Catherine II of Russia

The Russian empress Catherine II (1729-1796), known as Catherine the Great, reigned from 1762 to 1796. She expanded the Russian Empire, improved administration, and vigorously pursued the policy of Westernization. Her reputation as an "enlightened despot," however, is not wholly supported by her deeds.

Born in the German city of Stettin on April 21, 1729, Catherine was the daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Johanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Her education emphasized the subjects considered proper for one of her station: religion (Lutheranism), history, French, German, and music.

When Catherine was 15, she went to Russia at the invitation of Empress Elizabeth to meet - and perhaps marry - the heir to the throne, the Grand Duke Peter, an immature and disagreeable youth of 16. As the Empress had hoped, the two proved amenable to a marriage plan; but Catherine later wrote that she was more attracted to the "Crown of Russia," which Peter would eventually wear, than to "his person." When Catherine had met the important condition imposed upon her as a prospective royal consort, that she be converted to the Russian Orthodox faith, she and the young Grand Duke were married in 1745.

The marriage turned out to be an unhappy one in which there was little evidence of love or even affection. Peter was soon unfaithful to Catherine, and after a time she became unfaithful to him. Whether Peter was the father of Paul and Anna, the two children recorded as their offspring, remains a moot question.

Although amorous interests were important in Catherine's personal life, they did not overshadow her intellectual and political interests. A sharp-witted and cultivated young woman, she read widely, particularly in French, at that time the first language of educated Europeans. She liked novels, plays, and verse but was particularly interested in the writings of the major figures of the French Enlightenment, such as Diderot, Voltaire, and Montesquieu.

Catherine was ambitious as well as intelligent. She always looked ahead to the time when Peter would succeed to the throne and she, as his empress, would be able to exercise great political influence. In anticipation of her future status she sought the reputation of being a true Russian. She worked diligently at mastering the Russian language and took care to demonstrate devotion to the Russian Orthodox faith and the Russian state. Thus she gave prominence to a significant difference between her attitude and that of her husband, who displayed open contempt for the country he was to rule. She assured herself of further advantage by the studied use of her charm and vivacity in cultivating the goodwill of important personages.

Ascent to Power

When Empress Elizabeth died on Dec. 25, 1761, Peter was proclaimed Emperor Peter III, and Catherine became empress. Friends warned that she might not enjoy her status for long since Peter was planning to divorce her, and she was advised to flee. She decided to ignore the warning, and the wisdom of her decision was soon demonstrated. Within a few months after coming to the throne, Peter had aroused so much hostility among government, military, and church leaders that a group of them began plotting a coup to remove him, place his 7-year-old son, Paul, on the throne, and name Catherine as regent until the boy should come of age. But they had underestimated Catherine's ambition - she aimed at a more exalted role for herself. On June 28, 1762, with the aid of her lover Gregory Orlov, she rallied the troops of St. Petersburg to her support and declared herself Catherine II, the sovereign ruler of Russia (she later named Paul as her heir). She had Peter arrested and required him to sign an act of abdication. When he sought permission to leave the country, she refused it, intending to hold him prisoner for life. But his remaining days proved few; shortly after his arrest he was killed in a brawl with his captors.

Early Reign (1762-1764)

Catherine had ambitious plans regarding both domestic and foreign affairs, but during the first years of her reign her attention was directed toward securing her position. She knew that a number of influential persons considered her a usurper and her son, Paul, the rightful ruler; she also realized that without the goodwill of the nobility and the military she could be overthrown by a coup as readily as she had been elevated by one. Her reaction to this situation was to take every opportunity for conciliating the nobility and the military and at the same time striking sharply at those who sought to replace her with Paul.

As for general policy, Catherine understood that Russia needed an extended period of peace during which to concentrate on domestic affairs and that peace required a cautious foreign policy. The able Count Nikita Panin, whom she placed in charge of foreign affairs, was well chosen to carry out such a policy.

Attempts at Reform (1764-1768)

By 1764 Catherine felt sufficiently secure to begin work on reform. In her thinking about the problems of reform, she belonged to the group of 18th-century rulers known as "enlightened despots." Influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, these monarchs believed that a wise and benevolent ruler, acting according to the dictates of reason, could ensure the well-being of his or her subjects.

It was in the spirit of the Enlightenment that Catherine undertook her first major reform, that of Russia's legal system, which was based on the antiquated, inequitable, and inefficient Code of Laws, dating from 1649. For more than 2 years, inspired by the writings of Montesquieu and the Italian jurist Beccaria, she worked on the composition of the "Instruction," a document to guide those to whom she would entrust the work of reforming the legal system. This work was widely distributed in Europe and caused a sensation because it called for a legal system far in advance of the times. It proposed a system providing equal protection under law for all persons and emphasized prevention of criminal acts rather than harsh punishment for them.

In June 1767 the Empress created the Legislative Commission to revise the old laws in accordance with the "Instruction." For the time and place, the Commission was a remarkable body, consisting of delegates from almost all levels of society except the lowest, the serfs. Like many others, Catherine had great hopes about what the Commission might accomplish, but unfortunately, the delegates devoted most of their time to the exposition of their own grievances, rather than to their assigned task. Consequently, though their meetings continued for more than a year, they made no progress, and Catherine suspended the meetings at the end of 1768. The fact that she never reconvened the Commission has been interpreted by some historians as an indication that she had lost faith in the delegates; others feel, however, that she was more interested in having the reputation of being an "enlightened" ruler than in actually being one.

War and Revolt (1768-1774)

Foreign affairs now began to demand Catherine's major attention. She had sent troops to help the Polish king Stanislas (a former lover) in suppressing a nationalist revolt aimed at reducing Russia's influence in Poland. In 1768 the Polish rebels appealed to Turkey for aid, and the Turkish sultan, grateful for an opportunity to weaken a traditional enemy, declared war on Russia. But his act was based on serious miscalculation, and his forces were soundly beaten by the Russians. This turn of events led Austria to threaten intervention on Turkey's behalf unless Catherine agreed not to take full advantage of her victory. Faced by this dangerous alternative, she agreed to show restraint in return for a portion of Polish territory. Thus in 1772 Austria and Russia annexed Polish territory in the First Partition of Poland. Two years later, after lengthy negotiations, Catherine concluded peace with Turkey, restricting herself to relatively modest but nonetheless important gains. Russia received as a territorial concession its first foothold on the Black Sea coast, and Russian merchant ships were allowed the right of sailing on the Black Sea and through the Dardanelles.

Even before the conclusion of peace with the Turks, Catherine had to concern herself with a revolt led by the Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev. It proved to be the most ominous internal threat she ever had to face. The rebel leader claimed that reports of Peter III's death were false and that he himself was the deposed emperor. He convinced many serfs, Cossacks, and members of other dissatisfied groups that when Catherine II was deposed and "Peter III" was returned to the throne their oppression would be ended. Soon tens of thousands were following him, and the uprising, which started in the south and spread up the Volga River, was within threatening range of Moscow. Pugachev's defeat required several major expeditions by the imperial forces, and a feeling of security returned to the government only after his capture late in 1774. The revolt was a major landmark in Catherine's reign. Deeply alarmed by it, she concluded, along with most of the aristocracy, that the best safeguard against rebellion would be the strengthening of the local administrative authority of the nobility rather than measures to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes.

Domestic Affairs (1775-1787)

Much of Catherine's fame rests on what she accomplished during the dozen years following the Pugachev uprising, when she directed her time and talent to domestic affairs, particularly those concerned with the administrative operations of government. Her reorganization in 1775 of provincial administration - in such a way as to favor the nobility - stood the test of time; but her reorganization of municipal government 10 years later was less successful.

Catherine attached high importance to expanding the country's educational facilities. She gave serious consideration to various plans and in 1786 adopted one providing for a large-scale educational system. Unfortunately she was unable to carry out the entire plan; but she did add to the number of the country's elementary and secondary schools, and some of the remaining parts of her plan were carried out during succeeding reigns.

Another of Catherine's chief domestic concerns was the enhancement of Russia's economic strength. To this end she encouraged trade by ending various restrictions on commerce, and she promoted the development of underpopulated areas by attracting both Russians and foreigners to them as settlers.

The arts and sciences received much attention during Catherine's reign not only because she believed them to be important in themselves, but also because she saw them as a means by which Russia could attain a reputation as a center of civilization. Under her direction St. Petersburg was beautified and made one of the world's most dazzling capitals. With her encouragement, theater, music, and painting flourished; stimulated by her patronage, the Academy of Sciences reached new heights. Indeed, during her reign St. Petersburg became one of the major cultural centers of Europe.

Foreign Affairs (1787-1795)

Catherine gradually came to believe that it would be possible to strip Turkey of both Constantinople and its European possessions if only Austria would join Russia in the undertaking. And, having gained Austria's lukewarm support, she began the deliberate pursuit of a policy so intolerably aggressive toward Turkey that in 1787 the Sultan finally declared war on Russia. As in past encounters, the Russian forces proved superior to the Turks, but they required 4 years to achieve victory. By the Treaty of Jassy (1792) Catherine won from Turkey a large area on the Black Sea coast and gained Turkish agreement to Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. But she was not able to carry out her original plan of annexing Constantinople and Turkey's European territory, since Austria had withdrawn its support of this action and other powers vigorously opposed it.

While the Russo-Turkish War was in progress, Polish nationalists again tried to strengthen the Polish state and end Russian influence within it. As before, their efforts were futile, leading only to unqualified disaster for their unfortunate country - the Second Partition of Poland (1793), in which Russia and Prussia annexed Polish territory; and the Third Partition (1795), in which Russia, Austria, and Prussia divided what remained of an independent Poland.

Problem of Succession

As she grew older, Catherine became greatly troubled because her heir, Paul, who had long been given to violent and unpredictable extremes of emotion, was becoming so unsettled and erratic that she doubted his fitness to rule. She considered disclaiming him as heir and naming his oldest son, Alexander, as her successor. But before she was able to alter her original arrangement, she died of a stroke on Nov. 6, 1796.

Further Reading

The Memoirs of Catherine the Great, edited by Dominique Maroger (trans. 1955), covers her life until 1762. Documents of Catherine the Great, edited by W. F. Reddaway (1931), includes the texts of the "Instruction" and her correspondence with Voltaire. Ian Grey, Catherine the Great: Autocrat and Empress of All Russia (1962), is a thorough and sound biography. Gladys S. Thomson, Catherine the Great and the Expansion of Russia (1947), provides a useful, brief survey of Catherine's reign. Kazimierz Waliszewski, The Romance of an Empress: Catherine II of Russia (1894), is still a fascinating and important work.

For more information on Catherine II, visit Britannica.com.

(1729 - 1796) Yekaterina Alexeyevna or "Catherine the Great," Empress of Russia from 1762 - 1796.

Recognized worldwide as a historical figure, Catherine the Great earned legendary status for three centuries. Her political ambition prompted the overthrow and subsequent murder of her husband, Emperor Peter III (1728 - 1762). Whatever her actual complicity, his death branded her an accessory after the fact. Thus she labored to build legitimacy as autocratrix (independent ruler) of the expansive Russian Empire. When her reign proved long, extravagant praise of her character and impact overshadowed accusation. An outsider adept at charming Russian society, she projects a powerful presence in history. Most associate her with all significant events and trends in Russia's expanding world role. Though she always rejected the appellation "the Great," it endured.

Catherine fostered positive concepts of her life by composing multiple autobiographical portrayals over five decades. None of the different drafts treated her reign directly, but all implicitly justified her fitness to rule. Various versions have been translated and often reissued to reach audiences worldwide. Ironically, the first published version was issued in 1859 by Russian radicals in London to embarrass the Romanov dynasty. Trilingual in German, French, and Russian, Catherine spelled badly but read, wrote, spoke, and dictated easily and voluminously. Keen intelligence, prodigious memory, broad knowledge, and wit enlivened her conversational skill.

Born on April 21, 1729, in Stettin, Prussia, of Germanic parentage, the first daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst (1690 - 1747) and Princess Johanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp (1712 - 1760), Sophia Augusta Fredericka combined precocious physical, social, and intellectual traits with great energy and inquisitiveness. A home education through governesses and tutors enabled her by age ten to read voraciously and to converse incessantly with relatives and acquaintances at home and at other German courts that her assertive mother visited. At the court of Holstein-Gottorp in 1739 she met a second cousin, Prince Karl Peter Ulrich, the orphaned grandson of Peter the Great who was brought to Russia in 1742 by his childless aunt, Empress Elizabeth; renamed Peter Fedorovich; and proclaimed heir apparent. Backed by Frederick the Great of Prussia, Sophia followed Peter to Russia in 1744, where she was converted to Orthodoxy and renamed Catherine. Their marriage in 1745 granted her access to the Russian throne. She was to supply a male heir - a daunting task in view of Peter's unstable personality, weak health, probable sterility, and impotence. When five years brought no pregnancy, Catherine was advised to beget an heir with a married Russian courtier, Sergei Saltykov (1726 - 1785). After two miscarriages she gave birth to Paul Petrovich on October 1, 1754. Presumably fathered by Saltykov, the baby was raised by Empress Elizabeth. Thenceforth Catherine enjoyed greater freedom to engage in court politics and romantic intrigue. In 1757 she bore a daughter by Polish aristocrat Stanislaus

Poniatowski that only lived sixteen months. During her husband's short-lived reign in 1762 she gave birth to another son, Alexei Bobrinskoy, by Russian aristocrat Grigory Orlov.

Catherine quickly absorbed Russian culture. She mastered the language, customs, and history of the empire. An instinctive politician, she cultivated friendships among the court elite and select foreigners such as Sir Charles Hanbury Williams (who lent her money and political advice). Her certainty that factional alignments would change abruptly upon Elizabeth's death (as foretold by the exile of Chancellor Alexei Bestuzhev-Ryumin in 1758, the banishment abroad of Stanislaus Poniatowski, and her husband's hostility) fueled her motivation to form new alliances. When Elizabeth died suddenly on January 5, 1762, Catherine was pregnant by Orlov. Their partisans were unprepared to contest the throne with the new emperor, Peter III, who undermined his own authority, alienating the Guards regiments, the Orthodox Church, and Russian patriots, through inept policies such as his withdrawal from war against Prussia and declaration of war on Denmark. Peter rarely saw Catherine or Paul, whose succession rights as wife and son were jeopardized as Peter delayed his coronation and flaunted his mistress, Yelizaveta Vorontsova, older sister of Catherine's young married friend, Princess Yekaterina Dashkova.

Peter III was deposed on July 9, 1762, when Catherine "fled" from suburban Peterhof to St. Petersburg to be proclaimed empress by the Guards and the Senate. While under house arrest at Ropsha, he was later strangled to death by noblemen conspiring to ensure Catherine's sovereign power. This "revolution" was justified as a defense of Russian civil and ecclesiastical institutions, prevention of war, and redemption of national honor. Catherine never admitted complicity in the death of Peter III which was officially blamed on "hemorrhoidal colic" a cover-up ridiculed abroad by British writer Horace Walpole. Walpole scorned "this Fury of the North," predicting Paul's assassination, and referring to Catherine as "Simiramis, murderess-queen of ancient times" - charges that incited other scurrilous attacks.

Catherine quickly consolidated the new regime by rewarding partisans, recalling Bestuzhev-Ryumin and other friends from exile, and ordering coronation preparations in Moscow, where she was crowned on October 3, 1762 amid ceremonies that lasted months. Determined to rule by herself, Catherine declined to name a chancellor, refused to marry Grigory Orlov, and ignored Paul's rights as he was underage. Her style of governance was cautiously consultative, pragmatic, and "hands-on," with a Germanic sense of duty and strong aversion to wasting time. Aware of the fragility of her allegedly absolute authority, she avoided acting like a despot. She perused the whole spectrum of state policies, reviewed policies of immigration and reorganization of church estates, established a new central administration of public health, and set up a new commission to rebuild St. Petersburg and Moscow. Count Nikita Panin, a former diplomat and Paul's "governor," assumed the supervision of foreign affairs, and in 1764 Prince Alexander Vyazemsky became procurator-general of the Senate, with broad jurisdiction over domestic affairs, particularly finances and the secret political police.

Catherine's reign may be variously subdivided, depending on the sphere of activity considered. One simplistic scheme breaks it into halves: reform before 1775, and reaction afterward. But this overlooks continuities spanning the entire era and ignores the varying periodizations for foreign affairs, education, and culture. Another approach conceives of her reign as a series of crises. A ruler of wide interests, she dealt simultaneously with diverse matters. The first decade witnessed her mania for legislation and pursuit of an active foreign policy that, in alliance with Prussia from 1764, led to intervention in Poland-Lithuania. This alliance led to pressures on Poland and spilled over into war with the Ottoman Empire which in turn yielded unforeseen complications in the great plague of 1770 - 1771 and the Pugachev Revolt of 1773 - 1774. The latter focused public attention on serfdom, which Catherine privately despised while recognizing that it could not be easily changed.

Catherine's government followed a general policy of cultivating public confidence in aspirations to lead Russia toward full and equal membership in Europe. Drawing on the published advice of German cameralist thinkers and corresponding regularly with Voltaire, Diderot, Grimm, and other philosophers, she promoted administrative efficiency and uniformity, economic advance and fiscal growth, and "enlightenment" through expanded educational facilities, cultural activities, and religious tolerance. She expanded the Senate in 1762 and 1763, bolstered the office of procurator-general in 1763 and 1764, and incorporated Ukraine into the empire by abolishing the hetmanate in 1764. The Legislative Commission of 1767 - 1768 assembled several hundred delegates from all free social groups to assist in recodification of the laws on the basis of recent European social theory as borrowed from Montesquieu and others and outlined in Catherine's Great Instruction of 1767 - enlightened guidelines translated into many other languages. To stimulate the economy, foreign immigrants were invited in 1763, grain exports were sanctioned in 1764, the Free Economic Society was established in 1765, and a commission on commerce formulated a new tariff in 1766. She also secularized ecclesiastical estates in 1764, founded the Smolny Institute for the education of young women, and eased restrictions on religious schismatics. New public health policies were championed as she underwent inoculation against smallpox in 1768 by Dr. Thomas Dimsdale and then provided the procedure free to the public. Yet her attempts to contain the horrific plague of 1770 - 1771 could not prevent some 100,000 deaths, triggering bloody riots in Moscow.

The most literate ruler in Russian history, Catherine constantly patronized cultural pursuits, especially a flurry of satirical journals and comedies published anonymously with her significant participation. Later comedies attacked Freemasonry. In 1768 she founded the Society for the Translation of Foreign Books into Russian, superseded in 1782 by the Russian Academy, which sponsored a comprehensive dictionary between 1788 and 1796. Most strikingly, she founded the Hermitage, a museum annex to the Winter Palace, to house burgeoning collections of European paintings and other kinds of art. To lighten the burdens of rule, Catherine attended frequent social gatherings, including regular "Court Days" (receptions for a diverse public), visits to the theater, huge festivals like St. Petersburg's Grand Carousel of 1766, and select informal gatherings where titles and ranks were ignored.

To embrace the great Petrine legacy, Catherine sponsored a gigantic neoclassical equestrian statue of Peter the Great on Senate Square, "The Bronze Horseman" as the poet Pushkin dubbed it, publicly unveiled in 1782. Dismayed by Peter's brutal militarism and coercive cultural innovations, she saw herself as perfecting his achievements with a lighter touch. Thus Ivan Betskoy, a prominent dignitary of the period, lauded them both in 1767 by stating that Peter the Great created people in Russia but Catherine endowed them with souls. In neoclassical imagery Catherine was often depicted as Minerva. Her "building mania" involved neo-Gothic palaces and gardens, and with Scottish architect Charles Cameron she added a neoclassical wing to the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo and the nearby Pavlovsk Palace for Paul and his second wife, Maria Fyodorovna, who provided many grandchildren, the males raised directly by the empress.

Through travel Catherine demonstrated vigor in exploring the empire. In June 1763 she returned from Moscow to St. Petersburg, then traveled the next summer to Estland and Livland. She rushed back because of an attempted coup by a disgruntled Ukrainian officer, Vasily Mirovich, to free the imprisoned Ivan VI (1740 - 1764). Acting on secret orders, guards killed the prisoner before he could be freed. After a speedy trial Mirovich was beheaded on September 26, 1764, and his supporters were beaten and exiled.

While Catherine quickly quashed such inept plots, she worried more about rumors that Peter III was alive and eager to regain power. Some dozen impostors cropped up in remote locales, but all were apprehended, imprisoned, or exiled. In 1772 and 1773, amid war with the Ottoman Empire, did fugitive cossack Emelian Pugachev rally the Yaik cossacks under Peter III's banner in a regional rebellion that attracted thousands of motley followers. When Pugachev burned Kazan in 1774, Catherine contemplated defending Moscow in person, but the victorious end of the Russo-Turkish War soon dissuaded her. Upon capture Pugachev underwent repeated interrogation before execution in Moscow on January 21, 1775, in Catherine's demonstrative absence. This embarrassment was overshadowed by elaborate celebrations in Moscow of victory over Pugachev and the Turks, the Peace of Kuchuk-Kainardji of 1774.

Russia's soaring international prestige was further affirmed by the month-long visit of King Gustavus III of Sweden in the summer of 1777 and by Russia's joint mediation of the war of the Bavarian Succession in the Peace of Teschen of May 1779, which made Russia a guarantor of the Holy Roman Empire. Catherine's meeting with Emperor-King Joseph II of Austria at Mogilev in May 1780 led one year later to a secret Russo-Austrian alliance against the Ottoman Empire, the notorious "Greek Project" that foresaw Catherine's grandson Konstantin on the throne of a reconstituted Byzantine Empire. In 1781 Catherine engineered the Armed Neutrality of 1781, a league of northern naval powers to oppose British infringement of the commercial rights of neutrals amid the conflicts ending the American revolution.

In 1774 Catherine rearranged her personal life and the imperial leadership by promoting the flamboyant Grigory Potemkin, a well-educated noble and supporter of her coup. Installed as official favorite, he dominated St. Petersburg politics as political partner and probable husband until his death in 1791. He assisted with legislation that spawned the Provincial Reform beginning in 1775, the Police Code for towns in 1782, and charters to the nobility and the towns in 1785. A charter for the state peasantry remained in draft form, as did reforms of the Senate.

In charge of the armed forces, settlement, and fortification of New Russia (Ukraine), Potemkin masterminded annexation of the Crimea in 1783 and the Tauride Tour of 1787, an extravagant cavalcade that provoked renewed Russo-Turkish war in August 1787. In alliance with Austria, and despite unforeseen war with Sweden in 1788 and 1790 and troubles in revolutionary France in 1789, Potemkin coordinated campaigns that confirmed Russian triumph and territorial gains in the treaty of Jassy (1792). The last years of Catherine's life saw another triumph of Russian arms in the second and third partitions of Poland and the preparation of expeditionary forces against Persia and France. Internal repercussions of foreign pressures involved the arrest and exile of Alexander Radishchev in 1790 and Nikolay Novikov in 1792, both noblemen charged with publications violating censorship rules in propagating revolutionary and Freemason sentiments.

The death of Potemkin and Vyazemsky left voids in Catherine's government that a new young favorite, Platon Zubov, could not bridge. Her declining health and growing estrangement from Paul insistently raised succession concerns and rumors that she would prevent Paul's accession. Catherine's sudden death on November 16, 1796, from apoplexy inaugurated his reign. Paul's efforts at reversing Catherine's policies backfired, regenerating fond memories that inspired a bogus "Testament of Catherine the Great" later used by aristocratic conspirators to overthrow and murder Paul and replace him with Alexander, Catherine's beloved grandson.

Bibliography

Alexander, John T. (1980). Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia: Public Health and Urban Disaster. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Alexander, John T. (1989). Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, John T. (1999). "Catherine the Great as Porn Queen." In Eros and Pornography in Russian Culture, ed. M. Levitt and A. Toporkov. Moscow: "Ladomir."

Anthony, Katherine, ed. (1927). Memoirs of Catherine the Great. New York: Knopf.

Catherine the Great: Treasures of Imperial Russia from the State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. (1990). Memphis: City of Memphis, Tennessee, and Leningrad: State Hermitage Museum.

De Madariaga, Isabel. (1981). Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

De Madariaga, Isabel. (1998). Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia: Collected Essays. London: Longman.

Dixon, Simon. (2001). Catherine the Great. London: Longman.

Shvidkovsky, Dimitri. (1996). The Empress and the Architect: British Architecture and Gardens at the Court of Catherine the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

—JOHN T. ALEXANDER

Catherine II (Russia) (1729–1796; ruled 1762–1796), empress of Russia. Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, was born Princess Sophie in Stettin, Anhalt-Zerbst, a remote and poor German principality on the Baltic Sea. She was betrothed to the heir to the Russian throne, the future Peter III, in 1744. Upon her arrival in St. Petersburg, she converted to Russian Orthodoxy and was given the Russian name of Catherine Alekseevna, after Catherine I, Russia's first female crowned head and the mother of the reigning empress Elizabeth, Peter's aunt. Catherine remained in Russia for the rest of her life, and her stay can be divided into three unequal periods: as wife of the heir apparent (1745–1761), as consort to the emperor (six months in 1762), and as monarch (1762–1796).

Wife and Consort

By all available accounts—a mixture of personal court gossip, self-serving memoirs, and diplomatic reports—Catherine's marriage to Peter was an emotional disaster, and perhaps unconsummated. Catherine's own narrative of these years (her vaunted memoirs, which remained unpublished until the mid-nineteenth century) described Peter as childish, tempestuous, unloving, and enamored of only three things: his mistress, his toy soldiers, and Prussia. Catherine spent these years relatively excluded from court, but she nevertheless gathered around herself a coterie of admirers and her early lovers, as well as significant figures in the guards' regiments, many of whom found Peter's behavior and his Prussophilia disturbing.

By the time Peter ascended the throne in 1762, he and Catherine were estranged, and by some accounts she was already preparing to replace him as monarch. Her moment came barely six months into his reign, in late June 1762, when several officers of the elite regiments swore allegiance to her, followed immediately by thousands of "cheering" troops. Confronted by this fait accompli, Peter is said to have surrendered meekly, requesting merely that he be allowed to keep his dog (agreed), his toys (agreed), and his mistress (denied). Whether by design or inadvertenly, Peter was assassinated within days, thus bringing his bride to the throne as an unacknowledged regicide.

Ideology and Enlightenment

Once on the throne, Catherine aggressively represented herself as the quintessence of enlightened monarchy, the true heir of Peter the Great. This affinity was reproduced in countless ceremonies and visual images, most famously in Étienne-Maurice Falconet's statue the Bronze Horseman, unveiled in 1782 with the inscription "Petro Primo—Catherina Secunda" ('To Peter the First from Catherine the Second'). Her highly public correspondences with Friedrich Melchior Grimm, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, and other leading lumières conveyed the message that Catherine and, through her, Russian statecraft, embodied the highest virtues of reason and order. Perhaps the clearest expression of these views came in her legislative writings, both the major laws and the famous Instruction (Nakaz) to the Legislative Commission, written in 1767. This latter text combined an explicit reconfirmation of absolutism with a categorical Europeanness (in the declaration that "Russia is a European state") and displayed a preoccupation with laws, citizenship, and human happiness that strongly suggested a desire to make Russia into a more orderly, law-driven polity. Historians remain divided whether quasi-liberal sentiments motivated these expressions or, conversely, whether they constituted an interventionist instinct for "a well-ordered police state."

The Legislative Commission was a remarkable semipublic forum that brought representatives of all legally constituted social groups—save the serfs, who were deemed to be represented by landlords—and several ethnic minorities. Although it produced precious little actual legislation and never came close to generating a draft for a new fundamental law, the so-called Great Commission did enable a wide-ranging series of discussions on fundamental issues such as serfdom, social identity, trade, and education. Local deputies came to the sessions armed with instructions from their constituents, and recent research has shown that considerable consultation took place in drafting those instructions. Equally noteworthy, but less frequently acknowledged, is the Commission's afterlife, which extended until the end of Catherine's reign in the form of "particular" or private commissions that continued to discuss issues, albeit more privately and on a less grandiose level. Although these private commissions fell well short of an embryonic civil society, they did allow for an officially sanctioned and ongoing deliberation of law and policy outside of the narrow confines of state institutions.

Domestic Policy and Legislation

In the wake of the dangerous Pugachev revolt of 1773–1775 Catherine initiated a decade-long blizzard of important new legislation (sometimes dubbed "legislomania"), collectively designed to strengthen civil and moral order. The first of these statutes, the Provincial Reform of 1775, significantly increased the size of formal provincial government by creating thirty-five provinces with civil administrations that were considerably larger than previously and with a much broader set of responsibilities. The provincial reform gave local nobility every opportunity to take control of these new bodies, while making certain that the key figures, the governor and military governor, would be centrally appointed and chosen from among loyal and high-ranking individuals.

Major statutes on urban welfare and police (1782), public education (1782), private publishing (1783), and the Charters to the Nobility and to the Towns (both in 1785) soon ensued. These last two documents sought to codify the corporate status of the empress's subjects (something under ten percent of the total population) who were neither peasants nor legally inscribed ethnic minorities. A similar charter was drafted for the peasants but never enacted. In addition, the state began a major initiative to populate the area north of the Black Sea known as New Russia (Novorossiia) and to develop the agricultural potential of this black-earth temperate zone. This policy encouraged immigration, both from other regions of the empire and from abroad, especially from impoverished German states. These policies enabled Russia to expand its already substantial export of raw materials, including grain, furs, and, by some accounts, large quantities of silver. The Russian economy grew correspondingly, equaling some of the highest rates of expansion in preindustrial Europe.

Foreign Affairs

Bracketed by the end of the Seven Years' War at the beginning and the French Revolutionary wars at the end, Catherine's foreign policy was dominated by more immediate neighbors, the Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania. The victory over the Ottomans that ended the protracted war of 1768–1774 led to the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, which afforded Russia considerable access to the Black Sea, Crimea, and the Danubian provinces of Moldavia and Walachia. It also strengthened Russia's protectorate over Orthodox Christians in Ottoman territory. Russia's merchant fleet could now sail unimpeded through the Bosporus into the open waters of the Mediterranean. As a result, Russia's Black Sea trade burgeoned, leading to the establishment of the port city of Odessa in 1794. As before, however, its warships were denied access to the Bosporus, notwithstanding the rapid growth of Russia's Black Sea fleet.

With the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the issues were different. Having achieved access to the Baltic and the North Sea earlier in the eighteenth century, Russia, along with Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy, had been deeply involved in Polish politics, having bought off numerous Polish magnates and placed more than one king on the Polish throne. By the early 1770s the Commonwealth's parliament, or Sejm, had lost any semblance of independence, and its principle of liberum veto, originally intended to protect the interests of poorer or remote regions, instead paralyzed the Sejm. The three neighboring states therefore partially partitioned Poland in 1772. The integration of the eastern lands of the Commonwealth (mainly modern Ukraine and Belarus) into the Russian empire proved to be a mixed blessing. Substantive political reform in Poland, leading to the Constitution of 3 May 1791, prompted the second partition by Prussia and Russia in 1793, and Tadeusz Kościuszko's nationalist rebellion of 1794 was crushed by a brutal assault from the Russian army. Soon followed the third partition (1795), by which the three powers eliminated the Polish-Lithuanian state altogether. Henceforth Polish identity defined itself largely in contradistinction to Russian. The partition of Poland also brought a large Jewish population into the Russian empire.

A Note on Catherine's Sexuality

Long consigned to prurient anecdotes, Catherine's sexual reputation and the contemporary responses to it have recently attracted serious scholarly attention. As far as is known, she had perhaps twelve lovers between 1752 and her death. One of the earliest, Sergei Saltykov, was almost certainly the biological father of her son, the future Paul I, and two others (Grigorii Orlov and Stanisław August Poniatowski) fathered two additional children, a boy and a girl, never publicly acknowledged. Although most of these men came from distinguished families and had noteworthy political careers (Poniatowski, for example, was elected king of Poland in 1764), none appears to have used his status to affect state policy, with the single and very noteworthy exception of Grigorii Potemkin, with whom Catherine was deeply in love in the mid-1770s and whom, an increasing number of specialists believe, she secretly wed in 1774. Whether true or not, the massive correspondence between the two overflows with affection and mutual respect, even after Potemkin ceased to be the empress's paramour.

Although private liaisons were commonplace for Europe's crowned heads, Catherine's experiences hold particular interest for what they reveal about the implicit strictures of female rule in Russia. Like her predecessors, Catherine was obliged to rule unmarried, to be officially chaste irrespective of the realities of her private life. She could maintain open liaisons, even give birth if need be, but unlike male rulers, she could not remarry or be allowed a consort for fear, one assumes, of polluting the imaginary male line. Such tacit limitations meant that the sexuality of a female ruler would be unavoidably political in ways that a male ruler's would likely never be.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Anthony, Katherine, trans. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. New York and London, 1927.

Griffiths, David, and George E. Munro, eds. and trans. Catherine II's Charters of 1785 to the Nobility and the Towns. Bakersfield, Calif., 1990.

Secondary Sources

Alexander, John T. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. New York, 1989.

de Madariaga, Isabel. Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. London, 1981.

Dixon, Simon. Catherine the Great. Harlow, U.K., and New York, 2001.

Griffiths, David M. "The Rise and Fall of the Northern System: Court Politics and Foreign Policy in the First Part of Catherine II's Reign." Canadian Slavic Studies 4, no. 3 (1970): 547–569.

Le Donne, John P. Ruling Russia: Politics and Administration in the Age of Absolutism, 1762–1796. Princeton, 1984.

Ransel, David L. The Politics of Catherinian Russia: The Panin Party. New Haven, 1975.

—GARY MARKER

An empress of Russia in the late eighteenth century who encouraged the cultural influences of western Europe in Russia and extended Russian territory toward the Black Sea. She is also known for her amorous intrigues, including affairs with members of her government.

Quotes:

"I praise loudly, I blame softly."

Catherine II the Great
Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias
Reign	9 July 1762 – 6 November 1796
Coronation	12 September 1762
Predecessor	Peter III
Successor	Paul
Empress consort of All the Russias
Tenure	25 December 1761 – 9 July 1762
Consort to	Peter III of Russia
Issue
Paul of Russia Anna Petrovna Aleksey Bobrinsky
Full name
Sophie Friederike Auguste
Father	Christian Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
Mother	Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
Born	2 May 1729(1729-05-02) Stettin, Kingdom of Prussia, HRE
Died	November 6, 1796 (aged 67) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Burial	Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg

"Catherine the Great" redirects here. For other uses, see Catherine the Great (disambiguation).

Catherine II (Russian: Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II Velikaya), also known as Catherine the Great, born 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729. She was Empress of Russia from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 until 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796. Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule re-vitalized Russia, which grew ever stronger and became recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. Her successes in complex foreign policy and her sometimes brutal reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably Pugachev's Rebellion) complemented her hectic private life. She frequently occasioned scandal—given her propensity for lascivious relationships which often resulted in gossip flourishing within more than one European court.

Catherine took power after a conspiracy deposed her husband, Peter III (1728–1762), and her reign saw the high point in the influence of the Russian nobility. Peter III, under pressure from the nobility, had already increased the authority of the great landed proprietors over their muzhiks and serfs. In spite of the duties imposed on the nobles by the first prominent "modernizer" of Russia, Tsar Peter I (1672–1725), and despite Catherine's friendships with the western European thinkers of the Enlightenment (in particular Denis Diderot, Voltaire and Montesquieu) Catherine found it impractical to improve the lot of her poorest subjects, who continued to suffer (for example) military conscription. The distinctions between peasant rights on votchina and pomestie estates virtually disappeared in law as well as in practice during her reign.

In 1775 Catherine decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more then double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them—mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns which distributed all people into six groups in order to control the power of noble’s and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she had long desired for her country, after her death this was made even more obvious through her son Paul.

Contents 1 Early life 2 The reign of Peter III and the coup d'état of July 1762 3 Foreign affairs 3.1 Russo-Turkish Wars 3.2 Relations with Western Europe 3.3 The partitions of Poland 3.4 Relations with Japan 4 Arts and culture 5 Religious affairs 6 Personal life 6.1 Poniatowski 6.2 Orlov 6.3 Potemkin 7 Death 8 Romanov dynastic issues 8.1 Pretenders and potential pretenders to the throne 8.2 Succession to the throne 9 Ancestors 10 In popular culture 11 Gallery 12 See also 13 List of prominent Catherinians 14 References 14.1 Notes 14.2 Annotated bibliography 14.3 Further reading 15 External links

Early life

Catherine's father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst belonged to the ruling family of Anhalt, but entered the service of Prussia and held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as Governor of the city of Stettin (now^[update] Szczecin, Poland) in the name of the king of Prussia. Born as Sophia Augusta Frederica (German: Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, nicknamed "Figchen") in Stettin, Catherine did have some (very remote) Russian ancestry^{[citation needed]}, and two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden: Gustav III and Charles XIII. In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors.

The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsar – Peter of Holstein-Gottorp – resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq, Peter´s aunt (the ruling Russian Empress Elizabeth) and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in order to weaken the influence of Austria and to ruin the Russian chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Tsarina Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation.

The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophie's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, a clever and ambitious woman. Historical accounts portray Catherine's mother as an emotionally cold and physically abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centered on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia. The empress knew the family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take place. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with such zeal that she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This resulted in a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs she represented herself as having made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever seemed necessary, and to profess to believe whatever required of her, in order to become qualified to wear the crown. The consistency of her character throughout life makes it highly probable that even at the age of fifteen she possessed sufficient maturity to adopt this worldly-wise line of conduct.

Princess Sophia's father, a very devout Lutheran, strongly opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite his instructions, on 28 June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess Sophia as a member with the "new" name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at Saint Petersburg. Sophia had reached the age of 16; her father did not travel to Russia for her wedding. The bridegroom, known then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of present-day^[update] Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.

The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which would remain the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.

Portrait by George Christoph Grooth of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, 1745

Tsar Peter III reigned only 6 months; he died on 17 July 1762

Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs. Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), Stanisław August Poniatowski, Alexander Vassilchikov, and others. She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups which opposed her husband.

Catherine read extensively and kept up-to-date on current events in Russia and in the rest of Europe. She corresponded with many of the prominent minds of her era, including Voltaire and Denis Diderot.

The reign of Peter III and the coup d'état of July 1762

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 [O.S. 25 December 1761], Peter, the Grand Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, succeeded to the throne as Peter III of Russia, and his wife, Grand Duchess Catherine became Empress Consort of Russia. The imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

The new tsar's eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the Prussian king, Frederick II alienated the same groups that Catherine had cultivated. Besides, Peter intervened in a dispute between his Duchy of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff).

Peter's insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760 but now suggested partitioning the Polish territories with Russia, eroded much of his support among the nobility. (Russia and Prussia fought each other during the Seven Years War (1756–1763) until Peter's accession.)

Equestrian portrait of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna.

In July 1762, barely six months after becoming the Tsar, Peter committed the political error of retiring with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to Oranienbaum, leaving his wife in Saint Petersburg. On 13 July and 14 July the Leib Guard revolted, deposed Peter, and proclaimed Catherine the ruler of Russia. The bloodless coup succeeded; Ekaterina Dashkova, a confidante of Catherine who became President of the Russian Academy in 1783, the year of its foundation, seems^{[original research?]} to have stated^{[citation needed]} that Peter seemed rather glad to have rid himself of the throne, and requested only a quiet estate and his mistress.

But three days after the coup, on 17 July 1762 – just six months after his accession to the throne – Peter III died at Ropsha, at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Gregory Orlov, then a court favorite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no evidence for Catherine's complicity in the supposed assassination.^[1] (Note that at that time other potential rival claimants to the throne existed: Ivan VI (1740–1764), in closed confinement at Schlüsselburg, in Lake Ladoga, from the age of 6 months; and Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775).)

Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor, succeeded her husband as Empress Regnant. She followed the precedent established when Catherine I (born in the lower classes in the Swedish East Baltic territories) succeeded her husband Peter I in 1725.

Legitimists debate Catherine's technical status: seeing her as a Regent or as a usurper, tolerable only during the minority of her son, Grand Duke Paul. In the 1770s a group of nobles connected with Paul (Nikita Panin and others) contemplated the possibility^[2] of a new coup to depose Catherine and transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of constitutional monarchy. However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.

Foreign affairs

Main article: Russian history, 1682–1796

During her reign Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward and westward to absorb New Russia, Crimea, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers – the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. All told, she added some 200,000 miles² (518,000 km²) to Russian territory.

Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–1781), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland, and Sweden, to counter the power of the Bourbon–Habsburg League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favor and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 1783–1797).

Russo-Turkish Wars

While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on the edge of the Black Sea in the Azov campaigns, Catherine completed the conquest of the south that Peter had begun. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire (1768–1774), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history, including the Battle of Chesma (5 July – 7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).

The Russian victories allowed Catherine's government to obtain access to the Black Sea and to incorporate the vast steppes of present-day southern Ukraine, where the Russians founded the new cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnepropetrovsk), and Kherson.

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria and France) and Turkey.

Catherine annexed the Crimea as late as 1783, a mere nine years after the Crimean Khanate had gained independence, guaranteed by Russia, from the Ottoman Empire as a result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans passed into the hands of the Russians. The Treaty of Kutschuk Kainardzhi, signed 10 July 1774, gave to the Russians the "new" territories at Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn and the small strip of Black Sea coast between the rivers Dnieper and Bug.

The Ottomans re-started hostilities in the second Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). This war proved catastrophic for the Ottomans and ended with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), which legitimized the Russian claim to the Crimea.

Relations with Western Europe

Ever conscious of her legacy, Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered for Russia the role that Britain would later play throughout most of the nineteenth and early twentieth century  – that of international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war. Accordingly, she acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779) between Prussia and Austria. In 1780 she set up a League of Armed Neutrality designed to defend neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution.

From 1788 to 1790, Russia fought in the Russo-Swedish War against Sweden, instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden. Expecting to simply overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks and hoping to strike Saint Petersburg directly, the Swedes ultimately faced mounting human and territorial losses when opposed by Russia's Baltic Fleet. After Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theater War), things looked bleak for the Swedes. After the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790) returning all conquered territories to their respective owners, and peace ensued for 20 years, aided by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.

The partitions of Poland

Catherine II of Russia

In 1764 Catherine placed Stanisław Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne. Although the idea of partitioning Poland came from the Prussian king Frederick the Great, Catherine took a leading role in carrying this out in the 1790s. In 1768 she formally became protectress of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, an event which provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (1768–1772). After smashing the uprising she established in the Rzeczpospolita a system of government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys.

After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many of the principles of the Enlightenment which she had once viewed favorably. Afraid that the May Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and that the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish War in Defense of the Constitution (1792) and in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795).

Relations with Japan

In the Far East, Russians became active in fur-trapping in Kamchatka and in the Kuril Islands. This spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783 storms drove a Japanese sea-captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine granted Kōdayū an audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade-mission led by Adam Laxman to Japan. The Tokugawa government received the mission, but negotiations failed.

Arts and culture

Main article: Russian Enlightenment

Marble statue of Catherine II in the guise of Minerva (1789–1790), by Fedot Shubin.

Catherine's patronage furthered the evolution of the arts in Russia more than that of any Russian sovereign before or after her.

Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature and education. The Hermitage Museum, which now^[update] occupies the whole of the Winter Palace, began as Catherine's personal collection. At the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoi, she wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded (1764) the famous Smolny Institute, admitting young girls of the nobility.

She wrote comedies, fiction and memoirs, while cultivating Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert – all French encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She lured the scientists Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin to the Russian capital.

Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. He lauded her accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon, a subject on which he published a tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face-to-face, she mourned him bitterly when he died, acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and placed them in the National Library of Russia.

Portrait of Catherine in an advanced age, with the Chesme Column in the background.

Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard that the French government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French Encyclopédie on account of its irreligious spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in Russia under her protection.

Four years later, 1766, she endeavoured to embody in a legislative form the principles of Enlightenment which she had imbibed from the study of the French philosophers. She called together at Moscow a Grand Commission  – almost a consultative parliament  – composed of 652 members of all classes (officials, nobles, burghers and peasants) and of various nationalities. The Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. The Empress herself prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria.

As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and experienced advisers, she refrained from immediately putting them into execution. After holding more than 200 sittings the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.

In spite of this, some later codes (such as the Statute of Local Administration 1775, the Code of Commercial Navigation and the Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordnance of 1782, the Charter to the Nobility and the Charter of the Towns of 1785, the Statute of National education of 1786) addressed some of the modernization trends implicit in Catherine's initial 1766 Nakaz. In 1777 the Empress described to Voltaire her legal innovations within an apathetic Russia as progressing "little by little".

During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and European influences which inspired the Russian Enlightenment. Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin and Ippolit Bogdanovich laid the groundwork for the great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for Alexander Pushkin. Catherine became a great patron of Russian opera (see Catherine II and opera for details).

When Alexander Radishchev published his Journey from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 1790 (one year after the start of the French Revolution) and warned of uprisings because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as serfs, Catherine exiled him to Siberia. (The same sort of censorship also happened at that time in many other European countries as a reaction to the civil violence in France.^{[citation needed]})

Religious affairs

Catherine's apparent whole-hearted adoption of things Russian (including Orthodoxy) may have prompted her personal indifference to religion.^[3] She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution.^[3] Politically, Catherine exploited Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy, promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule.^[3] She placed strictures on Roman Catholics (ukaz of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland.^[4] Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for re-grouping to the Society of Jesus following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in 1773.^[4]

Personal life

Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them to high positions for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with large estates and gifts of serfs. After her affair with her lover and capable adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he would allegedly select a candidate-lover for her who had both the physical beauty as well as the mental faculties to hold Catherine's interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov). Some of these men loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards her lovers, even after the end of an affair. One of her lovers, Zavadovsky, received 50,000 rubles, a pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in the Ukraine after she dismissed him.^[5] The last of her lovers, Prince Zubov, 40 years her junior, proved the most capricious and extravagant of them all.^{[citation needed]}

In her memoirs, Catherine indicated that her first lover, Sergei Saltykov, had fathered Paul, but Paul physically resembled her husband, Peter.^[6] Catherine kept near Tula, away from her court, her illegitimate son by Grigori Orlov, Alexis Bobrinskoy (later created Count Bobrinskoy by Paul).^[7]

Poniatowski

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador to Russia, offered Stanisław Poniatowski a place in the embassy in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother's side, came from the Czartoryski family, prominent members of the pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to the then Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the dashing 22-year-old Poniatowski in 1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. Two years later, in 1757, Poniatowski served in the British forces during the Seven Years' War, thus severing close relationships with Catherine. She bore his child, Anna Petrovna, born in December 1757 (not to be confounded with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the daughter of Peter I's second marriage).

King August III of Poland died in 1763, and therefore Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king. Some people^[who?] venture that Catherine told her ambassador to Poland, Count Kayserling, that she wanted Poniatowski to rule, but she would settle for Adam Czartoryski, Poniatowski's uncle^{[citation needed]}.

Catherine sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes right away. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight and forcing Poniatowski to become king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put himself under Catherine's control. News of Catherine's plan spread and Frederick II (others say the Ottoman sultan) warned her that if she tried to conquer Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her strongly.

She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov´s child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then; and she told Poniatowski^{[citation needed]} to marry someone else, in order to remove all suspicion. Poniatowski refused: he never married.

Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the Partitions of Poland. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) between them. Russia got territories east of the line connecting, more or less, Riga–Polotsk–Mogilev.

In the second partition, 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of Minsk almost to Kiev and down the river Dnieper leaving some spaces of steppe down south in front of Ochakov, on the Black Sea.

After this, uprisings in Poland led to the third partition, 1795, one year before the death of Catherine.

Orlov

Grigory Orlov, the grandson of a rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. By 1759, he and Catherine had become lovers although no one in the know told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the July 1761 coup d’état against her husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than marrying anyone.

Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Grigory Orlov -Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky, ( 11 April 1762 – 20 June 1813 in his estate of Bogoroditsk, near Tula). Born just 3 months before the deposition and assassination by the Orlov brothers of her husband Peter III

Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles as Counts, money, swords and other gifts. But Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. He received a palace in St. Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Orlov died in 1783. His and Catherine's son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky, (1762–1813) had one daughter, Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky (Bobrinskaya), (1798–1835) who married aged 21 in 1819 the 34-year-old Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (London, England, 12 July 1784 – 25 July 1842, assassinated by a furious servant he employed) who took part in the Battle of Borodino ( 7 September 1812) against the Napoleonic forces, and later served as Ambassador in Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy.

Potemkin

Grigory Potemkin had had involvement in the coup d'état of 1762. In 1772, Catherine's close friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. By the winter of 1773 the Pugachev revolt had started to grow threatening. Catherine's son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help  – mostly military  – and he became devoted to her.

In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an uprising in the Volga region. She appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy.

Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favor, and his family moved into the palace. He later became governor of New Russia.

In 1780 the son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Emperor Joseph II of Austria, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and traveling with him to Saint Petersburg.

Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists.

Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried that he would not finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age of fifty-two in 1791.

Death

Catherine suffered a stroke on 6 November [O.S. 5 November] 1796 and died in her bed at 9:20 the following evening without having regained consciousness. Despite an urban myth connecting her death with an sexual incident involving a horse, there is no basis to this story.

Catherine was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.

Romanov dynastic issues

Pretenders and potential pretenders to the throne

Tsar Nicholas I, grandson of Catherine II , born 6 July 1796. On 3 December 1825 Nicholas succeeded his brother Tsar Alexander I, also a son of Tsar Paul I and of Princess Charlotte of Prussia. Nicholas I died on 2 March 1855.

• Ivan VI of Russia (born 1740), as a former Tsar (reigned as an infant, 1740–1741) represented a potential focus of dissident support for successive rulers of Russia, who held him in prison. When she became Empress in 1762 Catherine tightened the conditions of his incarceration. His jailers in the prison of Shlisselburg killed Ivan, as per standing instructions, in the course of an attempt to free him in 1764.

• Yemelyan Pugachev (1740/1742–1775) identified himself in 1773 as Tsar Peter III of Russia (Catherine's late husband). His armed rebellion, aiming to seize power and to banish the Empress to a monastery, became a serious menace until crushed in 1774. The authorities had Pugachev executed in Moscow in January 1775.

• Avgusta Tarakanova, born ca. 1744, the daughter of Elizabeth of Russia in her morganatic marriage with Alexis Razumovsky, lived in exile abroad. The Empress Catherine ordered her abduction by force in 1785 and confined her in a nunnery in Moscow. She died in 1810.^[8]

• Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775) declared herself in Paris in 1774 as Elizabeth's daughter by Alexis Razumovsky and as the sister of Pugachev. The Empress Catherine dispatched Alexey Orlov to Italy, where he captured Tarakanova in Livorno. When brought to Russia in 1775, Tarakanova went to prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died of tuberculosis in December 1775.^[9][10]

Succession to the throne

It seems highly probable that Catherine intended to exclude Paul from the succession, and to leave the crown to her eldest grandson Alexander (whom she greatly favored, and who subsequently became the emperor Alexander I in 1801). Her harshness to Paul stemmed probably as much from political distrust as from what she saw of his character. Whatever Catherine's other activities, she emphatically functioned as a sovereign and as a politician, guided in the last resort by reasons of state.^{[citation needed]} Keeping Paul in a state of semi-captivity in Gatchina and Pavlovsk, she resolved not to allow her son to dispute or to share in her authority during her lifetime.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Catherine II of Russia

16. Rudolph, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst

8. John VI, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst

17. Magdalena of Oldenburg

4. John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornburg

18. Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

9. Sofie Auguste of Holstein-Gottorp

19. Marie Elisabeth of Saxony

2. Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst

20. Christian von Zeutsch

10. Georg Volrath von Zeutsch

21. Lucretia von Spiegel

5. Christine Eleanore von Zeutsch

22. Wolf Georg von Weissenbach

11. Christine von Weissenbach

23. Martha von Konneritz

1. Catherine II of Russia

24. Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

12. Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

25. Marie Elisabeth of Saxony

6. Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin

26. Frederick III of Denmark

13. Frederikke Amalie of Denmark

27. Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg

3. Johanna Elisabeth von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp

28. Frederick VI, Margrave of Baden-Durlach

14. Frederick VII, Margrave of Baden-Durlach

29. Christine Magdalene of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg

7. Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach

30. Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

15. Auguste Marie of Holstein-Gottorp

31. Marie Elisabeth of Saxony

In popular culture

1910 100-ruble banknote

Main article: Legends of Catherine II of Russia

• Catherine commissioned "The Bronze Horseman" statue which stands in Saint Petersburg on the banks of the Neva River; she had the large boulder upon which it stands transported from several leagues away. Catherine had it inscribed with the Latin phrase "Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII", meaning "Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782", in order to lend herself legitimacy by connecting herself with the "Founder of Modern Russia". This statue later inspired Pushkin's famous poem The Bronze Horseman (1833).
• Numerous dramatizations based on the life of Catherine II have appeared:
  • The 1934 film Catherine the Great (based on the play The Czarina by Lajos Biró and Melchior Lengyel) stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine.
  • Also in 1934 the film The Scarlet Empress appeared: directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich.
  • In 1945 A Royal Scandal, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and Otto Preminger, starred Tallulah Bankhead and Charles Coburn.
  • A 1991 TV miniseries Young Catherine features Julia Ormond in the role of Catherine.
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones portrayed Catherine in the 1995 television movie Catherine the Great.
• One of Serbia's most famed New Wave bands, Ekatarina Velika (which translates as "Catherine the Great") (1982–1994) took its name from Catherine II of Russia.
• Folk-rock songwriter Freddy Blohm's "Catherine, You're Great!" relates Catherine's most infamous urban myth from an equine point-of-view.
• In the 2002 television series Clone High the clone of JFK supposedly has sex with Catherine's clone, complaining when someone disturbs his activities that he's "trying to nail Catherine the Great" – but quickly corrects himself, adding "Or should I say, Catherine the So-SO." Catherine's clone appears several times in the series, depicted as having an hourglass figure, blonde curly hair and speaking with a California Valley Girl accent. She usually wears pedal pushers and a midriff top.
• German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly has a picture of Catherine II in her office, and characterises her as a "strong woman".
• The Russian slang word for money "babki" (literally: "old women") refers to the image of Catherine II printed on pre-Revolution 100-ruble banknotes.^{[citation needed]}
• In the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon, a young Catherine the Great appears under her Russian name of Ekaterina. As in real life, she takes over Russia from Peter (Pyotr). She despises him and has no problems overthrowing him. Jessica Boone voices the character in the English adaptation, and Sachiko Takaguchi in the Japanese version.

Gallery

Equestrian portrait of Catherine II in the attire of a male officer.

Portrait by Dmitry Levitsky of Catherine II, circa 1770

Portrait by Albert Albertrandi of Catherine II, circa 1770

Portrait by Mikhail Shibanov of Catherine II in traveling-costume, 1787.

Portrait of Catherine II by Dmitry Levitsky, by 1782.

See also

• Legends of Catherine II of Russia
• Potemkin village
• Tsars of Russia family tree

List of prominent Catherinians

Pre-eminent figures in Catherinian Russia include:

• Ivan Betskoy
• Alexander Bezborodko
• Yakov Bulgakov
• Gavrila Derzhavin
• Dmitry Levitsky
• Aleksey Orlov
• Nikita Panin
• Grigory Potemkin
• Nicholas Repnin
• Peter Rumyantsev
• Mikhailo Shcherbatov
• Alexander Suvorov
• Fyodor Ushakov
• Catherine Vorontsova
• John Paul Jones – the American sea-captain and admiral served under Catherine in naval actions against the Turks in the Black Sea in 1788.

References

Notes

1. ^ Rounding, Virginia (2007) Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and PowerNew York: St. Martin’s PressISBN 9780312328870 
2. ^ Memoirs of Decembrist Michael Fonvizin (nephew of writer Denis Fonvizin who belonged to the constitutionalists' circle in the 1770s); see: Фонвизин М.А. Сочинения и письма: Т. 2. – Иркутск, 1982. С. 123 [Fonvizin, M.A.: Works and letters, volume 2. Irkutsk:1982, page 123]
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911". http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Catherine_II. Retrieved 2007-03-24. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "The Religion of Russia". http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13253a.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-24. 
5. ^ Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasure of Royal Scandals, p.7. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0739420259.
6. ^ Genealogical Dates in Stoyan. According to this site, Catherine had two children from her marriage to Peter III before the birth of Paul, one on 14 December 1752 and the other on 2 or 3 August 1753. The gender of these children remains unknown. The date of the end of the second pregnancy may indicate a miscarriage. After Paul, Catherine bore a daughter, Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, in Saint Petersburg on 20 December 1757. As with Paul, rumours made the lover of her mother by that time, Stanisław August Poniatowski her biological father, but these remain unproven. Grand Duchess Anna died in Peterhof on 19 March 1759 aged only fifteen months.
7. ^ According to Genealogy.euweb.cz Catherine and Orlov had another child, a daughter, called Elizabeth Alexandrovna Alexeeva (born in Saint Petersburg, 1761 – died 1844), born one year before Alexis. She married (1787) Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and from this marriage she had one son, Alexander, who apparently died young in 1812.
8. ^ "Tarakanova, knyazhna [Princess Tarakanova]". Malyi entsiklopedicheskii slovar'. Brokgaus i Efron. 1890–1906. http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/brokminor/article/38/38636.html&stpar1=13.242.1. 
9. ^ "Tarakanova, knyazhna [Princess Tarakanova]" (in in Russian). Malyi entsiklopedicheskii slovar'. Brokgaus i Efron. 1890–1906. http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/brokminor/article/38/38636.html&stpar1=13.242.1. Retrieved 2009-07-11. 
10. ^ "Tarakanova Elizaveta [Yelizaveta Tarakanova]" (in in Russian). Bol'shaya sovetskaya entsikolpediya, 3rd edition. Sovetskaya entsiklopediya. 1969–1978. http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00077/62800.htm&stpar1=28.554.1. Retrieved 2009-07-11. 

Annotated bibliography

• De Madariaga, Isabel.(born 1919). Catherine the Great: A Short History (Paperback). Yale University Press, New Haven and London, (1993).ISBN 0-300-04845-9 (hardbook), ISBN 0-300-05427-0 (paperback), 240 pages. De Madariaga, of Spanish/Scottish extraction, holds the position of Professor Emeritus of Slavonic Studies at the University of London, (England). "De Madariaga´s book will be the standard and essential guide for all students and scholars of Russian and European history of the second half of the eighteenth century" . Opinion of Prof. Marc Raeff, in Journal of Modern History. – "A remarkably fresh, lucid and well-paced survey....As a single volume introduction, this study is unlikely to be bettered , and it deserves the widest readership" , Opinion of Prof. H. M. Scott in Slavonic and East European Review.
• Dixon, Simon. Catherine the Great (Profiles In Power) (Paperback).
• Kolchin, Peter. "Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (U. S. A.), (1987). Some interesting conclusions from this comparison. Kolchin has worked for many years as a Professor of History and holds many professional awards at the University of Delaware, (U. S. A.). He has become well known^{[citation needed]} for his lengthy studies in American slavery and Russian serfdom.
• Reddaway, W.F. "Documents of Catherine the Great.The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruction of 1767 in the English Text of 1768" . Cambridge University Press, (England), (1931), Reprint (1971).
• Rounding, Virginia. (2008). Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power, New York: St. Martin's Press. 501 pages. An extensive biography; not as saucy as the title might imply. Rounding has relied heavily on primary source materials and her extensive bibliography includes (amongst other material): letters written both by Catherine and her associates (many of them foreign ambassadors, who played a large role in the Russian court) as well as Catherine's own memoirs. Rounding, an established author, has written a book on 19th century courtesans and edited volumes of poetry. This readable book addresses itself to the layperson interested in Russian rulers and perhaps to students of women's studies. This text includes 16 pages of color photos.

Further reading

• Alexander, John T. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 1988 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-505236-6); 1989 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-506162-4).
• Cronin, Vincent. Catherine, Empress of All the Russias. London: Collins, 1978 (hardcover, ISBN 0-00-216119-2); 1996 (paperback, ISBN 1-86046-091-7).
• Dixon, Simon. Catherine the Great (Profiles in Power). Harlow, UK: Longman, 2001 (paperback, ISBN 0-582-09803-3).
• Herman, Eleanor. Sex With the Queen. New York: HarperCollins, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-06-084673-9).
• Madariaga, Isabel de. Catherine the Great: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-04845-9); 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-300-09722-0).
• The Memoirs of Catherine the Great by Markus Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom (translators). New York: Modern Library, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-679-64299-4); 2006 (paperback, ISBN 0-8129-6987-1).
• Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner. New York: Vintage, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 1-4000-7717-6).
• Rounding, Virginia (2006). Catherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179992-9. 
  • Reviewed by Charlotte Hobson in The Spectator, 15 April 2006.
  • Reviewed by Catriona Kelly in The Guardian, 1 April 2006.
  • Reviewed by Simon Sebag Montefiore in The Daily Telegraph, 17 April 2006.
• Smith, Douglas, ed. and trans. Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois UP, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-87580-324-5); 2005 (paperback ISBN 0-87580-607-4).
• Troyat, Henri. Catherine the Great. New York: Dorset Press, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0-88029-688-7); London: Orion, 2000 (paperback, ISBN 1-84212-029-8).
• Troyat, Henri. Terrible Tsarinas. New York: Algora, 2001 (ISBN 1-892941-54-6).

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Catherine II of Russia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Екатерина II Алексеевна

• Catherine the Great @ Chronology World History Database
• Some of the code of laws mentioned above, along with other information
• Manifesto of the Empress Catherine II, inviting foreign immigration
• Information about the Battle of Svenskund and the war
• Historical Myths: The Death of Catherine the Great
• Catherine the Great of Russia
• Briefly about Catherine: The Enlightened Despots
• (Russian) Family tree of the ancestors of Catherine the Great
• The Princess Who Become Catherine the Great @ the Ursula's History Web
• Filmography: The Scarlet Empress (1934), Directed by Josef von Sternberg, with Marlene Dietrich as Catherine II of Russia; Catherine the Great (1934)
• Douglas Smith, Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin
• (Russian) Photos Empress Catherine II of Sevastopol

Catherine II of Russia
Regnal titles
Preceded by Peter III	Empress regnant of Russia 9 July 1762 – 6 November 1796	Succeeded by Paul I
Russian royalty
Preceded by Martha Skavronskaya	Empress consort of Russia 25 December 1761 – 9 July 1762	Succeeded by Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg

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v • d • e Grand Duchesses of Russia by marriage 1st Generation Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg* 2nd Generation none 3rd Generation Catherine Alexeievna of Anhalt-Zerbst 4th Generation Natalia Alexeievna of Hesse-Darmstadt · Maria Feodorovna of Württemberg 5th Generation Elizabeth Alexeievna of Baden · Anna Feodorovna of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld · Alexandra Feodorovna of Prussia · Elena Pavlovna of Württemberg 6th Generation Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse-Darmstadt · Alexandra Iosifovna of Saxe-Altenburg · Alexandra Petrovna of Oldenburg · Olga Feodorovna of Baden 7th Generation Maria Feodorovna of Denmark · Maria Pavlovna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin · Anastasia Nikolaevna of Montenegro · Elizabeth Feodorovna of Hesse and by Rhine · Elizaveta Mavrikievna of Saxe-Altenburg · Alexandra Georgievna of Greece and Denmark · Maria Georgievna of Greece and Denmark · Militza Nikolaevna of Montenegro · Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia** 8th Generation Alexandra Feodorovna of Hesse and by Rhine · Viktoria Feodorovna of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 9th Generation Leonida Georgievna Bragation of Mukhrani * never convert to Orthodoxy ** also a grand duchess of Russia by birth

Persondata
NAME	Catherine the Great
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Frederica, Sophie Augusta; Catherine II of Russia; von Anhalt-Zerbst, Sophie Friederike Auguste
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Empress of Russia
DATE OF BIRTH	2 May 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stettin
DATE OF DEATH	17 November 1796
PLACE OF DEATH	Saint Petersburg

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