Book Review: Catherine the Great and the Expansion of Russia

My 12th-grade teacher of European History, upon beginning his lecture about the rule of Catherine the Great (1762-1796), dismissed as utter fantasy a ridiculous, ribald anecdote about the death of the German-born empress. Although promiscuous by 18th-century standards, Catherine restricted her liaisons to human beings, and the story about being accidentally crushed by a male bovine was, quite frankly, a lot of. . . "She died in bed, a 67 year-old grandmother," my teacher assured us.

Catherine the Great and the Expansion of Russia, by British historian Gladys Scott Thomson, is the kind of book that you would buy at a flea market or a library paperback sale. This is not to the book's detriment, but you would never find this handy biography in a Barnes and Noble or Borders, because it would be out of place alongside the new bestsellers in their shiny dust jackets.

First published in 1940 by the Macmillan Company, then again in 1962 by Collier Books, Catherine the Great offers a good overview of the reign of one of Russia's most well-known rulers, and is likely to leave the reader with a profound respect for Catherine. The latter may be tempered by the fact that Thomson all but exonerates Catherine from complicity in several dark doings, among them the murder of her estranged husband, Peter III. That Catherine actively participated in the coup against Peter Thomson does not dispute, but implies that the new empress was actually shocked to learn of her husband's untimely demise. In Chapter 7, which deals with a rebellion by a Cossack named Pugachev, Thomson writes that upon the rebel leader's capture, the empress refused to allow him to be tortured. He was, however, dragged back to Saint Petersburg in a cage and probably subjected to deplorable prison conditions before being executed.

Of Catherine's numerous affairs Thomson writes tactfully, with not the least hint of disapproval. She makes Catherine out to be more progressive than promiscuous, a point with which modern readers will likely agree. Her husband by all accounts was an abusive louse who, as was the custom of male rulers, had no dearth of mistresses. So why should Catherine be faithful to him? As for her continuing with her string of lovers post-Peter, the author seems to imply "Why should Catherine have had to be lonely?" Thomson omits any of the juicier details of Catherine's affairs, details which really would not fit with the tone of this particular biography.

Catherine the Great provides many details of the empress's life with which the casual student of European history will not be familiar. The fact that Catherine's real name was Sophie Auguste Frederika. The fact that she was the daughter of a Pomeranian prince. The fact that she carried on a long correspondence with the French writer Voltaire until the latter's death. And the fact that there was virtually no affection between her and her son, Paul, who succeeded her, but was assassinated less than five years into his reign.

Thomson compresses a lot of information into 200 pages, especially the constant wars, rebellions and uprisings with which 18th-century Europe was plagued. I would have liked to have learned more about the military tactics and the weaponry employed by Prussian emperor Frederick the Great, for example, but that could be an entire book in itself. Reading about the battles and invasions, I was particularly struck by the tragic example of Poland, invaded, brutalized and partitioned among Austria, Prussia and Russia. I wondered how Polish language and culture has managed to survive such a forced multi-cultural onslaught. There is so much information, particularly names, that the reader may be hard-pressed to remember. If the author mentions poet Michael Lomonosov on page 38, and not again until page 188, the reader will probably forgot who Lomonosov was.

Thomson's verbiage is a bit haughty, a bit overly-erudite at times, and she demonstrates her predilection for extremely long sentences, like this example from page 154:

When therefore, in 1788, Pitt for England and the Foreign Minister
Hertsberg for Prussia had concluded the Triple Alliance for which the
United Provinces were the third party, both had had in mind the necessity
of putting some check upon the ambitions of Russia and Austria, although
the preliminary object of the alliance had been the safety of the third
adherent.

There are many examples like that.

This book is not likely to attract many young readers (I am 42), but is lively enough to be interesting and scholarly enough to be taken seriously. Catherine the Great demands concentration, and is not a volume that you zip through quickly, but this book will likely leave you with a lasting impression of Catherine II and a new appreciation for Russian history.