Sources indicate that prostitution appeared in Saint Petersburg in the 1740s–1750s. The “Register of those brought to the Chief Police for the indecency of women and girls” covers the years 1741–1750 and demonstrates exceptional terminological variety: women brought to the Chief Police Office were accused of “fornication lifestyle,” “indecency,” “fornication fall,” “pimping.” It seems the authorities understood clearly that this was not about ordinary infidelities or isolated cases of “fornication,” which, of course, existed at all times — but they did not take active measures. According to the law, women were flogged with cats (whips) and handed over on bail “with a receipt” to relatives and acquaintances (only men). The register lists more than 50 women punished during this period and released. Many of them later ended up in the Kalinkin House, but for longer terms.

In June 1750, Elizabeth Petrovna entrusted one of her closest courtiers, the actual State Councillor Vasily Ivanovich Demidov, who managed her wardrobe, to find in Petersburg “an indecent woman, a foreigner, called the Dresden woman.” By that time, the fame of Anna Felker from Dresden was spreading throughout the city. Here is what the memoirist Major Danilov later wrote about her:

“A magnificent establishment near Voznesensky by some visitor from Dresden, a swindler, caused quite a stir in the society of that time. The Dresden woman ran her affairs on such a large scale that complaints reached the Empress, and as a result, a strict commission was appointed under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Demidov.”

Demidov was ordered to find not only Felker but all similar “women and girls.” The official received a substantial team to assist him; raids were conducted throughout the city and nearby islands for several days. On the night of June 29–30, the Dresden woman was arrested “in her rented apartment of Major General Ivan Golovin on Vasilievsky Island.” On July 5, Demidov submitted a report to the Empress on the work done and the first results of interrogations:

“[Anna] was found and taken to the fortress, with two girls with her, one of whom was taken out of a chest, and during her interrogation, voluntarily, after considerable persuasion and then under the lash, she confessed to nothing indecent, but later under the cats (whips) revealed many nests of indecency, of which over three nights to date more than fifty pimps and prostitutes have been found in various places and yards, taverns, cupboards, and under beds.”

In total, during the operation that lasted several weeks, more than 200 women were arrested. In a subsequent “report,” Demidov noted with satisfaction that “now the streets have become so quiet that even the established pickets stand calmly.” Elizabeth Petrovna was involved at all stages of the investigation and demanded new updates, maintaining interest in the case for several months, as sources testify. “Her Imperial Majesty deigned to listen to your note,” “Her Imperial Majesty deigned to request a report,” reported the Empress’s secretary Ivan Cherkasov to Demidov. Eventually, the Peter and Paul Fortress became overcrowded; Demidov wrote: “I humbly ask Your Excellency to inform Her Imperial Majesty that they are now cramped in the fortress, all the casemates are occupied, there is nowhere to keep or interrogate them, and to this day it is done in a shed. Therefore, would Her Imperial Majesty deign to order this commission to be conducted in the Kalinkin stone house.”

From the memoirist’s book “NOTES OF MIKHAIL VASILIEVICH DANILOV, ARTILLERY MAJOR, WRITTEN BY HIM IN 1771” about the events: “At the very time Charlotte began to get acquainted with me, a strict commission on those living without marriage was accidentally opened in Petersburg. One woman, originally from Dresden (hence called the Dresden woman), rented a good house on Voznesenskaya Street and, for modesty, in a lane, and having recruited many decent and young girls as servants for the guests visiting her instead of lackeys, opened her house for the entertainment of all visitors: many single men gathered there every night, since the gathering was called ‘parties,’ and unknown couples of both sexes came to her for convenient private conversation and meetings. The Dresden woman sent for a beauty from afar with the promise of providing her a place and rank at court, though which court was not specified in the agreement; upon arrival, the beauty saw she was deceived and complained to some wives, who began to notice that their husbands returned home late at unusual times and grew cold towards them. Great jealousy flared from wives to their husbands, and jealous eyes see further than eagles, seeing what cannot be seen; however, later the cause was found out and the reason why their husbands came home so late was discovered. The complaint about this gathering reached the court, and the beauty who was sent for was presented with a complaint that she was deceived by the Dresden woman; to prove this, a strict commission was established, presided over by Cabinet Minister Demidov. This inquisition arrested the Dresden woman. In her interrogation, the Dresden woman implicated everyone she knew; the beauties taken from her house were locked up in the spinning yard in Kalinkin village under guard. The commission was still not satisfied that it had ruined such entertainment and cut many beauties without scissors: it searched even those beauties who were sent from afar and lived in magnificent mansions abundantly, to whom offerings were rich from everywhere; it took from many houses with great strictness this unmanifested, forbidden, and flattering merchandise through police officers; it also took wives from husbands, according to the Dresden woman’s statement, who went to her house to choose other husbands to their liking; she married the astronomy professor Popov and the assessor of the manufactory college Ladygin in the cathedral church. This event drew my attention to Charlotte, because although she seemed pleasant as a mistress, she was unfit to be a wife due to her low birth. Finally, that formidable cloud of the commission passed and spared me; many officers standing guard over those prisoners in Kalinkin village brought misfortune upon themselves.”

The investigation was thorough and meticulous, and, strangely enough, deceiving the authorities in the 18th century was not as easy as one might think. Confrontations and references from other departments — the Military Collegium, Saint Petersburg Spiritual Consistory, Tavern Office, Provincial Chancellery — ensured a fairly high degree of truthfulness of the information obtained. Moreover, the fear of “interrogation with torment,” that is, interrogation under torture, was a factor that contributed both to frankness and to lies.

Anna-Kunigunda, also known as Frau Felker, also the Dresden woman, the main target of the investigation, began cooperating with the investigation almost immediately.

Anna herself was born into a poor family and was on the street by the age of 13. Her stepmother drove her to prostitution. Eventually, one of the burghers took pity on the girl and took her into service in his mansion. There Anna-Kunigunda learned to read and write. She came to Russia in 1734 and a year later married a compatriot, the soldier Friedrich Felker, but he was soon called to military service.

It is said that a high-ranking lover, Duke Biron, forced her to open a brothel. Using compromising material on influential state officials, he planned to build his policy in Russia. Anna-Kunigunda met the duke at 18. By then, the girl was well versed in literature, music, and philosophy and pleased the aristocrat. Biron concluded a lifelong contract with her, and from that time the courtesan’s life changed completely. Possibly, this was one of the first cases in history of the honey trap principle — a spy tool later widely used by intelligence services, involving seduction and gaining trust for recruitment, information gathering, and discreditation.

When Felker came home, he was stunned to see what his apartment had turned into. He accused his wife of adultery and easily obtained a divorce. But this only worked to Anna’s advantage — being free, she took up the business with triple energy.

“That adultery was committed by her because her husband lived with her for about ten days after marriage and then left to serve in the army under Field Marshal Minikh, where he stayed for a long time, leaving Anna in Saint Petersburg without any support.”

Over time, Anna learned to support herself, first organizing pimping with one, then with several girls, whom she brought, including from Berlin. Those “girls she, the Dresden woman, pimped, who fornicated with various foreign visitors: ship crews and various Russian officials for the payment she received from them, which she shared with those girls equally.”

But it was the connection with Biron that played a fateful role in the fate of the enterprising German woman. After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the duke was exiled, and she had no one else to rely on.

Felker’s biography is typical for many inmates of the Kalinkin House, with the only difference that the Dresden woman was literate, familiar with European experience, and to survive, she did not necessarily have to remain a prostitute (however, the term “prostitute” appeared only in the second half of the 18th century and, as we see, merely recorded an already existing practice):

Hiding behind carnival masks, notable men visited her. Prince Golitsyn, Ambassador Naryshkin, and many others. Rumor has it that even foreign ambassadors visited here. Actually, in 18th-century Russia, sex officially did not exist. Street prostitution was severely punished. But behind these walls, laws for the chosen operated. Entrance to the salon cost one ruble, which at that time could buy, for example, ten shirts, two sheepskin coats, or twelve poods of flour. The pride of Kunigunda’s salon were foreigners — Germans, Iranians, and, above all, Frenchwomen.

Among those who came to the Dresden woman’s establishments and many other “houses of fornication” were representatives of various strata: nobles (“Lieutenant Prince Golitsyn of the Preobrazhensky Regiment,” “Guard officer Ivan Vorontsov,” “Ensign Petr Tatishchev,” etc.), foreigners (“Lindemann’s son Tomsin, living on Vasilievsky Island near the sea pharmacy,” “office bookkeeper Brefelt, living near the Blue Bridge in Naryshkin’s house,” “bookkeeper Parfnik living at Berkham’s, cloth line in the shop sitting from merchant Bona, clerk Palm”), sailors, soldiers, court artists and craftsmen (“opera house comedians Maduni and Antoni,” “tobacco master Mani Bok near the church on Bolshaya Perspective,” “tailor Shorsh on Bolshaya Street near the Triumphal Gates”). Felker was acquainted with representatives of the highest nobility:

“She, the Dresden woman, was summoned to Prince Boris Vasilyevich Golitsyn, who asked her to find a good girl for fornication for him, for which she brought the girl Anna Elizabeth, who for some unknown reason was not accepted by him, and where that girl lives now, she does not know.”

Who were the others? One group consisted of soldiers’ wives and widows, former peasants pulled out of their native communities following their husbands. Emerging as a category due to the recruitment draft, thousands and thousands of women gained personal freedom and ended up in cities. In case of loss of contact with their husbands or their death, they were effectively left without any social support or guarantees from the state: the pension system was only established in the next century. What kind of work could a woman claim in the 18th century? If the male labor market had already begun to form, the situation for women remained hopeless. The best they could hope for was “washing clothes” or small trade.

As a result, the “Commission on Morality,” created for this purpose, forced the Academy of Sciences employee Popov and assessor Ladygin to marry the “seduced girls.” Interestingly, physical intimacy was considered the most important manifestation of love and a reason for marriage. Up to 500 women were first kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress, then transferred for re-education to the Kalinkin House on the Fontanka River, away from the center.

More about the Kalinkin House here:

https://reveal.world/story/prostitutsiya-v-rossii-ob-otsylke-vinovnyh-bab-i-devok-kotorye-ne-budut-podlezhat-smertnoj-kazni-na-pryadil-nyj-dvor

Sources:

https://domashniy.ru/novosti/plokhie-devchonki-anna-kunigunda-felker-buduar-imperatritsy

https://arzamas.academy/materials/850

https://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus10/Danilov/text2.phtml?id=404