Foreword

In setting forth the life of Catherine the Great, I have treated the subject in fictional style, but with the exception of the Banqueting Hall scene after her arrival in Moscow, the arrest of Demoiselle Carr, Narychkin’s plan of escape, and Peter’s masque at Oranienbaum, the action of the story is mainly true to history and to contemporary reports by eye-witnesses.

It is the story of a remarkable woman, a foreigner whose name has become synonymous with that of her adopted country, Russia, and whose personality remains eternally vivid despite the passage of over a hundred and fifty years.

In dry documents and annotated biographies something of Catherine’s unique fascination emerges through the letters and diaries of those who knew her. There were many who declared her charm to be equalled only by her crimes, but those voices were few and they spoke from a safe distance when they delivered judgment.

Little of Catherine Alexeievna’s great achievements remain. Almost all her work, both good and evil, perished quickly after her, but the mark of her life upon world history is ineffaceable, and it is with the early and most decisive part of that life that this book is concerned.