I'm going to go. He's

a-a-ra-s-s-s-s-a-s-s-a-s-a-s- Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast, episode 43, Catherine, the Virgin Wife. 43. Frédrika, the soon to become Catherine as she heads toward her new country, Russia.

Young Figgen has sent a final goodbye to her father, Christian Augustus.

Off she went from the border town of Shvette, where she and her entourage, which included her mother

Johanna, whose paper identified her as the Countess of Rhinebeck, traveled incognito.

The trip started off uncomfortably, stopping each night at post houses to sleep in. As Johanna wrote, as the bedchambers were not heated, we had to take refuge in the postmaster's own room, which was a little different from a pigsty.

Husband, wife, watchdog, chickens, and children,

all slept pell-mel and cradles, beds behind the stove on mattresses.

This was not the type of trip that Johanna and her daughter were expecting from the onset. Slowly they made their way to Mittau, where they met Colonel

Vojakov who escorted them to Riga. There they were greeted by Prince

Semyon Narishkin and Vice Governor Prince Dolguiruki.

Things began to look up for the entourage as they were fetted that evening, or as

Johanna put it, when I go into dinner, the trumpets inside the house and the

drums, flutes, and hout boy of the guard outside sound a salute. I cannot believe that all this in honor of my poor

self, for whom, in other places, they scarcely beat the drum, and elsewhere, not even that.

Notice how Sophie's mother thinks that all of this is about her and nothing about her daughter. This was how Johanna viewed everything in life, all

circling about her. She was in for a rude awakening.

From here they headed towards St. Petersburg, where on the way they passed an unusual group of black sledges guarded by soldiers.

Prince Naryshkin told the inquisitive Johanna that they were owned by some other low-bearing

Duke who is of no consequence. The truth was, this

depressing convoy contained the recently deposed Sar Ivan the sixth and his mother Anna, who until recently had served as regent.

How ironic that Ivan passed by the coach containing the person who, when Sophie became Empress, would be killed on her orders.

...