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The myth that Catherine the Great died having sex with a horse, debunked

Ellsworth Toohey
Jul 01, 2026
∙ Paid

Fyodor Rokotov / Public domain (via Wikipedia)

Catherine the Great, who modernized Russia during her reign, took about 22 lovers over her lifetime — enough to fuel a legend that outlived her by centuries: that she died attempting intercourse with a horse, crushed when the harness suspending the animal above her snapped.

She didn’t. Catherine actually coll…

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