Russia · 1729–1796
Catherine the Great: Facts Behind the Legend
Catherine the Great was born a minor German princess, not Russian, and had no hereditary claim to the throne she took. Married at sixteen to the heir, she deposed her own husband Peter III in a coup in 1762 — he was killed days later — and ruled Russia for 34 years. She corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot, wrote a reforming legal programme, founded what became the Hermitage collection and Russia's first state school for girls, and expanded the empire massively at the expense of the Ottomans and Poland. She also extended serfdom and crushed the largest peasant revolt in Russian history. The lurid sexual legends attached to her name are almost entirely hostile invention, much of it manufactured after her death.
Key facts
- She was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729 in what is now Poland, converted to Orthodoxy, took the name Catherine, and learned Russian as an adult — arriving with no dynastic right to rule.
- The 1762 coup was carried out with the army's elite guards regiments and her lover Grigory Orlov. Peter III abdicated and died in custody days later; her exact responsibility is unproven and was doubted at the time.
- Her Nakaz (Instruction) of 1767 drew openly on Montesquieu and the reformer Beccaria, arguing against torture and capital punishment. Very little of it became law — it is the clearest case of her Enlightenment convictions meeting the limits of what Russian elites would accept.
- She was a serious collector: thousands of paintings bought en bloc across Europe formed the core of the Hermitage. She also founded the Smolny Institute, the first state-funded education for girls in Russia.
- The contradiction is not a matter of interpretation. She expanded serfdom into newly acquired territory and handed serfs to favourites; the Pugachev revolt (1773–75), which promised the serfs freedom, was suppressed with mass executions and made her permanently hostile to reform from below.
- The famous scandals are propaganda. She had a series of acknowledged favourites over decades; the horse story is a fabrication with no contemporary source, of a kind routinely produced about powerful women — much of it circulated by French aristocratic enemies after 1796.
How a German princess took Russia
She arrived in Russia at fourteen as a marriage candidate chosen for dynastic convenience, and married the future Peter III at sixteen. The marriage was miserable and probably unconsummated for years; she spent the time learning Russian, converting sincerely enough to satisfy the court, reading widely, and building relationships with the people who mattered — the guards officers, the church hierarchy, and the diplomatic corps.
When Peter succeeded in 1762 he alienated almost every constituency within six months: he insulted the Orthodox church, restructured the army along Prussian lines, and abruptly abandoned Russia's gains in the war against Prussia out of admiration for Frederick the Great. In July, Catherine acted with the Orlov brothers and the guards regiments, entered St Petersburg at the head of troops, and had Peter arrested; he signed an abdication and was dead within days, officially of "haemorrhoidal colic." She was then an empress with no legal claim, a fact that shaped her whole reign: she needed the nobility's support permanently, which set the boundary on every reform she attempted.
Enlightenment on paper, serfdom in practice
Catherine's engagement with Enlightenment thought was genuine and unusually direct. She corresponded with Voltaire for fifteen years, bought Diderot's library and paid him to keep using it, and invited him to St Petersburg. Her Nakaz of 1767, written for a legislative commission, argued from Montesquieu and Beccaria for equality before the law, against torture, and for restraint in punishment. She convened a Legislative Commission of over 500 delegates from most social ranks — and then, after 18 months of inconclusive debate and the outbreak of war with the Ottomans, wound it up. Almost nothing became law.
What did change ran the other way. The Charter to the Nobility of 1785 confirmed noble privileges and freedom from taxation and service. Serfdom expanded, both geographically into Ukraine and in the degree of control landowners held. The Pugachev rebellion of 1773–75 — a Cossack claiming to be the surviving Peter III, promising land and freedom, and drawing hundreds of thousands — was the largest popular revolt in Russian history before 1917. Its suppression was ferocious, and it ended whatever appetite Catherine had for structural change. This is the honest core of her reign: sincere Enlightenment ideas, adopted where they cost the nobility nothing, and abandoned where they did.
Empire, culture, and the manufactured scandals
Territorially she was extraordinarily successful. Two wars with the Ottoman Empire gave Russia the northern Black Sea coast and, in 1783, Crimea — realising an ambition Russian rulers had held for centuries and founding Odessa and Sevastopol. Three partitions of Poland, coordinated with Prussia and Austria, erased that state from the map entirely by 1795. Russia gained perhaps 200,000 square miles and became unambiguously a European great power.
Culturally, she built. The Hermitage began as her private collection, acquired aggressively through agents across Europe; she founded schools, a medical college, and a Russian Academy, and promoted a Russian-language literary culture even while her court spoke French. And she attracted, as powerful women in that era reliably did, a body of sexual slander that has largely displaced her record in popular memory. She did have a succession of favourites, openly, over thirty years, and rewarded them lavishly — that much is documented. The rest, including the story about the horse, has no contemporary evidence and appears in hostile pamphlets, many produced by French émigré aristocrats after her death. She died of a stroke in November 1796, aged 67, at her desk.
Frequently asked questions
Was Catherine the Great actually Russian?
No. She was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729, a German princess from a minor house, and came to Russia at fourteen as a marriage prospect. She converted to Orthodoxy, took the name Catherine, and learned Russian as an adult. She had no hereditary claim to the throne at all — she took it by coup against her own husband in 1762.
Did Catherine the Great kill her husband?
Her direct responsibility has never been established. She led the coup that deposed Peter III in July 1762 and had him detained; he died days later in the custody of her supporters, officially of a colic, in circumstances that convinced most contemporaries it was murder. Whether she ordered it, permitted it, or was presented with a fait accompli remains unresolved.
Are the scandalous stories about Catherine the Great true?
Mostly not. She had a series of acknowledged favourites over three decades and made no secret of them, which was itself scandalous for a woman ruler. But the lurid tales, including the notorious story about a horse, have no contemporary evidence and circulated in hostile pamphlets — many from French aristocratic enemies after her death in 1796. Sexual slander was a standard weapon against powerful women.
Sources & further reading
This article was written from the published record. Every link below was checked and is live:
- State Hermitage Museum — Explore the collection
- World History Encyclopedia — Catherine the Great
- Wikipedia — Catherine the Great
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