Princess Tarakanova

The painting by Konstantin Flawizki (1864) shows the legend of the death of the imprisoned princess during the flood in the Peter and Paul Fortress

Elizabeth Alexejewna Tarakanova ( Russian Елизавета Алексеевна Тараканова , better known as Княжна Тараканова , Princess Tarakanova ; Princess Tarakanoff * 1750, † December 4 ^{. Jul} / 15. December  1775 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg ) occurred during the reign of Catherine II. As Russian pretender to the throne by claiming to be a daughter of Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna and Count Alexei Razumovsky and thus a granddaughter of Peter the Great . Catherine II had her transported to Russia with the help of Count Alexei Orlov and imprisoned until her early death.

Life

The real name, ancestry and birthplace of the attractive Elisabeth Alexejewna Tarakanowa are unknown. According to her own statement, she is said to have grown up in Saint Petersburg. Since 1772 it has attracted attention in several cities in Western Europe. At first, under the name Ali Emmetie, she became the lover of a trader from Ghent . She subsequently used various other names such as Fräulein Frank , Madame Scholl , Madame Trémouille , Knjaginja Wladimirskaja (Princess of Vladimir ) and finally called herself Princess Tarakanova . Her lovers included London and Paris nobles and, most recently, Count Philipp Ferdinand von Limburg-Styrum , whom she met in Germany. She claimed to him that she was descended from Tsarina Elisabeth, whereupon the count asked for her hand in vain.

After Poland had been divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1772 ( First Polish Partition ), Polish emigrants, including Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł , voivode of Vilnius, saw in Elisabeth Tarakanowa a suitable means of disempowering Catherine II. They persuaded the alleged tsar's daughter in 1774 to make claims to assert on the Russian crown. Tarakanowa, for its part, promised to cede the occupied Polish territory again after a successful takeover. Since 1773 there was also a Cossack rebellion in Russia led by the murdered Tsar Peter III. issued by Emelyan Pugachev instead.

Catherine II sent the commander of the Russian Mediterranean Fleet, Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov , who was to deliver the young pretender to her. The attractive man seduced Tarakanova, who was staying in Italy at the time, enjoyed a short stay with her in Pisa and then traveled with her to Livorno , where the Russian fleet anchored. He could get her to go to his admiral ship by pretending to make her his wife there in a solemn wedding ceremony. As soon as she entered the ship, however, she was treated as a prisoner, extradited to Catherine II and brought to Saint Petersburg in May 1775. In the interrogations there, she stuck to her previous statements. Tarakanova's health deteriorated rapidly during internment in the Peter and Paul Fortress . She died of tuberculosis on December 4, 1775 , but had not revealed her true identity.

Various other rumors of Tarakanova's death have circulated. So she did not die in 1775, but had to secretly become a nun under the name Dosiphea and did not die until 1810. According to another version, she would have died in 1777 when the fortress in which she was incarcerated was flooded. This variant of her death was immortalized in a history painting by the Russian painter Konstantin Flawizki in 1864 . Their story was processed not only in the fine arts, but also in literature and film.

literature

• Elizabeth II, the wrong one . In: Jean-François Chiappe (ed.): The famous women of the world from AZ . German edition, p. 91f.