In the 18th century, Germany
was divided; it included many states, each with its own ruler.
In the north of the country was the small principality of Anhalt.
In 1727 Christian August married a princess called Johanna Elizabeth;
she was also from another northern state of Holstein.
On 27 April 1729, the couple gave birth to their first child.
Christened Sophia Augusta, but a name she would only hold for just 15 years
before her new life would begin in foreign lands.
A life of many ups and downs, conspiracies, war and lovers!
So now we'll now look at one of the most influential rulers
in Russian history, Catherine the Great.
Sophia would be tutored
by a Huguenot refugee named Babette from around the age of six.
She would give lessons in essential education,
although she also taught Sophia to read and write in French and German.
Other skills developed, including dance and, as with all youngsters of the time,
religion played a large part, with Lutheran priests setting the trend.
Sophia was a spirited child; she gave glimpses of high intelligence.
All of which were good signs.
When she reached the age of seven, Sophia became ill;
she'd had severe coughing fits, which developed into a chest infection,
leading to her being in bed for several weeks.
When the fever cleared, and she was able to get up and move around,
it was found that her upper body and spine had become misshaped.
For the next four years, Sophia had to wear a brace
to try and correct the damage.
Yet with all this, Sophia continued to be bright and happy;
nothing would stop this young lady from future adventures.
By 1744 the world began to open up.
Elizabeth of Russia began a search for her nephew and heir, Peter.
After consideration she eventually decided upon Sophia this new little princess;
its thought sentiment was the basis for the approval.
Elizabeth had once been engaged to the girl's uncle,
who unfortunately died before their wedding.
Sophia and her mother set
out for Russian lands, with St Petersburg being their destination.
The journey was arduous and cold to the extreme.
Still, once over the border, they were well looked after,
gaining much warmer clothing and a sledge carriage
that would take them to Moscow to meet Elizabeth and the miserable Peter.
Yet Sophia's life changed from this point on, and now she would be surrounded
with luxurious splendour for the rest of her days.
Sophia was instructed
into the Russian orthodox faith and renamed as Catherine.
The wedding went ahead in the summer of 1745.
it was now clear to see that Catherine would shed all her previous German
upbringing and begin to consider herself a true Russian citizen.
Catherine's attitudes were changing, and she loved this new life,
although tired of her mother and more so her new husband.
It was a sigh of relief when her mother eventually
left court, under a cloud of suspicion that she may have been acting as an agent
to the king of Prussia and had conspired with the French ambassador.
But her husband was the single person she hated most,
it was a complete mismatch of a marriage.
Peter was neurotic and childlike, and he had more interest in his toy
soldiers, which in his eyes were far more amusing than Catherine.
Yet Catherine remained ambitious and clearheaded, always striving to improve.
These initial problems didn't go away.
Seven years after the marriage, the couple still had no heir,
and rumours began to grow.
Did Peter have some disability which rendered him impotent?
Catherine was not going to hang around to wait and see,
and she started to take lovers.
Eventually, Catherine gave birth to a boy named Paul.
Although the court accepted he was Peters son, Catherine years later
suggested that one of her lovers, Sergei Saltykov was, in fact, the father.
Yet, Paul would resemble Peter in so many ways in his temperament and interest.
Peter's sexual impediment
was said to be cured, and he began to grow an appetite, for love and romance.
Catherine, in the meantime, ignored him and continued her search for more lovers.
Next up was one Grigory Orlov;
they would remain together for 12 years.
However, he didn't have total exclusivity to her bed.
In 1762, Elizabeth died; Catherine
was at the time carrying Orlov's child.
He was born in the spring of that year and brought up at court.
Catherine went on to have a further two children with Orlov, both daughters
who a wealthy woman in St Petersburg brought up as her nieces.
Catherine was unhappy that Peter had now become emperor after his mother's death.
She obsessed with destroying Prussian power,
whereas Peter was a passionate admirer of Frederick
the Great, to the point he withdrew the Russian army from the battlefront.
Then drew up a peace treaty with Prussia to further aggravate
his wife, allowing them all their lands back.
Catherine was by now a true Russian, while her
German husband showed contempt for the country.
She'd now seen enough, and would gather support from her lover
Grigory and attempt to conspire against her husband.
Peter stressed out by all this eventually proposed divorcing
Catherine to marry his mistress, Countess Elizabeth Vorontsova.
It was even suggested that the 7-year-old Paul should replace him with Catherine
as regent, but this was refused, and now Catherine began her action.
The couple had to sort out their differences
it seemed a confrontation was the only way forward, Catherine wanted out,
primarily as Peter had managed to insult his wife
throughout their 17-year marriage.
Peter signed an act of abdication and moved to his estate at Ropsha;
a week later, Catherine heard the news that he was dead.
The full facts of his demise are unclear, but it was suggested he was either choked
or beaten to death.
Catherine travelled to Moscow later that year in preparation for her coronation.
But it was not without controversy.
Many Russians believed the young Czar Ivan VI who had been in prison
since an early age, should be the rightful ruler,
but news came that a prison guard had killed him
when a group appeared to be trying to set him free.
Although eventually, Catherine was triumphant, and her reign began.
She immediately set about making changes, she planned to modify the treasury
plus preserve relations with Russia's traditional allies.
And she forced one of her lovers, Poniatowski, to take the throne of Poland,
something he begged not to happen, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Although out of sight and mind right now,
he would play a role in the coming years.
By 1767 Catherine was still planning the future of Russia.
She required changes in law and constitution,
but the powers that be found her all mantra to be unpalatable.
And the debate just dragged on for months.
The following year war with Turkey loomed, and Catherine prorogued her commission,
entirely disillusioned by their action to stall any further progress of her orders.
War came and went, but Moscow was also under
a deadly threat from the plague that swept through the city.
To further complicate matters, a rebellion
broke out in 1773 led by Emilian Pugachev.
He was a former officer
who had gathered support and proclaimed himself to be Peter III.
He had escaped initially before Catherine's weary troops could catch him.
Yet Pugachev was resilient and quite cocky,
although his next move would be his last.
He had caused widespread destruction, burning houses and killing landowners.
Catherine hunted him down to be beheaded in public.
Catherine had never been very close to her son Paul.
By 1762, the boy was old enough to know what had happened to his father.
But this always cast a shadow over the two throughout the years.
However, Catherine
allowed him to choose his own bride; unfortunately for Paul, his bride;
unfortunately for Paul, his bride Nathalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, died in childbirth.
It was all regrettable, and although mother and son were at one at the time,
diplomats knew this would not last.
In 1777 Catherine had
chosen a second wife for Paul, Maria Feodorovna.
Joy, at last Catherine, became a grandmother
and then a further child was born just two years later.
Back In 1774 Catherine took a new lover,
although this one was far more important than just the regular affair of the flesh.
This man was as intellectual as herself, and he showed excellent
skills in governing, this was something Catherine desired.
Potemkin was astute and created reforms to stabilise
a rigid bureaucratic system over the coming years.
Catherine doted on him and had several quirky pen names,
including golden pheasant, dearest pigeon, and lion of the jungle.
And although the affair lasted only two years,
Potemkin would stay by her side until he died in 1791.
Catherine had always been a very sexual lady; she was called a harlot,
yet her affairs caused scandal, she once said, "god is my judge,
I do not take them out of looseness, to which I have no inclination.
The fact is my heart would not willingly remain one hour without love."
The empress had ambitious plans for her country.
St Petersburg had grown visually over her time in charge,
palaces and public buildings sprung up, and architecture
now in a neoclassic form was replacing the worn-out baroque style.
But Catherine didn't stop there, and she created an academy
for the daughters of the nobility.
Printing and publishing became the norm to which she would personally contribute.
Her love of writing spilt over into not only her memoirs
but tales, comedies and dramas.
Art was high on her list,
and she had over the years obtained an impressive collection; these
even included works from her favourite correspondents, Voltaire and Diderot.
Potemkin led a stage-managed tour in 1787.
Russia had recently captured Crimea, and it was time to show a semblance
of happiness.
Catherine, accompanied by Joseph II, the Austrian ruler, would tour the area.
Potemkin had created fake villages en route along the Volga,
giving the impression of success and hope in reviving the byzantine empire
in the Balkans.
Turkey was unmoved and
unhappy at this and the threat of war once again in the pipeline.
Austria backed Russia initially but pulled out in 1791
after horrendous losses; Russia held firm until the following year.
The treaty of Jassy was compiled, and Catherine managed
to hold onto the Crimea and a large area of the black sea coast.
But one country that was still dissatisfied with Catherine was Poland.
She had some 20 years earlier placed her lover on the throne.
Austria, Prussia, along with Russia, agreed
that none of them would acquire polish territory to the exclusion of the others.
But in 1772, in what became known as the first partition
Russia claimed almost a third of Polish lands.
Later that year, a further advance with Prussia again claimed more.
The second partition had reduced Poland to less than one third its original size.
With Austria joining, it was inevitable for the poles in the end.
Although Poniatowski remained ruler,
this final partition ended any lasting hopes for the country.
Catherine, who
was now in her early 60's, decided to take her final lover.
He was a young cavalry officer at age 22, Platon Zubov.
Away from her sexually charged meetings, Catherine continued to work;
she once said, "papers, papers, papers."
Her study had nine tables full of them!
There was always one irritation that kept on surfacing
This was her relationship with Paul, her son, who she had little to do with
Although he had always resented his father's death,
he was delighted that his mother at least helped his children with their education
and would even happily play with them on occasion.
But for Catherine, this was quite possibly nothing more than a ruse.
As each year passed by, she felt that her son was becoming more unstable
and not the kind of man who warrants becoming emperor after her reign.
Her favour would fall upon his son Alexander; however, before
this could transpire, Catherine suffered a stroke and died on
17 November 1796.
Even to this day, historians still mull over Catherine.
Was she a great empress or a bad woman?
Or an extraordinary female but a poor sovereign?
I'll leave the last words to Catherine, who said,
"One does not always do the best there is.
One does the best one can."