WEIRD Things You Did Not Know About Catherine the Great

**Sanitized Transcript:**

Ah, 18th century Russia. The only thing more dangerous than being the emperor was not being the emperor, and the only thing unifying Russia’s political landscape was its total lack of unity. Yet among all this, one woman found herself ruling for decades, bringing the Enlightenment to the Russian court and even teaching the rest of Europe a thing or two about progress. More progressive than Elizabeth, less ruthless than Peter the Great, Catherine the Great was on a quest to bring Russia into a new era and have a little fun doing it.

Welcome back to Nutty History! Today we’re learning about Catherine the Great: usurper, patron of the arts, collector of books, challenging mother, sought-after lover, and friend to philosophers everywhere. Let’s dig in.

The first interesting fact about Catherine, the Russian empress, is that she wasn’t originally Russian, and her name wasn’t Catherine. Her real name was Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst. Talk about a mouthful! Her family was poor, but she was not exactly a nobody; she had a link to the Rurik dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs, and that may have helped her appear suitable for rule in Russia. The empire was ruled by Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, who had risen to power through a coup. She was trying to prepare her nephew, Peter III, to be the next ruler of Russia, which meant finding him a suitable bride. Elizabeth had once been engaged to Catherine’s uncle and felt a lingering connection to the family, so she selected Catherine for the job when she was only 16.

Catherine disliked Peter right away; she thought him a drunkard and a bore. While she admitted that he was not unintelligent, she felt he lacked common sense. The feeling was mutual, and that was the last time Peter would let his aunt choose a wife for him without checking first. When Peter was at one end of the castle, Catherine made sure she was always at the other. Peter seemed more preoccupied with toy soldiers and lovers than with Catherine.

Catherine’s main job, as was usually the case with royal wives, was to bear Peter an heir. However, for eight years they remained childless. They both had affairs, and Catherine eventually had four children, though at most Peter may have sired one of them.

Peter came to power after Elizabeth died. His first order of business was to end the Seven Years’ War with Prussia, as he had been raised in Prussia and seemed to have been rooting for them throughout his youth. Pulling out of the war, however, turned out to be an unpopular move, especially with the military higher-ups. With this discontent, Catherine started to plan her coup. Eventually, in 1762, her plot was discovered, which meant Catherine had to make her move. It was successful, and she had herself declared empress. Peter abdicated without a fight, and as Frederick the Great of Prussia remarked, he accepted his deposition like a child being sent to his room. He had only been czar for six months after taking over from his aunt Elizabeth. Peter was assassinated shortly after, and although there is no definite evidence that Catherine was behind it, he had been in the care of one of her co-conspirators at the time.

So what did Catherine get into while she was in power? One thing that really summarized the kind of leader Catherine wanted to be was the Nakaz. The Nakaz was a document she created that aimed to outlaw capital punishment and torture and to declare all men equal. She also wanted to improve the situation of serfs who lived miserable lives under the ownership of landowners. The Senate opposed all of these changes, and the document didn’t have any immediate influence, but it ultimately became known for its ideas.

In many ways, that effort reflected her career. Despite her efforts for reform, much of what Catherine accomplished was an importation of ideas, and she was perhaps more emblematic than politically effective. Catherine was also a co-founder of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, the first state-financed higher education school for women in Europe.

Perhaps the thing that Catherine was best known for was being a dedicated patron of the arts, collecting huge amounts of artwork, funding many programs, and building a theater in Saint Petersburg. Catherine also wrote books and even wrote the libretto for an opera. She spoke three languages: German, French, and Russian. According to her letters, she was close friends with Voltaire, who had written the biography of Peter the Great. Voltaire praised her leadership style by calling her an enlightened despot and was apparently so fond of her that he kept a portrait of her in front of his bed. Though the two never met, they carried on as rather intimate pen pals. She had a collection of 44,000 books, including 6,760 volumes that she bought from Voltaire’s niece after his death.

One prominent achievement during Catherine’s reign was the successful expansion of Russia’s empire. She added 200,000 square miles of new territory to the empire. In a somewhat embarrassing turn of events, the British came to Catherine for help during the American Revolution, hoping that the new and powerful Russia would help them quash the American uprising. Catherine, however, had no interest in getting involved, and thanks to her solidarity with the fledgling nation, the United States and Russia developed a friendly relationship.

Of course, it was still Russia, and the throne was a precarious place to sit. There were a number of uprisings during Catherine’s reign, perhaps the strangest being an uprising led by a Cossack named Pugachev. What was strange about it? He gained a great deal of support by claiming that he was Peter III, returning to claim his rightful throne. That’s right; he pretended to be a dead emperor, and many people went along with it. Not surprisingly, this story doesn’t end with a Peter III lookalike taking the throne. Catherine quashed the uprising, as she had done with over a dozen others, and Pugachev was publicly executed.

Catherine’s famous moniker can be traced back to one act of generosity toward an impoverished philosopher. French philosopher Diderot was in dire straits and had to pay a dowry for his daughter’s marriage, so he put his book collection up for sale. Catherine, an admirer of Diderot, paid a small fortune for his books, the equivalent of $150,000 today. Not only that, she also asked Diderot to hold on to them for her until she needed them and paid him an annual salary as her librarian. The two later became close friends, and Diderot eventually visited Russia, where they frequently met to discuss philosophy and politics. It was Diderot who dubbed Catherine “the Great.”

Catherine’s life had always been the subject of rumors, intrigue, and speculation, and her death was no different. Many cruel stories about how she died surfaced, but the one that stood the test of time is that she died while attempting intercourse with a horse. However, her real death was much more pedestrian; she died of a stroke.

Ultimately, Catherine was Russia’s longest-ruling female leader, spending the last three decades of her life as empress. Catherine the Great remains one of history’s most compelling figures. There are many ways to portray her: a hedonistic, power-hungry usurper or an enlightened, progressive, artsy visionary. What weird facts surprised you the most about Catherine the Great? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time on Nutty History!