Catherine
II the Great, Empress of Russia
(1729-1796) from 1762. She was born
in Stettin, the daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1745 she married
Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich,
heir to the Russian throne and future Emperor Peter III, who was a weak
and unstable man. She suffered a lot from the intrigues of the court of
Elizaveta
Petrovna, but managed to secure many allies, who helped her to dethrone
her husband, Emperor Peter III, in 1762, who, after his ascension, had
banished Catherine to a separate abode and was going to divorce her. Catherine
was made an empress. A few days afterwards Peter III was murdered by Alexey
Orlov and her other allies. From that time on the internal politics were
court intrigues for and against one favorite or another, Gregory Potemkin
being the best known. The government was carried on with great energy,
and the dominions and power of Russia rapidly increased. The first
partition of Poland in 1772 and the Turkish war (1774) vastly increased
the empire; so did a war with Sweden (1790) and another Turkish war (1792).
The second and third partitions of Poland and the incorporation of Courland
into Russia completed the triumphs of Catherine's reign.
See: Aleksey Antropov. Portrait
of Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseevna, Future Empress Catherine II the
Great. Portrait of Catherine
II the Great.
Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of Catherine II, Empress of Russia.
Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder. Portrait
of Catherine II the Great.
Dmitry Levitzky. Portrait
of Catherine II as Legislator in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice.
Fedor Rokotov. Portrait
of Catherine II.
Other reading:
Catherine
the Great by Henri Troyat, Joan Pinkham. Meredian Books, 1994.
Great
Catherine by Carolly Erickson. St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Catherine
the Great: A Short History by Isabel De Madariage. Yale University
Press, 1993.