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Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter-in-law Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great's policies in modernizing Russia.
Catherine I (born April 15 [April 5, Old Style], 1684—died May 17 [May 6], 1727, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a peasant woman of Baltic (probably Lithuanian) birth who became the second wife of Peter I the Great and empress of Russia (1725–27).
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Catherine II[a] (born Princess Sophie Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796), [b] most commonly known as Catherine the Great, [c] was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. [1] She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III.
- Catherine The Great’s Name Wasn’T Catherine, and She Wasn’T Even Russian.
- Catherine’s Eldest Son—And Heir—May Have Been illegitimate.
- Catherine Came to Power in A Bloodless Coup That Later Turned Deadly.
- Catherine Faced More Than A Dozen Uprisings During Her Reign.
- Being Catherine The Great’s Lover Came with Huge Rewards.
- Catherine Saw Herself as An Enlightened Ruler.
- Contrary to Popular Myth, Catherine Died A Fairly Mundane, Uneventful death.
- Catherine’s Eldest Son Met The Same Grisly Fate as His Father.
The woman whom history would remember as Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest-ruling female leader, was actually the eldest daughter of an impoverished Prussian prince. Born in 1729, Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst enjoyed numerous marital prospects due to her mother’s well-regarded bloodlines. In 1744, 15-year-old Sophie was invited to Russia by Czarina...
Catherine and her new husband had a rocky marriage from the start. Though the young Prussian princess had been imported to produce an heir, eight years passed without a child. Some historians believe Peter was unable to consummate the marriage, while others think he was infertile. Desperately unhappy in their married lives, Peter and Catherine both...
Elizabeth died in January 1762, and her nephew succeeded to the throne as Peter III, with Catherine as his consort. Eager to put his own stamp on the nation, he quickly ended Russia’s war with Prussia, an act that proved deeply unpopular to Russia’s military class. A program of liberal domestic reforms aimed at improving the lives of the poor also ...
Of the various uprisings that threatened Catherine’s rule, the most dangerous came in 1773, when a group of armed Cossacks and peasants led by Emelyan Pugachev rebelled against the harsh socioeconomic conditions of Russia’s lowest class, the serfs. As with many of the uprisings Catherine faced, Pugachev’s Rebellion called into question the validity...
Catherine was famously loyal to her lovers, both during their relationship and after it ended. Always parting on good terms, she bestowed upon them titles, land, palaces and even people—gifting one former paramour with more than 1,000 serfs, or indentured servants. But perhaps nobody reaped the bounties of her favor more than Stanislaw Poniatowski,...
Catherine’s reign was marked by vast territorial expansion, which greatly added to Russia’s coffers but did little to alleviate the suffering of her people. Even her attempts at governmental reforms were often bogged down by Russia’s vast bureaucracy. However, Catherine considered herself to be one of Europe’s most enlightened rulers, and many hist...
Given the empress’ shocking reputation, it’s perhaps not surprising that gossip followed her wherever she went, even to the grave. After her death on November 17, 1796, her enemies at court began spreading various rumors about Catherine’s final days. Some claimed that the all-powerful ruler had died while on the toilet. Others took their lurid stor...
Catherine had a famously stormy relationship with her eldest son, Paul. The boy had been removed from his mother’s care shortly after his birth and raised largely by the former czarina, Elizabeth, and a series of tutors. After she assumed the throne, Catherine, fearful of retribution for Peter III’s deposition and death, kept Paul far away from aff...
Catherine I. Born: ?, 5 (15) April 1684. Died: St. Petersburg, 6 (17) May 1727. Reigned: 1725-1727. Although he had conducted reforms in practically all areas of Russian life, Peter the Great had nonetheless set a time bomb under the procedure for succession to the Russian throne.
Lithuanian peasant who became the second wife of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia and succeeded him as empress of Russia from 1725 to 1727. Name variations: Catherine Skavronsky; Marta, Marfa, or Martha Skovoronski (Skavronska or Skavronskii, Skovortskii, Skowronska); Yekaterina Alexseyevna.
May 18, 2018 · CATHERINE I. (c. 1686 – 1727) Yekaterina Akexeyevna, born Martha Skavronska (ya), the second wife of Peter I and empress of Russia from February 8, 1725 to May 17, 1727. Martha Skavronskaya's background, nationality, and original religious affiliation are still subject to debate.
