Bust "Empress Catherine II" White, 4.5x2.5x6.5cm

Catherine II (Ekaterina Alekseevna); Catherine Velikaya; The nee Sophia Augusta Frederika Angalt-Center (German Sophie auguste Friederike von anhalet-zernburg), in Orthodoxy Ekaterina Alekseevna; April 21 [May 2] 1729, Shtettin, Prussia-November 6, 1796, Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire)-Empress and Autocrats All-Russian (1762-1796). Monarch of enlightened absolutism. The niece of the Swedish king Adolf Friedrich. The cousin of the Prussian king Friedrich the Great.

The daughter of Prince Angalt-Terbst, Catherine ascended the throne as a result of the palace coup against her husband-Peter III, who soon died under unclear circumstances (perhaps he was killed). She ascended the throne, following the precedent created by Catherine I, who replaced her deceased husband Peter the Great in 1725.

the Catherine’s era was marked by the maximum fixing of the peasants and the comprehensive expansion of the privileges of the nobility. The great borders of the Russian Empire were significantly extended to the West (sections of the Commonwealth) and to the south (the accession of Novorossia, Crimea, partly the Caucasus).

the system of public administration under Catherine the second for the first time since the time of Peter I was reformed. Reforms of Catherine II prepared the transformation of the Russian state and society in the first quarter of the 19th century and became a prerequisite for the reforms of the 1860s.

Russia finally became one of the great European powers, which the empress herself contributed a lot, Fascinated by literary activity, collecting masterpieces of painting and consisting in correspondence with French enlighteners. In general, the policy of Catherine II and her reforms fit into the channel of the enlightened absolutism of the 18th century.