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For the next four years it played a dominant role
in Russian court politics until 1730, when the
new empress
ANNA IVANOVNA
abolished it. Before
her death in May 1727, Catherine appointed the
future
PETER II
, grandson of
PETER I
from his first
marriage, as heir to the throne, with the
Supreme Secret Council, now expanded to
include her daughters, as regents.
mean Peninsula into Russian hands by 1784.
She ended any vestiges of administrative auton-
omy in the Russian-controlled Ukraine. Russia
took the lead in the three
POLISH PARTITIONS
(1772, 1793, and 1795), annexing over half of
the former Kingdom of Poland. Her reign also
witnessed the establishment of the first Russian
colony in
ALASKA
in 1784.
Her domestic record was more mixed. Attracted
by the ideals of the Enlightenment, she corre-
sponded with leading French philosophes such as
Voltaire and Diderot and tried to rule as an
“enlightened despot.” She started an ambitious
program of reforms, convening a legislative com-
mission, and preparing comprehensive plans for
educational, legal, and administrative reform, but
most were left unfinished. Aware of her depen-
dence on the nobility for her power, she contin-
ued the policies of rulers after Peter the Great
granted them greater privileges as in the Charter
to the Nobility of 1785. The condition of the serfs
also continued to deteriorate during her reign,
leading some historians to describe it as the
“zenith of
SERFDOM
.” On the other hand, her
patronage of literature and the arts was more
successful, as her reign witnessed important cul-
tural milestones such as the publication of satiri-
cal journals, the establishment of private printing
presses, and the overall Westernization of Rus-
sian culture.
The
PUGACHEV REBELLION
of 1773-74 and the
French Revolution brought out the more
repressive aspects of her reign. The former was
led by a Cossack who, in the tradition of previ-
ous rebels, claimed to be her deceased husband,
the “true” Peter III and managed to gain sub-
stantial support among
COSSACKS
, serfs, and
other disenfranchised groups along the Volga
River basin, before he was defeated with great
difficulty by the Russian army. The aftermath of
the French Revolution stripped any remaining
pretense of enlightened rule, as important intel-
lectuals such as Aleksandr
RADISHCHEV
and
Nikolai
NOVIKOV
were arrested for their work
and, in the case of Radishchev, banished to
Siberia. Catherine died on November 6, 1796,
Catherine II
(1729-1796)
empress
Known to later generations as Catherine the
Great, Catherine was a German princess who
ascended the Russian throne in 1762 as the
result of a conspiracy against her husband,
PETER III
. She was born Sophia Augusta Freder-
icka, the daughter of Prince Christian of Anhalt-
Zerbst, a small principality near Prussia. She was
engaged to her future husband, Peter, duke of
Holstein-Gottorp, a grandson of
PETER I
the
Great, at the age of 15. She converted to Rus-
sian Orthodoxy and adopted the name Cather-
ine in 1744, a year before her marriage to Peter.
Ignored by her husband, Catherine adapted to
her new country, learning its language and cus-
toms and gradually developing a core of influ-
ential supporters. When Peter became emperor
in 1762, he quickly alienated various sectors of
Russian society, notably the Imperial Guard,
which led a successful palace revolution against
him in midsummer 1762. Peter was killed a few
days later by Grigorii Orlov, Catherine's lover at
the time, and Catherine was named empress,
while her eight-year-old son, Paul, was named
heir to the throne. Catherine denied complicity
in her husband's death, but suspicions as to her
role have lingered through the centuries. What
appeared to be a brief regency until Paul
attained majority evolved into a long and cele-
brated 34-year reign that cemented Russia's
emergence as a major European power.
In foreign policy, Catherine continued her
predecessors' policy of territorial expansion. Two
successful wars with Turkey brought most of the
northern shore of the Black Sea and the Cri-
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