10 Things You Didn't Know About Catherine The Great!

From the strategic coup d’etat against her husband to leading Russia into the Golden Age, here are 10 things you didn’t know about Czarina Catherine the Great of Russia

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10. Young Catherine
Despite being Russia’s longest reigning female ruler, Catherine the Great wasn’t even Russian, and her name wasn’t Catherine. She was born Sophie Frederica Auguste from Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729 as the oldest daughter of a poor Prussian prince.

9. Catherine’s Children
Like I mentioned, from the beginning, Catherine the Great and her husband, Peter, did not get along. While they were a great political match, historical documents say they were mismatched on just about everything. In her memoirs Catherine wrote that Petar was an idiot and a drunk, who liked to play with soldiers, real and imaginary.

8. Her Dark Rise To Power
Empress Elizabeth’s nephew, her chosen heir, assumed the throne as Peter III when she passed away in 1762. One of the first things Peter did was end the war between Russia and Prussia, hoping to make a memorable mark as the new ruler. But Russia’s military class and members of the lower nobility were not only unimpressed by the move, they deeply disapproved of it.

7. Eliminating Rivals
In 1740, two-month-old Ivan VI Antonovich was proclaimed Russia’s emperor. His distant cousin, Elizabeth Petrovna, seized the throne in a coup the following year, and from the age of six months onward, Ivan and his parents spent the rest of their lives stowed away in captivity.

6. Challenges To Her Power
Catherine’s rule was lengthy, but keeping the throne and the crown on her head came with a series of challenges. At least a dozen uprisings threatened her power, with the worst of them all, Pugachev’s Rebellion, occurring in 1773.

5. Friends With Benefits
Catherine the Great was wildly disloyal to her husband, Peter III, and the couple parted on less-than-amicable terms, but she was known for being extremely faithful to her lovers, both during and after their relationships. She often gifted her lovers and former lovers with things like titles, property, palaces, and serfs.

4. Her Reputation
Catherine the Great saw her partners as useful tools for carrying out and maintaining her own power. Over the years, she took many lovers, including several much younger men, earning her a reputation for having an alleged voracious sexual appetite.

3. The Enlightened Ruler
Catherine the Great is considered to be among Europe’s most enlightened leaders and she enthusiastically supported the ideals of the enlightenment through the arts and education. While she still had to maintain control since she didn’t want a revolution, she believed strongly in educational reform, and wrote various pamphlets, books, and other materials geared toward improving education in Russia.

2. Her Demise
Scandal naturally followed Catherine the Great, given her lustful reputation, and the rumors flew even after her last days on Earth. She passed away at age 67 on November 17, 1796, after ruling over Russia for over three decades, and her enemies wasted no time spreading gossip immediately thereafter.

1. Mother-Son Tensions
As I just mentioned, Catherine the Great’s eldest son, Paul I, met the same fate as Peter III when he was assassinated in 1801. While Paul and Catherine were still alive, their relationship was notoriously tempestuous. This may be partially due to the fact that Paul was removed from Catherine’s care shortly after he was born.

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