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تابع،،،18 - كاثرين العظيمة
Catherine II
also known as Catherine the Great (
Russian
:
Екатерина II Великая,
Yekaterina II Velikaya
;
German
:
Katharina die Große
), Empress of Russia, was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 9 July
[
O.S.
28 June]
1762 until her death on 17 November
[
O.S.
6 November]
1796. She was born in
Stettin
, Pomerania,
Prussia
on 2 May
[
O.S.
21 April]
1729
as
Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg
, and came to power following a
coup d'état
and the assassination of her husband,
Peter III
, at the end of the
Seven Years' War
. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the
great powers
of Europe.
In both her accession to power and in rule of her empire, Catherine often relied on her noble
favourites
, most notably
Grigory Orlov
and
Grigory Potemkin
. Assisted by highly successful
generals
such as
Pyotr Rumyantsev
and
Alexander Suvorov
, and
admirals
such as
Fyodor Ushakov
, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the
Crimean Khanate
was crushed following victories over the
Ottoman Empire
in the
Russo-Turkish wars
, and Russia colonised the vast territories of
Novorossiya
along the coasts of the
Black
and
Azov Seas
. In the west, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king
Stanisław August Poniatowski
, was eventually
partitioned
, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russia
started to colonise
Alaska
, establishing
Russian America
.
Catherine reformed the administration of Russian
guberniyas
, and many
new cities and towns
were founded on her orders. An admirer of
Peter the Great
, Catherine continued to modernize Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on
serfdom
, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of exploitation of serfs. This was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale
Pugachev's Rebellion
of
cossacks
and
peasants
.
The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the
Catherinian Era
, is often considered the
Golden Age
of the
Russian Empire
and the
Russian nobility
. The
Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility
, issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the
classical
style endorsed by the Empress, changed the face of the country. A notable example of
enlightened despot
, a correspondent of
Voltaire
and an
amateur opera librettist
, Catherine presided over the age of the
Russian Enlightenment
, when the
Smolny Institute
, the first state-financed higher education
institution for women
in Europe, was established.
Early life
Catherine's father
Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
belonged to the
ruling family
of
Anhalt
, but held the rank of a
Prussian
general in his capacity as Governor of the city of Stettin (now
[update]
Szczecin
, Poland).
والدها
Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (
Dornburg
, 29 November 1690 –
Zerbst
, 16 March 1747
) was a
German
prince of the
House of Ascania
. He was a ruler of the Principality of
Anhalt-Dornburg
, then, from 1742, a ruler of the entire
Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst
. He was also a
Prussian
Generalfeldmarschall
, but is best known for being the father of
Catherine the Great of Russia
.
Born as Sophia Augusta Fredericka (
German
:
Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg
, nicknamed "Figchen") in
Stettin
,
Pomerania
, two of her first cousins became
Kings of Sweden
:
Gustav III
and
Charles XIII
. In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors. Catherine's childhood was quite uneventful. She herself once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm: "I see nothing of interest in it."
[1]
Although Catherine was born a princess,
her family had very little money
. Catherine was to come to power based on her mother's relations to wealthy members of royalty.
The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective
tsar
Peter of Holstein-Gottorp
, resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which
Count Lestocq
, Peter's aunt (the ruling Russian Empress
Elizabeth
), and
Frederick II of Prussia
took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in order to weaken
Austria
's influence and ruin the Russian chancellor
Bestuzhev
, on whom Empress
Elizabeth
relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation. Catherine first met Peter III at the tender age of ten. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him. She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness of alcohol at such a young age.
The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia's mother,
Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
.
Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues
. Johanna's hunger for fame centered on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for
King Frederick of Prussia
. The empress knew the family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother
Charles Augustus
(Karl August von Holstein), who had died of
smallpox
in 1727 before the wedding could take place. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the
Russian people
. She applied herself to learning the
Russian language
with such zeal that she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe attack of
pneumonia
in March 1744. When she wrote her
memoirs
, she said she made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.
Princess Sophia's father, a devout German
Lutheran
, opposed his daughter's conversion to
Eastern Orthodoxy
. Despite his objection, on 28 June 1744 the
Russian Orthodox Church
received Princess Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (
Yekaterina
or
Ekaterina
) and the (artificial)
patronymic
Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned
dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at
Saint Petersburg
. Sophia had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The bridegroom, known
then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp
(located in the north-west of present-day
[update]
Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.
As she recalls herself in her memoirs, as soon as
she arrived in Russia she fell ill with a
pleuritis
which almost killed her.
She says she owes her survival to frequent
bloodletting
; in one single day she had four phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress' disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran priest; she however, awaking from her
delirium
, said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my orthodox father." This raised her in the empress' estimation.
The newlyweds settled in the palace of
Oranienbaum
, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.
Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist
James Boswell
well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs. Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (
Elizabeth Vorontsova
), while Catherine carried on liaisons with
Sergei Saltykov
,
Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
(1734–1783),
Stanisław August Poniatowski
,
Alexander Vasilchikov
, and others. She became friends with Princess
Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband. Peter III's temperament became quite unbearable for those who resided in the palace. He would announce trying drills in the morning to male servants who would later join Catherine in her room to sing and dance until late hours.
[5]
Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna,who would only live to be four months old, in 1759. Due to various rumors of Catherine's promiscuity, Peter was led to believe that he was not the child's biological father and is known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!" when Catherine angrily dismissed his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her own private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive persona and his disapproved war tactics.
[6]
Of the period before her accession to the Russian throne, Catherine said: "Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: if you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything.'
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