From Catherine II’s Coup to Alexander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter: A Reflection on Sartorial and Spiritual Searching in Russian Culture

This article examines the origins of different attributions of the uniform that Catherine II wore on the day of the coup in 1762 that brought her to the throne. It traces the importance of this episode in eighteenthcentury culture and in Catherine’s self-representation by looking at memoirs, as well as by exploring the history of the Preobrazhenskii and Semenovskii regiments, in terms of the guards’ uniforms and their cultural meanings, and by studying royal ceremonies and the iconography of eighteenth-century portraits. The article then uses the lens of Pushkin’s novel The Captain’s Daughter (1836) to rethink this episode in the context of early nineteenth-century history, Pushkin’s personal biography and his thoughts on Russian history and culture.

I would like to thank Amanda Murphy, Andy Byford, Boris Maslov, Branka Grundy, Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, Claudia Nitschke, Ekaterina Chown, Elizaveta Renne, Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián, Igor' Pil'shchikov, Liudmila Lupashevskaia, Marianna Taymanova, Nina Tarasova and Sergey Tyulenev for their support, conversations and generous suggestions for improvement, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. I am indebted to the generosity of Elizaveta Renne and Maria Oleinik for providing additional sources for discussion of the portraits, and to the kind help of Timofei Peschanenko and Svetlana Bedrak who shared detailed information with me about Talyzin's uniform. I am grateful to Robert Collis for his graceful editing of this work. I would like to thank Svetlana Bedrak, Zhanna Etsyna and Vera Kessenich for their help in obtaining the images, and the State Hermitage Museum, State Historical Museum and State Russian Museum for allowing me to include images from their collections in this work. I am also grateful to Andrei Lupashevskii who shared with me photos of Pushkin's places. Any errors of fact or analysis are the sole responsibility of the author. When discussing the palace revolution that took place on June 28, 1762, some researchers identify the uniform that Catherine II (1762-1796) wore on that day as that of the Preobrazhenskii Life Guards Regiment or of the Life Guards, and some as the uniform of the Semenovskii Life Guards Regiment. The primary field of study in this matter-cultural history or dress and art history-usually, though not always, defines a preference for one of these two attributions. The first attribution is based on the memoirs of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova (1743-1810), who participated in the coup, and on the recollections of the Russian poet Gavriil Derzhavin (1743Derzhavin ( -1816, who served in the Preobrazhenskii Regiment in 1762. In her memoirs, Dashkova called the uniform "the old national uniform of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment," but mentioned that it belonged to Aleksandr Fyodorovich Talyzin (1734-1787), a second lieutenant of the Semenovskii Life Guards Regiment in 1762 (image 1). He went on to become a privy councillor and senator, and owned Denezhnikovo estate near Moscow, which Aleksandr Suvorov visited at the end of the century. In 1763, Catherine II returned the uniform to Talyzin (images 2 and 3). Eriksen's painting is a canonical example of equestrian portraiture, with the statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius being an original source for these portraits. 11 It is easy to identify formal similarities between the trotting poses of the horses in the two works of art. 12 In the painting, Catherine emerges from the foliage of an oak and a firtree into a calm landscape. 13 In the equestrian portraits, as John F. Moffitt suggests, "the 10 "Императрица сама предводительствовала, в гвардейском Преображенском мундире, на белом коне, держа в правой руке обнаженную шпагу." See Derzhavin,Sochineniia Derzhavina,vol. 6,  horse establishes the symbolic context of the painted panygeric [sic] directed at the "homo politicus," elevating its rider. 14 But Eriksen also creates complex symbolism in the painting through rhythmic counterpoints. One such counterpoint is enhanced by various hues of white and light gray with some red touches-highlighted by the color of Catherine's face and gloved hand, the color of her horse-white with gray spots, a red horsecloth and water flask, clouds transiting from darker to lighter hues, and a white horse and the monastery in the background. Moving forward on her horse, Brilliant, whose gaze is very animated, Catherine points with her sword to the light in the sky, with the soldiers carrying their fusils and following her in a pattern that resembles the form of the split branches of the oak tree. Eriksen depicted Catherine wearing a blue sash of the Order of St. Andrew with a wavy pattern resembling water, which merges with the image of the blue sky. A red horsecloth, water flask and harness create another rhythmic counterpoint with the banners of the moving regiments. Catherine's loose hair resembles the horse's mane and tail, and in its color and texture creates a pattern with the bark of the oak tree adding additional rhythmic nuances to the painting. The color of the uniform and the boots match the color of the oak and the fir behind her, while her hat is being crowned with oak leaves in the same way as the oak tree's foliage creates a protective cover over the fir whose branches point to the sky, with the leaves of the oak tree matching the color of the galloon. The horse is trotting over what appears to be dry land, with the bodies of the horse and its rider casting a shadow over the land and the grass. Complex spiritual and Enlightenment connotations of this painting transform it into a nuanced narrative where the symbolism of life and death intertwine. Yet, the direction of light and the animated gaze of the horse represent the dawn, with clouds gradually receding into the background. By establishing a parallel with the statue of Marcus Aurelius, Eriksen may be also suggesting a model for emulation.
According to Elizaveta Renne, the original of this portrait was on display in the Throne Hall of Peterhof Palace from 1773, while one of its replicas was in the Hermitage Gallery. The artist also made a number of smaller replicas, 15 and Catherine promised one of them to Friedrich Melchior Grimm in a letter of June 22, 1781: "[…] mais pour la portrait à cheval d'Ericson, vous n'en aurez que la copie." 16 As Catherine's personal secretary, Derzhavin would have had an opportunity to see the portrait on many occasions. It would also not have been the first time that the poet employed ekphrasis in his works. In "Murza's Vision" (1783-84, published in 1791), for instance, the image of the empress is based on Dmitrii Levitskii's Portrait of Catherine II as a Lawgiver in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice (1783). 17 While Derzhavin's attribution, as we will discover later, has grounds, it is possible that he also read some religious connotations into the image: he describes Catherine's steed as white.
In her own accounts of this episode (all written in the 1760s), Catherine II did not attribute the uniform to a particular regiment. In a letter to Stanisław Poniatowski, written on August 2, 1762 (o.s.), the empress wrote about her trip to Peterhof to arrest Peter III, in which she referred to the uniform of the guards: After dispatching all our messengers and taking every precaution, around ten o'clock in the evening, I donned the uniform of the Guards, having had myself proclaimed a colonel to ineffable acclaim. I mounted my horse, and we left behind no more than a few men from each regiment to look after my son, who remained behind in the city. I then departed at the head of the troops, and we marched all night to Peterhof. 18 Catherine also noted that she had traveled at the head of the Preobrazhenskii and other regiments when returning to St. Petersburg. She retold the same episode in the redaction of her memoirs written in the 1760s: When everything was completed, they left the Grand Duke and some military units under the supervision of the Senate to guard the city, and the empress in the uniform of the guards (of which she had been declared Colonel) on horseback, at the head of the regiments, left the city. We rode all night and in the morning arrived at a small cloister located eleven kilometers from Peterhof, where Vice-Chancellor, Prince Golitsyn brought a letter from the former emperor to the empress and shortly thereafter General Izmailov came with a similar letter. 19 According to Elizaveta Renne, the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius, where Catherine received Peter III's letter of abdication, can be seen in the background of Eriksen's painting. 20 This image, while pointing to an important historical location, also reinforces the religious and cultural meanings of the painting. Catherine described the episode once again in the same redaction adding some new details including her visit to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan before going to the Winter Palace. 21 Iakov Barskov, who commented on the accuracy of Catherine's memoirs, suggested that she had probably relied on court journals, calendars and newspapers when writing them. 22 Despite the fact that she added new details to each story, one can find a common thread in these descriptions: the fact that the donning of the uniform was interpreted as an important, symbolic act with life guards pledging their allegiance to Catherine.
Claude-Carloman de Rulhière, who was secretary to the Baron de Breteuil, the French ambassador in Russia in the early 1760s, may have been the first writer to mention both women-Catherine II and Ekaterina Dashkova-in his fictionalized account, where he also highlighted some religious connotations of this episode. He mentioned the fact that Catherine had donned the uniform after her consecration, which took place at the Church of Our Lady of Kazan. This detail, among its other important meanings, reinforces the significance of this episode as a symbolic enactment of the king's two bodies: As soon as she [Catherine] was consecrated, she dressed herself in the ancient uniform of the guards, which she borrowed of a young officer of the same stature with herself. To the impressive ceremonies of religion succeeded a toilet in the martial style, in which the charms of gallantry added a still livelier interest, in which this young and beautiful woman took, with the most seducing gracefulness, from the several noblemen who surrounded her, a hat, a sword, and, above all, the ribbon of the first order of the Empire, which her husband quitted, with a determination no longer to wear any other than that of Prussia. In this new dress she mounted on horseback at the gate of her palace, and accompanied by the Princess d'Achekoff, likewise on horseback, and in the uniform of the guards, she rode round the grand square, announced herself to the troops as having an intention to be herself their General; and by her smiling and intrepid air, she gave to the multitude that confidence which she herself had derived from them. 23 De Rulhière completed his stories about the coup in 1773, and the manuscript circulated privately until it was finally published in French and translated into English after Catherine's death in 1797. Most probably, Dashkova read this work before its publication noting factual errors. 24 It is likely that her account was written under the influence of de Rulhière. Both authors refer to the uniform as an ancient garment of the guards. Both mention that the two women borrowed the uniforms from the officers of the same stature and juxtapose the two sovereigns through references to Russian and Prussian uniforms.
Finally, Semyon Poroshin, who was one of Grand Duke Paul's tutors, wrote about Nikita Panin taking the heir to the throne to see Eriksen's portrait in the Throne Hall in Peterhof on March 19, 1765. His observations are particularly interesting, as he compares Eriksen's portrait with his own and possibly Nikita Panin's recollections of the coup: The Dutch artist painted this portrait, and quite true to life. Her Majesty is depicted in the infantry guard uniform on that gray horse which she rode when she marched from Peterhof back to Petersburg, as she ascended the throne. Her hair is painted loose, and her dress is all covered in dust, as we saw it back then with our own eyes. 25 Poroshin's attribution of the uniform as belonging to the Infantry Guards is more specific than in the stories of Catherine and de Rulhière, but also suggests that the distinction was not perceived even by people at the Court. 26 The attribution of the uniform as that of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment, as "the ancient uniform of the guards" "Aux cérémonies imposantes de la religion, succéda une toilette guerrière, où les charmes de la galanterie ajoutèrent encore aux plus vifs intérêts, où cette femme jeune et belle, prit, avec les grâces les plus séduisantes, de tous les seigneurs qui l'environnaient, un chapeau, une épée, et sur-tout le cordon du premier ordre de l'Empire, que son mari avait quitté pour ne plus porter que l'ordre de Prusse. Dans cette nouvelle parure, elle monta à cheval à la porte de son palais, et ayant à ses côtés la princesse d'Aschekof, aussi à cheval, en habit des gardes, elle fit le tour de la place, s'annonça aux troupes; comme allant ellemême être leur général; et par son air riant et assuré, elle rendait à cette multitude la confiance qu'elle même en recevait." See Claude-Carloman de Rulhière, Histoire ou Anecdotes sur la Révolution de Russie en l'année 1762 (Paris: Chez Desenne, 1797), 103-104. For a discussion of the ways in which Catherine II enacted the concept of the two bodies through the coup episode, her clothing policies and practices and various celebratory events, see Victoria Ivleva, "Catherine II: Uniform Dresses and Regional Uniforms," Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society 53:2 (2019), 207-230. 24  and "the old national uniform," while suggesting dynastic continuation of Petrine and Elizabeth's traditions, also implied that the history of the two regiments was closely linked, and their uniforms may have been similar.

The History of the Regiments and their Uniforms and the Iconography of Royal Portraits
Peter I started to form his first regiments in the suburban residence of Preobrazhenskoe, near Moscow, between 1683 and 1687, with the second regiment establishing itself in the neighboring village of Semenovskoe. By 1690-92, the initial process was completed, 27 and Peter appointed Avtonom Golovin to be in charge of the guards. 28 The two regiments formed the core of the regular army and took part in all major eighteenth-century campaigns and various Petrine projects from helping him to build a fleet to assisting in the construction of St. Petersburg. The guards collected taxes, performed court and policing functions, supervisory and diplomatic tasks and participated in scientific expeditions upon the tsar's requests. 29 In 1700, they were given the status of life guards, 30 with the Preobrazhenskii Regiment usually accompanying the tsar on his trips and campaigns. 31 Peter I served as captain of the bombardier company of the first regiment, receiving the rank of colonel on August 6, 1706. 32 The entries for October 26 and 30, 1706, in the second campaign journal, address the tsar as colonel, 33 while he also continued to serve as its captain.
Starting from 1700, many entries mention life guards together recording their relocations and participation in military campaigns. 34 Peter I singled out the two regiments after the first battle of Narva in 1700 when he awarded their chief officers silver badges for bravery with an inscription "1700. 19 No" (November 19). 35 Likewise, both regiments received silver medals for the Battle of Poltava (1709). 36 Some journal entries, referred to the two regiments as the tsar's own guard. 37 The entry for August 24, 1708, for instance, recorded that Peter I had ordered the relocation of the dragoon units and "his Guard-the two regiments." 38 The tsar took active part in the life of the guards from making sure that they had enough uniforms and ammunition to sharing meals with the officers and participating in their weddings. 39 As the guard of honor, the two regiments took part in official events and celebrations, such as the Epiphany mass on January 6. The custom of blessing regimental colors and standards accompanied the tradition of blessing waters on this day, with the tsar as colonel of the first regiment assisting in the ceremony and marching at its head: "After the matins, His Majesty joined the regiments and walked at the head of the Preobrazhenskii Guards in the uniform with a scarf and a Battle of Narva badge, holding a partisan as their Colonel." 40 Following the Petrine tradition of military patronage, eighteenth-century sovereigns usually became honorary captains of a bombardier company of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment as well as its colonels. Starting from the reign of Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740), they also declared themselves colonels of the Semenovskii and of the two new guards' regiments: the Izmailovskii (infantry) and a cavalry unit, which were established in 1730. 41 Some members of the royal family received the rank of lieutenant colonel of the guards. On April 14, 1726, for instance, Catherine I gave this rank to Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the future husband of her daughter Anna. 42  Both regiments were closely connected with power and had important ceremonial significance. Both were the first to swear allegiance to Peter II in 1727. 44 Before renouncing the "Conditions" of the Supreme Privy Council, Anna Ioannovna ensured that she had the support of the guards by declaring herself "Captain of the Chevalier Guards, and Collonel [sic] of the first regiment of Foot Guards, as the Empress Catherine had formerly been," 45 and by promoting members of the guard to higher ranks and sharing wine with them. 46 Continuing Peter I's legacy, Anna Ioannovna took active part in the daily life of the regiments. She organized banquets for officers on regimental days, 47 inspected military exercises and invited officers to various court festivities. 48 She also regularly celebrated the days when she received the rank of colonel in the Old Guards (Preobrazhenskii and Semenovskii) Regiments (February 12 and December 14). 49 Many of these earlier traditions continued during the reigns of Elizabeth (1741-1761) and Catherine II. 50 Both empresses relied on support of the guards and national sentiment during their palace revolutions when they appealed to the restoration of Peter I's legacy. 51 In her Manifesto of November 25, 1741, Empress Elizabeth emphasized that her subjects holding ecclesiastical and secular ranks, and the life guards, in particular, asked her to come to the throne to tackle unrest and restore order as the legal successor closest to Peter I and Catherine I. 52 The empress declared herself captain of the grenadier company of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment, wore a grenadier uniform and shared meals with the life guards' grenadiers on November 25, the day of her accession. 53 During her reign, this day was the most important celebration that involved both officers and soldiers of this regiment. As regimental days were associated with 44  certain religious holidays, the empress attended mass, sometimes fasted and did not usually organize banquets; instead she treated officers to wine. 54 Occasionally, she participated in the festivities of the two regiments, with Peter III joining her on several occasions. 55 She also invited officers and their families to both religious celebrations and secular entertainments at court, 56 went to the weddings of officers and participated in baptism rituals for their new-born babies. Catherine II maintained these traditions when she came to the throne.
The guards who were dressed in the Petrine uniforms helped to bolster legitimacy of eighteenth-century sovereigns, and their uniforms went through several changes in design and color between the reigns of Peter I and Catherine II. The first mention of Petrine uniforms goes back to 1683, when Peter I gave his gentlemen of the bedchamber light green cloth for their caftans. In February 1684, twenty-one caftans made of green cloth and adorned with gold galloon were sewed for Peter's toy regiment. 57 The tsar may have chosen the color green in imitation of the uniforms of his father's Petrovskii Regiment, but not all soldiers in Peter's toy squad were initially dressed in green. 58 The caftans were European in style, more practical than those worn by the strel'tsy (pre-Petrine musketeers) and meant to dissociate Peter's regiments from the old troops.
The first mention of different colors for the guards goes back to the Great Treasury Edict of September 29, 1688, which reported that the two regiments received cloth for their caftans: green for those who served in the village of Preobrazhenskoe and light blue for falconers from Semenovskoe. 59 During the first Azov Campaign in 1695, the regiments probably wore German-style (possibly Saxon-style) caftans, but after Peter's return from his Grand Embassy in 1698, he introduced Hungarian caftans, 60 although they did not last long. 61 According to Johann Georg Korb, who visited Russia as part of the Austrian embassy, the Preobrazhenskii Regiment was dressed in new green caftans ___________________________________________________________________________ 99 in 1699, while the soldiers and officers of the Semenovskii Regiment wore blue caftans. 62 The uniforms differed in color, but not in design. As Aleksandr Chicherin has noted, the uniform of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment in 1700 consisted of a dark green, knee-length caftan, a red waistcoat and knee breeches, and a dark green, sleeveless cloak. The caftans were single-breasted with red cuffs and kersey lining and without collars. Each had four brass buttons on the cuffs and pocket flaps and between 12 and 16 buttons in the front depending on the size of the caftan. A waistcoat of the same cut was about eighteen centimeters shorter, more tightly fitted, had small buttons and did not have cuffs. The breeches had small brass buttons on the sides. Cravats and hats were black, and the latter had a white woollen cord and galloon trimmings. 63 The cuffs, caftan lining, waistcoats and breeches of the Semenovskii uniforms were also red. 64 Noncommissioned officers had gold galloon trimmings on the cuffs and around the hats, while all other officers had the same galloon on the seams of the caftans, waistcoats and breeches and around the hats. The caftan lining was green, and the buttons were gilt. White cravats were made of finer fabric, and hats were adorned with white and red feathers. 65 The real situation with regard to the colors of the uniforms may have been somewhat different. Russia depended on imports of cloth from Europe, particularly from England, Prussia and during Peter's reign, from Hamburg, and there was often a shortage of cloth and quality dyes. Peter's Preobrazhenskii caftan with a crescentshaped Narva badge, from the collection of the Hermitage Museum, is one of the examples of an early eighteenth-century Petrine uniform (image 5). Many eighteenth-century works of art, which commemorated the events of the Battle of Poltava (1709), depicted Peter I in the Preobrazhenskii uniform with red decorative elements. Such works include Louis Caravaque's painting of 1718 (Image 6) and a tapestry created by Philippe Behagle the Younger and Ivan Kobylyakov between 1719-1722 (image 7), which was possibly based on Caravaque's drawing. In the 1720s, etchings by the artists Nicolas de Larmessin IV and Charles Louis Simonneau the Elder, and a painting by Johann Gottfried Tannauer, also depicted Peter I in the uniform of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment at Poltava. 66 These works follow the iconography of paintings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that depicted battle scenes. They portray Peter I on a rearing horse, oftentimes on a hilltop, with the battlefield in the background. 67 The tapestry made by Philippe Behagle and Ivan Kobylyakov shares compositional similarities with Eriksen's portrait of Catherine II: the images of rulers with drawn swords riding their horses against somewhat similar backgrounds with trees visible on the left, in the presence of their regiments engaged in fighting in the tapestry and marching after the empress in the painting. The positions of the horses-Peter's mount is rearing and Catherine's mount is trotting-reflect their different engagements, with Peter going into combat and Catherine riding ahead of her troops. The rearing poses of Peter's horses in these works are more in line with the baroque tradition of equestrian portraiture. 68 Both sovereigns hold their reins lightly, with the artists highlighting their mastery of horsemanship. The works present their riders as rulers able to command authority. The poses of the horses may also suggest gendered representations of the sovereigns-with male rulers often depicted on rearing horses entering battles or fighting, and female rulers depicted in panegyric works as epitomes of calm, peace and tranquillity. In Eriksen's portrait, this idea is reflected in the controlled trot of Catherine's horse and the empress's calm and composed posture and facial expression. 69 Conversely, the iconography of the works of art devoted to the Battle of Poltava highlight, to a larger extent, the representation of Peter I as a military commander. The image of the soldier-tsar was important for Peter I, as his letters and entries in the court journals suggest. In these documents, he is often referred to as His Majesty, Captain, or, from, 1706, Colonel. Peter continued to wear his Preobrazhenskii uniform for the anniversaries of the Battle of Poltava. Friedrich Wilhelm von Bergholz, a Holstein nobleman who visited Russia during Peter's reign, noted that on June 27, 1721, the emperor wore his green caftan with big red cuffs and a simple black leather belt, wornout shoes and green stockings. The tsar held a lance in his right hand, as a colonel of the guards, and under his left arm he had an old and simple hat. 70 The image of the tsar in the Preobrazhenskii uniform with a drawn sword or partisan became iconic.
With the history of the regiments being closely connected, their uniforms gradually became more similar. According to Aleksandr Viskovatov, a dark green color was introduced to the uniforms of both regiments in 1720. 71 These changes are reflected in Bergholz's description of the uniforms, which he saw on July 25, 1721, the Coronation Day of the emperor: Both regiments have green uniforms with red сuffs, but Preobrazhenskii collars are red, while Semenovskii ones are blue. In addition, for a bigger difference, the first regiment has green cloaks, and the second-blue ones. For non-commissioned officers, the cuffs and collars (which are of different colors, too, depending on the regiment) are trimmed with a narrow gold galloon. All chief officers, from the colonel to the ensign, have an identical green uniform trimmed with gold galloon. Only scarfs and badges distinguish them from each other […]. 72 As both Viskovatov and Chicherin have noted, the caftan designs also changed. They now had small turndown collars and slanted pocket flaps with three buttons. 73 The fact that the uniforms of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment (the first regiment in which Peter I served), were green was probably one of the decisive factors. It was also less expensive to produce green cloth in the eighteenth century. According to state regulations introduced in 1741, for instance, dyers were to be paid 6 kopecks for a piece of green cloth, seven and a half kopecks for a piece of red or blue cloth and five kopecks for a piece of red or blue kersey. 74 In addition, the adoption of the color green for all 70  infantry regiments helped to distinguish them from the dragoon regiments, which from this period started to wear blue caftans. It also helped to prevent confusion on the battlefield, as around 1690 blue uniforms were introduced in Sweden. 75 More important, however, is Bergholz's observation that the uniforms of chief officers were identical in 1721. His differentiation between the uniforms in terms of rank also explains why the tsar is depicted in a green uniform with red cuffs in some of the paintings, while in others he wears a green uniform of the chief officers with gold galloon.
The guards' uniforms underwent several more revisions before 1762, but during Elizabeth's reign, the Petrine colors described by Bergholz in his account were restored. According to Pavel Kartsov, the green caftans, waistcoats and breeches of the musketeer and grenadier officers of the infantry guards were trimmed with smooth gold galloon. The uniforms of the officers in the two regiments differed only in the size of galloon indentation on the hats-with a large zigzag pattern on the hats of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment and an identical, but smaller, pattern on the hats of the Semenovskii Regiment. 76 Majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels had two rows of galloons on the front opening, cuffs and pocket flaps. 77 With the history of the two regiments being closely linked, their uniforms became almost identical. With the color of the Preobrazhenskii uniform being adopted for both regiments, their uniforms started to be perceived as those of the old guards. Among the guards, however, the Preobrazhenskii Regiment was still viewed as the premier unit, with the reigning sovereigns holding the ranks of captain and colonel within it. When Peter III participated in the usual rite of blessing the waters on January 6, 1762, shortly after Empress Elizabeth's death, he was pleased to lead this regiment himself to the ceremonial place. 78 The artistic representations of the sovereigns in the uniform of the Preobrazhenskii Guards helped to enhance its ceremonial significance. In addition to the works presenting Peter I during the Battle of Poltava, his portrait painted by Louis Caravaque after the naval campaign of 1716 depicted the tsar in an officer's uniform with the Order of St. Andrew and a blue sash, with ships depicted in a crescent formation in the background. In this campaign, during the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, the tsar commanded the united squadron of the four allied fleets-British, Danish, Dutch and Russian (image 8  During his visit to France in 1717, Peter I also sat for portraits by Jean-Marc Nattier and Hyacinthe Rigaud, one of which was painted in Paris on May 18, 1717. The portrait by Rigaud, the location of which is unknown, depicted Peter I in the uniform of the guards. 81 Following the tradition of military patronage and the iconography of these portraits, eighteenth-century sovereigns commissioned royal portraits in the uniform of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment. One of these portraits, painted by Georg Christoph Grooth and dating from 1743, depicted Empress Elizabeth in a richly adorned colonel's uniform with the star and sash of the Order of St. Andrew and a commander's baton on a trotting horse with a companion in a flamboyant costume looking reverently at the empress (image 9). Their florid dress contrasts with the lighter color of the horse, which bends its head towards the empress. The white turban of Elizabeth's companion and other In the nineteenth century, all Russian sovereigns wore green officers' uniforms for their coronation ceremonies. 83 The rituals in which they participated as captains and colonels of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment and the iconography of these portraits helped to enhance their ceremonial significance. In this context, the donning of Talyzin's uniform by Catherine II on the day of the 1762 coup had similar cultural significance. supporters, that common ground that they believed was lost during Peter III's short reign and lent an air of cultural authenticity and legitimacy and a sense of historical continuity to her accession.
On June 28, 1762, the two women put on the old uniforms of Talyzin and Mikhail Pushkin, and, as de Rulhière and Dashkova have suggested, their choice was dictated by practical considerations: the two officers were of the same stature. Both regiments were perceived as belonging to the old guard originally formed in the village of Preobrazhenskoe, and the uniform of the Semenovskii Regiment gradually adopted more features of the Preobrazhenskii uniform. Moreover, the caftans worn by the chief officers of the two regiments were identical in color and design during Elizabeth's reign. At the ceremonial level, the donning of the uniform and the exchange of the Order of St. Catherine for that of St. Andrew, the highest order of the state not granted to women unless they were reigning sovereigns, represented the spontaneous ceremony of investiture of Catherine into her role and the rank of Captain and Colonel of the Life Guards, and the reciprocal pledge of allegiance between the empress and her supporters. In this context, the perception of Talyzin's rank as that of captain by Dashkova may have been intentional. The uniforms were charged with national sentiment and symbolized the legacy of Peter I and his daughter Elizabeth, whose traditions and policies Catherine pledged to continue. Moreover, in the context of ceremonial mentality and sacralization of power, which was enhanced by royal rituals, celebrations and the iconography of the portraits, the uniform of the officer of the Semenovskii Regiment was seen by Catherine's contemporaries as the uniform of the old guards and of Peter's first Preobrazhenskii Regiment. 84 Yet, while we will never precisely know how Catherine II came to put on the Semenovskii uniform, I would argue that in addition to enhancing Peter's and Elizabeth's legacy, this uniform, almost identical to the Preobrazhenskii one, except for a different size of the galloon indentation on the hat, highlighted Catherine's own story and the emotional trajectory of her reign; the image of the mother and grandmother that she cultivated and the nature of her philanthropic activities. The two regiments have had different religious patrons-Christ and Theotokos-which is reflected in the celebration of their regimental days. Preobrazhenskii guards celebrated their day on  86 In her pardoning manifesto issued on September 22, 1762, her coronation day, she talks of her motherly mercy and compassion. Her second manifesto issued on the same day returns the rights and privileges given by Elizabeth to military forces. 87 In all these narratives, on the one hand, she tries to strengthen her position by seeking support of the guards showing that she aims to continue Peter I and Elizabeth's policies and practices, and, on the other, projects the image of a caring and sympathetic mother relying on additional cultural code associated with the Theotokos. 88 In this context, Catherine's mention of her visit to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in her last record of the coup where, according to de Rulhière, she was consecrated before donning Talyzin's uniform may be an important detail providing an additional reference to her self-representation. 89 Her celebration of the day of the Semenovskii Regiment in 1762 was on a grander scale and richer in both Court and religious ceremonies than that of the day of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment, with priests coming out to greet her, as she passed churches in Moscow in her carriage. 90 From 1763, the uniforms of the guards' officers serving in the grenadier and bombardier companies acquired a subtle distinction in terms of galloon width. While the galloon on the Preobrazhenskii uniform was sewn on the outside, a half of the galloon on the Semenovskii uniform was tucked in and sewn onto the coat and waistcoat linings protecting and softening the edges, similarly to the way the gold border is sewn onto the maphorion of the Theotokos on old icons (image 11). 91 Moreover, the first reference in court journals to Catherine wearing uniform dresses on regimental days dates back to November 21, 1764 when she celebrated the Day of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple with the Semenovskii Regiment and wore the uniform dress of this regiment. the artist perhaps subtly revealing to the viewers which of the two uniforms Catherine was wearing and in his artistic interpretation of this episode, suggesting the presence of divine guidance. In this respect, Russian sovereigns including both Peter I and Catherine II enacted this kind of monism, which, as Vatro Murvar notes, did not make a "distinction between religious and political, spiritual and temporal" spheres and relied on romanticizing messianic qualities of the sovereigns. 94 Yet, this monism does not contain internal contradictions within the Orthodoxy and Eastern Christianity because Christ as "the divine Logos, as God" is seen as "born eternally from the Father" and "in time as the human child of a human mother." He is one person in a duality of natures and hypostases, "homoousios (of the same substance/ essence) to the rest of humanity and homoousios to the Father and the Holy Spirit," and thus, possesses both human and divine attributes similarly to the Theotokos, and believers are invited "to participate in Christ's divinity to attain a more authentic humanity" and to achieve universal salvation. 95 In this context, it is important to mention that the etymology of the word krest'ianin [a peasant] is suggestive of christianos.  I would further argue that the episode of Catherine's coup became a source of sartorially-conveyed meanings in Alexander Pushkin's novel The Captain's Daughter (1836), a fictional family memoir supposedly written by Petrusha Grinev, an eye-witness of the Pugachev Rebellion (1773-1775) that took place during the reign of Catherine II. In the novel, a middle-aged Pyotr Grinev reflects on the events of the rebellion from a temporal distance writing his memoir during the reign of Alexander I (1801-1825). Petrusha was originally signed up to serve in the Semenovskii Regiment, but was instead sent by his father to serve in the Orenburg region before the beginning of the rebellion. On the way to the Belogorsk Fortress, he meets Emelian Pugachev, who would later become the leader of the rebellion and a people's tsar in the eyes of his many supporters. The hareskin coat that Petrusha gave to Pugachev as a gift of gratitude for his help and which Pugachev put on despite its small size established an uncommon affinity between the two characters, and Pugachev's gratitude for this present brought positive changes in Petrusha's life during the rebellion.

Sartorial and Spiritual Metamorphoses in The Captain's Daughter: Pushkin's полишинель or Blessings in Disguise
Starting from 1831, Pushkin worked with historical documents related to the reigns of Peter I and Catherine II while writing historical and fictional accounts of eighteenthcentury events and working on historical and literary essays. 97 The history of eighteenth-century palace revolutions and of the coup of 1762, in particular, were taboo topics during his time. The latter topic became sensitive during the reign of Catherine II and was subjected to further censorship after her death, during the reigns of Paul his legitimacy. The memoirs remained sealed during the reigns of his successors until Alexander Herzen published a version of the memoirs, which Catherine II wrote in 1794, in London in the journal The Bell in 1859. 98 According to Elizaveta Renne, during Paul's reign, the replica of Eriksen's equestrian portrait was moved from the Hermitage Gallery to a storage room, while the original from the Throne Room went to the English Palace in Peterhof in 1830. In 1835, the painting from the Hermitage collection was transported to the Armoury Chamber in Moscow. 99 Pushkin was not simply curious about the events of the coup. As Irina Reyfman has suggested, "the theme of 'the poet and social upheaval' was central for Pushkin throughout his life," as he reflected on the extent of noblemen's independence and loyalty to the throne. 100 Both the coup and the history of Pugachev's rebellion may have attracted the poet's attention because of some similarities between the two episodes, with the two historical figures with questionable legitimacy laying claims to the throne. In Pushkin's novel, Catherine II and Pugachev have a mirroring presence, but while belonging to historically conflicting sides, they perform benevolent roles in the lives of Petrusha Grinev and Masha Mironova. Through his accounts of Pugachev's rebellion, Pushkin was able to reflect on taboo topics, including those of the coup and the Decembrist Uprising. 101 The poet was also interested in the genre of memoirs and started writing his own autobiographical notes during his exile in Mikhailovskoe, but burned most of them after the Decembrist Uprising. 102 During his earlier exile in Odessa, he copied Catherine II's memoirs from a duplicate lent to him by Count Mikhail Vorontsov. After Pushkin's death, his lifelong friend Vasilii Zhukovskii, as well as Leontii Dubelt, the chief of staff of the gendarmerie corps, gave this copy to Nicholas I in 1838 after the emperor had ordered that all copies were to be confiscated. 103  and did not mention the coup. 104 As Maksim Gillel'son has suggested, Pushkin also jotted down some details related to the coup, which he learnt from a conversation with Anastasia Shcherbinina, the daughter of Princess Dashkova. 105 Furthermore, Natal'ia Zagriazhskaia, Catherine's lady-in-waiting, also mentioned the coup at least in two conversations with Pushkin on December 4, 1833 and on August 12, 1835. 106 The poet was particularly interested in the role that his relatives played in this episode. He wrote about the legendary role of his grandfather, Lev Aleksandrovich Pushkin, in the coup and about his subsequent fate in the poem "My Genealogy (1830)," 107 and slightly more extensively in "Refutation to Criticism" (1830), as well as in "The Beginning of an Autobiography" and in one of the notes collected in "Table-Talk." The poet started composing the last two works in the 1830s, with the autobiographical piece being written probably during his stay in Boldino in the autumn of 1834. 108 According to his account in the "Refutation to Criticism," his grandfather chose to remain loyal to Peter III. He subsequently suffered official disgrace, together with his peer, Izmailov, spending two years under arrest for misconduct. He then retired from service, but despite this episode apparently always enjoyed Catherine's respect. Pushkin mentioned de Rulhière and Castéra as sources for this story. 109 In "Table-Talk," he retold this story in a slightly different way without mentioning the second officer by name, but instead mentioned the Izmailovskii Regiment. In this version, under the influence of Pushkin's grandfather and another officer, the regiment at first refused to swear allegiance to Catherine and the two officers received a two-year prison sentence. 110 This version is closer in detail to that of Castéra, who named the two officers of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment-Major Shepelev and Lieutenant Pushkin-who were placed under arrest after their disobedience. 111 The real story of Lev Aleksandrovich's involvement in the coup might have been somewhat different. Like Petrusha Grinev from The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin's grandfather signed up for service in the Semenovskii Regiment at a young age, and, in 1739, when he was sixteen, he became a bombardier. 112 According to Sergei Romaniuk, Lev wanted to retire from military service in 1761 on health grounds, but the War College instead gave him one-year's leave. He was later invited to Catherine's coronation, and finally retired in September 1763, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. 113 Yet, the evidence that the researcher provides in the part related to the actual coup is indirect, so de Rulhière's discussion of this episode, which does not mention Lev's arrest, may be closer to the truth. Pushkin was familiar with both de Rulhière's and Castéra's stories and reworked this episode into his own familial genealogy.
The poet made a barely disguised reference to the events of 1762 at the beginning of The Captain's Daughter when he mentioned the retirement of Petrusha's father. This year was at first dated as 1762 in the manuscript. As Iulian Oksman has suggested, some details of Lev Pushkin's biography may have been reflected in the similarities between his and Andrei Grinev's disapproval of the coup and early retirement. 114 Pushkin hinted at the elder Grinev's unwillingness to serve the empress and conveyed his disgruntled attitude to court politics in an episode when Grinev read about recent promotions in the Court Calendar. The legendary details of Lev's arrest may have also found a parallel in the similar fate of Petrusha Grinev after the suppression of the Pugachev Rebellion. The fact that Petrusha was enlisted in the regiment from a young age was a regular practice, with both Pushkin's grandfather and father being signed up for service in the Semenovskii and Izmailovskii Regiments at an early age.
Pushkin also read Dashkova's memoirs in the 1830s, a copy of which was preserved in Petr Viazemskii's archive. From Dashkova's account, the poet learnt about a role that his distant relative-Mikhail Pushkin-played in the events of the coup when he lent his uniform to Princess Dashkova. It is likely that Pushkin reflected on the conceivable involvement of his two relatives in the palace revolution-the refusal of his grandfather to swear allegiance to the empress and another Pushkin supporting the coup. According to Iulian Oksman and Irina Reyfman, Pushkin himself tried on two different alter egos in the novel: that of the poet and memoirist Petrusha Grinev, whom he lent his authorial voice on many occasions "introducing passages from his own works into his character's memoir," and that of the exiled officer Shvabrin, whom he gave his own appearance. 115 The details of Shvabrin's misconduct and the fact that he was stripped of his rank bear some similarity to the story of Mikhail Pushkin, who, together with his brother Sergei, was stripped of his family name, noble status, rights and rank in 1772, and exiled to Siberia for his involvement in planning the forgery of banknotes. 116 However, the extent to which Pushkin may have been familiar with the details of Mikhail's life requires further study. Yet, Pushkin contemplated a similar fate for himself in his letter to Vasilii Zhukovskii of October 31, 1824 after his father accused the poet of beating him up, saying that he would prefer a fortress or Solovetskii Monastery to Siberian mines and dishonor. 117 It is likely that Dashkova's side of the story, her mention of Mikhail Pushkin and the role that he played in this episode, and the cultural significance that both de Rulhière and she assigned to the two uniforms could have given Pushkin the idea of choosing a hareskin coat as a poetic link between the "guard sergeant" Petrusha Grinev sent by his father to serve in a remote fortress away from the court instead of the Semenovskii Regiment, and the people's tsar Pugachev, whom he met by chance on the eve of the popular rebellion. As Caryl Emerson has suggested, Pushkin's "complexity lies in his juxtaposition of multiple reflecting surfaces," and The Captain's Daughter is one such subtle example of the "intersection of many planes," 118 where each character and each event to some extent is reflected in another, and where the Pugachev Revolt provides a commentary on past historical events and the present. In this context, the poet's choice of the hareskin coat may have helped him create associative links not only with the events of the coup, but also with the Decembrist Uprising.
There is a well-known legend about a hare crossing Pushkin's path on his way to St. Petersburg on the eve of the uprising serving as one of the omens for his decision to stay at home. As David Bethea and Sergei Davydov have noted, Pushkin was traveling to St. Petersburg on this occasion in a peasant costume under the name of Aleksei Khokhlov. 119 A similar story happened with the poet during his trip to Orenburg when he went to collect material about the Pugachev Revolt. A superstitious Pushkin partially blamed a hare for his inability to reach Orenburg in a letter to his wife, written on September 14, 1833. 120 These are some of the instances where Pushkin's thoughts about the two uprisings may have intersected in his imagination. 121 Thus, while he claimed that the hare omen had saved him from possible exile or the gallows, a hareskin coat plays a similar role in Petrusha Grinev's fate in the novel saving him from Pugachev's violence.
At the beginning of the novel, the elder Grinev gives paternal advice to Petrusha: "Serve faithfully the Sovereign to whom you swear allegiance; obey your superiors; don't curry favor with them; don't volunteer for duty, but do not shirk it either; and remember the proverb, "Take care of your clothes while they're new; cherish your honor from a tender age." 122 The advice of the elder Grinev and the proverbial parallel between clothing and honor allow Pushkin to rethink tragic eighteenth-century events from the perspective of a nineteenth-century man, who, on the one hand, is aware of the conflicts of the estates that occurred during Catherine's reign that were caused by further social elevation of the nobility and the enslavement of serfs. On the other hand, Pushkin was faced with the poignant memory of the suppressed Decembrist Uprising. The poet foregrounds the challenges of the elder Grinev's maxim from the beginning of the novel by letting Petrusha part with his hareskin coat, which in this hour of need, as David Bethea has suggested, becomes "the shirt off his back" observing that "Grinev keeps his honor in this instance by not keeping his dress intact." 123 The role of the hareskin coat is polysemic: it activates the mechanism of Slavic giftgiving and self-giving, as Bethea has suggested. 124 At the same time, as Aleksandr Dolinin has pointed out, it is an act of Christian charity and care. 125 As Amanda Murphy has proposed, the coat predicts the violence of the uprising-Pugachev rips it at the seams while putting it on. 126 In this context, it is important to say that it is Savel'ich who senses forthcoming damage, as he almost bursts out sobbing at this moment. 127 This coat donned by Pugachev, who was earlier described as a "either wolf or man," 128 also attempts to mitigate the outcomes of the revolt becoming the first garment of care and compassion exchanged by the characters.
As the coat is associated with Petrusha's childhood years, this generous gesture marks the beginning of his coming of age journey. Drawn into the turmoil of the revolt, he will act in good faith, and through his compassionate and gratuitous gift will be able to find common ground with Pugachev. This common cultural ground and shared roots, as Murphy has shown, is highlighted by many traditional garments worn by "the unlikely allies" in the novel, 129 as Pushkin tries to realize an imagined possibility for mutual respect, understanding and help between conflicting sides. 130 It is symbolic that after the rebels take Petrusha's uniform made of fine green cloth, which Savel'ich diligently lists among stolen garments, Pugachev gives Petrusha a sheepskin coat (a traditional garment often worn by peasants), which, among other meanings, denotes compassion, intercession and protection from the violence of the uprising, and which reciprocates Petrusha's first gift.
This new sartorial order is also realized on stylistic and linguistic levels with different events being interpreted through the prism of Russian folk mentality, with its language rich in folk wisdom and folk understanding of Christianity. According to Boris Tomashevskii, Pushkin's Lyceum friend and Decembrist Wilhelm Ludwig von Küchelbecker (1797-1846) saw Russian language as reflecting the spirit of freedom and folk independence, while Pushkin himself did not separate narodnost' [expression of the people/ Volk] of the language from that of literature looking for noble simplicity by uniting poetry with vernacular language. 131 In fact, Savel'ich is one of the characters in the novel who always means good, tries to reconcile old and young Grinev, appeals to both old Grinev and Pugachev on behalf of Petrusha and is not afraid to verbalize his critical thoughts in front of Pugachev through his crafty folk language, which both understand.
The sheepskin coat that Pugachev sends to Petrusha helps to defamiliarize the official meaning of Petrusha's uniform and through this gift Pugachev symbolically initiates Petrusha into a new understanding of his service, as Petrusha himself becomes a protector of those in need in the uncertain times of popular revolt. 132 The circumstances surrounding the two gifts have a symmetrical, mirroring structure. At the beginning of his trip to the fortress, during the snowstorm, Petrusha finds himself lost not knowing the direction in which he should be traveling, with his state being metaphorically synonymous to physical wandering/ bluzhdanie/ and cognitive fallacy/ misconception/ zabluzhdenie. 133 At this point he meets his guide (vozhatyi) Pugachev, with whom he travels a part of his trip and who later on, after occupying the fortress, sends a sheepskin coat to Petrusha who is on his way back to Orenburg. The sheepskin coat activates traditional, mythological and Christian semantics. As noted by Natal'ia Sosnina and Isabella Shangina, this type of coat was part of the rites of passage, including childbirth and weddings in Russian peasant culture. In the villages in the north, an infant on the first day of his or her life received blessings from relatives while being wrapped up in a tulup or a fur-coat. 134 Likewise, young and inexperienced Petrusha receives the coat from his spiritual father Pugachev who takes him under his protection. The coat also sets in motion the semantics of the sheepskin cloak (melote) of John the Baptist and that of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, with Pugachev performing the ritual of baptism and becoming Petrusha's shepherd. With his help, Petrusha goes through a symbolic rite of initiation, being baptized by his spiritual father, although in the context of the violent revolt, Pugachev's role is controversial, something that Petrusha acknowledges in his prophetic dream.
Yet, as Petrusha is robbed of his uniform, this sheepskin coat becomes an important garment that helps to give the eighteenth-century perception of service its nineteenthcentury noble, folk and Christian meanings, which change the perception of service from that to the state to service to people. This meaning is emphasized by Andrei Grinev as well when he sends Petrusha to serve in Orenburg under the command of his old friend and comrade. Such a perception of service was equally important to the Decembrists. Coincidentally, Orenburg, one of the places where Pushkin conducted his research on the Pugachev Revolt, was a place where the government sent political exiles including members of the 1820 Semenovskii Revolt and later some Decembrists. Members of the Semenovskii Regiment also formed the core of the Union of Salvation, while its two former officers Sergei Murav'ev-Apostol (1796-1826) and Mikhail 132 For a discussion of a connection between clothing and help and protection, see Amanda Murphy's article "Preserving the Fabric of the National Family." 133 These meanings are also important in "The Snowstorm" and Pushkin's poem "Demons." I am grateful to Igor' Pil'shchikov for pointing my attention to these contexts. One of the metaphors that Pushkin is realizing in all these works is bes poputal used as a justification that it is a little demon or rogue who led one astray, also refers to making a mistake.  Bestuzhev-Riumin (1801-1826) shared the tragic fate of the five executed Decembrists. These additional cultural contexts help us understand how Pushkin's thoughts about historical revolts against power and about the nature and aims of nobles' service become manifest in the novel, with several characters participating in service to people, and with Pushkin seeing his own role as that of a historiographer of Pugachev rather than of Catherine II. 135 Seen in this context, Pugachev becomes Petrusha's guide, who helps him understand his road of salvation through non-violent service to people.
One can establish certain structural parallels in the functions of traditional clothing in Pushkin's novel-and the role of the uniforms during the coup, although the garments and contexts in these historical and fictional episodes are not homogeneous. In the context of the palace revolution, with Peter III replacing the Petrine uniforms with new Prussian-style ones, on one level, Captain Talyzin's and Mikhail Pushkin's old uniforms were perceived as unofficial garments that helped establish common ground between Catherine and her supporters. These uniforms were shared in an hour of need and figuratively speaking, Catherine received her uniform off the shoulders of her cultural ancestors Captains Peter I and Elizabeth. In this cultural context, the function of the two uniforms were close to that of the Russian-style dresses that Catherine introduced in the 1770s, and this clothing episode registered a moment of identity crisis and formation, as it helped to unite society around cultural ideas associated with her cultural predecessors.
Pushkin's attitude to Catherine II has always been ambivalent and remains ambivalent in The Captain's Daughter, but here he is also interested in showing her humane side-at the end of the novel, she is depicted casually the way many of her contemporaries saw her, as someone whom Masha finds easy to approach. 136 Despite this, it is the tragedy of historical events and the laws of history that Pushkin reflects on in his works written in the late twenties and thirties. The violence committed during Catherine's coup and the state of serfdom in Russia during her reign triggered the Pugachev Revolt, with the empress holding responsibility for these events. Yet, understanding of these events as tragic also helps Pushkin to look at them from a different perspective, and his interest in the human side of history allows him to portray both Pugachev and Catherine as characters who feel compassion and act benevolently towards Petrusha and Masha. Alexander I's comment to Pushkin in the conversation imagined by the poet conveys his thoughts about the way in which he wishes to depict and depicts historical figures-"You respected truth and personal honor in the tsar." 137 Likewise, Pushkin's novel provides a reflective lens for several historical episodes suggesting a human and sartorial economy based on the acts of compassion, kindness and intercession that the encounters between the characters and their exchanges suggest. 138 The context of the novel also helps us understand why Pushkin named it after his female heroine, as it is Masha Mironova (whose name possibly derives from Mir0n, miro and mir (suggesting peace, commune, world and chrism) who holds the key to an important reading of The Captain's Daughter. In the novel, she tells Catherine, "I have come to ask for loving kindness (mercy), not for justice" (milost' in Russian). 139 Here one can see Pushkin's reflection and deepening of the Decembrists' ideal of creating a society based on justice. 140  In the novel, the poet creates an affective space where the initial snowstorm symbolically blurs geographical and historical boundaries. In this space, many characters share in empathy, kindness and compassion and intercede on behalf of each other on various levels forming a complex and nuanced system of relationships. These relationships are also expressed through exchanges of clothing. In the final chapter, a possible allusion to Mary, the Mother of God can be found in the episode when Petrusha starts praying in prison resorting, in Pushkin's words, "to the consolation of all those in distress […]" ("Ia pribegnul k utesheniiu vsekh skorbiaschikh"). 142 These words are almost an exact quotation from several prayers to the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow [Vsekh skorbiashchikh radost'] asking her for health, but more importantly in the context of the novel and Pushkin's personal biography, for spiritual healing. The prayers refer to her maphorion as a garment offering motherly protection.
Pushkin frequently read literature alongside the Bible including the time when he was reading Walter Scott's novels in Boldino in 1834. 143 In his response to the letter of Pyotr Viazemskii, which the poet wrote from Mikhailovskoe on September 13, 1825, he talked about the importance of religion and suffering [stradal'chestvo] for him. 144 In The Captain's Daughter, as Dolinin has shown, the poet is rethinking some of his complex and ambivalent thoughts about historical events in a providential way, the ideas that would give rise to "the Slavophile mythologization of Russian history." 145 In the cultural imagination, Catherine's reign and the episode of the coup were already charged with some of these meanings.
Pushkin rethinks the episode of the revolt and with his universal responsiveness, brings together the ideas of compassion, intercession and loving kindness associated with Christ and Theotokos showing the humane sides of Pugachev and Catherine II. 146 The poet portrays Catherine II in four roles. She appears to Masha as a lady ready to intercede on her behalf to whom Masha responds that she came with the request for gosudarynia, that is, a female sovereign who has matriarchal authority. To this, Catherine responds that the empress would not be able to pardon Grinev. In the scenes of communication between Masha and Catherine and the events leading to the second meeting, Catherine is interchangeably called the lady, protector/ patroness [pokrovitel'nitsa], gosudarynia and the empress, and while the empress is unable to pardon Grinev in her official capacity, the woman in the empress can intercede on behalf of Masha and ask the sovereign-matriarch for help and loving kindness while she is also responsible for and indebted to Masha's parents for their sacrifices and needs to take care of Masha. Kindness and compassion of Pugachev and Catherine towards Petrusha and Masha bring saving grace, with most of the characters, on one level or another, contributing to the ideas of grace and peace in the novel. Yet, Pushkin does not dress Catherine II in sky blue, as Borovikovsky did in his famous portrait. Instead, she wears a simple white morning dress, a night cap and a soulwarmer in the park of Tsarskoe Selo. The white dress looks a little bit anachronistic in the 1770s, but would not be out of the ordinary in the 1780s and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The fashion was started by Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) who portrayed the French empress in a white chemise dress and straw hat in 1783. 147 This pastoral outfit initially caused a scandal. In the further context of the French Revolution, according to Mariia Mertsalova, after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) "suggested to add the white to the colors of the cockade as a sign of reconciliation with the sovereign," 148 where the addition of the white color to the blue and red meant to reconcile and unite the old and new France.
Another important fact is that Dmitrii Levitskii depicted Catherine II in 1783 as a lawgiver in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice in a white dress, a mantle and a laurel wreath over a crown. He also included artistic references to her work for the public good in this portrait. This painting served as an inspiration for Derzhavin's "Vision of Murza," where the empress is also depicted in a white dress, with both works becoming important and rich contexts for Pushkin. 149 The color white also metaphorically connects Catherine II with Belogorsk (White Mountain) fortress, which was earlier under attack and where Pugachev held a white kerchief when he authorized executions of its defenders, including Masha's parents, with Pushkin providing another hint at the events of the coup and the outcome of the Decembrist Uprising. These associations, in turn, activate additional metaphorical semantics of the ripped hareskin coat connecting it with criticism of Catherine's government and her policies and of those hereditary nobles who refused to engage in service and wasted their fortunes, through references to caftans in Nikolai Novikov's The Drone (1769-1770), Denis Fonvizin's The Minor (1781), Ivan Krylov's "Trishkin Caftan" (1815) and other eighteenth-century works. A few of these works, in turn, responded to Catherine's caftan metaphors related to her social and cultural policies. 150 Fonvizin's criticism of Catherine's policies is further realized through the name of Mitrofan, which means "appearing from his mother (μήτηρ)." This intertextual association in Pushkin's novel once again connects Pugachev with Catherine II and serves as a reflection of Pushkin's thoughts on the impact of historical events. Both the reference to the caftan in eighteenth-century texts and to the hareskin coat in Pushkin's may further imply that neither might fully fit the expanse of the people of Russia, and in Pushkin's novel may suggest that eighteenth-and nineteenth-century programs of nation-and identity-building (those of Peter I, Catherine II, Alexander I and Nicholas I), some of which were also realized through dress reforms, were somewhat incomplete, that they did not fully take into account the people/Volk. The later reform was actualizing Sergei Uvarov's ideology of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.
The second garment that Catherine wears in Pushkin's work, a traditional soulwarmer, which is an important departure from both Levitskii's and Derzhavin's interpretations, was previously worn both by Masha's mother and by one of Pugachev's brigands who took it from the poor woman who was about to share the fate of her murdered husband. As we can see from these examples and connections, in Pushkin's novel, just like in many of his other works, several dimensions of meaning and genre and stylistic traditions come into contact with each other enriching its semantics. 151 Another context, which is activated at the beginning of the novel, but after the beginning of the uprising, lurks in the background, is being realized through additional ironic intertextual references. Tulup/ a coat, which is exchanged between Petrusha and Pugachev sounds similar to plut/ rogue/ picaro and plutat' [to stray], with Pugachev representing this rogue character in the novel. This hypothesis about Pugachev can be supported by multiple references in the novel to a work of a similar genre-Maikov's mock-heroic poem Elisei, or Bachus Enraged (1769-70), which Pushkin enjoyed reading, in particular, for its humor, ambiguity, bawdiness and burlesque. The allusions to this work and its rich sartorial imagery, often, but not always ennobled by Pushkin, are present in many of his works including Ruslan and Liudmila (1820). 152 The action in Maikov's poem starts in the drinking house near the place of residence of the Semenovskii Regiment. Its main character Elisei, a rogue, a coachman and an impressive drinker is chosen by Bacchus to avenge tax farmers (otkupshchiki) over an alcohol monopoly and an increase in drink prices. After being rescued by Hermes from the police, who threaten to lash him with a cat o'nine tails (also referred to as a "captain's daughter" in English), Elisei ends up in Kalinkin House, a spinning house for prostitutes in St. Petersburg, which he takes for a monastery, and where he is compared to a wolf among sheep and where he declares to its directress/Mother Superior when she tells him to sew shirts, that he is only good at unstitching. With the help of Hermes, Bacchus and other Olympic Gods, as well as various burlesque sartorial disguises handily provided by them, he is rescued from various troubles, has some amorous and fighting adventures and by the end of the poem, together with Bacchus, he succeeds in his rescue mission and manages to empty the сellars of the tax farmers. As Elisei leaves many tax farmers, and thus, the state broke, Zeus decides to send this "fugitive and perhaps even a thief of no worldly value" (literary: who did not pay his dues/taxes understood in both the secular and Christian meanings) to the army. 153 The historical contexts for the poem are Catherine's decree against bribes taken by civil servants, issued on July 18, 1762, which, according to Aleksandr Zapadov, did not have much impact on them, and her Manifesto of August 1, 1765, which leased tax-farmers the right to collect revenues on beverages and declared that drinking houses fell under state protection. 154 Maikov's poem was conceived as a parody of The Aeneid's first song translated by Vasilii Petrov to glorify Catherine's Age. Moreover, as Grigorii Gukovskii and Oleg Proskurin have shown, his text is full of parodic reminiscences of Petrov's translations and poems as well as personal attacks against the poet. 155 Among the contexts, which might be particularly important for Pushkin's novel with regard to Maikov's text, is the phrase, which Vladimir Dal' attributed to Catherine II: "Я одна шью, а все порют" [I am the only one who sews; everyone else is unstitching] in reference to her critics. 156 This phrase appears in Derzhavin's poem "To the Prince Khlor" (1802) dedicated to Alexander I, which itself is an allusion to Catherine's tale for her grandson. Derzhavin uses this phrase as a compliment to Alexander I, "Торопишься в делах нескоро,/ Так шьешь, чтоб после не пороть" [You hurry up in matters without haste,/ And sew in such a way that there is no need for unstitching later], which might serve as a half-jocular and halfcritical allusion to Catherine II's policies. 157 This phrase may have become realized in a burlesque innuendo in Maikov's poem, in which Elisei responds to the directress/Mother Superior of the correction house, "В ответ он ей: "О мать! Я прямо говорю,/ Что шить не мастер я, а только я порю,/ Так если у тебя довольно сей работы,/ Отдай лишь только мне и буди без заботы:/ Я это дело все не мешкав сотворю;/ Хоть дюжину рубах я мигом распорю!" [He answered her: O, Mother! I'll tell you straight out/that when it comes to sewing I'm no master. I can only unstitch,/ but if you have enough of this kind of work,/just give it to me and don't worry./ I'll take care of everything without dallying./ I'll unstitch at least a dozen shirts in a wink!] 158 These playful, suggestive and spicy references provide an additional intertextual context for the dynamic of Pushkin's novel, images of Pugachev and Catherine II, the semantics of the hareskin coat and other sartorial and semantic contexts.
What is also important is that Maikov's text realizes in a mock-heroic, burlesque way the meaning of the name Elisei, which derives from the Hebrew Elisha, which means my God is salvation. Elisha/Eliseus is someone who receives a mantle from the prophet Elias and the gift of prophetic spirit. 159 In Maikov's work, the meaning of salvation is realized in a mock-heroic way: Elisei is saved by Hermes with the help of various sartorial disguises and then helps Bacchus to avenge tax-farmers for destroying the previous drinking order due to the changes introduced in the legislation by Catherine II's government and leaves the state's coffers broke.
In his novel, Pushkin, however, also does something different with some of these satirical and ironic contexts. He starts with the ripping of the hareskin coat, which among other meanings, points to the mock-heroic content of Maikov's poem and Catherine's government and policies, but later as Murphy has shown, he tries to preserve what she calls "the fabric of the national family." The trajectory of Pushkin's novel, while not being devoid of all these subversive meanings, is different. This can be clearly seen, for instance, through the image of the soulwarmer that Vasilisa, one of the brigands, and Catherine II wear. When we see Masha's mother Vasilisa for the first time, this garment is described as a bodywarmer (a burlesque reference to the bodywarmer is present in Maikov's text). In Pushkin's text, there are also allusions to textile activities, which two of the old soldiers undertake upon Petrusha's arrival in the fortress, with one of them working under Vasilisa's supervision and helping her to wind "a hank of yarn"). 160 They appear to be more cooperative in response to female demands and power, although one of the soldiers is putting a blue patch on his old green uniform, which might be a reference to the original colours of the Preobrazhenskii and Semenovskii uniforms, but also a reference to their Christian patrons. In the latter two instances when the brigand and Catherine II wear the bodywarmer, Pushkin refers to this garment as a soulwarmer suggesting that these characters go through their own baptism of fire, but also outlining a spiritual trajectory of his novel. 161 In this context, it is important to mention one additional meaning of white in the novel: it is a color of christening clothes.
When Maikov dresses his gods and people in folksy and Frenchified garments, this is a matter of burlesque. When Pushkin dresses his characters in traditional clothing, this is a matter of deep wearing. Igor' Pil'shchikov calls this Pushkinian sublimation of burlesque "the main principle of poetics and stylistics of 'Onegin.'" 162 This principle is being actualized in many Pushkin's works including The Captain's Daughter, where one might call it sublimation of travesty, with Pushkin realizing the principle of compassion, loving kindness and blessings in disguise through these sartorial exchanges. In the context of Pushkin's novel, with all critical and subversive contexts lurking in the background, through her clothing, Catherine, nevertheless, represents an allencompassing matriarch, who is able to reconcile, purify and provide salvation through compassion and loving kindness. 163 As Pushkin describes the events of the revolt, he may be himself reliving the traumatic experience of the Decembrist Uprising in which some of his friends died and many were exiled, and, in which, he could have participated. In his letters written after the uprising, Pushkin conveys his concern and care about the fate of his friends, his hopes for the tsar's mercy and generosity [velikodushie] and later deplores the exile of 120 friends. 164 In the letters and essays written after the uprising, he advocates for peaceful conflict resolution and Enlightenment principles, writing to Pyotr Viazemskii on July 10, 1826 that while it is true that he never liked a rebellion and a revolution, he was in touch with all and corresponded with many conspirators who participated in the uprising. On a different occasion, in his letter to Viazamskii written on March 16, 1830, he approves of the governmental plans to give new rights to the third estate and serfs in the spirit of the European Enlightenment. 165 He also talks about Orthodoxy and his own faith both in playful and serious ways. In these contexts, the proverbial connection between a debt/duty/tribute and their return acquire civic, Christian and folk connotations. 166 Through kindness and compassion, both grace and peace are found in the novel, as Pushkin rewrites his History of Pugachev's Rebellion (1834) in light of the ideas of the New Testament and folk Christianity.
While Masha does meet Catherine II in the novel, Pushkin ultimately thinks of a different fate for his beloved characters. Both Petrusha and Masha are brought up and educated in the provinces, where they continue to live after the end of the story, and where Pushkin yearned to retire himself. As Lina Steiner has suggested, Pushkin's novel addresses provincial nobility in whom he may have seen the roots for cultural rejuvenation, 167 as he himself sought to regenerate the sentimentalist literary tradition brought to Russia by Nikolai Karamzin 168 in the spirit of humanistic tradition explored through folk, Christian and Enlightenment values. According to Boris Tomashevskii, Pushkin's humanism "is based on the knowledge/ understanding of man, on the struggle for his dignity, his rights and his civil liberty." 169 In the novel, both Petrusha and Masha intercede on behalf of each other bringing saving grace into the lives of their benefactors, as Pushkin contemplates possibilities for peaceful resolutions of conflicts realizing in these moments of reciprocity, intercession and care between different characters in the novel the ideal of his own peaceful revolution.
After graduating from the Lyceum, Pushkin lived at No. 185 on the Fontanka between 1817 and 1820 (see image 12 below).
in meanings, and help us understand cultural works in more complex and nuanced ways. Taking the history of the uniforms of the Preobrazhenskii and Semenovskii life guards as an example, I have shown the way in which Peter I initiated their Christian symbolism while constructing his political theology by drawing upon the semantics of Transfiguration of Christ, and upon the concept of service to the state, which manifested in his advancement through ranks in the Preobrazhenskii Regiment. These cultural meanings and the tradition of wearing the Preobrazhenskii uniform by Russian sovereigns have been foregrounded by his successors through monarchical rituals and iconography of portraits. The monarchs drew upon cultural meanings of the uniforms during accessions and coups to bolster their legitimacy and to demonstrate historical and dynastic continuity of political and cultural leadership. The Guards uniforms worn by the empresses also helped to transcend gender boundaries necessary for enhancing female sovereignty. Yet, by donning the uniform of the Semenovskii Regiment, which was associated with cultural semantics of the Theotokos, Catherine II activated their additional symbolic meanings that helped her enhance and capitalize on her matriarchal role. Her first manifestoes underscored both the importance of religion and of maternal image in her narrative, as she sought the support of the Guards and her populace defining her role in relation to them as that of a protective and sympathetic mother. At the beginning of her reign, the uniform of the Semenovskii Regiment acquired a subtle distinction in the galloon trimming, the cultural meaning of which, I suggest, was associated with that of the gold border of the Theotokos's protective maphorion. According to the court journals, the first uniform dress that the empress wore on regimental days was that of the Semenovskii Regiment. The symbolism connected with the image of the Theotokos and Catherine's self-representation through the Semenovskii uniform may have been also present in Ericksen's painting.
Christian semantics, folk wisdom, simple nobility and humanism became important angles for Pushkin through which he reflects on the tragic events in Russian culture in The Captain's Daughter. Both the figures of Christ and Theotokos and the concepts of salvation, compassion, intercession, loving kindness and reciprocity are essential in Pushkin's final novel. The fact that many characters share historical, cultural and, more importantly, humane and humanitarian affinities and values with each other, a polysemic nature of many images and a complex and subtle composition of Pushkin's work in which different characters relate to each other on different semantic levels show the importance of interpreting this work through the prism of cultural archetypes and codes. Many of Pushkin's characters including Pugachev and Catherine II are revealed in their Christian, folk, noble and humanistic hypostases enacting kenotic ideas associated with Christ and Theotokos. Through their interactions and exchanges of clothing, they participate in the acts of spiritual, eucharistic communion and love ("sobornost'"/ catholicity/ free communality of believers), with these sartorial exchanges having symbolic implications of putting on the new nature in Christ, 172 bearing his passions and participating in reconciliation, reciprocity, renewal and salvation.
If in some of Pushkin's earlier works including Boris Godunov (1825), a lyre was accompanied by a sword, a symbol of justice among its other meanings, which represented some of the ideas associated with The Old Testament, here and in Pushkin's 172 See, for instance, the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 4:22-24. The echoes of the concept of administering final rites [soborovat'] may be also present in the novel. "Exegi monumentum" (1836), his 'sacred lyre' [zavetnaia, from the word 'testament'] appears all by itself, with Pushkin hoping to be remembered for awakening kind/ noble feelings, for singing of liberty in his harsh age and for calling for loving kindness/ mercy towards the fallen. 173 The kenotic role of Pushkin's sacred lyre finds consolation, comfort and unity in loving kindness, as he is thinking about his personal and historical reconciliation and the way of bringing together different truths of historically conflicting sides. In this interpretation, we can see a certain modification and deepening of the Decembrists' ideal of society built on justice in light of The New Testament, folk Christianity and humanism while the lens of Pushkin's novel also helps us understand better some of the cultural codes activated during different periods of Russian history. These cultural codes have a personal relevance for the poet and for understanding of his poetic and human mission, with "Exegi monumentum," The Captain's Daughter and Pushkin's letter to Chaadaev written on October 19, 1836, the same day on which he completed his novel, becoming perhaps the Poet's most essential final works that help us understand the direction of his thoughts. Here, one can perhaps think of another analogy between a sheepskin coat and Elias' melote that helped in crossing the Jordan and Elias' ascent, and a similar episode in Exodus 14-15, which foreshadowed Christ's anastasis and Christian baptism as a way of sharing in his rebirth. 174 As a man of honor, Pushkin returns all human and spiritual debts, duties and tributes-those of a son, a family man, a nobleman, a poet, a Christian and a human being in The Captain's Daughter going through his personal journey of penitence, forgiveness, reconciliation, gratitude and second baptism and transforming this beautiful and moving manuscript (rukopis'), a symbolic eiletarion and antimension, into the poet's Tsarskoe Selo swan song, a cultural and spiritual tribute to Russia and a loving testament for his readers. 175 The history makes a full circle-at the end of Alexander Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, Catherine II reciprocates Alexander Talyzin's gesture and "returns his Semenovskii uniform" by pardoning Masha's fiancé Petrusha. For Pushkin, the future is with Masha and Petrusha, who appear to be the bearers of all these traditions-Christian, noble and peasant, and by virtue of their humanity, are able to understand and act within these different discourses of