Catherine the Great

Life and beginnings

Catherine was born Sophie Friederike Auguste, princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, daughter of an obscure German prince. Britannica dates the birth to April 21, 1729, at Stettin in Prussia, May 2 by the New Style, now Szczecin in Poland. At 14 she was chosen as the wife of Karl Ulrich, duke of Holstein, grandson of Peter the Great and later Peter III. She arrived in Russia in 1744, took the name Catherine Alekseyevna, and married the next year. The marriage was a complete failure. The next 18 years were disappointment and humiliation. She read, and she prepared to rule. The guide says a German princess overthrew her husband in 1762 and became empress. The biography is more exact. Empress Elizabeth died on December 25, 1761, January 5, 1762, by the New Style. Peter ended Russia’s part in the Seven Years’ War and made no secret of his contempt for Russia. On June 28, 1762, July 9 by the New Style, Catherine led the regiments that had joined her into St. Petersburg and was proclaimed empress and autocrat in the Kazan Cathedral. Peter III abdicated and was assassinated eight days later. Britannica says she probably did not order the murder, that her supporters committed it, and that public opinion held her responsible. She was crowned in Moscow in September. Wikipedia gives the reign as July 9, 1762, to November 17, 1796, and the coronation as September 22, 1762. The two calendars have to stay beside the dates.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Defining achievements

She meant to make Russia prosperous and to refill the treasury Elizabeth had left empty. In 1762 she secularized the property of the clergy, who owned one-third of the land and serfs. The clergy became state-paid functionaries. In 1764 she made an old lover, Stanisław Poniatowski, king of Poland. In 1767 she called delegates from the provinces and from every social class except the serfs, hoping to learn what people wanted and to frame a constitution. The debates lasted for months and came to nothing. Her Instruction was a draft of a constitution and a law code. It was thought too liberal to publish in France, and it remained a dead letter in Russia. The guide says she established new models of law and governance. The biography records a commission that produced no code and an Instruction that did not take effect.^{[1] [3]}

The Turkish war of 1768 gave her a reason to shift policy toward national grandeur. The naval victory at Çeşme in 1770 brought glory, and the war was not over. Plague broke out in Moscow. In 1773 Yemelyan Pugachev, a former Don Cossack officer, pretended to be the dead Peter III and raised the greatest Russian uprising before 1917. It spread from the Urals through the southeast. In June 1774 his troops prepared to march on Moscow. The Turkish war had ended in a Russian victory, and she sent those troops to crush the revolt. Pugachev was captured and beheaded in 1775. Britannica says she now thought the people were more to be feared than pitied, and that she should tighten their bonds rather than free them.^[1]

Legacy and interpretation

Before she took power she had planned to emancipate the serfs. The economy was about 95 percent agricultural. A serf was the master’s property, and a noble’s fortune was counted in the “souls” he owned. In power she saw that emancipation would not be tolerated by the owners she depended on. She imposed serfdom on Ukrainians who had been free, and she gave crown lands to favorites and ministers, worsening the lot of peasants who had had some autonomy. At the end of the reign scarcely a free peasant remained, and more systematic control left serfs worse off than before her rule. Ninety-five percent of the people did not benefit directly. Their forced labor paid for the economic, military, and cultural projects. The guide presents modernization, law, the arts, and the Russian Enlightenment. Those sponsorships lived at court and in the projects. They were not the serf’s day.^{[1] [3]}

Territory grew as well. The biography’s summary says that with her ministers she reorganized administration and law and added Crimea and much of Poland. The Polish king of 1764 was a weak man of her choosing. Expansion, the Instruction, and serfdom are three faces of one reign. Art patronage alone does not hold them. No Russian civilization essay is published. This one does not stand in for that missing history.^[1]

A closer look

Her death collected court rumors. Britannica says that, contrary to a popular story, she did not die on the toilet. She suffered a stroke in the bathroom and died the next day, November 6, 1796, November 17 by the New Style. A nastier rumor involved a horse. The stories came from enemies at court. A game does not need them. A biography does need the stroke’s next day kept apart from the joke.^[1]

The guide names the agenda Dusha and changes relationships by who holds the most or the fewest great works, and only if she herself has one. Britannica does not measure her reign by a soul or by a count of masterpieces. It records the coup, the Instruction, Pugachev, and the serfs. Great works are a game rule. They do not replace an Instruction that never became law.^{[1] [3]}

In Civilization VII

The official guide names the ability Star of the North and the agenda Dusha. The ability concerns culture on displayed great works, an extra great-work slot, and science in cities settled on tundra. Those are game effects. They are not the clauses of the 1767 Instruction, and they are not the serf laws. The guide does not list a second persona. This essay treats her as one leader entry. The simplified Chinese guide titles the page as Catherine the Great and names the same slots in its own words. The short title of this essay stays Catherine the Great in English and does not treat “the Great” as a checked verdict.^{[3] [4]}

The accessed guide does not identify an edition. The codex publishes the essay with that gap visible. The published Russia essay is the longer empire, not her reign rewritten as the whole state. The first step back to 1762 is still to keep the coronation, the Instruction that failed, and the tightened serfdom on the same empress, rather than to leave only the Star of the North.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}