Catherine the Great Ruled An Empire – But Lived in Deep Isolation
Catherine the Great was the longest-ruling female monarch in Russian history, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796. Her rule reshaped Russia and left a lasting mark well beyond its borders. While series like Ekaterina and The Great have renewed interest in her life, they only scratch the surface of her influence.
Beyond governing an entire empire, Catherine played a role in advancing public vaccination, shaping European furniture trends and expanding ideas around legal equality, including jury participation.
The following facts take a closer look at how she left her mark on the world and why she remains one of history’s most consequential rulers.
Before She Was 'Catherine the Great,' She Was Someone Else Entirely
Russia’s longest-ruling female monarch wasn’t Russian at all. She was born Sophie Augusta Frederica in 1729, the daughter of a minor Prussian prince in what's now Germany. While her family held little power, her mother’s noble connections made Sophie a valuable match in Europe’s royal marriage market, one that would eventually place her on the Russian throne.
Empress Elizabeth's Nephew Needed a Bride
At just 15, Sophie was invited to the Russian court by Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, who was searching for a bride for her nephew and heir, the future Peter III. Sophie quickly impressed the empress.
She converted to Orthodox Christianity, took the name Ekaterina ("Catherine") and married Peter in 1745. Within less than two decades, the foreign-born teenage bride would rise to become Catherine the Great.
Her Mother Showed Little Interest in Her
Catherine's mother was Joanna Elizabeth, princess of the House of Holstein-Gottorp and a friend of Tsarina Elizabeth. Apart from enforcing her etiquette, she paid little attention to her first child. Catherine, instead, learned from her Governess Babette, who taught her three languages, history and religion.
Only after her brother, Wilhelm Christian, died did her mother show interest in her daughter. Joanna saw Catherine as a means to improve her own situation, and initially set up a marriage with the tsarina's brother, Charles Augustus. He died of smallpox before the wedding could occur, so Elizabeth picked out a new husband: Peter.
All of Her Children May Have Been Illegitimate
Catherine's marriage to Peter was off to a rocky start; they'd go eight years without a child. Historians believe that Peter was either infertile or unable to consummate. Either way, both partners had several affairs.
Historians believe Peter didn't father three (maybe all four) of Catherine's children. The general public did know about the couple's affairs. In 1754, a rumor spread that Catherine's first son, Paul, actually came from Russian military officer Sergei Saltykov.
Some historians argue that Paul's father was, indeed, Peter, but there's little doubt the following three children had different fathers.
It Took 19 Years for Her to Acknowledge Her Own Son
While it was believed all of her children were illegitimate, one of Catherine's sons was confirmed to be born by another man.
Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky was born to one of Catherine's lovers, Count Grigory Orlov. He was brought up in the nearby village of Tula after his birth, and it took 19 years for Catherine to publicly acknowledge him as her son. When Paul I ascended the throne, he made his half-brother a count of the Russian Empire and promoted him to general-major.
She Protected Russia Against a Dangerous Disease
In 1762, Catherine secretly invited physician Thomas Dimsdale to her court, who inoculated her, Paul and 140 members of her court against smallpox. She even kept horses ready, in case the injection went wrong, and the physician had to flee Catherine's angry court. The vaccination succeeded, and all parties recovered.
Catherine rewarded Dimsdale with a Barony and £10,000 and a £500 annual pension. When Dimsdale returned to Russia next, he vaccinated over 20,000 Russians.
Peter III Unpopularity Would Become Her Gain
After Tsarina Elizabeth died in 1762, Peter claimed the throne as Peter III, with Catherine his consort. He immediately ended Russia's war with Prussia, an unpopular ruling among the military class. When he employed reforms that helped the poor, as opposed to the lower nobility, unhappy factions approached Catherine. A coup slowly developed.
She Forced Her Husband From the Throne
Only six months after beginning his reign, Catherine gathered Russia's strongest military regiment to arrest her husband, forcing Peter III to abdicate the throne. She became the nation's sole ruler without bloodshed.
Peter was killed soon-after, although it's unknown if Catherine planned this attack.
Catherine Helped Her Lover Become the King of Poland
Unlike her spouse, Catherine the Great remained loyal to her lovers, even after their relationships ended. One member of the Polish nobility, Stanislaw Poniatowski, reaped incredible benefits from her support. In 1763, a year after their relationship ended, Catherine helped him become King of Poland.
However, she assisted the new king with an ulterior motive, expecting him to act as a puppet to Russian interests. When Poniatowski reinforced his country's independence, their relationship fell. Catherine forced him to abdicate and dissolved his newly formed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Paul Met the Same Fate as His Father
Although Catherine intended to make Paul's children the heirs to the throne, she died before she could officiate her ruling. Paul, afraid the public would eventually uncover the document, confiscated it. He became the new tsar and ended up becoming as erratic and unpopular as Catherine feared.
Paul I reigned for four years, during which he viewed the nobility as decadent and corrupt and aimed to change their chivalry. He was assassinated in 1801.
She Considered Herself an Enlightened Ruler - But Her Subjects Didn't Care
Catherine considered herself to be one of the most enlightened rulers in Europe. In terms of the arts, historians agree. She wrote numerous books and pamphlets to encourage Russia's education system. She also maintained a lifelong friendship with Voltaire and gathered the country's most prominent art collection in St. Petersburg's Winter Palace.
Even so, Catherine's citizens may not have cared. They revolted at least 12 times during her reign, organizing the largest peasant revolts in Russian history.
Catherine and Voltaire Were Pen Pals
Being the intellectual ruler that she was, it's not that surprising Catherine corresponded with some of the greatest enlightenment thinkers in history. Though they'd never met, she kept a frequent correspondence with Voltaire through a series of letters.
Voltaire, for one, was supportive of Catherine's ideas for Russia, including disease prevention and her take over of the Turkish empire. Voltaire himself was fascinated by Russia and even wrote Peter the Great's biography, so it's no wonder he loved writing to Catherine.
She Viewed Jewish People as a Separate Entity
Although Catherine the Great knew Judaism existed in Russia, she had no real definition of "Jew." Nonetheless, she treated them as a separate entity placed under legal restrictions.
She initially levied a tax on Jewish people, and unless they converted to Orthodoxy, they had to pay double what Orthodox Christians did. Catherine did try to incorporate more Jewish people into the economy with the Charter of the Towns in 1782, but, by 1790, she'd banned Jews from Moscow's middle class. In 1785, she declared Jews would legally be foreigners, denying them of citizens' rights.
She Worked With Japan for a While
In 1783, Japanese sea captain Daikokuya Kōdayū landed on the Aleutian Islands. At the time, the islands belonged to Russia, and local authorities helped his party. The nobility had already been fur trapping in the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka, so government officials decided to use him as an envoy.
By 1792, Catherine dispatched a trade mission to Japan. Even after her envoy's audience at Tsarskoye Selo, negotiations failed.
She Created Russia's Golden Age
Not only was Catherine the Great Russia's longest ruler with a 34-year-old reign, but she's also regarded as one of the country's greatest rulers.
Along with collecting works for one of the biggest and oldest museums in the entire world, she poured financial support into Russia's education. Catherine also set up the first educational establishment for women in Russia in 1764. She even conducted some operas of her own.
On top of improving the arts, she also led conquests against the Ottoman Empire and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that expanded Russia's territory by 200,000 square miles.
She Did Things in Five-Minute Increments
It's clear Catherine the Great did a lot for Russia, so it's safe to assume she was a pretty busy monarch. In fact, she kept herself so busy that she had her days planned out to a T.
Catherine had her advisers map her days out in five-minute increments. She was sure to get a lot more done if she focused her energy toward one thing for five minutes straight. The only thing that would change on her schedule was her wake-up time, which changed as she aged.
Catherine Gave Russian Nobility More Power
In 1785, Catherine enacted the Charter to the Gentry, or the Charter of the Nobility. In it, she granted many rights to the gentry, including exemption from taxes and corporal punishment, and gaining more serfs.
This charter caused a divide between the old aristocracy, who inherited their titles through family, and the new nobility, who were given their status for their service to the Russian government. It also forced many citizens into serfdom to account for these new nobles.
She Knew How to Play the Game
Catherine described herself as an art "glutton." She financed the operas, collected paintings and even sketched architectural designs to give to the palace's architect. Even so, she'd downplay her talents to appear humble and stay on good terms with artists in the political realm.
While she collected a vast collection, she claimed she "knew less than a child" about artistic talent, and despite conducting her own operas, she often described herself as tone deaf, calling her own music "an infernal noise."
Catherine's Personal Art Collection
Catherine put everything in her personal collection into a place that would eventually become the Hermitage Museum.
The Hermitage is in St. Petersburg, and it's now the second-largest art museum in the entire world. The collections occupy six historic buildings in the Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace.
Her Book Collection Totaled 44,000 Books
Catherine the Great was known to love art and literature and had started a book collection early on in her life. When she was still a grand duchess, she had her own personal library that had amassed 44,000 books by the time she became the Empress.
At that point, Catherine wanted to extend her personal library into a public library. She believed the Imperial Public Library would be a symbol of an enlightened Russia. With both Russian and foreign language books, courtiers would have the ability to borrow the books at their own will.
She Wanted to Stay Out of Western Conflict
When the American Revolution broke out, Britain actually asked Catherine the Great for help in defeating the unruly colonies on the other side of the Atlantic. However, she refused.
British diplomats continued tirelessly to establish an alliance with Russia, so Catherine would send aid for British troops in America. At the very least, they hoped she'd influence France into abandoning the American cause. She, however, was having none of it, despite the fact that she attempted to mediate an end in 1780, out of the interest for Russian shipping in the Atlantic.
Like Other Historical Leaders, She Wanted to Colonize
Despite Catherine's lack of action to ease American and British tensions, she did have existing stakes on the North American continent. Since 1741, Russian explorers had already traversed their way onto the Alaskan territory. In 1784, a merchant named Grigory Shelikhov established the Three Saints Bay Colony on Kodiak Island.
When he traveled back to St. Petersburg to ask Catherine to give his company a monopoly on the fur trade, she denied, instead, thanking him for "[discovering] new lands and peoples for the benefit of the state."
Catherine Ended Up Making Things Worse for Serfs
While Catherine considered herself an "enlightened" ruler, she didn't do much to help the underrepresented classes under her rule. Despite the fact she was intellectually opposed to serfdom, she knew the nobility (whose support she depended on) would be upset if she got rid of the idea.
Around half the population of Russia was subject to serfdom under her reign, and because their rights were diminished in the 18th century, they were essentially made into slaves.
Her Most Dangerous Rebellion
Catherine may have been an influential leader, but not everyone agreed with her decisions. In fact, she faced plenty of uprisings during her reign from individuals who didn't want to be under her power.
The most dangerous uprising Catherine had to face came in 1773, when thousands of armed Cossacks and peasants, led by Emelyan Pugachev, rebelled against the poor conditions laid out for Russian serfs. Pugachev also claimed he was the real Peter III, who was believed to be dead. Catherine responded with the full force of the Russian Army and Pugachev was executed two years later.
Catherine Made Russia Stronger And Larger
By the time Catherine the Great came into power, Russia and its territories already spanned across much of Siberia. But it was only under Catherine's rule that Russia became nearly as large as it is today.
Catherine led Russia against the Ottoman Empire during her reign, during which the country also successfully defeated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland was thus divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria, with Russia taking the largest share. All of these acquisitions helped Russian become larger and stronger than it ever was at that point in history.
She Favored Her Grandson Over Her Own Children
Catherine had her own ideas about who should take over once her reign came to an end. It was common knowledge she and her eldest son weren't on the best terms throughout his life. Once she came into power, she purposefully left him out of state matters and continued to alienate him.
Once Paul had his own son, Alexander, Catherine took an active role in raising the child, believing he was a much more suitable heir. After her death, it took his father's assassination for Alexander to take the throne.
Catherine Wanted Another Grandson To Rule Byzantine
Shortly after the Byzantine Empire was restored and centered in Constantinople in the late 18th century, Catherine was already making plans to acquire some of that territory for her own progeny.
In what was titled the "Greek Plan" or the "Greek Project," she decided what she'd take from the Ottoman Empire, which she would successfully do. Part of this great plan was to install one of her grandsons, named Constantine, as emperor of the that new territory.
Advocating for Women's Education
One of the reasons that Catherine was regarded as one of Russia's best rulers was due to the revolutionary ideals she implemented.
An example of this was her creation of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens. The institute is known for being the first to make education available to women in Russia, which only began in the late 18th century. The institute took its name from the nearby Smolny Convent and ran under Catherine's patronage until the revolution of 1917.
Catherine the Great Never Rode Side Saddle
There's a reason rumors surrounding Catherine the Great's death involved a horse. In fact, the empress was a known equestrian - servants reported she'd spend hours with her prized horses without supervision.
In her free time, Catherine loved riding horses, and though she was a lady, she refused to ride side-saddle. She allegedly once said, "The more violent the exercise, the more I enjoyed it." We're sure that didn't do much to quell all the rumors, but her love of horses was undeniable.
She Kept Her Hairdresser Where?
There are plenty of rumors surrounding Catherine's entire existence and many of them have yet to be proven. Of these outlandish rumors, one was that she kept her own hairdresser in a cage to prevent the secret getting out about her wig.
She Failed to Pen Her Own Memoir
There's no better person to tell one's life story than that person themselves. Catherine attempted on multiple occasions to pen her own memoir, but she never complete one. Her longest attempt was abandoned just two years before she kicked the bucket.
Lauren Kirkbride
