This week you are getting a mini-episode on Catherine the Great.

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And I wanted to talk about Catherine, first because I’ve been reading about her and I find her life interesting, but also because she embodies a very interesting attribute that is different than many of the men I have talked about on this podcast: Adaptability.

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When you think about Napoleon or Steve Jobs or Vladimir Putin… many of these men attained such fabulous levels of success specifically because they were not flexible. They forced the world to adapt to them and their vision of the way things should be.

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But Catherine took a much different approach. She was a chameleon who could adapt to any circumstance. And she was able to accomplish just as much as anyone else with this approach. So let’s dig into her story a little.

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If you were to ask someone what they know about Catherine the Great, the one thing most people would tell you about her is that she’s Russian. And that’s probably it. Well, it turns out that the one that that one thing that they know about her is wrong.

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She was actually born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, in the German kingdom of Prussia. So how did she end up as Catherine the Great of Russia?

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When Sophie was in her early teens, the tsarina, or empress, of Russia at the time, was a woman by the name of Elizabeth. She had no children, and so when she died the crown was going to pass to her nephew. He too was born in Prussia, in the city of Kiel, and his birth name was Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, but he would later go by Peter at the Russian court, since Ulrich isn’t exactly Russian sounding. 

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The only problem was this Peter guy was a total weirdo. He was an alcoholic by the age of 10, he was sickly, reclusive, childish, aloof, and temperamental. 

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But Sophie and her family didn’t know any of this, and when Elizabeth proposed that Catherine be betrothed to Peter, her parents jumped at the opportunity. After all, creep or no creep, it’s not every day that your child gets the chance to become a czarina.

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So Peter and Sophie get engaged, and they show up to the royal court in St Petersburg and re-start their lives there, and their reactions could not be more different. Peter freaks out. He hates it in Russia. Germany in general, and Prussia specifically, was really the center of European culture during that era. This was the time of Bach and Leibniz, and luminaries like Joseph Haydn and Immanuel Kant were born in Germany around the same time as Sophie and Peter. But Russia could not have been more different. It was considered a backwater. There were not a lot of famous musicians and philosophers being born in Russia at the time.

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And so when Peter has to make this move, he acts about how you might expect. He grumbles and he pines for home and talks about how awesome Prussia is all the time. He’s really slow to learn the Russian language, in fact even by the end of his life it was said that he could barely speak passable Russian. He’s reclusive and keeps himself aloof of the day-to-day events of the palace.

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Sophie, on the other hand, learns quickly and is hyper-adaptable. She fully embraces her new home. She came to Russia in 1744, at the age of 15, and she converts to Russian Orthodoxy, changes her name to Catherine because it was a thoroughly Russian name whereas Sophie was not, she learns the Russian language, and immediately starts making friends and establishing connections in the Russian court.

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Not only was she adaptable, but she had natural gifts as well. Catherine was tall, intelligent, and beautiful. And not beautiful in a dainty way, but in a larger-than-life kind of way. She rather looked like an empress, and that probably helped her along the way. Listen to this description from a French visitor to St. Petersburg:

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“Her figure is noble and agreeably impressive; her gait majestic, her person and deportment graceful in the highest degree. Her air is that of a sovereign. Every feature proclaims a superior character. her mouth is sweetly fresh, and embellished by a singularly regular and beautiful set of teeth, the chin somewhat plump, and rather inclining to double, but without the smallest tendency to fatness. Her hair is chestnut-coloured, the eyes hazel, and extremely fascinating. her complexion is dazzlingly clear. Loftiness is the true character of her physiognomy, taken as a whole.”

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Catherine and Peter were married in August of 1745, and it was a pretty messed up relationship from the start. They frequently disagreed and fought, and Catherine would even later claim that they never consummated their marriage. This was almost certainly not true, but it lets you know what she thought of the guy that she would claim it.

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Things get even worse when the Czarina, Elizabeth, dies and Peter becomes Czar of Russia in 1762.

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At the time, Russia was allied with Austria and France against Prussia in the Seven Years War. And Peter didn’t like that, remember he was from Prussia and he loved Prussia, he still openly spoke about how awesome Prussia was and how much he missed it. Peter openly spoke at court about the superiority of Prussia and the German way of life, which as you might imagine, the Russian nobles didn’t love. 

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The king of Prussia, Frederick the Great was his idol. He probably had Frederick the Great posters up on his wall.

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Well, Peter became Czar just as the war against Prussia was going well for Russia. The Prussians had suffered heavy casualties and in spite of certain key victories, Frederick was losing badly. Russian dragoons even occupied Berlin for a period of time.

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But the last thing Peter wanted was for his new army to destroy the guy that he still fanboyed over. And so, not only did Peter offer peace to Frederick, he actually offered an alliance to Prussia. And at the cost of nothing. The Prussian territories that Russian men had fought and died over were immediately turned back over to the Prussians.

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I mean people accuse President Trump of having pro-Russian sympathies. But imagine if Trump was born in Russia, his birth name was actually Ivan Donald Medvedev, he barely spoke English and spoke it with a heavy Russian accent, he was openly saying that he wished our society was more Russian, that he preferred the Russian way of life, and then the first thing he did as president was give Alaska back to Russia. It wouldn’t go over well, to say the least. And that’s basically what’s going on here with Peter and it is NOT going over well, especially with the Russian nobles.

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Peace was struck between the Russians and Prussians, but there was anything but peace in St. Petersburg, where the Russian nobles were seething at the decision Peter had just made.

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Catherine was now Empress Consort, but because Peter spent most of his time at his preferred residence, which was secluded outside of St Petersburg, Catherine was the one who actually had more contact with the movers and shakers of the political scene.

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Peter’s unpopularity grew each week, especially among the nobility and the Church. His withdrawal from the war at the eve of victory was seen as unpatriotic and aristocratic officers were furious. Peter’s open distaste for the Russian Orthodox Church alienated Church officials. And he managed to offend one more important group: the rank and file soldiers of the army.

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The Izmailovsky Regiment was an elite group of royal guards stationed in the capital, and per Peter’s Prussian obsession, he redesigned their uniforms from their traditional Russian green to Prussian blue. This was considered a great insult to their honor. And this was an insane own-goal. There was no good reason for it. So now he’s surrounded by people who hate him: the aristocracy, the church, the soldiers, and last but certainly not least, his wife.

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He openly humiliated Catherine in public, especially in court. In one particular incident, he called Catherine a fool in front of dozens of uncomfortable on-lookers. The word echoed in the hall as no one spoke. Catherine burst into tears, unable to bear the public humiliation. In a letter to her friend, Catherine said that every insult that her husband shot at her would never be forgotten or forgiven. So she did what any upset wife would do, she plotted a coup to overthrow him.

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Catherine was quickly becoming convinced that her husband was a disaster as Tsar. By July 1762, Catherine and her court favorites had hatched a plot to overthrow Peter, which again, is pretty easy to do because he’s never actually at court, he’s in some palace outside of town.

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Having said that, Peter actually does find out about the conspiracy before it begins. One of his German-born agents arrests a conspirator and gets him to reveal the whole thing.

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But he doesn’t do anything about it. His response to this is to personally go search for Catherine at their residence.

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Catherine, on the other hand, springs into action as soon as she finds out that Peter has discovered her plan. This was an unexpected turn of events that threw her entire plan for a loop. The plan was not ready. But remember, one of Catherine’s key skills is adaptability. She immediately jumps into action. She visits the Izmailovsky Regiment, which is basically an elite regiment of guards for the royal family, and addresses them. 

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What happens next is one of the most famous episodes in the life of Catherine the Great. Standing before the Regiment, Catherine told a story of a treacherous husband who threatened his innocent wife with bodily harm. Peter was portrayed as a vile monster, which, let’s face it, wasn’t a hard sell for the Russians. Catherine implored the Imperial Guard to protect her from her wicked husband. She then led the troops toward Peter’s palace on horseback. Catherine cut a striking figure. Tall, beautiful, and extremely gifted on horseback, she reveled in the fact that she cut a more imposing military figure than her feeble husband. And this is in the 1700s in Russia. 

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Soon after the soldiers pledged their loyalty to Catherine, the Orthodox Bishops quickly hailed her as the rightful heir to the throne. And that just about sealed it. And so, on July 9th, 1762, Catherine was declared Tsarina of the Russian Empire.

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As Tsarina, she would expand Russian territory through war and conquest, enact reforms in art, education, health, and government, and transform Russia into a modern European state and one of the great world powers.

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Her two great twin attributes were ambition and flexibility. This combination allowed her to take advantage of the opportunities that were presented to her and deftly deal with any obstacles or setbacks that arose.

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Born the German-Lutheran Sophie, she made her name as Tsarina Catherine of Russia, protector of Orthodox Christians. Her goals and her identity shifted completely over the course of her life. But the one thing that never changed was her belief in herself.

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And I think that’s the legacy of Catherine.

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Thanks for tuning in to this episode of How to Take Over the World. You can learn more at HTTOTW.com, that’s the first letter of each word of How to Take Over the World. You can find extra images, information, and updates on Instagram at the handle HTTOTW. And as always, you can email me at Ben@httotw.com. Until next time, thanks for listening.

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