The Earliest Letter of Catherine the Great as Tsarina to Have Reached the Market

She writes of the toll of her coronation and praises the development of the Baltic Coast, so crucial for Russia’s trade and security

 

She assures one of her murdered husband Peter’s generals that she does not intend to fire or harm those who had been employed by him, even though many thought she responsible for his death

 

” I have no intention of keeping anyone against his wishes nor to cause bitter feelings to anyone; above all I hate all annoyance. This does not take anything from me. I wish evil to no one. I know how to forget when necessary.”

 

From the collection of Dr. Otto O. Fisher, who bought primarily in the 1930s and 1940s, so this not been offered for sale in nearly a century

 

After her conversion to Orthodoxy, Princess Elizabeth took the name Catherine. She did her best to eschew her Germanic origins, and endear herself to the Russians as one of them. To occupy herself during her famously unhappy marriage to Peter, she immersed herself in her studies. Catherine was particularly taken with the writings of Enlightenment thinkers, like Diderot and Voltaire. She learned to read these authors in their native language of French.

In the mid-18th century, Russia was ruled by Peter the Great’s daughter, the empress Elizabeth, whose 20-year reign greatly stabilized the monarchy. Meanhile, German princess Sophie Friederike Auguste she was chosen to be the wife of Karl Ulrich, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the throne of Russia. On January 5, 1762, Empress Elizabeth passed away, paving the way for Karl Ulrich, now calling himself Peter, to become Emperor Peter III and Sophie Friederike, who had assumed the name of Catherine, his empress consort. It didn’t take long for Peter’s eccentricities to begin grating with the Russian nobility and military elite. His admiration of the Prussian king, Frederick II, led to Russia’s disengagement from the Seven Years’ War, a fight that had seen Russia allied with Austria and France against Prussia. Peter made no attempts to hide his dislike of Russia and his love of his native Germany. He further alienated himself from the noble classes with a series of domestic liberal reforms that attempted to improve the lives of the poor. He angered the Church as well by passing a law that promised religious freedom for Russians.

Catherine also became weary of her husband’s intentions as he increasingly humiliated her in court. It soon became clear to her that he was determined to end their marriage and take his mistress as his wife instead. She plotted the end of Peter’s reign.

On the night of July 8, 1762, Catherine got word that one of her co-conspirators in the plot against her husband had been arrested; the time to act was now. The following day she raced to gain the support of the most powerful military regiment in Russia. With their backing, she was ordained by the Church. Catherine then ordered the arrest and forced abdication of her husband. It was said that Peter gave up the throne like a child being sent to bed. Catherine would later claim in her memoirs that she had saved Russia ‘from the disaster that all this Prince’s moral and physical faculties promised.’ Peter later died under suspicious circumstances.

On September 22, 1762 at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, Catherine was crowned. Her coronation was an elaborate affair. Despite being born into an impoverished lower-nobility Germanic family, with no claim to the Russian crown whatsoever, Catherine rose the ranks of society and went on to stake a claim as one of Russia’s greatest ever rulers.
Access to the warmer water ports in the Baltic Sea were crucial to the Russians, a continental power building its fleet, seeking naval supremacy, and in need of a defensive zone around its new capital, St Petersburg. Gaining them had been a signal accomplishment of Peter the Great. Russia took possession of the entire Baltic coastline down to Riga in 1721, in the reign of Peter, and would absorbed Baltic Lithuania in 1795 under Catherine the Great.

Burkhard Christoph von Münnich was a German-born army officer who became a field marshal and political figure in the Russian Empire. He carried out major reforms in the Russian Army and founded several elite military formations. Later in his career, he was arrested on his way to the border, and condemned to death. Brought out for execution, and withdrawn from the scaffold, he was later sent to Pelym, Siberia, where he remained for several years, until the accession of Peter III brought about his release in 1762. Catherine, who displaced Peter, employed the old field marshal as director-general of the Baltic ports.

Autograph Letter Signed, September 25, 1762, to von Munnich, just three days after her coronation. “I received yesterday by Kort whom I make your Adjutant General – the letter you have written me. I have seen with pleasure that in Port Baltic, in a very little amount of time, you have completed as much work as has been done since the operation commenced. I confess that your last letters have not in the least tempted me to offer a response. My voyage, the arrangements for my coronation, the ceremony and those which followed moreover have left me precious little time. You may add two Lieutenants to Korf and send me a list of the Chancellery suitable for the work confided to your care. I will then expedite the Ukases [decrees] I deem necessary. As soon as this trying time has passed, I will reflect on the other passages of your letters. According to your wishes I will not meddle in any matter in that which regards Wurtemburg. I return you your plans. I have told the Chancellor to expedite your passport to visit your lands in Germany. I have no intention of keeping anyone against his wishes nor to cause bitter feelings to anyone; above all I hate all annoyance. This does not take anything from me. I wish evil to no one. I know how to forget when necessary and I am with much esteem and gratitude for all the flattering things with which you adorn your letter.”

A remarkable and famous letter, one of the best of Catherine to have reached the market, and last having been sold nearly a century ago.  It was once in the collection of P. O’Callaghan, great collector of European manuscripts, and was published in 1865 in the included book.