Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great
By: Max

Castle Catherine the Great was born May 2, 1729 in Prussia (what is now northern Germany). Catherine was born German royalty. When Catherine was fifteen she married an heir to the Russian throne. When her husband, Peter, took the throne Catherine and the army staged a successful palace coup (a coup is when the king or queen is overthrown). A few months later Peter was killed in a brawl. Catherine claimed the throne before her son could, and ruled as queen.

Knight During her reign, Catherine helped westernize the country, promoted the fine Catherine the Great arts and waged successful wars to gain land for the empire. Catherine also helped to make the Imperial Russian Dictionary, helped partition (divide) Poland, and promoted education (especially women’s). Some not so nice things she did were expanding serfdom (serfs were basically slaves), treating serfs brutally, and violently crushing uprisings against the government.

On November 17, 1796 Catherine the Great died. While she was still alive people were already stealing her wealth!

Citations

Web Sites & Other Media

Augusta, Sophie. "Catherine the Great." at <http://members.tripod.com/Codim/rus/cath.html> (January, 2003).

History of St. Petersburg. "The 'Grand City' of Catherine the Great" at <http://www.cityvision2000.com/history/grandcity.htm> (2001-2002).

Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia "Catherine the Great" <http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=7661559802>
(2002).

Images

Image of Catherine the Great from "ArtToday.com" <http://members.clipart.com/en/index> (2003).

Images of knight and castle from "Microsoft Office Design Gallery Live" <http://dgl.microsoft.com/?CAG=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (December-April, 2003).