Catherine the Great Dies: Russia's Enlightened Empress
She came to power by deposing her own husband. Catherine the Great ruled Russia for 34 years — longer than Peter the Great. She added Crimea, carved up Poland three times, and corresponded with Voltaire about the Enlightenment while presiding over a serf economy that she never dismantled. She died in 1796 at her desk. The woman who had seized an empire with a coup ended it filling out paperwork.
November 17, 1796
230 years ago
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