Catharine II., Empress of Russia, was born at Stettin in 1729. Her father, the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, was a Prussian field-marshal, and governor of Stettin. She received the name of Sophia Augusta; but the Empress Elizabeth of Russia having selected her for the wife of her nephew and intended successor, Peter, she passed from the Lutheran to the Greek Church, and took (like the Empress Catharine I.) the name of Catharina Alexievna. In 1745 her marriage took place. She soon quarrelled with her husband, and both of them lived a life of unrestrained vice. Among his attendants was a Count Soltikoff, with whom her intimacy soon became scandalous; and Soltikoff was sent on an embassy abroad. But the young Polish count, Stanislaus Poniatowski, almost immediately supplied his place. After the death of the Empress Elizabeth in 1761, Peter III. ascended the Russian throne; but the conjugal differences became continually wider. Catharine was banished to a separate abode; and the emperor seemed to entertain the design of divorcing her, declaring her only son, Paul, illegitimate, and marrying his mistress, Elizabeth Woronzoff. The popular dislike to Peter, however, rapidly increased; and at length, he being dethroned by a conspiracy, Catharine was made empress. A few days afterwards Peter was murdered (July 1762). What participation his wife had in his murder has never been well ascertained.
Catharine now exerted herself to please the people, and among other things, made a great show of regard for the outward forms of the Greek Church, although her principles were, in reality, those prevalent among the French philosophers of the 18th century. The government of the country was carried on with great energy; and her reign was remarkable for the rapid increase of the dominions and power of Russia. Not long after her accession to the throne her influence secured the election of her former favourite, Stanislaus Poniatowski, to the throne of Poland. In her own empire, however, discontentment was seriously manifested, the hopes of the disaffected being centred in the young prince Ivan, who was forthwith murdered in the castle of Schlüsselburg. From that time the internal politics of Russia consisted chiefly of court intrigues for the humiliation of one favourite and the exaltation of another. The revolt of the Cossack Pngatcheff in 1773, though for a time it looked serious, only served to fortify her throne. The first partition of Poland in 1772, and the Turkish war which terminated in the peace of Kainardji in 1774, vastly increased the empire. In 1787 she made a progress in her southern provinces through flourishing towns, villages, and festive scenes; but the whole was a sham, having been got up for the occasion by Potemkin to impress Catharine with the prosperity of her empire. The Turkish war which terminated in the peace of Jassy in 1792 had similar results, and also the war with Sweden, which terminated in 1790. The second and third partitions of Poland, and the incorporation of Courland with Russia, completed the triumphs of Catharine's reign. She also began a war with Persia, and cherished a scheme for the overthrow of the British power in India; but a stroke of apoplexy cut her off, 17th November 1796.
She was a woman of great ability, but she had in a large measure the vices of the time and station in which she lived. Her gallantries were both liberal and systematic. She always had a paramour who dwelt in her palace, and might be regarded as filling an acknowledged office of state, with large revenues and fixed privileges. Of these Potemkin (q.v.) is best remembered. Yet distinguished authors flattered her; and she invited to her court some of the literati and philosophers of France. She professed the desire to model her rule on the enlightened theories of these men, and she did effect some real improvements; but the French revolution made her reactionary. See RUSSIA; Catharine's own Memoirs (Eng. trans. 1859); Carlyle's Friedrich; and works by Waliszewski (trans. 1893 and 1894).