Catherine the Great, Again

choi

Kathryn Harrison,  Empress of all the Russias; Mounted on a white stallion, Catherine led 14,000 soldiers to arrest and unseat her feckless husband. New York Times Book Review, Nov 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/2 ... =Kathryn%20Harrison,%20%20Empress%20of%20all%20the%20Russias&st=cse
("To be an ineffectual czar is unfortunate, to attack both of Russia’s two most sacred institutions [Orthodoxy church and arny] and announce loyalty to an enemy nation by wearing a Prussian uniform to state functions was tantamount to inviting the coup d’état that removed him from the throne in 1762")

Note:
(a) For her "marriage to the unprepossessing Peter," see
prepossessing (adj): "tending to create a favorable impression : ATTRACTIVE"
www.m-w.com
(b) poltroon (n): "a spiritless coward : CRAVEN"
(c) bier (n; Middle English bere, from Old English bǣr; akin to Old English beran to carry — more at BEAR):
"a stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed; also : a coffin together with its stand
(d) For smallpox vaccination, see Edward Jenner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner
(1749-1823; On 14 May 1796, Jenner tested his hypothesis by inoculating James Phipps, a young boy of 8 years (the son of Jenner's gardener), with material from the cowpox blisters of the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom)
(e) Denis Diderot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot
( 1713-1784; a French philosopher, art critic, and writer)
(f)
(i) Hermitage museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Museum
(in Saint Petersburg; One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852)
(ii) Winter Palace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Palace
(Catherine had been impressed by the French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe, who designed the Imperial Academy of Arts (also in Saint Petersburg) and commissioned him to add a new wing to the Winter Palace. This was intended as a place of retreat from the formalities and ceremonies of the court. Catherine christened it the Hermitage (14), a name used by her predecessor Tsaritsa Elizabeth to describe her private rooms within the palace.)
(iii) hermitage (n):
"1a : the habitation of a hermit
b : a secluded residence or private retreat : HIDEAWAY"
(g) Yemelyan Pugachev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugachev
(1742-1775; On Sept 14, 1774 Pugachev's own [defeated] Cossacks delivered him to Yaitsk [a place name]. [Generalissimo] Alexander Suvorov had him placed in a metal cage and sent first to Simbirsk and then to Moscow for a public execution which took place on Jan 21, 1775. In the public square, he was decapitated, then drawn and quartered)