Catherine Shuvalova
Countess Catherine Shuvalova (born Catherine Saltykova, 1743–1817) was a Russian courtier and a lady-in-waiting to Empress Catherine II. She was a confidant of Platon Zubov and served as Ober-Hofmeisterin to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden). She came from a noble family, the daughter of Field Marshal Pyotr Saltykov and Praskovia Trubetskaya. In 1762 she married Count Andrei Petrovich Shuvalov.
Her husband’s Grand Tour, which included a visit to Voltaire, helped bring Catherine into the Empress’s favor. The Shuvalovs hosted a lively salon in Moscow where science, art, poetry, theater and conversation thrived. She adopted her husband’s Deist views and raised their children with these ideas. In 1776 they traveled abroad and settled in Paris for a time; contemporaries described her as well-traveled but socially difficult, while some called her boring yet polite.
Catherine returned to Saint Petersburg in 1781 and remained at court. In 1792 she became a lady-in-waiting to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna and, using her experience abroad, helped bring to Russia young Baden-Durlach princesses who were to wed Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (the future Alexander I). Her involvement in court intrigues earned her the nickname la Grande clabaudeuse (the great gossip/plotter).
She did not win the favor of Grand Duke Alexander, and after Paul I came to the throne she was removed from her post. At the coronation in 1797 she received the Order of Saint Catherine (second degree) and was allowed to travel abroad again. In 1807 Catherine and her daughter Alexandra converted from Russian Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism and lived in Rome at the Palazzo Golitsyn (Via della Scrofa). She died on 13 October 1817 and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg.
Her children included:
- Praskovya Andreevna (1767–1828), who married Mikhail Galitzine
- Peter (1771–1808), Adjutant General of Paul I, who married Princess Sophia Scherbatova
- Alexandra Andreevna (1775–1847), who married Franz Joseph von Dietrichstein
- Paul (1776–1823), Adjutant General of Alexander I, who married Varvara Shakhovskoy
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:04 (CET).