Russia reached the apogee of its success during the reign of Catherine II (the Great), who died in 1796. During her tenure, Russia rose to become one of the great European powers, a role her successors, all of them, managed to squander. Pushkin, writing in the 1820's, remarked that after Catherine, darkness descended on Mother Russia. Take away the nukes and the last time Russia was as weak and insignificant on the world stage as it is today was before Catherine's role model and grandfather-in-law Peter I (also the Great) came to the throne in 1682, over 300 years ago.