In the early 1700s, Peter the Great's reforms put Russia on the path to becoming a great
European power.
But it was his grandson's German wife, Catherine, who deposed her husband to become Empress
of Russia, who oversaw the completion of that transformation.
Like Peter, she too would be remembered as 'the Great'.
Catherine was a student and admirer of the French Enlightenment, and even corresponded
with the French philosopher Voltaire.
She reigned as an 'enlightened autocrat' – her power was unchecked, but she pursued ideals
of reason, tolerance and progress:
Catherine became a great patron of the arts, and learning.
Schools and colleges were built, the Bolshoi theatre was founded, as well as the Imperial
Academy of Fine Arts, while her own magnificent collection of artwork now forms the basis
of the world-famous Hermitage museum.
Catherine encouraged Europeans to move to Russia to share their expertise, and helped
German migrants to settle in the Volga region, where they became known as 'Volga Germans'.
Their communities survived nearly 200 years, until on Stalin's orders, they were deported
east at the start of World War 2.
Catherine's reign also saw enormous territorial expansion.
In the south, Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire, winning new lands, and the fortresses
of Azov and Kerch.
But then Catherine faced a major peasant revolt led by the renegade cossack Yemelyan Pugachev.
The rebels took many fortresses and towns, and stormed the city of Kazan, before they
were finally defeated by the Russian army.
Catherine then forcibly incorporated the Zaporozhian Cossacks into the Russian Empire, and annexed
the Crimean Khanate – a thorn in Russia's side for 300 years.
Russia's new lands in the south were named Novorossiya - 'New Russia'.
Sparsely populated, they were settled by Russian colonists under the supervision of Prince
Potemkin, Catherine's advisor and lover.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, exhausted by war and at the mercy of its neighbours,
was carved up in a series of partitions, with Russia taking the lion's share.
Poland did not re-emerge as an independent nation until 1918.
Russia inherited a large Jewish population from Poland, who, Catherine decreed, could
live only in the so-called 'Pale of Settlement', and were excluded from most cities.
In France, the French Revolution led to the execution of King Louis XVI.
Catherine was horrified, and in the last years of her reign, completely turned her back on
the liberal idealism of her youth.
Three years later, Catherine died, ending one of the most glorious reigns in Russian
history.
She was succeeded by her son, Paul, a man obsessed by military discipline and detail,
and opposed to all his mother's works.
Russia joined the coalition of European powers fighting Revolutionary France.
Marshal Suvorov, one of Russia's greatest military commanders, won a series of victories
against the French in Northern Italy, but the wider war was a failure.
Meanwhile, Paul's reforms had alienated Russia's army and nobility, and he was murdered in
a palace coup.
He was succeeded by his 23 year old son Alexander, who shared his grandmother Catherine's vision
for a more modern Russian state.
His advisor, the brilliant Count Mikhail Speranksy, reformed administration and finance, yet the
Emperor refused to back his plans for a liberal constitution.
Ultimately, it was war with France that would dominate Alexander's reign...
France had a new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, who inflicted a series of defeats on Russia
and her allies at Austerlitz, Eylau and Friedland.
But at Tilsit in 1807, the two young emperors met, and made an alliance.
Russia attacked Sweden, annexing Finland, which became an autonomous Grand Duchy within
the Russian Empire.
But then, in 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia.
At Borodino, French and Russian armies clashed in a gigantic battle, one of the bloodiest
of the age.
Napoleon emerged victorious, but the Russian army escaped intact.
Napoleon occupied Moscow, which was destroyed by fire.
And when Alexander refused to negotiate, the French army was forced to make a long retreat
through the Russian winter, and was annihilated.
Napoleon had been dealt a mortal blow.
And Russia, alongside Prussia, Austria and Britain, then led the fight back, which ended
in the capture of Paris and Napoleon's abdication.
At the Congress of Vienna, as part of the spoils of war, Alexander became 'King of Poland'.
Then, with Austria, and Prussia, he formed 'The Holy Alliance', with the aim of preventing
further revolutions in Europe.
Meanwhile, in the Balkans and Caucasus, Russia had been waging intermittent wars against
the Ottoman Empire, Persia and local tribes.
The frontier had been pushed south to incorporate Bessarabia, Circassia, Chechnya, and much
of modern Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
But the peoples of the Caucasus bitterly resisted Russian rule.
Russia's attempt to impose its authority on the region led to the Caucasian War, a brutal
conflict, fought amongst the mountains and forests, that would drag on for nearly 50
years.
Alexander was succeeded by his brother Nicholas, a conservative and reactionary.
But parts of Russian society had now developed an appetite for European-style liberalism
– including certain army officers, who'd seen other ways of doing things during the
Napoleonic Wars.
They saw Nicholas as an obstacle, and the new Emperor's first challenge... would be
military revolt.
Epic History TV relies on the support of its viewers to keep making history videos.
Please visit our Patreon page to find out more.