Life
Tarakanova claimed to be the daughter of Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky and Elizabeth of Russia, reared in St. Petersburg. Even her place of birth, however, is not certain, and her real name is not known. She is known to have traveled to several cities in Western Europe; she became a mistress of Philipp Ferdinand of Limburg Stirum and lived off his money in the hope that the count would marry her.
She was eventually arrested in Livorno, Tuscany by Aleksei Grigoryevich Orlov, who had been sent by Empress Catherine II to retrieve her. Orlov-Tsesmensky seduced her, then lured her aboard a Russian ship, arrested her, and brought her to Russia in February 1775. She was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died of tuberculosis that December. She was buried in Novospassky Monastery, next to other non-reigning Romanovs.
A popular theory postulates that her death was faked and she was secretly forced to take the veil under the name Dosiphea. This mysterious nun was recorded as living in Ivanovsky Convent from 1785 until her death in 1810.
Read more about this topic: Princess Tarakanoff
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