Why Was Catherine So Great?

Today’s leaders could learn a lot from this woman

A painting of Catherine the Great by Johann Baptist von Lampi, c. 1780s (Wikimedia Commons — image resized by Author)

When Catherine II became Empress of Russia in 1762, foreign observers doubted her potential. Newspapers in Great Britain and France were highly skeptical, and many believed she would be gone in a matter of months.

But they were wrong. Catherine ruled the Russian Empire for a total of thirty-four years. And…