From Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie:
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"Traveling toward an unknown country, propelled by an empress’s sentimentality, a mother’s ambition, and the intrigues of the king of Prussia, an adolescent girl was launched on a great adventure. And once the sadness of parting with her father had passed, Sophia was filled with excitement. She had no fear of the long journey or the complications of marrying a boy whom she had met only briefly four years before. If her future husband was considered ignorant and willful, if his health was delicate, if he was miserable in Russia, none of this mattered to Sophia. Peter Ulrich was not the reason she was traveling to Russia. The reason was Russia itself and proximity to the throne of Peter the Great."
Grade: A+
Book Review: "Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman", by Robert K. Massie
In the excerpt above, "Sophia" is the young German princess who was later to become Catherine the Great of Russia. On the one hand, she was the beneficiary of a "wheel of astonishing good fortune." On the other hand, she made the most of every opportunity that presented itself, to not only get close to the throne of Peter the Great, but to seize the throne and remake Russia to her vision. She was the perfect example of being the right person in the right place and the right time.
Robert K. Massie is the correct author to tell her story. He was already the author of two other biographies about Romanov czars — "Peter the Great" and "Nicholas and Alexandra." "Peter the Great" received the Pulitzer Prize. "Catherine the Great" received awards as well.
The biography is a comprehensive telling not only of Catherine's life but of her thinking. She wrote multiple memoirs during her life. She also wrote thousands of letters to such luminaries as Voltaire. From all that, Massie tells us not just what Catherine did during her life, but why. For example, Catherine is held up as an example of an Enlightenment thinker, a defender of freedom of thought and expression. The French Revolution prompted a significant change in her thinking. Massie writes. "She now discovered dangers implicit in Enlightenment philosophy. Some responsibility for the excesses of the revolution seemed traceable to the writings of philosophers she had admired." Likewise, early in her reign, she tried to reform, if not end, the practice of serfdom in Russia. Massie writes, "the Pugachev rebellion swept the entire region of the Urals and the lower Volga. For Catherine, the lesson was that more than intelligence and goodwill were needed to break down the traditions, prejudices, and ignorance of both the owners and the serfs."
If you want to know what happened in 18th century Russia, and much of Europe as well, read any of the many histories that are available. To understand why things happened the way they did, when they did, and how Russia today is influenced by it all, read Robert K. Massie.
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