Princess Tarakanova

Princess Tarakanova, an 1864 painting by Konstantin Flavitsky, depicts the legend that this impostor was killed by a 1777 flood. In reality, she had died in 1775.

Princess Tarakanova (c. 1745 – December 15 [O.S. December 4] 1775) was a pretender to the Russian throne. She styled herself, among other names, Knyazhna Yelizaveta Vladimirskaya (Princess Elizabeth of Vladimir), Fräulein Frank, and Madame Trémouille. Tarakanova (tarakan is the Russian word for cockroach) is a later name, used only in entertainment (literature, theater, films, paintings), apparently on the basis of her relatives (from her father prince Razumovsky's side) being the owners of the estate Daraganovka (Tarakanovka) in Ukraine - the place where she (apparently) grew up. In her own time, she was not known by that name.


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