Catherine II [ a ] (born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst ; 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796 [ b ] ), commonly known as Catherine the Great , [ c ] was the reigning Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d’etat against her husband, Peter III . Her long reign helped Russia thrive under a golden age during the Enlightenment . This renaissance led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe. After overthrowing and possibly assassinating her husband and her subsequent rule of the Russian Empire , Catherine often relied on noble favourites such as Count Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin . Assisted by highly successful generals such as Alexander Suvorov and Pyotr Rumyantsev and admirals such as Samuel Greig and Fyodor Ushakov , she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the west, she installed her former lover to the throne of Poland , which was eventually partitioned . In the south, the Crimean Khanate was annexed following victories over the Bar Confederation and the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War . With the support of Great Britain , Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov seas. In the east, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America . Many cities and towns were founded on Catherine’s orders in the newly conquered lands, most notably Yekaterinoslav , Kherson , Nikolayev , and Sevastopol . An admirer of Peter the Great , Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European culture . However, military conscription and the economy continued to depend on serfdom , and the increasing demands of the state and of private landowners intensified the exploitation of serf labour. This was one of the chief reasons behind rebellions, including Pugachev’s Rebellion of Cossacks , nomads, peoples of the Volga, and peasants. The Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility , issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. The construction of many mansions of the nobility in the classical style endorsed by the empress changed the face of the country. She is often included in the ranks of the enlightened despots . [ d ] Catherine presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment and established the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens , the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe. Catherine was born on 2 May 1729 in the Ducal Castle in Stettin in Prussian Pomerania , as Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica (or Sophie Auguste Friederike) von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. [ 2 ] Her mother was Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp . Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt . [ 3 ] He failed to become the duke of Courland and Semigallia and, at the time of his daughter’s birth, he held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as governor of the city of Stettin. However, because her second cousin Charles Peter Ulrich converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity , her mother’s brother, Adolf Frederick , became the heir to the Swedish throne [ 4 ] and two of her first cousins, Gustav III and Charles XIII , became Kings of Sweden . [ 5 ] In accordance with the prevailing custom among the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors. According to her memoirs, Sophie was considered a tomboy and trained herself to master a sword. [ citation needed ] Catherine found her childhood to be uneventful; she once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm , “I see nothing of interest in it”. [ 6 ] Although Sophie was born a princess , her family had little money; her rise to power was supported by her mother Joanna’s wealthy relatives , who were both nobles and royal relations. [ 4 ] The more than 300 sovereign entities of the Holy Roman Empire , many of them small and powerless, made for a highly competitive political system in which the various princely families competed for advantages over one another, often by way of political marriages . [ 7 ] For smaller German princely families, an advantageous marriage was one of the best means of advancing their interests. To improve the position of her house, Sophie was groomed throughout her childhood to become the wife of a powerful ruler. In addition to her native German, Sophie became fluent in French, the lingua franca of European elites in the 18th century. [ 8 ] The young Sophie received the standard education for an 18th-century German princess, concentrating on etiquette , French , and Lutheran theology . [ 9 ] In 1739, when Sophie was 10, she met her second cousin who would later become her future husband and Peter III of Russia .
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great