10 Things You Didn't Know About Catherine The Great!

hi it's Katrina from the strategic coup d'etat against her husband to leading Russia into the golden age here are 10 things you didn't know about Sarina Catherine the Great of Russia number 10 young Catherine despite being Russia's longest reigning female ruler Catherine the Great wasn't even Russian and her name wasn't Catherine she was born Sophie fredericka August from Anheuser baked or Prussian Prince she had the noble bloodline but her family had lost their wealth on her mother's side her family was extremely respected and she lucked out you could say when it came to her numerous marriage prospects when one of the daughters of Peter the Great Elizabeth became Empress of Russia she brought her nephew Peter from Germany at 14 years old and declared him her heir childless and unmarried Elizabeth was looking for a bride for her nephew Peter and it had to be someone of a noble family if you've seen too great on Hulu you'll know that they took some very creative liberties in the show Peter the Great is Peter's father but in real life he was his grandfather his aunt Elizabeth was the ruler of Russia before he came to power she organized the betrothal of Peter to his second cousin princess Sophie later Catherine and invited her to court at 10 years old when she first met Peter she hated him at first the young Catherine tried to ingratiate herself with her future husband her aunt the Empress and the Russian court she learned Russian and later in 1744 she converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and Sophie officially changed her name to Ekaterina or Catherine at the age of 15 when year later she and Peter were officially married it is said that Catherine stayed on one side of the palace and Peter on the other Catherine was an intellectual reading philosophy and promoting the Arts at court while Peter was known to be cruel and tiresome playing with toy soldiers and making his male servants practice drills playing pranks that usually involved punching someone and drinking Catherine also said he made her watch as he hung a mouse there were rumours that he was mentally incapable of ruling Russia and missed his beloved he also hated the Orthodox Church and all of these factors combined made several powerful political groups very unhappy when Empress Elizabeth died in 1762 Peter became Peter the third of Russia but supported Prussia rather than Russia in times of war while Catherine tried to foster relationships Peter and his eccentricities offended the same groups leading to the eventual coup d'etat of 1762 of course this is mostly from Catherine's memoirs so it is hard to get a true picture of what Peter was like just six months after becoming Emperor Catherine got rid of him and took over Catherine the Great would go on to leave behind a lasting legacy her period of rule is now commonly called the Catherine Ian era and is considered the golden age of Russia during her reign Russia became one of the great powers of Europe and Asia number nine Catherine's children like I mentioned from the beginning Catherine the Great and her husband Peter did not get along while they were a great political match historical documents say they were mismatched on just about everything in her memoirs Catherine wrote that Peter was an idiot and a drunk who liked to play with soldiers real and imaginary eight years after the marriage the couple had still produced no children and historians are conflicted about why while many believe Peter was infertile others think he was simply unable to consummate the marriage Catherine herself even implied this later on both unhappy partners eventually embarked upon extramarital affairs Catherine began a relationship with a Russian military officer named Sergei saltykov lo and behold Catherine became pregnant and in 1754 she gave birth to a son named Paul naturally rumors swirled about who Paul's real father could possibly be with many people naming Sergei saltykov as the most probable candidate some historians believe however that Peter was Paul's legitimate father and that Catherine attempted to discredit him in her memoirs where she's somewhat admitted to the affair with saltykov writing that Empress Elisabeth had more or less permitted the extramarital relationship she went on to have three more children but it is believed that none of them were fathered by Peter number eight her dark rise to power Empress Elizabeth's nephew her chosen heir assumed the throne as the third when she passed away in 1762 one of the first things that Peter did was end the war between Russia and Prussia hoping to make a memorable mark as the new ruler but Russia's military class and members of the lower nobility were not only unimpressed by the move they deeply disapproved of it it seemed that he favored his beloved homeland over Russia Catherine used this sentiment and carefully plotted against him there is a lot of controversy over whether Peter really was as bad as they say as he passed many reforms in just the six months that he was Emperor among them a law that a landowner could no longer kill their serf for no reason he also proclaimed religious freedom and disbanded the secret police while historians mostly believe that Peter the third was regarded as unpredictable and strange with bad policies that alienated everyone more recently it seems that Catherine may have suspected that Peter was going to ask her for a divorce so she made sure that that would never happen Catherine sided with those who were unhappy with Peters actions and who turned to her for support they began forming a plan to overthrow the ruler and in July 1762 Peter arrested one of her co-conspirators he must have suspected that something was going on and as soon as the conspiracy was uncovered Catherine arranged for her husband's arrest with the help of the country's top military regiment Peter the third was forced to abdicate in just six months after becoming Tsar Catherine became Russia's sole ruler just days later however on July 17th a man named Alexei Orloff who was the brother of Catherine's lover at the time Gregory his belief of murdered Peter although now there is evidence that pierre may have committed suicide in the days after his arrest the event had a darkening effect on her reign although there is no proof of whether or not Catherine knew about the murder before it happened she never married again instead opting to delegate power through various lovers past and present she said her love was for Russia number seven eliminating rivals in 1740 two-month-old Ivan Antonovich was proclaimed Russia's Emperor his distant cousin Elizabeth Petrovna seized the throne in a coup the following year and from the age of six months onward Ivan and his parents spent the rest of their lives stowed away in captivity in 1744 little Ivan was separated from his parents and for the next 12 years he only had contact with his jailers then in 1756 he was transferred again and held under even stricter watch in some palace even the prison guards were unaware of the young prisoners true identity during Elizabeth's reign all items bearing Ivan's name identity and title were confiscated and destroyed including coins documents and publications in adamantium amore or a condemnation of memory procedure today any such surviving items are extraordinarily rare Katherine's husband Peter the third sympathize with young Ivan and even visited him in prison and offered him aid but his ability to follow through was cut short when Catherine decided to overthrow Peter the third she also set out to eliminate all other potential rivals to the throne including Ivan who by this time had spent his entire 20-plus years locked away at first she referred to Ivan as the nameless one and instructed his guards to provide him with no education whatsoever Catherine also issued strict orders to execute Ivan if any attempts were made to free him and to get rid of anyone else who posed a threat to her up-and-coming power somehow Ivan was aware of his identity despite spending over two decades in confinement and word of who he truly was spread throughout the prison and Beyond probably because there were spies and supporters the discovery of his presence at the fortress is arguably what led to his demise Vasily morovich a sub-lieutenant at the garrison ivan was being held at learned of his presence there and formulated a plan with some other officers to release him while they attempted to free ivan during Catherine's coup in 1762 his jailers obeyed Catherine's top-secret orders and killed Ivan then they arrested Maravich and his co-conspirators who were executed soon after number six challenges to her power Catherines rule was lengthy but keeping the throne and the crown on her head came with a series of challenges at least a dozen uprisings threatened her power with the worst of them all Pugachev's rebellion occurring in 1773 also called the Cossack rebellion or the peasants war the uprising lasted for nearly two years and marks the beginning of several subsequent revolts that would take place throughout the remainder of Catherine's reign the rebellion was led by yellow yon Pugachev a former lieutenant of the Russian Imperial Army who claimed that he was the deposed and supposedly dead Peter the third pugachov led an organized insurrection of Cossacks in the revolt they initially saw success with pugachev declaring an end to serfdom and taking leadership of an alternative government based on catherine's assassinated husband peter the third due to logistical issues and a failure to understand the scale of the rebellion the authorities acting under Catherine's Direction did not respond effectively to the uprising for some time Pugachev captured a large amount of territory and garnered thousands of supporters over the following year the Russian military finally managed to squash the revolt toward the end of 1774 and Pugachev was captured shortly thereafter his supporters soon deserted him and he was executed in Moscow in January 1775 kovachev rebellion was the largest peasant uprising in Russian history and it effectively called Catherine's power and the validity of her rule into question she faced over a dozen uprisings during her reign number 5 friends with benefits Catherine the Great was wildly disloyal to her husband Peter the third and the couple parted on less than amicable terms but she was known for being extremely faithful to her lovers both during and after their relationships she often gifted her lovers and former lovers with things like titles property palaces and serfs one of her past Beau's received 1,000 indentured servants perhaps the most fortunate of all Catherine's lovers was one of her earliest stanislav Poniatowski a member of Polish nobility who happened to father one of her children Ponyo Tov ski's involvement with Catherine began before she assumed the throne while serving for the British Embassy in st. Petersburg their relationship contributed to a scandal that forced Poniatowski from the Russian Court effectively ending their affair in 1763 long after their relationship was abruptly cut short Catherine provided Poniatowski with military and financial support in his campaign to become king of Poland which was successful as generous as Catherine the Great may sound accepting her help came with expectations as plenty atop skis soon turned when he refused to be her political puppet and instead embarked on a series of reforms meant to strengthen Poland their relationship deteriorated soon enough Ponyo Tomsky relinquished the throne and Russia led a campaign to dissolve the newly formed polish Lithuanian Commonwealth number four her reputation Catherine the Great saw her partners as useful tools for carrying out and maintaining her own power over the year she took many lovers including several much younger men earning her a reputation for having an alleged voracious sexual appetite but many if not most historians believe that her relationship centered less around sex than they did around politics besides sergey sall t-cog and stanislav Poniatowski catherine the great eventually had an affair with a man named Grigory Orlov and gave birth to his child while she was still married to Peter the third Orlov also played a key role in Catherine's rise to power by participating in the coup against her husband when Orlov left court in August 1772 she took on yet another lover Alexander vasilchikov only to replace them two years later with a man named Grigory Potemkin who remained one of her favorite consorts four years after their relationship ended Catherine had at least seven more relationships with various men between 1776 and her death in 1796 one thumb attic element among most of them is that they seem to serve her political gain in one way or another some believe that the popular notion that Catherine the Great was hyper sexual points towards a more general tendency for people to target powerful women with vicious rumors Cleopatra and Anne Boleyn are just two such women with both falling victim to gossip about their alleged sexual deviance no matter what catherine did gossip followed her wherever she went but she did manage to keep her head number three the enlightened ruler Catherine the Great is considered to be among Europe's most enlightened leaders and she enthusiastically supported the ideals of the Enlightenment through the arts and education while she still had to maintain control since she didn't want a revolution she believes strongly in educational reform and wrote various pamphlets books and other materials geared toward improving education in Russia under her reign Russia continued its expansionist policy begun under Peter the Great not her and kept the military happy she was also a strong proponent of the arts who regularly corresponded with great minds of the era including Voltaire tried her hand at composing opera and amassed one of the world's most extensive art collections which is now kept at the Hermitage Museum inside the Winter Palace in st. Petersburg she also founded the first state financed Higher Education Institute for women in not only Russia but in Europe another progressive but controversial move Catherine made was in her decision to have a British doctor inoculate her in her son pavel against smallpox when their inoculations proved successful she sought to have people throughout her empire immunized as well in her words 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 around 2 million people roughly 6% of the population throughout the Russian Empire were inoculated against smallpox by the year 1800 four years after her death number two her demise scandal naturally followed catherine the great's given her lustful reputation and the rumors flew even after her last days on earth she passed away at age 67 on November 17th 1796 after ruling over Russia for over three decades and her enemies wasted no time spreading gossip immediately thereafter included among the rumors were claims that Catherine spent her final moments on the toilet while others said that she lost her life during an inappropriate act with an animal possibly a horse these are merely myths much to the dismay of her enemies catherine the great's demise was rather uneventful and consisted of her passing away in bed the day after having a stroke Catherine was succeeded by her son Paul the first who she had sometimes claimed was Peter the third son but who historians believed was most likely fathered by Sergei saltykov but Paul's reign was short lived in 1801 less than five years after taking the throne he was assassinated Russia's legacy of economic disparity would continue for over another century until the seemingly ever widening gap between serfdom and the nobility came to a boiling point in 1914 culminating into the Russian Revolution number one mother son tensions allegis mentions catherine the great's eldest son paul the first met the same fate as Peter the third when he was assassinated in 1801 while Paul and Catherine were still alive their relationship was notoriously tempestuous this may be partially due to the fact that Paul was removed from Catherine's care shortly after he was born Serena Elizabeth had him taken away to be raised by others so they never formed a strong bond and when they met it was as if they were strangers Paul's mother purposely kept him at a distance from the throne and state affairs out of fear of retribution for his alleged father Peter the thirds death this deliberate alienation led to further tensions until at some point their relationship all but deteriorated completely things got so bad Paul occasionally even suspected Catherine of plotting his murder although she never harbored such plans I think but Catherine did worry that Paul was too incompetent to inherit the throne and be an effective ruler and never considered him for the role as her successor she also controlled the upbringing of Paul's sons much like Elizabeth had done before her rumors swirled that Catherine planned to bypass Paul and name her grandchildren as her heirs some historians believe that she died before she could do this but that she had every intention in doing so Paul confiscated his mother's will before it could be made public out of this exact fear his son Alexander did not combat his father succession to the throne despite an awareness of his grandmother's plans just as Catherine had feared Paul proved to be an erratic and ineffective ruler historians still debate Catherine's status whether as a regent or as a usurper but at any rate unlike many others of her time she managed to reign until her death thanks for watching what other influential historical figures would you like to learn more about let me know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe if you haven't already see you next time bye

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Views: 21,412

Rating: 4.8425584 out of 5

Keywords: origins explained, james portnow, daniel floyd, history, documentary, learn, lesson, study, educational, history lesson, world history, extra credits history, russian history, russia, catherine the great, katerina, catherine ii, catherine ii of russia, sophie, anhalt zerbst dornburg, peter iii, johanna, frederick the great, prussia, betrothal, education, peter of holstein-gottorp, frederick ii, bestuzhev, empress elizabeth, elizabeth of russia, holstein-gottorp, early years

Id: BpAqlX7dUNQ

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020