She expanded Russia's borders to the Black Sea and into central Europe during her reign. If a noble did not live up to his side of the deal, the serfs could file complaints against him by following the proper channels of law. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She thus spent much of this time alone in her private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality. ", [Kazimir Valishevsky. Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles, money, swords, and other gifts, but Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. Her coffee was brought in, she drank it and sat down to write. Upon arriving in St. Petersburg in 1744, Sophie converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, adopted a Russian name and began learning to speak the language. And so she used her lovers as a means to cement her power. The truss holding her equine paramour broke, crushing Catherine to death beneath the poor beast. [citation needed] She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in December 1757 (not to be confused with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the daughter of Peter I's second marriage), although she was legally regarded as Grand Duke Peter's.[129]. Historians consider her efforts to be a success. Following the war and the defeat of Pugachev, Catherine laid the obligation to establish schools at the guberniya a provincial subdivision of the Russian empire ruled by a governor on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.[97]. These differences led both parties to seek intimacy elsewhere, a fact that raised questions, both at the time and in the centuries since, about the paternity of their son, the future Paul I. Catherine herself suggested in her memoirs that Paul was the child of her first lover, Sergei Saltykov. By 1786, Catherine excluded all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education. Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. Grigory Orlov, the grandson of a rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving three wounds. Yekaterina Alexeevna or Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great (Russian: II , Yekaterina II Velikaya; 2 May 1729 - 17 November 1796), was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 9 July 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as to accumulate wealth. . In 1785, Catherine declared Jews to be officially foreigners, with foreigners' rights. But when he arrived at his palace and found it abandoned, he realized what had occurred. She recovered well enough to begin to plan a ceremony which would establish her favourite grandson Alexander as her heir, superseding her difficult son Paul, but she died before the announcement could be made, just over two months after the engagement ball. Catherine decided it promoted the dangerous poison of the French Revolution. You Might Also Like She credited her survival to frequent bloodletting; in a single day, she had four phlebotomies. She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution. And there's also no question Catherine despised her husband in life and did not mourn his death. And though Catherine is characterized by modern viewers as very flighty and superficial, Hartley notes that she was a genuine bluestocking, waking up at 5 or 6 a.m. each morning, brewing her own pot of coffee to avoid troubling her servants, and sitting down to begin the days work. [117] In later years, Catherine amended her thoughts. [CDATA[// >