review
In her book In the Winter Palace, the writer Eva Stachniak sketches life at the Russian court in the 18th century, when the later so-called Catherine the Great made her entrance. Grandeur, decadence, gossip and backlash and intrigues make the historical novel In het Winterpaleis a true reading pleasure. And for those who get a taste for it: Eva Stachniak is already working on her next historical novel about Catherine the Great.
Eva Stachniak
Polish writer Eva Stachniak emigrated to Canada in 1981; she lives in Toronto. She worked at a radio broadcaster and as a teacher. In the Winter Palace(2011) is her third novel; Publisher De Arbeiderspers published this novel about Catherine the Great in Dutch translation in 2012, ISBN 9 789029 586245. In the meantime Stachniak is working on a second historical novel about Catherine the Great.
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great (1729-1796) was Tsarina of Russia from 1762 to 1796. As a young girl she came to court as Sophia Augusta Frederika, princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. Empress Elisabeth (the daughter of Peter the Great) had chosen her as consort of her adopted nephew Peter III. In order to be able to marry the heir to the throne, Sophia had to exchange her Lutheran faith for the Russian Orthodox. She was also given the name Catherine II Alexeyevna, later called Catherine the Great. In 1762, Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months. He is believed to have been murdered by a conspiracy led by Catherine. Catherine thus became the heir to the throne. After her death she was succeeded by her son Paul Romanov.
In the Winter Palace
The events at the Russian Court during the reign of Empress Elisabeth until the accession to the throne by Catherine the Great are described by Eva Stachniak from the Polish Varvara. Varvara has come to St. Petersburg with her parents. Her father is a skilled bookbinder and also receives commissions from the Court, including one from Empress Elisabeth to restore her old prayer book. Varvara’s mother dies young. Varvara’s father ensures that she can enter the Russian Court. Just in time, because soon after that he also dies. Initially Varvara ends up in the imperial sewing studio, but she manages to work her way up to a so-called “tongue” or “gazette” under the guidance of the chancellor. Everything she sees and hears must be whispered to the imperial ear in the evening. She ends up in a web of intrigues.
When Catharina appears on the scene, the two become friends. Barbara facilitates, among other things, the going and coming of Catherine’s various lovers. Grand Prince Peter prefers to play with his soldiers and also has a mistress. In the meantime, Empress Elisabeth has obliged Barbara to marry the soldier Jegor. This gives her a daughter, Darenka. Jegor is killed in the war against the Prussians and after the coup Varvara decides to return to her native Poland for good.
Life at the Russian Court in the 18th Century
“Grandeur is hard work” , Empress Elisabeth sighs somewhere in the book. She refers to what it takes to make the marriage of the Grand Prince and the Grand Duchess (Peter and Catherine) run smoothly.
Eva Stachniak puts a lot of effort into describing this grandeur. She does that brilliantly! organizing the wedding of the future Russian tsar was a huge task. Cooks, wine merchants and gardeners had to make sure that the guests would lack for nothing; there should be no shortage of grapes, pineapples, oranges, and candied fruit; the smokehouses had to provide enough sturgeon and balyk; flowering lemon trees in thick silver pots were supposed to provide the palace with sweet scents, etc. And on the wedding day itself Catherine and Peter drive together with the Empress in a sedan – under trumpet blasts and timpani blows – from the Winter Palace to the church. The saloon looked like a small castle, drawn by eight white horses with gold-colored harness and large feathers dancing in their manes.
This grandeur was not only reserved for times of events, but a daily decadence. Every day dresses on mannequins (called pandoras) are presented to the empress from the studio, but usually it is not good or it is not good. The cats sleeping on the Empress’s bed wear velvet jackets and hats. They are fed fried chicken breast and drink milk from silver saucers. At all kinds of banquets, such as the one for the Empress’s birthday, the tables are decorated like fairy tales: “The table was decorated with sweets made entirely of sugar: gates leading to wide sugar avenues, wonderful sugar palaces complete with terraces and gardens”.
The display of decadence contrasts sharply with the poverty of the common man outside the Russian Court. Cruelty is also commonplace.
Attention is also devoted to the sexual excesses of Empress Elisabeth; not so much described in action, but an enactment of the empress’s many lovers, who were able to gain access to the imperial bed through secret panels and passageways. Catharina the Great (also later) is certainly not inferior to that.
Historical fiction
The historical facts form the framework for the novel In the Winter Palace. The fiction that Eva Stachniak unleashes – inspired by a number of biographies as well as letters and memoirs of Catherine the Great – turns the whole into a beautiful sugar cake. To dream away on winter evenings.