Catherine the Great
Read Catherine the Great Online
Authors: Simon Dixon
Simon Dixon
To my parents
Prologue
The coronation of a usurper 1762
Chapter 1
From Pomerania to St Petersburg 1729–1744
Chapter 2
Betrothal and marriage 1744–1745
Chapter 3
Living and loving at the Court of Empress Elizabeth 1746–1753
Chapter 4
Ambition 1754–1759
Chapter 5
Assassination 1759–1762
Chapter 6
‘Our Lady of St Petersburg’ 1763–1766
Chapter 7
Philosopher on the throne 1767–1768
Chapter 8
Imperial ambitions 1768–1772
Chapter 9
Paul, Pugachëv and Potëmkin 1772–1775
Chapter 10
The search for emotional stability 1776–1784
Chapter 11
Zenith 1785–1790
Chapter 12
End of an era 1790–1796
Epilogue
The afterlife of an empress
European Russia up to 1801, adapted from Hugh Seton Watson,
The Russian Empire 1801–1917
(Oxford, 1967)
St Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland, adapted from Isabel de Madariaga,
Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981)
The Pugachëv revolt 1773–4, adapted from John T. Alexander,
Autocratic Politics in a National Crisis
(Indiana University Press, 1970)
The Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768–74 and 1787–91, adapted from Isabel de Madariaga,
Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981)
St Petersburg in 1776
The Partitions of Poland, 1772, 1793 and 1795, adapted from John Doyle Klier,
Russia Gathers her Jews: The origins of the ‘Jewish question’ in Russia 1772–1825
(Northern Illinois University Press, 1986)