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
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
Paul I of Russia
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Paul I was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801.
Catherine the Great
…yet been consummated, as Catherine later claimed. Nonetheless, Catherine would eventually leave the final version of her memoirs to her son, the future Paul I, in which she explained why Paul had been Peter's son. Saltykov was used to make Peter jealous, and she did not desire to have a child with him; Catherine…
Tsarevich Paul as a child, by Fyodor Rokotov, 1761
Natalia Alexeievna by Alexander Roslin 1776
Maria Feodorovna, portrait by Alexander Roslin
Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, after Pompeo Batoni, 1782-1787