Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-06-24

E1zaDetn ....... .lT4l-l76l. ......... 20 years
Anne, daughter of Alexis, the son of
Peter the Great, married the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp and had long resided
in Germany. A son of this marriage,
Charles Peter Uric, was given also the
name of Peter Feodorovitch. He mar
ried the daughter Of the Prince of Anhalt
-Zerbst, Sophia Augusta, who received
the baptismal name OF Catherine. Upon
the death of Elizabeth the son OF the
Duke OF Holsten and Anne became Czar
with the title Of Peter Ill. After reign
of about six months Peter was killed to
make way for his ambitious wife, who
assembled the throne and proclaimed her.
self Empress of all the Russias.
Catherine III, whom Voltaire, in a
spirit Of malicious equiuoque, designated
as LA Semirami du Nord," was a
many sided figure. She was great SOW
ereign and very loose woman. One of
her many amours served to obliterate
the last vestige of Romanof blood in the
reigning family Of Russia, and created a
new strain with equal proportions Of
Russian and German blood. Whatever
existing opinions there may be, the
weight Of testimony bears out the claim
that the father of Paul, the son of Cath
crime, was not Peter Ill, but Count Nicho-
las Soltikoff, one of GATHERINGS early ia
vorites. Indeed the dissolute lives of the
wives, and of the female line Of the Ro.
manoffs, leaves reasonable doubt as to
the paternity of any of their children.
The death Of Catherine ended the Hol-
stein-G Gottorp dynasty.
REIGN OF THE HoLsTEIN-GoTToRP LINE.
Peter III. 1761-1762. .........6 months
Catherine IL. .1762-1796 .........34 years
The accession of Paul l to the throne
heralded for Russia the broader light OF
the civilization of the nineteenth century.
The head Of the new reigning family was
madly, insanely despotic, but he be-
queathed few of his traits to his
successors. Paul was murdered
like his father, and the throne
was occupied successfully by his two
sons, the mild-mannered, sympathetic
Alexander l, and the stern, rigidly gov
erning Nicholas l; his grandson, Alex
ander IL, and his great-grandson Alex
ander III. The "good intentions" OF
Alexander II paved the way to his vio-
lent death at the hands of the Nihilists.
Alexander III, the present Czar, is too
modern figure to need portrayal in detail,
but he has unquestionably inherited the
insanity of Paul, or at least some OF the
hallucinations OF that madman.
REIGN OF THE PRESENT IMPERIAL FAMILY.
Paul ...................179 .1796-1S01 yeari
Alexander rI,..............18 1901 1925 "a
Nicholas l. l......,..........1 .1S25.1S55 30
Alexander II .,.....,,... 1s55-1ss1 26
Alexander III has now reigned
i Upon the assumption that Paul was
the son of soltikof and Catherine II, il
cannot be denied that Alexander Ill
so far as blood is concerned, is much
more German than Russian, though
neither the blood of the Romanoffs nor
Holstein- Gottorps runs in his veins. But
in the words of Khalif Ali, "men are
more like the times they live in tLan
they are like their fathers, and the Cars
of Russia since Michael Feodorovitch have
maintained their autocratic privileges
with an iron hand. The first Cars cared
nothing for humanity and strove to stay
the august broadening Of the light Of
civilization. Possessed Of the same spirit,
it could hardly be expected that
the later Czars, like autocrats OF an I'M
mitigated despotism in their own terri
tories, would be unlike their predeces-
sors, or would exert their influence in
the cause Of public liberty.
MARINER j. KENT