Dashkoff

Dashkoff, PRINCESS EKATERINA ROMANOVNA, daughter of Count Voronzoff, was born 28th March 1743, at St Petersburg, and from her earliest youth received a careful training. She married Prince Dashkoff when only fifteen years old, but was left a widow three years after. She was an intimate friend of the Empress Catharine II., and one of the heads of the conspiracy formed against Peter III., the success of which secured the throne to Catharine. Soon afterwards quarrelling with Catharine, she obtained permission to travel, and visited Germany, England, France, and Italy, making the acquaintance of many eminent men (among others, Garrick, Dr Blair, and Dr Robertson). The empress and she were reconciled to each other, and the princess was appointed Director of the Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 1783, President of the Russian Academy, established at her own suggestion in imitation of the French Académie. On the death of Catharine in 1796, she was deprived of her offices, and ordered by Paul III. to retire to her estates at Novgorod. She died 16th January 1810. Besides writing several comedies and occasional papers, the Princess Dashkoff was mainly instrumental in inducing the Russian Academy to draw up a dictionary of the Russian language, and herself executed part of the work. See her very interesting autobiography (trans. 1840).