Catherine the Great (English: Catherine II the Great; Russian: Екатери?на II Алексе?евна Вели?кая; Latin: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna Velíkaya), also known as Catherine II? Emperor Kseyevna, formerly known as Sophie Augusta Fredericka (German: Sophie Augusta Fredericka), was born on April 21, 1729 in Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland), on November 1, 1796 Died in Pushkin on October 6, 1976. She was the empress of the Russian Empire and reigned from 1762 to 1796. (Predecessor: Peter III, Successor: Paul I)

In Russian history, Catherine the Great was as famous as Peter the Great. She established a huge empire unprecedented in human history.

Her political achievements are outstanding, and her dizzying love stories have become a hot topic among generations of historians. Her political achievements were outstanding, but what future generations are most concerned about is her dizzying love history. She married Peter, the nephew of the Russian Empress Elizabeth, in a political marriage, but Peter became impotent due to physical reasons. Therefore, Catherine patiently waited for the opportunity, while indulging her lust, while secretly looking for a good opportunity to seize power... Catherine was born in a German family of little dukes. Her father was a professional officer of the German Anholt-Zerbst royal family, and her mother She is a princess of the royal family of Holstengodop in Germany. Catherine had traveled to many cities in Europe with her mother since she was a child, and had been to the courts of many German princes. The turning point of her fate occurred in 1744, when the Russian Empress Elizaveta married her heir Peter (who later became Peter III) selected a wife, and Catherine was invited to the Russian court as a candidate. When Catherine and her mother's carriage galloped on the post roads of the Eastern European plains, she may have been full of expectations for the future. Having been familiar with court strife since she was a child, she was obviously mentally prepared for the complex court life she would face in the future. After arriving in Moscow, Catherine was quickly designated as the consort of the crown prince, but the next 18 years were not easy for her. Empress Lisaveta was hot and cold towards her, and what made her even more miserable was that her husband Peter was a weak, weak-willed and eccentric man who doted on his mistress and often humiliated Catherine. During this period, Catherine claimed to be "always without books, always without pain, but never without happiness", accumulating knowledge in books, and secretly organized a small group based on her lover Grigory Orlov. The young officers of the Guards, headed by five brothers, became her strong support. In 1762, Empress Elizaveta died. Catherine, who was pregnant, did not dare to act rashly and watched helplessly as her husband and mortal enemy Peter ascended the throne and became Tsar Peter III. Peter III implemented a pro-Prussian policy that harmed Russian interests and aroused dissatisfaction among the nobles. After he came to power, a series of shocking actions finally forced him to a dead end. He ordered the Russian army, which was in a good situation during the "Seven Years' War" and was in sight of victory, to stop fighting, withdraw from the Prussian land it occupied, and sign a peace treaty with King Frederick II of Prussia, just because he was an admirer of Frederick II. , and also prepared to "personally lead part of the army and obey the command of Frederick II." At home, he wanted Russians to convert to Lutheranism, declare those who believed in the Orthodox Church to be heretics, and confiscate the property of the Orthodox Church. As a result, people's minds naturally change. With the help of the Orlov brothers and the Cossack leader Razumovsky, Catherine launched a coup, successfully seized the throne, and imprisoned Peter III. Peter III died mysteriously a few days later. After 18 years of enduring humiliation and humiliation, Catherine finally waited for this day and became the master of the largest empire in the world. Since then, Catherine has made drastic changes, and has controlled and manipulated this male-dominated world for more than thirty years. Because of his ability in governing the country and his outstanding achievements, his talents and fame were famous at home and abroad, and he became the second most famous British figure in the hearts of Russians after Peter the Great.

Policy aspect

In terms of domestic policy, Catherine the Great tried to strengthen the state machinery of the aristocratic bureaucracy, expand the privileges of the aristocracy, and maintain and develop the serfdom system. In the 1960s, he claimed to be an "enlightened monarch", implemented an enlightened autocracy, and maintained correspondence with Western European enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and D. Diderot. In 1767, she convened a committee for the compilation of a new code of law and wrote the "Edict" for this committee, advocating that everyone is equal before the law. After suppressing the Pugachev uprising, he turned to openly reactionary rule. In 1775, the "Decree on the Management System of the Provinces of the All-Russian Empire" was promulgated, which strengthened the power of the nobles in various places. In the conquered minority areas, a forced Russification policy was implemented. In 1785, the "Edict Conferring Privileges on the Nobles" and the "Edict Conferring Privileges on the City" were promulgated, making the nobility a privileged class in society and improving the economic and political status of citizens to a certain extent. During her reign, she imposed serfdom on the Ukrainians; granted large amounts of land and serfs to the nobility; and promulgated that landlords had the right to deport peasants, and peasants must obey the landlords' edicts, which brought the serfdom system to its peak.

In terms of foreign policy, in order to realize its plan to seize world hegemony, it launched two wars against Turkey (1768-1779, 1787-1791), opened up the Black Sea entrance, and occupied the vast area on the northern coast of the Black Sea, including the Crimean Peninsula. From 1788 to 1790, it fought a war with Sweden. Together with Prussia and Austria, Poland was partitioned three times in 1772, 1793 and 1795. It invaded most of Lithuania, Belarus and Western Ukraine, and established Georgia as a protectorate. The Russian territory expanded by 670,000 square kilometers. After the French bourgeois revolution broke out in 1789, he tried to organize an anti-French alliance and actively participated in the European monarchies' suppression of the French revolution. This set a precedent in Russian history for intervening in European revolutions and made Russia the European gendarme. Catherine the Great's greatest achievement was Russia's territorial expansion, which was also her main influence on history.

Historical Decisions

On the Polish issue, Catherine adopted a step-by-step strategy. First, she manipulated the Polish king-selecting meeting in 1763 to support her lover Poniatowski. Polish throne. In 1772, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland for the first time, gaining parts of Belarus and Latvia. The Polish patriots resisted before their demise. In 1791, the Patriotic Party passed the May 3rd Constitution and announced the abolition of the free election system and the free veto. As a result, it was jointly suppressed by Russia and Prussia. Catherine's army captured Warsaw. Declared the May 3rd Constitution invalid, and signed an agreement with Prussia for the second partition of Poland, obtaining parts of Western Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. At the last parliament of Poland in 1793, under the bayonet of Catherine's army, This slaughtered agreement was adopted in the form of "silent consent". Catherine might have wanted to keep a puppet kingdom for her lover, but in 1794 the Polish national salvation uprising was raging. After uniting with Prussia and Austria to suppress the Polish uprising, in order to avoid long nights and nightmares, she decided to carve up Poland for the third time, completely removing the country from the map. disappeared. After the three partitions of Poland, the greedy polar bear *** divided more than 460,000 square kilometers of land. During the reign of Peter the Great, he failed to fulfill his wish to open up the Black Sea outlet. Turkey has always been the number one imaginary enemy of Tsarist Russia. But the war against Turkey in Catherine's era went surprisingly smoothly. In 1768, under the provocation of Russia, Turkey declared war on Russia. It was originally considered to be a close contest, but it showed that Russia had a one-sided advantage. It won a complete victory on the four fronts of the Danube, the Crimea, the Caucasus and the Aegean Sea. In the 1774 peace treaty, in addition to ceding territory and paying indemnities, Turkey was forced to recognize the independence of the Crimean Khanate (later annexed by Russia) and recognize that Russian merchant ships could freely enter and exit the Black Sea. Türkiye naturally refuses to give up, and both sides are preparing for war. In 1787, war between the two countries broke out again. This time, the Russian army, led by Suvorov (who would later show his prowess in the war with Napoleon), won more completely. In the famous battle of Izmail, more than 20,000 enemies were wiped out. Turkey once again signed a peace treaty as the loser, ceding the land between the South Bug and Transnistria rivers, and recognizing the integration of Crimea into Russian territory. Catherine was the biggest catalyst in the process of the once mighty Ottoman Turkish Empire being reduced to the sick man of West Asia at the mercy of others. There was an episode in the Second Russo-Turkish War. Gustav, the "actor king" of Sweden, wanted to take the opportunity to sneak attack on the Russian Baltic Fleet, but he was defeated. Sweden, Poland and Turkey have always been the three main targets of Russia's expansion in Europe, and they achieved complete victory during the period of Catherine the Great. Looking at the greatly expanded Russian territory, Catherine the Great said with great enthusiasm: "If I can live to be two hundred years old, all of Europe will crawl at my feet!"

Character Impact

Catherine sponsored and supported the development of Russian art, opposed ignorance and backwardness, and funded philosophers and artists more generously than any monarch in Western Europe. In her early years, she had read the works of many Western European Enlightenment thinkers. In the era when "enlightened autocracy" was popular, she also made herself a follower of this fashion. After taking the throne, she had close correspondence with Voltaire, and also funded Dickinson. Dro. She established various schools, promoted literary creation, adopted policies to encourage the development of capitalist industry and commerce, and lifted restrictions on trade. However, after sitting on the authoritarian throne of the Tsar, her thoughts gradually changed.

The 1773 peasant uprising led by Pugachev, who pretended to be Tsar Peter III, lasted for more than a year before being suppressed, and no strategically important large cities were captured. The queen felt a huge shock. She further strengthened the centralization of power, such as changing the three-level system of "provinces, states, and counties" to the two-level system of "provinces, counties," and giving the nobility more and greater power. In 1787, she promulgated the "Russian Nobility, Liberties, and Privileges" "Edict" is a concentrated expression, and she is therefore called the "Queen of Nobles". In this regard, although it was helpful to consolidate rule in the short term, in the long term it intensified the conflict between the aristocratic serf owners and the serfs, and the exploitation and oppression of the serfs further deepened. Serfdom has always been a chronic disease of Russian society, and Catherine the Great exacerbated it and left this thorny problem to her descendants to solve. On the other hand, because more freedom was given to the nobility, the advanced elements among them were able to fully come into contact with Western European liberal ideas, which opened a door for Russia's modernization.

The first cry for overthrowing the tsarist autocracy and serfdom in Russia came from the progressive aristocracy. In terms of daily life, the Queen is very regular and kind to others. Almost all the housewives who have served her have praised her character. Catherine had a foreign cook, and the food he cooked was not to the Queen's taste, but the Queen could not bear to fire him, so she put up with his food for a long time. Another time, she went to the hall to find someone to help her deliver a letter, but found that the attendants were playing cards in the hall. As a result, she ordered one of them to deliver the letter, and then sat down to continue playing. The Queen's health has always been good, but her rich nightlife probably consumed too much of her energy. One day in early November 1796, the Queen enjoyed strong coffee brewed from one-fifth of a pound of coffee beans as usual and then came to the hospital alone. Go to the changing room to change. After a long time, the maid opened the door and found the Queen lying unconscious on the ground - she had suffered a stroke. On November 6, 1796, Catherine ended her glorious life in extreme pain. Before she died, she ordered an edict to be hidden in a jewelry box. This edict probably stated the ownership of the throne after her death (it was of course Alexander), but the edict was burned by Archduke Paul who arrived immediately. The latter became the new emperor of Russia. In 1801, the unpopular Paul I Petrovich was assassinated, and Grand Duke Alexander succeeded to the throne, Alexander I, known as the "Sphinx of the North". It seems that the Queen's last fable has come true. All in all, Catherine the Great’s influence on history is mainly reflected in the changes in the international pattern and territory. While she caused the disappearance of Poland and the rapid decline of Turkey, she made Russia stronger, its dominance closer to the heart of Europe, and invincible in the coming era of the Napoleonic Wars. [1]

Character evaluation

From her accession to the throne in 1762 to her death in 1796, she was the longest-reigning emperor in Russian history. Catherine the Great

She played many roles in her life - in public, she was a vigorous ruler who established a huge empire unprecedented in human history; she had outstanding political achievements, good governance, and talents. Famous at home and abroad, she is the second most famous British figure in Russia after Peter the Great. She supported the development of Russian art and philosophy, opposed ignorance and backwardness, and funded philosophers and artists more generously than any monarch in Western Europe. In her private life, she is a filial daughter, a majestic mother, a doting grandmother, and a loyal friend; as a wife, she is a failure, and as a lover, she is so passionate. This is Catherine the Great (also known as Catherine II Alexeyevna the Great), the most powerful woman in Europe in the 18th century, and also an elegant, charming, compassionate and loving woman . The story of Catherine the Great. Born in a family of German minor dukes, she did not ascend to the throne through legal channels - because the fatuous Peter III implemented pro-Prussian policies that harmed Russia's interests, Catherine the Great was elected emperor and replaced her husband. During the 34 years of Catherine the Great's reign, Russia became more powerful, and its ruling power moved closer to the heart of Europe. After moving the capital to St. Petersburg, it turned St. Petersburg into a city comparable to Paris and London - with beautiful buildings, splendid palaces and many breathtaking art collections. As a woman, she is not satisfied with just having power, she also longs for love, family affection, friendship and a happy mood. To this end, she maintained frequent correspondence with friends, doted on her children and grandchildren, and devoted great enthusiasm to art and architecture. In addition, she also had a series of lovers and a dizzying love history. She once doted on 82 men, and the last lover was 40 years younger than her. These erotic affairs spread her lustful reputation throughout Europe, and became a hot topic among generations of historians. But you know, the real Catherine is much more interesting than the stories circulated.