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W.

W. Empire pod UK.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnum.

And me, have with us.

Yes, we've locked the doors, we've barred the windows.

Simon C. Mac Monteferre is still very much our hostage today.

And we left you on an absolute cliff edge last time.

We're talking about Catherine The Great.

And Catherine's reign, which had started so promisingly she'd managed to get

together disparate parts of Russia get them to be on her side to love her even to change

their lives for the better and she faces the first test which

could end everything and this is we sort of took you to Pukachev's rebellion so

her son Paul doesn't think his mother or a woman should be raining.

There are lots of other people who are of the same mind, but what would a woman know?

Ovaries, no, they don't mix with power.

That's terribly combustible. So there's a whole momentum that is

building up against Catherine and what happens next? Simon Zebag

one to very. Well there's also the war against the Ottomans, against the Turks that is now in stalemate.

So she's got a huge war, a peasant rebellion, a son that wants to throw her out, all sorts of enemies at her

court.

...