CATHERINE THE GREAT

ASSESSMENTS  Positive  Intelligent & strong-willed  Natural leadership skills  Micro-manager

CATHERINE THE GREAT ASSESSMENTS  Critical  Ruthless  Supreme egoist  Ends justified means

CATHERINE THE GREAT ASSESSMENTS  Critical  Overly masculine  Numerous love affairs  Myths & legends

CATHERINE THE GREAT CATHERINE AS EMPRESS  Legitimacy issue  Needed popular support  Set out to make Russia powerful state  Struck firm alliances with nobility  Invoked legacy of Peter the Great  Limited extent of reform

CATHERINE THE GREAT CATHERINE AS EMPRESS  Foreign policy  Successful expansion: Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) Southern expansion Access to Black Sea

CATHERINE THE GREAT CATHERINE AS “ENLIGHTENED DESPOT”  Influence of Enlightenment  Maintenance of absolute power  Lip service?  Personally condemned serfdom, but increased exploitation of peasants  Promoted religious toleration, but persecuted Jews  Increasing conservatism after French Revolution

CATHERINE THE GREAT DISSATISFACTION  Pugachev’s Rebellion ( )  Pretendership: Pugachev claimed to be Peter III  Local uprising spreads  But rebels cannot maintain cohesion  Crushed by imperial forces