Pushkin's Other Square

In 1757, Russia was expecting a change of rulers, but nobody was able to predict just when this change would take place. 

The 48-year-old Empress Elizabeth was very ill and already an old woman by the standards of that time. Her expected heir was her nephew Peter Fyodorovich, who had been waiting for some time for his aunt to die. Peter’s wife Catherine, meanwhile, could not stand him. Yet the couple had one thing in common: they both detested the ruling empress, who hated them in return. 

In parallel with this court battle, Russia was engaged in a real war, one that involved not barbed remarks and hostile glares, but exploding projectiles and dying soldiers.