Catherine the Great loved writing and poured her heart into her letters and memoirs. Her memoirs were a way of recording her feelings and emotions regarding certain events or just simply her everyday life. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great provides an unparalleled window into eighteenth-century Russia and the mind of an absolute ruler. With insight, humor, and candor, Catherine presents her eyewitness account of history, from her whirlwind entry into the Russian court in 1744 at age fourteen as the intended bride of Empress Elizabeth I’s nephew, the eccentric drunkard and future Peter III, to her unhappy marriage; from her two children, several miscarriages, and her and Peter’s numerous affairs to the political maneuvering that enabled Catherine to seize the throne from him in 1762. Catherine’s eye for telling details makes for compelling reading as she describes the dramatic fall and rise of her political fortunes.
Source: 'The Memoirs of Catherine the Great'
Notes:
-Catherine was actually a German princess called Sophie, but then she willingly learnt Russian and converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy in June 1744, in order to marry Peter III
-Catherine's mother "...had prepared Catherine well for life at a royal court" to an extend as to were "Catherine shows her disappointment in the quality of Russian court life."
-Catherine's governess (Elisabeth Cardel) introduced her to the customs of French society and to French classical literature. This education allowed her to aspire to a royal marriage
-Catherine met Peter III for the first time, in 1739, at age ten, and Peter was her second cousin
-"Peter III had no greater enemy that himself; all his actions bordered on insanity...He took pleasure in beating men and animals...By ascending to the throne, Empress Catherine saved the empire, herself, and her son from the hands of a madman"-Essay on the Life and Reign of Frederick II (1789)
-Catherine wrote her first memoirs around 1756, before she became Empress, during a period of ruthless court politics
-Catherine's routine: "I regularly get up at 6a.m., I read and I write all alone until eight, then someone comes to read the news to me...to do the same thing tomorrow, and this is as fixed as the lines on a sheet of music." - Catherine the Great
-Catherine became pregnant by her lover, Count Grigory Orlov (1734-83) which put Catherine at risk of arrest, exile, or worse
-Peter's mistress was Elizabeth Vorontsova (1739-92)
-1754: Catherine claims she read herself out of postpartum depression after the birth of Paul I
-Peter's remark in 1758 "God knows where my wife gets her pregnancies. I really don't know if this child is mine and if I ought to recognise it"
-1758 arrest and exile of her ally, Chancellor Count Alexei Bestuzhev-Riumin (1693-1767) who was in charge of foreign affairs. Catherine write "A flood of ideas, each more unpleasant and sadder than the next...a dagger in my heart..."
-Catherine's position, duty and expectation in the royal family was to produce an heir
-Catherine's memoirs paint an unflattering picture of Elizabeth's personality and style of rule
-Although Elizabeth had given Catherine a budget of 30,000 rubles per year, Catherine became 600,000 rubles in debt by 1762, because she used the money to buy the loyalty of couriers (as well as dresses!)
-Empress Elizabeth died on 25th December 1761
-Catherine uses her memoirs as a defence, for example, Catherine used one of her memoirs to defend herself against Elizabeth's accusation that she was at fault for not producing an heir, "on their wedding night, her husband went to sleep, and this was the state in which things remained for nine consecutive years without the lease change"
-Catherine's first memoir was written around 1756 and her last memoir was written in 1794. Her memoirs remained a secret because they indicated that Paul was perhaps illegitimate and thus he and his offspring were not Romanovs
-"This writing itself should prove what I say about my mind, my heart, and my character" - Catherine the Great
-Catherine appears to have a profound connection between herself and her memoirs, for example, she used her autobiographical writing to understand herself as a human being, a woman, and an Empress
-"In all her memoirs, but especially in the last memoir, we see the perils of power through the eyes of an intelligent woman who was a consummate political animal."
- Prince Grigory Potemkin = lover for several years and was most likely her secret husband
-On June 28th 1762, Catherine seized power, aided by forty supporters (including Orlov)
-A week after Peter after Peter abdicated he was killed by members of Catherine's political faction, without her approval. Catherine's last memoir never explicitly addressed her coup or her husband's murder
-The coup of 1762 and the murder of Peter III caused the rest of Europe to question Russia's stability and it also undermined Catherine's credibility
-"Catherine ruled as an absolute monarch in a century of growing ambivalence about the concentration of power in the hands of one individual"
-"Catherine's reign has been referred to as 'the golden age of the Russian nobility'"
-She introduced education for both sexes, she took control of the foreign policy, built on Peter the Great's military legacy, centralized the financial administration, she expanded Russia during the Seven Year's War, she also expanded the Russian Empire to the South where she continued Peter the Great's naval fleet. Her victories in war and leadership cemented her a reputation in Europe as a major power
-Catherine, in Russia, banned accounts of her coup
-After two miscarriages, Catherine gave birth to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (the future Paul I) on September 20th 1754
-Her son made Catherine's position in court more secure as she was the wife of the heir apparent and also the mother of the future heir
-Catherine had a girl called 'Anna Petrovna' (1757-59), fathered by future King of Poland Count Stanislaw August Poniatowski
-"...pragmatic mixture of love and politics"
-"My heart did not foresee great happiness; ambition alone sustained me. At the bottom of my soul I had something, I know not what, that never for a single moment let me doubt that sooner or later I would succeed in becoming the sovereign Empress of Russia"-Catherine the Great
-"Catherine's success depended on her political skills, her policies, and her personality"
-Catherine wrote on politics, Russian history, education, economics, and linguistics. She wrote thousands of letters, more than two dozen plays and operas and also numerous memoirs and journal
-"As for my writings, I consider them as trifles ... I never attached any importance to them, except as amusement" - Catherine the Great
-Catherine enjoyed reading many great writers work, especially the writings of Voltaire
-Catherine loved reading so much that she blamed studying Russian at night while undressed in the cold as the main reasoning for becoming ill
-Catherine's memoirs reflect her immediate concerns at the time of writing, however most of her memoirs are undated which makes identifying when they were written difficult
-Countess Praskovia Alexandrovna Bruce (1729-85): was one of Catherine's friends throughout her rein, "to whom I can speak freely without fear of consequences", they had become close when Catherine first arrived in Russia in 1744 and this friendship remained strong until Catherine learned that her friend was having an affair with one of her lovers (Major Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov) "It is impossible not to miss her when one has known her long, for she was very nice; it would have upset me much more six or seven years ago, but since then we have been somewhat distant and separated"
-Catherine "...defends herself abroad implicitly as enlightened and worldly...[and that she\ performed her job to the best of her abilities."
-corresponded with French encyclopedic (e.g. Voltaire)
-"Catherine found reading and writing psychologically therapeutic in difficult times"
-"The final memoir alone contains an important, unusual verbal self-portrait in which Catherine represents herself as exemplary, both as a woman and as a man"
-Catherine's final memoir addresses "...her ability to create a stable government by stressing her good judgement, even temper, fairness, and ultimately, her genius for rule"
-Catherine tried to change the heir to the Russian throne, from her son Paul, to her grandson Alexander
-In Russia, only after the fall of communism in the late 1980's did serious work on Catherine and her reign recommence, beginning with the publication of her memoirs in 1989
-After Catherine's death, some scholars questioned Catherine's legacy stating that she was a thorough hypocrite who cynically claimed to rule in the best interest of her people while actually expanding the institution of serfdom
-Catherine laid the institutional foundation for Russia's extraordinary cultural leap in the nineteenth century in literature, art, architecture, music and theater
-Catherine's mother "...had prepared Catherine well for life at a royal court" to an extend as to were "Catherine shows her disappointment in the quality of Russian court life."
-Catherine's governess (Elisabeth Cardel) introduced her to the customs of French society and to French classical literature. This education allowed her to aspire to a royal marriage
-Catherine met Peter III for the first time, in 1739, at age ten, and Peter was her second cousin
-"Peter III had no greater enemy that himself; all his actions bordered on insanity...He took pleasure in beating men and animals...By ascending to the throne, Empress Catherine saved the empire, herself, and her son from the hands of a madman"-Essay on the Life and Reign of Frederick II (1789)
-Catherine wrote her first memoirs around 1756, before she became Empress, during a period of ruthless court politics
-Catherine's routine: "I regularly get up at 6a.m., I read and I write all alone until eight, then someone comes to read the news to me...to do the same thing tomorrow, and this is as fixed as the lines on a sheet of music." - Catherine the Great
-Catherine became pregnant by her lover, Count Grigory Orlov (1734-83) which put Catherine at risk of arrest, exile, or worse
-Peter's mistress was Elizabeth Vorontsova (1739-92)
-1754: Catherine claims she read herself out of postpartum depression after the birth of Paul I
-Peter's remark in 1758 "God knows where my wife gets her pregnancies. I really don't know if this child is mine and if I ought to recognise it"
-1758 arrest and exile of her ally, Chancellor Count Alexei Bestuzhev-Riumin (1693-1767) who was in charge of foreign affairs. Catherine write "A flood of ideas, each more unpleasant and sadder than the next...a dagger in my heart..."
-Catherine's position, duty and expectation in the royal family was to produce an heir
-Catherine's memoirs paint an unflattering picture of Elizabeth's personality and style of rule
-Although Elizabeth had given Catherine a budget of 30,000 rubles per year, Catherine became 600,000 rubles in debt by 1762, because she used the money to buy the loyalty of couriers (as well as dresses!)
-Empress Elizabeth died on 25th December 1761
-Catherine uses her memoirs as a defence, for example, Catherine used one of her memoirs to defend herself against Elizabeth's accusation that she was at fault for not producing an heir, "on their wedding night, her husband went to sleep, and this was the state in which things remained for nine consecutive years without the lease change"
-Catherine's first memoir was written around 1756 and her last memoir was written in 1794. Her memoirs remained a secret because they indicated that Paul was perhaps illegitimate and thus he and his offspring were not Romanovs
-"This writing itself should prove what I say about my mind, my heart, and my character" - Catherine the Great
-Catherine appears to have a profound connection between herself and her memoirs, for example, she used her autobiographical writing to understand herself as a human being, a woman, and an Empress
-"In all her memoirs, but especially in the last memoir, we see the perils of power through the eyes of an intelligent woman who was a consummate political animal."
- Prince Grigory Potemkin = lover for several years and was most likely her secret husband
-On June 28th 1762, Catherine seized power, aided by forty supporters (including Orlov)
-A week after Peter after Peter abdicated he was killed by members of Catherine's political faction, without her approval. Catherine's last memoir never explicitly addressed her coup or her husband's murder
-The coup of 1762 and the murder of Peter III caused the rest of Europe to question Russia's stability and it also undermined Catherine's credibility
-"Catherine ruled as an absolute monarch in a century of growing ambivalence about the concentration of power in the hands of one individual"
-"Catherine's reign has been referred to as 'the golden age of the Russian nobility'"
-She introduced education for both sexes, she took control of the foreign policy, built on Peter the Great's military legacy, centralized the financial administration, she expanded Russia during the Seven Year's War, she also expanded the Russian Empire to the South where she continued Peter the Great's naval fleet. Her victories in war and leadership cemented her a reputation in Europe as a major power
-Catherine, in Russia, banned accounts of her coup
-After two miscarriages, Catherine gave birth to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (the future Paul I) on September 20th 1754
-Her son made Catherine's position in court more secure as she was the wife of the heir apparent and also the mother of the future heir
-Catherine had a girl called 'Anna Petrovna' (1757-59), fathered by future King of Poland Count Stanislaw August Poniatowski
-"...pragmatic mixture of love and politics"
-"My heart did not foresee great happiness; ambition alone sustained me. At the bottom of my soul I had something, I know not what, that never for a single moment let me doubt that sooner or later I would succeed in becoming the sovereign Empress of Russia"-Catherine the Great
-"Catherine's success depended on her political skills, her policies, and her personality"
-Catherine wrote on politics, Russian history, education, economics, and linguistics. She wrote thousands of letters, more than two dozen plays and operas and also numerous memoirs and journal
-"As for my writings, I consider them as trifles ... I never attached any importance to them, except as amusement" - Catherine the Great
-Catherine enjoyed reading many great writers work, especially the writings of Voltaire
-Catherine loved reading so much that she blamed studying Russian at night while undressed in the cold as the main reasoning for becoming ill
-Catherine's memoirs reflect her immediate concerns at the time of writing, however most of her memoirs are undated which makes identifying when they were written difficult
-Countess Praskovia Alexandrovna Bruce (1729-85): was one of Catherine's friends throughout her rein, "to whom I can speak freely without fear of consequences", they had become close when Catherine first arrived in Russia in 1744 and this friendship remained strong until Catherine learned that her friend was having an affair with one of her lovers (Major Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov) "It is impossible not to miss her when one has known her long, for she was very nice; it would have upset me much more six or seven years ago, but since then we have been somewhat distant and separated"
-Catherine "...defends herself abroad implicitly as enlightened and worldly...[and that she\ performed her job to the best of her abilities."
-corresponded with French encyclopedic (e.g. Voltaire)
-"Catherine found reading and writing psychologically therapeutic in difficult times"
-"The final memoir alone contains an important, unusual verbal self-portrait in which Catherine represents herself as exemplary, both as a woman and as a man"
-Catherine's final memoir addresses "...her ability to create a stable government by stressing her good judgement, even temper, fairness, and ultimately, her genius for rule"
-Catherine tried to change the heir to the Russian throne, from her son Paul, to her grandson Alexander
-In Russia, only after the fall of communism in the late 1980's did serious work on Catherine and her reign recommence, beginning with the publication of her memoirs in 1989
-After Catherine's death, some scholars questioned Catherine's legacy stating that she was a thorough hypocrite who cynically claimed to rule in the best interest of her people while actually expanding the institution of serfdom
-Catherine laid the institutional foundation for Russia's extraordinary cultural leap in the nineteenth century in literature, art, architecture, music and theater
Source: 'Catherine The Great Journey' (Historical Fiction)
Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Prussian princess Sophia finds herself entangled in her mother's efforts to arrange a marriage between Sophia and Peter III, a young German duke and nephew of the Russian empress Elizabeth I. As Sophia's mother moves to make the match, she and Sophia must travel from their humble home in Zerbst, Prussia, to Russia--the kingdom of Elizabeth. There, Sophia is renamed Catherine and married to Peter III, but she watches helplessly as her family is torn from her, her own mother is involved in a spying ring against the empress, and all that is familiar to her disappears
Author: Kristiana Gregory
Date of publication: 2005 by Scholar Inc. (New York)
Author: Kristiana Gregory
Date of publication: 2005 by Scholar Inc. (New York)