Sophie had turned 16. Legends abound about Catherine the Greatthe good kind and the bad kind. (Lord Byron's Don Juan, around the age of twenty-two, becomes her lover after the siege of Ismail (1790), in a fiction written only about twenty-five years after Catherine's death in 1796. Catherine the Great, Russian Yekaterina Velikaya, also called Catherine II, Russian in full Yekaterina Alekseyevna, original name Sophie Friederike Auguste, Prinzessin von Anhalt-Zerbst, (born April 21 [May 2, New Style], 1729, Stettin, Prussia [now Szczecin, Poland]died November 6 [November 17], 1796, Tsarskoye Selo [now Pushkin], near St. Petersburg, Russia), German-born empress of Russia . 2023 Smithsonian Magazine In 1774, a disillusioned military officer named Yemelyan Pugachev capitalized on the unrest fomented by Russias ongoing fight with Turkey to lead hundreds of thousands into rebellion. Catherine and her new husband had a rocky marriage from the start. Whilst this one is also just an absurd rumour, it lies ever so slightly nearer the truth. )This practice was not unusual by the court standards of the day . 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. [86] She believed a 'new kind of person' could be created by inculcating Russian children with European education. Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the partitions of Poland. They disliked the power she wielded over them as few other women in the world at that time could claim to have such authority. The Manifesto of 1763 begins with Catherine's title: We, Catherine the second, by the Grace of God, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russians at Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsarina of Kasan, Tsarina of Astrachan, Tsarina of Siberia, Lady of Pleskow and Grand Duchess of Smolensko, Duchess of Estonia and Livland, Carelial, Tver, Yugoria, Permia, Viatka and Bulgaria and others; Lady and Grand Duchess of Novgorod in the Netherland of Chernigov, Resan, Rostov, Yaroslav, Beloosrial, Udoria, Obdoria, Condinia, and Ruler of the entire North region and Lady of the Yurish, of the Cartalinian and Grusinian tsars and the Cabardinian land, of the Cherkessian and Gorsian princes and the lady of the manor and sovereign of many others. [90] However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the commission due to the calling of the Legislative Commission. Her sexual independence led to many of the legends about her.[127]. In the second partition, in 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. While a significant improvement, it was only a minuscule number, compared to the size of the Russian population. Decent Essays. The emergence of these assignation roubles was necessary due to large government spending on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the treasury (transactions, especially in foreign trade, were conducted almost exclusively in silver and gold coins). Madame Vige Le Brun vividly describes the empress in her memoirs:[85], the sight of this famous woman so impressed me that I found it impossible to think of anything: I could only stare at her. [121][122] The percentage of state money spent on the court increased from 10% in 1767 to 11% in 1781 to 14% in 1795. In 1769, a last major CrimeanNogai slave raid, which ravaged the Russian held territories in Ukraine, saw the capture of up to 20,000 slaves. [17] She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's official mistress. At the time, a source said: 'In theory, anyone can apply but all prospective tenants will be subject to security and background checks.' St James's Palace was built by Henry VIII in the 16th century. Catherine began issuing codes to address some of the modernisation trends suggested in her Nakaz. [77] In the first category, she read romances and comedies that were popular at the time, many of which were regarded as "inconsequential" by the critics both then and since. Two wings were devoted to her collections of "curiosities". [59] Some serfs did apply for freedom and were successful. On a personal level, Pugachevs success challenged many of Catherines Enlightenment beliefs, leaving her with memories that haunted her for the rest of her life, according to Massie. So why then has the legacy of Russia's longest-ruling woman been stained with these rumours for over two centuries? Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Catherineflanked by Orlov and her growing cadre of supportersarrived at the Winter Palace to make her official debut as Catherine II, sole ruler of Russia. Catherine The Great's Infamous Death Vigilius Eriksen/Grand Peterhof Palace Equestrian portrait of Catherine the Great in uniform of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, one of the oldest Imperial Russian guard units, circa 1762. [139][140] According to lisabeth Vige Le Brun: "The empress's body lay in state for six weeks in a large and magnificently decorated room in the castle, which was kept lit day and night. Russia got territories east of the line connecting, more or less, RigaPolotskMogilev. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government as a way of regulating religious affairs. She did this because she did not want to be bothered by the peasantry, but did not want to give them reason to revolt. Catherine recalled in her memoirs her optimistic and resolute mood before her accession to the throne: I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years. Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king. Obviously he never wanted to take part in the death of Catherine, because she was the perfect woman to him. The couples loveless marriage afforded Catherine ample opportunity to pursue her intellectual interests, from reading the work of Enlightenment thinkers to perfecting her grasp of Russian. [43], In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. Peter, however, supported Frederick II, eroding much of his support among the nobility. Perhaps the most readily recognizable anecdote related to Catherine centers on a horse. Princess Sophie's father, a devout German Lutheran, opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. She is often included in the ranks of the enlightened despots. Very few members of the nobility entered the church, which became even less important than it had been. The palace of the Crimean Khanate passed into the hands of the Russians. In one portrait, hes managed to just somehow portray both sides of this compelling leader., Meilan Solly [27] Her coronation marks the creation of one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty, the Imperial Crown of Russia, designed by Swiss-French court diamond jeweller Jrmie Pauzi. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes. Elite acceptance of a female ruler was more of an issue in Western Europe than in Russia. She was also very fat, but her face was still beautiful, and she wore her white hair up, framing it perfectly. If a noble did not live up to his side of the deal, the serfs could file complaints against him by following the proper channels of law. A landowner could punish his serfs at his discretion, and under Catherine the Great gained the ability to sentence his serfs to hard labour in Siberia, a punishment normally reserved for convicted criminals. Bored with her husband, Catherine became an avid reader of books, mostly in French. In this act, she gave the serfs a legitimate bureaucratic status they had lacked before. The Tokugawa shogunate received the mission, but negotiations failed. At the same time, she recognized the damage the killing had inflicted on her legacy: My glory is spoilt, she reportedly said. Catherine decided to have herself inoculated against smallpox by Thomas Dimsdale, a British doctor. To put it bluntly, Catherine was a usurper. Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theatre War). [88] Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions. Because the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state-funded institution, it represented an opportunity to experiment with new educational theories. Yet by the end of Catherine's reign, an estimated 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state institutions. She started out married to Emperor Peter III, as Time tells us, who was less than competent. She worked as a maid for most of her childhood and remained illiterate throughout her life. One urban legend even claimed that Catherine had an erotic cabinet created for one of her palaces. Large sums were paid to Gustav III. [107] Judaism was a small, if not non-existent, religion in Russia until 1772. In terms of making Russia a great power, says Hartley, these efforts proved successful. She transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation. The bridegroom, known 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. Her mother's opposition to this practice brought her the empress's disfavour. [60] The only thing a noble could not do to his serfs was to kill them. She placed strictures on 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. She refused the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp which had ports on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and refrained from having a Russian army in Germany. But Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in the tied Battle of Hogland (July 1788), and the Swedish army failed to advance. They indeed helped modernise the sector that totally dominated the Russian economy. [43] In 1762, he unilaterally abrogated the Treaty of Kyakhta, which governed the caravan trade between the two empires. In Dashkov's opinion, Dashkov introduced Catherine to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband; however, Catherine had been involved in military schemes against Elizabeth with the likely goal of subsequently getting rid of Peter III since at least 1749. Whereas the premium cable series traced the trajectory of Catherines rule from 1764 to her death, The Great centers on her 1762 coup and the sequence of events leading up to it. Perhaps the most readily recognizable anecdote related to Catherine centers on a horse. Her hunger for fame centred 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. [56] The understanding of law in Imperial Russia by all sections of society was often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most serfs lived. In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. [93], Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, at the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoy, she wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded the famous Smolny Institute in 1764, first of its kind in Russia. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman. She avoided force and tried persuasion (and money) to integrate Muslim areas into her empire. In this month, the empress of Russia died and her successor Paul, who detested that the Zubovs had other plans for the army, ordered the troops to retreat to Russia. All the ladies, some of whom took turn to watch by the body, would go and kiss this hand, or at least appear to." [82], During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and European influences that inspired the Russian Enlightenment. As Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter planned war against Denmark, Russia's traditional ally against Sweden. Advertising Notice She made use of the social theory ideas of German cameralism and French physiocracy, as well as Russian precedents and experiments such as foundling homes. [132], On 16 November[O.S. Catherine was crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 22 September 1762. [73] In 1779, she hired the Scottish architect Charles Cameron to build the Chinese Village at Tsarskoye Selo (modern Pushkin, Saint Petersburg). Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt. Over this tunic she wore a red velvet dolman with very short sleeves. Death and succession. He would announce trying drills in the morning to male servants, who later joined Catherine in her room to sing and dance until late hours. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people who wandered through southern Russia. She consulted British education pioneers, particularly the Rev. The commission studied the reform projects previously installed by I.I. If persistent tabloid covers and made-for-television miniseries . Spread fertilizer over the soil, all the way to the edges of the canopy. In 1762 called on the army to upgrade its medical services. A further 2.8million belonged to the Russian state.[55]. Anna Petrovna of Russia [78] For information about particular nations that interested her, she read Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville's Memoirs de Chine to learn about the vast and wealthy Chinese empire that bordered her empire; Franois Baron de Tott's Memoires de les Turcs et les Tartares for information about the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean khanate; the books of Frederick the Great praising himself to learn about Frederick just as much as to learn about Prussia; and the pamphlets of Benjamin Franklin denouncing the British Crown to understand the reasons behind the American Revolution. A. Viazemski. Although Catherine did not descend from the Romanov dynasty, her ancestors included members of the Rurik dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs. She acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (17781779) between the German states of Prussia and Austria. But whereas she downplayed this background in favor of presenting herself as a Russian patriot, he catered to his home country by abandoning conquests against Prussia and pursuing a military campaign in Denmark that was of little value to Russia. The frustration affected Catherine's health. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. At first, she attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. "Despot" is not derogatory in this context. By the end of her reign, 50 provinces and nearly 500 districts were created, government officials numbering more than double this were appointed, and spending on local government increased sixfold. By November, they were stationed at the confluence of the Araks and Kura Rivers, poised to attack mainland Iran. Russia was to stop any involvement in internal affairs of Sweden. Her goal was to modernise education across Russia. Peter III was extremely capricious, adds Hartley. Historically, when the serfs faced problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters), they often appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine's reign, but she signed legislation prohibiting it. Hulus The Great offers an irreverent, ahistorical take on the Russian empress life. Catherine's main interests were in education and culture. [63] Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 among her papers by her secretary Alexander Vasilievich Khrapovitsky, gave specific instructions should she die: "Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on it inscribe my Christian name. Historians consider her efforts to be a success. AETNUK. In 1783, storms drove a Japanese sea captain, Daikokuya Kday, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. In 1785, Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing the power of the landed oligarchs. For example, serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs. This rumor was widely circulated by satirical British and French publications at the time of her death. In reality, those in power were beginning to fear the power that Russia was now wielding. [105][additional citation(s) needed], In 1785, Catherine approved the subsidising of new mosques and new town settlements for Muslims. The period of Catherine the Great's rule is also known as the Catherinian Era. Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness. [103] Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for regrouping to the Jesuits following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in 1773. McNamara tells the Sydney Morning Herald that this apocryphal anecdote helped inspire The Great., It seemed like her life had been reduced to a salacious headline about having sex with a horse, the writer says. Though Russia never officially adopted the Nakaz, the widely distributed 526-article treatise still managed to cement the empress reputation as an enlightened European ruler. [99], Despite these efforts, later historians of the 19th century were generally critical. "Did Orlov Buy the Orlov". The future Peter III was born Karl Peter Ulrich in 1728, in Kiel, Germany. Although she mastered the language, she retained an accent. He received a palace in Saint Petersburg when Catherine became empress. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started. Grigory Potemkin was involved in the palace coup of 1762. However, because her second cousin Peter III converted to Orthodox Christianity, her mother's brother became the heir to the Swedish throne[4] and two of her first cousins, Gustav III and Charles XIII, later became Kings of Sweden. Catherine died quietly in her bed on Nov. 17, 1796, at the age of 67 after suffering a stroke. Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive. Ruler of Russia from 1762 to 1796, Catherine championed Enlightenment ideals, expanded her empires borders, spearheaded judicial and administrative reforms, dabbled in vaccination, curated a vast art collection that formed the foundation of one of the worlds greatest museums, exchanged correspondence with such philosophers as Voltaire and Dennis Diderot, penned operas and childrens fairy tales, founded the countrys first state-funded school for women, drafted her own legal code, and promoted a national system of education. Her marriage to Peter III of Russia lasted from 1745 until his suspicious death in 1762, and she had at least three lovers during this time (Catherine herself hinted that her husband . Petersburg." The church's lands were expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the Collegium of Accounting. But in a purely humanitarian light, Catherines expansionist drive came at a great cost to the conquered nations and the czarinas own country alike. Featuring Elle Fanning as the empress and Nicholas Hoult as her mercurial husband, Peter III, The Great differs from the 2019 HBO miniseries Catherine the Great, which starred Helen Mirren as its title character. Legend has it Catherine was intimately involved with one of her prized stallions, with who she often spent a great deal of unsupervised time with. Catherine II (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 - 17 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes. The bloodless shift in power was so easily accomplished that Frederick the Great of Prussia later observed, [Peter] allowed himself to be dethroned like a child being sent to bed.. The fifth film. In 1768, she formally became the protector of political rights of dissidents and peasants of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, which provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (17681772), supported by France. She worked with Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert all French encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings. The official cause, after an autopsy, was a severe attack of haemorrhoidal colic and an apoplexy stroke.[26]. 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.
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