Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova

Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova
Portrait of Princess Dashkova by Dmitry Levitsky
Born	(1743-03-28)March 28, 1743 Saint Petersburg
Died	January 15, 1810(1810-01-15) Moscow
Spouse(s)	Prince Mikhail Dashkov
Parent(s)	Roman Vorontsov

Princess Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova (Russian: Екатери́на Рома́новна Воронцо́ва-Да́шкова; 28 March [17 March o.s.] 1743 – 15 January [4 January o.s.] 1810) was the closest female friend of Empress Catherine the Great and a major figure of the Russian Enlightenment. Her name was often spelt in English as Princess Dashkov.

Born Countess Catherine Vorontsova, she was the third daughter of Count Roman Vorontsov, a member of the Senate, and was distinguished for her intellectual gifts. Her uncle Mikhail Illarionovich and brother Alexander Romanovich both served as Imperial Chancellors, while her brother Semyon was Russian ambassador to Great Britain, and a celebrated Anglophile. She received an exceptionally good education, having displayed from a very early age the abilities and tastes which made her whole career so singular. She was well versed in mathematics, which she studied at the University of Moscow. In general literature, her favorite authors were Bayle, Montesquieu, Boileau, Voltaire and Helvétius.

While still a girl, she was connected with the Russian court, and became one of the leaders of the party that attached itself to the Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeyevna.

Before she was sixteen, she married Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Dashkov (1736–1764), a prominent Russian nobleman of Rurikid stock, in February 1759, and went to reside with him in Moscow. She learned Russian there to communicate with her in-laws. After the death of Prince Dashkov, she gave herself up to her children, to literature, and to politics.