baron

Embs,” it seemed, was not a baron at all,

but a merchant from Ghent whose

debts were catching up to him. With

her finances imperiled, the pretender

traveled across Europe, assuming a new

alias (Fraulein Frank, Madame Trem-

ouille, and Countess Selinski, among

them) with each new residence. In May

1774, she moved to

Venice, quickly

working her

way into aristocratic circles. But here a

trap was laid for her.

Empress Catherine was alarmed

when news of this impostor reached

her. Indeed, if this woman was the late

Empress Elizabeth’s daughter, she

would have a stronger claim to Russian

rule than Catherine did. Before she

married Peter III, Catherine was So-

phie von Anhalt-Zerbst, a German

princess, so she had no direct birth-

right to the Russian throne. If Cath-

erine’s enemies decided to back the

false princess, the empress’s reign

could be in jeopardy.

Catherine set in motion a devious

plan to lure the pretender princess to

Russia. There, under Catherine’s ab-

solute authority, any potential impe-

rial ambitions could be quashed. To

achieve her plan, Catherine appealed

to Count Alexei Orlov, the brother of

her companion, Grigory Orlov.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

CATHERINE II expanded Russia’s territory, annexing

Crimea and part of Poland. Despite initial social reforms,

she later introduced laws that gave even greater pow-

er to the nobility while trapping the serfs as a per-

manent underclass. These political and social

changes led to intense discontent, which

threatened Catherine’s reign.

CATHERINE II, AMBRAS CASTLE, INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA

ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

THE FALSE TSAR

PRIOR TO CATHERINE II, pretenders to the throne had often challenged Russia’s reigning ruler. Catherine’s 30-year

reign was marked by more than two dozen such imposters. Of these, Yemelyan Pugachev’s attempt to lead

a peasant revolt by claiming he was the deceased Peter III was the most serious. Until his defeat in 1775,

Pugachev harnessed social discontent to conquer swathes of Russia, including the city of Kazan.

PUGACHEV RECEIVING DONATIONS OF WEAPONS

DURING THE REVOLT THAT HE LED AGAINST CATHER-

INE THE GREAT BETWEEN 1773 AND 1775. EARLY 20TH-

CENTURY OIL PAINTING BY MIKHAIL I. AVILOV

BRIDGEMAN/ACI