Ep 4: Catherine the Great: German Girl Turned Russian Tsar

[00:00:00] In 1745, a random German girl marries the few shears are of Russia. Six months into her husband's reign, she stays a coup to overthrow her husband, to close herself the news arena of Russia and becomes one of the greatest rulers in Russian history.

[00:00:16] He was born with the name Sophia, but he would later be known as Catherine the Great. Welcome to Women of Power, a podcast where we analyze the lives of powerful women and learn from their stories and strategies. Sophia was born in a German province in 1729.

[00:00:36] Every woman we've covered on the podcast so far has had a father who was extremely stern and disciplined, and Sophia is no exception. Sophia's father was a military general and a minor German prince. He was devoutly religious and obsessed with duty, fragality, and being a good soldier.

[00:00:54] At 37 years old, he found himself still with no sugar into inherit his land. So his family arranged for him to marry a 15-year-old girl named Kyoana. Kyoana is as different from her new husband as he possibly could be. He is frivolous, she loves gossip, she is vain.

[00:01:11] On top of that, he grew up in this glittering, lavish household where he wore gorgeous dresses, attended elegant bowls and constantly had people around her to gossip about.

[00:01:21] At age 15, she had to leave all of that behind and move to an extremely austere household with this almost 40-year-old husband. So Kyoana is obviously unhappy. She constantly believes that she's cut out for a more sophisticated glamorous life.

[00:01:36] She dreams of having a son who advanced so much in the world that he will bring her into exciting glamorous society again. When Kyoana is 16, she gives birth and it's not a boy. It's a girl. It's actually our main character, Sophia, who later rule over all of Russia.

[00:01:55] But in this moment, Kyoana is so disappointed. She can barely oblique at her new daughter and ignores her as much as possible. A year later, Kyoana did give birth to a son. She absolutely worshipped her baby boy and lavished all her care and attention on her son.

[00:02:12] While ignoring Sophia, except to scold her very violently whenever anything upset her. By being forced to tiptoe around a volatile mother and spoiled brother, Sophia got very good at an early egg,

[00:02:25] at reading the room and controlling her emotional reactions, which actually prepared her very well for later life. Luckily, her father loved her and so did her governess, who was a young French woman whose job was to educate and babysit Sophia.

[00:02:39] Her governess gave her the kindness and attention that her mother would have. Under her governess's instruction, Sophia's curiosity, critical thinking, and love for learning flourished. Sophia would ask questions even about the Bible, which no one questioned in those days.

[00:02:55] Sophia was also extremely physically active. She loved playing outside, especially with the other children, where she was a natural leader. When Sophia turned nine, her mom, Yohana, decided that it was time to start scouting for a husband for Sophia,

[00:03:09] which was mainly just an excuse for Yohana to escape her boring house and go around the confesiting all her acquaintances. During this time, Yohana repeatedly tells Sophia that he's ugly,

[00:03:20] which may or may not have been true, but Sophia accepts it, and realizes that in order to get a good husband and thus escape her mother, she needs to have an attractive personality.

[00:03:32] So Sophia learns how to please people by being a good listener, and how to show off her intelligence and sense of humor in a tasteful way. This all comes in really handy when a series of very fortunate events happen.

[00:03:44] When Sophia's ten, Kyoana's appointance Elizabeth becomes the new Zarina or Empress of Russia. So Kyoana immediately sends Elizabeth a letter congratulating her on her new position, and they start writing letters back and forth. Soon another lucky thing happens.

[00:04:02] Elizabeth has no children, her closest living relative is her nephew Peter. So Elizabeth declares Peter to be her heir, to become the Zara of Russia when she dies, and she summons Peter to come live at her palace. Unfortunately, when Elizabeth actually meets Peter, she is horrified.

[00:04:20] Peter at this time is 12 years old. He's half-ruchian and half-kirmin, but his Russian mother died when he was an infant. So he spent his entire life in Germany, brought up by a sadistic German tutor who beat him harshly for very little reason.

[00:04:35] As a result of this abuse, Peter is extremely emotionally stunted, physically weak, stupid and bad tempered. On top of all that, Peter loves Germany. Peter thinks German culture is the best in the world,

[00:04:49] and he really doesn't want to move to Russia or learn the Russian language, much less become the Russians are. So Elizabeth is horrified by her nephew.

[00:04:57] She decides that she needs to find Peter a wife, a sap, so that he can produce a son who can hopefully be a better future's are. So this entire time, Joanna has been exchanging letters with Elizabeth and bragging about Sofia.

[00:05:11] So Elizabeth Beth Sofia as a potential wife for Peter. He finds that Sofia is strong, healthy, intelligent, and mature. Plus, the marriage will promote good relations between Russia and the Germans. So Elizabeth summons Sofia to Russia to meet Peter.

[00:05:27] Sofia is 14 years old and she says goodbye to her home, her beloved father, and her governess. He will never see them or her homeland ever again. In a classic Joanna move, Joanna uses most of Sofia's bridal money to buy nice dresses for herself,

[00:05:43] leaving Sofia with only a few simple dresses. The two of them set off for Raka in a horse-strong carriage. A few weeks later, they arrive at Elizabeth's royal court. Now you might think that navigating corporate politics is tough,

[00:05:57] but imagine playing politics at a place where a one emotionally volatile person, Elizabeth, controls everything. And can exile you or your loved ones to Siberia whenever he feels like it. So Sofia sets to work, politicking from day one, coming from her childhood,

[00:06:14] where she felt unworthy of her mom's love, yet gifted with tremendous intelligence and physical strength. She was determined to do everything in her power to succeed and become Queen of Russia one day. Hulator wrote, quote, My heart predicted there would be little happiness in my marriage to Peter.

[00:06:32] In Bichan alone sustained me through those years. My inmost soul never for a single moment allowed me to doubt. That sooner or later, I would become the sovereign Empress of Raja in light-own right. And this way, Sofia was actually a bit like her mother.

[00:06:48] Though Sofia, Cring, that house, Silian Vanguana, was... Cuanna was very ambitious and had always believed she was cut out for greater things, just like Sofia noted. So, Sofia realizes that the path to power for her is to be loved by everyone.

[00:07:04] She doesn't have to feel a Mary Peter until a year later. So, for the time being, she is just a German fiancé who can get set back to Germany or Siberia any time.

[00:07:15] So if you put on this act of being this very artless humble girl who's just very good, very selfless and filled with love and gratitude for her new home, she doesn't amazen job of this.

[00:07:27] When her mom buys too many clothes, Sofia pays for it with her own allowance. When Elizabeth excels Sofia's new friends to Siberia, Sofia shows no anger or resentment toward her. So, Sofia is also careful not to outshine other women and cause them jealousy.

[00:07:44] One time, there was a very lavish ball, all the noble ladies were competing to wear the most beautiful dress that they possibly could. So, Sofia on the other hand showed up in this very plain white gown that made her look like a charming peasant girl.

[00:07:59] She effectively signaled to everyone that she's not trying to play the status game or to be better than anyone. And, the entire room is absolutely charmed by her simple innocent look, especially Elizabeth who is extremely vain and always wants to be the best-best woman in any room.

[00:08:15] I think this is so smart of Sofia because jealous women can be so savage and it would have been really easy for any of these Russian noble women to get jealous of Sofia's privileged position and try to take her down.

[00:08:28] So, Sofia doesn't seem to spend any time feeling sorry for herself for having to leave behind her home or marry this horrible husband or submit to the whims of Elizabeth and Joanna.

[00:08:40] Even if Sofia did occasionally pity herself, she made sure it again all out of her system when she was alone.

[00:08:46] Whenever she was around any people, she consistently behaved with a kindness and forgiveness that made her above reproach, such that no one could ever give Elizabeth any excuse to send her away.

[00:08:57] So, Sofia also sets to work just becoming Russian which earns her the love of the Russian public. She begs her Russian tutor to prolong their lessons and stays up late at night studying her Russian books when she's supposed to be sleeping.

[00:09:10] At one point, Sofia got pneumonia and words friends that the young German princess had caught a terrible colon because she was up all night in the cold Moscow hallway studying Russian, which really endures her to the Russian public.

[00:09:24] So, Sofia's pneumonia gets pretty bad though and at one point it looks like you might die. Joanna offers to call over a Lutheran pastor to comfort her in her impending death.

[00:09:34] But, so, if you say no, don't give me a Lutheran. I want a Russian Orthodox priest to guide me to death. Everyone in Russia is so touched by this because in those days, Rilin was a key cornerstone of everyone's identity. Termins were Lutheran and Russians were Russian Orthodox.

[00:09:53] And so, in asking for a Russian Orthodox priest in her hour of death, Sofia is really signaling that she's serious about giving up her German identity and becoming fully Russian. This was almost certainly a calculated political move on her part and it succeeds.

[00:10:09] When Sofia recovers from her sickness, she discovers that the Russian public loves her and Elizabeth now sees her almost as her own daughter. Soon after that, Sofia gets rebaptized by the Russian Orthodox Church and he takes on the new Russian name, Katherine, which was Elizabeth's mother's name.

[00:10:28] So, from now on, I will refer to Sofia as Katherine. The fact that Elizabeth chose to rename Katherine after her own mother shows how luxury Katherine has succeeded in winning her love.

[00:10:39] Katherine also knows her best to get close to Peter. She obviously doesn't like or respect him very much, but she recognizes that Peter is the source of any power she'll ever have in Russia.

[00:10:50] The only reason she's here at all is to be Peter's wife and have Peter's child. Katherine realizes that Peter hates all the people around him who try to control him and realizes that the way to get along with Peter is simply never to control him.

[00:11:04] So she listens patiently to all his little stories, plays his favorite silly games with him and covers for him when he's in trouble. Peter starts to see Katherine as an older sister figure. He tells her his thoughts and asks her for advice.

[00:11:19] Unfortunately though, Peter was just an abusive guy who enjoyed whipping his dogs and hanging rats from the Medgur Ruth. And their marriage was miserable. On top of that, Peter was completely uninterested in any sort of intimate relations with Katherine.

[00:11:36] For 10 years they sleep together in the same bed every night. They're literally supervised by guardians who ensure that they get into bed together and them lock them in the bedroom to produce the futures are.

[00:11:48] But all Peter ever wanted to do is to cover the bed with toy soldiers and play with them until he fell asleep. Finally, it's another man's lust that solves the problem. A handsome noble named Salti-Kov sedesis Katherine. But back in those days there was no birth control.

[00:12:06] Salti-Kov realizes that he needs to fix whatever is wrong with Peter so that if Katherine gets pregnant, Peter will be able to claim plausible responsibility. Salti-Kov convinces Peter to get circumcised and arranges for an experienced woman to tutor Peter in bed.

[00:12:24] Katherine gets pregnant and gives birth to a boy named Paul. Elizabeth is delighted. Katherine is relieved to have cemented her place in Russia as mother of a futures are. For eight more years, Katherine and Dears are a miserable life,

[00:12:39] tightly controlled by the whims of Elizabeth and her guardians who exiled her friends and for been her from interfering in any government affairs. And Katherine barely gets to see her own son, but none of this breaks Katherine's spirit.

[00:12:52] Her ambition and emotional discipline lets her endure all of it quietly and keep herself sane by reading a ton of books. At some point, Elizabeth's health starts to get bad. Katherine realizes that if she wants to become the next ZAR, it is time to start amassing some allies.

[00:13:11] So, Katherine manipulates Elizabeth into letting her spend more time outside and she starts hanging out with the elite divisions of the Russian Army. Now, previously, Katherine had focused on charming everyone by being humble.

[00:13:25] But now, hanging out with the Army officers, Katherine works to impress them with her intelligence. She converses brilliantly with them about politics, statesmanship and military strategy. She also convinces them that despite her German origins, Katherine is a packinette Russian nationalist.

[00:13:43] Katherine even starts having a love affair with one of the Army's top leaders who is super popular and influential. In due time, Elizabeth dies. Some army officers want to immediately stay Huku to put Katherine on the throne, but Katherine says no, it's not time yet.

[00:14:02] He lets Peter take the throne first and show the Russian people just how terrible of a leader he is to pave the way for her leadership. And Peter does exactly that. Peter has never lost his child and loved for all things, German.

[00:14:15] As soon as he becomes ZAR, he gives birth of an chief German territory that Russian soldiers had fought hard to conquer. He forces the Russian army to wear German uniforms and start securing the country to the German religion of Lutheranism.

[00:14:30] All this horrifies the Russian public, and Katherine and her army friends start to plot their coup. One night unexpectedly, Peter finds out about Katherine's plan and arrests one of her friends.

[00:14:42] As soon as Katherine hears about the arrest, she abandons her original plan and decides that she needs to stay Huku that very night. Before Peter can arrest more of her allies.

[00:14:53] So, her lover rounds up on the army officers and soldiers and leads them over to the palace, where they all swear allegiance to Katherine. Surrounded by the curing army, Katherine stands and declares herself the new Zarina Katherine II of Russia.

[00:15:10] He then leans the soldiers on an epic night time horseback ride to go look for Peter. When they find him, Peter doesn't even attempt to fight. Confronted with Katherine's power and popularity, Peter just gives it.

[00:15:24] He signs a notice declaring that he is officially abdicating all authority, and he begs Katherine for mercy. Katherine locks him up in a prison. A week later, Peter gets into a fight with some prison guards and the guards kill him.

[00:15:39] A few weeks later, at the age of 33, in a very laboured, very traditional ceremony, Katherine has a crown placed upon her head and officially becomes Zarina of Russia.

[00:15:50] Her crown is custom made with so many dazzling jewels that it weighs almost five pounds and remains a Russian-Nacchino figure to this day. The entire nation is stunned by the majestic presence and thoroughly Russian demeanor of this girl who, for so long,

[00:16:06] penned appeared to be a humble German princess who dawned simple white dresses to please everyone with her humility. Over night, he had morphed into the regal and confident ruler of the biggest country in the world,

[00:16:18] almost twice the size of continental Europe, and with three times the population of Great Britain. And Katherine wasn't just satisfied with sitting on the throne. He was determined to win glory and leave an unforgettable legacy.

[00:16:31] Katherine planned to earn herself a place in history next to Peter the Great and Frederick the Great. So, how does a new Zarina become great? Back then, every great ruler needed to conquer new territory and build new cities.

[00:16:46] For 200 years, every Russian Zar had eyed two valuable pieces of territory. Poland, we had rich natural resources and provided a buffer against Invasion, and the Black Sea, which would give Russia its first warm water port. And, for 200 years, Russians' Zars had tried and failed to conquer these places.

[00:17:07] Until Katherine took over. She began with Poland. Soon after Katherine took power, the king of Poland died. Katherine jumped at this great opportunity to ensure that the new Polish king would be friendly to Russia.

[00:17:21] Luckily, a few years ago, Katherine had had a love affair with a Polish ambassador to Russia, and this Polish ambassador still loved her. So, she brimed and manipulated the Polish nobles to make her ex-lover the new Polish king.

[00:17:36] She succeeded, and with the new Polish king under her thumb, Katherine secured that Poland stayed weak and did not form alliances with stronger countries. Then, as the Polish people stood defenseless, Katherine dismantled their country, peace by peace.

[00:17:53] She incorporated their most fertile lands into Russia and crushed every attempt by the Polish people to rebel against Russian rule. For the next 123 years, Poland ceased to exist on the face of the map.

[00:18:07] This might sound very unethical by today's standards, but back then it was a doggy dog world where war was extremely common, and if you didn't strengthen your own country, then someone else would invade you. And Katherine had just hugely strengthened her country,

[00:18:23] and shifted the entire power balance in Eastern Europe, war'd rough his favor for the next decades. Katherine then turned her attention to the Ottoman Empire. Her spies told her that the Ottoman army had grown quite weak. Then, to her delight, the Ottomans started protesting her actions in Poland,

[00:18:41] which was a golden opportunity to go to war with them and conquer some of their delicious territory. So, Katherine reorganized her army, embraced modern weapons technology, personally selected the best army commanders to lead her army, rebuilt the Navy, and set them out to war.

[00:18:59] She also convinced other countries to lend her the money to pay for all of this. Katherine sustained the resources to fight the Ottomans for six years, during which the Rechenz won stunning victories, including its first naval victory in 900 years.

[00:19:15] When the war ended, Katherine had gained the entire northern coast of the Black Sea, the Crimea, and huge chunks of Ukraine. These pieces of territory are so strategically valuable and so resource-rich, that even today, as we speak, Rechenz still finds it worthwhile to fight to reclaim these areas

[00:19:34] in the face of UN sanctions and heavy criticism. Thus, in taking over territories that Rechenz have and continue to dream about for centuries, Katherine cemented her legacy in the realm of international affairs. Now let's talk about domestic affairs.

[00:19:50] For a long time, Rechenz had been regarded by the rest of Europe as a giant frozen tundra filled with impoverished serfs, no culture, rundown cities with open sewers, and no scientific innovations. And on a flight that was kind of accurate.

[00:20:06] Today, you might think of Rechenz as having great musicians and writers like Kikovsky and Fostoy, but all of these guys lived after Katherine's time. As of 1762, when Katherine took power, Russia did not have any of this great culture.

[00:20:22] Meanwhile, for the past century, other European countries had been rapidly modernizing. France, for example, sat at the epicenter of the A-Yubin Lightenment and produced grateful philosophers like Voltaire and Descartes who are still read in college classrooms today and greatly influenced the US Constitution.

[00:20:41] She turned Paris into the most modern city in the world, with the first ever sidewalks, public parks and street lighting, and clothing shops that dictated back in trends all across Europe. Peter the Great, who had been Zarr 80 years before Katherine, had achieved his greatness in large part

[00:20:58] because he tried to modernize Russia and cackled up to the Great European powers. Peter the Great had founded the City of St. Petersburg, for example, and modeled it very closely after the Great Modern European City of Amsterdam.

[00:21:12] Katherine sent out to continue Peter the Great's legacy of modernization and Europeanization. In her first two years of power, Katherine wrote a famous treatise called The Ne cause, that articulated how she believed Russia ought to be governed, drawing heavily on liberal and lightenment principles around freedom and equality.

[00:21:32] Notably, in her very first sentence in the Ne cause, Katherine wrote that Russia is a European power of controversial statements since Russia's territory reached on the way across Asia, going further east than even China. But it reflected Katherine's earnest intent to liberalize Russia under the European model.

[00:21:51] In the Ne cause, Katherine advocated for equality of all men under the law, which was kind of a big deal, because in those days 80% of the Reckon population consisted of serves,

[00:22:03] who were essentially slaves, who worked the land and could be bought sold, beaten, and cooled by their owners with impunity. So this was quite a liberal thing to advocate for. Katherine's Ne cause also advocated for limiting the rights of nobles and abolishing the use of torture,

[00:22:21] though she still believed in monarchy over democracy. Her Ne cause was rapidly translated into many languages and became a widely discussed philosophical writing of the time. It really inspired people all across Europe to view Russia as a much more modern enlightened country.

[00:22:39] Katherine further cemented her and Russia's reputation by becoming close friends with some of the most influential philosophers of her time, most notably Voltaire and Deterot. She discussed philosophy with them, she sent them drafts of the Ne cause and nice gifts,

[00:22:55] and she genuinely impressed them so much that they wrote opens about how great she was, and praised her whenever they met other influential statesmen or intellectuals, which was quite often. Katherine also wrote less philosophical laws to modernize Russia.

[00:23:11] Back then, Reckon measured 6,000 miles across and 3,000 miles up and down. The only reliable means of communicating across on those miles was by sending a letter delivered by horseback to someone who knew how to read, and only 5% of the population knew how to read.

[00:23:29] Imagine having to cover in a country under these constraints. On top of this, Russia's existing laws and government structures were convoluted, bureaucratic, and left lots of room for corruption. So Katherine got to work completely rewriting many parts of the legal code, but,

[00:23:46] fundamentally, restructuring the local and regional government systems, establishing schools in hospitals, and making schools teach science in addition to just religion. Of the 1200 pages that remain of her local government overhaul, 800 of those pages were written by Katherine herself,

[00:24:04] which is a testament to how personally involved he was with running laws, rather than getting her advisors to do it for her. Katherine also founded 216 new towns, and several major cities, including Odessa, which is the third largest city in Ukraine today.

[00:24:20] She established Russia's first societies for learning and research, and civic spaces like theaters and economies to promote learning. She popularized the newly developed smallpox vaccine by very publicly vaccinating herself.

[00:24:34] She's a new state-of-the-art economic policies, allowed greater freedom of press, and overall made Russia a much more open and free thinking society. This all laid the foundation for the following century of reconciliation that produced the cultural experts like Chikovsky, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky, that we know Russia for today.

[00:24:54] So how did humanity go this? The first thing was just being a highly intelligent and making very good decisions. Katherine had excellent judgment about people, which obviously helped her with things like winning Elizabeth's love, getting allies to hope over-ther Peter, making her ex-lover the king of Poland,

[00:25:12] and it also meant that she was able to select very competent advisors, army commanders, and other bureaucrats. His competence allowed Katherine to spend an unusual amount of time on intellectual-admitting tasks like writing laws, treatises and letters to philosophers.

[00:25:29] Her writings are especially impressive considering that her formal education ended when he left Germany at age 14. After that, her only additional coursework was in reckoning wage and really good. The modern equivalent would be someone dropping out after freshman year of high school,

[00:25:46] and later writing tens of thousands of pages of legal documents and philosophical arguments. I think these accomplishments were partly things to her natural intelligence, partly things to her deep curiosity

[00:25:58] about the world, and partly that she was locked in a castle for 18 years with very little to do besides read books, and observe all the petty dramas of the core around her. Which I'm sure most of both educated her mind and sharpened her intuition around interpersonal dynamics.

[00:26:14] The second thing about Katherine is just how tenaciously ambitious she was, and how she was willing to sacrifice absolutely everything for power. Of course early in life, she left behind her homeland and her father to go marry Peter.

[00:26:29] She also broke up with several ex-lovers who she loved deeply when their ambition threatened her power. Perhaps saddest of all, she sacrificed her relationship with her son Paul. Paul was the closest direct descendant of the Rukhin Royal family,

[00:26:45] so Paul ought to have been Zor instead of Katherine who did not even have any Rukhin blood. At the very least, it would have been nice for Katherine to let Paul be her co-roller.

[00:26:56] But Katherine really didn't want to give up any of her power, so if you kept her son repressed, she completely refused to give Paul any responsibilities in the government or military, and even exiled anyone who seemed to like Paul.

[00:27:11] To ensure that Paul could not develop any political power or allies. Katherine succeeded in preventing Paul from ever overthrown her, but at the cost that he hated her for most of his life. This really does illustrate to me that if you want big power,

[00:27:26] you need to be willing to pay big costs. Finally, Katherine excelled at regulating her emotions. One of my mentors who's been a company CEO for over a decade believes that managing your personal psychology is the hardest and most important part of being a long-term leader.

[00:27:46] And Katherine, who rode Rukhin for 34 years, did a great job of regulating her personal mindset and emotions. Katherine recognized that she had a lifelong need for affection and companionship. He wrote in her memoirs that she could not live a day without love.

[00:28:04] So she made sure she always had a male companion to satisfy this need for love. Katherine gets a bit of a bad reputation for this, and at some points, her love life did get pretty weird,

[00:28:15] like how she would pay hands of men in their 20s to keep her company even when she was in her 50s and 60s. However, beyond buying these guys a lot of gifts with state funds, he didn't really let them get in the way of her work.

[00:28:29] And the strategy seemed to successfully keep her mostly emotionally stable, sane and motivated in her later years of power even as her health declined, which is much better than you can say of most monarchy of her time.

[00:28:42] Her emotional control ties closely to what I think was her most important quality of all, which was her adaptability. Katherine never let her past or her habits negatively influenced what she needed to do in the present.

[00:28:56] She was someone who always left all her baggage at the door, and there were many doors in her life. When Katherine arrived in Russia, she left her native German culture completely behind.

[00:29:07] When she became Zarina, she instantly and seamlessly discarded the humble, modest persona that had led her up to that point. And every time she discarded an over-embiscuous lover, she immediately found a new man to fill in the emotional void so that she could remain focused on her work.

[00:29:25] Thanks to all of this, Katherine is one of only three Russian monarchs ever to be known as The Great. And to this day, she remains the last female ruler of Russia. If you liked this episode, please share it with your friends and read it on your podcast app.

[00:29:42] Thanks for listening.