How the unstoppable Russian ruler enthralled an empire with sex, lies and military might.
She has gone down in history as ‘Catherine the Great’ thanks to her dedication and devotion to her adopted country. One of the Russian Empire’s greatest leaders, Catherine oversaw its unprecedented expansion, a series of military successes and the arrival of the Russian Enlightenment. Her reign is considered the Golden Age of Russia but her time on the throne was full of salacious scandal, intrigue and hidden truths that others used to tarnish her legacy. So, what really happened during her reign?
Catherine was born in 1729 as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, an impoverished German royal. Her prospects were dim until Elizabeth, empress of Russia, wrote to Sophie’s mother proposing a match with her nephew and heir, Grand Duke Peter of Holstein. It was keenly accepted and Sophie was determined to seize her destiny, learning to speak Russian fluently, which greatly impressed Elizabeth. She was a perfect fit for the Russian throne.
In contrast, her betrothed was a terrible choice for an emperor. Born and raised in Germany, Peter was brought to Russia aged 14 and he hated it. He refused to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church — unlike Sophie, who converted and adopted a new name, Catherine, in 1744. A year later, the couple married in Saint Petersburg. Recalling the wedding in her memoirs, Catherine stated that her “heart predicted but little happiness; ambition alone sustained me.”
Catherine thought greatness awaited her. Instead, her husband turned out to be a drunk who played with toy soldiers like a child. They despised each other and their marriage went unconsummated for several years. But Catherine didn’t want to waste her life and she told herself that she would become “the sovereign Empress of Russia in [her] own right.”
Feeling isolated and unloved, Catherine was getting desperate. After years of marriage, there was no heir, Elizabeth was breathing down her neck and the court was watching her every move. She started a series of affairs, firstly with Sergei Saltykov, a handsome rake and court member. Elizabeth actually encouraged their relationship, hoping it would result in a pregnancy.
Catherine finally gave birth to a long-awaited heir, Paul, in 1754. The paternity is still debated today but Catherine implied in her memoirs that it was Saltykov, though possibly only to spite Peter. Regardless, she succeeded in her purpose and stabilised her position at court as the mother of the future emperor.
However, Catherine barely saw her baby as Elizabeth whisked him away and raised him herself. Catherine was devastated and her affair with Saltykov ended when he was sent away, too. Meanwhile, Peter’s behaviour became foolish, worrying those around him. His wife, having fulfilled her duty, couldn’t bear Russia crumbling in his insipid hands because he had failed to do his. She began to mastermind his downfall.
Elizabeth died in 1761 and Peter became Peter III. Catherine was now empress consort but it wasn’t enough — she wanted sole power. Support for her grew after Peter’s childish behaviour at Elizabeth’s funeral, where he created a game to alleviate his boredom. Taking advantage of this, Catherine openly grieved for the deceased empress, winning many admirers in the process.
Peter’s behaviour was inexcusable. He skipped his own coronation and withdrew from the Seven Years’ War — despite the fact Russia was winning — returning all the land that they had conquered from Prussia. His actions disrespected those killed or injured during the conflict, alienating the army. Peter’s contempt for the Church and his desire to wage war against Russia’s long-time ally of Denmark exacerbated growing hatred towards him. He flaunted his mistress, Elizaveta Vorontsova, stating his desire to divorce Catherine and disinherit their son.
By April 1762, the situation was unbearable. Peter publicly humiliated Catherine at a state banquet by denouncing her as a fool, leaving her in tears. Whispers circulated that night that the emperor, incensed and drunk, had ordered his wife’s arrest. Fortunately, Prince Georg Ludwig of Holstein, Catherine’s uncle, managed to dissuade him from committing such an impulsive act. It was the final straw and Catherine knew that she and her son were now in grave danger.
The empress knew that if her coup was to succeed, she needed someone with influence and power by her side. She started an affair with Grigory Orlov, a lieutenant of the Izmailovsky Guards who had caught her eye the year before. Catherine had chosen her new lover wisely. Alongside his brother and fellow guard, Alexei, he had the political influence that she needed to sway the imperial guardsmen to her faction. Aside from the political benefits, the couple also fell deeply in love and Orlov was determined to see his beloved on the Russian throne.
However, there was one obstacle that stopped Catherine from seizing power: she fell pregnant with Orlov’s child. Previously, Catherine and Peter had been sleeping together infrequently and she could have claimed that he was the baby’s father, however unlikely it may have seemed. But as communication between the two had practically stopped, there was no denying a secret liaison. Nobody could uncover the truth lost it risk Catherine losing her valuable supporters. She managed to hide her pregnancy under voluminous dresses for months, fooling everyone around her. In April 1762, she secretly gave birth to a little boy, who ended up being raised far away from court.
Peter soon left for Oranienbaum, in preparation for his fight against Denmark, while Catherine stayed at the nearby palace of Monplaisir. Her supporters prepared themselves and among them were the Orlov brothers, a number of guardsmen and Princess Dashkova, Elizaveta’s sister. Even Nikita Panin, the politician entrusted as Paul’s governor by Elizabeth, supported Catherine. With his control over her heir, Panin’s backing was vital for the empress if she wanted the takeover to be seen as legitimate.
Peter ignored rumours of an impending coup but a conspirator was arrested on 27 June. Fearing that she would be exposed, Catherine, barely dressed, climbed into a waiting carriage and rode straight to Saint Petersburg in the early hours of 28 June. She headed to the barracks of her loyal guardsmen, visiting the Izmailovsky regiment first. The colonel of the regiment, Krill Razumovsky, had loved Catherine for years. They pledged their allegiance to her and those who resisted were arrested. The usurper made her way to the Winter Palace to be sworn in as Russia’s new ruler, to the exclamation of the crowd there.
As for Peter, the seriousness of the situation sank in as he arrived at Monplaisir to find it abandoned, with Catherine long gone. Despairing, he begged with his estranged wife, hoping to negotiate an escape to his native duchy of Holstein with Elizaveta. The answer was no.
Peter fell into a drunken stupor, while Catherine readied herself outside the Winter Palace, wearing the uniform of a male guard. Climbing onto her horse, it was time to arrest her husband. Word arrived of Peter’s arrest and Catherine sent him a document of abdication, which he was forced to sign. Just over a week later, Peter was killed at Ropsha while in the custody of Alexei Orlov.
Catherine waited a day before issuing a statement, claiming that Peter died of “a haemorrhoidal colic.” But as Peter’s body lay in state, it was bloody and bruised, the hallmarks of strangulation likely committed by Alexei himself When Alexei wrote to Catherine to inform her of Peter’s illness, he stated ominously, “I fear that he might die tonight, but I fear even more that he might live through it.”
As suspicions arose that Catherine had committed regicide, she became nervous that her reign was already tainted. Was she involved in Peter’s death? It couldn’t be proven, but the fact that her position was now more secure is beyond certain. Catherine wanted sole, autocratic power, yet some of her co-conspirators, namely Panin and Dashkova, expected her to assume the regency on behalf of her young son. Catherine remained stubborn and was finally crowned in a sumptuous coronation in September 1762. Her message that she was in control came across loud and clear.
Catherine discovered the Enlighenment movement as a young girl and dreamed of modernising Russia. Conversing with some of the most famous French philosophers of the day, such as Voltaire and Diderot, Catherine had the opportunity to become the enlightened leader she craved to be. However, Russia was a mess. With a poor administrative system and a backwards economy, the country languished in the shadows of the other world powers. It needed a complete overhaul.
Catherine wanted to introduce a better education system, build new cities, develop Russian culture and possibly abolish serfdom. She wrote the Nakaz, also known as the Great Instruction, a momentous piece that took her two years to complete. It was inspired by the principles of Western philosophers and formed Catherine’s idea of the perfect government. She presented it to the Legislative Commission, assembled in 1767, which consisted of approximately 500 people, all from different classes of society. On the surface, it advertised Enlightenment thinking as a way to revitalise Russia — in reality, it reinforced Catherine’s belief in absolutist monarchy.
The Commission failed to achieve anything before it was disbanded in 1768. It embodied the hypocrisy that Catherine would peddle throughout her reign — she wanted to be perceived around the world as an enlightened leader but the truth was a very different story. The obvious example is the issue of serfdom. At one time, Catherine may have considered reforming or abolishing serfdom in the Russian Empire altoggther but the economy depended too heavily on the workforce, who belonged to the aristocracy, and Catherine ultimately relied on the nobles for support. Consequently, apart from slightly improving the rights of serfs, Catherine actually did nothing to improve their situation throughout her reign.
Nevertheless, she did accomplish some of her goals. She was committed to improving education in Russia to bring it in line with the West and alongside new towns and cities, she founded academies, libraries and schools across her vast empire. For the first time, free schooling became available for all children — except serfs — and the curriculum became standardised. Furthermore, Catherine championed education for women and even established the Smolny Institute for young noble girls, the first of its kind, in Saint Petersburg in 1764.
As a fierce patron of the arts, her personal collection of artwork was the largest in Europe at the time. Having amassed thousands of masterpieces, she founded the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in 1764 and it is still a museum of art and culture today, open to the public since 1852. She also imported Western literature and encouraged the arrival of foreign artists and architects to improve Russia culturally. A woman on a mission, the empress even sent Russian academics abroad to learn the ways of Western culture and society and disseminate them back in the motherland.
As for foreign affairs, Catherine took massive strides in comparison to her predecessors. She patronised her former lovers with titles, money and power throughout her reign. However, there was one that she went the extra mile for — Stanislaw Poniatowski. They had had an affair back in 1755, when he was the Polish secretary to the British envoy in Russia, but it had ended after Poniatowski was forced to leave during the Seven Years’ War, which pitched Russia against British-backed Prussia. He had hoped to reignite their romance but Catherine knew this was too dangerous and told him, “You are likely to get us both slaughtered.”
Instead, when the Polish throne became vacant in 1763, Catherine promised it to Poniatowski. It was the perfect chance to expand her empire and he was elected under the threat of the Russian military in 1764. Straight away, Poniatowski attempted to pass a series of reforms that weren’t part of Catherine’s plan. She needed Poland to remain a weak protectorate and her former lover was supposed to be her puppet, not a lone wolf. When rebellion broke out in Poland in 1768, partly in reaction to Russian influence in the country, Catherine invaded under the pretence of restoring control.
Her dominance over Poland concerned Prussia, Austria and, in particular, the Ottoman Empire, which suffered a series of defeats at her hands during the ongoing Russo-Turkish War that had also broken out in 1768. These losses shifted the European power of balance in Russia’s favour, no doubt to Catherine’s delight. However, the arrival of bubonic plague in Moscow between 1770 and 1772 and the resulting riots pushed Catherine into seeking a truce as a reprieve.
To rebalance the power in Europe, Russia, Austria and Prussia all agreed as neighbours of Poland to partition the country among themselves, without discussing it with the Polish king. As a result, Catherine gained around 92,000 km2 of territory for her empire — almost the size of modern-day Portugal. It was the first of three partitions of Poland, which led to Poniatowski’s downfall in 1795, just a year before Catherine’s death. He spent his final years in Russia, surviving on a pension that was provided by the empress.
Following Catherine’s victory over the Turks in the Russo-Turkish War in 1774, tensions were high with the Ottoman Empire. With the territory she gained, she established a province to the south of Russia, known as New Russia, now part of modern-day Ukraine). When she annexed Crimea in 1783, a former Turkish territory, a second conflict broke out. The second conflict, fought from 1787 to 1792, saw the Turks heavily defeated again and Catherine’s authority over Crimea was secured. It was one of the greatest military achievements of her reign.
During the trouble with Poland and the first Turkish war, Orlov continued to dominate the court as Catherine’s lover. During the decade since the coup, Orlov was rewarded with lands and titles and is credited for dealing with the Moscow plague riots. Catherine considered marrying him, until she realised that such a move was far too controversial. Despite concern about Orlov’s power, he held no sway over Catherine or her governance of Russia. She knew that he was too politically inept to deal with such matters, choosing to consult Panin instead.
Orlov’s relationship with Catherine sparked intrigue and jealously from others, especially Panin, and by 1771, he was plotting his rival’s downfall. His scheming paid off as Catherine was made aware of Orlov’s various infidelities. Angered and heartbroken, she sent Orlov away from court, never to regain her favour again.
During her relationship with Orlov, Catherine became close to Grigory Potemkin. Their love story is infamous but not straightforward. They met on the night of the coup and Catherine rewarded him for his loyalty by promoting him to gentleman of the bedchamber, a position that allowed them to meet frequently. Potemkin had loved Catherine ever since and unlike the other men at court, he wasn’t afraid of Orlov.
Potemkin was too bold, openly declaring his love for Catherine at every opportunity. She enjoyed his attention but was too hesitant to pursue anything, perhaps because of Orlov. However, she didn’t discourage Potemkin and, seeing his potential, Catherine began to forge him a political career — the start of his dramatic rise within the court.
After suffering a severe eye injury, Potemkin suddenly left the court. Catherine missed him terribly and after 18 months, she demanded his return in 1767. She appointed him as an army paymaster before promoting him as the Guardian of Exotic Peoples for her Legislative Commission, a politically important role. When the First Russo-Turkish War broke out, Potemkin was desperate to go the front and Catherine allowed it, through she longed for his return.
After Orlov’s dismissal, Catherine distracted herself with a new, younger lover, Alexander Vasilchikov, much to Potemkin’s disappointment when he briefly returned in 1772. However, Catherine’s interest in Vasilchikov faded quickly, although she compensated him with a sizeable pension and lands. Instead, her thoughts turned back to Potemkin, now a war hero thanks to his military success abroad.
When Potemkin disappeared from court again at the start of 1774, Catherine finally accepted their love. He returned and their affair started, with Catherine in her mid-40s and Potemkin a decade younger. With his military experience, he was a useful advisor and the first of her lovers with whom Catherine shared power. She bestowed upon him a number of military and political promotions, including governor-general of New Russia, granting him absolute power over the region.
The couple‘s numerous love letters to one another indicate that they secretly married. In a letter to Potemkin, Catherine refers to him as “my dear, sweet angel, my very own friend, my husband,” and in another tells him that she’ll “remain [his] true wife to the grave.” Whether they actually married is uncertain, but considering the nature of the letters and Potemkin's influence at court, it is a possibility.
Unfortunately, their great love affair didn’t last. Catherine and Potemkin were both passionate but, plagued with jealousies and insecurities, their relationship mutually cooled. By 1775, Catherine had a new favourite but unlike her previous lovers, Potemkin retained his position of personal and political influence over her for the rest of his life. In fact, he held so much control that rumours swirled that he procured new lovers for Catherine.
Scandalous gossip also spread that the empress’ lovers were vetted for their bedroom skills by one of her ladies-in-waiting before she slept with them. This was likely baseless slander but Catherine’s love for men was well known. Her sexuality became the focus of lewd jokes and crude satires designed to criticise her in Russia and further afield in Europe. Potemkin’s influence over her was also subject to such attacks, causing cracks in her image as an absolute ruler. Her vice was exposed — but Catherine was no less powerful as a result and neither was she ashamed.
While Potemkin was abroad as commander-in-chief during the Second Russo-Turkish War, Catherine caught sight of a vain young officer, Platon Zubov. At 22 years old, he was almost four decades younger than the empress, who at that point had turned 60. Their affair began in 1789 and Catherine loved him deeply. She relied on him, perhaps because of her advanced age, and Zubov rose far quicker than any of her previous lovers. However, the toy boy nature of this relationship once again opened the aging empress up to sexual ridicule.
Catherine’s happiness was hampered by the arrival of tragic news in October 1791 — Potemkin had passed away abroad while negotiating peace treaty with the Turks after days of suffering with fever and symptoms of pneumonia. Catherine was grief-stricken. For the past two decades, he had been her pillar of strength and now she had to manage without him.
For the last five years of her life, the empress lavished her attention on Zubov. He played a crucial role in making decisions during her reign, leaving him envied and despised and the court couldn’t understand Catherine’s infatuation with him. Zubov even managed to convince the empress to give his brother command over her army in the Russo-Persian conflict, which began in April 1796, instead of a seasoned general. Although it turned out to be a good decision, with the younger Zubov returning in victorious glory, there is no denying that this was a different ruler to the one who had usurped the throne three decades earlier.
But Catherine never saw the outcome as she passed away in November 1796. Perverse stories of her unbridled sexuality surfaced, aimed at destroying her legacy and reputation. The most famous one claimed that she had died after engaging in bestiality with a stallion, which crushed her when its supporting harness snapped. The reality is actually far less vulgar —Catherine collapsed following a stroke, never to regain consciousness. It was an uneventful end for an unabashedly colourful woman, who will always be remembered through her epitaph as Catherine the Great.
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A PRETENDER TO THE THRONE
The tragic tale of the rightful heir to the Russian Empire.
Catherine may have successfully seized the throne but throughout her reign she faced off a total of 26 pretenders, all claiming to be the true heir. With the murky details surrounding Peter’s death, a number of pretenders identified themselves as the dead emperor, including Yemelyan Pugachev, whose rebellion developed serious support before it was crushed. There was even a female pretender, Princess Tarakanova, who said that she was the daughter of Empress Elizabeth and her favourite, Alexis Razumovsky.
However, there was one person that Catherine was desperate to keep hidden from the Russian people someone with a real claim to the imperial throne. With the drama of Catherine’s coup, it is possible to forget that Empress Elizabeth had gained her crown through usurpation as well, but this time the deposed was an innocent baby boy. Ivan VI was only two months old when he became emperor after the death of his grandaunt, Empress Anna, in 1740. Ivan’s mother, also named Anna, assumed the regency for him. This new arrangement lasted for just over a year before Elizabeth’s coup, herself a popular figure as she was the daughter of Peter the Great.
Elizabeth vowed to never sign a death warrant during her reign and did not kill Ivan and his family, instead choosing to imprison them together. Ivan was separated from them after rumours of his imprisonment circulated and he ended up at the Shlisselburg fortress where his true identity was so fiercely protected that even his jailer had no idea who the boy really was.
By the time Peter ascended the throne, Ivan was almost 22 years old. When he visited to the prisoner, it was clear that spending almost his entire life isolated and confined had left Ivan mentally impaired. Peter could see that the boy would be no threat, not realising that the real danger was already within his court.
It was during Catherine’s reign that Ivan became a problem. One of his guards, a lieutenant, discovered his true identity and was determined to restore him to the throne. Gathering some men, the lieutenant attacked the jail and demanded the release of Ivan. There was one thing they didn’t know — instructions had been left to kill Ivan if an attempt was ever made to rescue him, orders left by Elizabeth and reinforced by Catherine. Ivan was murdered and quietly buried, an innocent victim in the brutal game for the throne.
Written by Jessica Leggett in "All About History", UK, issue 60, 2018, excerpts pp. 28-36. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.