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Cake day: June 7th, 2025

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  • I appreciate Taylor Swifts achievements, but come on guys… Catherine_the_Great

    1. Seized Power with Surgical Precision: Orchestrated a coup against her unpopular husband Peter III by winning over the military and elites. He was dead within days and she ruled unchallenged for 34 years.

    2. Mastered Identity Politics: German-born, she rebranded herself as Russian: converted to Orthodoxy and learned the language and then used it to rally national pride and loyalty.

    3. Talked Enlightenment, Ruled Autocracy: She courted philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot, published liberal-sounding reforms (Nakaz), and branded herself as a “philosopher queen”, while keeping tight control and strengthening the nobility.

    4. Turned lovers into loyal lieutenants — military commanders, diplomats, advisors — then replaced them when they weren’t useful anymore.

    5. Expanded Without Overextending: Catherine outmaneuvered rivals in wars and diplomacy: took Crimea through influence, took parts of Poland through alliances, beat the Ottomans by maneuvering.