Look at the maps in the textbook and find the places listed below in relationship to the following: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Istanbul (Constantinople). Explain, in Russian, why these places are important for our understanding of the rule of Catherine the Great.

Read the questions below and find the answers in the text.

1. How was Catherine the Great influenced by Western European philosophy?
2. In what ways was Catherine the Great truly Russian, even though she was born a German princess?
3. How did Catherine the Great manage to assume the Russian throne even though she had no legal right to do so?
4. What were the major social, political, and economic accomplishments of her reign?
5. What were the major foreign policy achievements of Catherine the Great?
6. Go back to section 7–2 and review the chronology. Find the events in the chronology that are referenced in the text.

1. What is the author’s attitude toward Catherine the Great? Identify words and phrases that convey implicitly or explicitly the author’s attitude or ideological perspective, bringing evidence from the text to support your argument.
2. Did the information in the text depart from what you had previously read or thought about Catherine the Great?