biography
| name: |
Catherine II
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known as Catherine the Great, originally Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1729–96)
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| biography:
| Empress of Russia (1762–96), born in Szczecin (Stettin), NW Poland. A German princess, she was the daughter of Christian Augustus, prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1745 she was married to the heir to the Russian throne (later Peter III, r.1761–2). Their marriage was an unhappy one, and Catherine (now baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church under that name) spent much of her time in political intriguing, reading, and extramarital affairs. In 1762 a palace coup overthrew her unpopular husband; he was murdered, and she was proclaimed empress. She carried out an energetic foreign policy and extended the Russian Empire S to the Black Sea as a result of the Russo–Turkish Wars (1774, 1792) while in the W she brought about the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795). Despite pretensions to enlightened ideas, her domestic policies achieved little for the mass of the Russian people, though great cultural advances were made among the nobility. In 1774 she suppressed the popular rebellion led by Pugachev, and later actively persecuted members of the progressive-minded nobility while curtailing the rights of serfs. She increased Russian control over the Baltic provinces and Ukraine. She secured the largest portion of Poland in successive partitions of that country. Russia became the dominant power in the Middle East through the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774). In 1783 she annexed the Crimea and cemented Russia's hold on the N Coast of the Black Sea. An active patron of the arts and education, she wrote memoirs, comedies, and stories, and corresponded with the French Encyclopaedists, notably Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. Of her many lovers, Orlov, Potemkin, and P L Zubor (1767–1822) were the most influential in government affairs. She was succeeded by her son, Paul I. |
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