When Putin is mentioned, synonyms such as "hard means", "hawkish politician", "one person to fight Western world " will surely appear in everyone's minds.
Indeed, in the 20 years since he took office, Putin has never been willing to suffer losses, whether in the rectification of the domestic environment or the confrontation between foreign forces. Whenever he encounters provocation, he will give his opponent the most fierce counterattack as soon as possible.
Putin
Just like this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, facing the approaching of Zelensky and the European and American international community, Putin signed the presidential decree without saying a word, sending 60,000 Russian troops into the eastern Ukrainian region to compete with the "neo-Nazi" forces cultivated by the Western world. Such a decisive way of behavior is really admirable.
However, even a "ruthless person" like Xiang Putin has his own "idol" in his mind, or a person he respects very much, and this person is still a woman.
She is the only queen in Russian history who was named "the great emperor" - Katerina , who once led Russia to stand at the highest peak in Europe.
Princess from Prussian
729 On May 2, Caterina II was born in a declining noble family in Steding, the Kingdom of Prussia. Her original name was Sophia August.
Caterina's father was originally a general in Prussia. Later, because of his outstanding achievements, he was named Duke of the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. Sophia's family also became the lord of a small principality in Germany.
Yatherina天天
Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs. Although the area of the principality is very small, it maintains the political system it deserves, and the lord's outstanding military achievements are also very recognized internationally. and Sophia naturally became a princess.
Sophia is extroverted by nature, coupled with her superior family conditions, she has been cheerful, lively and active since she was a child, and sometimes a little naughty, and she is very brave, and often causes trouble.
Although Sophia's father has become a duke, he still serves in the army and often has to go out to handle military affairs, which makes her unable to take care of her family. Therefore, Sophia's childhood has grown up under the control of her mother for a long time.
But unlike Sophia's personality, she likes to communicate with others, her mother is mean and picky by nature, she is impatient in doing things, does not like to get along with others, and for her own comfort, she moves to Paris to live all year round. This leads to Sophia being a princess, but she is rarely disciplined by her parents.
Plus Sophia is born active. When no one cares about her, she often runs to the street to play with children of her age.
In addition to playing around, Sophia is different from other children that she is also an extremely thoughtful girl, especially she is very obsessed with the ideological enlightenment movement at that time, and often read some books about ideological theories of that period.
In his youth, Sophia was influenced by French Enlightenment thinkers and often wrote letters to Montesquieu and maintained correspondence.
In this way, Sophia gradually grew up under the influence of playing with children of the same age and ideological enlightenment.
However, although Sophia is like a tomboy in her play with other children, very bold and bold, is still a little girl deep in her heart, often fantasizing about her appearance when she grows up and gets married.
In that era, as the children of the duke, they inevitably accepted the fate of political marriage when they grew up, and so was Sophia.
742, as the prince of Tsarist Russian had gradually grown up, he needed to select noble ladies from all over Europe to complete the wedding.In order to get closer to the powerful Tsarist Russian marriage, Prussia recruited girls of appropriate age across the country, hoping to help Tsarist Russian princes find the right person they like.
Under the arrangement of King of Prussia Frederick II , the Duchess of Anhalt brought Sophia, who was only 13 years old, to Berlin to meet Frederick II.
Although she is still young, she often goes out to play and exercise, and the cold environment in Eastern Europe has accelerated her physical development. At this time, Sophia has already grown up graceful, like a 17.8-year-old girl.
Seeing Sophia's beautiful face, Frederick was very satisfied with the duke's princess and thought she could be the wife of the Russian crown prince. So she invited the best French painter to paint a portrait for Princess Sophia, and then sent the portrait to St. Petersburg for the Queen of Elizabeth Petrovna .
After returning home, the Duke of Anhalt and his family were very excited about the reaction of the Prussian king. They believed that their daughter had won the satisfaction of the king, and that was really likely to become the concubine of the crown prince of Tsarist Russia. In this way, the power of their family is likely to take another big step.
However, for Sophia, she was not very excited. Although he knew that he wanted to be the marriage partner he wanted to choose for the Tsarist Russian prince, Sophia did not know what kind of person this prince was, and whether he would be the prince charming in his heart.
Just like that, the Duke of Anhalt's family waited for the day they were looking forward to the arrival of the marriage news. And the final result did not disappoint them.
During this year, in the Russian court in St. Petersburg, the royal advisers repeatedly studied various marriage plans based on the situation of various countries and the portraits they sent, and finally chose Princess Sophia August of the Principal of Anhalt.
married into Russian Royal
In January 1744, a messenger from St. Petersburg brought a letter from Queen Elizabeth, inviting the Duchess of Anhalt and Princess Sophia to visit Russia. At the same time, he also brought a check of tens of thousands of rubles , as the expenses for the duke and mother and daughter on the road.
When I received this letter, the Anhalt family was very excited. They knew very well what this invitation meant. In the Duke's heart, he had already fantasized about how he would have made great achievements and entered the Prussian rights center from then on.
However, in Sophia's opinion, this letter does not have much significance except that it can allow herself to escape from this family that favors boys over girls as soon as possible and stop getting along with her cold and mean mother.
So, in the cold wind whistling by the cold winter, the Duke of Anlhardt and his daughter embarked on the way to Tsarist Russia.
After 20 days of bumping in the carriage, on February 9, 1744, Sophia and her mother arrived at Moscow .
Along the way, although the mother and daughter were accompanied by a team of guards, they were still trapped in Eastern Europe, sleeping in the open and almost fell ill.
In order to make up for the suffering they suffered on the way and express their sincerity, after Sophia and the others entered Russia, the royal family sent the Royal Guard to greet them and provided them with the same living conditions as the royal treatment. This allowed Sophia and her daughter to recover some vitality and arrived in Moscow safely.
After arriving in Moscow, Sophia and her daughter were personally received by Queen Elizabeth. The queen also held a grand welcome ceremony for the Prussian girl who was about to become her daughter-in-law.
In order to allow Sophia to integrate into Russia as soon as possible and complete her wedding as soon as possible, Queen Elizabeth found her the best teacher to study Russian and Orthodox etiquette.
And Sophia also understands that if she wants to gain a foothold in Russia, she must first become a Russian . So, in the following days, Sophia tried hard to learn Russian language and customs. She even often studied hard in the late night and when the servants around her were already asleep.
After more than four months of study, Sophia has initially mastered the use of Russian and the basic etiquette and habits of the Russian royal family.
744 On June 28, 1744, Princess Sophia converted to Orthodox Church and changed her name to Katerina Alexeyevna. baptism ceremony was the first public event held by Katerina after she came to Russia. At the ceremony, Catherine answered questions in Russian, spoke appropriately and spoke clearly, which won the favor of the palace and completed the final test of the royal family on her.
The next day, under the witness of the royal family and the Holy See, Crown Prince Peter and Catherine completed their engagement.
One year later, on August 21, 1745, the Russian palace held a grand wedding for the two, and Katerina was named the Grand Duke's Lady.
Seeing this girl from the small Principality of Prussia transformed into a powerful Russian imperial concubine, the princesses of all countries around her cast various envious and jealous eyes on her.
However, unexpectedly, marriage did not bring happiness to Caterina, but instead made her fall into the vortex of pain.
usurped power and seized the throne and took over the Russian
After getting married, political marriage did not bring Caterina the fantasy prince charming, but instead brought her a very cold husband.
The days after marriage were a grey time for Caterina. Her husband Peter didn't love her at all and found a new love. The two have been married for five years and are actually separated. Caterina has always been in a perfect state.
has not brought any descendants to the royal family, so during this period, Caterina was also alienated and neglected by the royal family.
So behind the scenes, Caterina also began to meet her lover like Peter, hoping that they could bring a little comfort to their injured hearts.
From the slutty Salticov to the later Polish King Poniatovsky, they all had unusual relationships with this Russian imperial concubine.
rumor that in Katerina's life, there were 23 lovers.
And the one who obsessed with Caterina the most was a young officer - Gregory Orlov.
Orlov himself is not very educated, but he is tall and handsome. He is also a good player in horse riding, playing cards, drinking, dancing and fighting. Therefore, Orlov is very worshipped by women in the upper class of St. Petersburg.
and Caterina naturally favors her very much. So after a while, the two became underground lovers.
762, Katerina gave birth to a boy, and the father of the child was Orlov.
Peter did not learn the news until the child was a few months old. At this time, Empress Elizabeth had passed away and Peter had already ascended the throne and became the Tsarist Russian emperor Peter III .
So when he learned that Yekaterina, who had never had sex with her, immediately ordered her to be arrested.
However, at this time, Caterina had already cultivated a group of ministers who followed her by relying on the political means she had hidden for many years. Many people in the royal family could not bear the incompetent Peter III and turned to Caterina's arms.
So after Peter III gave the order, no one followed his instructions, so Peter III had to cancel the order.
However, Peter III could not swallow this breath.
In the following days, he repeatedly wanted to amend the traditional Russian law, divorce his first wife, and let his other lovers take over. He also issued extremely harsh regulations to concentrate his rights in order to prevent a crisis of rebellion.
In addition, Peter often spoke swear words and publicly insulted Caterina at various banquets. The series of measures of
have also attracted dissatisfaction from many Russian people. They all accused Peter III of not knowing how to abide by the king's etiquette and not protecting his wife when facing foreign forces.
Not only did Peter III not repent of these people's protests, but instead suppressed them in an extremely cruel way. This made him even more infamous at home.
Seeing that Peter III is becoming increasingly unpopular, Caterina knew that her opportunity had come.
So, on June 28, 1762, after receiving the support of Empress Elizabeth's favorite minister Razumovsky, Duke of Volkonsky and the imperial teacher Panning, the brothers Ekaterina and Orlov launched a coup in advance, overthrew Peter III, ascended the throne and became the eighth emperor of the Russian Empire and the fourth queen in the history of the empire.
After ascending the throne of the emperor, Catherine promoted the political system she pursued and safeguarded the rights of the aristocratic class, which brought great support to her subsequent policy implementation.
In terms of external attitude, Caterina was very tough. She formulated the diplomatic strategy of "to implement a regional encroachment system on land and seize the sea estuary in waters." . established a powerful legion, expanded its territory frantically, opened up the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea estuary, defeated Türkiye and Sweden , and divided Poland three times with Prussia and Austria.
During the more than 20 years of Caterina's reign, she brought 670,000 square kilometers of territory to Russia.
In terms of economy, Caterina adopted the economic policies of Western countries , implemented opening up to the outside world, abolished export tax, and vigorously promoted foreign trade.
In China, she vigorously promoted the development of capitalist industry and commerce, and stipulated that any residents outside Moscow and St. Petersburg could freely set up factories. In addition, she also issued the "Edict on Urban Rights and Interests of the Russian Empire", granting urban autonomy, and declaring that merchants with property of more than 500 rubles were exempt from corporal punishment, military service, and tax on duty, and only paying one percent of capital tax.
When I was young, this policy of Katerina
was deeply welcomed by Russian industry and businessmen, and a large number of handicraft workshops emerged like mushrooms after a rain.
Due to the dual development of the military economy, by the 1770s, Russia had become the most powerful country on the entire European continent.
Looking at the great achievement she has accomplished, Caterina also put down her bold words: "If I were allowed to live to be 200 years old, the whole of Europe will surrender to my feet."
However, time did not bring privileges to this queen with outstanding abilities. Since 1792, Caterina has become ill and her health has deteriorated sharply. Coupled with the years of political efforts, the 63-year-old emperor became even more haggard.
796, Katerina suddenly fell ill and has been bedridden since then. Two months later, in the early morning of November 6, the legendary queen who led all countries to the peak of Europe bid farewell to the world and left her wonderful life in the long river of history.
