The imperial family bore the death of Tsar Alexander II with dignity. The same could not be said for his young wife, Catherine Dolgorukova. When the moment came to say goodbye, her reaction was strange, to say the least. After being forced into the role of the Tsar’s mistress, Catherine Dolgorukova gained far more than she ever expected when they married, especially given the enormous age gap between them.
Despite her complete devotion to him, every day spent with his family was a nightmare, and they never stopped tormenting her, even after she severed all ties with them. Though Catherine and her family had known poverty since childhood, they were in fact closely connected to the Russian monarchy. Through her father’s line, Catherine descended from Nikita Romanovich, who was not only a high-ranking noble during the early Russian tsardom but also the brother-in-law of the first tsar, Ivan the Terrible. In 1859, Catherine, then ten years old, received a member of the royal family and met the man who would become her husband: Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, forty-one years old.
Her father had never been able to provide much for the family, and their situation worsened with his death when Catherine was around seventeen. Wanting to secure a decent life for her daughters, Catherine’s mother sent her and her sister Maria to the Small Institute for Noble Maidens. This kind of higher education was not cheap, so Catherine’s mother did everything she could. She contacted the minister of the court for help, and he convinced the emperor to pay the tuition fees for Catherine, Maria, and their four brothers.
Catherine had not seen Alexander since their first meeting, but shortly after she began her studies at the Small Institute, he decided to pay an official visit to the school. Their connection resumed, and Alexander quickly singled her out for attention, taking her on walks and inviting her to ride in his carriages. The seventeen-year-old Catherine made no effort to hide her joy at the emperor’s interest, and Alexander knew it. Although he was married to Empress Maria, who was thirty years older than him, he saw no obstacle in pursuing Catherine.
Since his wife was suffering from tuberculosis, he used the situation to appoint Catherine as one of her ladies-in-waiting. Though she accepted the position, Catherine was hesitant to grow close to Alexander, simply because she did not want to become just another mistress of his. During her work as a lady-in-waiting to the empress, Catherine kept her distance. Then something unexpected happened.
Having lost his eldest son about a year earlier, Alexander was still drowning in grief by the summer of 1866. Catherine watched it all unfold before her eyes. She felt tremendous pity for him and eventually accepted his offer to become his mistress. She remained frank about not wanting to be merely a mistress, but Alexander had all the right answers.
According to her writings, Catherine felt more at ease when he promised to marry her as soon as the opportunity arose. Despite their frequent meetings, Catherine and Alexander continued to exchange letters daily, especially after she became pregnant with his child. That changed her view of their relationship, and she wrote to him asking whether he would finally devote himself to her. Alexander and Catherine never publicly announced their affair, but rumors spread quickly, and many members of his family and court slipped into their world, and they did not like what they saw.
Though Alexander was the one who had pursued Catherine, the rest of the imperial family believed she was trying to manipulate him in order to become the new empress. By early 1876, Catherine was pregnant with her third child by Alexander, and she had grown increasingly angry about having to give birth in secret the previous times. So when labor struck in February of that year, she asked Alexander to allow her to give birth in his palace, the Winter Palace. Their son Boris lived only a few weeks.
Worried for the safety of his new family, Alexander moved Catherine and her four children into the Winter Palace, providing them quarters on the third floor. He hoped that keeping Catherine close would protect her from any harm. But on the first of March, 1880, assassins planted a bomb in the palace dining room. As Alexander climbed the stairs to Catherine’s and the children’s rooms, he braced for the worst.
Catherine heard the commotion and trembled, but she and the children were unharmed. Alexander made sure his lady was safe, but he revealed his intentions. Elsewhere in the palace, on a different floor, Empress Maria lay bedridden with tuberculosis. Alexander had provided Catherine with a residence and the greatest security he could offer.
But knowing he might die prematurely, he also wanted to ensure that she and the children would have everything they needed. He set up an account for them in the state bank containing 3. 3 million gold rubles. Although Empress Maria was losing and regaining consciousness intermittently due to her illness, she was not entirely unaware of her husband’s betrayal.
Knowing she was nearing the end of her life, she asked Alexander to bring his children to her room so she could see them. The empress died in June 1880. But instead of grieving the loss of his wife and the mother of his children, Alexander married Catherine the following month. He swore to her that he would crown her empress before the end of the year.
That promise came with complications. Their marriage was morganatic, meaning they belonged to different social classes. The best he could do was grant her the title Princess Yurievskaya. That gave their children royal legitimacy, but it did not grant them any right to the throne.
Alexander had already felt the contempt his family held for Catherine. But now that they were married, the hostility grew. His older children could not get over how quickly he had replaced their mother. In fact, his favorite daughter, Grand Duchess Maria, wrote him a letter expressing the hope that she and her siblings might one day forgive him.
To Catherine, it seemed everyone was against her except her husband. That was not entirely true. Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich, Alexander’s younger brother, was one of the few who never blamed Catherine, and he expressed deep regret at the cruelty shown to her by the rest of the family. The imperial family still believed Catherine had exploited Alexander for her own gain, especially after their quick marriage following Maria’s death.
Alexander made clear that the only reason he had not waited longer was that he knew Catherine would inherit nothing if he were assassinated before their wedding. While Alexander’s family clearly hated Catherine, she also posed a significant threat to their dynasty, especially to his other sons. The fears that Catherine might take the throne as empress were not unfounded, for that would mean her children would replace the legitimate heirs Alexander already had. Catherine and Alexander faced insults and cold indifference daily.
Catherine loved her children and remained loyal to Alexander, doing her best to enjoy a happy life as the emperor’s wife. But it was not easy. Between the enmity of her husband’s relatives and her growing fear of assassins lurking in the shadows, peace in the Winter Palace was hard to find. Despite all the turmoil, both Catherine and Alexander tried to carry on with their lives.
For the emperor, that meant making his weekly trip to the Mikhailovsky Palace on March 13, 1881, to oversee the Russian army census. To maintain some protection, he used an enclosed, bulletproof carriage for his journey. He had grown increasingly fearful of an early death. Now it was Catherine’s turn to worry.
By this point, Alexander had taken many precautions to ensure his safety and that of his family. But when the time came for that weekly visit, he was not the one who was uneasy. According to Catherine, she had a vision predicting that the trip would lead to his destruction. She tried to convince him to stay home, but the emperor flatly refused.
Alexander would soon discover how right she was, but it would be too late. After a tense goodbye, Alexander headed to the Mikhailovsky Palace, where people lined the streets to watch him pass. As he made his way slowly, a young man from the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya lunged toward the carriage. He carried in his arms a white bundle containing powerful explosives.
Fortunately for Alexander, his precautions paid off, even though the blast shook the carriage. The bulletproof exterior prevented the explosion from causing serious damage. In the street, one of his men lost his life, and several people were injured, including the coachman. But Alexander was unharmed.
Believing the incident was over, he opened the carriage door and stepped out. He had overlooked one possibility. His attacker had not been working alone. A second assassin appeared, carrying another explosive device.
As the bomb fell at Alexander’s feet, he had only a moment to realize he should have listened to Catherine. The bomb exploded, and as the smoke cleared, his attendants found him lying on the ground, still alive, but with his legs nearly destroyed. Not willing to risk a third attack and hoping to get him back in time to say goodbye to Catherine, his men carried him into another carriage and rushed back to the palace. His family members and courtiers entered his room to see him one last time, until Catherine finally burst through the door, screaming his name in terror, and threw herself onto his body.
She and the rest of the imperial family stayed with Alexander as he took his final breaths, her dress stained with his blood from their last embrace. Finally, around three in the afternoon, he died. Catherine could not contain her emotions and fainted on the spot before the attendants carried her out. The imperial family’s hostility toward Catherine continued even after Alexander’s death.
As they held his funeral procession through the streets of Saint Petersburg, she was nowhere to be seen. During the burial ceremony, the family did not allow her or her children anywhere near the entrance of the church, forcing her to attend a completely separate funeral. Without Alexander to protect Catherine and the children, his family immediately conspired to push her out of their lives. But she did not give up easily.
Hoping to live comfortably with her children for the rest of her days, Catherine eventually agreed to stay away from the Winter Palace and all other imperial residences, in exchange for a pension of 3. 4 million rubles. Now she had to live the rest of her life without Alexander. But it was precisely then that her life flourished.
Though the imperial family thought they had won by driving her away, Catherine found a new home in France as quickly as possible. She went from being surrounded by people who despised her to becoming one of the most prominent and beloved hostesses among the Parisian elite. The imperial family got their wish, and Catherine left. But that did not seem to be enough for them.
The family still regarded her with contempt and suspicion, even sending spies to Paris to report on everything she did. Although Catherine was happy to cut ties with Russia, her son George tried, without success, to join the Imperial Russian Navy. In a letter to Catherine from Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the son of Alexander and Empress Maria, she was informed of George’s failure, with a detailed account of how poorly her half-brother had performed. For forty-one years, Catherine Dolgorukova enjoyed her life far from the political chaos of the Russian imperial family, living on her pension.
When it ran out, she sold her homes in Paris and Biarritz. Just as she was about to exhaust her vast fortune, she died on February 15, 1922.