Catherine the Great

Date

1729–1796

Description

City of birth: Szczecin
Country of birth: Poland
Field of activity: Politics — regal governance

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Quotes

‘A Flood of ideas, each more unpleasant and sadder than the next, arose in my mind. With a dagger in my heart, so to speak, I got dressed and went to Mass.’

Author

Catherine the Great

Speaker

Catherine the Great

Title of the publication

Memoirs of Catherine the Great

Other contributors

Mark Cruise and Hilde Hoogenboom, translators

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Random House

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

2006

Location [pp. or web]

Preface, p. xi

Original language

English

Genre

Book

Context

Catherine the Great comments on the arrest and exile of her ally, Chancellor Count Alexei Bestuzhev-Riumin (1693–1767), who was in charge of foreign affairs.

‘I would like to feel fear, but I cannot; the invisible hand that has guided me for thirteen years along a very rough road will never allow me to falter, or that I am very firmly and perhaps foolishly convinced. If only you knew of all the perils and misfortunes that have threatened me, and that I have overcome. You will have a little more faith in argument that are too hollow for someone who reasons as solidly as you.’

Author

Catherine the Great

Speaker

Catherine the Great

Title of the publication

Memoirs of Catherine the Great

Other contributors

Mark Cruise and Hilde Hoogenboom, translators

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Random House

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

2006

Location [pp. or web]

Preface, p. x

Original language

English

Genre

Book

Context

A letter to the British Ambassador, her friend and mentor Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams (1709–1759).

‘The Grand Duke appeared to rejoice at the arrival of my mother and myself. I was in my fifteenth year. During the first ten days he paid me much attention. Even then and in that short time, I saw and understood that he did not care much for the nation that he was destined to rule, and that he clung to Lutheranism, did not like his entourage, and was very childish. I remained silent and listened, and this gained me his trust. I remember him telling me that among other things, what pleased him most about me was that I was his second cousin, and that because I was related to him, he could speak to me with an open heart. Then he told me that he was in love with one of the Empress’s maids of honor, who had been dismissed from court because of the misfortune of her mother, one Madame Lopukhina, who had been exiled to Siberia, that he would have liked to marry her, but that he was resigned to marry me because his aunt desired it. I listened with a blush to these family confidences, thanking him for his ready trust, but deep in my heart I was astonished by his imprudence and lack of judgment in many matters.’

Author

Catherine the Great

Speaker

Catherine the Great

Title of the publication

Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II

Other contributors

A. Herzen, author of the Preface

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

D. Appleton and Company

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

1859

Location [pp. or web]

pp. 9-10

Original language

French

Genre

Book

Context

Catherine married Peter III (the Grand Duke) in 1745 at 16 years of age. She came to power following a coup d’état that she organized resulting in Peter III, being overthrown.

‘For to tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited. Flight alone is, perhaps, the only remedy; but there are cases and circumstances in which flight becomes impossible, for how is it possible to fly, shun, or turn one's back in the midst of a court? The very attempt would give rise to remarks. Now, if you do not fly, there is nothing, it seems to me, so difficult as to escape from that which is essentially agreeable. All that can be said in opposition to it will appear but a prudery quite out of harmony with the natural instincts of the human heart; besides, no one holds his heart in his hand, tightening or relaxing his grasp of it at pleasure.’

Author

Catherine the Great

Speaker

Catherine the Great

Title of the publication

Catherine the Great: Life and Legend

Other contributors

John T. Alexander, author

Publisher (or journal name with vol. and number)

Oxford University Press

City of publication

New York

Country of publication (modern nation-state equivalent)

United States of America

Publication date

1989

Location [pp. or web]

p. 203

Original language

French

Genre

Book

Context

In reflecting on her early years at the Russian court under the flirtatious Empress Elizabeth, Catherine offered a candid assessment of her own contribution of temptation and romantic intrigue.