Video: Princess Tarakanova - a fearless adventurer or an unrecognized Russian princess?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Russian history knows a lot of betrayals and deceptions, adventures and false encroachments on the throne. Name Princess Tarakanova shrouded in secrets and riddles that still haunt historians. She traveled a lot, changing names and stories about her life, and even tried to impersonate the illegitimate daughter of Empress Elizabeth in order to claim the throne …
Little is known about the life of the famous adventurer, even the date of her birth is not known for certain. According to historians, she was born in the period from 1745 to 1753, and her real name was never announced. The princess died at the age of 30 and during her short life managed to change not only her country of residence, but every time she came to a new country, she had to change her name too. She happened to live in European cities like Berlin, London and Paris, and carry the names of Fraulein Frank, Madame de Tremuil, and Princess de Waldomir.
The beauty lived at the expense of men, whom she easily seduced, and then drove to bankruptcy and abandoned. However, the soul of the adventurer longed for more, and she decided to pass herself off as the heiress to the imperial throne. She found support from the Polish politician Karl Radziwill, who thus dreamed of ousting Catherine II from the throne. The couple came up with a touching legend about the birth of Princess Tarakanova, her life with her mother Elizaveta Petrovna until the latter's death and exile to Siberia, organized by Catherine.
Abroad, the legend made a splash until Russia and Turkey made peace. As soon as this happened, and rumors about the impostor reached the empress, her fate was, in fact, a foregone conclusion. In order to lead the princess to a clean bottom, it was decided to arrange a special trap for her. Attention to the girl began to show Prince Alexei Orlov (one of those who helped Catherine to ascend to the throne), it was he who planned her arrest soon. During interrogations in St. Petersburg, she never confessed to her adventure, and was doomed to spend years in prison. Little is known about the death of the princess either: according to one of the versions, it was caused by tuberculosis, according to another - difficult childbirth.
Many people remember Princess Tarkanova today thanks to the portrait by Flavitsky. But about another impostor of this period, posing as Peter III, history has retained much more reliable information. It is, of course, about Emelyana Pugachev …
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