Robert K. Massie’s 2011 narrative biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, chronicles the life of one of the most powerful female monarchs in history. The book follows Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German princess who was summoned to Russia aged 14 to marry the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Peter, marriage requiring her conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church and a new baptismal name, Catherine. Massie traces Catherine’s journey from a vulnerable young woman to a formidable empress who ruled the Russian Empire for 34 years, following a coup to depose her husband. The biography explores how Catherine’s reign was shaped by the philosophical currents of the European Enlightenment, as she consciously crafted a persona as an “enlightened despot.” Massie examines the key themes of Self-Invention as the Supreme Political Act, The Dynamic Between Personal Ideals and Structures of Power, and The Search for Love and Intimacy as a Female Ruler, the last through her succession of famous lovers, particularly the influential Gregory Potemkin. The biography also assesses The Costs of Imperial Expansion, detailing the expansion of Russia’s territory during Catherine’s reign.

Massie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is known for his immersive accounts of Russian history, including Peter the Great (1980) and Nicholas and Alexandra (1967). Catherine the Great was a New York Times bestseller and won the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

This guide refers to the 2012 Random House Trade Paperback Edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, illness or death, 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.

Summary

Born Sophia Augusta Fredericka in Stettin, Germany, on April 21, 1729, the future empress was the daughter of Prince Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst and his much younger wife, Princess Johanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Sophia’s ambitious mother, Johanna, was disappointed to have a daughter and showed Sophia little affection, instead doting on a sickly younger son. Sophia was raised primarily by her French governess, Babet Cardel, who instilled in her a love of French language and literature. Unhappy in her provincial life, Johanna traveled frequently to German courts, taking Sophia along to find a suitable husband. At age 10, Sophia met her 11-year-old second cousin, Charles Peter Ulrich, the Duke of Holstein, who was also the grandson of Peter the Great of Russia. A potential match was discussed between the families.

Johanna cultivated a relationship with the new Empress Elizabeth of Russia, who had once been betrothed to Johanna’s brother. In 1742, Elizabeth summoned her nephew, Peter Ulrich, to St. Petersburg and proclaimed him heir to the Russian throne. Two years later, on January 1, 1744, a letter arrived from the Russian court summoning Johanna and the 14-year-old Sophia to Russia, for a marriage to be arranged between Sophia and the now-Grand Duke Peter. In Berlin, Sophia met King Frederick II of Prussia, who was impressed by her intelligence and recruited Johanna to act as a Prussian agent in St. Petersburg, tasked with undermining the anti-Prussian Vice-Chancellor, Alexis Bestuzhev. After an arduous winter journey, Sophia and Johanna arrived in Moscow on February 9, 1744, and met Empress Elizabeth and the 16-year-old Grand Duke Peter. Peter was initially friendly but soon confided that he was in love with another woman and was only marrying Sophia at his aunt’s command.

Sophia began intensive studies of the Russian language and the Orthodox faith. Her rigorous nocturnal studies led to a near-fatal case of pneumonia, during which Empress Elizabeth personally nursed her, forming a bond between them. While near death, Sophia’s request for an Orthodox priest rather than a Lutheran pastor won widespread sympathy in the court. Meanwhile, Bestuzhev intercepted letters exposing a conspiracy against him by Johanna, causing her to fall into permanent disgrace with Elizabeth. On June 28, 1744, Sophia was received into the Orthodox Church and given the name Catherine (Ekaterina). The next day, she and Peter were officially betrothed. The marriage was delayed for over a year. During this time, Peter contracted smallpox, which left his face scarred. Catherine was upset by his changed appearance, creating a lasting breach between them. They were married on August 21, 1745, but the marriage remained unconsummated, and Peter openly pursued other women. A month later, Johanna was sent back to Germany, leaving the 16-year-old Catherine to her new life.

For the next several years, Catherine lived under the strict surveillance of governors, or “watchdogs,” appointed by Empress Elizabeth and Chancellor Bestuzhev. Peter continued with childish habits, drilling toy soldiers in their shared bedroom and keeping a pack of hunting dogs in their apartment. Catherine found solace in extensive reading, beginning a self-education in history and philosophy. In 1747, her father died, but the empress permitted her to mourn for only a week because he “was not a king” (111). Catherine’s marriage remained unconsummated for nine years, frustrating the Empress Elizabeth, who was desperate for an heir.

In 1752, the lonely Catherine was pressured by the empress, through her governess Maria Choglokova, to take a lover to produce an heir. She began an affair with a handsome court chamberlain, Sergei Saltykov. After two miscarriages, she gave birth to a son, Paul, on September 20, 1754. Empress Elizabeth immediately took the infant away to raise him herself, leaving Catherine isolated. Saltykov was sent abroad, and upsetting rumors that he was indiscreet with other women reached Catherine. After a long period of depression, she resolved to assert herself, forming a political alliance with the new English ambassador, Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams, and beginning a new love affair with a young Polish nobleman, Stanislaus Poniatowski. As Empress Elizabeth’s health failed, Chancellor Bestuzhev secretly approached Catherine with a plan to make her co-ruler with Peter upon the empress’s death. In February 1758, Bestuzhev was arrested and exiled. Fearing she was also in danger, Catherine burned all her private papers. She gambled by writing a letter to Elizabeth asking to be sent home to Germany. This led to a dramatic late-night confrontation, where Catherine defended herself so eloquently that she won the empress’s sympathy.

As Empress Elizabeth’s health continued to decline, Catherine cultivated new allies: the diplomat Nikita Panin; the five Orlov brothers, led by her new lover, Gregory Orlov; and the young intellectual Princess Catherine Dashkova. On December 25, 1761, Elizabeth died, and Peter became Emperor Peter III. His disastrous six-month reign alienated the church with Lutheran-style reforms and the army with hated Prussian-style drills and uniforms. He abruptly made peace with his hero, Frederick the Great of Prussia, betraying Russia’s allies, and prepared for a new war against Denmark over his ancestral claims in Holstein. He publicly insulted Catherine, threatening to divorce her and marry his mistress, Elizabeth Vorontsova. On June 28, 1762, the conspirators, forced to act by the arrest of a comrade, staged a coup. Alexis Orlov fetched Catherine from the Peterhof palace, and the Guards regiments in St. Petersburg proclaimed her Empress Catherine II. Peter panicked, failed to act, and was captured after abdicating the throne. He was imprisoned at a nearby estate called Ropsha, where, a week later, he was killed in a drunken brawl with his guards, led by Alexis Orlov. Catherine announced that he died of hemorrhoidal colic, but the death cast a permanent shadow over the validity of her reign.

Catherine was crowned in Moscow in September 1762. She consolidated her power by winning over her husband’s supporters and rewarding loyalty. She reversed Peter’s most unpopular policies but maintained peace with Prussia. She confronted the powerful Orthodox Church, eventually secularizing its vast landholdings, and attempted to address the evils of serfdom but was blocked by the nobility. In 1764, she secured the election of her former lover, Stanislaus Poniatowski, as King of Poland. In 1767, she convened a Legislative Commission to draft a new code of laws based on the enlightened principles of her 1767 Nakaz (Instruction), but the assembly was disbanded after 18 months without success. Her intervention in Poland led to the First Turkish War in 1768: The Russian army won major victories, and the navy, under Alexis Orlov, annihilated the Turkish fleet at Chesme Bay. In 1772, Russia, Prussia, and Austria carried out the First Partition of Poland. A major plague epidemic devastated Moscow in 1771. In 1773, a peasant rebellion led by a Cossack named Emelyan Pugachev, who claimed to be Peter III, engulfed the Volga region for over a year before it was brutally suppressed. The Turkish war ended in 1774 with the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardzhi, giving Russia its first territories on the Black Sea.

In 1772, Catherine ended her long relationship with Gregory Orlov. After a brief, unsatisfying liaison with an officer named Alexander Vasilchikov, she began a passionate affair in 1774 with the brilliant and eccentric Gregory Potemkin. Potemkin became her partner in power and possibly her secret husband. Their intense physical relationship lasted two and a half years, after which they remained devoted friends and political collaborators. Potemkin helped select a series of young, handsome Guards officers to serve as Catherine’s official favorites. One of these, Alexander Lanskoy, became a beloved companion whose early death in 1784 devastated the empress.

Catherine’s relationship with her son and heir, Paul, was hostile, and she doted on her grandsons, Alexander and Constantine, intending to bypass Paul and name Alexander her successor. Potemkin, now viceroy of the south, developed “New Russia,” building cities and naval bases. In 1783, Catherine annexed the Crimea. In 1787, she undertook a spectacular journey to inspect Potemkin’s work, showcasing Russia’s new power. This provoked the Second Turkish War in 1787: Potemkin commanded the army to victory, and the war ended in 1791, confirming Russia’s dominance on the Black Sea. Potemkin, exhausted and ill, died that same year, leaving Catherine heartbroken. Horrified by the French Revolution, Catherine became increasingly conservative. She exiled the author Alexander Radishchev for his critique of serfdom and, citing the need to suppress “Jacobinism,” engineered the Second (1793) and Third (1795) Partitions, which made Poland part of Russia.  On November 5, 1796, Catherine suffered a stroke and died the following evening at the age of 67. Her son Paul became emperor.