History vs. Russia’s most infamous empress - Carolyn Harris
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자막 (102 segments)
DownloadSo, who’s next? Catherine the... Great, is it?
Don't let the name fool you.
Catherine “the Great” started her rule by murdering her husband
and spent it oppressing the masses and intimidating anyone who questioned her.
These accusations of murder are highly speculative, Your Honor.
And Catherine’s rise to greatness is hardly so vulgar.
Born Princess Sophie Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst—
a region now part of Germany—
she was just a teenager
when Russia's Empress Elizabeth invited her to the Russian court in 1744.
A scheming teenager with only one goal:
to gain power by marrying the empress’ nephew and heir,
the future Peter III.
She bribed courtiers to support the marriage
and eventually convinced the Empress herself to bless their union.
All this despite later admitting she never had feelings for Peter.
Political marriages were hardly concerned with feelings.
Besides, Russia was lucky Catherine came along.
Not only was Peter notoriously bad-tempered,
he was also raised in Germany and preferred German customs,
making him an embarrassment in the Russian court.
Meanwhile, Catherine gave her life to Russia.
After the marriage, she changed her name, converted to the Russian Orthodox Church—
she even caught pneumonia staying up all night learning Russian!
Now, that’s dedication.
Your Honor, these remarks against Peter’s character are all slander.
Almost everything we know about his temperament
comes from Catherine’s scathing memoirs.
Well, here's something from the history books.
After Empress Elizabeth died in 1762,
Peter became an immediately unpopular ruler.
At the time, Russia had been fighting the Prussian European alliance
in the Seven Years’ War.
But Peter was so eager to protect his beloved Germany,
that he abruptly switched sides
Just as Russian troops were about to march on Berlin!
Many Russians saw this as disloyalty
from a man who preferred his former homeland to his real one.
Perhaps Peter would have had the time to become a great ruler
if Catherine hadn’t started a military coup
in which Peter was murdered just six months into his reign!
Objection! We don’t know for sure that Catherine was behind Peter’s death.
But we do know she handed him over as a prisoner to her lover and his brother,
who obviously wanted Peter dead.
This is all speculation, Your Honor.
What's more important is that Catherine's rule was supported
by prominent members of the military, church, and nobility.
Probably because she squashed anyone who opposed her.
Just look at Empress Elizabeth’s cousin Ivan VI.
He was next in line for the throne, so Catherine imprisoned him for life.
Uh, excuse me?
Actually, Elizabeth imprisoned Ivan when she overthrew him in 1741.
Catherine merely maintained this arrangement.
And decreed Ivan should be killed if anyone tried to save him.
Which is exactly what happened during a failed rescue attempt!
I won’t deny Catherine’s commitment to keeping the throne.
But she did so with the desire to move Russia into the future.
As a student of France's Enlightenment philosophy,
which preached freedom of thought and socially beneficial policies,
Catherine made the legal system less punitive, opened schools for girls,
guaranteed religious equality, and commissioned new hospitals.
She also promoted the arts and transformed Russia into a cultural center.
All ways to keep the masses happy and reduce the chance of revolution.
Besides, her “enlightened values” mostly improved life for urban nobles.
Catherine never helped the unpaid peasant workers known as serfs
because she knew it would turn the nobility against her.
Her approach to social reforms wasn’t perfect, but it was standard.
At the time, European monarchs with progressive ideas
called themselves “enlightened despots.”
They saw themselves as qualified to decide what ideology was best
for their subjects,
and Catherine was no exception.
She was exceptionally ruthless.
She participated in three partitions of Poland,
annexed Crimea to expand her empire,
and supported the colonization of Alaska and its Indigenous peoples.
At home, she brutally suppressed the Pugachev Peasant Revolt,
sending troops who killed hundreds of rebelling serfs
and ordering Pugachev to be publicly quartered and decapitated.
That doesn’t sound very “enlightened.”
Well, it only gets worse.
After the French Revolution of 1789,
Catherine grew paranoid about being overthrown.
She started associating the French Enlightenment
with the French monarchy’s collapse,
and turned her back on the movement's philosophical values.
She began censoring the publication of foreign books
and limiting free speech in the Russian court.
It's true that by the end of her life,
Catherine became increasingly reactionary.
But she still managed to raise a well-regarded successor.
Her grandson, Tsar Alexander I, led Russia to victory over Napoleon.
And her son, Paul I, who reigned between Catherine and Alexander,
was as ill-tempered as Peter III.
His brief reign also ended with assassination,
but not before he passed a law making female succession practically impossible.
In fact, Russia hasn’t had a female ruler since Catherine died in 1796.
I guess stubbornness runs in the family.
Strategic dalliances, military might, cutting-edge philosophy—
Catherine the Great used many tools to transform her country.
But taking a closer look at who prospered and who suffered under her rule
are all part of putting history on trial.
Key Vocabulary (50)
toward
"Go to school."
belonging
"Cup of tea."
also
"You and me."
inside
"In the house."
specific
"That book."
A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an object, animal, or situation that has already been mentioned or is clear from context. It is also frequently used as a dummy subject to talk about time, weather, or distance.
Used to show who is intended to have or use something, or to explain the purpose or reason for an action. It is also frequently used to indicate a specific duration of time.
A preposition used to indicate that people or things are together, in the same place, or performing an action together. It can also describe the instrument used to perform an action or a characteristic that someone or something has.
A pronoun used to refer to a male person or animal that has already been mentioned or is easily identified. It functions as the subject of a sentence.
A conjunction used to compare two things that are equal in some way. It is most commonly used in the pattern 'as + adjective/adverb + as' to show similarity.
A preposition used to indicate a specific point, location, or position in space. It is also used to specify a particular point in time or a certain state or activity.
Used to identify a specific person, thing, or idea that is physically close to the speaker or has just been mentioned. It can also refer to the present time or a situation that is currently happening.
A coordinating conjunction used to connect two statements that contrast with each other. It is used to introduce an added statement that is different from what has already been mentioned.
This word is used to show that something belongs to or is associated with a male person or animal previously mentioned. It functions as both a possessive determiner used before a noun and a possessive pronoun used on its own.
A preposition used to show the method or means of doing something, or to identify the person or thing that performs an action. It frequently appears in passive sentences to indicate the agent or before modes of transport.
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Catherine the Great presided over a golden age of Russian expansion — but was she a dedicated ruler or a ruthless oppressor? -- Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for over three decades,...
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