Biographies of catherine the great
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The best books on Catherine the Great
Before we get to the books, could you briefly tell us who Catherine the Great was? She was born a German princess, I believe. How did she become Empress of Russia and what is her claim to ‘greatness’?
Yes. Catherine was a German princess. Germany, which had more than 20 different states, was a pool of eligible princes and princesses for royal marriages. Catherine’s was a very small and poor principality, Anhalt-Zerbst, devoid of any political importance. A royal marriage to the Russian heir to the throne was a very great opportunity for her. Maybe she was chosen for that very reason. Anhalt-Zerbst couldn’t play any political role, but the Prussian king, Frederick II, who was a patron of the principality, also approved of the match because he believed it was his chance to gain some influence in Russia. This was a miscalculation because Catherine was the last person to be influenced by anyone.
Catherine was incredibly well educated for a gi
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Catherine the Great : life and legend
Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-395) and index
Catherine's Coup d'état -- The education of a Russian Empress (1729-1762) -- Coronation, consolidation, challenges -- Crisis renewed : the Volga voyage and the legislative commission -- Foreign policy and war, Poland and Turkey -- Pox, pestilence, and crisis in public health -- Plots, pretenders, Pugachevshchina -- "Legislomania" : reactions to crisis -- Nymphomania? Favorites and partiskhet -- Succession concerns and Southern vistas -- Wars, war scares, and European revolution -- Spring surprises, autumn anxieties
Examines all aspects of Catherine the Great's life and career, focusing on her role as mother, lover, and ruler during her reign as Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796
The first authoritative, popular biography of one of the most colorful characters in modern history, Catherin the Great provides a vivid portrait of Catherin as a mother, a lover, and, above all, an ex
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She convened the first representative assembly in Russia’s history, anticipating the creation of the ill-fated Duma a century and a half later. And she came to be known as Catherine the Great, no mystery to anyone who reads this masterful book about her.
A contemporary of Montesquieu and Jefferson and loyal correspondent with Voltaire and Diderot, she took the first few steps toward reform of her country’s peculiar form of slavery, serfdom.
Equaling the military success of Peter the Great more than half a century before her, and his opening to europe with the establishment of St. Petersburg, she extended Russia’s span of control to the Black Sea, humbling the Turkish empire and building Crimea’s two great ports, Odessa and Sebastopol.
She amassed the nearly 4,000 works of art that formed the foundation of the legendary Hermitage Museum and sponsored the creation of Falconet’s towering masterpiece, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great that