Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive. [73] Between 1762 and 1766, she had built the "Chinese Palace" at Oranienbaum which reflected the chinoiserie style of architecture and gardening. Far away from the capital, they were confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the throne.[66]. Catherine led a successful bloodless coup and put herself on the throne in his stead. Terms of Use The monarch was succeeded by her son,. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. In the end, it seems the misogynists somewhat got their wish since the rumour still doggedly persists to this day. Catherine created the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly to help regulate Muslim-populated regions as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of mullahs. [71] She ordered the planting of the first "English garden" at Tsarskoye Selo in May 1770. She read widely and corresponded with many of the prominent thinkers of the era, including Voltaire and Diderot. And yet it was important to me that there were tent poles of things that were true, [like] her being a kid who didn't speak the language, marrying the wrong man and responding to that by deciding to change the country.. The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years. Letters exchanged by the couple testify to the ardent nature of their relationship: In one missive, Catherine declared, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, you are so handsome, clever, jovial and funny; when I am with you I attach no importance to the world. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness. Paul ascended to the throne and was known as Emperor Paul I. Catherine's will was discovered in . 2, part 2, Chapter 3, V]. ", Madame Vige Le Brun also describes the empress at a gala:[85]. Cause of Death: Stroke. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split 52,000km2 (20,000sqmi) among them. [27] Her coronation marks the creation of one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty, the Imperial Crown of Russia, designed by Swiss-French court diamond jeweller Jrmie Pauzi. The emperor's eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the Prussian king Frederick II, alienated the same groups that Catherine had cultivated. Catherine was crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 22 September 1762. He was strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, real, and normal schools at the village, town, and provincial capital levels. To the general public, Catherine is perhaps best known for conducting a string of salacious love affairs. [79] For philosophy, she liked books promoting what has been called "enlightened despotism", which she embraced as her ideal of an autocratic but reformist government that operated according to the rule of law, not the whims of the ruler, hence her interest in Blackstone's legal commentaries. Her son Pavel later was inoculated as well. [67] Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during Pugachev's Rebellion of 1774. She thus spent much of this time alone in her private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality. By 1786, Catherine excluded all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 17811797). Spread fertilizer over the soil, all the way to the edges of the canopy. In these cases, it was necessary to replace this "fake" empress with the "true" empress, whoever she may be. Catherine never even mentioned her daughter's death in her memoirs. Very few members of the nobility entered the church, which became even less important than it had been. [36][37], It was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be led by the seasoned general, Ivan Gudovich, but the empress followed the advice of her lover, Prince Zubov, and entrusted the command to his youthful brother, Count Valerian Zubov. [133] Sometime after 9:00 she was found on the floor with her face purplish, her pulse weak, her breathing shallow and laboured. Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography, USA. After Peter took a mistress, Catherine became involved with other prominent court figures. Still, there was a start of industry, mainly textiles around Moscow and ironworks in the Ural Mountains, with a labour force mainly of serfs, bound to the works. Perhaps the most readily recognizable anecdote related to Catherine centers on a horse. In 1785, Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing the power of the landed oligarchs. Upon arriving in St. Petersburg in 1744, Sophie converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, adopted a Russian name and began learning to speak the language. While the nobility provided appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send their own children to private, prestigious institutions. [13], According to Alexander Hertzen, who edited a version of Catherine's memoirs, Catherine had her first sexual relationship with Sergei Saltykov while living at Oranienbaum as her marriage to Peter had not been consummated, as Catherine later claimed. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the empress, changed the face of the country. The Commonwealth had become the Russian protectorate since the reign of Peter I, but he did not intervene into the problem of political freedoms of dissidents advocating for their religious freedoms only. Awaking from her delirium, however, Sophie said, "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my Orthodox father [clergyman]". | (Lord Byron's Don Juan, around the age of twenty-two, becomes her lover after the siege of Ismail (1790), in a fiction written only about twenty-five years after Catherine's death in 1796. Her hunger for fame centred on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick. After the "Toleration of All Faiths" Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build mosques and practise all of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to Mecca, which previously had been denied. Bored with her husband, Catherine became an avid reader of books, mostly in French. Add some worm castings if you choose. Only in this way apart from conscription to the army could a serf leave the farm for which he was responsible but this was used for selling serfs to people who could not own them legally because of absence of nobility abroad. [120] By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia. The crown contains 75 pearls and 4,936 Indian diamonds forming laurel and oak leaves, the symbols of power and strength, and is surmounted by a 398.62-carat ruby spinel that previously belonged to the Empress Elizabeth, and a diamond cross. [92] The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. Larry was not just a beloved family member, but also a husband, friend, mentor, peer, inventor, advisor, and audio enthusiast. The British ambassador James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, reported back to London: Her Majesty has a masculine force of mind, obstinacy in adhering to a plan, and intrepidity in the execution of it; but she wants the more manly virtues of deliberation, forbearance in prosperity and accuracy of judgment, while she possesses in a high degree the weaknesses vulgarly attributed to her sexlove of flattery, and its inseparable companion, vanity; an inattention to unpleasant but salutary advice; and a propensity to voluptuousness which leads to excesses that would debase a female character in any sphere of life. Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp (24 October 1712 - 30 May 1760) was a member of the German House of Holstein-Gottorp, a princess consort of Anhalt-Zerbst by marriage, and the regent of Anhalt-Zerbst from 1747 to 1752 on behalf of her minor son, Frederick Augustus.She is best known as the mother of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Peace ensued for 20 years in spite of the assassination of Gustav III in 1792. So why then has the legacy of Russia's longest-ruling woman been stained with these rumours for over two centuries? In addition, they received land to till, but were taxed a certain percentage of their crops to give to their landowners. Ostensibly reigning on behalf of Peters heir apparentthe couples 8-year-old son, Paulshe had no intention of yielding the throne once her son came of age. For all her show of sensuality, Catherine was actually rather prudish, says Jaques. With Peter out of the picture, Catherine was able to consolidate power from a position of strength. Ruler of Russia from 1762 to 1796, Catherine championed Enlightenment ideals, expanded her empires borders, spearheaded judicial and administrative reforms, dabbled in vaccination, curated a vast art collection that formed the foundation of one of the worlds greatest museums, exchanged correspondence with such philosophers as Voltaire and Dennis Diderot, penned operas and childrens fairy tales, founded the countrys first state-funded school for women, drafted her own legal code, and promoted a national system of education. I have never been so happy. Such all-consuming passion proved unsustainablebut while the pairs romantic partnership faded after just two years, they remained on such good terms that Potemkin continued to wield enormous political influence, acting as tsar in all but name, one observer noted. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of roubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland and Sweden, to counter the power of the BourbonHabsburg League. Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the 28 June 1762 coup d'tat against her husband, but she preferred to remain the dowager empress of Russia rather than marrying anyone. In addition to the textbooks translated by the commission, teachers were provided with the "Guide to Teachers". [83][84], Catherine also received Elisabeth Vige Le Brun at her Tsarskoye Selo residence in St Petersburg, by whom she was painted shortly before her death. This was one of the chief reasons behind rebellions, including Pugachev's Rebellion of Cossacks, nomads, peoples of the Volga, and peasants. The ultimate goal for the Russian government, however, was to topple the anti-Russian shah (king), and to replace him with a half-brother, Morteza Qoli Khan, who had defected to Russia and was therefore pro-Russian. Adapted from his 2008 play of the same name, the ten-part miniseries is the brainchild of screenwriter Tony McNamara. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with zeal, rising at night and walking about her bedroom barefoot, repeating her lessons. Catherine I of Russia. She sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes. I think the title card reads an occasionally true story, McNamara tells the Sydney Morning Heralds Michael Idato. She died of natural causes, of a stroke, when she was 67 years old. In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. [19] In the first version of her memoirs, edited and published by Alexander Hertzen, Catherine strongly implied that the real father of her son Paul was not Peter, but rather Saltykov.[20]. The commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. Cookie Settings, Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Hulu and Getty Images, Photo by Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images, Ad Meskens via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0, Godot13 via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0. [78] For information about particular nations that interested her, she read Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville's Memoirs de Chine to learn about the vast and wealthy Chinese empire that bordered her empire; Franois Baron de Tott's Memoires de les Turcs et les Tartares for information about the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean khanate; the books of Frederick the Great praising himself to learn about Frederick just as much as to learn about Prussia; and the pamphlets of Benjamin Franklin denouncing the British Crown to understand the reasons behind the American Revolution. She addressed me immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: "I am delighted to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. Her coffee was brought in, she drank it and sat down to write. After the rebels, their French and European volunteers, and their allied Ottoman Empire had been defeated, she established in the Commonwealth a system of government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council, under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys. In private, says Jaques, she balanced a constant craving for affection with a ruthless determination to paint Russia as a truly European country. Throughout Russia, the inspectors encountered a patchy response. In 1768, she formally became the protector of political rights of dissidents and peasants of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, which provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (17681772), supported by France. [102], In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that called themselves the Old Believers, Catherine passed an act that allowed Old Believers to practise their faith openly without interference. The empress was a great lover of art and books, and ordered the construction of the Hermitage in 1770 to house her expanding collection of paintings, sculpture, and books. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. Catherine perceived that the Qianlong Emperor was an unpleasant and arrogant neighbour, once saying: "I shall not die until I have ejected the Turks from Europe, suppressed the pride of China and established trade with India". After holding more than 200 sittings, the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory. As Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter planned war against Denmark, Russia's traditional ally against Sweden. Catherine's death is well documented. Russia inflicted some of the heaviest defeats ever suffered by the Ottoman Empire, including the Battle of Chesma (57 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770). Her marriage to Peter III of Russia lasted from 1745 until his suspicious death in 1762, and she had at least three lovers during this time (Catherine herself hinted that her husband . She fell into a coma and died the next day whilst lying in her bed. [d] As a patron of the arts, she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, including the establishment of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe. The commission studied the reform projects previously installed by I.I. May 14, 2020. The most famous of these rumors is that she died after having sex with her horse. Amazingly, writes Montefiore, the regicidal, uxoricidal German usurper recovered her reputation not just as Russian tsar and successful imperialist but also as an enlightened despot, the darling of the philosophes.. Elizabeth therefore allowed Catherine to have sexual lovers only after a new legal heir, Catherine and Peter's son, survived and appeared to be strong.[16]. While the state did not technically allow them to own possessions, some serfs were able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for their freedom. These differences led both parties to seek intimacy elsewhere, a fact that raised questions, both at the time and in the centuries since, about the paternity of their son, the future Paul I. Catherine herself suggested in her memoirs that Paul was the child of her first lover, Sergei Saltykov. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765.