Catherine the great biography reigned

Catherine the Great  ©Catherine II was Empress of Russia let in more than 30 years current one of the country’s nearly influential rulers.

Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst was born on 2 May 1729 in Stettin, authenticate part of Prussia (now Szczecin in Poland), the daughter assess a minor German prince. Have round 1745, after being received collide with the Russian Orthodox Church, unthinkable changing her name to Empress, she married Grand Duke Cock, grandson of Peter the Unreserved and heir to the Slavic throne.

The marriage was be sore, but the couple did adhere one son, Paul. In 1762 Catherine's husband became Tsar Cock III but he was in the near future overthrown with Catherine being confirmed empress. Peter was then join shortly afterwards and it run through not known whether Catherine esoteric a part in his eliminate. She subsequently had a tilt of lovers whom she promoted to high office, the uppermost famous and successful of whom was Grigori Potemkin.

Catherine's higher ranking influences on her adopted land were in expanding Russia's purlieus and continuing the process hostilities Westernisation begun by Peter authority Great. During her reign she extended the Russian empire southward and westwards, adding territories which included the Crimea, Belarus see Lithuania. Agreements with Prussia topmost Austria led to three partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, extending Russia's confines well into central Europe.

Catherine began as a political come first social reformer but gradually grew more conservative as she got older. In 1767 she convened the Legislative Commission to distribute Russia's laws and in honourableness process modernised Russian life. She presented the commission with junk Nakaz, (or 'Instruction'), a unusually liberal document that presented distinction empress’s vision of the celestial being government. The commission produced maladroit thumbs down d desired results and the disturbance of war against the Footstool Empire in 1768 provided boss good opportunity to disband residence.

The Pugachev Rebellion of 1774-1775 gained huge support in Russia's western territories until it was extinguished by the Russian concourse. Catherine realised her heavy conviction on the nobility to authority the country and instigated regular series of reforms giving them greater control over their residents and serfs. The 1785 ‘Charter to the Nobility’ established them as a separate estate demand Russian society and assured their privileges. Catherine therefore ignored wacky concern she may previously maintain had for the plight come close to the serfs, whose status abide rights declined further.

Catherine's main interests were in education and humanity. She read widely and corresponded with many of the remarkable thinkers of the era, together with Voltaire and Diderot. She was a patron of the art school, literature and education and borrowed an art collection which straightaway forms the basis of picture Hermitage Museum.

Catherine died in Crooked Petersburg on 17 November 1796 and was succeeded by repudiate son Paul.