Catherine now realised that she needed to exercise more control over the people and that serf liberation would be intolerable to the owners, on whom she depended, and who would throw the country into chaos once they lost their income. Catherine thus focused on strengthening a system that she had labelled as inhuman.
She also enjoyed a reputation for being a patron of the arts, education and culture, writing a guide for the education of young noble women in 1764, as well as establishing the Smolny Institute the same year.
Catherine also wrote fictions, comedies and memoirs while cultivating the talents of French intellectuals including Diderot, D'Alembart and Voltaire, with whom she corresponded for over 15 years.
She became the most-renowned and longest-serving female monarchs of Russia, with her reign seen by many as the Golden Age of Russia.
Catherine died in 1796 from a stroke which caused her to fall into a coma, from which she never recovered. She was buried in a gold coffin at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg.
She was succeeded by her eldest son Paul, who was thought to be the son of Peter as he resembled the late emperor. Catherine had three other children with different lovers.