CATHARINE II,, empress of Russia, was b. at Stettin on 25th April, 1720. Her father, the prince of Anlialt-Zerbst, was a Prussian field-marshal, and governor of Stet tin. She received the name of Sophia Augusta; but the empress Elizabeth of Russia having selected her for the wife of her nephew and intended successor, Peter, she passed from the Lutheran to the Greek church, and took the name of Catharina Alex iewna. In 1745, her marriage took place. She soon quarreled with her husband, and each of them lived a life of unrestrained vice. Among his attendants was a count Soltikow, with whom her intimacy soon became scandalous; and Soltikow was sent on an embassy abroad. But the young Polish count, Stanislaus Poniatowski, almost imme diately supplied his place: After the death of the empress Elizabeth in 1761. Peter III. ascended the Russian throne; but the conjugal difference became continually wider. C. was banished to a separate abode; and the emperor seemed to entertain the design of divorcing her, declaring her only son, Paul, illegitimate, and marrying his mistress, Elizabeth Woronzow. The popular dislike to Peter, however, rapidly increased; and at length, he being dethroned by a conspiracy, C. was made empress. A few days afterwards Peter was murdered (July, 1762). What participation his wife had in his murder, has never been well ascertained.
C. now exerted herself to please the people, and among other things, made a great show of regard for the outward forms of the Greek church, although her principles were, in reality, those of the infidelity then prevalent among the French philosophers. The government of the country was carried on with great energy; and her reign was remarkable for the rapid increase of the extent and power of Russia. Not long after her accession to the throne, her influence secured the election of her former favorite, Stanislaus Poniatowski, to the thfene of Poland. In her own empire, howeVer, discontentment
Nias seriously manifested, the hopes of the disaffected being centered in the young prince Ivan, who was forthwith murdered in the castle of Schlusselburg. From that time, the internal politics of Russia long consisted in great part of intrigues for the humiliation of one favorite and the exaltation of another. The first partition of Poland In 1772, and the Turkish war, which terminated in the peace of Kainardji in 1774, vastly increased the empire. The Turkish war which terminated in the peace of Jassy in 1792, had similar results, and also the war with Sweden, which terminated in 1790. The second and third partitions of Poland, and the incorporation of Cour land with Russia, completed the triumphs of C.'s reign. She began a war with Persia, however, and cherished a scheme for the overthrow of the British power in India; but a stroke of apoplexy cut her off on Nov. 9, 1796. She was a woman of great ability; but, utterly devoid of principle, she shrunk from no crime; and sensuality and ambition governed all her actions. She was shameless in vice; and always had a paromour, who dwelt in her palace, and might be regarded as filling an acknowledged office of state, with large revenues and determinate privileges. Yet distinguished authors flattered her; and she invited to her court some of the literati and philosophers of France. She was ever ready to commence great undertakings, but most of them were left unfinished; and little was really accomplished in her reign for the improvement of the country, or the progress of civilization. On a visit to the southern provinces of the empire in 1787, she was gratified by a perpetual display of fictitious wealth and prosperity along the whole route. This imperial progress was also a triumphal procession of her vile favorite Potemkin (q.v.).