Catherine the Great

Of the three celebrated 'Philosophic Despots' of the eightteenth century Catherine the Great could boast of the most astonishing career. The proud title conferred by the Ligne has been ratified by history. Frederick the Great was a Prussian, building on the granite foundations laid by the Great Elector and Frederick William I. The Emperor Joseph II was an Austrian, carefully groomed for the proudest throne on the Continent. Catherine was a member of one of the most insignificant of the petty German states which peppered the plains of Central Europe between the Baltic and the Alps when Germany was merely a geographical expression. Knowing nothing of Russia nor of the Russian tongue till she was summoned across the frontier in her fifteenth year as a mere pawn on the dynastic chessboard, she turned her back for ever on the country of her birth and identified herself heart and mind with her new home.

The rising Slavonic power which had been put on the map by Peter the Great had fallen from its high estate during the puny generation which followed his death. 'I found the French crown lying in the mud,' declared Napoleon, 'and I placed it on my head.' Catherine might have made a similar claim. It was her achievement to restore the prestige of Russia and the authority of the Crown, to enlarge her dominions, to make her voice heard in the councils of Europe - in a word, to win for her empire the place among the Great Powers which since her day has never been lost. It was not in the material sphere alone that she left the imprint of her arresting personality.

Thee rots and distortions of the favourite sister of Frederick the Great were exposed by Ranke and Droysen, the latter roughly dismissing her testimony as without historical value. No historian has treated the Memoirs of Catherine with such disdain, partly because they form our main authority for her early life, and partly because they provide a fascinating revelation of the personality of the only woman ruler who surpassed Elizabeth in sheer ability and equalled her in the enduring significance of her work.

If the reign of the Virgin Queen forms the most glorious chapter in English history, few students will quarrel with the verdict of Waliszewski, the most popular of Catherine's biographers, that Russia today is largely what she made it. None of her ministers or favourites, not even Potemkin, enjoyed so much influence as Burleigh possessed over Elizabeth.

Catherine, as she was renamed after exchanging the Lutheran for the Orthodox faith, found no moral support in her ambitious mother, who cared for little except money and was detested by the Tsarina and Peter. Her trials were rendered bearable only by the dream of power, and the frequent illnesses of the dissolute ruler made the prospect something more than wishful thinking. Her task was to keep on good terms with the Empress by never thwarting her will, and to gain as much influence as possible over the husband she despised. No young foreign bride ever played her hand with more consummate ability. The Tsarina was as kind to her as she could be to anyone, while the pitiful Peter quickly recognised the outstanding gifts of his girl wife and saluted her as Mme Ressource. 'I noticed he was very young,' she records. 'I held my tongue and listened, which gained his confidence. He said he was glad we were cousins, so he could talk freely. He told me he was in love with a lady of the Empress and wished to marry her, but he had resigned himself to our marriage at the wish of his aunt.' Rigorously excluded from affairs of State, he amused himself with childish frivolities, while Catherine worked hard at the Russian language, played the piano, learned to ride and read omnivorously, keeping her mouth shut and her eyes open. Her mother excited such universal dislike that one day she was told to go home. It was a passing storm, for the ruler knew that she would soon be rid of her disagreeable guest and she was well satisfied with the prospective bride. Catherine's comment forms the most revealing sentence in the Memoirs.