Catherine the Great
Introduction
Catherine the Great was originally a German princess and later married to the Russian royal family, and later turned into one of Russia’s most important leaders. In the Western world, she is well known for her numerous extramarital love affairs (Meehan-Waters 293-307). She was married to Peter III, who ruled Russia from 1728 to 1762. Her 32-year reign from 1762 to 1796 made her very powerful as well as one of the most famous rulers since Peter the Great (1672-1725). Catherine II was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729 to a German royal couple. She exhibited high intelligence even from an early age, and she often employed rational thinking, which irked her tutors most of the time as she always wanted to find logical explanations for sacred beliefs. This would later show itself in her passion for Enlightenment philosophy. Thus, although Catherine ruled in a patriarchal society that belittled women, she was not only courageous but also possessed an admirable intelligence, substantial charm and lively energy which made her an exceptional leader.
She was invited to St. Petersburg in 1744 by Empress Elizabeth, who acted as Russia’s czar from 1741 to 1762. She asked her to meet her nephew, Karl Peter Ulrich, who was later named as Peter III and was then the heir to the Russian throne. When the empress met her, she liked her and decided to choose her to be her nephew’s bride. As her family was not that prominent back home, it was easy to convince her to renounce her allegiance to Germany. Also, she was a protestant, which made it easy to convert her into the Russian Orthodox. She agreed to and was renamed Yekaterina Alekseyevna.
Peter and Catherine married in 1745. Peter had grown in Germany and considered himself a German as he hated Russia and everything associated with it (Smilyanskaya). They both hated each other. However, they had one child named Paul born in 1754. Empress Elizabeth mostly raised the child. Catherine grew detached and restless, which prompted her extramarital affairs. Empress Elizabeth died in December 1761, which led Peter to be crowned czar. Peter, upon assuming power used to speak German and disrespected Russians which didn’t go well with his subjects.
Catherine organized a bloodless coup d’etat, which Peter never resisted and was captured and under house arrest, but was mysteriously assassinated a few days later, Catherine denied ever being involved (Meehan-Waters 293-307). There are several theories on the causes of the death of Peter, but none can be confirmed precisely. Apparently, Catherine was not really saddened by the death and was just worried about the consequences the death would have on her political career. Publicly it was known that he died of natural causes a claim that no one disputed.
Upon assuming the throne, it was clear that Catherine was not going to relinquish it to her son when he came of age. She made her first successful move by forming the Russian-Prussian alliance. In 1763 Poland’s King Augustus III died, which prompted the alliance to back Stanislaw II Augustus Poniatowski, Catherine’s former lover, to succeed him. As a result of this, Poniatowski remained loyal to Russia. This was a stunning move from Catherine. She also had military victories in Turkey on top of the Annexation of Crimea in the year 1783. This reinforced Russia’s control over the Black Sea’s Northern Coast.
She also introduced various domestic policies that improved the status of women; for instance, she made Princess Dashkova the head of the academy of arts and science. She also opened several schools for women. Her main aim was to systemize the country’s class structure. She enacted the 1785 charter of the towns; this meant that wealth determines the number of rights one had. Nobles were given more freedom, for instance, freedom from corporal punishment. However, she failed to free the serfs. She never abolished serfdom as this would turn the nobles against her.
Catherine’s main influence on Russia was that she expanded its borders and continued the westernization process that had been commenced by Peter. During her ruling, she stretched the Russian empire by extending to both the westwards and southwards and included territories such as Lithuania, Belarus, and Crimea. The agreements between the country and other states such as Austria and Prussia resulted in three major Poland partitions of 1772, 1793 and lastly 1795 (BBC 1). The agreements extended Russian borders significantly across central Europe and created even more opportunities for the nation.
Initially, Catherine served as a social and political reformer but later grew into a conservative as she aged. For instance, in 1767, Catherine organized the Legislative Commission in the bid to classify Russia’s law, a process that resulted in the modernization of life in Russia (BBC 1). She offered her instructions to the commission in a large liberal report that outlined the empress’s dream of a perfect government. However, the commission did not produce any desirable results leading to the eruption of a fight in 1768 opposing the Ottoman Empire and offered a great chance for its disbandment (BBC 1). The rebellion gathered huge support across the western territories in Russia until 1775 when it was stopped by the Russian military (BBC 1).
Catherine’s realized her intense dependence on the nobility to assert control on the Russian population and prompted several reforms focusing on their serfs and land. The Charter to Nobility of 1785 recognized them as a distinct estate in Russia and upheld their freedoms and privileges (BBC 1). In this context, she withdrew the concerned she held previously as a social and political reformer regarding the challenges faced by the serfs even though their rights and status were deteriorating further. Her main interests lied in culture and education and she corresponded with established thinkers in the period such as Diderot and her art collection acts as the foundation of the popular Hermitage Museum.
As a female leader Catherine faced many obstacles prior to becoming the Empress and during her entire reign. She was the first female ruler in Russia in a society that was dominated and controlled by men. She lived in a period when it was believed that women belonged within the domestic space and hence, her competences were widely doubted initially and she fought to prove her opposes that she was not only a great ruler but a patriot as well who prioritized on social reforms. As Peter’s successor, she was accused of being the source of their unhappy marriage and playing part in his assassination. Her personal life was used to undermine her abilities and authorizes. She was popular for her sexual affairs than the affairs of the state but she was devoted to expanding the country’s empire. Her achievement was often obscured by her outrageous personal life as she was known to having several partners.
Catherine the great was an influential leader who believed in using nobility to mobilize the support of the public. Her leadership belief is best illustrated by the quote ‘’ Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.’’ She vowed that she would not use any force to make herself a feared leader as a means of achieving cooperation and support. The quote illustrates the need to gain the support of the public in order to achieve prosperity. A leader that has no support of his or her follower amounts to nothing since leadership is not about power but the people. In other words, her leadership was exceptional as she sought to reflect her achievements by transforming the lives of Russians.
To sum up, Catherine died on 6 November 1796, and her son Paul I succeeded her. There has been a deep hatred between the two, therefore Paul wanted to exact revenge on her mother when he came to power. He accomplished this by making the law of succession, and this made sure that no other woman will ever rule Russia. As a result, Catherine the Great remains to be the first and last of her kind and a truly unique leader not just for Russia but the entire world.
Works Cited
BBC. Catherine the Great (1729 – 1796). BBC, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/catherine_the_great.shtml
Meehan-Waters, Brenda. "Catherine the Great and the problem of female rule." The Russian Review 34.3 (1975): 293-307.
Smilyanskaya, Elena. "Russian Warriors in the Land of Miltiades and Themistocles: the Colonial Ambitions of Catherine the Great in the Mediterranean." Higher School of Economics Research Paper No. WP BRP 55 (2014).
