Catherine the Great

Simon Dixon

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781861977779
• eBook ISBN: 9781847651921
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

When Catherine II died in St Petersburg in 1796 the world sensed the loss of the most celebrated monarch of Europe - something no one would have predicted at the birth sixty-seven years before of an obscure German princess, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, later married off to the pathetic heir to the Russian throne. There were few greater transformations of fortunes in history.

Sophie/Catherine had come to rule in her own right over the largest state in existence since the fall of the Roman Empire. She was branded both a usurper and an assassin when she seized power from her wretched husband in 1762. Yet she survived the initial succession crisis, and went on to occupy the Russian throne for thirty-four years. In the process, she turned her new empire from peripheral pariah to European great power.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Genealogies and Maps
• A Note on dates, spelling, transliteration and names
• Introduction
• Prologue The coronation of a usurper 1762
• Chapter 1 From Pomerania to St Petersburg 1729–1744
• Chapter 2 Betrothal and marriage 1744–1745
• Chapter 3 Living and loving at the Court of Empress Elizabeth 1746–1753
• Chapter 4 Ambition 1754–1759
• Chapter 5 Assassination 1759–1762
• Chapter 6 ‘Our Lady of St Petersburg’ 1763–1766
• Chapter 7 Philosopher on the throne 1767–1768
• Chapter 8 Imperial ambitions 1768–1772
• Chapter 9 Paul, Pugachëv and Potëmkin 1772–1775
• Chapter 10 The search for emotional stability 1776–1784
• Chapter 11 Zenith 1785–1790
• Chapter 12 End of an era 1790–1796
• Epilogue The afterlife of an empress
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• List of illustrations
• List of maps
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements
• Index