Catherine II was more in the way of Sophia Alexeyevna, I think. Remember she was born princess of Zerbst, daughter of one of the minor princelings of her time, but also daughter of a woman who was a social climber, who liked so much the court intrigues and who always wished to touch the power with her fingers...Johanna of Holstein-Gottorp. And Johanna had a good pedigree, no one can deny it. Overshadowed by his ambitious mother, a cold and abussive mother to little Figchen, Sophia became a strong-willed and energetic girl. She was educated and she worked hard enough to improve her upbringing when she went to Russia as bride of a tsarevich. She knew well that her groom has to be tsar and she herself has to be tsarina. And she played her role of an truly orthodox russian princess...she, a german princess, baptised in the lutheranism! I´m really amazing with this woman.
But if the second Catherine could catch the power when she was not a russian and not a romanov, when were alive three men of romanov lineage -her husband, her son and young tsar Ivan VI...-, she followed the line traced by the first Ekaterina. In fact, Martha Skavronska, daughter of lithuanian peasants probably catholics, became empress authocrat when was alive the grandson of her husband, later Peter II. Ekaterina broke up the rules.
By the way, I´m interesting in all the Skavronski. I know that after the death of Peter, when Ekaterina was proclaimed tsarina authocrat, she ordered to search for her brothers and sisters. The elder brother, Karl, was working in a stable at Courland, but she never felt ashamed of this, and she was proud to offer her brother a good position in Russia. She gave a chance also to her brother Theodor, and to her sisters, Anna and Christine.
