2 November] 1847 – 15 February 1922) was a Russian aristocrat and the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and his wife, Vera Vishnevskaya.

Catherine was a long-time mistress of Tsar Alexander II and later, as his morganatic wife, was given the title of Princess Yurievskaya (Russian: Светлейшая княгиня Юрьевская).

[1] Catherine was the elder daughter of Prince Michael Mikhailovich Dolgorukov (1816-1865) and his wife, Vera Gavrilovna Vishnevskaya (1820-1867).

[3] One contemporary described the young Catherine as "of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses.

"[4] Catherine's nephew-in-law Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia wrote: "[I] couldn't take my eyes off her – I liked the sad expression of her beautiful face and the radiance of her rich blonde hair.

Konstantin Pobedonostsev wrote that "the eyes, by themselves, would be attractive, I suppose, only her gaze has no depth – the kind in which transparency and naïveté meet with lifelessness and stupidity ..."[6] In 1859, 10-year-old Catherine met 41-year-old Alexander II when he paid a visit to her father's estate.

"[8] After the death of her penniless father, Catherine and her sister Maria were sent to the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg, a school for well-born girls.

Her mother appealed to Court Minister Count Nikolay Adlerberg, who arranged for Alexander to pay for their education and that of their four brothers.

Though her mother and the headmistress of the Smolny Institute both urged her to seize the opportunity to better her circumstances and those of her family, Catherine and Alexander did not actually become intimate until July 1866, when she was moved by her pity for the Emperor after the death of his eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, and after an attempt to assassinate him.

[17] Though the Emperor had been unfaithful on many occasions in the past, his relationship with Catherine began after the Empress, who had had eight children, stopped having intercourse with her husband on the advice of her doctors.

His childhood friend Adlerberg tried to "dissuade him by citing the unpleasant impression it would make unless he waited a year after the empress's death.

She confided to Countess Alexandra Tolstaya that she resigned because "I can't promise not to make a public scene and even spit in the face of Princess Yurievskaya at the first opportunity.

His only legitimate daughter and favorite child Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia wrote to him, “I pray that myself and my junior brothers, who were particularly close to Mama, would one day be able to forgive you.”[22] His sister-in-law, Princess Cecile of Baden, declared "I shall never recognize that scheming adventuress.

"[5] His daughter-in-law Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin wrote that she hoped "that the Tsar's eyes must at length be opened to the worthless of the creature who seems to have him bound as in a spell, to make him deaf and blind.

In his memoirs, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia wrote that the Emperor behaved like a teenage boy when in Catherine's presence and she also appeared to adore him.

[26] Alexander wrote to his sister Queen Olga of Württemberg about his happiness with Catherine: "She preferred to renounce all social amusements and pleasures so desired by young ladies of her age ... and has devoted her entire life to loving and caring for me.

[28] When she heard the news, Catherine ran half-dressed into the room where he lay dying and fell across his body, crying "Sasha!

[30] At his funeral, Catherine and her three children were forced to stand in an entryway of the church and received no place in the procession of the Imperial Family.

[32] She settled in Paris and on the French Riviera, where she became known as a fashionable hostess and was used to having twenty servants and a private railway car,[33] though the Romanov family continued to look upon her and her children with disdain.

[35] Nicholas II recalled that Catherine was offended when he refused to be the sponsor when her daughter Olga married the Count of Merenberg in the spring of 1895.

[35] Catherine's son George was an abysmal failure in the Imperial Russian Navy, as Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia informed her by letter, but he was granted a place in the Cavalry School.