A historical work by the renowned expert on 18th-century Russian history Nikolai Ivanovich Pavlenko tells the astonishing story of the Russian empress Catherine the Great—born Sophia Frederica Augusta, a German princess from the backwater principality of Anhalt-Zerbst—who, by the will of fate, ascended the Russian throne and for almost thirty-five years ruled the great empire as an absolute monarch. It covers her extraordinary schemes and accomplishments, her romantic pleasures and her relationships with nobles, as well as the fate of Russia in the Catherine era—and much else besides.