Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin
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Count Alexey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was a Russian diplomat and chancellor. He was one of the most influential and successful diplomats in 18th-century Europe. As the chancellor of the Russian Empi
Chancellor bestuzhev
Portrait by Louis Tocqué
Bestuzhev's silver snuffbox with impressions of portrait medallions minted to his order.
Catherine the Great
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Catherine II, commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d'état against her husband, Peter III. Her long reign helped Russia thr
Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin
…political views. Still, his position remained most delicate, especially when the betrothal between Grand-Duke Peter and Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst (later Catherine II) took place against his will, and Elizabeth of Holstein, the mother of the bride, arrived to promote Prussian interests. Frederick II, conscious of the…
Portrait, 1780s
Catherine in her childhood, by Anna Rosina de Gasc, 1742
Catherine as Grand Duchess around the time of her marriage (portrait by Georg Christoph Grooth, 1745)
An equestrian portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna from before 1749