How Much Do You Know About Catherine the Great?

Before she became empress, Catherine had an affair with Stanislaw Poniatowski, the son of a Polish nobleman. Years after their affair ended, she helped install him as king of a newly unified Poland. But his reign was short-lived, and after losing Catherine’s support, he was forced off the throne. The Polish territory became once again divided, and Russia assumed control of large portions of the region.

Catherine dramatically increased Russia’s size during her reign, forcefully securing new territories in present-day Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. One of her most notable victories was over Russia’s longtime enemy, the Ottoman Empire. In 1783, Russia formally annexed the Crimea region, part of the Ottoman Empire at the time. It gave Russia the warm-water port in the Black Sea it had sought for more than a century.

One of the focuses of Catherine’s early reign was educational reform, and in particular creating educational opportunities for women. In 1764, she created Russia’s first school for girls, eventually offering classes in language, literature, geography, arts, and more. The Smolny Institute operated for more than 150 years, until the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Catherine was the third and last reigning empress of Russia. She was also its longest-ruling empress, spending 34 years on the throne — five more than Empress Elizabeth, who first brought Catherine to Russia decades earlier to marry her nephew Peter.

Catherine deeply admired the work of a number of Enlightenment figures, but became particularly fond of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire, who dubbed Catherine the “Star of the North.” Although the two never met in person, they struck up a close correspondence until Voltaire’s death in 1778.

Catherine was an avid art collector and amassed a collection of some 4,000 paintings, books, and decorative objects by the time of her death. To house her collection, she built a building near the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, known as the Hermitage. The museum opened to the public in the 1850s; today it is one of the largest museums in the world, with more than 3 million pieces of art.

Peter came to power after his aunt Elizabeth’s death in 1762 and proved to be an unpopular leader, alienating both the military and the nobility. Catherine, already deeply suspicious of and disillusioned with Peter, aligned herself with his enemies, and just six months into his reign she led a coup to overthrow him. He died under mysterious circumstances days later.

Despite her important role in Russian history, Catherine didn’t have a drop of Russian blood. She was born Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst, the eldest daughter of a well-connected Prussian family that had lost its fortune. Catherine was brought to Russia at the age of 15 as a prospective bride for Peter, the heir to the throne.

Catherine’s husband Peter was the grandson of the legendary Peter the Great, whose extensive reforms had transformed Russia. German-born, Peter was originally considered as the heir to the Swedish throne, but was eventually selected by his childless Russian aunt, the Russian Empress Elizabeth, as her successor. He became Emperor Peter III of Russia in 1762 upon Elizabeth’s death.

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, was the last reigning empress of Russia. She came to power in 1762 and ruled until her death in 1796 at age 67. The Enlightenment ruler was responsible for extending Russian territory through the addition of Poland and Crimea, as well as leading her country into a new age of political and cultural identity.