Taken from Catherine at birth and raised by his great aunt, Empress Elizabeth, and tutor, Minister Panin, Paul never formed a loving relationship with Catherine. The brutal, conniving and ambitious ...

Born without a drop of Russian blood inside her veins, the German-born Sophie Friederike Auguste died as Catherine the Great of Russia, whose successful 34-year reign became known as the ‘Golden Age ...

In 1745, after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, and changing her name to Catherine, she married Grand Duke Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the Russian throne.

Catherine the Great was the most powerful woman of her time, whose 34-year reign, the longest by any female in Russian history, transformed her adopted homeland into a global superpower. Her time as ...