Death of Catherine the Great

Painting of Catherine the Great by Fedor Rokotov (1763, Tretyakov gallery). Source WikiCommons.

Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst

Born: Slettin, Pomerania, 21 April (2 May) 1729

Died: Saint Petersburg, Russia, 6 (17) November 1796

Reigned: 1762-1796

Empress Catherine II died on this day, 6 November 1796 (17 November according to the Gregorian calendar), of a stroke in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  She was 67 years old.  Without her rising to the position she held for 34 years and her famous manifesto issued in 1763, there would be no Germans from Russia.  She brought Russia “from the mindset of the Middle ages into the modern world of the 18th century” and was the last ruling Tsarina of the Imperial Russian Empire. 

Catherine II the Great (1729-1796 - Find a Grave Memorial
Catherine the Great Biography - Saint Petersburg

The grand opening of the monument honoring Catherine the Great in Odessa, Russia in 1900.  Source: WikiCommons.

The monument honoring Catherine the Great in Odesa, Ukraine as it stood in 2017.
Photo by Dennis Bender, May 2017.

On the night of December 28-29, 2022, as Russia continued to wage war in Ukraine, the monument was disassembled and taken down in Odesa. RFE/RL

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Last updated 26 March 2025