Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt. Look at the mirror, however, and an entirely different ruler appears: Her reflection is this private, determined, ambitious Catherine, says Jaques. 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. [123]:119 Catherine bought the support of the bureaucracy. Longest ruling Russian empress, 17621796, "Catherine II" redirects here. 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. Very few members of the nobility entered the church, which became even less important than it had been. [69] With all this discontent in mind, Catherine did rule for 10 years before the anger of the serfs boiled over into a rebellion as extensive as Pugachev's. On 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning, designed and decorated by Antonio Rinaldi. She lost the large territories of the Russian protectorate of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania and left its territories to Prussia and Austria. Hulu's new series, The Great, follows Catherine the Great and her husband Peter III of Russia, who died under mysterious circumstances after his brief ascent to . Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theatre War). "The circumstances and cause of death, and the intentions and degree of responsibility of those involved can never be known," wrote Robert K. Massie in his seminal biography, Catherine the Great . The use of these notes continued until 1849. [108] Jewish members of society were required to pay double the tax of their Orthodox neighbours. In July 1765, Dumaresq wrote to Dr. John Brown about the commission's problems and received a long reply containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social reforms in Russia. Her reign was called Russia . The empress was a great lover of art and books, and ordered the construction of the Hermitage in 1770 to house her expanding collection of paintings, sculpture, and books. Converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and farm as free peasants under Russian rule. There's no question Catherine was behind the coup that led to her husband's overthrow and her eventual coronation as Empress Yekaterina Alekseyevna Romanova, aka Catherine II. 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. By 1759, he and Catherine had become lovers; no one told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Her goal was to modernise education across Russia. At the time of Peter III's overthrow, other potential rivals for the throne included Ivan VI (17401764), who had been confined at Schlsselburg in Lake Ladoga from the age of six months and who was thought to be insane. Days earlier, she had found out about an uprising in the Volga region. Anna Petrovna of Russia Like Empress Elizabeth before her, Catherine had given strict instructions that Ivan was to be killed in the event of any such attempt. But when he arrived at his palace and found it abandoned, he realized what had occurred. In 1772, Catherine's close friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. 679 Words; 3 Pages; Open Document. However, the Moscow Foundling Home was unsuccessful, mainly due to extremely high mortality rates, which prevented many of the children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the state desired. Spread fertilizer over the soil, all the way to the edges of the canopy. As a result of this plot, Elizabeth likely wanted to leave both Catherine and her accomplice Peter without any rights to the Russian throne. [153], Empress Catherine's correspondence with Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Wrttemberg, (the father of Catherine's daughter-in-law Maria Feodorovna) written between 1768 and 1795, is preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart) in Stuttgart, Germany.[154]. [133] Sometime after 9:00 she was found on the floor with her face purplish, her pulse weak, her breathing shallow and laboured. Catherine was born in Stettin, Province of Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire, as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. 1772-04-06 Catherine the Great Empress of Russia, ends tax on men with beards, enacted by Tsar . Children of serfs were born into serfdom and worked the same land their parents had. Articles and Photos. On the morning of 5 November 1796 . [116] While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat. Her enemies, however, saw things differently. [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. She did this because she did not want to be bothered by the peasantry, but did not want to give them reason to revolt. [115] Their place in government was restricted severely during the years of Catherine's reign. He died at the age of 52 in 1791. [73] The Chinese Palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi who specialised in the chinoiserie style. 12. pp. The cause of death is unclear, though the official autopsy report indicates that he died of hemorrhoids and an apoplectic stroke. Catherine the Great died in 1796 at the age of 67 and was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. Her foreign policy lacked a long-term strategy and from the very start was characterised by a series of mistakes. Peter III; Catherine II, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", Princess Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duchess Sophie Auguste of Holstein-Gottorp, Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Duke Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Princess Frederica Amalia of Denmark and Norway, Duchess Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, Princess Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach, Duchess Auguste Marie of Holstein-Gottorp, "Religion and Enlightenment in Catherinian Russia: The Teachings of Metropolitan Platon by Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter", Christian August (Frst von Anhalt-Zerbst), "Coronation of the Empress Catherine II [ , II-]", "Slave Trade in the Early Modern Crimea From the Perspective of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources", "ahin Girey, the Reformer Khan, and the Russian Annexation of the Crimea", "Doctor Thomas Dimsdale, and Smallpox in Russia: The Variolation of the Empress Catherine the Great", "Naive Monarchism and Rural Resistance In Contemporary Russia", "Catherine II, Potemkin, and Colonization Policy in Southern Russia", "Herzog Friedrich Eugen (1732-1797) - Briefwechsel des Herzogs mit dem kaiserlichen Hause von Russland, 1768-1795 - 1. She addressed me immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: "I am delighted to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. He later became the de facto absolute ruler of New Russia, governing its colonisation. The monarch was succeeded by her son,. 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. Catherine led a successful bloodless coup and put herself on the throne in his stead. Writing for History Extra, Hartley describes Catherines Russia as an undoubtedly aggressive nation that clashed with the Ottomans, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and the Crimea in pursuit of additional territory for an already vast empire. A further 2.8million belonged to the Russian state.[55]. Russia was to stop any involvement in internal affairs of Sweden. [99] The statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes (not serfs), and co-educational. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the PolishRussian War of 1792 and in the Kociuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795). In July 1762, barely six months after becoming emperor, Peter lingered in Oranienbaum with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives, while his wife lived in another palace nearby. The Russian troops set out from Kizlyar in April 1796 and stormed the key fortress of Derbent on 10 May. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started. [28] From 1762, the Great Imperial Crown was the coronation crown of all Romanov emperors until the monarchy's abolition in 1917. Paul ascended to the throne and was known as Emperor Paul I. Catherine's will was discovered in . Historians consider her efforts to be a success. [67] Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during Pugachev's Rebellion of 1774. The bonnet which held her white hair was not decorated with ribbons, but with the most beautiful diamonds. With Peter out of the picture, Catherine was able to consolidate power from a position of strength. Catherine and Peter were ill-matched, and their marriage was notoriously unhappy. I am very fond of the arts, especially painting. Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women, causing 1 in 3 deaths every year? Other than these, the rights of a serf were very limited. Apart from providing that experience, the marriage was unsuccessfulit was not consummated for years due to Peter III's mental immaturity. A self-described glutton for art, the empress strategically purchased paintings in bulk, acquiring as much in 34 years as other royals took generations to amass. Elite acceptance of a female ruler was more of an issue in Western Europe than in Russia. Catherine the Great was worried that her son, Paul, was not emotionally fit to rule so she planned to replace him with his son, Alexander, as her heir. The life of a serf belonged to the state. The formidable Catherine had little time for her heir. Born in 1729, and known as Catherine the Great because she served as Russia's longest-reigning female ruler, she was empress from 1762 until her death in 1796. Peace ensued for 20 years in spite of the assassination of Gustav III in 1792. [126] The last of her lovers, Platon Zubov, was 40 years her junior. The nobles were imposing a stricter rule than ever, reducing the land of each serf and restricting their freedoms further beginning around 1767. We will remember him forever. In addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of National Schools under Pyotr Zavadovsky. She called Potemkin for help mostly military and he became devoted to her. Born without a drop of Russian blood inside her veins, the German-born Sophie Friederike Auguste died as Catherine the Great of Russia, whose successful 34-year reign became known as the Golden Age of Russia. 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. M. B. W. Trent, "Catherine the Great Invites Euler to Return to St. In 1777, the empress described to Voltaire her legal innovations within a backward Russia as progressing "little by little". Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. [38], By mid-June 1796, Zubov's troops overran without any resistance most of the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan, including three principal citiesBaku, Shemakha, and Ganja. This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. [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. She once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm: "I see nothing of interest in it. Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists. AETNUK. The rumours tell us more about the time in which Catherine lived than they do about the cause of her death. After the decisive defeat of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Vrl (14 August 1790), returning all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of bo. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 17811797). While a significant improvement, it was only a minuscule number, compared to the size of the Russian population. Running and games were forbidden, and the building was kept particularly cold because too much warmth was believed to be harmful to the developing body, as was excessive play. The horse myth also allowed her enemies to tarnish her legacy and claims to greatness. [68] Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real emperor should, helping the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very conservative values, to his cause. The global trade of Russian natural resources and Russian grain provoked famines, starvation and fear of famines in Russia. The most famous of these rumors is that she died after having sex with her horse. [86] She believed a 'new kind of person' could be created by inculcating Russian children with European education. With the support of Great Britain, Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. [42], The Qianlong Emperor of China was committed to an expansionist policy in Central Asia and saw the Russian Empire as a potential rival, making for difficult and unfriendly relations between Beijing and Saint Petersburg. Russians continue to admire Catherine, the German, the usurper and profligate, and regard her as a source of national pride. Rumour and degrading slander became the weapon by which they would take jabs at her legacy. The rebellion ultimately failed and in fact backfired as Catherine was pushed away from the idea of serf liberation following the violent uprising. [128], Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador to Russia, offered Stanislaus Poniatowski a place in the embassy in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Kamenskii A. The crown contains 75 pearls and 4,936 Indian diamonds forming laurel and oak leaves, the symbols of power and strength, and is surmounted by a 398.62-carat ruby spinel that previously belonged to the Empress Elizabeth, and a diamond cross. But the actual story of the monarchs death is far simpler: On November 16, 1796, the 67-year-old empress suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. For example, serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs. While she had collapsed in the bathroom, she had spent many hours in her bed, with her servants taking care of her. She acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (17781779) between the German states of Prussia and Austria. [52], Catherine made public health a priority. A description of the empress's funeral is written in Madame Vige Le Brun's memoirs. 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. [78] Catherine expressed some frustration with the economists she read for what she regarded as their impractical theories, writing in the margin of one of Necker's books that if it was possible to solve all of the state's economic problems in one day, she would have done so a long time ago. Many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure. In the painting, she presents her public persona, standing in front of a mirror while draped in an ornate gown and serene smile. Catherine was crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 22 September 1762. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordinance of 1782, and the Statute of National Education of 1786. The Ottomans restarted hostilities in the Russo-Turkish War of 17871792. Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive. In doing so, she ruffled the feathers of men around the world. Although Catherine did not descend from the Romanov dynasty, her ancestors included members of the Rurik dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs. She tells Heathcliff "You have killed me - and thriven on it, I think."(Bronte 1847, 167). [115] She closed 569 of 954 monasteries, of which only 161 received government money. She fell into a coma and died the next day whilst lying in her bed. 5 November]1796, Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers; she told her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, that she had slept better than she had in a long time. 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. Thirty-four years after assuming the throne, Catherine passed away on November 6, 1796. "Catherine II and the Socio-Economic Origins of the Jewish Question in Russia", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:56. Peter, however, supported Frederick II, eroding much of his support among the nobility. Russia and Prussia had fought each other during the Seven Years' War (17561763), and Russian troops had occupied Berlin in 1761. He was strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, real, and normal schools at the village, town, and provincial capital levels. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. She came to power following the overthrow of her husband, Peter III. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation[130] until its post-WWI reconstitution. Sedgwick makes her argument . Catherine, 26 years old and already married to the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in 1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. This reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's murder five years later.[39]. Catherine, for her part, claimed in her memoirs that all his actions bordered on insanity. By claiming the throne, she wrote, she had saved Russia from the disaster that all this Princes moral and physical faculties promised.. Rumours of Catherine's private life had a small basis in the fact that she took many young lovers, even in old age. [73] Between 1762 and 1766, she had built the "Chinese Palace" at Oranienbaum which reflected the chinoiserie style of architecture and gardening. Dogs Rhetorical Exercise In Catharine Sedgwick's, Dogs, she uses the rhetorical appeal, logos, to help make it clear to the reader that animal cruelty is wrong, and to argue that goodness trumps genius. [3] He failed to become the duke of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and at the time of his daughter's birth held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as governor of the city of Stettin. She was the second wife of Peter the Great. Even before the rule of Catherine, serfs had very limited rights, but they were not exactly slaves. It was fighting and winning wars, modernising and revitalising. Malecka, Anna. Catherine separated the Jews from Orthodox society, restricting them to the Pale of Settlement. In private, says Jaques, she balanced a constant craving for affection with a ruthless determination to paint Russia as a truly European country. This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, subject matter, teacher conduct, and school administration. Derided both in her day and in modern times as a hypocritical warmonger with an unnatural sexual appetite, Catherine was a woman of contradictions whose brazen exploits have long overshadowed the accomplishments that won her the Great moniker in the first place. All of this was true before Catherine's reign, and this is the system she inherited. If Catherine the Great had one overarching goal as empress, it was, in her words, to "drag Russia out of its medieval stupor and into the modern world". These differences led both parties to seek intimacy elsewhere, a fact that raised questions, both at the time and in the centuries since, about the paternity of their son, the future Paul I. Catherine herself suggested in her memoirs that Paul was the child of her first lover, Sergei Saltykov. Under her long reign, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Russia experienced a renaissance of culture and sciences, which led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres; along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe. In 1785, Catherine declared Jews to be officially foreigners, with foreigners' rights. However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith. Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they, under the new king Agha Mohammad Khan, had again invaded Georgia and established rule in 1795 and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus. Catherine's death is well documented. The choice of Princess Sophie as wife of the future tsar was one result of the Lopukhina affair in which Count Jean Armand de Lestocq and King Frederick the Great of Prussia took an active part. The most widely known story of Catherine the Great involves her death at age 67 in 1796. 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. Yelizaveta Alekseyevna Tarakanova (17531775) was another potential rival. After this, Catherine carried on sexual liaisons over the years with many men, including Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (17341783), Alexander Vasilchikov, Grigory Potemkin, Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov, and others. Elizabeth therefore allowed Catherine to have sexual lovers only after a new legal heir, Catherine and Peter's son, survived and appeared to be strong.[16]. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The empress played a direct role in many of these initiatives.