Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great was the empress who ruled Russia after the overthrow of Peter III. She expanded Russian territory through wars against the Ottoman Empire and the partitions of Poland, while presenting herself as an enlightened reformer despite strengthening noble power and serfdom.

Edward Rutherfurd’s Russka places Catherine the Great within a narrative shaped by social change and the pressures of ordinary life, empire, conquest and resistance, and religion, belief and institutional authority.

In non-fiction, Catherine the Great is discussed in Antonia Fraser’s The Warrior Queens. Antonia Fraser’s The Warrior Queens approaches the subject through court politics and dynastic power and political ambition and government.