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Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great

1729 CE1796 CE · Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland)

Catherine the Great, a German-born princess, came to the Russian throne in 1762 through a coup that deposed her husband, Peter III. During her long reign she expanded the empire's borders through wars against the Ottomans and the partitions of Poland, gaining vast new territory. A patron of the arts and Enlightenment thought, she corresponded with philosophers and enriched Russia's cultural life, though serfdom deepened under her rule. She died in 1796, remembered as one of Russia's most influential rulers.

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Stop 1 of 51729Princess Of Anhalt-Zerbst

Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland)

What they did here

The future Catherine II was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in Stettin, then a Prussian city in Pomerania. Her father was a Prussian general and prince of the minor house of Anhalt-Zerbst.

See other sages who lived in Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland)

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Catherine the Great’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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