Someone said of Putin: "Russia's wings rise sharply when it falls!" "Throughout the history of Russia, there have been many people who have turned the tide like him, but if there is any woman who can compare with him, it is only Catherine.
Putin
This person is known as the female emperor of Russia, and she once made such a bold statement: "If I can live to be two hundred years old, the whole of Europe will crawl at my feet!" ”
Unfortunately, Catherine only lived to be 67 years old. During the 35 years of her iron-fisted rule, Russia's territory expanded by 670,000 square kilometers. Therefore, almost everyone has a convinced and regretful attitude towards her bold words.
Unlike many traditional russian royal aristocrats, Catherine's life was full of ups and downs, and she was even looked down upon.
"Thirty years of Hedong, thirty years of Hexi, do not deceive the poor." Perhaps it is precisely such a counterattack experience that can make the iron-blooded Putin also admire it.
Catherine
What kind of legend does this empress have? What miracles has she done? Today, I will lead you to know the only female emperor of Russia: Catherine!
The Queen's Marriage
Catherine was born in 1729 in Prussia. His father was a prominent duke of the local Principality of Anhalt, and his speech was very weighty. Born into an aristocratic family, overall, the first half of her life was quite good.
In the midst of play, Catherine had an unforgettable childhood. Unlike many girls her age, Catherine did not like toys and games such as dolls, she was very lively from an early age, like running around, like a boy.
Catherine's mother wanted her to be a "famous bridesmaid" and obey all the rules of the kingdom and the family, but Catherine was very disgusted with these rules, she liked freedom and did not like to be bound by so-called dogma. In this environment, Catherine slowly grew up.
Catherine in the movie
According to the predetermined trajectory of life, Catherine will gather thousands of pets and become the little princess of the principality. However, due to the inconspicuousness of this small principality at that time, Catherine's family wanted to strengthen their own power, and made a lot of efforts to do so, and the fate of the little princess changed.
Catherine was a beautiful woman who came out very beautifully before she was too old. It is a fortunate thing to put on ordinary people, but for the princes and nobles, the beautiful little princess is destined to fall victim to political marriage. This was not uncommon at the time, and for generations to come, Russian royalty and nobles had been married to other fiefdoms, which seemed to have become an unwritten rule.
At the recommendation of his family, King Frederick the Great of Prussia met catherine and named her as a link with the Russian Empire, completely changing Catherine's life. Soon after, the little princess was promised to Russia and married Elizabeth's successor, Peter.
Catherine and Peter
Although prussia was still alive at the time, they did not care about this in the presence of the mighty Russians. When Catherine passed the door, they did not treat the princess in the slightest, not only did the ministers in the palace not take her seriously, but even Catherine's husband Peter did not care much about his wife. At that time, Catherine was only 14 years old, but she was mature in her mind and had already understood the purpose of this marriage.
Don't fool the young and poor
Playing iron also needs to be hard, and Catherine knows that if she wants to gain a foothold in the Russian Palace, everything must be worked on her own. So during this unpopular phase, Catherine worked hard every day to improve herself.
When she first arrived, catherine's first difficulty was in Russian. Because this was not the case in her early education, she could hardly understand anything in the palace, no one wanted to teach Catherine to speak Russian, she had to learn it herself.
Catherine buried herself in a book, carefully learned Russian pronunciation, and finally practiced fluent Russian, even the native Russians could not hear the slightest difference.
Catherine knew that she had not married here to be an angry daughter-in-law. Behind her, arguably the entire Kingdom of Prussia, she represents her hometown.
Catherine began to judge the situation, and after observing her, she slowly discovered that the whole Queen Elizabeth of Russia was the one who said the most. Even if everyone doesn't like themselves, as long as they can win the hearts of Queen Elizabeth, they can get an enviable status.
Catherine began to try to get close to the queen and tried to please her. Queen Elizabeth, though condescending, admired Catherine, who saw amazing potential in this young woman.
As a wise man, Catherine knew exactly how to please Queen Elizabeth. She began to take the initiative to learn court etiquette, changing the style of "bastard boys" in her early years, and became what her mother hoped she would be. Not only that, but knowing that Elizabeth believed in orthodoxy, Catherine also took the initiative to contact the Orthodox Church and eventually became a devout believer in the Orthodox Church.
It was all in queen Elizabeth's eyes. Slowly, the queen fell in love with this woman. She was gentle and generous, knowledgeable, knowledgeable in all things, and believed in Orthodoxy, and Elizabeth was very happy that such a woman could become the wife of her son.
Empress Elizabeth and Catherine
With the improvement of her ability, Catherine also began to slowly enter the vision of the ministers. The ministers noticed that Catherine seemed to have extraordinary abilities. She seemed better suited to the throne than Peter.
Peter, who had become a family at this time, was more like an unmotivated young man, who only knew how to eat, drink and have fun every day, flirted with the maids in the palace, and did not pay any attention to the affairs of the state.
And most importantly, Peter was a man who didn't know how to respect people. He often insulted the ministers around him because of a small problem. Many ministers were very surprised by this, knowing that before this, Peter was a very polite man in words and deeds, why did he become like this now? Was it all pretended to be shown before?
At this time, Peter still looked down on Catherine. Catherine did not complain, she continued to study, whether political or military, as long as it was helpful to govern the country, she had a mastery.
However, as the relationship between husband and wife became more and more cold, Catherine's position was already in jeopardy, in order to preserve her identity in the palace, Catherine must give birth to a boy, and the term "mother and son" is not outdated in any era and any place.
But even through hard work, he gave birth to his son Paul, and only temporarily retained his position in the palace. Here in her husband, she is still very unpopular. If you want to really sit on real power, you must draw ministers into small groups to counter the pressure peter puts on him.
So Catherine began to woo the princes and ministers, and many of the excluded forces fell to Catherine's side. In their view, sooner or later the dynasty would be defeated at the hands of Peter, and it was better to fight, believing that Catherine had the ability to lead the Russian Empire to strength.
Peter
But not everyone thought so, and some ministers discovered what Catherine had done and turned around and reported it to the Empress. Upon hearing this news, Elizabeth was very angry, and she did not allow anyone to rebel under her own eyes, not to mention that the person was her daughter-in-law.
However, due to the prussian Empire, the Empress did not openly challenge Catherine, but exiled the ministers who had fallen to Catherine. This did not work out, and Catherine became more aware of the dangers of her situation.
It will eventually become a great cause
On December 25, 1976, Empress Elizabeth died and Peter succeeded to the throne. Catherine, though naturally queen, became increasingly unpopular with Peter. Although the two are still nominally husband and wife, they are just in the same bed and different dreams, and many times, the two do not even share a bed.
At this time, Peter became more wanton, and even openly denigrated Catherine's life in the palace. Although angry, but because she did not have the ability to openly confront Peter, Catherine had to swallow her anger.
No one knows what Catherine was thinking during that time, we only saw the results, this strong woman did not give up changing the status quo, and has been plotting a "rebellion".
As the relationship grew stiffer, Catherine broke up with Peter once and for all. In order to anger Catherine, Peter often took different maids to bed, and Catherine was not willing to show weakness, and there were different male companions around her. Peter didn't care about this at all, because the two no longer had any marital love, and the so-called marriage had already existed in name only.
But in terms of finding a "lover", Peter is no match for Catherine in any way, Peter only likes young and beautiful maids, and Catherine often associates with capable political strongmen. All of these people have a common trait, which is their ability to help Catherine politically.
Because of Peter's political incompetence, the country is inevitably degenerating. Many of the ministers looked at the eyes and were anxious in their hearts, many of them had worked in the royal palace for generations, and their feelings for the royal family were very deep, and naturally they did not want to see this scene, so they began to intentionally or unintentionally alienate Peter and turn to the more capable Catherine. This time no one reported it again, because the whistleblowers were all solved by Catherine.
Catherine's power grew, and even the obtuse Peter was aware of it, and it was too late when he wanted to take steps to restrain his wife. At this time, the two have completed the offensive and defensive conversion, and the person in the inferior position has changed from Catherine to Peter.
At the end of June 1962, Catherine staged a palace coup and won the victory. In her coronation declaration, she called the power struggle "the choice of the Russian people"!
Catherine ascended the throne
At this time, more than 30 years have passed since Catherine married into Russia. For more than 30 years, Catherine has endured countless inhuman treatment, and has been met with countless sneers, but she has never bowed to life and has come to this day step by step.
After ascending the throne, Catherine had to face a very real problem, that is, how to govern the country. The country peter left behind can be described as a mess, and many ministers were anxious for Catherine, afraid that Catherine would not be able to solve such a situation, and began to advise Catherine. But Catherine had her own plans, and she had been prepared for all of this.
Catherine had read many books, and she knew that knowledge could change a person's life, so she first reformed her thinking. Catherine was an influencer of the Enlightenment, and the policies she introduced largely changed the backward state of mind in Russia, and since then, Russia's capable people have emerged one after another.
At the same time, Catherine adhered to the principle of meritocracy, recruited many able people, and injected a steady stream of fresh blood into the decaying Russian royal family. Political changes have also allowed Russia's economy to take off. During Catherine's tenure, Russia's economy soared and it rose to the ranks of European powers.
Catherine the Great
In addition, Catherine had great ambitions, and she was determined to open up the territory, so she ordered the army to expand all the way to the southwest. Under her leadership, the Russian army was invincible and soon encroached on many surrounding countries. Not only that, in the face of the enemy who once occupied her own national territory, Catherine was also unrelenting, not only taking back her territory from them, but also dividing it up.
During her tenure, Catherine's prestige reached its peak, and countless Russians surrendered to her queen. Catherine was also an approachable queen, very lenient to her people, and often promulgated policies to benefit the people.
It is worth mentioning that during her 35-year reign, Catherine expanded 670,000 square kilometers of land for Russia. Looking at the entire history of Russia, there are only a few monarchs who can do this. No one did not believe that if Catherine had lived, Russia would have become stronger than ever. However, in 1796, when catherine was less than 70 years old, she fell ill and came to the end of her life.
From an unpopular "little princess" to a generation of "female emperors", Catherine's life is comparable to a counterattack, but we should not only see Catherine's scenery, but also see her efforts behind her back. Putin has repeatedly publicly expressed his admiration for Catherine and used it as his role model.
For the Russian people, it is lucky to have a queen like Catherine, and it is also lucky to have a president like Putin. As Russia's last trump card, I wonder how far Putin can lead Russia?