Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

On November 5, 2011, in Book Review, by admin

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The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history.

Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer determination. Possessing a brilliant mind and an insatiable curiosity as a young woman, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers and, when she reached the throne, attempted to use their principles to guide her rule of the vast and backward Russian empire. She knew or corresponded with the preeminent historical figures of her time: Voltaire, Diderot, Frederick the Great, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette, and, surprisingly, the American naval hero, John Paul Jones.

Reaching the throne fired by Enlightenment philosophy and determined to become the embodiment of the “benevolent despot” idealized by Montesquieu, she found herself always contending with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom. She persevered, and for thirty-four years the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution that swept across Europe. Her reputation depended entirely on the perspective of the speaker. She was praised by Voltaire as the equal of the greatest of classical philosophers; she was condemned by her enemies, mostly foreign, as “the Messalina of the north.”

Catherine’s family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and enemies—all are here, vividly described. These included her ambitious, perpetually scheming mother; her weak, bullying husband, Peter (who left her lying untouched beside him for nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son and heir, Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her “favorites”—the parade of young men from whom she sought companionship and the recapture of youth as well as sex. Here, too, is the giant figure of Gregory Potemkin, her most significant lover and possible husband, with whom she shared a passionate correspondence of love and separation, followed by seventeen years of unparalleled mutual achievement.

The story is superbly told. All the special qualities that Robert K. Massie brought to Nicholas and Alexandra and Peter the Great are present here: historical accuracy, depth of understanding, felicity of style, mastery of detail, ability to shatter myth, and a rare genius for finding and expressing the human drama in extraordinary lives.

History offers few stories richer in drama than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, this eternally fascinating woman is returned to life.

Editorial Review

Once upon a time, there was a minor German princess named Sophia. She went on to become the world’s richest and most powerful woman, ruler of its then-largest empire, revered as “Catherine the Great.” Her accomplishments and shortcomings as an autocrat and a woman make for a remarkable saga, and though many have tried, there may be no better author to take on the daunting task of chronicling than Robert K. Massie, a seasoned biographer of the 400-year Romanov dynasty, most notably with Peter the Great: His Life and World, which won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Massie situates Catherine’s early life and three-decade reign amidst the tumult of the European Enlightenment, enriching his own narrative with telling excerpts of her letters and rich discussions of her political environment and personal motivations. The result is an utterly memorable book, a towering accomplishment, one of the year’s best in any genre. –Jason Kirk, Amazon.Com Review

Reader Review

I really enjoyed this biography of Catherine the Great. Like Robert K. Massie’s other biographies, *Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman* is well-researched and well-written. His deep connection and understanding of the ways of Imperial Russia are strangely effortless. He steps into his subject’s world and takes us there, too.

I was immediately struck by the way Massie made Catherine *accessible.* I felt empathy for her — an empathy I didn’t feel before. The story of her hideous marriage to Grand Duke Peter has been portrayed often in film and in print. All sources agree he was a monster who preferred his mistress to his wife, was scarred mentally as well as physically by small pox, and had he lived, would have gutted the Russian Orthodox Church — and probably brought down an entire empire. *Portrait of a Woman* shows not only how badly Catherine was treated by her so-called “husband” but also how quickly she learned the *game* of the Imperial Court. Catherine was beautiful and intelligent — and frankly, a better ruler than Peter could ever have been. She was well-read and well-educated in a time when most women couldn’t read or write. In order to survive in the court, she spent years honing her skills in diplomacy. When her husband didn’t produce an heir, she found a lover who would. I felt compassion for this Catherine, *because* she was resourceful and *because* she took action when it was needed. And some of those actions as Empress were taken with her subjects in mind.

Reading *Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman,* allowed me to rediscover a strong, intelligent woman who wanted to bring her Imperial Russia *forward.* In 1768, she and her son Paul were inoculated with small pox — hoping to show her subjects that there was a way to avoid getting a devastating case of the disease. This small act of bravery on her part was completely overshadowed by the epidemic of bubonic plague which decimated the population of Moscow and eventually led to rioting. How could I have forgotten these important pieces of history? And yet, I had. There are no new answers regarding the murder of Grand Duke Peter — did she or didn’t she? And as to Catherine’s relationships with other men in her life, it becomes apparent that there was always that underlying, chafing question of balance of power. (But on the whole, she had good relationships with her lovers; and she rewarded their loyalty.) Her own son, Paul, hated her — believing that she’d murdered his father, when he wasn’t Grand Duke Peter’s son in the first place. Paul punished her after her death by reinstating the right of male succession only.

Massie reintroduced me to the very human Catherine, who so loved her dogs that she had a special cemetery created for them at Tsarskoe Selo, And this flawed, yet generous Empress once made a gift of an expensive diamond ring to a serf — in spite of the uproar it caused. And finally, Catherine, who enjoyed books, reading and philosophy, purchased Voltaire’s library of books from his niece after he died. I liked seeing this side of Catherine the Great. I needed to be reminded that her passions and loves were varied as my own are varied.

I spent my weekend immersed in *Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman.* I was transported into Catherine’s life — and into a rich, harsh, ugly, beautiful, lost past. Massie’s latest biography joins *Nicholas Alexandra,* *Peter the Great: His Life and World,* and *The Romanovs: The Final Chapter* as must-have books about the rulers of Imperial Russia. – Kayla Rigney, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Catherine The Great: First She Read, Then She Ruled

NPR Book Review – November 5, 2011 (Excerpt)

How did a German princess from a minor noble family become the empress of Russia, and win the praise of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot and other giants of The Enlightenment? In Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Robert Massie explains the story of Catherine II, who ruled Russia for 34 years.

So how does a German teenager become the empress of Russia?

“That is what makes this such a great story,” Massie tells NPR’s Scott Simon. Empress Elizabeth — daughter of Peter the Great — couldn’t have children. Her nephew, who became Peter III, was raised in Germany, so Elizabeth reached out to his distant cousin — young, German Catherine — to be Peter’s wife, Massie explains.

The marriage wasn’t a happy one. “Peter was a very strange man, to put it mildly,” Massie says. “He was childish into his late adolescence, and he was strange throughout his life.”

Peter played with little toy soldiers all the time — and wasn’t particularly interested in his wife. “He was glad to see her, because she was German and he was German,” Massie says. “But he had no romantic or sexual interest in her at all.”

For the nearly two decades before she became empress, Catherine endured a miserable marriage; her husband didn’t pay attention to her, and she was under constant pressure from the empress to produce a child. To escape, she began to read. [Read the full article...]

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