As we all know, Catherine II (Catherine II Alexeyevna) was the second emperor in Russian history to receive the title of "Great", the other being Peter I, the founding emperor of the Russian Empire.
Catherine's political prowess brought Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century into the rapidly developing "Catherine era" and soared the international status of the Russian Empire. Russia's rise to the top of the world in the nineteenth century was largely due to the rule of the empress.
However, the private life of this "strong woman" is very dirty, and in her early life in the palace, there have been many scandals that are difficult for modern people to accept.
Sophia was born into an aristocratic family, and his father was a duke of the Duchy of Anhalt. Sophia's father was busy with work and had difficulty taking care of the family, so Sophia's education fell entirely to her mother. Sophia's mother was grumpy and mean-spirited, and was so impatient with her education that Sophia lacked discipline from an early age. Sometimes, Princess Sophia would come out into the street to play with civilian children of the same age. At the time, this was a very outrageous act.
If it were not for an accident, Princess Sophia's life might not have been any different from that of other noble ladies of the time. In 1742, her cousin Prince Peter was made heir apparent by her predecessor, Empress Elizabeth. For a time, Peter's value doubled, and many principalities considered marrying the princess to Peter and relying on this marriage to improve his political status. The Anhalt family was no exception, as Sophia's father had a close personal relationship with Frederick, king of Prussia, so Sophia's marriage plan with Peter was supported by Prussia.
That winter, Sophia's mother took Sophia to Berlin to meet with the King of Prussia. During this meeting, Frederick felt that Sophia's qualifications were very good and fully in line with the requirements of the royal family. So Frederick hired the best painter in the country and asked him to paint a portrait of Princess Sophia. Subsequently, the portrait was sent to St. Petersburg. Empress Elizabeth was satisfied with the portrait and placed Sophia in the "Alternate Zone".
For the Anhalt family, the days of waiting for the results were unusually long. Due to the sheer number of princesses to choose from, the Russian royal family spent a year considering various possible marriage options. In the end, the Empress finalized the candidate and decided to marry Princess Sophia to Crown Prince Peter. So Empress Elizabeth wrote a letter to the Anhalt family, inviting Princess Sophia to st. Petersburg, and attached a huge check to the letter as the fare for Sophia's trip.
Although Elizabeth did not indicate in the letter, the discerning person knew at a glance that Sophia had been favored by Empress Elizabeth and won the "draft".
In January of the following year, Sophia left the principality with her mother and embarked on a journey to St. Petersburg. Because the traffic conditions at that time were very inconvenient, the mother and daughter duo ate and drank all the way, and suffered a lot, not only the quality of the diet was not guaranteed, but even sometimes they had to stay in the farmhouse. How did this pampered mother and daughter experience this? I almost fell ill on a bumpy road. Fortunately, after the convoy arrived in Russia, the traffic conditions improved dramatically, and the Russian principalities had heard about it from other sources, and the dukes sent their entourage to take care of Princess Sophia's food and living.
A month later, the mother-daughter duo, who had suffered so much, finally arrived in St. Petersburg. As soon as the two entered the palace, they were warmly received by Empress Elizabeth. At the banquet, Crown Prince Peter behaved very decently, and Sophia's mother was very satisfied with the future son-in-law. However, after the feast, Prince Peter met with Sophia privately and confessed that he had no male or female feelings for Sophia. Peter said that because the two were cousins, he trusted Sophia very much and was willing to tell her a secret: Peter liked the maid next to the empress, and the reason why he agreed to marry Sophia was entirely due to the compromise made by Empress Elizabeth.
After Sophia figured out the situation, she was immediately relieved. This is originally a political marriage, and it is normal for the two to have no emotional basis. Having figured this out, Sophia decided to make up for the emotional deficit in other ways. Before the two were married, Sophia converted to Orthodoxy and changed her name to Catherine. She and Prince Peter successfully held a grand wedding ceremony, and the two golden children and jade girls in the eyes of outsiders lived a married life in name only. Because Peter had a heart, the two remained separated after marriage. Perhaps because Peter had a new love, in order to seek a sense of psychological balance, Catherine also had a favorite lover.
Many researchers in the history of the Russian Empire believe that Catherine's lover during this period was Peter's aide-de-camp Chernesov. However, due to the lack of relevant evidence, the historians did not recognize this extramarital affair. Although it is difficult to distinguish whether this extramarital affair is true or false, it is of little significance to study the authenticity of this extramarital affair, because it was not long before Catherine changed her lover, and her new love was Saltkov, a beautiful man at the Russian court at that time.
Because Peter and Catherine were separated, they were childless after marriage. Empress Elizabeth repeatedly hinted to Catherine that if she could not give birth to a grandchild for the Russian royal family, her place could be replaced by other women at any time. Realizing this, Catherine suddenly woke up and, for the sake of her future, she finally gave birth to a son for Peter, Paul. However, according to Catherine's memoirs, giving birth to Paul did not make her situation better.
After the birth of the little grandson, everyone, including Elizabeth, circled around the little life, and no one paid attention to Catherine, who had just given birth. It is said that after Catherine gave birth to Paul, Paul was immediately carried away by the maid, and Catherine lay on the delivery bed for several hours unnoticed. Catherine woke up to find no one around. At this point, she realized that everyone, whether it was Peter or Elizabeth, used themselves as fertility tools.
Eventually, on the way back to the bedroom alone with her painful body, Catherine's state of mind changes dramatically.
Unconcentrated after giving birth, Catherine remained ill-healthed for the next year, barely able to attend any court events. A year later, Catherine attended the court ball for the first time, in which she met the handsome Count Poniatowski. Compared to Sartkov before him, Poniatowski was humorous and funny, and had a better upbringing. Soon, the two fell in love.
In order to meet Catherine, Poniatowski did not return home after the ball, but stayed at the court of his friend Count Nareshkin. Every night, Catherine would dress up as a man and sneak out of the palace to meet Poniatowski. Before the sun rises, Catherine will run back to the palace. The paper could not contain the fire, and the scandal soon spread in St. Petersburg. When Prince Peter heard about this, he did not care, after all, there was no love between him and Catherine.
One night, Catherine did not appear at the meeting site, and the distraught Poniatowski simply sneaked into the palace. However, Peter's guards spotted the sneaky Poniatowski and immediately captured him and escorted him to Peter for his release. Although Peter did not pay attention to his wife's private life, he knew Poniatowski's identity. Because Poniatowski was repeatedly silent and refused to admit his adultery, Peter became angry and embarrassed, planted Poniatovsky with a weapon, and labeled him a "assassin of the crown prince" to kill him quickly.
Catherine feared that her lover would be executed, and she immediately called on Peter's lover, Voronzova, daughter of the Duke of Vorontsov, and asked her to mediate the conflict.
Catherine said to Warrenzova, "Only you can make us all happy, please, please convince Peter." ”
So Voronzova came to Peter and interceded with her lover, hoping that he would spare Poniatovsky.
Peter's move surprised everyone, and he laughed and said, "Now there is only one heroine missing here." ”
So Peter rushed into Catherine's bedroom, pulled his wife in pajamas into his room, pointed at Poniatovsky, and said, "Everybody is happy, are you satisfied?" ”
Catherine never dreamed that Peter would graciously indulge in her own infidelity.
In the days that followed, Poniatowski was able to enter the palace in a dignified manner to meet Catherine privately, and sometimes Prince Peter would invite the two to dinner with Voronzova. For a time, the scandal of "changing wives" spread all over the city, and everyone saw the dirt behind the royal glitz.
However, it all ended with Catherine getting pregnant again.
After some time, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, named Anna. Although Peter could tolerate his wife cheating, he would never admit that this "wild seed" was his daughter.
So, when Anna was born, Peter immediately declared to the outside world: "I had no idea that Catherine was pregnant, and this daughter was not his own child with Catherine." ”
There is no doubt that Peter's move was like putting Catherine on fire. Catherine was in a desperate situation, and she thought of two ways out:
One is to continue to be obedient and continue to be Peter's nominal wife;
The second is to turn around and make decisions and dominate their own destiny.
Judging from what happened later, Catherine finally chose the latter.
Since Empress Elizabeth was still alive at that time, forced by her huge political pressure, Catherine did not dare to act rashly, but only secretly increased her political power. In order to take power, Catherine won the support of many dignitaries, including the prime minister, by means of seduction, and eventually, after a series of counter-offensives, she finally launched a coup d'état, and finally became the Russian Empress Catherine II, whom we are familiar with. But that's another story.
According to historical records, in 1762, Catherine led the Janissaries to the throne after a coup d'état. She advocated enlightened despotism and equality before the law. During its reign, the Russian Empire expanded south and west, incorporating territories including Crimea, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland from Turkey and Poland. In addition, he also participated in the three partitions of Poland by Theopus and Austria, and fought against Turkey to gain the Black Sea coastal area, but in the operation to prevent the return of Turgut to the east, it was almost completely destroyed. Eventually, her expansion exacerbated the contradictions of Russian society, aroused the discontent of the toiling masses, and led to the outbreak of the Pugachev Uprising, which further strengthened serfdom.
It was not until the early morning of November 6, 1796, that The Empress Catherine died of a stroke.
Resources:
[The Debauched Empress, Catherine the Great]