The Memoirs of Catherine the Great Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    This is the fourth English translation of her final and also fullest and longest memoir, and only the second complete translation; moreover, we are the first translators to study Catherine’s original manuscript. 9 We also translated her outline for the memoir, noting what she crossed out and added as she was writing. Our goal has been an accurate, readable translation that conveys her voice, which combines a well honed art of plain speaking with a vigorous style of thought. In fact, Catherine tells us that how she writes is essential to her rhetorical purpose: “Besides, this writing itself should prove what I say about my mind, my heart, and my character.” 10 Catherine appears to have sought and found a profound connection between herself and her writing. For more than fifty years, she used her autobiographical writing to understand herself as a human being, a woman, and an Empress. She wrote to take stock of her life and reign. Catherine also wrote to persuade future readers, for each memoir contains a different overall rhetorical purpose related to her concerns at the time she was writing.
    This preface traces Catherine’s autobiographical impulse over the course of an extraordinarily rich, accomplished, and controversial life. She expected her readers to be familiar with the history of her reign, which she does not recount in the memoir. Those eager to encounter Catherine and her memoir directly with no further introduction should have a sufficient overview of her reign and her memoirs from the preceding few pages. The remainder of this preface illuminates in detail the historical context, legacy, and uniqueness of Catherine’s memoirs. It addresses the importance of writing to Catherine’s rule and reputation abroad, the influence of the memoirs on Catherine scholarship since her death, and the genesis and unusual structure of this significant, original document. It brings together literary and historical analyses of the memoirs in a contribution to Catherine scholarship that is meant to be informative for those encountering Catherine for the first time and for experts alike.
    A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF A GREAT LIFE
    Born on April 21, 1729, Princess Sophie Auguste Frederike von Anhalt-Zerbst died of a stroke on November 6, 1796, as Empress Catherine II of Russia. The space between her birth and death is divisible into three parts; with each transformation of her identity, Catherine acquired a different title and name to match her new role. From 1729 to 1744, she was Princess Sophie, the daughter of German nobles; from 1745 to 1762, she was Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna, wife of the heir to the Russian throne and mother of his son and successor; and finally, from 1762 to 1796, she was Empress Catherine II. The opening of her last memoir indicates that her mother’s family connections—more than Catherine’s personality, experiences, or desire for glory—paved the way for her marriage to Peter III, who was Catherine’s second cousin. Catherine’s mother, Princess Johanna Elisabeth (1712–60), came from the same German family as Peter III, the house of Holstein-Gottorp (1544 –1773). 11 Peter’s father, Karl Friedrich (1700–39), was Princess Johanna’s paternal first cousin and married Anna Petrovna (1708–28), the eldest daughter of Peter I, “the Great” (1672–1725). 12 In addition to her cousin’s marriage, Princess Johanna had another connection to the Russian royal family: her brother Karl August had been engaged to Anna’s sister, the future Empress Elizabeth, but had died before the wedding. 13 These ties to the Russian royal family assumed great importance for Catherine when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1741 and brought Anna’s orphaned son Peter to Russia as her heir. A year later, when Elizabeth sought a wife for her nephew and heir, she chose her dead fiancé’s niece Catherine.
    According to Catherine’s early and middle memoirs, Princess