lausibility is conferred on this belief
by the fact that the guards were manipulated by the four Orlov brothers.
The eldest, Gregory, was her recognized chief lover, and he was
associated with his brother Alexis in the office of favourite. On the
other hand, there does not appear to have been any need for
organization. The hatred felt for Peter III. was spontaneous, and
Catherine had no need to do more than let it be known that she was
prepared to profit by her husband's downfall. Peter, who behaved with
abject cowardice, was sent to a country house at Ropcha, where he died
on the 15th or 18th of July of official "apoplexy." The truth is not
known, and Frederick the Great at least professed long afterwards to
believe that Catherine had no immediate share in the murder. She had no
need to speak. Common-sense must have shown the leaders of the revolt
that they would never be safe while Peter lived, and they had insults to
avenge.

The mere fact that Catherine II., a small German princess without
hereditary claim to the throne, ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796 amid the
loyalty of the great mass of the people, and the respect and admiration
of her neighbours, is sufficient proof of the force of her character.
Her title to be considered a great reforming ruler is by no means
equally clear. Voltaire and the encyclopaedists with whom she
corresponded, and on whom she conferred gifts and pensions, repaid her
by the grossest flattery, while doing their best to profit by her
generosity. They made her a reputation for "philosophy," and showed the
sincerity of their own love of freedom by finding excuses for the
partition of Poland. There is a very great difference between Catherine
II. as she appears in the panegyrics of the encyclopaedists and
Catherine as she appears in her correspondence and in her acts. Her
foreign admirers amused her, and were useful in spreading her
reputation. The money they cost her was a small sum in comparison to the
L12,000,000 she lavished on her long series of lovers, who began with
Soltykov and Stanislaus Poniatowski (q.v.) before she came to the
throne, and ended with the youthful Platon Zubov, who was tenant of the
post at her death. She spent money freely on purchasing works of art and
curios. Yet she confessed with her usual candour that she had no taste
for painting, sculpture or music. Her supposed love of literature does
not appear to have amounted to more than a lively curiosity, which could
b