Seduction, Motherhood, and confrontation
"My name is Catherine the Second".
From the Book - Random House trade paperback edition.
Part I. A germain princess
Frederick II and the journey to Russia
The making of a grand duke
Meeting Elizabeth and Peter
A pilgrimage to Kiev and transvestite balls
Part II. A painful marriage
Choglokov makes an enemy and Peter survives a plot
A bath before easter and a coachman's whip
Reading, dancing, and a betrayal
Part III. Seduction, motherhood, and confrontation
A dead rat, an absent lover, and a risky proposal
Part IV. "The time has come!"
Panin. Orlov, and Elizabeth's death
The brief reign of Peter III
"We ourselves know not what we did"
Part V. Empress of Russia
The government and the church
"Madame Orlov could never be empress of Russia"
Catherine and the enlightenment
"All free estates of the realm"
The frost partition of Poland and the first Turkish war
Doctors, smallpox, and plague
The return of "Peter the third"
The last days of the "Marquis de Pugachev"
Part VI. Potemkin and favoritism
Catherine and Potemkin: Passion
Catherine and Potemkin: separation
Part VII. "My name is Catherine the second"
Catherine, Paul and Natalia
Paul, Maria, and the succession
Potemkin: builder and diplomat
Crimean journey and "Potemkin villages"
The second turkish war and the death of Potemkin
Art, architecture, and the bronze horseman
"They are capable of hanging their king from a lamppost!"
Dissent in Russia, final partition of Poland
The death of Catherine of the great.