60 Fun Facts About Catherine the Great

In which country was Catherine the Great born?

She was born in Stettin, now Szczecin in Poland, where her father was governor and a Prussian general.

Catherine was born with which German princely surname?

She was Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg; she took the name Catherine on converting to Orthodoxy in 1744.

How old was Sophie when she first met her future husband in 1739 and found him 'detestable'?

She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol, and kept to the other end of the castle.

How was Sophie related to Peter, the heir she married?

Two of her first cousins became kings of Sweden, and her uncle became heir to the Swedish throne.

On arriving in Russia, Sophie nearly died of pleuritis; what did she credit her survival to?

She had four phlebotomies in a single day; her call for an Orthodox priest rather than a Lutheran pastor delighted the court.

Which reigning empress arranged Sophie's marriage and doted on her?

Elizabeth had once been engaged to Sophie's uncle, who died of smallpox before the wedding.

On converting to Orthodoxy in 1744, Sophie took the name Catherine and which artificial patronymic?

It made her the namesake of Catherine I, mother of the reigning empress.

In which palace did Catherine and Peter, the 'young court', live for many years after their 1745 wedding?

There, according to Herzen, she had her first affair while her marriage remained unconsummated.

Which Roman historian's Annals did Catherine say caused a 'revolution' in her mind in 1754?

He taught her to look for the 'hidden and interested motives' behind people's professed reasons.

Which chamberlain did Catherine imply in her memoirs was the real father of her son Paul?

The final version she left to Paul himself explained why he was Peter's son.

Which Prussian king did Catherine's husband Peter III openly idolise, alienating the Russian nobility?

Peter halted Russian operations against him in the Seven Years' War, throwing away the occupation of Berlin.

To which guards unit did Catherine ride on the morning of the July 1762 coup to ask for protection?

She then went on to the Semenovsky Barracks, where the clergy were waiting to proclaim her sole ruler.

How long had Peter III been emperor when Catherine overthrew him?

He died eight days after the coup at Ropsha, possibly at the hands of Alexei Orlov.

What was the official cause of Peter III's death after the autopsy?

He is generally assumed to have been assassinated, though how he died is unknown.

Which rival claimant, imprisoned since infancy at Schlüsselburg, was killed during a failed attempt to free him and use him against Catherine?

Like her predecessor, Catherine had ordered that he be killed if anyone tried to rescue him.

How many diamonds were set into the Great Imperial Crown made for Catherine's coronation?

Made in a record two months, it also carries 75 pearls and a 398.62-carat spinel and weighs 2.3 kg.

By roughly how much did Catherine extend the borders of the Russian Empire?

The gains came mainly at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Which 1774 agreement ended the first of Catherine's Turkish wars and made Crimea a Russian protectorate?

It also made Russia the protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire.

In which year did Catherine formally annex Crimea?

Her triumphal procession through the peninsula in 1787 helped provoke the next war with the Ottomans.

Which Black Sea city, founded on Catherine's orders in 1794, replaced Ottoman Khadjibey?

Yekaterinoslav, another new city, literally means 'the Glory of Catherine'.

Which kingdom in the Caucasus became a Russian protectorate under the 1783 Treaty of Georgievsk?

King Erekle II signed in return for a promise of defence against Persian attack.

Which former lover did Catherine install on the throne of Poland in 1764?

They had met in 1755 when she was 26 and he 22; their daughter Anna was legally regarded as Grand Duke Peter's.

How many times was Poland partitioned during Catherine's reign?

After 1795, Poland ceased to exist as an independent state until after the First World War.

Whose ragtag insurgent armies rose against the partition of Poland in 1794?

They won some early successes before falling to superior Russian forces.

Which body did Catherine create in 1780 to protect neutral shipping from the British navy?

She positioned Russia as an international mediator, a role Britain would later play.

How did Catherine describe the Qianlong Emperor in a 1790 letter to Baron de Grimm?

She had vowed not to die until she had 'suppressed the pride of China'.

Which shipwrecked Japanese sea captain did Catherine receive at Tsarskoye Selo in 1791?

He was used as a trade envoy, but the 1792 mission to Japan under Adam Laxman failed.

Which German farming settlers did Catherine encourage to migrate to Russia?

They brought innovations in wheat, flour milling, tobacco and sheep raising.

Which institution issued Russia's first government paper money in 1769?

The notes were needed because military spending had drained the treasury of silver; they circulated until 1849.

Which English doctor inoculated Catherine against smallpox?

By 1800 about 2 million inoculations had been given in Russia; historians count it among her most significant contributions.

According to a census taken from 1754 to 1762, how many serfs did Catherine personally own?

A further 2.8 million belonged to the state; she gave away 100,000 serfs in a single day in 1795.

The great Cossack and peasant rebellion of Catherine's reign was led by a man claiming to be whom?

Pugachev's revolt frightened her off any idea of freeing the serfs.

Which famous museum began as Catherine's personal art collection in 1770?

By 1790 it held 38,000 books, 10,000 gems and 10,000 drawings.

In a 1772 letter, Catherine wrote that 'Anglomania is the master of my' what?

She had just planted Russia's first English landscape garden at Tsarskoye Selo and declared a scorn for straight lines and fountains.

Which Scottish architect built the Chinese Village at Tsarskoye Selo for Catherine in 1779?

She had first tried to hire an actual Chinese architect and found it impossible.

With which French philosopher did Catherine correspond for 15 years without ever meeting him?

He called her 'The Star of the North' and the 'Semiramis of Russia'; she bought his library after his death.

Which Encyclopédie editor did Catherine the Great offer to host in Russia when France threatened the project?

She had already recruited the mathematician Leonhard Euler and the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin.

How many members sat on the Grand Commission Catherine convened in Moscow in 1766–67?

Her 'Instructions' for it were, as she frankly admitted, pillaged from Montesquieu and Beccaria; after 200 sittings it produced nothing.

Whose 1790 book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow did Catherine burn before exiling him to Siberia?

She judged that it spread 'the dangerous poison of the French Revolution'.

Which institution founded by Catherine in 1764 was Europe's first state-financed higher education for women?

Its pupils were kept in a deliberately cold building; running and games were forbidden.

What was the estimated number of pupils in state schools by the end of Catherine's reign?

They attended some 549 institutions, a real improvement but tiny against Russia's population.

How many of Russia's 954 monasteries did Catherine close?

She nationalised church lands to pay for her wars, and only 161 monasteries received government money.

To what area did Catherine confine Russia's Jewish population after the First Partition of Poland?

Jews were taxed at double the rate of their Orthodox neighbours.

How many years younger than Catherine was her last lover, Platon Zubov?

His brother Valerian was handed command of the 1796 Persian campaign on Platon's advice.

Which favourite, a hero of the 1762 coup, became de facto ruler of New Russia and died in 1791?

After their passion faded in 1776, he allegedly hand-picked her later lovers.

What title was Catherine's illegitimate son by Grigory Orlov, Alexis Bobrinsky, later given by Paul I?

Catherine kept the boy near Tula, away from her court.

How did Catherine actually die in November 1796?

She was found on the floor after her morning coffee, fell into a coma and died the next evening; the horse rumour was British and French satire.

Which grandson did Catherine plan to name heir in place of her son Paul before she died?

Paul reigned five years before being murdered by conspirators, many of them veterans of the Zubovs' Persian campaign.

How long did Catherine's will say mourning dress should be worn?

She asked to be laid out in white with a golden crown; she was buried in silver brocade with a gold crown.

Which Hollywood star played Catherine in the 1934 film The Scarlet Empress?

Bette Davis played her in John Paul Jones (1959) and Tallulah Bankhead in A Royal Scandal (1945).

Which actress played Catherine in the Hulu series The Great (2020–2023)?

Mirren played her in a 2019 miniseries, Zeta-Jones in a 1995 TV film and Ormond in Young Catherine (1991).

Which Yugoslav new-wave band was named after Catherine?

The Divine Comedy also released a single called 'Catherine the Great' in 2016.

In which Prussian city, now in Poland, was the future Catherine the Great born in 1729?

The city is now Szczecin; her family lived there in a neoclassical residence in Pomerania.

How many provinces had Catherine's 1775 statute carved Russia into by the end of her reign?

Nearly 500 districts were created too, and local-government spending rose sixfold.

Into how many groups did Catherine's 1785 Charter of the Towns sort urban people?

It was issued the same year as the Charter to the Nobility, which strengthened the landed oligarchs.

Which Swiss mathematician did Catherine recruit from Berlin to Saint Petersburg?

She also brought naturalist Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin and Anders Johan Lexell from Sweden.

During Catherine's reign Russians became the first Europeans to colonise which territory?

The colony was known as Russian America.

Which of these Black Sea cities was founded on Catherine's orders in newly conquered land?

Yekaterinoslav, Kherson and Nikolayev were also founded under her.

Which two Swedish kings were Catherine's first cousins?

Her mother's brother Adolf Frederick had become heir to the Swedish throne.

Which body was founded in Saint Petersburg in 1765 at Catherine's suggestion?

Economists Arthur Young and Jacques Necker became foreign members.