Catherine the Great

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