Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
82 pages • 2-hour read
Robert K. MassieCatherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This part of the guide contains discussions of graphic violence, illness or death, death by suicide, suicide ideation, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, child sex abuse, child death, pregnancy loss or termination, mental illness, gender discrimination, sexual content, animal cruelty or death, and substance use.
Part 4: “The Time Has Come!”
Part 4, Chapter 41 Summary: “Panin, Orlov, and Elizabeth’s Death”
As Elizabeth’s health deteriorated, Catherine considered her uncertain future. Three dissimilar Russians emerged as allies: Count Nikita Panin, a diplomat and Paul’s tutor; Gregory Orlov, a war hero wounded at Zorndorf; and Princess Catherine Dashkova, the intelligent younger sister of Peter’s mistress. Panin wanted Paul placed on the throne with Catherine as regent. Catherine pretended to agree but secretly aimed to rule herself. The five Orlov brothers, all Guards officers, rallied around Catherine. Gregory became her lover in summer 1761, and by August she was pregnant. The 17-year-old Dashkova, educated in Enlightenment philosophy, made Catherine her idol. Catherine carefully kept her allies unaware of one another’s roles in her life.
As Elizabeth weakened, Peter displayed contempt for Russia and support for Prussia. He passed war plans to Frederick, spoke of divorcing Catherine, and planned war against Denmark. The army despised him and the Orlovs promoted Catherine’s cause among the troops. On December 25, 1761, Empress Elizabeth died, and Peter III was proclaimed.
Part 4, Chapter 42 Summary: “The Brief Reign of Peter III”
Peter was blessed by the archbishop, received oaths of allegiance, and celebrated with a banquet in light colors rather than mourning black. Catherine publicly mourned Elizabeth by kneeling in the Kazan Cathedral while Peter mocked Orthodox funeral rites, pacing, laughing, and sticking out his tongue at the priests.
Peter initially followed a moderate path: reducing the salt tax, ending compulsory state service for nobility, abolishing the Secret Chancellery, and permitting religious dissenters to return. He visited the imprisoned Ivan VI at Schlüsselburg and ordered better conditions for him.
However, Peter attacked two pillars of the Russian state. He decreed secularization of church property, ordered removal of icons, and insisted priests shave and wear Protestant cassocks. He reorganized the army on the Prussian model, replaced Russian uniforms with German ones, substituted Holstein troops for the traditional bodyguard, and announced his intention to disband the Imperial Guard.
In foreign policy, Peter caused offense to Russian loyalists: He signed a treaty restoring conquered territory to Prussia, celebrated by toasting Frederick rather than Russian forces, and ordered Russian troops to fight alongside Prussians against former ally Austria. He then prepared for war against Denmark over Holstein. As his army advanced toward Denmark, a coup overthrew him in St. Petersburg.
Part 4, Chapter 43 Summary: “Dura!”
From the beginning of Peter’s reign, Catherine endured public humiliation. At a state banquet celebrating the Prussian alliance, she remained seated during a toast to the imperial family, following protocol. Peter stood and shouted “Dura!” (“fool”) (253) across the room, causing her to burst into tears. That night he ordered her arrested, but was dissuaded by warnings of army backlash. Catherine later wrote this was when she began listening to proposals to depose Peter. On April 11, Catherine secretly gave birth to Gregory Orlov’s son, Alexis Gregorovich.
The Orlovs and Catherine conspired to overthrow Peter, with military support. By mid-June, the conspirators understood the right time was nearing. Count Kyril Razumovsky, colonel of the Izmailovsky Guards, joined their side. On June 27, one of the conspirators, Captain Passek, was arrested and the others realized they had only hours to act. At 5:00 am on June 28, Alexis Orlov awakened Catherine at Mon Plaisir. She dressed and left anonymously in a hired carriage. At the Izmailovsky barracks, soldiers rushed to greet her. The regimental chaplain administered an oath to her as Catherine II. The Izmailovskys escorted Catherine to the Semyonovsky Guards, who also swore allegiance. At the Kazan Cathedral, the archbishop proclaimed her Sovereign Autocrat Catherine II. At the Winter Palace, the Preobrazhensky Guards joined her. Panin arrived with eight-year-old Paul. Princess Dashkova arrived, carried over the soldiers’ heads. The Senate and Holy Synod heard Catherine’s first manifesto.
Catherine was proclaimed a colonel of the Preobrazhensky Guards and borrowed their uniform. A young Horse Guards subaltern, Gregory Potemkin, rode forward to give her a missing sword knot. At 10:00 pm, Catherine, mounted on a white stallion, led 14,000 men out of St. Petersburg, with Dashkova riding beside her.
Peter arrived at Peterhof, found Catherine gone, and sent Chancellor Vorontsov to negotiate. Catherine led Vorontsov onto a balcony and pointed to the cheering crowd. An officer sent by Peter to Kronstadt found the fortress secured for Catherine. Peter retreated to Oranienbaum. He offered to share the throne, then to abdicate if he could go to Holstein with Vorontsova. Catherine demanded his abdication in writing and Peter signed.
Part 4, Chapter 44 Summary: “We Ourselves Know Not What We Did”
Alexis Orlov seized Peter, separated him from Vorontsova permanently, and stripped him of his uniform and sword. Nikita Panin, sent by Catherine, was moved by the former emperor’s poor appearance. Peter was sent to Ropsha under guard.
When Dashkova discovered Gregory Orlov reading state papers in Catherine’s apartment and challenged him, he replied the empress had asked him to. Later, finding Catherine sitting happily with Orlov, Dashkova realized with pain that a liaison existed between them. Catherine made a triumphant entry into St. Petersburg on June 30.
At Ropsha, Peter wrote three unanswered letters to Catherine. On July 6, a frantic, incoherent note from Alexis Orlov announced Peter was dead. Orlov’s note claimed Peter started a quarrel and, before they could separate the men, he was dead. He wrote, “We ourselves know not what we did” (272).
Catherine framed the death as a medical tragedy. Doctors falsely declared Peter had died of a “hemorrhoidal colic” and apoplectic stroke (274). His body was displayed dressed in a Holstein uniform with a large hat and cravat hiding marks on his neck, hands covered with gloves. Because he was not crowned as emperor, Peter was interred at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Most of Europe held Catherine responsible for his death. Frederick of Prussia believed she was ignorant of the crime but obliged to protect the perpetrators. Years later, Catherine still kept Orlov’s letter hidden. After her death, Paul read it and was convinced of her innocence.
Part 4 Analysis
In this section, the narrative arc of Peter III’s brief reign and overthrow provides a case study in the structures and functions of power in 18th-century Russia, focusing on the Guards regiments as the ultimate king-makers. Following a pattern established by Empress Elizabeth, Catherine’s coup demonstrates that in the Russian autocracy, the loyalty of these elite military units can be more decisive than hereditary succession. This section also explores The Dynamic Between Personal Ideals and Power Structures as, at this moment, these are aligned in favor of Catherine. Her belief that she is the most suitable ruler—and the wider recognition that this is true—is enacted by the power-making structures of the state. Massie demonstrates how the Orlov brothers’ ability to rally support in the barracks, rooted in a shared military identity and a nationalist revulsion toward Peter’s Prussianism, provides the operational foundation of the coup. Catherine leverages their popularity with precision, affirming a paradox of the Russian state: The absolute monarch’s power is contingent on the support of those elites able to physically depose the individual. This lesson in the use and dangers of power will come into play later in the narrative, when Massie discusses Catherine’s own compromises to remain in power.
These chapters are the culmination of the biography’s central theme, Self-Invention as the Supreme Political Act. Catherine’s ascension is depicted as the result of a sustained political performance. Her actions are a study in contrast to her husband’s: While Peter openly mocks Orthodox funeral rites, Catherine performs a public spectacle of piety by kneeling in mourning for Empress Elizabeth, a gesture certain to win the support of the public and clergy. This political theater reaches its climax when she dons the Preobrazhensky Guard uniform. The act is a multi-layered symbolic appropriation: She assumes masculine authority, identifies herself with the military, and physically embodies the role of sovereign. By borrowing the uniform, Catherine transforms her identity from that of a vulnerable German consort into a Russian autocrat, the legitimate leader of the army and the nation. By including the detail of the young Gregory Potemkin offering his sword knot, Massie foreshadows the intimacy of their future sexual and political partnership.
The dynamic Massie illustrates between Catherine and Peter emphasizes her political competence versus his self-destructive folly, especially during Peter’s disastrous six-month rule. Massie presents Peter as a politically immature and dangerously inept ruler whose actions create the power vacuum that Catherine fills. His policies demonstrate a dangerous lack of political foresight, as he systematically attacks the twin pillars of the Russian state—the Orthodox Church and the army—by secularizing church lands and imposing Prussian military models. By preparing for a war against Denmark over his native Holstein, he confirms his status as a foreigner prioritizing personal interests over those of the Russian Empire. Peter’s public humiliation of Catherine, culminating in his bellowed insult “Dura!” (253), is presented by Massie as a breaking point, providing the personal and political justification for his removal. Within this narrative, the coup is therefore not only an ambitious seizure of power, but a political necessity precipitated by the sovereign’s manifest unfitness to rule. In this, Massie partly relies on the knowledge and reputation of Catherine as “the Great”, whose coup is vindicated by the subsequent successes of her reign.
The ambiguous and suspicious circumstances of Peter’s death introduce the theme of The Costs of Imperial Expansion as the necessary compromise of Catherine’s reign as empress. Massie’s narrative deliberately preserves the historical uncertainty of the event by centering on Alexis Orlov’s frantic, semi-coherent letter, which insists, “We ourselves know not what we did” (272, not seeking to resolve the matter retrospectively. Massie is more interested in the effects of Peter’s death on Catherine and her reputation. Her immediate response—the carefully managed cover-up and the official proclamation of death by “hemorrhoidal colic”—is her first significant act as an undisputed autocrat. It demonstrates a swift understanding that her enlightened ideals must coexist with the brutal necessities of power. Massie states that the shadow of Peter’s death at Ropsha is a lasting stain on her reputation but, as the price of her crown, it is an inaugural act of realpolitik that will define the complex morality of her future rule.
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