Despite ruling amongst other monarchs during the time, Catherine the Great deserves to be crowned the absolutist of them all based off of her control of the nobility and peasantry, taxes and government spending, and the Russian military, throughout Russia’s Golden Age. During her rule, Catherine II gave more power and rights to the nobility and allowed for the continuation of serfdom to maintain her rule as Russia’s monarch. In addition, she brought reform to the Russian society by introducing a more affordable education and become a patron of arts. She appointed military experts to lead the military into gaining parts of Poland and lands around the Black Sea, that allowed for an increased in Russia’s trade with other empires of the time.
