The deliciously witty drama series ‘The Great’ tells the occasionally true story of Catherine II, Empress of Russia. It’s a wonderful example of why historic dramas should be taken as entertainment, not a history lesson. While playing fast and loose with history it actually sanitizes a lot of the scandal in her life by transforming Peter into a romantic antihero and making Catherine fall in love with him. In reality Catherine didn’t keep Peter around for a ‘will they, won’t they’ Hollywood romance. Her lover promptly strangled him in prison. Catherine the Great knew how to use her charm and sexuality, the only tools available to a woman of her time, both for her own advancement and her own pleasure. And while I love the great, it so far only captures a fraction of her true greatness. So let’s take a peek inside the imperial boudoir and get to know the Empress, her twisted relationship with Peter and her many lovers a little more intimately. And we’ll address that horrid rumor about the horse.

Sergei Saltykov

Stanislaw Poniatowski

Grigory Orlov

Alexander Vasilchikov

Grigory Potemkin

Pyotr Zavadovsky

Semyon Zorich

Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov

Alexander Lanskoy

Alexander Yermolov

Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov

Platon Zubov

Plus Peter’s Mistress, Elizaveta Vorontsova

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Intro Music: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell

Music: Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100303 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

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