Catherine the Great. 3rd edition, processed and supplemented. Pavlenko N.I.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was clearly not lucky with the assessment of her reign neither in the pre -revolutionary, nor even in Soviet historiography. Even in the years of her reign, contemporaries celebrated many dark spots, overshadowed in their eyes the positive that was associated with her name. Firstly, she was a purebred German, and, apparently, national pride did not allow her to reign an objective assessment. Secondly, and this, perhaps, is even more important, she had no rights to the throne and usurped the crown of her own husband. Thirdly, on her conscience, if not directly, then indirectly, there is a seal of responsibility for the death of not only the spouse, Peter III, but also the Emperor John VI Antonovich, which was still overthrown by her predecessor. Finally, the morality of the empress did not cause enthusiasm either among contemporaries or among historians.

And yet Catherine’s reign is primarily associated with the merits and achievements that allow her to erect outstanding statesmen of pre -revolutionary Russia and put her name nearby With the name of Peter the Great.

the project “Gathers of the Russian land” is implemented by the Russian Military Historical Society with the support of the United Russia party.