Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II ({{lang-ru|?????????? II ???????????}}, tr.: Yekaterina II Alexeyevna; April 21, 1729—November 6, 1796 (O.S.)), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from June 28, 1762, to her death on November 6, 1796. A cousin to Gustav III of Sweden and Charles XIII of Sweden, Catherine exemplified an "enlightened monarch."

Arts and culture

Catherine subscribed to the Enlightenment and considered herself a "philosopher on the throne." She was very aware of her image abroad, and ever desired to be perceived by Europe as a civilized and enlightened monarch, even though in Russia she often played the part of the tyrant. Even as she proclaimed her love for the ideals of liberty and freedom, she did more to tie the Russian Serf to his land and his lord than any sovereign since Ivan IV, "The Terrible." Subtle as she was forceful, she enlisted to her cause one of the great minds of the age, Voltaire, with whom she corresponded for fifteen years, from her accession to his death. He lauded her with epithets, calling her "The Star of the North" and "Semiramis of Russia," making reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon. Though she never met him face-to-face, she mourned him bitterly.

Related Topics:
The Enlightenment - Ivan IV - Semiramis

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She became known as a patron of the arts, literature and education. The Hermitage Museum, which now occupies the whole of the old Winter palace, was begun as Catherine's personal collection. She wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded the famous Smolny Institute for noble young ladies. This school was to become one of the best of its kind in Europe, and even went so far as to admit young girls born to wealthy merchants alongside the daughters of the boyars and nobility. She wrote comedies, fiction and memoirs, while cultivating Voltaire, Diderot and D'Alembert, all French encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings. She was able to lure the mathematician Leonhard Euler from Berlin back to Saint Petersburg.

Related Topics:
Hermitage Museum - John Locke - Smolny Institute - Voltaire - Diderot - D'Alembert - Encyclopedist - Leonhard Euler

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Her patronage furthered the evolution of the arts in Russia more than any sovereign of that nation before or since. Under her reign, the classical and European influences which inspired the "Age of Imitation" were imported and studied. Gavrila Derzhavin and other writers of her epoch laid the groundwork for the great writers of the nineteenth century, especially the immortal Pushkin. However, her reign was also marked by the omnipresent censorship and state control of publications. When Radishchev published his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1790, warning of uprisings because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as serfs, Catherine had him banned to Siberia.

Related Topics:
Gavrila Derzhavin - Pushkin - Radishchev - Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow - Siberia

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