Copyright © 2011 by Robert K. Massie
Maps copyright © 2011 by David Lindroth, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Massie, Robert K.
Catherine the Great : portrait of a woman / by Robert K. Massie.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-044-1
1. Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 1729–1796. 2. Empresses—Russia—Biography.
3. Russia—Kings and rulers—Biography. 4. Russia—History—Catherine II,
1762–1796. I. Title.
DK170.M34 2011 2011015279
947′.063092—dc22 [B]
www.atrandom.com
Jacket design: The Book Designers
Jacket painting: Alexei Petrovich Antropov, portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna (the future Catherine the Great) (detail) (Bridgeman Art Library International)
v3.1
Perhaps the best description of her is that she is a woman as well as an empress.
—The Earl of Buckinghamshire,
British ambassador to Russia, 1762–65
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Maps
PART I A German Princess
1 Sophia’s Childhood
2 Summoned to Russia
3 Frederick II and the Journey to Russia
4 Empress Elizabeth
5 The Making of a Grand Duke
6 Meeting Elizabeth and Peter
7 Pneumonia
8 Intercepted Letters
9 Conversion and Betrothal
10 A Pilgrimage to Kiev and Transvestite Balls
11 Smallpox
12 Marriage
13 Johanna Goes Home
PART II A Painful Marriage
14 The Zhukova Affair
15 Peepholes
16 A Watchdog
17 “He Was Not a King”
18 In the Bedroom
19 A House Collapses
20 Summer Pleasures
21 Dismissals at Court
22 Moscow and the Country
23 Choglokov Makes an Enemy and Peter Survives a Plot
24 A Bath Before Easter and a Coachman’s Whip
25 Oysters and an Actor
26 Reading, Dancing, and a Betrayal
PART III Seduction Motherhood, and Confrontation
27 Saltykov
28 The Birth of the Heir
29 Retaliation
30 The English Ambassador
31 A Diplomatic Earthquake
32 Poniatowski
33 A Dead Rat, an Absent Lover, and a Risky Proposal
34 Catherine Challenges Brockdorff; She Gives a Party
35 Apraksin’s Retreat
36 Catherine’s Daughter
37 The Fall of Bestuzhev
38 A Gamble
39 Confrontation
40 A Ménage à Quatre
Photo Insert
PART IV “The Time Has Come!”
41 Panin, Orlov, and Elizabeth’s Death
42 The Brief Reign of Peter III
43 “Dura!”
44 “We Ourselves Know Not What We Did”
PART V Empress of Russia
45 Coronation
46 The Government and the Church
47 Serfdom
48 “Madame Orlov Could Never Be Empress of Russia”
49 The Death of Ivan VI
50 Catherine and the Enlightenment
51 The Nakaz
52 “All Free Estates of the Realm”
53 “The King We Have Made”
54 The First Partition of Poland and the First Turkish War
55 Doctors, Smallpox, and Plague
56 The Return of “Peter the Third”
57 The Last Days of the “Marquis de Pugachev”
PART VI Potemkin and Favoritism
58 Vasilchikov
59 Catherine and Potemkin: Passion
60 Potemkin Ascending
61 Catherine and Potemkin: Separation
62 New Relationships
63 Favorites
PART VII “My Name Is Catherine the Second”
64 Catherine, Paul, and Natalia
65 Paul, Maria, and the Succession
66 Potemkin: Builder and Diplomat
67 Crimean Journey and “Potemkin Villages”
68 The Second Turkish War and the Death of Potemkin
69 Art, Architecture, and the Bronze Horseman
70 “They Are Capable of Hanging Their King from a Lamppost!”
71 Dissent in Russia, Final Partition of Poland
72 Twilight
73 The Death of Catherine the Great
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Notes
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
1
Sophia’s Childhood
