Catherine the Great Seizes Power
On 9 July 1762, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst — a minor German princess who had married the unstable Tsar Peter III — overthrew her husband in a military coup with the support of the Guards regiments and seized the Russian throne as Catherine II. Peter III was deposed and died days later in suspicious circumstances. Catherine ruled for 34 years (1762–1796), presiding over Russia's greatest territorial expansion: the annexation of Crimea (1783), the partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), and the conquest of the northern Black Sea coast. An avid correspondent of Voltaire, Diderot (whom she subsidised), and d'Alembert, Catherine embraced Enlightenment philosophy while crushing the Pugachev Rebellion (1773–1775) and tightening serfdom. The contradiction between her Enlightened self-presentation and her autocratic practice defines Enlightened despotism at its most complex.
- Year: 1762 CE
- Category: Political
