Catherine the Great and Peter the Great were both absolute rulers who had complete control over an empire. These two monarchs had many ups and downs, but achieved absolutism during their reigns. Catherine the Great had a more difficult road to her throne than Peter had. Catherine and Peter both being of different genders altered the way that they were seen as rulers. Absolutism can be defined as, “Such a form of rule was beyond the reach of early modern states, where a ruler's effectiveness was limited by poor communications, constant difficulty in mobilizing adequate resources, and, above all, the need to satisfy the interests and aspirations of the nobility.” Being an absolute ruler was beyond any other ruler and had no limitations to what …show more content…
Peter the Great accomplished a lot during his reign, yet there were incidents where he used terror to get his way with the empire. As for Catherine, she let her personal relationships impact her political decisions. “She had sent troops to help the Polish king Stanislas (a former lover) in suppressing a nationalist revolt aimed at reducing Russia's influence in Poland.” Conspiring with her lovers on official empress business, makes Catherine appear to be an unqualified ruler by letting her opinions be altered by her intimate relationships. Having secrets behind their actual official ruling leads both Catherine and Peters reputation came off as bad regardless of how they were as rulers. The differences between Catherine and Peter may seem as if they were greatly different rulers, yet were both strong rulers that helped Russia immensely, but made mistakes based on their personal use of power. Catherine the Great and Peter the Great were similar rulers yet their success differed. Genders played a large role in their difference of reigns because Peter being a male, made his rule much easier to get. Catherine did not have the same advantage, which made her road to empress much more