Catherine the Great Part I: A Stranger in Russia

Before she was Catherine the Great, she was Sophia Augusta Frederica, a fourteen-year-old princess from a minor German principality traveling through the frozen Russian winter toward a future she could scarcely have imagined.

In this episode of Dead People Talking, we follow the young Catherine from her childhood in Prussia to the dazzling and dangerous court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. We explore her transformation from Sophia to Catherine, her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, her disastrous marriage to the future Peter III, and the years of isolation, study, ambition and survival that began to shape one of the eighteenth century's most extraordinary rulers.

From six-hour wedding celebrations and Peter's toy soldiers to Catherine's discovery of Enlightenment philosophy, affairs, miscarriages and the birth of her son Paul, this is the story of Catherine before she became "the Great" — when becoming Empress of Russia still seemed almost impossible.

Sources & Further Reading

Catherine the Great. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Translated by Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom. Modern Library, 2006.

Alexander, John T. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. Oxford University Press, 1989.

Bushkovitch, Paul. A Concise History of Russia. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Music

Music featured in this episode is licensed through Epidemic Sound.

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