She is a pure German, but she has become the only two emperors in Russian history and can be as famous as Peter the Great .
Katerina the Great
She is Katerina II .
But why did she receive this honor?
Katerina was originally named Sophia August. He was born in 1729. He was a princess from a down-and-out duke family in Szczechine City today.
Katerina II's hometown Szechin
Before becoming Katerina II, she was the crown prince of the then Russian crown prince Peter III .
And she can become the crown princess of Russia, she should be grateful to a noble person, who is her husband's aunt and daughter of Peter the Great.
Elisavita female tsar
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This is of course related to a relationship between the female Tsar Ilisavita.
It turns out that when the female Tsar Ilisavita was engaged to a German prince when he was young, he later died of smallpox and did not marry into Germany.
And she has never been married again, so she has no children.
So, after becoming the female tsar, Ilisavita made his sister's son and nephew Peter the crown prince in 1744, that is, the later Tsar Peter III.
Peter III
But she never expected that she had seen the wrong person.
Although Peter III was the grandson of Peter the Great, he did not inherit the genes of Peter the Great at all. Not only is he ugly, he also has misconduct, bad style, and ignorant skills.
html In addition to being disappointed, the female Tsar Ilisavita remembered the sister of her late fiancé, who had a daughter, Sophia, who later became Catherine II.This niece of Ilisavita's late fiancé Sophia is a smart, well-educated and versatile girl.
She received a good European education since she was a child. She not only read a lot of works by French drama master Molière and fable master Lafon, but also was a "little fan" of French enlightenment thinker Voltaire , with full admiration.
Voltai
In addition, Sophia has also traveled to many places in Europe with her parents, with a broad vision and extensive knowledge.
At that time, the trend of marriage between royal families in various European countries was prevalent. Therefore, under the careful planning of the female Tsar Ilisavita, Princess Sophia, a 16-year-old girl from Prussia, successfully became the crown princess of Russia.
Sofia has put in a lot of effort in order to become a competent queen. Not only did she study Russian and Russian culture desperately, she read a lot of books, but she also converted to Orthodox Church and took the name of Ekaterina. From then on, the name Ekaterina replaced Sophia.
However, no matter how hard Caterina tried, Crown Prince Peter III did not like this Crown Prince from Prussia, although he was half German, and his father was also German.
Therefore, the relationship between Crown Princess Ekaterina and her husband Peter III was very cold and even disgusted and even developed into hatred.
However, Caterina will never sit still and wait for death. She can't just finish it in her life, right?
In the diary of the newlyweds, Caterina wrote a sentence to express her feelings, "Sooner or later I will achieve my goal, I will be the queen of Russia" . This fully demonstrates that she is a very ambitious woman.
1762, Caterina's leader, the female Tsar Ilisavita, died of illness, and Peter III succeeded to the throne, and Caterina officially became the Russian queen.
However, Peter III was unpopular, and the relationship between husband and wife was not harmonious, so Caterina launched a palace coup, deposed Peter III, ascended the throne and became the Tsar, known in history as Caterina II.
Why is it called Catherine II?
Because there is an , Katerina I, , she is the second wife of Peter the Great and the first female tsar in Russian history.
However, Empress Caterina II, who had just ascended the throne, was not happy, and she was facing a difficult situation.
At that time, politicians from Russia and European countries were not optimistic about Caterina II and predicted that her rule would be short-lived.
This is not unreasonable, because Russia had experienced 37 years of turmoil and changed to 6 tsars, she was the seventh one.
Moreover, at that time, Russia had just been involved in the "Seven Years' War" triggered by the battle for hegemony in Britain and France. It was heavily in debt, the army was exhausted, and peasant uprisings continued. It was full of internal and external troubles and crises.
However, with her decisive style, she quickly stabilized the situation and reversed people's views on her. She reigned for 34 years and became the longest-time Tsar in the 18th century who ruled Russia.
Seven Years War
In response to the "Seven Years War" issue, although Russia gained an advantage in the war with Prussia in the later period, Catherine II decisively withdrew his troops and showed kindness to Prussia.
She did this not because Prussia was her mother's home, but it was not in Russia's interests to defeat Prussia. It is best to win over Prussia and restrain France and Austria .
Katerina II's loyalty to Russia is beyond doubt.
has a peaceful external environment, and the next step is to show off your skills.
When Caterina II was still the crown princess, he realized that there was a huge gap between Russia and Western Europe and countries. In order to obtain a status that matches its territory, it is necessary to follow Western Europe and implement reforms.
In the second half of the 18th century, the political trend of " enlightened and authoritarian " spread in Europe.
Therefore, as soon as Caterina II ascended the throne, he also implemented the "enlightened monarchy" in Russia, recruiting a large number of talents and injecting vitality into Russia's reform.
Caterina II is unconventional in selecting and reusing talents, which is very similar to Peter the Great.
Peter the Great
"Soldier Marshal" Suvorov and the Duke of Warms, who have high economics, both stood out during her reign.
Moreover, she does not engage in "one day of emperor and another day of minister". Even if she has prejudice or even opposes her, she will pay attention to the past without considering the past.
But for those who are close to her but have mediocre talents, she will not give important tasks. For example, her lover Gregory Orlov was not capable enough, so he never held any important position in a high-ranking official position, but only rewarded money and land. This is quite similar to Queen Wu Zetian .
Like Peter the Great, Caterina II was very diligent, working for 15 hours a day and night. He was called "the sentinel who always stood on his post" by the poets at that time, and was much more tired than the Qianlong emperor of the same period.
Caterina II's decisive style is also quite similar to that of Peter the Great.
Under her advocacy, Russia adopted the economic policies of Western Europe and vigorously established handicraft workshops, which promoted the development of Russian capitalist industry and commerce. For example, from 1762 to 1796, the number of handicraft workshops increased from 984 to 3,161, and the production of pig iron quadrupled.
The economic development brought about fiscal increases. After three years in power, Caterina II changed the fiscal deficit of up to 17 million rubles to a fiscal surplus of 5.5 million rubles. Before her death, Russia's national tax revenue increased to 56 million rubles.
In short, Russia has money.
Of course, the most outstanding features of Caterina II are reflected in two aspects: one is the cause of ideological education and the other is the expansion of territory. This is also where she is better than Peter the Great.
Caterina II is a pen pal for French thinkers such as Montesquieu , Voltaire and Diderot.
The most famous thing here in this is her "gratitude" to Diderot.
Diderot
When Caterina II learned that Diderot was eager to sell her collection of books in order to marry her daughter, she spent 16,000 gold coins to buy the books, set up a library, and hired Diderot as the director and her consultant.
What’s more generous is that Catherine II also paid Diderot a 50-year salary of 50 years, up to 500,000 rubles!
The Empress's favor to Diderot
Caterina II's move suddenly caused a sensation in Europe, and the entire European public opinion sang praises for her.
French scholar Darhambet wrote a letter to praise her: "The entire European literary community cheers to Your Majesty!"
Voltaire praised her: "Diderot, Darhambet and me, we all pay our most sincere respect to you."
Of course, Emperor Catherine in his later years also had the same common problem as ordinary people, gradually moving away from "enlightened autocracy" and moving against the trend of history. The most typical example is that the Russian Enlightenment thinker was a thug "better than Pugachev" and exiled him to Siberian .
1767, Caterina II was revered as the "Great Emperor and Mother of Russia" for his outstanding meritorious service, and became the second tsar after Peter the Great to be awarded the title of "Emperor".
However, the reason why Emperor Caterina is the Great is because she is also a leader in expanding territory, which is better than Emperor Peter.
Caterina's expanded territory
In 1772, she planned to divide Poland with Prussia and Austria, and completely divided up Polish twice in 1793 and 1795, winning 463,000 square kilometers of land and increasing 7 million people.
1783 and 1791, she also seized a total of about 180,000 square kilometers of land in the Azov region, including Crimea , winning Russia's second sea outlet, consolidating Russia's sphere of influence in Black Sea , laying the foundation for deep entry into the Balkans.
1796, Emperor Yekaterina died of a sudden stroke, and a generation of emperors died.
Caterina the Great
The first generation of Queen Caterina the Great left Russia with nearly 640,000 square kilometers of land added to the empire territory, and what left Europe was a great country with unprecedentedly powerful national strength and important influence.
However, she left regrets in the end, as she hoped: If she could live 200 years old herself, the whole of Europe would be under Russian rule.
A Prussian girl came to Russia empty-handedly, but she won Crimea and Poland for Russia. She regarded this as her dowry. Despite her pure German descent, despite many shortcomings and even sins, Caterina the Great is still the most outstanding female monarch in Russian history. #
