Catherine II[a] 

(born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 in Stettin – 17 November 1796 in Saint

Petersburg[b]), most commonly known as Catherine the Great,[c] was empress regnant of All
Russia from 1762 until 1796 – the country's longest-ruling female leader. She came to power
following a coup d'état that overthrew her husband and second cousin, Peter III. Under her reign,
Russia grew larger, its culture was revitalised, and it was recognised as one of the great powers of
Europe.
In her accession to power and her rule of the empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favourites,
most notably 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 south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed
following victories over the Bar confederation and Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–
1774 due to the support of the United Kingdom, and Russia colonised the territories
of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, King Stanisław August Poniatowski, was
eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russians
became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.
Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas (governorates), and many new cities
and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to
modernise Russia along Western European lines. 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 the large-scale Pugachev Rebellion of Cossacks, nomads, peoples of Volga and peasants.
The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era,[1] is considered a Golden Age of
Russia.[2] 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.
Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the empress,
changed the face of the country. She enthusiastically supported the ideals of the Enlightenment and
is often included in the ranks of the enlightened despots.[d] As a patron of the arts, she presided over
the age of the Russian Enlightenment, including the establishment of the Smolny Institute of Noble
Maidens, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Marriage, reign of Peter III, and coup d'état
 3Reign (1762–1796)
o 3.1Coronation (1762)
o 3.2Foreign affairs
o 3.3Economics and finance
o 3.4Government organisation
o 3.5Serfs
 4Arts and culture
o 4.1Education
o 4.2Religious affairs
 5Personal life
o 5.1Poniatowski
o 5.2Orlov
 o 5.3Potemkin
 6Final months and death
 7Children
 8Royal descendants
o 8.1British royalty
o 8.2Danish royalty
o 8.3Dutch royalty
o 8.4Spanish royalty
o 8.5Swedish royalty
o 8.6Former Greek royalty
o 8.7Former Romanian royalty
o 8.8Former Yugoslavian royalty
 9Title
 10In popular culture
 11Ancestry
 12List of prominent Catherinians
 13See also
 14References
o 14.1Notes
o 14.2Citations
o 14.3Sources
 15Further reading
 16External links

Early life[edit]

Farna Street in Szczecin. The building where Catherine lived in her early years (rebuilt in a different form
after World War II)

Catherine was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland) as Princess

Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. Her father, Christian August, Prince of
Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt.[4] He tried to become the duke
of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia but in vain and at the time of his daughter's birth held the rank
of a Prussian general in his capacity as governor of the city of Stettin. But because of conversion of
her second cousin Peter III to Orthodox Christianity, two of her first cousins became Kings of
Sweden: Gustav III and Charles XIII.[5] In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling
dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors.
According to her memoirs, Sophie was regarded as a tomboy, and trained herself to master a sword.
Sophie's childhood was very 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 very little money. Her
rise to power was supported by her mother Joanna's wealthy relatives, who were both nobles and
royal relations. Her mother's brother became the heir to the Swedish throne after her second cousin
Peter III converted to Orthodoxy.[7] The more than 300 sovereign entities of the Holy Roman Empire,
many of them quite small and powerless, made for a highly competitive political system as the
various princely families fought for advantage over each other, often via political marriages.[8] For the
smaller German princely families, an advantageous marriage was one of the best means of
advancing their interests, and the young Sophie was groomed throughout her childhood to be the
wife of some powerful ruler in order to improve the position of the reigning house of Anhalt. Besides
her native German, Sophie became fluent in French, the lingua franca of European elites in the 18th
century.[9] The young Sophie received the standard education for an 18th-century German princess,
with a concentration upon learning the etiquette expected of a lady, French, and Lutheran theology.
[10]

Young Catherine soon after her arrival in Russia, by Louis Caravaque

Sophie first met her future husband, who would become Peter III of Russia, at the age of 10. Peter
was her second cousin. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him. She
disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young age. Peter also still played
with toy soldiers. She later wrote that she stayed at one end of the castle, and Peter at the other.[11]

Marriage, reign of Peter III, and coup d'état[edit]

The choice of Princess Sophie as wife of the future tsar was one result of the Lopukhina
Conspiracy in which Count Lestocq and Prussian king Frederick the Great took an active part. The
object was to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia, to weaken the influence
of Austria and to ruin the chancellor Aleksey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, on whom Russian
Empress Elizabeth relied, and who was a known partisan of the Austrian alliance. The diplomatic
intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophie's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-
Gottorp. Historical accounts portray Johanna as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court
intrigues. Her hunger for fame centred on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia,
but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for
King Frederick II of Prussia. Empress Elizabeth knew the family well: She had intended to marry
Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), but he died of smallpox in
1727 before the wedding could take place.[12] Despite Johanna's interference, Empress Elizabeth
took a strong liking to Sophie, and her marriage to Peter eventually took place in 1745.
When Sophie arrived in Russia in 1744, she spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with
Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people as well. She applied herself
to learning the Russian language with zeal, rising at night and walking about her bedroom barefoot,
repeating her lessons. This practice led to a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she
wrote her memoirs, she said she made the decision then to do whatever was necessary and to
profess to believe whatever was required of her to become qualified to wear the crown. Although she
mastered the language, she retained an accent.

Equestrian portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna

Portrait of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, by George Christoph
Grooth, 1745

Sophie recalled in her memoirs that as soon as she arrived in Russia, she fell ill with a pleuritis that
almost killed her.[inconsistent] She credited her survival to frequent bloodletting; in a single day, she had
four phlebotomies. Her mother, who was opposed to this practice, fell into the empress's disfavour.
When Sophie's situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran pastor.
Awaking from her delirium, however, Sophie said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my Orthodox
father [clergyman]." This raised her in the empress's esteem.
Princess Sophie's father, a devout German Lutheran, opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern
Orthodoxy. Despite his objection, however, on 28 June 1744, the Russian Orthodox Church received
Princess Sophie as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the
(artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey) i.e. with the same name
as Catherine I, the mother of Elizabeth and the grandmother of Peter III. On the following day, the
formal betrothal took place. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745
in Saint Petersburg. Sophie had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The
bridegroom, known as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in
the north-west of present-day Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739. The newlyweds
settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many
years to come. The pair governed the duchy (which occupied less than a third of the current German
state of Schleswig-Holstein, even including that part of Schleswig occupied by Denmark) to obtain
experience to govern Russia.
Apart from providing governing experience, the marriage was unsuccessful - it was not
consummated for years due to Peter III's impotence and mental immaturity. After Peter took a
mistress, Catherine became involved with other prominent court figures. She soon became popular
with several powerful political groups which opposed her husband. Bored with her husband,
Catherine became an avid reader of books, mostly in French.[13] Catherine disparaged her husband
as devoted to reading "Lutheran prayer-books, the other the history of and trial of some highway
robbers who had been hanged or broken on the wheel".[10] It was during this period that she first
read Voltaire and the other philosophes of the French Enlightenment. As she learned Russian, she
became increasingly interested in the literature of her adopted country. Finally, it was
the Annals by Tacitus that caused what she called a "revolution" in her teenage mind as Tacitus was
the first intellectual she read who understood power politics as they are, not as they should be. She
was especially impressed with Tacitus's argument that people do not act for their professed idealistic
reasons, and instead she learned to look for the "hidden and interested motives."[14]
According to Alexander Hertzen, who edited the version of Catherine's memoirs, while living at
Oranienbaum, Catherine had her first sexual relationship with Sergei Saltykov as her marriage to
Peter had not been consummated, as Catherine later claimed.[15][16] But Catherine left to Paul I the
final version of her memoirs explaining why Paul had been the son of Peter III. Sergei Saltykov was
used to make Peter jealous and relations with Saltykov were platonic ones. Catherine wanted to
become an empress herself and did not want another heir to the throne. But Empress Elizabeth
blackmailed Peter and Catherine that they both had been involved into a plot of Russian military in
1749 to execute the will of Catherine I and to crown Peter together with Catherine. Elizabeth
requested her legal heir from Catherine. Only when a new legal heir, the son of Catherine and Peter,
had appeared to be strong and to survive, had Elizabeth allowed Catherine to have real sexual
lovers because Elizabeth probably wanted to leave both Catherine and her accomplice Peter III
without any rights for a Russian throne in revenge for the participation of the pair in military plots to
crown Peter and Catherine.[17] After this over the years Catherine carried on sexual liaisons with
many men, including Stanisław August Poniatowski, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–
1783), Alexander Vasilchikov, Grigory Potemkin, and others.[18] She became friends with
Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's official mistress, who in
Dashkov's opinion introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband,
though Catherine had been involved in military schemes against Elizabeth probably to get rid of
Peter III at the next stage at least since 1749.
Peter III's temperament became quite unbearable for those who resided in the palace. He would
announce trying drills in the morning to male servants, who later joined Catherine in her room to sing
and dance until late hours.[19]
Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna, who only lived to 14 months, in 1759. Due
to various rumours of Catherine's promiscuity, Peter was led to believe he was not the child's
biological father and is known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!", when Catherine angrily
dismissed his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her private boudoir to hide away
from Peter's abrasive personality.[20] In the first version her memoirs, edited and published by
Alexander Hertzen, Catherine strongly implied that the real father of her son Paul was not Peter, but
rather Saltykov.[21] Catherine recalled in her memoirs her optimistic and resolute mood before her
accession to the throne:
 "I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. If you feel unhappy,
raise your self above unhappiness, and so act that your happiness may be independent of all
eventualities."[22]

Tsar Peter III reigned only six months; he died on 17 July 1762.

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 1761), Peter
succeeded to the throne as Emperor Peter III, and Catherine became empress consort. The
imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. The tsar's eccentricities
and policies, including a great admiration for the Prussian king, Frederick II, alienated the same
groups that Catherine had cultivated. Russia and Prussia had fought each other during
the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), and Russian troops had occupied Berlin in 1761. Peter,
however, supported Frederick II, eroding much of his support among the nobility. Peter ceased
Russian operations against Prussia, and Frederick suggested the partition of Polish
territories with Russia. Peter also intervened in a dispute between his Duchy
of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von
Bernstorff). As Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter planned war against Denmark, Russia's
traditional ally against Sweden.
In July 1762, barely six months after becoming emperor, Peter lingered in Oranienbaum with his
Holstein-born courtiers and relatives, while his wife lived in another palace nearby. On the night
of 8 July (OS: 27 June 1762),[23] Catherine the Great was given the news that one of her co-
conspirators had been arrested by her estranged husband and that all they had been planning
must take place at once. The next day, she left the palace and departed for the Ismailovsky
regiment, where she delivered a speech asking the soldiers to protect her from her husband.
Catherine then left with the regiment to go to the Semenovsky Barracks, where the clergy was
waiting to ordain her as the sole occupant of the Russian throne. She had her husband arrested,
and forced him to sign a document of abdication, leaving no one to dispute her accession to the
throne.[24][25] On 17 July 1762—eight days after the coup that amazed the outside world[26] and just
six months after his accession to the throne—Peter III died at Ropsha, possibly at the hands
of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Grigory Orlov, then a court favourite and a participant in the
coup). Peter supposedly was assassinated, but it is unknown how he died. The official cause,
after an autopsy, was a severe attack of haemorrhoidal colic and an apoplexy stroke.[27]
At the time of Peter III's overthrow, other potential rivals for the throne included Ivan VI (1740–
1764), who had been confined at Schlüsselburg in Lake Ladoga from the age of six months, and
was thought to be insane. Ivan VI was assassinated during an attempt to free him as part of a
failed coup: like Empress Elizabeth before her, Catherine had given strict instructions that Ivan
was to be killed in the event of any such attempt. Yelizaveta Alekseyevna Tarakanova (1753–
1775) was another potential rival.
Although Catherine did not descend from the Romanov dynasty, her ancestors included
members of the Rurik dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs. She succeeded her husband
as empress regnant, following the precedent established when Catherine I succeeded her
husband Peter the Great in 1725. Historians debate Catherine's technical status, whether as a
regent or as a usurper, tolerable only during the minority of her son, Grand Duke Paul.

Reign (1762–1796)[edit]
Coronation (1762)[edit]
Catherine II on a balcony of the Winter Palace on 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762, the day of the coup

Catherine was crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 22 September 1762.[28] Her

coronation marks the creation of one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty,
the Imperial Crown of Russia, designed by Swiss-French court diamond jeweller Jérémie
Pauzié. Inspired by the Byzantine Empire design, the crown was constructed of two half
spheres, one gold and one silver, representing the eastern and western Roman empires, divided
by a foliate garland and fastened with a low hoop. The crown contains 75 pearls and 4,936
Indian diamonds forming laurel and oak leaves, the symbols of power and strength, and is
surmounted by a 398.62-carat ruby spinel that previously belonged to the Empress Elizabeth,
and a diamond cross. The crown was produced in a record two months and weighed 2.3 kg.
[29]
 From 1762, the Great Imperial Crown was the coronation crown of all Romanov emperors
until the monarchy's abolition in 1917. It is one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty
and is now on display in the Moscow Kremlin Armoury Museum.[30]

Foreign affairs[edit]
Main article: Russian history, 1682–1796

Alexander Bezborodko, the chief architect of Catherine's foreign policy after the death of Nikita Panin

During her reign, Catherine extended by some 520,000 square kilometres (200,000 sq mi) the
borders of the Russian Empire, absorbing New Russia, Crimea, Northern Caucasus, Right-bank
Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers—the Ottoman
Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[31]
Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–1781), exercised considerable
influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and
millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland and
Sweden, to counter the power of the Bourbon–Habsburg League. When it became apparent that
his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan
Osterman (in office 1781–1797).[32]
Catherine agreed to a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1766, but stopped short of a full
military alliance. Although she could see the benefits of Britain's friendship, she was wary of
Britain's increased power following its complete victory in the Seven Years' War, which
threatened the European balance of power.[33]
Russo-Turkish Wars[edit]
See also: Russia in the American Revolutionary War §  Russian Diplomacy during the War

Equestrian portrait of Catherine in the Preobrazhensky Regiment's uniform, by Vigilius Eriksen

Peter the Great had succeeded in gaining a toehold in the south, on the edge of the Black Sea,
in the Azov campaigns. Catherine completed the conquest of the south, making Russia the
dominant power in south-eastern Europe after the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. Russia
inflicted some of the heaviest defeats ever suffered by the Ottoman Empire, including the Battle
of Chesma (5–7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770). In 1769, a last
major Crimean–Nogai slave raid, which ravaged the Russian held territories in Ukraine, saw the
capture of up to 20,000 slaves.[34][35]
The Russian victories procured access to the Black Sea and allowed Catherine's government to
incorporate present-day southern Ukraine, where the Russians founded the new cities
of Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnipro),
and Kherson. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed 10 July 1774, gave the Russians territories
at Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn, and the small strip of Black Sea coast between the
rivers Dnieper and Bug. The treaty also removed restrictions on Russian naval or commercial
traffic in the Azov Sea, granted to Russia the position of protector of Orthodox Christians in the
Ottoman Empire, and made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia. Russia's State Council in 1770
announced a policy in favour of eventual Crimean independence. Catherine named Sahin Girey,
a Crimean Tatar leader to head the Crimean state and maintain friendly relations with Russia.
His period of rule proved disappointing after repeated effort to prop up his regime through
military force and monetary aid. Finally Catherine annexed the Crimea in 1783. The palace of
the Crimean Khanate passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1787, Catherine conducted a
triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo-Turkish War.[36]

Monument to the founders of Odessa: Catherine and her companions José de Ribas, François Sainte
de Wollant, Platon Zubov and Grigory Potemkin

Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward to absorb the Crimean Khanate

The Ottomans restarted hostilities in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–92. This war was another
catastrophe for the Ottomans, ending with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), which legitimised the
Russian claim to the Crimea and granted the Yedisan region to Russia.
Russo-Persian War[edit]
In the Treaty of Georgievsk (1783) Russia agreed to protect Georgia against any new invasion
and further political aspirations of their Persian suzerains. Catherine waged a new war against
Persia in 1796 after they, under the new king Agha Mohammad Khan, had again invaded
Georgia and established rule in 1795 and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons
in the Caucasus. The ultimate goal for the Russian government, however, was to topple the anti-
Russian shah (king), and to replace him with a half-brother, Morteza Qoli Khan, who had
defected to Russia and was therefore pro-Russian.[37][38]
It was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be led by the seasoned
general, Ivan Gudovich, but the empress followed the advice of her lover, Prince Zubov, and
entrusted the command to his youthful brother, Count Valerian Zubov. The Russian troops set
out from Kizlyar in April 1796 and stormed the key fortress of Derbent on 10 May. The event was
glorified by the court poet Derzhavin in his famous ode; he later commented bitterly on Zubov's
inglorious return from the expedition in another remarkable poem.[39]
By mid-June 1796, Zubov's troops overran without any resistance most of the territory of
modern-day Azerbaijan, including three principal cities—Baku, Shemakha, and Ganja. By
November, they were stationed at the confluence of the Araks and Kura Rivers, poised to attack
mainland Iran. In this month, the empress of Russia died and her successor Paul, who detested
that the Zubovs had other plans for the army, ordered the troops to retreat to Russia. This
reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the powerful Zubovs and other officers who took
part in the campaign: many of them would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's
murder five years later.[40]
Relations with Western Europe[edit]
See also: Russia in the American Revolutionary War §  Russian Diplomacy during the War

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria
and France) and Turkey

Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She refused from the Duchy of
Holstein-Gottorp which had ports on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and from having Russian
army in Germany. Instead she pioneered for Russia the role that Britain later played through
most of the 19th and early 20th centuries as an international mediator in disputes that could, or
did, lead to war. She acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–1779)
between the German states of Prussia and Austria. In 1780, she established a League of Armed
Neutrality, designed to defend neutral shipping from being searched by the Royal Navy during
the Revolutionary War.
From 1788 to 1790, Russia fought a war against Sweden, a conflict instigated by Catherine's
cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden, who expected to simply overtake the Russian armies still
engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks, and hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. But
Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in a tied battle of Hogland (July 1788),
and the Swedish army failed to advance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788
(the Theatre War). After the decisive defeat of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in
1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790), returning all conquered
territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of Åbo. Russia was to stop any
involvement in internal affairs of Sweden. Large sums were paid to Gustav III. Peace ensued for
20 years in spite of the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.[41]
Partitions of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth[edit]
Main article: Partitions of Poland

The partitions of Poland, carried out by Russia, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg
Monarchy in 1772, 1793 and 1795

In 1764, Catherine placed Stanisław August Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne.
Although the idea of partitioning Poland came from the King Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine
took a leading role in carrying it out in the 1790s. In 1768, she formally became the protector of
political rights of dissidents and peasants of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which
provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (1768–72), supported by
France. After the rebels, their French and European volunteers and their allied Ottoman Empire
had been defeated , she established in the Rzeczpospolita, a system of government fully
controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council, under the supervision of
her ambassadors and envoys.[42]
Being afraid of the May Constitution of Poland (1791) that might lead to a resurgence in the
power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the growing democratic movements inside
the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to
refrain from her planned intervention into France and to intervene in Poland instead. She
provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After
defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and in the Kościuszko
Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining
Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795).[43]
Relations with Japan[edit]
In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. This
spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783,
storms drove a Japanese sea captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that
time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government
decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine granted Daikokuya an
audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade
mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman. The Tokugawa shogunate received the mission, but
negotiations failed.[44]
Relations with China[edit]
The Qianlong emperor of China was committed to an expansionist policy in Central Asia and
saw the Russian empire as a potential rival, making for difficult and unfriendly relations between
Beijing and Saint Petersburg.[45] In 1762, he unilaterally abrogated the Treaty of Kyakhta, which
governed the caravan trade between the two empires.[46] Another source of tension was the wave
of Dzungar Mongol fugitives from the Chinese state who took refuge with the Russians.
[47]
 The Dzungar genocide which was committed by the Qing state had led many Dzungars to
seek sanctuary in the Russian empire, and it was also one of the reasons for the abrogation of
the Treaty of Kyakhta. Catherine perceived that the Qianlong emperor was an unpleasant and
arrogant neighbour, once saying: "I shall not die until I have ejected the Turks from Europe,
suppressed the pride of China and established trade with India".[47] In a 1790 letter to Baron de
Grimm written in French, she called the Qianlong emperor "mon voisin chinois aux petits yeux"
("my Chinese neighbour with small eyes").[45]
The evaluation of foreign policy[edit]
Nicholas I, her grandson, evaluated the foreign policy of Catherine the Great as a dishonest one.
[48]
 Catherine failed to reach any of the initial goals she had put forward. Her foreign policy lacked
a long-term strategy and from the very start was characterised by a series of mistakes. She lost
the large territories of the Russian protectorate of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania
and left its territories to Prussia and Austria. The Commonwealth had become the Russian
protectorate since the reign of Peter I, but he did not intervene into the problem of political
freedoms of dissidents advocating for their religious freedoms only. Catherine did turn Russia
into a global great power not only a European one but with quite a different reputation from what
she initially had planned as an honest policy. The global trade by Russian natural resources and
Russian grain provoked famines, starvation and fear of famines in Russia. Her dynasty lost
power because of this and of a war with Austria and Germany, impossible without her foreign
policy.[49]

Economics and finance[edit]

A 5-kopeck coin bearing the monogram of Catherine the Great and the Imperial coat of arms, dated
1791

Russian economic development was well below the standards in western Europe. Historian
François Cruzet writes that Russia under Catherine:
had neither a free peasantry, nor a significant middle class, nor legal norms hospitable to private
enterprise. Still, there was a start of industry, mainly textiles around Moscow and ironworks in
the Ural Mountains, with a labor force mainly of serfs, bound to the works.[50]
Catherine imposed a comprehensive system of state regulation of merchants' activities. It was a
failure because it narrowed and stifled entrepreneurship and did not reward economic
development.[51] She had more success when she strongly encouraged the migration of
the Volga Germans, farmers from Germany who settled mostly in the Volga River Valley region.
They indeed helped modernise the sector that totally dominated the Russian economy. They
introduced numerous innovations regarding wheat production and flour milling, tobacco culture,
sheep raising, and small-scale manufacturing.[52]
In 1768, the Assignation Bank was given the task of issuing the first government paper money. It
opened in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards
established in other towns, called government towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of
similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes.
The emergence of these assignation rubles was necessary due to large government spending
on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the treasury (transactions, especially in
foreign trade, were conducted almost exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation rubles
circulated on equal footing with the silver ruble; a market exchange rate for these two currencies
was ongoing. The use of these notes continued until 1849.[53]
Catherine paid a great deal of attention to financial reform, and relied heavily on the advice of
hard-working Prince A. A. Viazemski. She found that piecemeal reform worked poorly because
there was no overall view of a comprehensive state budget. Money was needed for wars and
necessitated the junking the old financial institutions. A key principle was responsibilities defined
by function. It was instituted by the Fundamental Law of 7 November 1775. Vaizemski's Office of
State Revenue took centralised control and by 1781, the government possessed its first
approximation of a state budget.[54]

Government organisation[edit]
The Russian Senate was the major coordinating agency of domestic administration. Catherine
appointed 132 men to the Senate. Most came from three large extended families. The Panin
family was led by Nikita Ivanovich Panin (1718–83), a dominant influence on Russian foreign
policy. Others represented the Viazemskii and Trubetskoi families.[55][32]
Catherine made public health a priority. She made use of the social theory ideas of
German cameralism and French physiocracy, as well as Russian precedents and experiments
such as foundling homes. She launched the Moscow Foundling Home and lying-in hospital,
1764, and Paul's Hospital, 1763. She had the government collect and publish vital statistics. In
1762 called on the army to upgrade its medical services. She established a centralised medical
administration charged with initiating vigorous health policies. Catherine decided to have herself
inoculated against smallpox by Thomas Dimsdale, a British doctor. While this was considered a
controversial method at the time, she succeeded. Her son Pavel later was inoculated as well.
Catherine then sought to have inoculations throughout her empire and stated: "My objective
was, through my example, to save from death the multitude of my subjects who, not knowing the
value of this technique, and frightened of it, were left in danger".[56] By 1800, approximately
2 million inoculations (almost 6% of the population) were administered in the Russian Empire.
Historians consider her efforts to be a success.[57]