Personality: Catherine was incredibly generous. Growing up, she did not have much money. But once she arrived in Russia, she spent freely, mostly on gifts. The then Grand Duchess sent money back home for the education of her younger brother. She also presented her courtly friends with gifts. She desperately wanted Russians to like and accept her, and she soon discovered that gifts pleased everyone. Her lovers, too, she showered with gifts. She gave them nobility titles, money, palaces, lands, sometimes entire towns. And after the relationships ended, she gave them magnificent partying gifts. Her lover Alexander Vasilchikov received properties and a pension of 20,000 rubles. She built huge, gorgeous palaces for Orlov and Potemkin. The latter, she made a prince. Another of her lovers, Semyon Zorich, received a state in Saint Petersburg near her own palace, and another in Shklov, which had an 8,000 ruble income. And that is just a small recount of what she gave them. When she found out that Diderot, a French writer Catherine admired, was impoverished, she extended a helping hand. First, she bought his private library. She paid upfront but told him to keep his books until his death. Then, she gave him a yearly pension. And finally, she gave him 50-years of pensions in advance. That was not an isolated case. Catherine was generous through and through. Catherine was beautiful and intelligent. Even though she seemed stately and imposing in some of her portraits, she was barely five feet tall and she was described as friendly and approachable and had "a great desire to please". She had a deep maternal instinct for ruling her country but she also believed that Russians needed a firm hand. Among the signs posted outside a room at the Winter Palace where she entertained guest were: "pretensions founded on the prerogatives of birth, pride or other sentiments of a like nature, must also be left at the door" and "Speak with moderation, and not too often, in order to avoid being troublesome to others." Catherine liked to laugh and was kind to her servants and sometimes insisted that plays be rewritten with a happy ending. To help her sleep at night, Catherine like to have her hair brushed while she relaxed in bed. When her favorite pet dog died she had it stuffed. She could also be vein and paranoid. She was so paranoid about leaks that she wore a wig, she kept her hairdresser confined to an iron cage in her room for three years so that he was unable to gossip about it. Catherine used to say that her motto was to be "useful." She usually woke up early and started her day with strong coffee and an ice cube rubbed on her face. She wrote letters and took care of paperwork in the morning, met with her ministers in the early afternoon and had her main meal at 2:00pm. She entertained herself in the evening with card games, conversation and theater and music and usually went to bed early. Catherine reportedly like to play cards in the famous Amber Room at her summer palace. According to some accounts she always won. Catherine suffered from excruciating headaches and stomach problems. She was a finicky eater who often ate boiled beef for dinner and drank alcohol only when her Scottish doctor told her to. Catherine once wrote, "My misfortune is that my heart cannot be happy, even for an hour, without love." She reportedly gave herself totally to her lovers, who she worshipped. Catherine had between 10 and 20 official lovers. But contrary to the impression that she viewed them as mere boy toys, she in fact had fairly long term relations with them, ranging in length from one year to twelve years. In addition to Grigory Orlov, Catherine’s lovers included Stanislaw Poniatowski (whom she made king of Poland and then dumped him), Alexandre Lanskoi and Prince Grigory Alexandravich Potemkin (1739-91). Potemkin helped Catherine seize power in the coup and served as her prime minister and aide. He reformed the army, built roads, founded universities and negotiated the annexation of the Crimea but is best known for creating Potemkin "villages" (alleged facade villages reportedly set up to impress Catherine on a tour of the Crimea). Potemkin was Catherine the Great’s military strategist, diplomat, art collector, literary advisor and lover. He gave his name battleships and films in addition to villages. Potemkin and Catherine were reportedly only lovers for two years but they remained confidants until her death. He reportedly served as her pimp, supplying her with a series of young lovers. She in turn, ignored his incestuous relationship with his nieces. The youngest and most beautiful of these nieces had been chosen by Catherine as future wife for her son but these plan were scuttled when the niece became pregnant by her uncle when she was 15. When Lanskoi died suddenly of diphtheria, Catherine wrote a friend, "My happiness is gone. I have thought of dying myself...My room which until now was so pleasant has become an empty cavern into which I drag myself like a ghost. I cannot see anybody without being choked by sobs. I cannot sleep, nor eat. Reading bores me and writing exhausts me." Catherine reportedly had an enormous sexual appetite and advocated having sexual relations six times a day and said that sex helped relieve her insomnia. It was said Catherine fantasized about making love with her horse. She reportedly had a "special” harness created. A lot of the claims about her love life appeared to have been attempts by rivals to smear her. Nicknamed by some of her critic as "Messalina of the North," after the famed Roman nymphomaniac and wife of Claudius, Catherine is said to have regularly taken lovers from the Imperial Guard and placed them in an imperial aide-de-camp assigned to her bedroom. Before she would sleep with them she had them physically examined by her doctors and ran them through a series of performance tests administered by the Countess Bruce and Mme. Protassov. Sometimes Catherine observed prospective lovers in action before selecting them. Catherine the Great of Russia can be described as an ambitious and successful leader because she succeeded her whole reign and was determined to do the best on her own. As explained on Britannica.com, "In September 1762, she was crowned with great ceremony in Moscow, the ancient capital of the tsars, and began a reign that was to span 34 years as empress of Russia under the title of Catherine ll." This shows that she succeeded as an Empress of Russia for 34 years and held it under her reign succeeding for a very long time. Throughout those years she never failed to bring pride to those who lived in the country of Russia. Furthermore, she was determined to stay successful and satisfy Russian people. It is obvious that she cared for her country and people. Additionally the website titled, biographies.net, "Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe." In other words, while Catherine the Great was empress Russia became extremely powerful and expanded to become stronger with the help from Catherine. This exhibits the fact that Catherine ll was an ambitious leader because she was determined to make Russia a better and stronger country. Overall, Catherine the Great’s ability to be crowned as empress and continue to make Russia grow larger and stronger proves that she is a successful and ambitious leader. [Scenario: The palace in Saint Petersburg. The timeline is from 1700s.] "She arrived in Russia at the age of 14, she had the triple intention of pleasing her husband, Elizabeth [the empress of Russia] and the people. During 18 years of tedium and solitude, she willy-nilly read many books. On coming to the throne of Russia, she desired good and strove to give her subjects happiness, freedom, and property. She forgave easily and nurtured hatred towards no-one. Merciful, courteous, merry by nature, with a republican soul and a kind heart, she did have friends. Work came easily to her. She loved art and being among people." "My misfortune is that my heart cannot be happy, even for an hour, without love." "I like to praise and reward loudly, to blame quietly." "All this is only for the mice and myself to admire!" "Men make love more intensely at 20, but make love better, however, at 30." "The more a man knows, the more he forgives." "I am one of the people who love the why of things." "In my position you have to read when you want to write and to talk when you would like to read." "I sincerely want peace, not because I lack resources for war, but because I hate bloodshed." "Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you." "I cannot live one day without love." "Any man who doesn't partake in cigar smoking is nothing more than a weak-willed, meandering oaf, and I would never put my lips to those of any creature, man or beast, whose lips were not fresh awash in the currents of cigar smoke." "I will live to make myself not feared." "One cannot always know what children are thinking. Children are hard to understand, especially when careful training has accustomed them to obedience, and experience has made them cautious in their conversation with their teachers. Will you not draw from this the fine maxim that one should not scold children too much, but should make them trustful, so that they will not conceal their stupidities from us?" "Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: If you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything." "I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster." "Very early it was noticed that I had a good memory; therefore I was insistently tormented with learning everything by heart."