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Article: Catherine II (Russia) (1729–1796; Ruled 1762–1796)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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CATHERINE II (RUSSIA) (1729
–
1796; ruled 1762
–
1796)
CATHERINE II (RUSSIA)
(1729
–
1796; ruled 1762
–
1796), empress of Russia. Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great, was born Princess Sophie in Stettin, Anhalt-Zerbst, a remote and poor German principality on the Baltic Sea. She was betrothed to the heir to the Russian throne, the future Peter III, in 1744. Upon her arrival in St. Petersburg, she converted to Russian Orthodoxy and was given the Russian name of Catherine Alekseevna, after Catherine I, Russia's first female crowned head and the mother of the reigning empress Elizabeth, Peter's aunt. Catherine remained in Russia for the rest of her life, and ...