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On July 9, 1762, Catherine, the wife of the deposed tsar, was named tsarina of all Russians. But how was it possible that an insignificant German princess, baptized Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt, became the most powerful woman in Russia and Europe and who – today – is considered an outstanding figure in world history?
She was only 15 years old when Sophie, a princess of the German high nobility, arrived in Russia to become the tsarina. For 34 years she wore the crown and, when she died, on November 17, 1796, she had changed that immense country, creating the necessary preconditions for it to become a modern empire, according to the European rules of that time.
“His goal was to make his subjects happy so that they could live free and carefree. He was indulgent, had a cheerful nature, had a republican soul and a good heart.” This is the inscription that the Tsarina herself had written for her funeral tombstone. And when she died on November 17, 1796, she “…had turned Russia into an empire, standing on the threshold of a modern world power.” So says a text by historian Vitali Taischrib from the University of Berlin.
In the words of the Tsarina herself, “her most notable merits are her attempts to modernize the country, initiating different reform projects regarding the Administration itself; and the schooling of the entire population was another of her great projects, bringing mass literature to everyone, in order to create a kind of intelligence in this immense Russian empire.” But it was in vain…
Years later, in her Memoirs, she would say: “But, in truth, I believe that I had more interest in the Russian crown than in this person, the Tsar. I wanted to be Russian to be loved by the Russian people.” Indeed, that was the case… and many were her lovers.
Throughout her life, she saw herself as a convinced follower of the Enlightenment, as a “sovereign who above all wants to serve her country,” her people. Already as a young girl, she read works by Voltaire with whom she maintained a lively correspondence for years.
It had been the king of Prussia himself, Frederick II, who was behind that wedding and, indeed, in September 1745 the young Sophie married the Russian prince Pjotr ??Fjodorowitch, designated as the future tsar. All a maneuver of political intrigue.
That 16-year-old German princess, named Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst, after having become the Grand Duchess Katharina Alexejevn, and having immediately adopted the Orthodox Catholic faith, quickly learned Russian, and for 17 long years she lived in side of Pjotr, the husband whom he did not love, the one who recognized Pablo as heir to the throne, although he was not his son, but rather that of one of the numerous lovers of his wife, the empress. In 1762, when the tsar had not even been on the throne for half a year, she tolerated a coup d’état to depose her husband, Tsar Peter III, who was born in Kiel, Germany, and was the son of a German count. , and his mother, daughter of Tsar Peter the Great.
Peter, the tsar, needed 8 years to consummate the marriage, so Catherine inaugurated a long list of lovers and favorites. Two children were born from the marriage, the future Tsar Paul I and the Grand Duchess Anna, although most historians speculate that they were not biological children of Tsar Peter, who had more interest in weapons and his mistresses.
In 1762 Peter III was overthrown by a coup d’état, orchestrated by his wife, who was then proclaimed Tsarina of Russia. And he ruled for 35 years.
But what was that Russia like, immense, poor?… When you arrived at a village and asked the peasants how many children they had, they answered: 10, 12 or maybe 20. Really, they didn’t know. And Caterina had the population vaccinated against the terrible smallpox, with which she managed to considerably reduce infant mortality.
And he commissioned a commission to study how to end serfdom once and for all, but that was no longer going to be allowed by the numerous and powerful nobility, who saw their economic interests in danger, so everything remained an attempt.
And that goal would not be achieved until a century later, so finally, the German/Russian Grand Tsarina had to give up and give in on her attempts at modernization.
Well yes, he had read Voltaire, Rousseau… and he said: “You philosophers have it very easy to put your ideas on paper, however, I, the empress, must apply it to the skin of humans.”
There were many lovers of the Tsarina, but perhaps the one who stood out the most was Pjotr ??Propotkin, the one with the longest tenure, appointed by her as field marshal. And he was assigned the task of “building” the New Russia, the one dreamed of by the Tsarina, rebuilding old towns and creating new villages that, in reality, turned out to be pure facade, since they were neither peaceful nor prosperous.
Due to rumors of a new war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Tsarina gathered her court and invited several ambassadors, and with them she made a trip for 6 months to visit and show them this new Russia, since Potemkin had created “villages “mobiles” on the banks of the Dnjepr River that served to show visitors the great prosperity of the island of Crimea.
Once the visit was over, these towns were dismantled to be reassembled in other places. All an incredible strategy to impress the amazed ambassadors.
Under Catherine’s reign, the population increased from 20 to about 36 million (currently 145 million), as thousands of immigrants followed her call, especially from Germany, building new cities along the Volga River.
Two wars against the Turks and the annexation of the Krim secured Russia access to the Black Sea, and when Catherine the Great died at age 67, as a result of a stroke, she had created a multiethnic empire.
