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contributions of catherine the great. pdf
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Catherine II
Catherine II of Russia was one of the most influential rulers in Russian history. Catherine was born a princess in Germany, originally named Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst, but moved to Russia, changed her name and married the heir to the throne (Massie 96). Prior to Catherine’s reign her husband, Peter III, whom she married at age fifteen was in power. Their marriage was an unhappy one and Peter often was unfaithful to Catherine .Peter also proved very unpopular among the Russian people. He was very immature and made many poor political decisions. Peter soon was overthrown and eventually murdered. Catherine came to rule Russia shortly after the death of her husband Peter III. She was eager to learn the ways of Russian culture and worked hard to master the language. Her ability and eagerness to work gained her the loyalty of the ruling class (Catherine, II, the Great). Catherine was one of the longest female rulers in Russian history. After Peter’s death, Catherine took charge, making her son Peter her heir instead of the new emperor. She was not only ambitious, but intelligent as well. She had very liberal ideas for Russia. Catherine was especially interested in the Enlightenment and the ideas of enlightenment writers. She placed emphasis on education and during her reign built many elementary and secondary schools. Catherine was dedicated to Russia’s future and wanted to build its power and influence in the world. She brought a lot of great advancements to Russia during her reign. She placed high emphasis on the domestic affairs of Russia, she expanded their territory, giving them access to the Black Sea, and she westernized, including a new code of law. Catherine the Great was truly great.
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...Ed. James R. Farr. Vol. 9: Industrial Revolution in Europe, 1750-1914. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 200-201. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
"Catherine the Great of Russia Issues Instruction, July 30, 1767." DISCovering World History. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
Marker, Gary. "Catherine II (Russia) (1729–1796; Ruled 1762–1796)." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 411-415. World History in Context. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
Massie, Robert K. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. New York: Random House, 2011. Print
Schlesinger, Arthur. Catherine. New Haven, CT: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Print.
Whitelaw, Nancy. Catherine the Great and the Enlightenment in Russia. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Pub., 2005. Print.
Catherine the Great, one of Russia's most notorious leaders, never once struggled to give Russia the edge it so hoped for. She considered herself to be an enlightened leader and attempted to rule in that fashion. Her reforms transformed Russia into a strong nation for their time. She’s remembered as the greatest reformer of Russia, she continued to westernize Russia, widened the borders, and strengthened the education system. Catherine the Great proceeded to finish what Peter the Great started; she made sure that by the end of her reign Russia was westernized.
Catherine was born in 1729 to a German prince and princess. She moved to Russia well before her husband’s, Peter III, reign. During the time before his reign she learned all about the Russian language and customs, even converting to Orthodoxy. Catherine started her spirited and enlightened reign in 1762. In an effort to help make a more absolute government, Catherine wished to rework Russia’s law code, which had not been changed since 1649. In July of 1767 she brought together the Legislative Commission. This was a body of elected deputies for her to consult with about her Instruction, or Nakaz. The Legislative Commission consisted of nobles, merchants and
Nicholas II ruled Russia from 1894-1917 and was to be its final tsar. He ascended the throne under the impression that he would rule his whole life as it's undisputed leader. Accompanied by his wife, Alexandra, they lived a comfortable life of luxury while the country suffered around them. Nicholas was determined to rule as harshly as his father; however, he was a very weak and incompetent character who did not posses the qualities capable of guiding Russia through its time of turmoil.
New York, Oxford University Press. Moorehead, Alan, Ed 1958. The Russian Revolution. New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc. Pipes, Richard, Ed 1995.
Catherine de Medici’s culpability for the turbulent events in France in 1559-72 remains a topic of some debate. Highly personal protestant pamphleteers associated Catherine with sinister comparisons to the contemporary evil Machiavelli which eventually developed into the ‘Black Legend’. Jean.H. Mariégol consolidates this interpretation, overwhelmingly assuming Catherine’s wickedness; the Queen Mother was deemed to be acting for ‘personal aggrandizement’ without an interest in the monarchy. Neale provides a corrective arguing a ‘dominant maternalism’ drove Catherine’s policies. Sutherland critiques Neale, suggesting he is guilty of using misconceived qualifying phrases from the ‘Black Legend’ stemming from the contemporary pamphlets, instead Sutherland and Heller attempt to disentangle Catherine from the context of the xenophobic Protestant pamphleteers that shaped much of Catherine’s historical analysis thus far, revealing the ‘politique’ whose moderate policies were a force for stability. Knecht is most convincing in his assertion that whilst the ‘Black Legend’ is a misrepresentation of her character and policies, Sutherland goes too far in whitewashing Catherine. Ironically, Catherine as a ‘politique’ aimed for complex policies and yet her role in French politics was over-simplified by contemporaries and arguably even by modern historians contributing to overly polarised interpretations. Instead we should bear in mind the violent pressures Catherine faced in the context of the collapse of monarchical authority and follow the more nuanced interpretation of her role.
Peter the Great, was, as his name implies, “great”. He made many accomplishments during his lifetime including expanding Russia’s land, heightening their military, and improving the Russian’s ways of life overall. He assisted with most of the reform in Russia, helped them defeat other countries, and formulated one of the strongest armies in Europe.
6) Wyatt, Lee T. The Industrial Revolution. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2009. Print. Greenwood Guides to Historic Events, 1500-1900.
Romanov, Olga Nikolaevna. The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution: With Excerpts from Family Letters and Memoirs of the Period. Trans. Helen Azar. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme, LLC, 2014. Print.
The Western perspective on the Dowager Empress is harsh and W.G. Sebald is perhaps the harshest of all of the Western historians. One of Sebald’s first descriptions of the Empress is that her “craving for power was insatiable” (Sebald 147). Sebald wastes no time in backing up this claim. At the cru...
Wood, A. (1986). The Russian Revolution. Seminar Studies in History. (2) Longman, p 1-98. ISBSN 0582355591, 9780582355590
To many scholars and historians, Tsar Peter Alexeyevich, or Peter the Great, is considered one of the most influential European Leaders of the modern world. During his time as emperor of the Russian Empire, he traveled all over Europe, seeking new ideas and innovations that would help to modernize Russia. His travels let him gain a plethora of knowledge about the European culture, and he sought to implement this new knowledge in Russia. Once he returned to Russia, he revolutionized it into a European superpower, implementing many social, economic, and political domestic reforms as well as revolutionizing Russia’s foreign policy; his new innovations even helped overcome the Swedish Empire, a major European power at that time, in the Great Northern War. Throughout the course of his governance over the Russian Empire, Peter the Great established many new domestic and foreign policies which benefited both internal welfare and international relations for Russia. So, to what extent did Peter the Great affect the social structure and political growth of the Russian Empire?
English Online. (Ed.). (n.d.). The Industrial Revolution. Retrieved April 23, 2012, from English-online.com Web site: http://www.english-online.at/history/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution-manufacturing.htm
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.
Tsar Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov was the last Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. The eldest son of Alexander III, he was born on May 18, 1868, in Tsarskoe Solo, Russia (Nicholas II). Nicholas received his education through a network of private tutors who taught him many languages, including very strong English. One of these tutors and the most influential was a renowned university professor named Konstantin Pobedonostsev (Nicholas II). Pobedonostsev is known for teaching Nicholas that the Romanov family ruled as ‘agents of God’ and that the unlimited powers of a Tsar could never be surrendered without throwing away a precious and ancient part of Russian tradition (Nicholas II). Nicholas spent many happy years as a young military commander in the Imperial Guard, a position he expected to hold for a long time. During these years, Princess Alix of Germany agreed to be his wife. Just as everything seemed to be going perfectly for the young man, tragedy struck.
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010.