person
Catherine the Great
Catherine
also: Екатерина, Catherine II, Empress Catherine
Empress of Russia (r. 1762-1796), invoked here by Chekhov as a historical precedent in his rebuttal to Suvorin's complaint about declining morals among "girls": he recalls that she wanted to marry off her favorite Alexander Mamonov to a thirteen-year-old girl, offered as evidence that youthful pairings and depravity are nothing new.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 27 May 1891. Bogimovo. §6 Remember Catherine, who wanted to marry Mamonov off
Catherine the Great's plan to marry off her favorite Alexander Mamonov to a thirteen-year-old girl, offered as Chekhov's first historical counterexample: proof that youthful pairings and "depravity" were, if anything, more openly sanctioned in the past than in the present.