Princess Tarakanova, the pretender to the russian throne during Catherine The Great's reign
Princess Tarakanova (1745 – December 15 1775), was a pretender to the Russian throne and she claimed to be the daughter of the ex-Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Her real name is not known.
Supported and used by political forces hostile to Russia, especially Polish powers that had a vested interest in undermining the actual Empress Catherine II, the young lady became dangerous for Catherine's throne.
Tarakanova in 1772 was attracting a lot of attention in elite social circles in Paris.
She was an enigmatic young woman of great beauty, refined manner, and sparkling wit charmed her way into the salons of the french capital. She claimed she was the illegitimate daughter of Empress Elizabeth, and legitimate heir to the Russian throne.
Catherine II couldn't risk her position, though the princess could be an userper, and by her instructions the count Alexey Orlov has found the young lady in Italy to retrieve her.
By means of oaths and fake promises he seduced her.
And then he lured her aboard a Russian ship and took her to Russia in February 1775, letting her believe she would have been the new empress.
It seems that they have even married during the journey, but it couldn't be legal because the count was already married.
The young girl fell into the trap
She was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, where she died of tuberculosis that December.
She was buried in the graveyard of the fortress.
There is also a legend that Tarakanova died during the great flood of 1777 in her cell.
