Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/245

] eccentric czar in his violent and extravagant moods, and above all capable of sympathizing with him, and assisting him in his great schemes, though she could neither read nor write.  CATHERINE II., empress of Russia, was born at Stettin in 1729 ; by the dethronement of her husband Peter III., and the exclusion of her son, she ascended the Russian throne in 1762, and occupied it till her death in 179G. Her father, who was prince of Anhalt-Zerbst in Upper Saxony, served in the Prussian army. Her mother, a peevish, hard-tempered, and pedantic German of the old school, gave her a severe education, which, however, did not crush but strengthen the masculine temper of her daughter. The Empress Elizabeth, having selected her nephew Peter, the duke of Holstein Gottorp, as her successor on the throne, had requested a sister of Frederick of Prussia to be the wife of the future emperor. But aware of the extraordinary manners then prevalent at the Russian court, Frederick shrunk from the proposal and suggested the princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. Proposals being made in that quarter and thankfully accepted, the princess, whose original name was Sophia Augusta, was conducted to Russia by her mother in 1744 ; after soma preliminary religious instruction she received the name of Catherine, and was admitted into the Greek Church, and was at length in 1745 with due splendour married to Peter, who was only a year older than herself. The marriage proved an unhappy and ill-assorted one. While Catherine grew up to be a handsome, strong-minded, and ambitious lady, Peter passed his life apparently on the very borders of idiocy. Though not destitute of generous and even noble impulses, he was silly, wayward, and extravagant. Excluded from all serious employment, and indeed incapable of it, he spent his time in drilling a troop of dogs that he kept in a kennel adjoining his wife s sleeping apartments, executed martial law on the rats he used to train to the same military functions, and felt very angry when Catherine ventured to laugh at the extravagance of his proceedings. From early boyhood he had been habituated to strong drink, and, as he grew up, he vas intoxicated every day. He insisted, too, on making his own wife his confidante in the ceaseless love intrigues he carried on with the ladies of the court. Such was the husband to whom the poor girl of fifteen was married, and the man who was to have uncontrolled pov/er over a vast empire. For a long time Catherine did her best to induce him to act in a reasonable way, but with little success. His wild and drunken habits continued, and, from mere caprice as much as anything else, he became more and more alienated from her. Though Catherine was thus severely tried during those early years of her married life, the natural firmness of her character bore her through, and her great acute- ness and adroitness soon enabled her to gain firm footing in the court. She set herself resolutely to learn the Russian language, and soon acquired a perfect mastery of it. She made herself thoroughly acquainted with the history, manners, and institutions of the country, and identified herself completely with the people around her, so that she became a thorough Russian in character and sympathies, and, when occasion required, knew how to move the Russian heart. The best foreign culture of her time, too, she made thoroughly her own, being an assiduous reader of French literature during the long inactive hours of her youth. Voltaire and the other philosophes of the 18th century were her favourite authors ; she professed to be a disciple of the new humanity they preached, expressed the highest reverence for them, and corresponded with some of them in after-life. In this way, while her husband wasted his life in every kind of grotesque extravagance, Catherine was engaged in cultivating her mind, and in learning to understand her strange surroundings. Indeed the Russian court of that era was nearly as extraordinary as her husband. Since the death of Peter the Great (1725) the crown had been again and again a plaything in the hands of intriguing courtiers, mostly of German origin. To accomplish a revolution, to pull down one ruler and set up another, and despatch the leaders of an opposing faction to Siberia, it was necessary only to gain over a few of the guards. In such a way had Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, won the crown in 1741. She had some natural capacity for com mand, but lived in the utmost licence, in which she was only too perfectly imitated by the court. Placed in such a position as this, Catherine had a difficult part to play, and required for it all the deftness and insight of her nature. But she succeeded. She gradually acquired a considerable influence over the mind of Elizabeth, who admired her cleverness and beauty. The courtiers of both sexes learned to respect her. Even Peter came to recognize the superiority of her understanding, and though he never liked her, used to ask her advice in his many perplexities. But she did not escape the contagion of the court. In accordance with the prevailing custom, she became involved in one love intrigue after another. Consequently, when children were at length born of her (Paul, the eldest, in 1753), their paternity was matter of serious doubt. In this way she lived till the beginning of 1762, when the death of Elizabeth opened the way to a very different career. The poor, half-imbecile Peter was now called on to leave his silly employments, and undertake the govern ment of the most extensive empire in the world. All the schemes he embarked in were marked by a wild generosity and sense of justice ; but, unhappily, in almost every one he managed to give deadly offence to the susceptible national spirit of Russia. Being a devoted admirer of the great Frederick, he gave back with impetuous haste all the advantages won in the Seven Years War, sent home all the Prussian prisoners, restored the provinces torn from Prussia, and concluded peace and then an offensive and defensive alliance with his hero. Himself a Lutheran in his early years, he made little account of the religious etiquette of the Russian court, and still further alarmed the clergy by threatening to lay hands on the property of the church, while he grievously offended the soldiery by introducing the Prussian uniform and the severe Prussian drill. The ambition of Catherine would probably have been satisfied with the prospect of governing Russia through her husband, but he was too wayward a person to be an obedient instrument; and he soon publicly insulted her beyond forgiveness by compelling her to decorate his mistress, the Countess Woronzoff, with the order of St Catherine. This and other matters, and the growing alienation of a long and distasteful married life, brought on a crisis. It became clear that they could not live together ; and Catherine began to adopt precautionary measures in self-defence. She had little difficulty in doing so most effectively. The Orloffs, influential persons in the Russian guards, were devoted to her ; the eldest, Gregory, was her lover. Those men, with the help of the Princess Dashkoff, Count Panin (the tutor of her son Paul), and others, planned the overthrow of Peter. Early on the morning of the 9th July (1762), Catherine was awakened at the palace of Peterhof by Alexis Orloff with the injunction to act immediately ; they had been betrayed. Accordingly, she set out for the capital, and finding Gregory Orloff on the spot, appealed to the guards, who were easily induced to raise the standard of revolt. In the church, the priests anointed her regent in the name of her son, while, outside, the Orloffs had her proclaimed empress in her own right. After that, going in procession through the streets she was joyously saluted empress of 