She seized power from her weak husband and would go down in history as a strong and powerful Empress.
In this episode, we look at how Catherine The Great managed it, and how she was a victim of terrible double standards against women.
[00:00:04] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it is part three of our three-part mini-series on great queens.
[00:00:27] In part one we looked at the tragic life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII.
[00:00:34] In part two, we looked at the life of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and saw how she navigated a world of men to leave a phenomenal legacy.
[00:00:44] And today we are moving abroad, to Russia, in fact, where we will meet another strong, powerful woman, a woman who had such an impact on Russia that she earned herself the nickname “The Great”.
[00:00:58] Yes, it’s Catherine, the 18th century Empress of Russia.
[00:01:02] Her story is one of power, deceit, sex and rebellion, though not necessarily in that order.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it.
[00:01:14] In 1744, a fourteen-year-old Prussian princess arrived in Russia.
[00:01:22] The princess was named Sophie Friederike Auguste.
[00:01:25] She was charming and quick-witted, and impressed everyone she met.
[00:01:31] She had been brought there at the request of the childless Empress, Elizabeth I, as a potential match for her nephew, Peter, who was 15 at the time.
[00:01:43] It wasn’t, in fact, the first time the pair had met.
[00:01:46] They were second cousins, and had met when Sophie was 10-years-old.
[00:01:51] She hated Peter the first time they met, and she hated him even more four years later.
[00:01:58] He was a pale, sickly looking boy, who already stunk of alcohol despite his young age.
[00:02:06] Nevertheless, the pair would marry, but it would be an event that would ultimately lead to the princess rising up against her husband, overthrowing him and taking the Russian throne for herself.
[00:02:20] The Princess, this “Sophie”, was of course Catherine, Catherine The Great of Russia.
[00:02:27] Like the English queens of parts one and two of this mini-series, she had to survive in a hostile male-dominated environment, fending off constant threats and conspiracies.
[00:02:40] Like Elizabeth I, and unlike Anne Boleyn, she succeeded, at least in terms of holding on to power until her last breath.
[00:02:49] And although the outcomes of Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great are similar, the techniques to get there were very different, and in many ways further underline the hypocrisy and double standards that female rulers had to put up with.
[00:03:07] So, where to start?
[00:03:09] Well, let’s start with her character.
[00:03:12] Like Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth, she was clearly a strong-willed, intelligent, charismatic woman, more than capable of holding her own in the company of men who thought themselves superior.
[00:03:25] She had grown up with a fashionable French governess and received a modern education influenced by the Enlightenment, the contemporary philosophical movement based on the importance of reason.
[00:03:38] As such, she was an avid reader of political works from authors like Plutarch, Tacitus, Machiavelli and Voltaire, all which highlight the importance of public opinion and the shaping of it.
[00:03:52] After arriving in Russia and marrying Peter, which she did when she was a mere 16-years-old, she set about turning herself into a full Russian princess.
[00:04:04] Gone was the name of Sophie, she would now be called Yekaterina, or, Catherine, echoing the legacy of Catherine the I, the legendary wife of Peter the Great.
[00:04:15] She converted to the Russian orthodox church, and became fluent in Russian.
[00:04:21] This was in stark contrast to her husband, Peter, who made no secret of his preference for Prussia and all things Prussian.
[00:04:31] At court, Catherine was popular with nobles and servants alike. She treated her servants well, and was quick-witted and funny when in conversation.
[00:04:42] Peter, on the other hand was neurotic, boring, and an alcoholic.
[00:04:48] It couldn’t have been a worse match, but of course, marriages in the 18th century were not about matches of character, or matters of the heart; the objective was to form an alliance, and above all, to produce an heir.
[00:05:04] As such, on their wedding night, Catherine might have dreaded the thought, but she knew what was expected of her.
[00:05:12] She waited upstairs in the bedroom, ready to perform her duty.
[00:05:17] Peter did come to bed several hours later, but was completely drunk and passed out, fell over onto the floor.
[00:05:27] The marriage was not consummated that evening, and there are some theories that the pair never actually slept together, so much was their hatred for one another.
[00:05:39] Whether this is true or not, Catherine did fall pregnant.
[00:05:44] Over the next decade, Catherine, in fact, fell pregnant several times, losing the baby each time, until 1754, when she successfully gave birth to a son, Paul.
[00:05:57] Now, it’s widely believed that both Catherine and Peter were having affairs with other people, so Paul was almost certainly not Peter’s son.
[00:06:07] But this didn’t really matter.
[00:06:09] The important thing was that people thought he was.
[00:06:13] And even though she had done what was expected and produced a child, Catherine sensed her position was becoming increasingly insecure.
[00:06:24] Given her trouble with previous pregnancies, great care was given to her last pregnancy and her physical activities were largely stopped.
[00:06:33] This meant no more attendance at Empress Elizabeth’s grand balls and other events at court; no more working her charm. Essentially, she had fewer allies, fewer friends in high places.
[00:06:47] Yes, she might have been married to the heir, but she knew he hated her, and the feeling was most certainly mutual.
[00:06:57] Moreover, Peter was only getting more cruel towards her.
[00:07:01] Not only was he verbally abusive towards Catherine, threatening to divorce her and send her to a convent, but he would appear in public with his mistress, embarrassing her in front of Russia’s rich and powerful.
[00:07:15] As such, she began to grow fearful that she would be sent away into exile once he took the throne.
[00:07:23] But Peter’s vulgar behaviour and open adoration for his homeland, Prussia – which Russia had fought against in the Seven Years’ War – this was all earning him more and more enemies.
[00:07:35] Even Elizabeth began to favour Catherine as heir to the throne, often deriding, making fun of Peter as “her foolish nephew”.
[00:07:46] Always mindful of her future, Catherine began taking steps to ensure her own protection.
[00:07:52] She befriended foreign ambassadors and built up a network of informants who ensured she was always up to date with the latest goings on at court, and who could provide her with secrets to be used as leverage in any potential schemes.
[00:08:08] And several of these allies and informants were far more than friends and acquaintances. They would also become her lovers.
[00:08:18] One such man, who would prove to be vital for her future, was a military officer called Grigory Orlov, who she began an affair with around 1760.
[00:08:30] Just a few years after their affair began, Empress Elizabeth died and Peter was thrust onto the throne of a country he had spent his life despising.
[00:08:41] Perhaps unsurprisingly, he proved to be an immensely unpopular leader.
[00:08:48] In the days immediately after becoming Emperor, he had disrespectfully – and true to style, drunkenly – publicly celebrated the death of his aunt, the popular Empress Elizabeth.
[00:09:00] What’s more, his support for Russia’s enemy, Prussia, became intolerable to many at court.
[00:09:07] In an effort to protect herself and her position, Catherine and her lover Orlov began conspiring against Peter with the help of Orlov’s brothers and some other nobles.
[00:09:18] Catherine knew Peter was strongly disliked amongst the military and thought that she would not struggle to gain their support.
[00:09:27] It didn’t take long.
[00:09:29] Just six months after the crown was placed on Peter’s head, he was unceremoniously booted out, kicked out, by his wife, no less.
[00:09:39] On the 9th July 1762, while Peter was outside St Petersburg, the 33-year-old Catherine sensed her opportunity. She dressed in a Russian military uniform, led the army through the streets of St Petersburg and declared herself Empress.
[00:09:57] And, to cut a long story short, it worked.
[00:10:02] When Peter returned to the palace he surrendered to his wife and abdicated, hoping he would be exiled to his beloved Prussia.
[00:10:11] But Catherine was no fool.
[00:10:14] She knew that if she did this he could lead an uprising against her in the future.
[00:10:20] What’s more, he had clearly not built up any goodwill with his wife, who would refer to him in her memoirs as both ‘an idiot and a drunkard’. She hated him, and was not going to do him any favours.
[00:10:34] So she instead had him arrested and placed under house arrest, with one of the guards being a man called Grigory Potemkin, who we’ll meet again shortly.
[00:10:45] Eight days later, Peter was dead.
[00:10:48] Now, the cause of Peter’s death is still unknown to this day.
[00:10:53] Officially it was reported as due to haemorrhoids but the more likely story is that he was murdered, potentially by Orlov’s brother. Whether natural or unnatural causes, having him out of the way was certainly helpful for Catherine.
[00:11:11] Two months later, as her son Paul was too young to rule, Catherine was crowned Empress in his place.
[00:11:19] She was acutely aware of the need to get off on the right foot, and project an image of strength.
[00:11:26] Like Elizabeth I two centuries before, Catherine knew how important her image was to her rule and she cultivated this carefully, following the specific examples of two powerful Russian female rulers, Catherine I and her predecessor, Empress Elizabeth.
[00:11:44] And she trod a careful balance between femininity, of embracing her female side, and masculinity.
[00:11:53] For her lavish coronation ceremony, she commissioned a brand new crown, an incredibly grand and expensive piece, which was adorned with over 5,000 diamonds.
[00:12:05] As Empress, her dresses were often designed with subtle touches that aligned them with men’s military clothing, making her look more like a glamorous but powerful soldier than a supposedly “weak” woman.
[00:12:20] Now, 18th-century Russia, it should be said, had seen four female rulers and the country was, by and large, more tolerant to female rule than England had been, for example.
[00:12:33] But Catherine still faced considerable scrutiny stemming from her gender.
[00:12:38] And let’s not forget that she was, in the minds of some, a Prussian-born usurper, a foreigner who had stolen the Russian crown.
[00:12:48] So, she needed to tread very carefully.
[00:12:51] But it worked.
[00:12:53] She fitted herself into a man’s world, showing that her gender was no limitation to her rule, and she became an extremely adept leader.
[00:13:03] She would work tirelessly from morning until night, striving to bring Russia in line with its European contemporaries.
[00:13:11] Russia in the 18th century, let’s not forget, was a very underdeveloped country in comparison to most of its Western neighbours.
[00:13:20] Its population was 95% rural, and there was the system of serfdom, essentially rural slavery, where landowners would own vast swathes of the country and peasants were required to farm their land for them.
[00:13:36] Catherine did attempt to reform this system, and showed sympathy for the plight of the serfs, but ultimately was unable to make much progress with abolishing serfdom, which would only be fully abolished in 1861.
[00:13:53] She grew to realise that the progressive reforms that she wanted to put into place needed to be supported by the nobles, and persuading them to give up their, at times, tens of thousands of slaves really, well, it wasn’t easy.
[00:14:08] In fact, under Catherine’s rule, the plight of the serf actually deteriorated, it got worse, and Catherine had to deal with more than a dozen serf uprisings during her reign.
[00:14:22] The bloodiest and most bizarre came in 1774, and was led not by a serf but by a former army officer called Emelyan Pugachev.
[00:14:34] Pugachev had managed to convince a large group of peasants that he was the deposed emperor Peter – yes the same Peter who had died 12 years before.
[00:14:45] This uprising became the largest peasant revolt in European history, with 25,000 peasants fighting against the state, and 5,000 government officials and noblemen being killed.
[00:14:58] The rebellion lasted two years, and when it was finally crushed Catherine showed no mercy.
[00:15:07] The rebel leader, Pugachev, was brought to a square in Moscow, in front of a large crowd. He was then beheaded, his head chopped off, his insides pulled out, and then he was chopped into pieces.
[00:15:22] No, you certainly didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Catherine The Great.
[00:15:27] She was fearless at home, but would also be remembered as being fearless abroad, and amassed an impressive amount of military victories throughout her reign.
[00:15:37] Just six years after she took the throne, in 1768 the Ottoman Empire had declared war on Russia after its interference in Poland.
[00:15:48] The resulting war, the Russo-Turkish war, turned out to be a disaster for the Ottomans and a great victory for Catherine, resulting in territorial gains of over half a million square kilometres, strengthening both the empire and Catherine’s position as ruler.
[00:16:06] Some of the lands were even seized from one of her former lovers, a man called Stanisław Poniatowski, who Catherine had, in her early reign, helped become King of Poland.
[00:16:18] And on the subject of lovers, it is worth spending some time talking about this aspect of Catherine’s reign and character, because this highlights not only her cunning and intelligence, but also the glaring double standards and misogyny she had to face.
[00:16:36] There is little doubt that Catherine had lovers, that she had affairs with men who were not Peter.
[00:16:43] I mean, who can blame her, Peter sounds absolutely vile and she clearly found him repulsive.
[00:16:50] In terms of just how many lovers, she is remembered in the history books as being a highly sexualised woman, a woman with a large amount of lovers, but historians believe the number is somewhere between 12 and 22.
[00:17:07] And, had she been a king, clearly this wouldn’t have mattered at all, it wouldn’t even have been a topic of interest, nobody would have spent any time even thinking about it.
[00:17:18] Having lovers and mistresses was completely expected behaviour for a king, but it has become a black spot on Catherine’s legacy, even to the extent that people spread rumours that she died while having sex with a horse - which I should add, is completely untrue, there is zero evidence of anything like that happening.
[00:17:40] Now, in some cases Catherine chose some of her lovers for perfectly rational reasons of the heart, she was attracted to them.
[00:17:49] In other cases, she chose them because of their potential political usefulness.
[00:17:54] We already heard about Grigory Orlov, the military officer who helped her seize the throne from Peter.
[00:18:01] In 1774, 12 years after Peter had died, the 45 year-old empress took another officer as a lover.
[00:18:09] His name was Grigory Potemkin.
[00:18:12] If you remember him from earlier on in this episode, he was one of officers guarding Peter.
[00:18:19] Potemkin was a skilled officer and intelligent man, and the pair embarked on a two-year love affair which led to the ambitious Potemkin being rewarded with significant power in the Russian empire.
[00:18:33] But, it wasn’t to last. Potemkin was too ambitious, he had too much power, and many began to see Catherine giving him top jobs as an example of a woman submitting to her lover.
[00:18:47] What’s more he was deeply insecure, jealous of Catherine, and fearful that she would leave him. Enough was enough, and the affair ended, but, if anything, their political relationship grew, and he became an even more valued political advisor to her.
[00:19:05] Now, aside from her military victories, Catherine had also enacted a number of forward-thinking reforms in an attempt to introduce Enlightenment thought to Russia.
[00:19:16] In 1775 she reorganised the structure of the empire’s territory for more efficient governance; and in 1786 she introduced a network of free schools, well, free as long as you weren’t a serf.
[00:19:31] And throughout her reign, her patronage of the arts also transformed St Petersburg into a modern cultural haven, and–like Elizabeth I of England–her reign has been dubbed “The Golden Age” of Russia.
[00:19:45] In one episode that I think particularly highlights both her understanding of public perception and her appreciation for reason and science, she was also the first person in Russia to receive the smallpox jab.
[00:20:01] But her rule wasn’t to last forever.
[00:20:04] On the 5th November 1796, her day started like any other.
[00:20:10] This “Great” empress prepared her coffee as she always did and she spent hours going over her papers.
[00:20:18] Some time that evening, the 67-year-old Catherine had a stroke, and she died the following day.
[00:20:26] After her death, her son Paul took the throne, being sure to burn her papers in case she had written him out of her will.
[00:20:34] He then took steps in avenging what he believed to be wrongs done to his father.
[00:20:40] He dug up Peter and gave him the state funeral he never received, and then, shock horror, he ordered for his mother and father to be buried next to one another.
[00:20:52] Catherine was condemned to be alongside her hated husband for eternity.
[00:20:58] She was back, in a strange way, to how it had all begun.
[00:21:02] But not without leaving a monumental impact on her beloved adopted country, of Russia.
[00:21:09] She had expanded the land of the empire, strengthened its economy, and transformed it into a modern European power that would rival its contemporaries.
[00:21:20] And, like the subjects of parts one and two of this mini-series, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I over in England, she had done this as a woman in a world of often poisonous conspiring men.
[00:21:34] Much like Elizabeth I, Catherine had subtly adapted her image to portray herself as more powerful.
[00:21:42] For Elizabeth, she did this by insisting she was a virgin to avoid marrying and losing power to a husband.
[00:21:50] Catherine went in the opposite direction, often using her love affairs to advance her power by using the alliances and connections of the men who she became involved with.
[00:22:03] The strategies of both queens clearly worked, in terms of their huge legacies that they left on their respective countries.
[00:22:11] And in the case of Catherine, perhaps it’s even more impressive to think that she fought against all of this discrimination, she managed not just to survive but to thrive as Empress, and that she would go down as one of the greatest leaders in Russian history.
[00:22:28] And to think, she wasn’t even really Russian.
[00:22:34] Ok then, that is it for today’s episode on Catherine the Great, and with this comes the end of this three-part mini-series.
[00:22:42] As always I would love to know what you thought of this episode, and of this mini-series in general?
[00:22:48] For the Russian listeners out there, how do you feel about Catherine The Great?
[00:22:52] What lasting impact has she had on Russia?
[00:22:55] What other powerful female queens could we have added to this mini-series?
[00:23:00] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:23:03] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:23:11] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:23:16] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:04] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it is part three of our three-part mini-series on great queens.
[00:00:27] In part one we looked at the tragic life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII.
[00:00:34] In part two, we looked at the life of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and saw how she navigated a world of men to leave a phenomenal legacy.
[00:00:44] And today we are moving abroad, to Russia, in fact, where we will meet another strong, powerful woman, a woman who had such an impact on Russia that she earned herself the nickname “The Great”.
[00:00:58] Yes, it’s Catherine, the 18th century Empress of Russia.
[00:01:02] Her story is one of power, deceit, sex and rebellion, though not necessarily in that order.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it.
[00:01:14] In 1744, a fourteen-year-old Prussian princess arrived in Russia.
[00:01:22] The princess was named Sophie Friederike Auguste.
[00:01:25] She was charming and quick-witted, and impressed everyone she met.
[00:01:31] She had been brought there at the request of the childless Empress, Elizabeth I, as a potential match for her nephew, Peter, who was 15 at the time.
[00:01:43] It wasn’t, in fact, the first time the pair had met.
[00:01:46] They were second cousins, and had met when Sophie was 10-years-old.
[00:01:51] She hated Peter the first time they met, and she hated him even more four years later.
[00:01:58] He was a pale, sickly looking boy, who already stunk of alcohol despite his young age.
[00:02:06] Nevertheless, the pair would marry, but it would be an event that would ultimately lead to the princess rising up against her husband, overthrowing him and taking the Russian throne for herself.
[00:02:20] The Princess, this “Sophie”, was of course Catherine, Catherine The Great of Russia.
[00:02:27] Like the English queens of parts one and two of this mini-series, she had to survive in a hostile male-dominated environment, fending off constant threats and conspiracies.
[00:02:40] Like Elizabeth I, and unlike Anne Boleyn, she succeeded, at least in terms of holding on to power until her last breath.
[00:02:49] And although the outcomes of Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great are similar, the techniques to get there were very different, and in many ways further underline the hypocrisy and double standards that female rulers had to put up with.
[00:03:07] So, where to start?
[00:03:09] Well, let’s start with her character.
[00:03:12] Like Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth, she was clearly a strong-willed, intelligent, charismatic woman, more than capable of holding her own in the company of men who thought themselves superior.
[00:03:25] She had grown up with a fashionable French governess and received a modern education influenced by the Enlightenment, the contemporary philosophical movement based on the importance of reason.
[00:03:38] As such, she was an avid reader of political works from authors like Plutarch, Tacitus, Machiavelli and Voltaire, all which highlight the importance of public opinion and the shaping of it.
[00:03:52] After arriving in Russia and marrying Peter, which she did when she was a mere 16-years-old, she set about turning herself into a full Russian princess.
[00:04:04] Gone was the name of Sophie, she would now be called Yekaterina, or, Catherine, echoing the legacy of Catherine the I, the legendary wife of Peter the Great.
[00:04:15] She converted to the Russian orthodox church, and became fluent in Russian.
[00:04:21] This was in stark contrast to her husband, Peter, who made no secret of his preference for Prussia and all things Prussian.
[00:04:31] At court, Catherine was popular with nobles and servants alike. She treated her servants well, and was quick-witted and funny when in conversation.
[00:04:42] Peter, on the other hand was neurotic, boring, and an alcoholic.
[00:04:48] It couldn’t have been a worse match, but of course, marriages in the 18th century were not about matches of character, or matters of the heart; the objective was to form an alliance, and above all, to produce an heir.
[00:05:04] As such, on their wedding night, Catherine might have dreaded the thought, but she knew what was expected of her.
[00:05:12] She waited upstairs in the bedroom, ready to perform her duty.
[00:05:17] Peter did come to bed several hours later, but was completely drunk and passed out, fell over onto the floor.
[00:05:27] The marriage was not consummated that evening, and there are some theories that the pair never actually slept together, so much was their hatred for one another.
[00:05:39] Whether this is true or not, Catherine did fall pregnant.
[00:05:44] Over the next decade, Catherine, in fact, fell pregnant several times, losing the baby each time, until 1754, when she successfully gave birth to a son, Paul.
[00:05:57] Now, it’s widely believed that both Catherine and Peter were having affairs with other people, so Paul was almost certainly not Peter’s son.
[00:06:07] But this didn’t really matter.
[00:06:09] The important thing was that people thought he was.
[00:06:13] And even though she had done what was expected and produced a child, Catherine sensed her position was becoming increasingly insecure.
[00:06:24] Given her trouble with previous pregnancies, great care was given to her last pregnancy and her physical activities were largely stopped.
[00:06:33] This meant no more attendance at Empress Elizabeth’s grand balls and other events at court; no more working her charm. Essentially, she had fewer allies, fewer friends in high places.
[00:06:47] Yes, she might have been married to the heir, but she knew he hated her, and the feeling was most certainly mutual.
[00:06:57] Moreover, Peter was only getting more cruel towards her.
[00:07:01] Not only was he verbally abusive towards Catherine, threatening to divorce her and send her to a convent, but he would appear in public with his mistress, embarrassing her in front of Russia’s rich and powerful.
[00:07:15] As such, she began to grow fearful that she would be sent away into exile once he took the throne.
[00:07:23] But Peter’s vulgar behaviour and open adoration for his homeland, Prussia – which Russia had fought against in the Seven Years’ War – this was all earning him more and more enemies.
[00:07:35] Even Elizabeth began to favour Catherine as heir to the throne, often deriding, making fun of Peter as “her foolish nephew”.
[00:07:46] Always mindful of her future, Catherine began taking steps to ensure her own protection.
[00:07:52] She befriended foreign ambassadors and built up a network of informants who ensured she was always up to date with the latest goings on at court, and who could provide her with secrets to be used as leverage in any potential schemes.
[00:08:08] And several of these allies and informants were far more than friends and acquaintances. They would also become her lovers.
[00:08:18] One such man, who would prove to be vital for her future, was a military officer called Grigory Orlov, who she began an affair with around 1760.
[00:08:30] Just a few years after their affair began, Empress Elizabeth died and Peter was thrust onto the throne of a country he had spent his life despising.
[00:08:41] Perhaps unsurprisingly, he proved to be an immensely unpopular leader.
[00:08:48] In the days immediately after becoming Emperor, he had disrespectfully – and true to style, drunkenly – publicly celebrated the death of his aunt, the popular Empress Elizabeth.
[00:09:00] What’s more, his support for Russia’s enemy, Prussia, became intolerable to many at court.
[00:09:07] In an effort to protect herself and her position, Catherine and her lover Orlov began conspiring against Peter with the help of Orlov’s brothers and some other nobles.
[00:09:18] Catherine knew Peter was strongly disliked amongst the military and thought that she would not struggle to gain their support.
[00:09:27] It didn’t take long.
[00:09:29] Just six months after the crown was placed on Peter’s head, he was unceremoniously booted out, kicked out, by his wife, no less.
[00:09:39] On the 9th July 1762, while Peter was outside St Petersburg, the 33-year-old Catherine sensed her opportunity. She dressed in a Russian military uniform, led the army through the streets of St Petersburg and declared herself Empress.
[00:09:57] And, to cut a long story short, it worked.
[00:10:02] When Peter returned to the palace he surrendered to his wife and abdicated, hoping he would be exiled to his beloved Prussia.
[00:10:11] But Catherine was no fool.
[00:10:14] She knew that if she did this he could lead an uprising against her in the future.
[00:10:20] What’s more, he had clearly not built up any goodwill with his wife, who would refer to him in her memoirs as both ‘an idiot and a drunkard’. She hated him, and was not going to do him any favours.
[00:10:34] So she instead had him arrested and placed under house arrest, with one of the guards being a man called Grigory Potemkin, who we’ll meet again shortly.
[00:10:45] Eight days later, Peter was dead.
[00:10:48] Now, the cause of Peter’s death is still unknown to this day.
[00:10:53] Officially it was reported as due to haemorrhoids but the more likely story is that he was murdered, potentially by Orlov’s brother. Whether natural or unnatural causes, having him out of the way was certainly helpful for Catherine.
[00:11:11] Two months later, as her son Paul was too young to rule, Catherine was crowned Empress in his place.
[00:11:19] She was acutely aware of the need to get off on the right foot, and project an image of strength.
[00:11:26] Like Elizabeth I two centuries before, Catherine knew how important her image was to her rule and she cultivated this carefully, following the specific examples of two powerful Russian female rulers, Catherine I and her predecessor, Empress Elizabeth.
[00:11:44] And she trod a careful balance between femininity, of embracing her female side, and masculinity.
[00:11:53] For her lavish coronation ceremony, she commissioned a brand new crown, an incredibly grand and expensive piece, which was adorned with over 5,000 diamonds.
[00:12:05] As Empress, her dresses were often designed with subtle touches that aligned them with men’s military clothing, making her look more like a glamorous but powerful soldier than a supposedly “weak” woman.
[00:12:20] Now, 18th-century Russia, it should be said, had seen four female rulers and the country was, by and large, more tolerant to female rule than England had been, for example.
[00:12:33] But Catherine still faced considerable scrutiny stemming from her gender.
[00:12:38] And let’s not forget that she was, in the minds of some, a Prussian-born usurper, a foreigner who had stolen the Russian crown.
[00:12:48] So, she needed to tread very carefully.
[00:12:51] But it worked.
[00:12:53] She fitted herself into a man’s world, showing that her gender was no limitation to her rule, and she became an extremely adept leader.
[00:13:03] She would work tirelessly from morning until night, striving to bring Russia in line with its European contemporaries.
[00:13:11] Russia in the 18th century, let’s not forget, was a very underdeveloped country in comparison to most of its Western neighbours.
[00:13:20] Its population was 95% rural, and there was the system of serfdom, essentially rural slavery, where landowners would own vast swathes of the country and peasants were required to farm their land for them.
[00:13:36] Catherine did attempt to reform this system, and showed sympathy for the plight of the serfs, but ultimately was unable to make much progress with abolishing serfdom, which would only be fully abolished in 1861.
[00:13:53] She grew to realise that the progressive reforms that she wanted to put into place needed to be supported by the nobles, and persuading them to give up their, at times, tens of thousands of slaves really, well, it wasn’t easy.
[00:14:08] In fact, under Catherine’s rule, the plight of the serf actually deteriorated, it got worse, and Catherine had to deal with more than a dozen serf uprisings during her reign.
[00:14:22] The bloodiest and most bizarre came in 1774, and was led not by a serf but by a former army officer called Emelyan Pugachev.
[00:14:34] Pugachev had managed to convince a large group of peasants that he was the deposed emperor Peter – yes the same Peter who had died 12 years before.
[00:14:45] This uprising became the largest peasant revolt in European history, with 25,000 peasants fighting against the state, and 5,000 government officials and noblemen being killed.
[00:14:58] The rebellion lasted two years, and when it was finally crushed Catherine showed no mercy.
[00:15:07] The rebel leader, Pugachev, was brought to a square in Moscow, in front of a large crowd. He was then beheaded, his head chopped off, his insides pulled out, and then he was chopped into pieces.
[00:15:22] No, you certainly didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Catherine The Great.
[00:15:27] She was fearless at home, but would also be remembered as being fearless abroad, and amassed an impressive amount of military victories throughout her reign.
[00:15:37] Just six years after she took the throne, in 1768 the Ottoman Empire had declared war on Russia after its interference in Poland.
[00:15:48] The resulting war, the Russo-Turkish war, turned out to be a disaster for the Ottomans and a great victory for Catherine, resulting in territorial gains of over half a million square kilometres, strengthening both the empire and Catherine’s position as ruler.
[00:16:06] Some of the lands were even seized from one of her former lovers, a man called Stanisław Poniatowski, who Catherine had, in her early reign, helped become King of Poland.
[00:16:18] And on the subject of lovers, it is worth spending some time talking about this aspect of Catherine’s reign and character, because this highlights not only her cunning and intelligence, but also the glaring double standards and misogyny she had to face.
[00:16:36] There is little doubt that Catherine had lovers, that she had affairs with men who were not Peter.
[00:16:43] I mean, who can blame her, Peter sounds absolutely vile and she clearly found him repulsive.
[00:16:50] In terms of just how many lovers, she is remembered in the history books as being a highly sexualised woman, a woman with a large amount of lovers, but historians believe the number is somewhere between 12 and 22.
[00:17:07] And, had she been a king, clearly this wouldn’t have mattered at all, it wouldn’t even have been a topic of interest, nobody would have spent any time even thinking about it.
[00:17:18] Having lovers and mistresses was completely expected behaviour for a king, but it has become a black spot on Catherine’s legacy, even to the extent that people spread rumours that she died while having sex with a horse - which I should add, is completely untrue, there is zero evidence of anything like that happening.
[00:17:40] Now, in some cases Catherine chose some of her lovers for perfectly rational reasons of the heart, she was attracted to them.
[00:17:49] In other cases, she chose them because of their potential political usefulness.
[00:17:54] We already heard about Grigory Orlov, the military officer who helped her seize the throne from Peter.
[00:18:01] In 1774, 12 years after Peter had died, the 45 year-old empress took another officer as a lover.
[00:18:09] His name was Grigory Potemkin.
[00:18:12] If you remember him from earlier on in this episode, he was one of officers guarding Peter.
[00:18:19] Potemkin was a skilled officer and intelligent man, and the pair embarked on a two-year love affair which led to the ambitious Potemkin being rewarded with significant power in the Russian empire.
[00:18:33] But, it wasn’t to last. Potemkin was too ambitious, he had too much power, and many began to see Catherine giving him top jobs as an example of a woman submitting to her lover.
[00:18:47] What’s more he was deeply insecure, jealous of Catherine, and fearful that she would leave him. Enough was enough, and the affair ended, but, if anything, their political relationship grew, and he became an even more valued political advisor to her.
[00:19:05] Now, aside from her military victories, Catherine had also enacted a number of forward-thinking reforms in an attempt to introduce Enlightenment thought to Russia.
[00:19:16] In 1775 she reorganised the structure of the empire’s territory for more efficient governance; and in 1786 she introduced a network of free schools, well, free as long as you weren’t a serf.
[00:19:31] And throughout her reign, her patronage of the arts also transformed St Petersburg into a modern cultural haven, and–like Elizabeth I of England–her reign has been dubbed “The Golden Age” of Russia.
[00:19:45] In one episode that I think particularly highlights both her understanding of public perception and her appreciation for reason and science, she was also the first person in Russia to receive the smallpox jab.
[00:20:01] But her rule wasn’t to last forever.
[00:20:04] On the 5th November 1796, her day started like any other.
[00:20:10] This “Great” empress prepared her coffee as she always did and she spent hours going over her papers.
[00:20:18] Some time that evening, the 67-year-old Catherine had a stroke, and she died the following day.
[00:20:26] After her death, her son Paul took the throne, being sure to burn her papers in case she had written him out of her will.
[00:20:34] He then took steps in avenging what he believed to be wrongs done to his father.
[00:20:40] He dug up Peter and gave him the state funeral he never received, and then, shock horror, he ordered for his mother and father to be buried next to one another.
[00:20:52] Catherine was condemned to be alongside her hated husband for eternity.
[00:20:58] She was back, in a strange way, to how it had all begun.
[00:21:02] But not without leaving a monumental impact on her beloved adopted country, of Russia.
[00:21:09] She had expanded the land of the empire, strengthened its economy, and transformed it into a modern European power that would rival its contemporaries.
[00:21:20] And, like the subjects of parts one and two of this mini-series, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I over in England, she had done this as a woman in a world of often poisonous conspiring men.
[00:21:34] Much like Elizabeth I, Catherine had subtly adapted her image to portray herself as more powerful.
[00:21:42] For Elizabeth, she did this by insisting she was a virgin to avoid marrying and losing power to a husband.
[00:21:50] Catherine went in the opposite direction, often using her love affairs to advance her power by using the alliances and connections of the men who she became involved with.
[00:22:03] The strategies of both queens clearly worked, in terms of their huge legacies that they left on their respective countries.
[00:22:11] And in the case of Catherine, perhaps it’s even more impressive to think that she fought against all of this discrimination, she managed not just to survive but to thrive as Empress, and that she would go down as one of the greatest leaders in Russian history.
[00:22:28] And to think, she wasn’t even really Russian.
[00:22:34] Ok then, that is it for today’s episode on Catherine the Great, and with this comes the end of this three-part mini-series.
[00:22:42] As always I would love to know what you thought of this episode, and of this mini-series in general?
[00:22:48] For the Russian listeners out there, how do you feel about Catherine The Great?
[00:22:52] What lasting impact has she had on Russia?
[00:22:55] What other powerful female queens could we have added to this mini-series?
[00:23:00] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:23:03] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:23:11] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:23:16] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:04] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it is part three of our three-part mini-series on great queens.
[00:00:27] In part one we looked at the tragic life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII.
[00:00:34] In part two, we looked at the life of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I of England, and saw how she navigated a world of men to leave a phenomenal legacy.
[00:00:44] And today we are moving abroad, to Russia, in fact, where we will meet another strong, powerful woman, a woman who had such an impact on Russia that she earned herself the nickname “The Great”.
[00:00:58] Yes, it’s Catherine, the 18th century Empress of Russia.
[00:01:02] Her story is one of power, deceit, sex and rebellion, though not necessarily in that order.
[00:01:09] OK then, let’s get right into it.
[00:01:14] In 1744, a fourteen-year-old Prussian princess arrived in Russia.
[00:01:22] The princess was named Sophie Friederike Auguste.
[00:01:25] She was charming and quick-witted, and impressed everyone she met.
[00:01:31] She had been brought there at the request of the childless Empress, Elizabeth I, as a potential match for her nephew, Peter, who was 15 at the time.
[00:01:43] It wasn’t, in fact, the first time the pair had met.
[00:01:46] They were second cousins, and had met when Sophie was 10-years-old.
[00:01:51] She hated Peter the first time they met, and she hated him even more four years later.
[00:01:58] He was a pale, sickly looking boy, who already stunk of alcohol despite his young age.
[00:02:06] Nevertheless, the pair would marry, but it would be an event that would ultimately lead to the princess rising up against her husband, overthrowing him and taking the Russian throne for herself.
[00:02:20] The Princess, this “Sophie”, was of course Catherine, Catherine The Great of Russia.
[00:02:27] Like the English queens of parts one and two of this mini-series, she had to survive in a hostile male-dominated environment, fending off constant threats and conspiracies.
[00:02:40] Like Elizabeth I, and unlike Anne Boleyn, she succeeded, at least in terms of holding on to power until her last breath.
[00:02:49] And although the outcomes of Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great are similar, the techniques to get there were very different, and in many ways further underline the hypocrisy and double standards that female rulers had to put up with.
[00:03:07] So, where to start?
[00:03:09] Well, let’s start with her character.
[00:03:12] Like Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth, she was clearly a strong-willed, intelligent, charismatic woman, more than capable of holding her own in the company of men who thought themselves superior.
[00:03:25] She had grown up with a fashionable French governess and received a modern education influenced by the Enlightenment, the contemporary philosophical movement based on the importance of reason.
[00:03:38] As such, she was an avid reader of political works from authors like Plutarch, Tacitus, Machiavelli and Voltaire, all which highlight the importance of public opinion and the shaping of it.
[00:03:52] After arriving in Russia and marrying Peter, which she did when she was a mere 16-years-old, she set about turning herself into a full Russian princess.
[00:04:04] Gone was the name of Sophie, she would now be called Yekaterina, or, Catherine, echoing the legacy of Catherine the I, the legendary wife of Peter the Great.
[00:04:15] She converted to the Russian orthodox church, and became fluent in Russian.
[00:04:21] This was in stark contrast to her husband, Peter, who made no secret of his preference for Prussia and all things Prussian.
[00:04:31] At court, Catherine was popular with nobles and servants alike. She treated her servants well, and was quick-witted and funny when in conversation.
[00:04:42] Peter, on the other hand was neurotic, boring, and an alcoholic.
[00:04:48] It couldn’t have been a worse match, but of course, marriages in the 18th century were not about matches of character, or matters of the heart; the objective was to form an alliance, and above all, to produce an heir.
[00:05:04] As such, on their wedding night, Catherine might have dreaded the thought, but she knew what was expected of her.
[00:05:12] She waited upstairs in the bedroom, ready to perform her duty.
[00:05:17] Peter did come to bed several hours later, but was completely drunk and passed out, fell over onto the floor.
[00:05:27] The marriage was not consummated that evening, and there are some theories that the pair never actually slept together, so much was their hatred for one another.
[00:05:39] Whether this is true or not, Catherine did fall pregnant.
[00:05:44] Over the next decade, Catherine, in fact, fell pregnant several times, losing the baby each time, until 1754, when she successfully gave birth to a son, Paul.
[00:05:57] Now, it’s widely believed that both Catherine and Peter were having affairs with other people, so Paul was almost certainly not Peter’s son.
[00:06:07] But this didn’t really matter.
[00:06:09] The important thing was that people thought he was.
[00:06:13] And even though she had done what was expected and produced a child, Catherine sensed her position was becoming increasingly insecure.
[00:06:24] Given her trouble with previous pregnancies, great care was given to her last pregnancy and her physical activities were largely stopped.
[00:06:33] This meant no more attendance at Empress Elizabeth’s grand balls and other events at court; no more working her charm. Essentially, she had fewer allies, fewer friends in high places.
[00:06:47] Yes, she might have been married to the heir, but she knew he hated her, and the feeling was most certainly mutual.
[00:06:57] Moreover, Peter was only getting more cruel towards her.
[00:07:01] Not only was he verbally abusive towards Catherine, threatening to divorce her and send her to a convent, but he would appear in public with his mistress, embarrassing her in front of Russia’s rich and powerful.
[00:07:15] As such, she began to grow fearful that she would be sent away into exile once he took the throne.
[00:07:23] But Peter’s vulgar behaviour and open adoration for his homeland, Prussia – which Russia had fought against in the Seven Years’ War – this was all earning him more and more enemies.
[00:07:35] Even Elizabeth began to favour Catherine as heir to the throne, often deriding, making fun of Peter as “her foolish nephew”.
[00:07:46] Always mindful of her future, Catherine began taking steps to ensure her own protection.
[00:07:52] She befriended foreign ambassadors and built up a network of informants who ensured she was always up to date with the latest goings on at court, and who could provide her with secrets to be used as leverage in any potential schemes.
[00:08:08] And several of these allies and informants were far more than friends and acquaintances. They would also become her lovers.
[00:08:18] One such man, who would prove to be vital for her future, was a military officer called Grigory Orlov, who she began an affair with around 1760.
[00:08:30] Just a few years after their affair began, Empress Elizabeth died and Peter was thrust onto the throne of a country he had spent his life despising.
[00:08:41] Perhaps unsurprisingly, he proved to be an immensely unpopular leader.
[00:08:48] In the days immediately after becoming Emperor, he had disrespectfully – and true to style, drunkenly – publicly celebrated the death of his aunt, the popular Empress Elizabeth.
[00:09:00] What’s more, his support for Russia’s enemy, Prussia, became intolerable to many at court.
[00:09:07] In an effort to protect herself and her position, Catherine and her lover Orlov began conspiring against Peter with the help of Orlov’s brothers and some other nobles.
[00:09:18] Catherine knew Peter was strongly disliked amongst the military and thought that she would not struggle to gain their support.
[00:09:27] It didn’t take long.
[00:09:29] Just six months after the crown was placed on Peter’s head, he was unceremoniously booted out, kicked out, by his wife, no less.
[00:09:39] On the 9th July 1762, while Peter was outside St Petersburg, the 33-year-old Catherine sensed her opportunity. She dressed in a Russian military uniform, led the army through the streets of St Petersburg and declared herself Empress.
[00:09:57] And, to cut a long story short, it worked.
[00:10:02] When Peter returned to the palace he surrendered to his wife and abdicated, hoping he would be exiled to his beloved Prussia.
[00:10:11] But Catherine was no fool.
[00:10:14] She knew that if she did this he could lead an uprising against her in the future.
[00:10:20] What’s more, he had clearly not built up any goodwill with his wife, who would refer to him in her memoirs as both ‘an idiot and a drunkard’. She hated him, and was not going to do him any favours.
[00:10:34] So she instead had him arrested and placed under house arrest, with one of the guards being a man called Grigory Potemkin, who we’ll meet again shortly.
[00:10:45] Eight days later, Peter was dead.
[00:10:48] Now, the cause of Peter’s death is still unknown to this day.
[00:10:53] Officially it was reported as due to haemorrhoids but the more likely story is that he was murdered, potentially by Orlov’s brother. Whether natural or unnatural causes, having him out of the way was certainly helpful for Catherine.
[00:11:11] Two months later, as her son Paul was too young to rule, Catherine was crowned Empress in his place.
[00:11:19] She was acutely aware of the need to get off on the right foot, and project an image of strength.
[00:11:26] Like Elizabeth I two centuries before, Catherine knew how important her image was to her rule and she cultivated this carefully, following the specific examples of two powerful Russian female rulers, Catherine I and her predecessor, Empress Elizabeth.
[00:11:44] And she trod a careful balance between femininity, of embracing her female side, and masculinity.
[00:11:53] For her lavish coronation ceremony, she commissioned a brand new crown, an incredibly grand and expensive piece, which was adorned with over 5,000 diamonds.
[00:12:05] As Empress, her dresses were often designed with subtle touches that aligned them with men’s military clothing, making her look more like a glamorous but powerful soldier than a supposedly “weak” woman.
[00:12:20] Now, 18th-century Russia, it should be said, had seen four female rulers and the country was, by and large, more tolerant to female rule than England had been, for example.
[00:12:33] But Catherine still faced considerable scrutiny stemming from her gender.
[00:12:38] And let’s not forget that she was, in the minds of some, a Prussian-born usurper, a foreigner who had stolen the Russian crown.
[00:12:48] So, she needed to tread very carefully.
[00:12:51] But it worked.
[00:12:53] She fitted herself into a man’s world, showing that her gender was no limitation to her rule, and she became an extremely adept leader.
[00:13:03] She would work tirelessly from morning until night, striving to bring Russia in line with its European contemporaries.
[00:13:11] Russia in the 18th century, let’s not forget, was a very underdeveloped country in comparison to most of its Western neighbours.
[00:13:20] Its population was 95% rural, and there was the system of serfdom, essentially rural slavery, where landowners would own vast swathes of the country and peasants were required to farm their land for them.
[00:13:36] Catherine did attempt to reform this system, and showed sympathy for the plight of the serfs, but ultimately was unable to make much progress with abolishing serfdom, which would only be fully abolished in 1861.
[00:13:53] She grew to realise that the progressive reforms that she wanted to put into place needed to be supported by the nobles, and persuading them to give up their, at times, tens of thousands of slaves really, well, it wasn’t easy.
[00:14:08] In fact, under Catherine’s rule, the plight of the serf actually deteriorated, it got worse, and Catherine had to deal with more than a dozen serf uprisings during her reign.
[00:14:22] The bloodiest and most bizarre came in 1774, and was led not by a serf but by a former army officer called Emelyan Pugachev.
[00:14:34] Pugachev had managed to convince a large group of peasants that he was the deposed emperor Peter – yes the same Peter who had died 12 years before.
[00:14:45] This uprising became the largest peasant revolt in European history, with 25,000 peasants fighting against the state, and 5,000 government officials and noblemen being killed.
[00:14:58] The rebellion lasted two years, and when it was finally crushed Catherine showed no mercy.
[00:15:07] The rebel leader, Pugachev, was brought to a square in Moscow, in front of a large crowd. He was then beheaded, his head chopped off, his insides pulled out, and then he was chopped into pieces.
[00:15:22] No, you certainly didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Catherine The Great.
[00:15:27] She was fearless at home, but would also be remembered as being fearless abroad, and amassed an impressive amount of military victories throughout her reign.
[00:15:37] Just six years after she took the throne, in 1768 the Ottoman Empire had declared war on Russia after its interference in Poland.
[00:15:48] The resulting war, the Russo-Turkish war, turned out to be a disaster for the Ottomans and a great victory for Catherine, resulting in territorial gains of over half a million square kilometres, strengthening both the empire and Catherine’s position as ruler.
[00:16:06] Some of the lands were even seized from one of her former lovers, a man called Stanisław Poniatowski, who Catherine had, in her early reign, helped become King of Poland.
[00:16:18] And on the subject of lovers, it is worth spending some time talking about this aspect of Catherine’s reign and character, because this highlights not only her cunning and intelligence, but also the glaring double standards and misogyny she had to face.
[00:16:36] There is little doubt that Catherine had lovers, that she had affairs with men who were not Peter.
[00:16:43] I mean, who can blame her, Peter sounds absolutely vile and she clearly found him repulsive.
[00:16:50] In terms of just how many lovers, she is remembered in the history books as being a highly sexualised woman, a woman with a large amount of lovers, but historians believe the number is somewhere between 12 and 22.
[00:17:07] And, had she been a king, clearly this wouldn’t have mattered at all, it wouldn’t even have been a topic of interest, nobody would have spent any time even thinking about it.
[00:17:18] Having lovers and mistresses was completely expected behaviour for a king, but it has become a black spot on Catherine’s legacy, even to the extent that people spread rumours that she died while having sex with a horse - which I should add, is completely untrue, there is zero evidence of anything like that happening.
[00:17:40] Now, in some cases Catherine chose some of her lovers for perfectly rational reasons of the heart, she was attracted to them.
[00:17:49] In other cases, she chose them because of their potential political usefulness.
[00:17:54] We already heard about Grigory Orlov, the military officer who helped her seize the throne from Peter.
[00:18:01] In 1774, 12 years after Peter had died, the 45 year-old empress took another officer as a lover.
[00:18:09] His name was Grigory Potemkin.
[00:18:12] If you remember him from earlier on in this episode, he was one of officers guarding Peter.
[00:18:19] Potemkin was a skilled officer and intelligent man, and the pair embarked on a two-year love affair which led to the ambitious Potemkin being rewarded with significant power in the Russian empire.
[00:18:33] But, it wasn’t to last. Potemkin was too ambitious, he had too much power, and many began to see Catherine giving him top jobs as an example of a woman submitting to her lover.
[00:18:47] What’s more he was deeply insecure, jealous of Catherine, and fearful that she would leave him. Enough was enough, and the affair ended, but, if anything, their political relationship grew, and he became an even more valued political advisor to her.
[00:19:05] Now, aside from her military victories, Catherine had also enacted a number of forward-thinking reforms in an attempt to introduce Enlightenment thought to Russia.
[00:19:16] In 1775 she reorganised the structure of the empire’s territory for more efficient governance; and in 1786 she introduced a network of free schools, well, free as long as you weren’t a serf.
[00:19:31] And throughout her reign, her patronage of the arts also transformed St Petersburg into a modern cultural haven, and–like Elizabeth I of England–her reign has been dubbed “The Golden Age” of Russia.
[00:19:45] In one episode that I think particularly highlights both her understanding of public perception and her appreciation for reason and science, she was also the first person in Russia to receive the smallpox jab.
[00:20:01] But her rule wasn’t to last forever.
[00:20:04] On the 5th November 1796, her day started like any other.
[00:20:10] This “Great” empress prepared her coffee as she always did and she spent hours going over her papers.
[00:20:18] Some time that evening, the 67-year-old Catherine had a stroke, and she died the following day.
[00:20:26] After her death, her son Paul took the throne, being sure to burn her papers in case she had written him out of her will.
[00:20:34] He then took steps in avenging what he believed to be wrongs done to his father.
[00:20:40] He dug up Peter and gave him the state funeral he never received, and then, shock horror, he ordered for his mother and father to be buried next to one another.
[00:20:52] Catherine was condemned to be alongside her hated husband for eternity.
[00:20:58] She was back, in a strange way, to how it had all begun.
[00:21:02] But not without leaving a monumental impact on her beloved adopted country, of Russia.
[00:21:09] She had expanded the land of the empire, strengthened its economy, and transformed it into a modern European power that would rival its contemporaries.
[00:21:20] And, like the subjects of parts one and two of this mini-series, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I over in England, she had done this as a woman in a world of often poisonous conspiring men.
[00:21:34] Much like Elizabeth I, Catherine had subtly adapted her image to portray herself as more powerful.
[00:21:42] For Elizabeth, she did this by insisting she was a virgin to avoid marrying and losing power to a husband.
[00:21:50] Catherine went in the opposite direction, often using her love affairs to advance her power by using the alliances and connections of the men who she became involved with.
[00:22:03] The strategies of both queens clearly worked, in terms of their huge legacies that they left on their respective countries.
[00:22:11] And in the case of Catherine, perhaps it’s even more impressive to think that she fought against all of this discrimination, she managed not just to survive but to thrive as Empress, and that she would go down as one of the greatest leaders in Russian history.
[00:22:28] And to think, she wasn’t even really Russian.
[00:22:34] Ok then, that is it for today’s episode on Catherine the Great, and with this comes the end of this three-part mini-series.
[00:22:42] As always I would love to know what you thought of this episode, and of this mini-series in general?
[00:22:48] For the Russian listeners out there, how do you feel about Catherine The Great?
[00:22:52] What lasting impact has she had on Russia?
[00:22:55] What other powerful female queens could we have added to this mini-series?
[00:23:00] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:23:03] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:23:11] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:23:16] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
