Catherine the Great ruled Russia from 1762 until her death in 1796, presiding over territorial expansion, ambitious reforms and a flourishing court culture. Born a German princess, she became an empress through marriage and a coup. Her story also reaches Britain: she employed the English physician Thomas Dimsdale to inoculate her against smallpox, consulted British educators and architects, and had to navigate a relationship with Britain that combined trade and diplomacy with competition at sea.

A German princess at the Russian court

Catherine was born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst on 2 May 1729 in Stettin, then part of Prussia. Her family belonged to a small German ruling house. In 1744, aged 15, she arrived in Russia as a prospective bride for Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne. She learned Russian and converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name Catherine. The couple married in 1745.

The marriage was unhappy, and Peter’s policies and conduct alienated influential groups around the court. When he became emperor in January 1762, Catherine’s position was already precarious. In July, with allies among the military and clergy, she led a coup, had Peter arrested and took the throne as Catherine II. Peter died eight days later; the circumstances remain uncertain. Catherine was crowned in Moscow that September. Her reign lasted more than 34 years, until her death in Saint Petersburg on 17 November 1796.

An expanding empire, and the costs of rule

Catherine’s government extended Russian territory through war and diplomacy. Victories over the Ottoman Empire helped secure Russian access to the Black Sea. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774 strengthened Russia’s position in the region, and in 1783 Catherine annexed Crimea. Russian authorities founded new cities in the south, including Kherson, Nikolayev and Odessa.

In the west, Catherine placed her former associate Stanisław Poniatowski on the Polish throne in 1764. Russia later joined Prussia and Austria in the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which erased the independent state by 1795. These changes enlarged Russian power but came at the expense of its neighbours. In the east, Russian colonisation extended to Alaska. The empire’s growth was inseparable from conquest and the coercive reach of the state.

Catherine is often described as an enlightened despot: a ruler interested in law, education and administrative improvement who nevertheless governed autocratically. Her 1767 Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly drew on European political thought, including Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria, but the commission convened to discuss reform did not produce a new legal code. In 1775, she reorganised provincial administration. Later measures set out charters for the nobility and towns and established a national schools framework.

Her reforming language did not end the harsher realities of imperial rule. Serfdom remained central to the economy, and noble power grew. Catherine’s rule faced a major challenge in Pugachev’s Rebellion, an uprising involving Cossacks, peasants and other groups in 1773–74. Its suppression exposed the limits of her claims to enlightened government and helped turn her away from proposals that might weaken the landed elite.

Schools, collections and public health

Education was one of Catherine’s lasting priorities. In 1764 she established the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, a state-funded institution for girls that later also admitted pupils from less privileged backgrounds. The institute formed part of a wider, uneven attempt to extend schooling. A statute issued in 1786 set out a system of primary and secondary schools, though its reach was limited: by the end of her reign, the Wikipedia account estimates that about 62,000 pupils attended roughly 549 state institutions, a small proportion of the population.

Catherine also recruited foreign expertise. She consulted British educational thinkers, including the Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr John Brown, as she considered educational reform. In public health, she took a personal step with wider significance: she was inoculated against smallpox by the English doctor Thomas Dimsdale, then arranged for her son Pavel to be inoculated. She presented her example as a way to persuade her subjects to accept the practice. The account describes her promotion of inoculation as an important contribution to public health in Russia.

Her court gathered artists, architects and scholars from across Europe. Catherine’s own art collection began the collection of the Hermitage, and she wrote plays, fiction and memoirs as well as corresponding with Enlightenment thinkers including Voltaire and Diderot. British connections appeared in the built environment too: she hired Scottish architect Charles Cameron for work at Tsarskoye Selo, including the Chinese Village. She admired English landscape gardening, commissioning an English-style garden there in 1770.

Britain: a partner, a rival and a source of expertise

Catherine’s relationship with Britain was neither straightforward friendship nor simple antagonism. In 1766, the two countries agreed a commercial treaty, but she stopped short of a full military alliance. Britain’s growing power after the Seven Years’ War concerned her, even as she recognised the benefits of trade and diplomatic relations.

The American Revolutionary War brought that tension into focus. In 1780 Catherine established the League of Armed Neutrality, intended to protect neutral shipping from searches by the Royal Navy. The initiative reflected a practical conflict between British naval power and the interests of other states, including Russia. At the same time, British medical, educational and architectural expertise found a place in Catherine’s plans. These connections are more specific than a general claim of shared Enlightenment ideals: they show British individuals and institutions intersecting with the everyday work of the Russian court.

Why Catherine the Great deserves a place in British Legacy

Catherine was not British, and her significance is principally Russian and European. Her place in British Legacy rests instead on the documented points where her reign intersected with Britain. The English doctor Thomas Dimsdale inoculated the empress against smallpox; Catherine then had her son inoculated and promoted the practice among her subjects. That episode connects British medical expertise to a public-health initiative in Russia. British educators also advised on her plans for schooling, while Scottish architect Charles Cameron worked at Tsarskoye Selo. These are concrete exchanges, not a claim that Catherine’s reforms were British in origin.

Her dealings with Britain also show how expertise and rivalry could coexist. A commercial treaty opened a channel for trade, while the League of Armed Neutrality challenged the Royal Navy’s ability to search neutral vessels during the American Revolutionary War. The relationship therefore offers a focused example of Britain’s connections to eighteenth-century European power politics: through individuals who carried knowledge across borders, through commerce, and through disputes over naval authority. Remembering Catherine in this context broadens British history without recasting her as a British figure. It makes visible the movement of people, ideas and interests between Britain and Russia during a reign that reshaped the balance of power across Europe.

Sources

Catherine the Great — Wikipedia, revision 1379367791

Adapted in part from Catherine the Great by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.