Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov

Count Alexander Matveyevich Dmitriev-Mamonov (Russian: Александр Матвеевич Дмитриев-Мамонов; 30 September 1758 – 11 October 1803, buried in Donskoy Monastery) was a lover of Catherine II of Russia from 1786 to 1789.

One of his friends reported that Mamonov "considers his life a prison, is very bored, and supposedly after every public gathering where ladies are present, the Empress attaches herself to him and is jealous".

Soon enough he fell in love with a 16-year-old lady-in-waiting to the Empress, Princess Shcherbatova, and took her to spend several weeks in the privacy of Dubrovitsy, a luxurious estate near Moscow which Catherine had purchased from Potemkin and donated to Mamonov.

A year later, Mamonov started to regret the missed opportunities and wrote repentant letters to the Empress, claiming that their rupture "constantly tortures his soul."

There is no truth in the gossip that "Catherine revenged herself on the loose-tongued Shcherbatova by secretly sending policemen disguised as women to whip her in her husband's presence.