Neither a comprehensive 'life and times' nor a conventional biography, this is an engaging and accessible exploration of rulership and monarchial authority in eighteenth century Russia. Its purpose is to see how Catherine II of Russia conceived of her power and how it was represented to her subjects.  Simon Dixon asks essential questions about Catherin'es life and reign, and offers new and stimulating arguments about the Englightenment, the power of the monarch in early modern Europe, and the much-debated role of the "great individual" in history.

Empress, empire-builder, intellectual, art-collector, lover - this magnificent new biography does full justice to a truly remarkable ruler. When Catherine II died in St Petersburg in 1796, the world sensed the loss of the most celebrated monarch of Europe - something no one would have predicted at the birth 67 years before of an obscure German princess, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, later married off to the pathetic heir to the Russian throne. There was no greater transformation of fortunes in the 18th Century. Sophie/Catherine had come to rule in her own right over the largest state in existence since the fall of the Roman Empire. She was branded both a usurper and an assassin when she seized power from her wretched husband in 1762. Yet she survived the initial succession crisis, and went on to occupy the Russian throne for 34 years. In the process, she turned her new empire from peripheral pariah to European great power. Formidably (and self-) educated, she was extremely hard-working, with a commitment to ideas and a charismatic personality. She also flouted the conventions of female rule by consorting openly with twelve successive favourites, each younger than the last.

The fact that Catherine was a woman in a position of absolute power generated both the highest admiration and the most vicious satire. Simon Dixon's splendid book creates a fully rounded portrait as no other biography.

Simon Disxon is Professor Modern History at the University of Leeds in 1999. He is the author of The Moderisation of Russia, 1876-1825 (1999).

2004-08-06 An outstanding look at Catherine the Great as ruler

For anyone interested in understanding how Catherine the Great wielded power so effectively for over thirty years, Professor Dixon's erudite, engaging, and wonderfully readable book is the best there is on the subject.