Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CATHERINE II

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 528 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CATHERINE II . (1729-1796), empress of See also:Russia, was the daughter of See also:Christian See also:Augustus, See also:prince of See also:Anhalt-See also:Zerbst, and his wife, Johanna See also:Elizabeth of See also:Holstein-Gottorp. The exact date and See also:place of her See also:birth have been disputed, but there appears to be no See also:reason to doubt that she was right in saying that she was See also:born at See also:Stettin on the 2nd of May 1729. Her See also:father, who succeeded to the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1746 and died in 1747, was a See also:general in the Prussian service, and, at the See also:time of her birth, was military command: nt at Stettin. Her baptismal name was See also:Sophia See also:Augusta Frederica. In accordancewith the See also:custom then prevailing in See also:German princely families, she was educated chiefly by See also:French governesses and tutors. In 1744 she was taken to Russia, to be affianced to the See also:grand-See also:duke See also:Peter, the See also:nephew of the empress Elizabeth (q.v.), and her recognized See also:heir. The princess of Anhalt-Zerbst was the daughter of Christian See also:Albert, See also:bishop of See also:Lubeck, younger See also:brother of See also:Frederick IV., duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter's paternal grand-father. The choice of her daughter as wife of the future See also:tsar was the result of not a little See also:diplomatic management in which Frederick the See also:Great took an active See also:part, the See also:object being to strengthen the friendship between See also:Prussia and Russia, to weaken the See also:influence of See also:Austria and to ruin the See also:chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Elizabeth relied, and who was a known See also:partisan of the See also:Austrian See also:alliance. The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely through the flighty intervention of the princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, a See also:clever but very injudicious woman. But Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, and the See also:marriage was finally decided on. The girl had spared no effort to ingratiate herself, not only with the empress, but with the grand-duke and the See also:Russian See also:people.

She applied herself to learning the See also:

language with such zeal that she See also:rose at See also:night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons. The result was a severe attack of congestion of the lungs in See also:March 1744. During the worst See also:period of her illness she completed her See also:conquest of the See also:good-will of the Russians by declining the religious services of a See also:Protestant pastor, and sending for See also:Simon Todorskiy, the orthodox See also:priest who had been appointed to instruct her in the See also:Greek See also:form of See also:Christianity. When she wrote her See also:memoirs she represented herself as having made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever had to be done, and to profess to believe whatever she was required to believe, in See also:order to be qualified to See also:wear the See also:crown. The consistency of her See also:character throughout See also:life makes it highly probable that even at the See also:age of fifteen she was mature enough to adopt this worldly-See also:wise See also:line of conduct. Her father, who was a convinced Lutheran, was strongly opposed to his daughter's See also:conversion, and supplied her with books of controversy to protect her Protestantism. She read them, and she listened to Todorskiy, and to other advisers who told her that the Russian crown was well See also:worth a See also:mass, or that the See also:differences between the Greek and Lutheran churches were See also:mere matters of form. On the 28th of See also:June 1744 she was received into the Orthodox See also:Church at See also:Moscow, and was renamed Catherine Alexeyevna. On the following See also:day she was formally betrothed, and was married to the See also:archduke on the 21st of See also:August 1745 at St See also:Petersburg. At that time Catherine was essentially what she was to remain till her See also:death fifty-one years later. It was her boast that she was as " See also:frank and See also:original as any Englishman." If she meant that she had a compact character, she was right. She had decided on her line in life and she followed it whole-heartedly.

It was her determination to become a Russian in order that she might the better See also:

rule in Russia, and she succeeded. She acquired a full command of all the resources of the language, and a no less See also:complete understanding of the nature of the Russian people. It is true that she remained quite impervious to religious influences. The circumstances of her conversion may have helped to render her indifferent to See also:religion, but their influence need not be exaggerated. Her irreligion was shared by multitudes of contemporaries who had never been called upon to renounce one form of Christianity and profess belief in another in order to gain a crown. Her mere actions were, like those of other and humbler people, dictated by the conditions in which she lived. The first and the most important of them was beyond all question the misery of her married life. Her See also:husband was a wretched creature. Nature had made him mean, the smallpox had made him hideous, and his degraded habits made him loathsome. And Peter had all the sentiments of the worst See also:kind of small German prince of the time. He had the conviction that his princeship entitled him to disregard decency and the feelings of others. He planned brutal See also:practical jokes, in which blows had always a See also:share.

His most manly See also:

taste did not rise above the kind of military See also:interest which has been defined as " See also:corporal's See also:mania," the See also:passion for See also:uniforms, pipeclay, buttons,. the " tricks of See also:parade and the froth of discipline." He detested the Russians, and surrounded himself with Holsteiners. For ten years the marriage was barren, and the only reason for supposing that the future tsar See also:Paul (q.v.), who was born on the end of See also:October 1754, was the son of Peter, is the strong similarity of their characters. Living in the grossly See also:animal See also:court of the empress Elizabeth, See also:bound to a husband whom she could not but despise and detest, surrounded by suitors, and entirely uninfluenced by religion, Catherine became and remained perfectly immoral in her sexual relations to men. The scandalous See also:chronicle of her life was the See also:commonplace of all See also:Europe. Her male favourites were as openly paraded as the See also:female favourites of See also:King See also:Louis XV. It may be said once and for all that her most trusted agents while she was still grand-duchess, and her See also:chief ministers when she became empress, were also her lovers, and were known to be so. For some time after the marriage, the See also:young couple were controlled by the empress Elizabeth, who appointed court officials to keep a See also:watch on their conduct; but before See also:long these custodians themselves had become the agents of Catherine's pleasures and ambition. After the birth of Paul she began to take an active part in See also:political intrigues. Her abilities forced even her husband to rely on her See also:judgment. When in difficulty he ran to her and flattered her with the name of Madame La Ressource—Madame See also:Quick Wit—which did not prevent him from insulting and even kicking her when the immediate need of her help was over. In 1758 he endeavoured to turn the empress Elizabeth against her, and for a time Catherine was in danger. She faced the peril boldly, and reconquered her influence over the See also:sovereign, but from this time she must have realized that when the empress was dead she would have to defend herself against her husband.

That Peter both hated and dreaded her was notorious. The empress Elizabeth died on the 5th of See also:

January 1762. The grand duke succeeded without opposition as Peter III. His behaviour to his wife continued to be brutal and menacing, and he went on as before offending the See also:national sentiment of the Russian people. In See also:July he committed the insane See also:error of retiring with his Holsteiners to See also:Oranienbaum, leaving his wife at St Petersburg. On the 13th and 14th of that See also:month a " pronunciamiento " of the regiments of the guard removed him from the See also:throne and made Catherine empress. The See also:history of this revolt is still obscure. It has naturally been said that she organized the See also:mutiny from the first, and some plausibility is conferred on this belief by the fact that the See also:guards were manipulated by the four See also:Orlov See also:brothers. The eldest, See also:Gregory, was her recognized chief See also:lover, and he was associated with his brother See also:Alexis in the See also:office of favourite. On the other See also:hand, there does not appear to have been any need for organization. The hatred See also:felt for Peter III. was spontaneous, and Catherine had no need to do more than let it be known that she was prepared to profit by her husband's downfall. Peter, who behaved with abject cowardice, was sent to a See also:country See also:house at Ropcha, where he died on the 15th or 18th of July of See also:official " See also:apoplexy." The truth is not known, and Frederick the Great at least professed long afterwards to believe that Catherine had no immediate share in the See also:murder.

She had no need to speak. See also:

Common-sense must have shown the leaders of the revolt that they would never be safe while Peter lived, and they had insults to avenge. The mere fact that Catherine II., a small German princess without hereditary claim to the throne, ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796 amid the See also:loyalty of the great mass of the people, and the respect and admiration of her neighbours, is sufficient See also:proof of the force of her character. Her See also:title to be considered a great reforming ruler is by no means equally clear. See also:Voltaire and the encyclopaedists with whom she corresponded, and on whom she conferred gifts and See also:pensions, repaid her by the grossest flattery, while doing their best to profit by her generosity. They made her a reputation for " See also:philosophy," and showed the sincerity of their own love of freedom by finding excuses for the See also:partition of See also:Poland. There is a very great difference between Catherine II. as she appears in the panegyrics of the encyclopaedists and Catherine as she appears in her See also:correspondence and in her acts. Her See also:foreign admirers amused her, and were useful in spreading her reputation. The See also:money they cost her was a small sum in comparison to the 12,000,000 she lavished on her long See also:series of lovers, who began with Soltykov and See also:Stanislaus See also:Poniatowski (q.v.) before she came to the throne, and ended with the youthful See also:Platon Zubov, who was See also:tenant of the See also:post at her death. She spent money freely on purchasing See also:works of See also:art and curios. Yet she confessed with her usual candour that she had no taste for See also:painting, See also:sculpture or See also:music. Her supposed love of literature does not appear to have amounted to more than a lively curiosity, which could be satisfied by dipping into a great number of books.

She had a passion for See also:

writing, and produced not only a mass of letters written in French, but See also:pamphlets and plays, comic and serious, in French and Russian. One on the history of See also:Oleg, the more or less legendary Varangian, who was See also:guardian to the son of Rurik, was described by her as an " See also:imitation of See also:Shakespeare." The See also:scheme is not unlike that of a " chronicle See also:play." Her letters are full of vivacity, of See also:colour, and at times of insight and wit, but she never learnt to write either French or German correctly. The letters to Voltaire attributed to her are not hers, and were probably composed for her by Andrei See also:Shuvalov. The philosophers and encyclopaedists who, by the mouth of See also:Diderot, complimented Catherine on being See also:superior to such female affectations as modesty and chastity, flattered her to some extent even here. She enforced outward decency in her house-hold, was herself temperate in eating and drinking, and was by no means tolerant of disorderly behaviour on the part of the ladies of her court. They flattered her much more when they dwelt on her philanthropy and her large share of the enlightenment of the age. She was kind to her servants, and was very fond of young See also:children. She was rarely angry with people who merely contradicted her or failed to perform their servicein her See also:household. But she could order the use of the See also:knout and of See also:mutilation as freely as the most barbarous of her predecessors when she thought the authority of the See also:state was at stake, and she did employ them readily to suppress all opinions of a heterodox kind, whether in matters of religion or of politics, after the beginning of the French Revolution. Her renowned See also:toleration stopped See also:short of allowing the dissenters to build chapels, and her passion for legislative reform See also:grew See also:cold when she found that she must begin by the emancipation of the See also:serfs. There were exceptions even to her See also:personal kindness to those about her. She dropped her German relations.

She kept a son born to her shortly before the See also:

palace revolution of r 762, whose paternity could not be attributed to Peter, at a distance, though she provided for him. He was brought up in a private station under the name of Bobrinski. She was a harsh See also:mother to her son Paul. It seems highly probable that she intended to exclude him from the See also:succession, and to leave the crown to her eldest See also:grandson See also:Alexander, afterwards the See also:emperor Alexander I. Her harshness to Paul was probably as much due to political distrust as to what she saw of his character. Whatever else Catherine may have been she was emphatically a sovereign and a politician who was in the last resort guided by the reason of state. She was resolved not to allow her authority to be disputed by her son, or shared by him. As a ruler, Catherine professed a great contempt for See also:system, which she said she had been taught to despise by her See also:master Voltaire. She declared that in politics a capable ruler must be guided by " circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions." Her conduct was on the See also:surface very unstable. In a moment of candour she confessed that she was a great commenceusethat she had a mania for beginning innumerable enterprises which she never pursued. This, however, is chiefly true of her See also:internal See also:administration, and even there it should be qualified. Many of her beginnings were carried on by others and were not barren.

Her foreign policy was as consistent as it could be considering the forces she had to contend against. It was steadily aimed to secure the greatness and the safety of Russia. There can be no question that she loved her adopted country sincerely, and had an See also:

affection for her people, and an See also:opinion of their great qualities which she did not hesitate to See also:express in hyperbolical terms. Her zeal for the reputation of the Russians was almost comically shown by the immense trouble she took to compile an See also:answer to the Voyage en Siberie of the French astronomer See also:Chappe d'Auteroche. The See also:book is in three big quartos, and Catherine's answer—which was never finished—is still larger. Chappe d'Auteroche had discovered that See also:Siberia was not a See also:paradise, and had observed that the Russians were dirty in their habits, and that masters whipped their servants, male and female. Her patriotism was less innocently shown by her conquests. Yet it may be doubted whether any capable ruler of Russia could have abstained from aggressions at the expense of the rights of the Saxon See also:family in See also:Courland, of Poland, and of See also:Turkey (see Russia: History). It does seem now to be clearly proved that the partition of Poland was not suggested by her, as has been frequently asserted. Catherine would have preferred to See also:control the country through a See also:vassal sovereign of the type of Stanislaus Poniatowski, the old lover whose See also:election she secured in 1763. Poland was incapable of maintaining its See also:independence at the time of the first partition (1772), and the See also:division of the unhappy country was forced on by Austria and Prussia. In the See also:case of the second partition in 1793, she did show herself to be very unscrupulous.

Her opposition to the reform of the See also:

Polish See also:government was plainly due to a wish to preserve an excuse for further spoliation, but her conduct was less cruel and See also:base than that of Prussia. Catherine had adhered to her husband's policy of a Prussian alliance. While Frederick the Great lived she was impressed by his ability. But the Prussian alliance became hateful to her, and her later correspondence with See also:Grimm overflows with contempt of his successor Frederick See also:William II., who is always spoken of by her as " Brother Gu." Her exasperation with the affectations of the Prussian king was unquestionably increased by her See also:discovery that he would not be induced to apply himself to a crusade against the French Revolution, which by employing all his forces would have See also:left Russia See also:free to annex the whole of what remained of Poland. But at least she did not enter into a See also:solemn engagement to defend the Poles who were engaged in reforming their constitution, and then throw them over in order to share in the See also:plunder of their country. Catherine's See also:Turkish policy was at first marked by a certain grandiosity. When the See also:Turks declared See also:war in 1768 in order to support Poland, which they looked upon as a necessary buffer state, she retaliated by the great Greek scheme. For a time it was a pet See also:idea with her to revive the Greek See also:empire, and to plant the See also:cross,with the See also:double-headed Russian See also:eagle, at See also:Constantinople. She formed a See also:corps of Greek cadets, caused her younger grandson to be christened See also:Constantine, and began the policy of presenting Russia to the Christian subjects of the See also:Porte as their deliverer. In pursuit of this heroic enterprise, which excited the loud admiration of Voltaire, she sent a See also:fleet under Alexis Orlov into the Mediterranean in 1770. Orlov tempted the -Greeks of the Morea to take up arms, and then left them in the See also:lurch. When Catherine found herself opposed by the policy of See also:France and See also:England, and threatened by the See also:jealousy of Prussia and Austria, she dropped the Greek See also:design, observing to Voltaire that the descendants of the Spartans were much degenerated.

The introduction into the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji of 1774 of a clause by which the Porte guaranteed the rights of its Christian subjects, 'and of another .giving Russia the right to interfere on behalf of a new Russian church in Constantinople, advertised the claim of the tsars to be the natural protectors of the Orthodox in the See also:

Ottoman dominions; but when she took up arms again in 1788 in alliance with See also:Joseph II. (q.v.), it was to make a mere war of conquest and partition. The Turkish See also:wars show the weak See also:side of Catherine as a ruler. Though she had mounted the throne by a military revolt and entered on great schemes of conquest, she never took an intelligent interest in her- See also:army. She neglected it in See also:peace, allowed it to be shamefully administered in war, and could never be made to understand that it was not in her See also:power to improvise generals out of her favourites. It is to her See also:credit that she saw the capacity of See also:Suvarov, yet she never had as much confidence in him as she had in See also:Potemkin, who may have been a See also:man of See also:genius, but was certainly no general. She DE' See also:MEDICI took care never to have to See also:deal with a disciplined opponent, except the Swedes, who See also:beat her, but who were very few. It was the misfortune of Catherine that she lived too long. She disgraced herself by living with her last lover, Zubov, when she was a woman of sixty-seven, trusting him with power and lavishing public money on him. The outbreak of the French Revolution stripped off the See also:varnish of philosophy and philanthropy which she had assumed in earlier years. She had always entertained a quiet contempt for the French writers whom she flattered and pensioned, and who served her as an advertising agency in the See also:west. When the result of their teaching was seen in See also:Paris, good-natured contempt was turned to hatred.

She then became a persecutor in her own dominions of the very ideas she had encouraged in former years. She scolded and preached a crusade, without, however, departing from the steady pursuit of her own, interests in Poland, while endeavouring with transparent cunning to push Austria and Prussia into an invasion of France with all their forces. Her See also:

health began to break down, and it appears to be nearly certain that towards the end she suffered from See also:hysteria of a shameful kind. It is See also:plain. that her See also:intellect had begun to fail just before her death, for she allowed the reigning favourite, Platon Zubov, to persuade her to despatch his brother See also:Valerian, with the See also:rank of See also:field See also:marshal and an army of 2o,000 men, on a crack-brained scheme to invade See also:India by way of See also:Persia. and See also:Tibet. The refusal of the king of See also:Sweden to marry into her family unless the See also:bride would become a Lutheran is said to have thrown her into a convulsion of rage which hastened her death. On the 9th of See also:November 1796, she was seized by a See also:fit of apoplexy, and died on the evening of the loth. All other accounts of Catherine II. have been superseded by Waliszewski's two volumes, Le See also:Roman d'une imperatrice (Paris, 1893) and Autour d'un Trone: Catherine II., ses callaborateurs, ses amis, ses favoris (Paris, 1894). The original See also:sources for the history of her policy and her character are to be found in the publications of the Imperial Russian See also:Historical Society, vols. i.-cix. (St Petersburg), begun in 1867; her private and official correspondence will be found in vols. i., ii., iv., v., vi., vii., viii., ix., x., xiv., xv., xvii., xx., See also:xxiii., xxxii., xxxiii., See also:xxxvi., xlii., xlvii., xlviii., lvii., lxvii., lxviii., lxxxvii., xcvii., xeviii., cvii., cxv., cxviii.

End of Article: CATHERINE II

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
CATHERINE I 		[next]
CATHERINE OF ARAGON (1485-1536)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries