National Geographic History - July 2019

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 9

PROFILES

For Better, for Worse
Alexei Orlov took his time laying the trap.
First, he planted fabricated rumors
throughout Venice that he himself had
fallen out of favor with Catherine. In-
trigued, the impostor princess wrote to
him, offering her support and reminding
him that the empress was their common
enemy. She assured Orlov that if he sup-
ported her once she was appointed em-
press, she would let him govern alongside
her. He proposed that they meet in person
and chose the Italian port of Livorno,
where the Russian fleet was anchored.
At their meeting, the count assured the
princess of his unconditional support. He
dared to take the pretense a step further,
and feigning a sudden passion, asked her
to marry him. Whether she actually fell
for Orlov’s seductive wiles or simply
judged him a powerful ally, she accepted
the proposal, and the wedding was set for
a few weeks later.

With the excuse of ensuring that the

marriage had all the correct legalities in

place, Orlov requested that the ceremo-

ny be held on board the ship he captained,

and thereby technically on Russian ter-

ritory. On the day of the wedding, wear-

ing her finery, the princess climbed into

a skiff that ferried her out to the ship. But

as she stepped onto the ship’s deck, she

was seized by a squad of soldiers com-

manded by Orlov himself, who arrested

her in the name of Catherine II.

Princess in Prison

The ship sailed immediately to St. Pe-

tersburg, where Princess Tarakanova

was imprisoned in a gloomy cell of the

Peter and Paul Fortress. She was bru-

tally interrogated, but even under tor-

ture, she did not contradict herself, ad-

mit to fraud, or deny her royal descent.

Catherine realized that nothing would

persuade this daring woman to drop her

challenge to the imperial throne and so

ordered her imprisoned for life. Never

having revealed her true identity, the

princess died in her cell in 1775, likely

succumbing to tuberculosis. She was

buried without ceremony in the fortress

graveyard. Her dramatic story and care-

fully orchestrated posturing became the

subject of books, films, plays, and Kon-

stantin Flavitsky’s famous painting.

In the many historical treatments of

her life, she is usually referred to as

“Princess Tarakanova,” even though in

her own time, this moniker was not

among her many aliases. Her birthplace

and real name are still unknown and will

perhaps never be discovered. But as one

of the most famous of Russia’s many

pretenders to the throne, the story of

this impostor princess still lends his-

torical fact to a romantic legend.

—María Pilar Queralt

ISLAND FORTRESS

The imposter princess was imprisoned

in the imposing Peter and Paul Fortress

on the Neva River in St. Petersburg,

Russia. She died in a cell here in 1775.

LOREMUS W. BUSS/GETTY IMAGES