7 Catherine II 7that broke out in Moscow and a great uprising in 1773 led
by Yemelyan Pugachov, a former Cossack officer pretend-
ing to be the dead emperor Peter III. In June 1774
Pugachov’s Cossack troops prepared to march on Moscow,
but when war against Turkey ended in a Russian victory,
Catherine sent her crack troops to crush the rebellion.
Before her accession to power, Catherine had planned
to emancipate the serfs. Catherine saw very quickly, how-
ever, that emancipation would never be tolerated by the
owners, whom she depended upon for support. She recon-
ciled herself to serfdom and turned her attention to
organizing and strengthening the system, even imposing
serfdom on the Ukrainians who had until then been free.
Influence of Potemkin
In 1774 Grigory Potemkin, who had distinguished himself
in the war, became Catherine’s lover, and he was to play an
extensive political role. In Potemkin Catherine found an
extraordinary man whom she could love and respect and
with whom she could share her power. He had unlimited
powers, even after the end of their liaison, which lasted
only two years. Potemkin must be given part of the credit
for the somewhat extravagant splendour of Catherine’s
reign. He was treated as an equal by the empress up to the
time of his death in 1791.
The annexation of the Crimea from the Turks in 1783
was Potemkin’s work. Through that annexation and oth-
ers, Russia was in a position to threaten the existence of
the Ottoman Empire and to establish a foothold in the
Mediterranean. Catherine also sought to renew the alli-
ance with Austria, Turkey’s neighbour and enemy, and
renounced the alliance with Prussia and England. Yet, dur-
ing Catherine’s reign, the country did not become involved
in a European war.