Catherine the Great

Copyright © 2011 by Robert K. Massie

Maps copyright © 2011 by David Lindroth, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Massie, Robert K.

Catherine the Great : portrait of a woman / by Robert K. Massie.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-1-58836-044-1

1. Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 1729–1796. 2. Empresses—Russia—Biography.

3. Russia—Kings and rulers— Biography. 4. Russia—History—Catherine II,

1762–1796. I. Title.

DK170.M34 2011   2011015279

947?.063092—dc22 [B]

www.atrandom.com

Jacket design: The Book Designers

Jacket painting: Alexei Petrovich Antropov, portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna (the future Catherine the Great) (detail) (Bridgeman Art Library International)

v3.1

Perhaps the best description of her is that she is a woman as well as an empress.

—The Earl of Buckinghamshire,

British ambassador to Russia, 1762–65

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Maps

PART I A German Princess

1 Sophia’s Childhood

2 Summoned to Russia

3 Frederick II and the Journey to Russia

4 Empress Elizabeth

5 The Making of a Grand Duke

6 Meeting Elizabeth and Peter

7 Pneumonia

8 Intercepted Letters

9 Conversion and Betrothal

10 A Pilgrimage to Kiev and Transvestite Balls

11 Smallpox

12 Marriage

13 Johanna Goes Home

PART II A Painful Marriage

14 The Zhukova Affair

15 Peepholes

16 A Watchdog

17 “He Was Not a King”

18 In the Bedroom

19 A House Collapses

20 Summer Pleasures