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In early February 1744, much of Russia was covered in snow. A small village sat beside the best-kept road in the entire country. It was called the “winter highway.” Empress Elizabeth used it to travel between Russia’s two most important cities: Moscow and the capital, Saint Petersburg. One afternoon the villagers heard hoofbeats. Thirty grand sledges—fancy sleighs with enclosed compartments—were arriving in the village, pulled by horses. The people could tell that this was a royal procession heading to Moscow. The drivers stopped to change their horses. They would trade the horses that were tired from the journey for new ones.
The villagers whispered to each other. Who were the passengers? Not Empress Elizabeth. She was already in Moscow with the Grand Duke Peter. Peter’s sixteenth birthday was just a few days away. Rumors in Russia were that the empress had secretly invited someone to Moscow to become his wife.
When the carriages stopped, some of the villagers caught a glimpse of a young girl. She was fourteen years old, slim, with chestnut-colored hair and blue eyes. She was quiet, but looked around curiously as if this new country fascinated her. She was traveling with her mother.
“It is the bride of the grand duke,” they thought.
The girl in the carriage was named Sophie. She was traveling east from the country of Prussia. Her parents were noble people, but not royalty. And yet, it seemed as if the empress of Russia had chosen her to marry the heir to the throne.
On the evening of February 9, Sophie and her mother arrived at the Golovin Palace in Moscow. The castle was lit with flaming torches. Sophie unwrapped the furs that had kept her warm on the long trip. She was dressed in a rose-colored silk gown trimmed with silver. She smoothed her dress and her hair. Then she stepped into the palace and waited to meet Empress Elizabeth and her future husband, the Grand Duke Peter.
On this night she was still Sophie of Prussia. Soon after, though, she would be given a new name: Catherine. She would adopt Russia as her own country and work to transform it into one of the most powerful nations in the world.
The people of Russia would grow to love her. They would call her Catherine the Great.