Catherine the Great

Considered to be one of the most influential and powerful woman of Russia was Catherine the Great, who ironically enough wasn’t born with the name Catherine nor was she Russian. She had overthrown her husband when he was the Grand Duke of Russia and took over the country on her own. Her reign as the Grand Duchess had been marked with numerous accomplishments that had never been seen by Russia or Europe. Catherine was a very active ruler and took great pride in being in control of the country. She was a patron of the arts and tried to pass reforms, which ultimately failed due to lack of funding. Another huge part of Catherine’s life were the numerous affairs she took part in while married and during her time of leadership. This paper will explore the many different aspects that made Catherine the Great an important component of history. Intelligent, ruthless, and sexually insatiable: she was the most powerful woman in the world, dragging Russia 'out of its medieval stupor and into the modern world'.

She had been born Princess Sophia-August Fredericka on May 2, 1729 in the Baltic seaport town of Stettin. Her father, Christian August, was an obscure German military princeling and her mother was Princess Joanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Princess Joanna sought the advancement of family through the marrying of her children into the royal houses of Europe. In 1743 the Empress of Russia, Elizabeth I, went in search for a wife for her nephew and heir to the throne, Grand Duke Peter, and selected Princess Sophia as his future spouse. At the young age of fourteen, she had relocated to Russia and began her journey into being an heir. After years of intensive education, Princess Sophia had been converted to the Russian Orthodoxy and had received the name that we know her as, Catherine. She had married Grand Duke Peter on August 21, 1945. (Atchison)(Nosotro)

Catherine and Peter had endured an unhappy marriage for seventeen years. Peter was a “sickly,...