I stopped tonight in Chapter XVIII, “Catherine the Great: 1762–96,” about five minutes into the final section, “Journey’s End.”
Durant paints an extraordinarily detailed portrait of Catherine. She had serious faults, but he makes it surprisingly difficult simply to dislike her. Part of that comes from the fairness of his treatment. He judges her political abilities and private life against the conduct of contemporary male sovereigns rather than imposing a different moral standard because she was a woman.
I had not realized that Catherine was German-born, nor had I appreciated how remarkable her adaptation to Russia was. Her love life was certainly colorful, but I was struck by Durant’s account of how rarely she seems to have acted vindictively toward former lovers. Even when relationships ended, she often continued to treat them generously.
Her husband Peter III is the obvious exception, though even there the history remains ambiguous. Catherine overthrew and imprisoned him, and he soon died mysteriously in custody. I am not convinced she personally ordered his death, although she unquestionably benefited from it and created the political circumstances in which it occurred.
Durant also makes clear just how intelligent, energetic, and politically capable Catherine was. I had never fully appreciated the extent of Russia’s expansion during her reign. Crimea particularly caught my attention. Modern Russian rhetoric sometimes speaks as though Crimea were eternally Russian, yet Russia did not formally annex it until 1783 under Catherine. Its history before that was far more complicated.
The same is true of the struggle over the Black Sea, the Bosporus, and the routes into the Mediterranean. Durant makes modern geopolitics feel much less new. The strategic importance of those waterways stretches back through the Ottomans, Byzantines, Romans, Greeks, and beyond.
By this point Durant leaves little mystery about why history attached “the Great” to Catherine’s name. The title does not mean she was morally flawless. It means she possessed unusual political intelligence, resilience, ambition, and historical consequence.
I stopped tonight in Chapter XVIII, “Catherine the Great: 1762–96,” about five minutes into the final section, “Journey’s End.”
Durant paints an extraordinarily detailed portrait of Catherine. She had serious faults, but he makes it surprisingly difficult simply to dislike her. Part of that comes from the fairness of his treatment. He judges her political abilities and private life against the conduct of contemporary male sovereigns rather than imposing a different moral standard because she was a woman.
I had not realized that Catherine was German-born, nor had I appreciated how remarkable her adaptation to Russia was. Her love life was certainly colorful, but I was struck by Durant’s account of how rarely she seems to have acted vindictively toward former lovers. Even when relationships ended, she often continued to treat them generously.
Her husband Peter III is the obvious exception, though even there the history remains ambiguous. Catherine overthrew and imprisoned him, and he soon died mysteriously in custody. I am not convinced she personally ordered his death, although she unquestionably benefited from it and created the political circumstances in which it occurred.
Durant also makes clear just how intelligent, energetic, and politically capable Catherine was. I had never fully appreciated the extent of Russia’s expansion during her reign. Crimea particularly caught my attention. Modern Russian rhetoric sometimes speaks as though Crimea were eternally Russian, yet Russia did not formally annex it until 1783 under Catherine. Its history before that was far more complicated.
The same is true of the struggle over the Black Sea, the Bosporus, and the routes into the Mediterranean. Durant makes modern geopolitics feel much less new. The strategic importance of those waterways stretches back through the Ottomans, Byzantines, Romans, Greeks, and beyond.
By this point Durant leaves little mystery about why history attached “the Great” to Catherine’s name. The title does not mean she was morally flawless. It means she possessed unusual political intelligence, resilience, ambition, and historical consequence.