Catherine the Great

She was an insignificant German princess from Stettin, daughter of an impoverished duodec prince: Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst, called Fieke. At just fourteen, she was sent to Russia to marry her cousin Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, a year her senior, whom his aunt, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth, had designated as her successor. Sophie became Catherine. She converted to the Orthodox faith, learned Russian, became interested in Russian culture and its traditions. She endured the horrors of marriage at the side of her unloved and sadistic husband. On December 25, 1761, he ascended the Russian throne as Tsar Peter III. Seven months later he was dead. Dethroned and murdered. At the age of thirty-three, Catherine ascended the throne and, as sole ruler, guided the destiny of the vast Russian Empire for over forty-seven years.