Catherine the Great was German by birth; she came to
Russia to be the arranged bride of her cousin Peter who had been selected by childless
Empress Elizabeth of Russia to be her successor. Catherine converted to the Russian
Orthodox Church and she and Peter were married, but it was not a fulfilling union and
the children she eventually bore were almost certainly not fathered by
Peter.
When Peter proved to be an inept ruler, Catherine
used the support of her Russian lover's family, the Church, and the military to lead a
bloodless coup that forced Peter to abdicate the throne to Catherine. She justified the
move as being what the people wished and as allowing her to reestablish the authority of
the Russian Orthodox Church.
As Empress, Catherine worked
hard to open up Russia to new relationships with western European countries, which she
recognized were innovating and developing new practices in trade and government that
would benefit her country. She rewrote much of the legal and social structure of Russia
and gave new standing to the upper classes of Russia's population, but ignored the
plight of the majority of the people who continued to live as serfs. She had to deal
with frequent wars but added to Russia's territory as a result of most
conflicts.
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