Person1729 – 1796

Catherine the Great

Also called: Catherine II, Yekaterina II

Empress of Russia (r. 1762–1796), German-born, who took the throne in a palace coup, professed enlightened despotism and expanded Russia to the Black Sea and through the partitions of Poland

Born Sophie Friederike Auguste in the German principality of Anhalt-Zerbst, she came to Russia at fourteen, converted to Orthodoxy and took the name Catherine, winning over the court by diligently learning Russian. Her marriage to Peter III was unhappy, and soon after her accession he died in mysterious circumstances. Of her many favourites, Potemkin oversaw the settlement of the southern lands. Reigning 34 years, she confirmed Russia as a great European power.

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2 related events

1
1762 – 1796Russia under Catherine the Greatmonarch
Catherine II, who took the throne in a palace coup in 1762, styled herself an enlightened despot but after Pugachev’s Rebellion strengthened noble privilege and serfdom, and fought the Ottoman Empire to win the Black Sea coast and Crimea.
2
1772 – 1795Partitions of Polandmonarch
In three partitions in 1772, 1793 and 1795, Russia, Prussia and Austria divided up the lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; Poland disappeared from the map until 1918.

People who appear alongside

Voltaire1694 – 1778
French Enlightenment writer who praised English liberty and fiercely attacked the intolerance and superstition of the Church
Frederick the Great1712 – 1786
King of Prussia (r. 1740–1786) who seized Silesia and made Prussia a great power — an enlightened despot who called the ruler “the first servant of the state”
Maria Theresa1717 – 1780
Habsburg heiress who ruled Austria, Hungary and Bohemia (1740–1780), fighting the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War while reforming her realm

Themes this person appears in

Reformation and Absolutism1517 – 1796
From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Catherine the Great — the wars of religion of a divided Christendom ended at Westphalia, and absolute monarchs armed with divine right, standing armies, bureaucracies and mercantilism, followed by the enlightened despots of eastern Europe, contended for the balance of power among sovereign states