Each member of the book club at my local library reads a different book on the same topic. The topic for our meeting in July was biography or memoir. I originally thought of reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. However, one our members is retired from IT and avoids it like crazy. So I looked elsewhere. I remember that a member of my other book club recommended a biography of Catherine the Great of Russia. I checked in with her to find out which book that was. It turned out to be Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.

Last year I started watching a Russian television production on Amazon Prime entitled Ekaterina that was about Catherine the Great, so I was already familiar with the early part of her story. She was German minor nobility and was born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst. She met her future husband, her second cousin Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and grandson of Peter the Great, on a trip to Berlin when she was ten. The marriage was later arranged by Peter the Great’s daughter and then Empress of Russia, Elizabeth. She renamed her nephew Peter and designated him as her successor. He hated Russia and worshiped Frederick the Great and all things Prussian. After Catherine married him, he refused to consummate the marriage preferring to play soldier. Catherine was forced to conceive an heir by another man. After Elizabeth died, Peter became Emperor Peter III. This was short lived. He was viewed by the nobility as not reliable. Catherine had gotten the nobility and the Russian people on her side. With their help, she overthrew her husband and became Empress Catherine.

She was an unusual woman in history and for her time. While believing enlightened monarchy was the only right government for Russia, she loved Russia and her people. She was also a woman who desired love and companionship though she never quite found a satisfying partner. Grigory Potemkin came closest to a true love and may have been her second husband. However, he could never quite get over his jealousy of her former lovers. Still very much in love, they lived the last years of their marriage separated. Catherine was also an astute politician, patron of the arts, and supporter of Enlightenment ideas.

The major thread of this biography is Catherine’s humanity. She is a whole person that we get to know. Her life was challenging, but she was strong. The other people in the book also show up as real people. That’s what stands out. This is not dry, boring history. This is the fascinating story of Russian leaders living their lives. You can’t get a more vivid portrait of this woman or her times.

My rating: 5/5