Records of Catherine II’s trips around Russia have been preserved in the Kammerfurier Ceremonial Journal. Courtiers made short daily records in it about various events in the life of the empress.
According to the journal, in 1775 Catherine II spent a lot of time in Moscow. Sometimes she went to the nearby towns of the Moscow Governorate, visited factories, estates and monasteries.
On 15 December 1775, the empress set out for Kaluga from Tula. The road of 90 versts (about 96 kilometres) in length passed through the village of Oleshin, where the empress changed horses, and the village of Titovo, which was owned by the merchant and manufacturer Milyutin. Past nine o’clock in the evening of the same day, Catherine II entered Kaluga.
Specially for her arrival they built the Triumphal Gate on the Tula Road, near the intersection of modern Saltykov-Shchedrin and Stepan Razin Streets. From it, the ruler headed to the Cathedral Church, where she was welcomed by the Kaluga clergy, led by the archbishop of Kaluga and Borovsk Platon.
The next day, on 16 December, in the house of one of the Kaluga merchants (researchers still cannot reliably determine which one), was held a ceremonial reception. To it were invited ‘nobility of both sexes, merchants of the first guild and some petty bourgeois with their wives, and many others’. After the reception, dinner was held with 31 couverts: the so-called set of table fittings for one person.
Having finished the meal, Catherine II, along with her retinue, went to the Polotnyany Zavod, an estate near Kaluga. There she was welcomed by the owner of local linen and paper factories Afanasy Goncharov. After a walk around the Zavod, the host presented the distinguished guest with the best grades of paper in memory of the trip. In the manor’s house they set up an “evening table” for the Empress, to which Catherine II invited both Goncharov himself and his whole family. The empress was treated to ceps.
Catherine II spent about 4 hours at the Polotnyany Zavod and was so pleased with Goncharov and his activities that she awarded him a gold medal and allowed him to be called “the supplier of the court of Her Imperial Majesty”.
In memory of this visit, Goncharov ordered a colossal statue of the empress in Berlin, but died before he could see the completed work. The descendants of the industrialist did not like it –and for several decades it had been left in the basement of the house. Later, the statue was handed over as Natalia Goncharova’s dowry to Alexander Pushkin, who was trying to sell the ‘bronze granny’ – but to no avail. Only in 1844 merchants from Yekaterinoslav became interested in it (today the city is called Dnipro), and two years later, the statue of Catherine II was installed on the city’s Cathedral Square. The monument has not survived to this day: it disappeared during the Great Patriotic War.
According to the journal, in 1775 Catherine II spent a lot of time in Moscow. Sometimes she went to the nearby towns of the Moscow Governorate, visited factories, estates and monasteries.
On 15 December 1775, the empress set out for Kaluga from Tula. The road of 90 versts (about 96 kilometres) in length passed through the village of Oleshin, where the empress changed horses, and the village of Titovo, which was owned by the merchant and manufacturer Milyutin. Past nine o’clock in the evening of the same day, Catherine II entered Kaluga.
Specially for her arrival they built the Triumphal Gate on the Tula Road, near the intersection of modern Saltykov-Shchedrin and Stepan Razin Streets. From it, the ruler headed to the Cathedral Church, where she was welcomed by the Kaluga clergy, led by the archbishop of Kaluga and Borovsk Platon.
The next day, on 16 December, in the house of one of the Kaluga merchants (researchers still cannot reliably determine which one), was held a ceremonial reception. To it were invited ‘nobility of both sexes, merchants of the first guild and some petty bourgeois with their wives, and many others’. After the reception, dinner was held with 31 couverts: the so-called set of table fittings for one person.
Having finished the meal, Catherine II, along with her retinue, went to the Polotnyany Zavod, an estate near Kaluga. There she was welcomed by the owner of local linen and paper factories Afanasy Goncharov. After a walk around the Zavod, the host presented the distinguished guest with the best grades of paper in memory of the trip. In the manor’s house they set up an “evening table” for the Empress, to which Catherine II invited both Goncharov himself and his whole family. The empress was treated to ceps.
Catherine II spent about 4 hours at the Polotnyany Zavod and was so pleased with Goncharov and his activities that she awarded him a gold medal and allowed him to be called “the supplier of the court of Her Imperial Majesty”.
In memory of this visit, Goncharov ordered a colossal statue of the empress in Berlin, but died before he could see the completed work. The descendants of the industrialist did not like it –and for several decades it had been left in the basement of the house. Later, the statue was handed over as Natalia Goncharova’s dowry to Alexander Pushkin, who was trying to sell the ‘bronze granny’ – but to no avail. Only in 1844 merchants from Yekaterinoslav became interested in it (today the city is called Dnipro), and two years later, the statue of Catherine II was installed on the city’s Cathedral Square. The monument has not survived to this day: it disappeared during the Great Patriotic War.
