History of Russia

1. CATHERINE
THE GREAT (II)
BY : HARSHITA HADA , 232E

2. EARLY LIFE
CATHERINE II was born on 21 april ( 2 may),
1729 Stettin, Prussia [now Szczecin, Poland],
was a German-born empress of Russia
(1762–96) .
Original name: Sophie Friederike Auguste,
Prinzessin von Anhalt-Zerbst.
Father Christian August, Prince of
Anhalt-Zerbst
Mother Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
She had two younger brothers and a younger
sister. One of her younger brothers, Wilhem
Christian, died at 12 from scarlet fever.

3. EARLY LIFE
In 1744, on the invitation of Russian Empress
Elisaveta Petrovna (Elizabeth of Russia), Sophia
and her mother arrived to Russia. She
converted to Orthodoxy and was baptized with
the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna, and in 1745
married the Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, the
future Emperor Peter III .
Catherine soon began her Russian education. A
professor taught her how to speak and write in
Russian, while a priest gave her lessons on the
Russian Orthodox Church

4. Catherine and Peter's marriage took place on 21 August
1745. It was a grand affair with ten days of celebrations.
However, Peter and Catherine's marriage was far from
happy, and it remained unconsummated for years.
Catherine had multiple affairs, and there is speculation that
her three children resulted from her affairs.
1, Anna Petrovna - Future king Stanislaus II of Poland
2. Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (Paul I) - Sergei Saltykov (an
officer in the Russian army)
3. Grand Duke Alexei Grigorevich Bobrinky - soldier Grigory
Orlov (1734-1808).
MARRIAGE

5. MARRIAGE
Russia at the time was ruled by Peter the Great’s daughter, the
empress Elizabeth, whose 20-year reign greatly stabilized the
monarchy.
Catherine, however, would not have become empress if her husband
had been at all normal. He was extremely neurotic, rebellious,
obstinate, perhaps impotent, nearly alcoholic, and, most seriously, a
fanatical worshipper of Frederick II of Prussia.
.The empress Elizabeth died on December 25, 1761 (January 5, 1762,
New Style), while Russia, allied with Austria and France, was engaged
in the Seven Years’ War against Prussia. Shortly after Elizabeth’s
death, Peter, now emperor, ended Russia’s participation in the war
and concluded an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia. He made no
attempt to hide his hatred of Russia and his love of his native
Germany; discrediting himself endlessly by his foolish actions, he
also prepared to rid himself of his wife.

6. On 28 June 1762, Catherine seized power and was
proclaimed Russian empress by the Russian army. Peter
was arrested and forced to sign abdication papers.
Shortly afterwards, Peter was killed, most likely by
Grigory's brother, Alexei Orlov (1737-1808). There has
been speculation about Catherine's role in his death, but
there is no concrete evidence to prove her involvement.

7. CORONATION
Catherine was formally crowned empress
regent on 22 September 1762 at the
Assumption Cathedral in Moscow as
Catherine II of Russia. The Imperial Crown of
Russia was made for her coronation and
became the coronation crown for the Russian
sovereigns from that point forward. It
comprised 75 pearls, a diamond cross, a
ruby, and 4,936 Indian diamonds, and gold
and silver half spheres representing the
eastern and western Russian empires

8. REIGN ( 1762- 1796)
●
During her reign, Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire by some 520,000
square kilometres (200,000 sq mi), absorbing New Russia, Crimea, the North Caucasus,
right-bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two
powers—the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Catherine completed the conquest of the south, making Russia the dominant power in the
Balkans following the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. Russia inflicted some of the heaviest
defeats ever suffered by the Ottoman Empire, including at the Battle of Chesma (5–7 July
1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).
In the east , Russia colonised Alaska , establishing Russian America.
Relations with Japan
In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.
This spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and
food.

9. REIGN ( 1762- 1796)
●

10. ECONOMIC POLICY
“Catherine rules through corruption, scandal , political reforms, and land expansion .”
She created many beneficial trading deals with countries such as Japan and Britain.
-
To modernise and revitalise the Russian economy, Catherine invited German farmers to
immigrate to the Volga River Valley. These German farmers brought with them many
innovations, including wheat production, sheep raising, flour milling, and tobacco
production. These innovations caused the Volga River Valley to have a thriving economy.
During Catherine's reign, the first paper money was issued under the Assignation Bank,
which opened in 1769. These notes were called Assignation rubles and slowly replaced
copper coins. These notes were in use until 1849.

12. EDUCATION POLICY
Catherine firmly believed that all Russian children should have a European education. She
appointed Ivan Betskoy (l. 1704-1795) as her Educational Reformer, whose job was to
compare the Russian educational system with European ones. An Educational Commission
was tasked with forming an educational system for Russian Orthodox students between the
ages of five and 18 years old.
The Moscow Foundling Home was founded to educate lower-class and illegitimate children.
However, it ultimately failed due to high mortality rates. Catherine then established the
Smolny Institute for Noble Girls – the first all-girls school in Russia. The school eventually
accepted daughters of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, who were taught music, French,
and dance. The Cadet Corps was completely remodelled in 1766, with philosophy, science,
history, ethics, and international law added to the curriculum

13. THE NAKAZ
The Nakaz
Catherine's Nakaz (Instruction) was a revision of the
Russian legal code. Its full title was Instruction of Her
Imperial Majesty Catherine the Second for the
Commission Charged with Preparing a Project of a New
Code of Laws. Catherine considered this new legal code
her greatest contribution to Russia. She worked daily on
it for two years, and it was finally published on 30 July
1767. She hoped that the Nakaz would usher in a new
age of tolerance and justice in the Russian Empire,
inspired by the Age of Enlightenment.

14. THE NAKAZ
Before Catherine had come to the throne, the
administration of the Russian government was all over the
place due to various rulers implementing different laws
that contradicted each other. Half of Peter I's reforms
were never recorded and were lost to history. Catherine
knew it was her job to restore Peter I's vision for Russia
The Nakaz consisted of 526 articles split into 20 chapters,
presenting Catherine's view of the Russian state and how
she thought it should be governed. Catherine hoped that
the Nakaz would transform Russia into a more culturally
sophisticated and politically advanced country. Although
that ultimately did not happen, once the Nakaz was
widely published and translated into different languages,
people viewed Catherine with great admiration.
.

15. CATHERINE AND ART
Catherine was incredibly passionate about the arts,
including literature, painting, and philosophy. She was
not only a consumer of the arts, but she also took an
active part in it and wrote her own comedies and
memoirs, which were admired by Voltaire and Diderot.
Catherine founded the Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg in 1764, which celebrates its founding on 7
December each year (St. Catherine's Day). Catherine
was also responsible for reforming the Imperial
Academy of Arts, which oversaw all issues relating to
the arts.
Marble statue of Catherine II in the guise of Minerva (1789–1790), by Fedot Shubin

16. CATHERINE AND ART
Catherine established the Imperial Russian Library (lovingly called
"Catherine's Library"). It was located near the Winter Palace and
housed entire libraries of notable people, including Italian
archaeologist Berardo Galiani (l. 1724-1774) and French
mathematician Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (l. 1717-1783). Catherine
especially loved collecting books on art and architecture, and her
collection of artwork would inspire building commissions, including
Chesme Palace in St. Petersburg and the Raphael Loggia in the
Hermitage Museum.
Portrait of Catherine the Great by Marie-Anne Collot, marble, 1769, The State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg

17. SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS
1. Catherine began as a political and social reformer but
gradually grew more conservative as she aged
2. Catherine professed a belief that every russian subject had
to have a religion but it did not necessarily have to be
russian orthodox christianity.
3. She turned St Petersburg into one of the most impressive
capital cities .
4. Among her economic measures were the establishment of
the Loan Bank , the reduction of the burdensome salt tax ,
and encouragement of free economic society.

18. FINAL DAYS AND DEATH
On 16 November [O.S. 5 November] 1796, Catherine rose early in the
morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on
papers; she told her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, that she had slept
better than she had in a long time.[136] Sometime after 9:00 she was found
on the floor with her face purplish, her pulse weak, her breathing shallow
and laboured.[136] The court physician diagnosed a stroke and despite
attempts to revive her, she fell into a coma. She was given the last rites and
died the following evening around 9:45.An autopsy confirmed a stroke as
the cause of death.

19. DEATH
Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 among her papers by her secretary
Alexander Vasilievich Khrapovitsky, gave specific instructions should she die: "Lay out my
corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on it inscribe my Christian
name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six months, and no longer: the shorter the
better."[141] In the end, the empress was laid to rest with a gold crown on her head and
clothed in a silver brocade dress. On 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold
fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning.
According to Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: "The empress's body lay in state for six weeks in a
large and magnificently decorated room in the castle, which was kept lit day and night.
Catherine was stretched on a ceremonial bed surrounded by the coats of arms of all the
towns in Russia. Her face was left uncovered, and her fair hand rested on the bed. All the
ladies, some of whom took turn to watch by the body, would go and kiss this hand, or at
least appear to.

20. HER LEGACY
Catherine's role as empress of the
Russian empire was a huge feat,
especially considering that she was not
Russian by birth and married into the
Russian royal family. Although not all her
reforms were as successful as she had
hoped they would be, she made huge
strides in transforming the very fabric of
Russian society, including the
monumental tasks of modernising the
educational system and the Russian
administration.

21. HER LEGACY
Under her rule, Russia saw the
Golden Age of Enlightenment, and
Catherine followed in the footsteps
of her grandfather-in-law, Peter the
Great, in modernising Russia and
putting it on equal footing with
other European nations. Looking at
all that she achieved during her
long reign, it's easy to see why she
earned the title of Catherine the
Great.

22. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION