Who was the surgeon's son turned spy sent to St Petersburg, Russia's second largert city?
Méhée de La Touche Jean-Claude-Hippolyte Méhée de La Touche (1762-1826) was the son of a surgeon in Meaux. Destined to succeed his father, he nevertheless left his home for Paris when he was 12, and ended up in the Bicêtre Prison. He was released at the coronation of Louis XVI of France in 1774, but in 1776, after the death of his parents, Méhée was again imprisoned in the Bicêtre. He escaped when he was sent to Brest to serve on the French fleet. He returned to Paris after the French Revolution, and was sent to Saint Petersburg as a spy under the name "Chevalier de La Touche" by Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau and Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette. He was soon uncovered and was sent out of Russia in March 1791. His next appointment as a spy was in Poland, where he established the "Gazette de Varsovie", a French newspaper in Warsaw. Again his role as a spy was discovered, and he was banished from Poland as well.
Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia Konstantin Pavlovich (Russian: Константи́н Па́влович ; 27 April 177927 June 1831) was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823. For 25 days after the death of Alexander I, from 19 November (O.S.)/1 December 1825 to 14 December (O.S.)/26 December 1825 he was known as "His Imperial Majesty Konstantin I Emperor and Sovereign of Russia", although he never reigned and never acceded to the throne. His younger brother Nicholas became Tsar in 1825. The succession controversy became the pretext of the Decembrist revolt.