Catherine Seizes the Russian Throne

July 9, 1762

Six months after her husband Peter III alienated his guards by pro-Prussian posturing, Catherine - a minor German princess - led the Preobrazhensky regiment in a bloodless coup. Peter was strangled in custody a week later. Europe got its most formidable empress for the next thirty-four years. She would expand Russia to the Black Sea, partition Poland, correspond with Voltaire, and commission the Hermitage collection.