on to doubt that she
was right in saying that she was born at Stettin on the 2nd of May 1729.
Her father, who succeeded to the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1746
and died in 1747, was a general in the Prussian service, and, at the
time of her birth, was military commandant at Stettin. Her baptismal
name was Sophia Augusta Frederica. In accordance with the custom then
prevailing in German princely families, she was educated chiefly by
French governesses and tutors. In 1744 she was taken to Russia, to be
affianced to the grand-duke Peter, the nephew of the empress Elizabeth
(q.v.), and her recognized heir. The princess of Anhalt-Zerbst was the
daughter of Christian Albert, bishop of Lubeck, younger brother of
Frederick IV., duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter's paternal grandfather.
The choice of her daughter as wife of the future tsar was the result of
not a little diplomatic management in which Frederick the Great took an
active part, the object being to strengthen the friendship between
Prussia and Russia, to weaken the influence of Austria and to ruin the
chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Elizabeth relied, and who was a known
partisan of the Austrian alliance. The diplomatic intrigue failed,
largely through the flighty intervention of the princess of
Anhalt-Zerbst, a clever but very injudicious woman. But Elizabeth took a
strong liking to the daughter, and the marriage was finally decided on.
The girl had spared no effort to ingratiate herself, not only with the
empress, but with the grand-duke and the Russian people. She applied
herself to learning the language with such zeal that she rose at night
and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons. The result
was a severe attack of congestion of the lungs in March 1744. During the
worst period of her illness she completed her conquest of the good-will
of the Russians by declining the religious services of a Protestant
pastor, and sending for Simon Todorskiy, the orthodox priest who had
been appointed to instruct her in the Greek form of Christianity. When
she wrote her memoirs she represented herself as having made up her mind
when she came to Russia to do whatever had to be done, and to profess to
believe whatever she was required to believe, in order to be qualified
to wear the crown. The consistency of her character throughout life
makes it highly probable that even at the age of fifteen she was mature
enough to adopt this worldly-wise line of conduct. Her fath