How did Catherine the Great die? This question is of interest to many today. After the death of the empress, various rumors about her death spread throughout the country. Who distributed them and why it was necessary, let's try to figure it out.
Cause of death
On November 14, 1796, Catherine II, the great empress, who made Russia, which became her second homeland, a European power, passed away. We will not name all her merits, but under her the territory of the Russian Empire grew significantly, the population of the country increased one and a half times and accounted for 20% of the population of Europe, 144 new cities were built. She pursued an independent and independent state policy, which was not to the liking of many countries.
Cause of death of Catherine the Great, presumably, was a hypertensive crisis and a stroke that struck her in the toilet room. She suffered injuries from a fall. The valet Zakhar Zotov, worried about the long absence of the Empress, quietly looked into the dressing room and saw her lying on the floor. He ordered the doctors and the priest to be called. With two servantstried to transfer the empress to the bed, but they managed to drag her only to the mattress spread on the carpet next to the bed.
The doctor examined the empress. Her face was now crimson, now pale with a feverish blush. Her chest heaved incessantly, she did not regain consciousness. They laid her on the bed. The doctor used all the methods of treatment accepted at that time, bled, but everything was in vain. The coming priest performed all the necessary rituals. It became clear that the Empress could no longer get up. On November 14, Empress Catherine the Great died.
Tomb of Catherine II
In the tomb of the Peter and Paul Fortress you can see the grave of the Empress. She is next to the sarcophagus of her husband Peter III. So required the rules of decency, because she was his official wife. Although there are rumors that she was secretly married to Grigory Potemkin. The tombstone does not indicate the date of birth and year of death of Catherine the Great. On the white marble sarcophagus, there are gilded coats of arms in the corners, and an Orthodox cross in the middle.
Different versions of death
All rumors are born for one reason or another. They are also associated with Catherine II. After all, how Catherine the Great died interested everyone not only in Russia, but also in Europe.
The licentiousness of the empress, favoritism generated by this, contributed to the fact that there was a rumor about Catherine's bestiality, which led her to death. Of course, this is nonsense. In patriarchal Russia, such behavior of the empress and her court causedbacklash.
The fact that the queen had an attack in the toilet doesn't mean anything either. A person can die anywhere, since he is not free to choose the place where he will give his soul. But there is still something derogatory about it. Great, but she died in the toilet - this is just a reason to be sarcastic, since the queen died in her own bed.
There is another mystical version that Catherine saw her ghost on the throne and ordered him to be killed, and after a while she died. A reasonable person would not believe all this. But there is one rumor that was confirmed by some of her relatives. Two days before her death, she saw a star falling from the sky, which made a strong impression on her. She was dejected and said it was not good. A person always anticipates his departure to another world.
Where do myths come from?
Of course, ordinary people and from the palace were interested in the details of how Catherine the Great died. It is no secret that the relations between the Empress and her son were, to put it mildly, strained. The son hated his mother. She came to power through a palace coup that killed his father. The Orlov brothers became active participants in the event, one of whom, Grigory, was Catherine's lover. Favorites behaved quite freely. A lot depended on them. They were flattered, fawned over, while the heir remained in the shadows.
They laughed at him, joked about him, considered him a fool, although in reality he was not. But, like all weak people, he was vengeful. It is likely that it was from Paul and his entourage that various rumors began to spread about how Catherine the Great died. Gossip passed from one to another, over time acquiring many details, and went to the people.
How the myths about the death of Catherine II appeared in Europe
Foreign diplomats took advantage of this, skillfully maneuvering between the warring parties and adding information beneficial to them. They described everything in their reports and sent it to their capitals. So with all the rumors, messages were sent about how Catherine the Great died.
European monarchs were well aware of everything that took place in the palace. Despite the fact that in Europe the morals at the courts were no better than in Russia, Catherine's behavior gave rise to slander, spreading incredible details about the "barbarian" country and its ruler.
Interesting facts about Catherine the Great
Historians estimate that the Empress had 23 favorites, to whom she was very generous. Only the 11 most famous were allocated about 93 million rubles from the state treasury, which was several times higher than the country's internal and external debt.
The difference between the elderly empress and Platon Zubov - her last lover - was 43 years. During the years of her reign, she gave away more than 800 thousand peasants to her relatives, courtiers, favorites.
Besides Paul's heir, Catherine had two more illegitimate children who were officially accepted at court: a son from Grigory Orlov, AlexeiBobrinsky and daughter Elizaveta, presented as Potemkin's niece, brought up in his house. 100 thousand rubles were annually allocated from the treasury for her maintenance, and the empress gave her a million for the wedding. Another daughter from Stanislav Poniatowski died in infancy.
