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Catherine The Great's Influence In Russia

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Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg later named Catherine the Great was born on May 2, 1729 and died November 17, 1796. She was the daughter Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst a minor German prince. She lived in Russia and was eventually the empress of Russia and carried on the work her father Peter the Great began. In 1744 Catherine arrived in Russia, acquired the title of Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and she married her young cousin Grand Duke Peter that following year. She was a well educated empress who ruled from 1762 to 1796 and had the longest reign of any female leader of Russia. Catherine agreed the best form of government was the one that closely controls the actions of its citizens and the course of its economy because she was an absolute monarch that held power …show more content…

She ruled with absolute authority but also desired to reform Russia. In 1767 Catherine formed a commission to review Russia’s laws. She presented with a brilliant proposal for reforms based on the ideas of Montesquieu and Beccaria, and Catherine recommended allowing religious toleration and to abolish torture and capital punishment; however, she never accomplished any of these worthy goals. She began as an enlightened absolutist and she strengthened noble rights and wanted to give rights to serfs and tie serfs to nobles instead of the land they worked on. Catherine previously favored to end serfdom; however, Pugachev's Rebellion would eventually convince her that she needed the support of the nobles in order to keep her power over the serfs. As a result, Russian serfs lost their last remnants of freedom. Also during Catherine's rule, Russia achieved military success and her army crushed rebellion, she helped reorganize administration laws. Russia also gained large portions of land. At the end of Catherine the Great’s rule Russia became an international

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