Young Catherine (1991)
Director: Michael Anderson
Cast: Julia Ormond, Marthe Keller, Franco Nero, Christopher Plummer, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell
Made for cable costume drama about Catherine the Great of Russia.
The story of Young Princess Sophie winning the throne of Russia, taking a bit of intrigue and backstabbing. 15 year-old German princess Sophie (later Catherine) travels to Russia to visit the Empress Elizabeth of Russia and her nephew, the Grand Duke Peter, sole heir to the Russian throne, for the purpose of arranging a marriage of the young people.
But along the way, she falls in love with her handsome escort, Count Orlov, a soldier in Empress Elizabeth's Imperial Army. But Sophie likes the idea of becoming empress of Russia. Were it so easy: she is poisoned, has her name changed to Catherine, and suffers many trails with her mentally ill and cruel husband.
When the Russian Empress dies, Peter becomes Emperor of Russia. He then tries to get rid of Catherine. But it doesn't quite turn out that way.
Historical Background:
Catherine II, Empress of Russia. She was to have two husbands and at least eleven lovers.
1729 -- born April 21, Catherine was christened Sophia Augusta Petrovna in Strettin, Poland, (then Germany) into the family of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst.
1730-54 Sultan Mahmud I of the Ottoman Empire.
1744 -- Sophie and her mother, Johanna, arrive in Moscow to meet Empress Elizabeth on February 9. Sophie embraces the Orthodox religion and becomes Catherine Alexeyevna.
1745 -- she marries Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich of Holstein, heir to the Russian throne.
1752 -- Catherine takes a lover, Serge Saltykov, a Russian officer.
1754-57 Sultan Osman III. 1757-74 Sultan Mustafa III.
1757 -- Russia defeats Prussia.
1760 -- another lover, this one the Russian hero Gregory Orlov.
1761 -- Empress of Russia dies and Peter III succeeds to the throne.
1762 -- July 9, Catherine, with the Imperial Guards, overthrows her husband and is placed on the throne. Peter III is killed by the Orlovs and others while they were holding him as prisoner.
She continues Peter the Great's (1682-1725) reforms of the Russian state, further increasing central control over the provinces. Her rule was one of the most prosperous periods of the Russian Empire.
1763 -- Russia invades Lithuania.
1768 -- war with Turkey.
1771 -- Russia takes the Crimean Peninsula.
1772 -- with Prussia and Austria, divide Poland.
1773 -- Orlov out of favor.
1774-89 Sultan Abdόlhamid I.
1774 -- Catherine may have married Russian war hero Potemkin at the end of 1774 in St. Sampsons church, in a secret ceremony.
1776 -- after Potemkin leaves for an inspection tour, in January Catherine begins a relationship with Peter Zavadovsky, which lasts only until April of 1776. Potemkin returns to St. Petersburg and lives in a mansion connected to the Imperial Palace, remaining Catherine's favorite and a continuing influence on her. He chose her lovers.
1783 -- Potemkin annexes Crimea from Turkey.
1787 -- Turkey declares war on Russia.
1789 -- She fancied herself an intellectual of the Enlightenment, but with the French Revolution she turned against what she considered the dangerous books of the Enlightenment and undoes many of her liberal reforms.
1789-1807 Sultan Selim III.
1791 -- Peace Treaty of Jassy signed between Turkey and Russia.
1793 -- Second Partition of Poland.
1795 -- Third Partition of Poland.
1796 -- Catherine dies and her son Paul I succeeds her.
17961801 -- reign of Paul I.
18011825 -- reign of Alexander I.
18251855 -- reign of Nicholas I.
18551881 -- reign of Alexander II.
18811894 -- reign of Alexander III.
1894-1917 -- reign of Nicholas II.
1917 -- Russian Revolution.
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