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'etat 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 Louis Caravaque, 1745)
An equestrian portrait of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna from before 1749
Peter III of Russia
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Peter III Fyodorovich was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when his wife, Catherine II, overthrew him in a palace coup d'état. He implemented many notable reforms d
Portrait by Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt, c. 1761
Engraving of Peter as a child in the 1730s.
Portrait of Grand Duke Pyotr Feodorovich by Georg Christoph Grooth, 1743
Peter's 1746 letter to his wife in French, the language of the Russian aristocracy