Catherine the Great
Великая (2015-2024)
Seasons: 2,
episodes: 24
Episode runtime: 49 min
Average rating:
8/10
405 917
Production
Status
Completed
Creators
Igor Zajcev
Scenario
Sergey Volkov
Actors
Pavel Trubiner
Григорий Орлов
Yuliya Snigir
Екатерина II
Pyotr Zhuravlyov
епископ
Pavel Derevyanko
Пётр III
Natalya Surkova
Елизавета Петровна, императрица
Sergey Shakurov
Алексей Петрович Бестужев, вице-канцлер
Roman Madyanov
Александр Иванович Шувалов
Mark Bogatyrev
Василий Залесский
Short description
The history of the formation of the personality of the Catherine the Great from the moment of her arrival in Russia as the bride of Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich to her ascension to the Russian throne. Almost 20 years of palace intrigues, conspiracies, power struggles and personal dramas.
Seasons
| Season | Episodes | Release date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
Season 1 15-year-old Prussian princess Sophia Frederica arrives in Russia to marry the heir to the Russian throne Peter III. Marriage does not bring happiness: her husband hates her. But Empress Elizabeth Petrovna needs an heir capable of ruling a huge country, since the capricious and unbalanced Peter is…
|
12 | 2015-11-04 | 5 |
Season 2 1763 is the first year after Catherine's coronation. Power is in her hands, but having taken the throne, she must hold on to it. The young empress will have to see for herself that the latter is much more difficult than the former, and only ten years later will she rightfully call herself the Aut…
|
12 | 2023-12-07 | — |
What's left behind the scenes
- The screenwriters used archival documents (memoirs and diaries), including those of Catherine the Great herself, and drew inspiration from historical series such as "The Tudors," "Rome," and "The Borgias."
- Filming began in December 2013 and continued until mid-July 2014, taking place at more than two hundred locations in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region: the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Smolny Cathedral and Oranienbaum, the Konstantinovsky, Gatchina, Vorontsov, and Catherine Palaces, as well as in Pushkin and Peterhof.
- The series' budget was an absolute record for the domestic industry (as of 2016); for example, the rental of palace interiors alone cost an average of 250,000 rubles per filming day.
- In 2016, the creators announced that they were working on the scripts for the second and third seasons, which would cover the Empress's life from 1762 to 1775 and from 1775 to 1796.
- In one of the episodes, Grigory Orlov insulted Catherine while drunk. He was merely a junior guards officer, and such behavior would have been unthinkable.
- While Catherine was giving birth to her third child, Alexei Bobrinsky, the film depicts her loyal wing adjutant, Prince Vasily Zalessky, setting fire to his own house to distract Peter and prevent him from finding out about the birth. According to history, this was actually done by her valet, Vasily Grigoryevich Shkurin.
- In the series, Grigory Orlov killed Peter III with a dagger strike. In reality, an autopsy was performed after Peter III's death, which ruled out poisoning. No dagger or saber wounds were recorded on the body. In her memoirs, Catherine hinted that Peter suffered from hemorrhoidal colic before his death. Historians suggest that Peter III was strangled by Alexei Orlov.
- Starting from the third episode of the film, Catherine no longer has a foreign accent, although according to contemporaries, she maintained it throughout her life.
- Sophia Augusta and her mother Johanna arrived in Russia on February 20, 1744. At the palace, they met Bestuzhev, whom Johanna called "Bestuzhev, chancellor of the Russian Empire, the biggest Russian pig." In reality, Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev received the title of chancellor (the equivalent of a modern foreign minister) on July 15, 1744.
- The wedding of Peter Fedorovich and Catherine Alexeyevna took place on August 21, 1745. In the series, Jean Lestoc was arrested, interrogated, and tortured immediately after the wedding ceremony. In reality, Lestoc was arrested and tortured in the Secret Chancellery in 1748.
- In the film, Peter severely punished Prince Zalessky for his insolence. In reality, he could not have done this, as only the Empress had the power to demote a prince to the ranks or send him to Siberia. Peter could only have requested this of his aunt.
- After moving to Russia, the German princess decided to convert to Orthodoxy on her own following an illness. In fact, this was not up to her: all foreign brides of the heirs to the throne were required to do so.
- The first meeting between Sophia Augusta Frederica and Karl Peter Ulrich did indeed take place at Eutin Castle in 1739, when they were 10 and 11 years old, respectively. However, the children appearing in the episode of the first series look at least 4–5 years younger.
- Upon marrying the heir to the throne, Catherine received the title of Grand Duchess, not Princess, as she is sometimes called in the series.
- Count Bestuzhev was addressed as 'Your Excellency' (in the series, he is addressed as 'Your Serene Highness').
- Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov died on January 4 (15), 1762, while Alexei Grigoryevich Bobrinsky was born on March 31 (April 11), 1762. In the film, the second event precedes the first, and both occur in the spring (green leaves are visible on the trees).
- Zippers, which were patented in 1891, are visible on the women's dresses.
- According to the series' plot, Catherine and Princess Dashkova meet shortly after the birth of Pavel Petrovich (1754). They are introduced by Elizaveta Vorontsova, who presents her sister as "Princess Dashkova." This is a gross chronological error. Firstly, in 1754, Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova was 15 years old and Catherine Vorontsova was only 11—the actresses are clearly much older. Secondly, Catherine Romanovna only became Princess Dashkova five years later, in 1759.
- According to the series' plot, starting around 1752, Peter III hangs a portrait of Frederick the Great on his walls—a portrait painted by Anton Graf in 1781.
- During the palace coup, Peter is located near the Alexander Palace, the construction of which did not begin until 1792.
- The wedding veils shown in the wedding scenes of Peter III and Catherine, and Zalessky and Maria Filippovna, are clear anachronisms. The veil only became common practice during the Victorian era, following the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
- Peter calls himself a "descendant of Peter XII and Peter I"—a clear slip of the tongue, instead of Charles XII.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
