Catherine the Great (1729–1796) — born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst — was Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796, who overthrew her own husband in a coup and turned Russia into a European great power through territorial expansion, administrative reform and Enlightenment patronage.
Under her, Russia annexed Crimea, partitioned Poland three times, and pushed to the Black Sea; she wrote to Voltaire and Diderot as a fellow philosopher while tightening serfdom at home. The contradiction — enlightened abroad, autocratic at home — is the whole story of her reign.
