The posthumous reputation of Catherine II in Russia 1797-1837

Transformed from a question of personal glory to one of contemporary politi cs, Catherine II's posthumous reputation served to undermine rather than le gitimize the regimes of her successors. Tracing the Catherine myth over its first forty years - during which her name lurched from officially inspired neglect under Paul I to prominence in the early years of Alexander I, only to attract further opprobrium as a way of using the past to reproach the p resent - this article shows how the Empress's reputation developed in count erpoint with that of Peter the Great. Three interrelated sections examine t he myth-makers and their sources, and the chronological fluctuation of the myth, and its thematic stability over time.