Catherine's Flirtation with Andrei Chernyshev in 1746-47
In 1746-47, Andrei Chernyshev, a cousin of Zakhar and Ivan Chernyshev, became part of the entourage surrounding Grand Duke Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, the heir apparent to the Russian Empress Elisabeth.
Andrei carried on a cheerful and mild flirtation with the Grand Duke's wife, the Grand Duchess Catherine, who later became Empress Catherine the Great. Their banter caught the eye of the Empress, who was not pleased.
Elisabeth suspected that Catherine was plotting at something, and she may have been right.
From John T. Alexander Catherine The Great: Life and Legend (1988) p. 44
"Probably most of these [intrigues] were quite innocent, as for example her relations with Andrei Chernyshev in 1746-47. But [Empress] Elizabeth took that flirtation so seriously that she had Catherine's confessor inquire about it after Chernyshev had been interrogated by the Secret Chancery and sent away under house arrest. Nevertheless, the Grand Duchess discovered Chernyshev's place of temprorary detention on the edge of Petersburg, through her valet Evreinov, secretly corresponded with him, and sent him "some money and other trifles."
Catherine's Affair with Zakhar Chernyshev, 1751
From John T. Alexander Catherine The Great: Life and Legend (1988) p. 44
Others pined for the young Catherine too, including the Swedish envoy, Count Kirill Razumovskii, and especially Count Zakhar Chernyshev.
Smitten with her charm at first sight, Zakhar Chernyshev had been sent abroad to cool his ardor (or so Catherine asserted) , but on returning to Petersburg in 1751, he laid siege to the Grand Duchess.
"He started by saying that he found me much more beautiful. This was the first time that anyone had said anything of the kind to me. I found it quite pleasing. I did more, I naively believed he spoke the truth."
They began secretly exchanging love notes. He proposed a visit to her room in disguise, but she refused and their affair went no further. Or so she maintained in later remembrances.
. . . A few days before he left to rejoin his regiment [Catherine] went sledding and dancing with him and others, from which she "came home very late, without anyone knowing what had happened to me."
Catherine the Great had a miscarriage in late December 1752 and a second miscarriage on 30 June 1753. She became pregnant for the third time in February 1754 and gave birth to her son Paul on 20 September (1 October) 1754.
Emperor Paul I of Russia (1 October 1754 - 23 March 1801) was officially fathered by Catherine's husband, Emperor Peter III of Russia, but Catherine later suggested in her memoirs that Peter was not the true father.
Who fathered Tsar Paul I ?
The notion that Zakhar Chernyshev may have fathered Tsar Paul I is not entirely out of the question. In fact, Catherine took many lovers and went on to give birth to two illegitimate daughters and an illegitimate son:
- Anna Petrovna (9 December 1757 - 8 March 1758), fathered by Catherine's lover, the future King Stanislaus II of Poland
- Elizabeth Alexandrovna Alexeeva (1761-1844), fathered by Catherine's lover, Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
- Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky (11 April 1762 - 20 June 1813), fathered by Orlov.
Zakhar Chernyshev was certainly listed as a "gentleman of the bedchamber to Grand Duchess Catherine" according to Virginia Rounding, author of Catherine The Great: Love, Sex and Power (2007).
According to the Wikipedia article "Catherine II The Great," all three Chernyshev brothers supported Catherine during the palace coup that finally eliminated Tsar Peter III and raised Catherine to the throne in July 1762.
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