Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
wife Catherine I assumed the throne for the next two years, with Peter's pal Men-
shikov acting as de facto tsar. When Catherine died, the reaction started.
Peter's fascination with 'freaks' is well documented, but his most outstand-
ingly politically incorrect act remains the dwarf wedding he organised for
his faithful servant Iakim Volkov. Peter ordered all the dwarves of Moscow
be rounded up and sent to St Petersburg, where, in the Menshikov Palace
an entire dwarf wedding ceremony and ball was performed for the amuse-
ment of Peter and his assembled court.
The St Petersburg-Moscow power struggle was on. The aristocracy's Old Muscov-
ite faction seized the opportunity to influence the succession. Without his protector,
the mighty Menshikov was stripped of all titles and property, and sent packing into
Siberian exile. Peter's 11-year-old grandson, Peter II, was chosen as an unlikely heir.
Delivering to his enabling patrons, the pliable Peter II returned the capital to Moscow.
St Petersburg's population fell by a half and its public works came to rest.
The Romanovs were a delicate dynasty and the teen tsar soon succumbed to small-
pox. Moscow's princely power brokers now entrusted the throne to another supposed
weakling, Duchess Anna Ivanovna, Peter the Great's niece. But Anna was no
pushover and she became the first in a line of tough women rulers. In 1732 Anna de-
clared St Petersburg to be the capital once more, and bade everyone return to the Balt-
ic. Making the offer more enticing, she recommenced glamorous capital construction
projects. Wary of scheming Russian elites, she recruited talented German state admin-
istrators. Still, the city recovered slowly. A big fire in 1737 left entire neighbourhoods
in ruins. Even Anna spent much time ruling from Moscow. St Petersburg remained
only half built, its dynamism diminished.
Not until the reign of Peter's second-oldest daughter, the Empress Elizabeth (r
1741-62), did the city's imperial appetite return in full. Elizabeth created one of the
most dazzling courts in Europe. She loved the pomp as much as the power. Her
20-year reign was a nonstop aristocratic cabaret. The Empress was a bit eccentric (she
was certainly her father's daughter in that respect), enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle that
revolved around hunting, drinking and dancing. She most loved hosting elaborate
masquerade balls, at which she performed countless costume changes, apparently pre-
ferring to end the night in drag. Bawdy though she was, Elizabeth also got the Russian
