Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia () (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), was the third of five daughters of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia (youngest son of Emperor Paul I) and Princess Charlotte of Württemberg (known as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna after marriage). She was also the wife of Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was a great philanthropist and many of the organisations she supported and helped to create still operate today. Biography Early life Catherine was born on 28 August 1827 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, almost certainly in the recently completed Mikhailovsky Palace that was the primary residence of her parents. She was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia, as well as an older sister of Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia and Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia. Her mother took a great interest in her daughters and was very involved in their childhoods, raising them relatively strictly and personally selecting their teachers in subjects such as foreign languages, singing, and drawing. Unfortunately, Anna and Alexandra died in childhood while Elizabeth and Maria died only a year apart in 1845 and 1846 respectively. This meant that for much of her life, her mother had only Catherine on whom to focus her attention. Also in 1846, Catherine became 'Chief' of the Sergievsky Dragoon Regiment which would later receive her name, but the regiment disbanded in 1851. She received another regiment in 1856 which became known as "Her Imperial Majesty's Dragoon Regiment, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna." In 1849, Catherine's father died suddenly at the age of fifty-one whilst in Warsaw, which spurred her mother to begin the charitable work that would be the legacy of both herself and Catherine. Marriage and Issue On 16 February 1851, Catherine married Duke Georg Alexander of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in St. Petersburg. Catherine "loved her husband deeply and selflessly," despite a three-year age gap and the disapproval of her mother. Although the young couple ended up settling in the Mikhailovsky Palace with Elena, she supposedly did not get along very well with Georg. Nevertheless, the marriage produced five children of whom three lived to adulthood. On 12 July 1854, Catherine gave birth to a son named Nikolaus (or Nikolai) who "died immediately by birth." On 16 January 1857, the couple's only surviving daughter was born and named Elena, presumably for