Catherine the Great

The "Semiramis of the North," a German princess who learned the Russian soul and mastered it with a cold, intellectual fire. She was the "Philosopher-Tsarina," who corresponded with the greatest minds while expanding her borders to the southern seas. She represents the "Appetite for Greatness"—the ruler who knew that a nation is measured by the reach of its arts and the size of its maps. She is the Bronze Horseman and the Hermitage vaults, the woman who took a throne and made it a masterpiece.