Health of Catherine the Great and her contribution to the development of medicine

Abstract

Catherine the Great is widely known to the public as one of the most outstanding personalities in world history. Voltaire wrote about her that "her life is a rare example of self-formation, obtained through deep education and strict discipline". Historians almost unanimously agree that while the primordially Russian ruler Peter I wanted to instill everything foreign in Russia, the foreigner Catherine, in turn, dreamed of reviving Russian traditions. And she succeeded in many ways. It should be noted that, while not having good health, Catherine observed the most severe self-discipline: she got up early in the morning no later than 5 o’clock, washed her face with ice-cold water, drank a cup of coffee for breakfast and got to work. Despite the fact that the empress was a zealous fan of recreational events and entertainment, she also went to bed at the same time - no later than 22.30. Having progressive views on many aspects of life, Catherine did not bypass her attention to medicine - which is worth the mere fact that during the smallpox epidemic Catherine was the first to inoculate herself and gave permission to inoculate her son. Despite the presence of a significant number of chronic diseases and comorbidities (according to historians), Catherine lived a stormy and quite active life, dying of apoplexy at the age of 67, which was quite a serious life term for that time.