“Catherine the Great’’ is notable for its detail. The Potemkin villages, rumored to be empty facades created by Gregory to impress Catherine on her 1787 tour of the newly annexed Crimea, were real Catherine’s increasingly autocratic rule was justified by the circumstances she faced and the scandalous legend about her and the horse goes unmentioned. In Massie’s telling, Catherine appears taken by surprise by the coup, but the determination with which she consolidated her power thereafter suggests otherwise.Īs Massie guides the reader thematically through the events of Catherine’s reign, beginning with her largely failed efforts to reform Russia’s legal system and serfdom, moving on to her largely successful diplomatic and military maneuvers, her art purchases and architectural commissions, and her romantic and sexual relationships, he continues to assert his control of the facts, promote his heroine, and remind us of Catherine’s emotional yearnings. While some revisionist historians have emphasized his progressive reforms, Massie foregrounds his allegiance to Prussia and mistreatment of Catherine, spurs to the soldiers who overthrew him and put Catherine on the throne just six short months after his ascent. But as her marriage disintegrated and she fell out of favor with Elizabeth, she became increasingly independent, strategically cultivating political alliances and taking the lovers Massie asserts fathered her children, though other biographers find the historical record more ambiguous.Īfter Elizabeth’s death in 1761, Peter’s reign as emperor was brief. Brought to Russia as a teenager and married off by the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to her awkward, unattractive, and increasingly bizarre nephew and heir, Peter (who trained dogs in his private apartments, organized his servants into military parades, and refused to consummate the marriage), Catherine was at first enchanting and anxious to please: the ideal princess bride.
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