Catherine the Great

Catherine Auguste II the Great (Екатерина II Великая) Catherine II of Russia (2, May, 1729 – 17, November, 1796) was a German Empress of Russia who came to power following a coup d'état, after her husband Peter III, was assassinated. Her reign lead to Russia's growth, and rise to the status of a great European power. Expanding her empire through conquest and diplomacy, Catherine crushed the Crimean Khanate, colonized vast Novorossiyan territories along the Black Sea coast & the subarctic tundra of Alaska, and partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth among monarchs.

Early Life
Born in the city of Stettin as Princess Sophia Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, Sophia was the daughter of Prince Christian August, a German-Prussian royal, and Governor of Stettin. Following a reportedly uneventful childhood, Sophia, in accordance with the prevailing custom of ruling Germany dynasties, received her education chiefly from a French governess and additional tutors.

A pawn in the Great Game from a young age, she was arranged to marry Peter von Holstein-Gottorp of Russia in an effort to strengthen Russo-Prussian ties, and upon arrival in Russia in 1744, she spared little effort to ingratiate herself with Empress Elizabeth and with the Russian people. Sophia learned the Russian language quickly, though retained the accent of her homeland throughout her life.

Prince Christian was a devout Lutheran, and opposed to his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite his protests, on 28, June, 1744, she was received by the Russian Orthodox Church under the name of Yekaterina Alekseyevna. Sophia and Duke Peter von Holstein married on 21, August, 1745, at the age of sixteen, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the newlyweds settled in Oranienbaum Palace on the Gulf of Finland.

Reign (1762-1796)
After Empress Elizabeth's death on 5, January, 1762, Duke Peter von Holstein succeeded the throne as Emperor Peter III. Catherine became Empress consort, and the imperial monarchs relocated to the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

Russo-Turkish Wars
Catherine lead two extensive military campaigns against the Ottoman Empire in the First Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774. Her victory earned the Russian Government access to the Black Sea, following which she founded the cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, and Yekaterinoslav in Ukraine. On 10, July, 1774, Catherine was a signatory of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which annexed a great deal of the Ukraine, removed restrictions on Russian naval & commercial traffic in the Azov Sea, and made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.

Catherine annexed the Crimea in 1783, nine years after the Crimean Khanate had gained nominal independence, which had been guaranteed by Russia from the Ottoman Empire as a result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans passed into the hands of the Russians, and in 1786, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo–Turkish War. The Ottomans restarted hostilities in the Second Russo-Turkish War from 1787–92. This war ended with the Treaty of Jassy in 1792, legitimizing the Russian Empire's claim to the Crimea and Yedisan region.

Russo-Persian War
In accordance with the Treaty of Georgievsk, Russia agreed to protect Georgia from the political aspirations of Persians. Catherine waged war against Persia in 1796 after Shah Agha Mohammad Khan invaded Georgia and established rule over it in 1795, expelling the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus. The Russian Empire conducted battles and espionage to depose the Khan, and replace him with his brother Morteza Qoli Khan, who had defected to Russia. She ruled over the conquest of most of modern day Azerbaijan, poised with an advantage over Iran.

In that month, the Empress of Russia died and her successor Paul, who detested the Zubovs and had other plans for the army, ordered the troops to retreat to Russia. This reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's murder five years later.

Conquest & Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
In 1764 Catherine placed Stanisław August Poniatowski on the Polish throne. Catherine took a leading role in carrying out the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1768, she declared the the territory a protectorate of Russia, which provoked an uprising in Poland from 1768–72. After the uprising broke down due to internal politics in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, she established in the Rzeczpospolita, a system of government controlled by the Russian Empire through Permanent Council, under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys.

After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many principles of the Enlightenment she had once viewed favourably. Afraid the May Constitution of Poland might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia & Austria, while taking the greatest cities and largest territories for itself.

Relations with Japan
In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. This spurred interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783, storms drove a Japanese sea captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28, June, 1791, Catherine granted Daikokuya an audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade mission to the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, however negotiations ultimately failed.

Education
Catherine held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart, and wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia. She believed a person could be created by inculcating Russian children with European education, and that education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness. This meant developing within individuals both intellectually and morally, providing them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.

Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her advisor on educational matters, who collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions. She consulted British education pioneers, particularly the Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr John Brown, and in 1764, sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and appointed him to the education commission.

The Moscow Orphanage

Catherine established the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls, the first of its kind in Russia. The Institute only admitted young girls of the noble elite, and in some exceptions from the petit-bourgeoisie.They were taught impeccable French, musicianship, dancing, and complete awe of the Monarch. At the Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy, and the building was kept particularly cold because too much warmth was believed to be harmful to the developing body.

Catherine continued to investigate educational theory and practice in other countries, and made many educational reforms despite the lack of a national school system. In 1776, The Cadet Corps initiated many educational reforms, and began to take children from a very young age and educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from professional military curriculum to include sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, and international law. This policy influenced teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps, Engineering, and Artillery Schools.

By 1782, Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the information gathered about the educational systems of many different countries. Advised by German mathematician Franz Ulrich Aepinus, Catherine was strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, schools managed from provincial capital levels. Catherine established a Commission of National Schools under Pyotr Zavadovsky, charged with organizing a national school network, training teachers, and providing textbooks.

On 5, August, 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was promulgated. The statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools in capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes, and co-educational. It regulated the subjects to be taught at every age and the method of teaching, in addition to textbooks translated by the commission.

Islam
Between 1762 and 1773, Muslims were actively prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs. The Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith, and promised to protect their religious rights, but did not do so. Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it, and after the 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.

Judaism
Russia treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Judaism was a small religion in Russia until 1772, when Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland, the large new Jewish element was treated as a separate people, defined by their religion. She levied additional taxes on the followers of Judaism.

Catherine included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782, and while this presented some benefits for Jews, many people attempted to take advantage of this. Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, however, and in 1790 she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow’s middle class. Catherine’s decree denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia, taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

Count Grigory Orlov, by Fyodor Rokotov
After her affair with adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, Catherine kept near Tula, away from her court, her illegitimate son by Grigori Orlov, Count Alexis Bobrinskoy.

King Augustus III of Poland
Catherine's relationship with King Augustus III was a diplomatic necessity, to materialize relations between the Russian's, Poles, and British. Sir Charles H. Williams, British Ambassador to Russia, corresponded with both King Augustus and Empress Catherine, and fostered their relationship.

Prussia under Prince Henry, the Russian Empire, and Austria began preparing the ground for the partitions of Poland. In 1772, the three powers split 20,000 square miles (52,000 km2) between them. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation until 1918, in the aftermath of World War I.

Orlov
Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the 28, June, 1762, coup d’état against her husband, but she preferred to remain Dowager Empress of Russia. Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles, money, swords, and other gifts, but Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice, however he received a palace in Saint Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Their son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky had one daughter, Maria Alexeyeva Bobrinsky (1798–1835), who married Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin, later fighting against Napoleon, and serving as Ambassador in the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia.