(1729-1796)

Empress of Russia from 1762 until her death on November 17, 1796. She continued the process of Westernization begun by Peter the Great and made Russia a European power.
She was born Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst in Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) on May 2, 1729. In 1745, she married Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, heir to the Russian throne. In 1754 she gave birth to a son, the future emperor Paul.

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Catherine the Great Dies

Russia's great ruler died of a stroke today at the age of 67. Like Elizabeth I, she was a woman who will forever be identified with a decisive epoch in her country; during her reign, she made Russia a force to he reckoned with in European politics and by her expansionist policies added more than 200,000 square miles to her territory, bringing millions of Russian-speakers into the fold. Her brilliant court attracted the greatest minds of Europe, such as Voltaire and Diderot, who heavily influenced her thinking. But she could also be ruthless: in 1762 she overthrew her husband, Peter III, with the help of her lover Orlov (one of a long String of lovers) and quite possibly connived at his subsequent assassination.

The lot of the serfs deteriorated during her reign, particularly after the bloody Suppression of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1774, although some of her reforms increased the efficiency with which her vast country was run. She has been aptly described as "an enlightened despot."

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