Catherine II is probably one of the most extraordinary personalities in the entire history of the Russian state. Her favorites, lovers and personal life are still legendary. In this article we will try to figure out who is the official son of Catherine 2, and who is an illegitimate child.
Moreover, after the death of the Empress, they kept in touch. Who are these people? Read on and you'll find out.
The personal life of the Empress
Due to the fact that the All-Russian Empress was quite an attractive and loving woman, it can be assumed that she had enough “skeletons” in her closet.
It is believed that the only official son of Catherine II is Pavel. Who is the father of an illegitimate child, we will tell later when we talk about Alexei Bobrinsky.
So, Sophia Anh alt-Tserbskaya, who later took the Orthodox name Catherine, by the will of fate ended up in Russia. The mother of the future Emperor Peter III, Elizabeth Petrovna, chose a bride for her son, and as a resultsettled on the candidacy of this Prussian princess.
Upon arrival in a new country, the girl seriously began to study a new culture for herself. She perfectly masters the Russian language, converts to the Orthodox faith. Everything would have been fine, but the future emperor did not have the slightest sympathy for Catherine. He perceived her simply as a forced appendage, constantly making mistresses at the same time.
Because of this "family happiness" the princess began to get involved in hunting, masquerades, correspondence with European philosophers and encyclopedists. Over time, she also has personal favorites.
The official son of Catherine II is of particular interest. For several years, the Empress could not get pregnant from her husband. And suddenly a boy is born. We will talk about this situation in more detail later.
Due to a failed marriage, and after a successful palace coup, the Empress was able to fully realize her commitment to "free love". Judging by the data cited by one of her best biographers, Bartenev, Catherine II had twenty-three lovers during her life.
Among them are such statesmen as Potemkin and Orlov, S altykov and Vasilchikov, Lanskoy and Zorich. It is noteworthy that only Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin became practically her unofficial husband. Although this was not made public, they had a secret wedding, and until the end of her life, Catherine called his husband in correspondence and diaries, and herself his wife. They had a daughter, Elizaveta Grigoryevna Temkina.
ThusThe empress had a very stormy and eventful personal life. The most powerful in the national sense were only her two lovers - Orlov and Potemkin. All subsequent ones, as a rule, before becoming Catherine's favorites, served as adjutants to Grigory Alexandrovich.
The Empress had several children, but she gave birth to only two sons. It is about them that we will discuss further.
Official son
On the throne, the Empress was replaced by the only official son of Catherine 2 and Peter 3. His name was Pavel I Petrovich.
He was a very long-awaited grandson for his grandmother, Elizaveta Petrovna. The complexity of the situation at court was that ten years had passed since the marriage of the heir to the throne. Rumors began to circulate that Peter III was not able to conceive a descendant, and the dynasty could end.
Elizabeth solved the problem with her intervention. The best surgeon in St. Petersburg was called to the court, who performed an operation to eliminate phimosis. As a result, in the tenth year of official marriage, Catherine II gave birth to a son. But for a long time there were gossips that the father of the heir to the throne was not the emperor, but the favorite of the princess - Sergei S altykov.
However, the biographers of the royal dynasty insist that it was Peter III who was the real parent of Pavel Petrovich. This version in our time decided to confirm the researchers. One piece of evidence was in his appearance. After all, the son of Catherine 2, Pavel (whose portrait photo is given in the article) was an exact copy of Emperor Peter III.
Secondthe evidence was the Y-haploid genotype, characteristic of all descendants of Nicholas I. This is a specific arrangement of forms of one gene (alleles) in a certain place (locus) of the cytological map of the chromosome.
Thus, today the direct affiliation of the future emperor to the Romanov family has been proven. However, what happened in subsequent years with Pavel Petrovich?
Childhood. Education
Immediately after the birth, the son of Catherine 2 and Peter 3 was excommunicated from his parents. His grandmother, Elizaveta Petrovna, in the light of the ongoing political confrontation, was seriously concerned about the fate of the heir to the throne.
Mother saw her son for the first time only after forty days. Despite the fact that the birth of a direct heir to the dynasty protected the country from subsequent political upheavals, they nevertheless occurred. But while Paul the First was small, his grandmother took care of his upbringing.
Neither Catherine nor Peter played any significant role in the life of the future emperor. Immediately after birth, the baby was surrounded by a specially selected retinue, which included nannies, educators, tutors and the best teachers. Elizaveta Petrovna was personally involved in approving the servants.
The prominent diplomat Bekhteev became the main person responsible for the upbringing of the boy. This man was obsessed with questions of drill and well-established standards of conduct. One of the features of the educational process was the publication of a newspaper that told about all the pranks of the future emperor.
Subsequently, Bekhteev wasreplaced by Panin. The new teacher took the training program very seriously. Being close to prominent European Freemasons, Nikita Ivanovich had extensive acquaintances. Therefore, among the teachers of Paul the First were Metropolitan Platon, Poroshin, Grange and Milliko.
It is noteworthy that any acquaintance and games with peers were limited. The emphasis was solely on education in the spirit of enlightenment. The Tsarevich received the best education of his time, but the separation from his parents and peers led to irreversible consequences.
The son of Catherine 2 Pavel Petrovich grew up as a psychologically traumatized person. Subsequently, this will result in his eccentricities and obscene antics. One of which will lead to a plot against the emperor and his assassination in a palace coup.
Relationship with mother
Ekaterina II's official son Pavel Petrovich was never loved by his mother. From the first days, the Empress considered him a child from an unloved person, who was Peter III for her.
It was rumored that after the birth of her son, she wrote a will that, upon reaching the age of majority, she would transfer the rule of the country to him. But no one has ever seen this document. The unthinkability of this fact is confirmed by the subsequent actions of the empress.
Every year, the son of Catherine II, Pavel, became more and more distant from his mother from public affairs. The best teachers were selected for him, his interest in various sciences was indulged. The first military council, to which the Empress invited him, took place in 1783, that is, when Pavel Petrovich was twenty-nineyears.
This meeting marked the final break between them.
Before that, Empress Catherine the Second indulged in the spread rumors about his birth from S altykov. She also supported opinions about the imbalance and cruelty of the Tsarevich.
Today it is difficult to judge, but ordinary people, dissatisfied with the policies of the Empress, were on the side of Pavel Petrovich. So, Emelyan Pugachev promised to transfer power to him after the coup d'état. The name of the Tsarevich sounded during the plague riot in Moscow. The rebellious exiles, led by Benevsky, also swore allegiance to the young emperor.
In the last years of her life, Catherine II was waiting for the official wedding of her eldest son, Pavel Alexander. In this case, she could transfer power to her grandson, bypassing the unloved child. But after her death, Bezborodko's secretary destroyed the manifesto, thereby saving the crown prince from arrest and contributing to his ascension to the throne. For this, he subsequently received the highest state rank of Chancellor.
Life in Gatchina
The official son of Catherine the 2nd, Pavel Petrovich, after several years of traveling around Western Europe, settled in the estate of the late Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov. Prior to this, the Tsarevich managed to marry twice.
His first wife was Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (then Emperor Paul was nineteen years old). But two and a half years later, she died during childbirth and a new bride was chosen for him.
She turned out to be Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, daughter of the Duke of Württemberg. The candidacy for the emperor was personally chosen by King Frederick of PrussiaSecond. It is noteworthy that she comes from the same estate as Catherine II, the mother of Pavel Petrovich.
Thus, after a year and a half of travel, the newlywed couple settled in Gatchina, the former estate of Count Orlov. It is interesting that, judging by the information from government papers and economic documents of the estate, the Tsarevich and his wife were constantly robbed by servants and relatives. With a huge salary for those times of two hundred and fifty thousand rubles per annum, the son of Catherine 2 Pavel 1 constantly needed loans.
It is in Gatchina that the future emperor gets himself a "toy" army. It was a military formation similar to the Amusing Regiments of Peter the Great. Although contemporaries spoke out sharply negatively against such a passion for the crown prince, researchers of our time have the exact opposite opinion.
Based on the exercise data, the regiments didn't just march and parade. It was a small but perfectly trained army for that time. For example, they were taught to repel an amphibious assault, they knew how to fight day and night. These and many other tactics were constantly taught to them by Catherine's son 2.
Illegitimate son
However, there was also an illegitimate son of Catherine II. His name was Alexei Grigorievich. Subsequently, the boy was given the surname Bobrinsky, in honor of the Bobriky estate (now the city of Bogoroditsk in the Tula region).
The son of Catherine II and Orlov, according to contemporaries, was a very timid and quiet boy. There were rumors at court about the "narrowness of his mind," since at the age of thirteenhis knowledge was limited to French and German, as well as the beginnings of arithmetic and geography.
An interesting case connected with the birth of Alexei Bobrinsky. In December 1761, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna dies, and her son Peter III ascends the throne. The event leads to the final break between Catherine and her husband. The girl is sent to live in the opposite wing of the Winter Palace.
Remarkably, this incident did not upset her at all. At this time, she had a favorite Grigory Orlov. Four months later, in April 1762, the time came to give birth to a son from this lover. It was absolutely impossible to attribute paternity to Peter III.
So an original turn of events was taken. The Empress's valet, Vasily Shkurin, sets his house on fire. Since the emperor loved to admire the fires, he, along with his retinue, left the palace to enjoy the spectacle. At this time, Catherine II gave birth to a son from Grigory Orlov.
Before the coup, it was stupid and dangerous to announce its existence, so the boy is immediately given up for education by a devoted valet, who was built a more attractive mansion on the site of the burned one.
Childhood
Thus, the son of Catherine 2 and Grigory Orlov was brought up with the children of the wardrobe master Vasily Shkurin, later he would be granted the rank of valet. Until the age of twelve, Alexei lived and studied with his sons. In 1770 they traveled together for four years to Leipzig. There specially for these boys was createdboarding house.
In 1772, Alexei Bobrinsky was placed under the supervision of Marshal of the Neapolitan army Joseph de Ribas for two years. Subsequently, the time spent with the illegitimate son of the Empress will be credited to the Spaniard, and he will be promoted to prominent positions in Russia. For example, it was Deribas (as he began to write his last name in the Russian manner) that played a major role in the creation of the port of Odessa. And the most famous street in this city is named after him.
At the age of thirteen, Alexei Bobrinsky returned to the Russian Empire and fell into the hands of Betsky. At the same time, the boy complains about the estate in Bobriky for material support.
According to the trustee and teacher, the son of Catherine 2 Alexei did not shine with knowledge and desire for science. He just wanted to please his mother. In disposition, the boy was quiet, calm and accommodating.
Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy, being a prominent figure in the field of education in St. Petersburg, quite strongly influenced not only the education of Alexei Bobrinsky, but also the promotion of Joseph de Ribas.
At twenty years old, a young man completes his studies in the corps. As a reward, he receives a gold medal and is promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Travel
After such a course of study, the son of Catherine II and Grigory Orlov was fired and sent on a trip to Western Europe. It must be said that here we see an example of how the Empress loved this young man and took care of him.
Aleksey Grigoryevich Bobrinsky sets off on a journey with the best graduates of the corps under the supervision of a scientistand military. In Russia, they were accompanied by the naturalist Nikolai Ozeretskovsky, an encyclopedist, a member of the Russian and St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The guys visited Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Simbirsk, Ufa, Astrakhan, Taganrog, Kherson and Kyiv.
Further in Warsaw, Colonel Aleksey Bushuev was assigned to them, who continued his journey through Western Europe with the graduates. Austria, Italy and Switzerland were visited here. The program ended halfway, in Paris.
The reason was that the son of Catherine II and Count Orlov became interested in gambling and girls. There is nothing supernatural in this for his age, but the quarrel happened due to the fact that all his fellow travelers lived on the money sent to him from the Empress (three thousand rubles). And Alexei Bobrinsky alone lacked finances.
In view of the current situation, graduates were sent home from France, and the son of the Empress was allowed to live in Europe. Here he is mired in debt and carried away by a wild life.
As a result, Catherine the Great ordered to deliver it to Russia. Count Vorontsov nevertheless coped with the task with little difficulty, and Alexei Bobrinsky was settled in Revel. This place became like a "house arrest" for him. While traveling in Europe, he was promoted to the rank of second-captain (modern senior lieutenant).
Relations with Catherine II
Immediately after the birth, the son of Catherine II Bobrinsky enjoyed the favor of his mother. He received a fairly good education. The Empress, as far as possible, supported and helped in everything. But ondue to the young man's lack of grip and desire for service, he was looked after like a porcelain figurine.
The turning point was the breakdown of Alexei Bobrinsky during a trip to Western Europe. He was regularly sent interest in the form of three thousand rubles (from the fund that the Empress had founded for him). Also, after the message to Russia about card debts, another seventy-five thousand were transferred.
But it didn't help. The young man went down to the bottom again. At the request of Catherine the Great, Friedrich Grimm, a French publicist and diplomat, looked after him for some time. After he refused this job due to the disobedience of the young man, the son of Catherine II and Count Orlov was sent to Russia.
The Empress took this step because the boy's behavior greatly spoiled her reputation.
Apparently, having found himself in Reval with a ban on leaving the city, Alexei Bobrinsky realized the depth of his misdeed. This is evident from the constant requests for pardon and permission to move to the capital. The result was only his dismissal from the military forces with the rank of brigadier.
At thirty-two, the empress allowed her son to buy a castle in Livonia, where two years later he would marry Baroness Urgen-Sternberg. Because of the wedding, Alexei Bobrinsky was allowed to arrive in the capital for a few days so that Catherine II could see the bride.
After that, he left for his castle of Auber-Palen, where he lived until the death of his mother.
Relationship with Paul I
Oddly enough, Alexei Bobrinsky, son of Catherine II, received full support and care from Emperor Paul I. His half-brotherreleased him from house arrest, eventually promoted him to major general. He also awarded his brother the Order of St. Anne and gave him the command.
However, suddenly the illegitimate son of Catherine II falls into disfavor. At thirty-six, he was fired from the service for the second time, deprived of his ranks and settled on the Bobriky estate.
Aleksey Grigoryevich is allowed to visit the capital and the castle in Livonia, but any state and military affairs are prohibited.
Until his death, Alexei Bobrinsky, the son of Catherine II, was engaged in astronomy, mineralogy and agriculture. They buried him in the crypt of the estate in the Tula province.
