In the 18th century, Empress Catherine the Second became one of the most successful rulers of Russia. During her reign from 1763 to 1796 she modernized Russia, strengthened the throne and Russian aristocracy, achieved significant improvements in all spheres of Russian life, liberalized some sectors of Russian society, positioned the nation as a significant player on the global stage and earned the official name of “Catherine the Great” for herself. One of the main driving factors behind her reforms was her embrace of popular ideas of Enlightenment to such an extent that she was widely known as the first Russian “enlightened despot”. Although her implementation of these ideas was inconsistent, incomplete, controversial and superficial, she deserves credit for her attempts to engrain foundations of human dignity, freedoms, rule of law in Russia and to gradually start turning Russian society towards these values.…show more content… When she turned fourteen, Empress Elizabeth, the leader of Russia at the time, came up with an idea to marry Sophia to her nephew Peter III and later invited her to Russia. After moving to Russia, Sophia completely changed her name to Catherine Alekseyvna and converted to Russian Orthodoxy. She became Empress with Peter III in 1745, but the marriage was unhappy. In 1762, after the death of Elizabeth, she overthrew Elizabeth’s heir and her husband Peter III in a coup with the help of her friend, count Grigory Orlov. She became Russian Empress on September 22, 1762
