Catherine the Great
May 2, 1729 – November 17, 1796
Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She expanded the empire to the Black Sea and into Poland and promoted Enlightenment ideas.
Biography
Catherine was born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in Prussian Pomerania and married the future Peter III of Russia in 1745. Six months after he became emperor in 1762, she took the throne in a coup by the guards regiments; Peter was killed soon afterwards.
She corresponded with Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Diderot, issued a reform programme in her Nakaz and founded schools and the Smolny Institute for girls. But she also strengthened the power of the nobility over the serfs, especially after crushing Pugachev's rebellion in 1773-75.
Her wars with the Ottoman Empire won the northern Black Sea coast and Crimea, and the three partitions of Poland brought much of its territory under Russian rule. She reigned until her death in 1796.
Offices held
Peter III of Russia Succeeded by
Paul I of Russia
