Russia  - Siberia
Catherine II "Cathrine the Great" of Russia - Empress 1762-1796 A.D.
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Catherine II (Russian: Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II  Velikaya), also known as Catherine the Great, born 2 May [O.S.  21 April] 1729 as Sophie Friederike Auguste von  Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in Stettin, Pomerania, reigned as Empress of Russia from 9 July [O.S.  28 June] 1762 until her death (17 November [O.S.  6 November] 1796). Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its  administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule  re-vitalized Russia, which grew stronger than ever and became recognized as one  of the great powers of Europe. Her successes in  complex foreign policy and her sometimes brutal  reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably Pugachev's Rebellion ) complemented her hectic  private life.

Catherine took power after a conspiracy deposed her husband, Peter III (1728-1762), and her reign saw the  high point in the influence of the Russian nobility . Peter III, under pressure  from the nobility, had already increased the authority of the great landed  proprietors over their muzhiks and serfs . In spite of the duties imposed on the  nobles by the first prominent "modernizer" of Russia, Tsar Peter I (1672-1725), and despite Catherine's  friendships with the western European thinkers of the Enlightenment (in particular Denis Diderot , Voltaire and Montesquieu ) Catherine found it impractical to  improve the lot of her poorest subjects, who continued to suffer (for example) military conscription .  The distinctions between peasant rights on votchina and pomestie estates  virtually disappeared in law as well as in practice during her reign.

In 1775 Catherine decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces  of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by  increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By  the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more  than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much  as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility  the Charter to the Nobility , increasing further the  power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the  Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them,  mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the  Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power  of nobles and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws,  and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she long desired for her  country. After her death, this was made even more obvious through her son Paul.

Early life

Young Catherine soon after her arrival in Russia, by Louis Caravaque

Catherine's father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst   belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt , but held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as Governor of  the city of Stettin (now Szczecin , Poland). Born as Sophia Augusta  Fredericka (German: Sophie Friederike Auguste von  Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, nicknamed "Figchen") in Stettin , Pomerania , two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden : Gustav III and Charles XIII . In accordance with the custom  then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany , she received her education chiefly  from a French governess and from tutors. Catherine's childhood was quite  uneventful. She herself once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm: "I see  nothing of interest in it."  Although Catherine was born a princess, her family had very little money.  Catherine was to come to power based on her mother's relations to wealthy  members of royalty.

The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsar Peter of Holstein-Gottorp , resulted from some  amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq , Peter's aunt (the ruling Russian  Empress Elizabeth ), and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and  Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in  order to weaken Austria 's influence and ruin the Russian  chancellor Bestuzhev , on whom Empress Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known  partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation. Catherine first met Peter III at the  age of ten. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him.  She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young  age.

The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia's  mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp .  Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and  court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centred on her daughter's prospects  of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who  eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia . The Empress knew the  family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein),  who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take  place. Nonetheless, Empress Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who  on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the  Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people . She applied herself to learning  the Russian language with such zeal that she rose  at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (even  though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe  attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs , she said she made up her mind when she  came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever  was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.

Portrait by George Christoph Grooth of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina  Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, 1745.

Princess Sophia's father, a devout German Lutheran , opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy . Despite his objection, on 28  June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess  Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of  Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned  dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at Saint Petersburg . Sophia had turned 16, her  father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The bridegroom, known then as  Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of  present-day Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.

As she recalls herself in her memoirs, as soon as she arrived in Russia she  fell ill with a pleuritis which almost killed her. She says she  owes her survival to frequent bloodletting ; in one single day she had four  phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress'  disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed  by a Lutheran priest; she however, awaking from her delirium , said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I  want my orthodox father." This raised her in the empress' esteem.

The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum , which remained the residence of  the "young court" for many years to come.

Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that  Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs.  Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth  Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov , Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734-1783), Stanisław August Poniatowski , Alexander Vasilchikov , and others. She became  friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova , the sister of  her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups  that opposed her husband. Peter III's temperament became quite unbearable for  those who resided in the palace. He would announce trying drills in the morning  to male servants who would later join Catherine in her room to sing and dance  until late hours.  Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna, who would only live to be  four months old, in 1759. Due to various rumours of Catherine's promiscuity,  Peter was led to believe that he was not the child's biological father and is  known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!" when Catherine angrily dismissed  his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her own private  boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality.

Of the period before her accession to the Russian throne, Catherine said:  "Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: If you  feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does  not get to be dependent on anything.'"

Reign of Peter III and the coup d'état of July 1762

Tsar Peter III reigned only six months; he died on 17 July 1762.

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December  1761), Peter, the Grand Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, succeeded to the throne as Peter III of Russia , and Catherine became Empress Consort of Russia. The imperial couple  moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg .

The Tsar's eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the  Prussian king, Frederick II , alienated the same groups that  Catherine had cultivated. Besides, Peter intervened in a dispute between his  Duchy of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff ).

On the night of 28 June 1762, Catherine the Great was given the news that one  of her co-conspirators had been arrested by her estranged husband, and that all  they had been planning must take place at once. She left the palace and departed  for the Ismailovsky regiment, where Catherine delivered a speech asking the  soldiers to protect her from her husband. Catherine then left with the regiment  to go to the Semenovsky Barracks where the clergy was waiting to ordain her as  the sole occupant of the Russian throne. She had her husband arrested and forced  him to sign a document of abdication, leaving no one to dispute her accession to  the throne. Shortly after being arrested, Peter was strangled by his guards.  Some speculate that Catherine had ordered this done, but there is no evidence to  back this theory.

Russia and Prussia fought each other during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) until Peter's  accession. Peter's insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had  seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760 but now suggested partitioning Polish territories with Russia,  eroded much of his support among the nobility.

Equestrian portrait of the Grand Duchess Yekaterina Alexeyevna

In July 1762, barely six months after becoming the Tsar, Peter committed the  political error of retiring with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to Oranienbaum , leaving his wife in Saint  Petersburg. On 8 and 9 July, the Leib Guard revolted, deposed Peter from power,  and proclaimed Catherine the Empress of Russia. The bloodless coup succeeded.

On 17 July 1762-eight days after the coup and just six months after his  accession to the throne-Peter III died at Ropsha , at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Gregory Orlov,  then a court favourite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no  evidence for Catherine's complicity in the supposed assassination.  Other potential rival claimants to the throne existed: Ivan VI (1740-1764), in closed confinement at Schlüsselburg , in Lake Ladoga , from the age of 6 months; and Princess Tarakanova (1753-1775). Ivan VI was  assassinated during an attempt to free him as part of a failed coup against  Catherine. Apparently, Catherine had given strict instructions to kill the royal  captive in just such an instance, so her innocence here is unclear. (Ivan was  thought to be insane because of his years of solitary confinement so might have  made a poor emperor, even as a figurehead).

Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor,  succeeded her husband as Empress Regnant . She followed the precedent  established when Catherine I (born in the lower classes in the Swedish East Baltic  territories) succeeded her husband Peter the Great in 1725.

Historians debate Catherine's technical status, seeing her as a Regent or as  a usurper , tolerable only during the minority of  her son, Grand Duke Paul . In the 1770s, a group of  nobles connected with Paul (Nikita  Panin and others) considered a new coup to depose Catherine and  transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of constitutional monarchy .  However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.

Reign  (1762-1796)

Imperial monogram

Foreign affairs

During her reign Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward and westward to absorb New Russia , Crimea , Northern Caucasus , Right-bank Ukraine , Belarus, Lithuania , and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers  - the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . All told, she  added some 200,000 square miles (520,000 km²) to Russian territory.

Catherine's foreign minister , Nikita Panin (in office 1763-81), exercised  considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman,  Panin dedicated much effort and millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord"  between Russia, Prussia , Poland, and Sweden, to counter the  power of the Bourbon -Habsburg  League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out  of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 1781-97).

Catherine agreed to a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1766,  but stopped short of a full military alliance.  Although she could see the benefits of Britain's friendship, she was wary of  Britain's increased power following its victory in the Seven Years War , which  threatened the European balance of power .

Equestrian portrait of Catherine in the Preobrazhensky Regiment 's uniform

While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on  the edge of the Black Sea in the Azov campaigns , Catherine completed the  conquest of the south. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman  Empire (1768-74), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history,  including the Battle of Chesma (5-7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).

The Russian victories allowed Catherine's government to obtain access to the  Black Sea and to incorporate present-day southern Ukraine , where the Russians founded the new  cities of Odessa , Nikolayev , Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the  Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnepropetrovsk ), and Kherson . The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca , signed 10 July 1774,  gave the Russians territories at Azov, Kerch , Yenikale , Kinburn , and the small strip of Black Sea coast  between the rivers Dnieper and Bug . The treaty also removed restrictions on  Russian naval or commercial traffic in the Azov Sea , granted to Russia the position of  protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and  made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.

Catherine annexed the Crimea in 1783, nine years after  the Crimean Khanate had gained nominal  independence-which had been guaranteed by Russia-from the Ottoman Empire as a  result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans  passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1786 Catherine conducted a triumphal  procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo-Turkish War.

The Ottomans restarted hostilities in the second Russo-Turkish War (1787-92) . This war,  catastrophic for the Ottomans, ended with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), which legitimised the  Russian claim to the Crimea and granted the Yedisan region to Russia.

Burney.Russian empress travelling

In accordance to the treaty Russia had signed with the Georgians to  protect them against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains and further  political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they had again  invaded Georgia and established rule over it about a year prior and expelled the newly established  Russian garrisons in the Caucasus.

Although it was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be  led by a seasoned general (Gudovich),  the Empress followed the advice of her lover, Prince Zubov , and entrusted the command to his  youthful brother, Count Valerian Zubov . The Russian troops set out from Kizlyar in April 1796 and stormed the key  fortress of Derbent on 10 May. The event was glorified by  the court poet Derzhavin in his famous ode; he was later to  comment bitterly on Zubov's inglorious return from the expedition in another  remarkable poem.

By mid-June, Zubov's troops overran without any resistance most of the  territory of modern day Azerbaijan , including three principal cities - Baku, Shemakha and Ganja . By November, they were stationed at the  confluence of the Araks and Kura Rivers , poised to attack mainland Iran.

It was in that month that the Empress of Russia died and her successor Paul , who detested the Zubovs and had other plans for the army , ordered the troops to  retreat back to Russia. This reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the  powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them  would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's murder five years later.

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between  Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria and France) and Turkey

Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered  for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the nineteenth and  early twentieth century as an international mediator in disputes that could, or  did, lead to war. She acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79)  between the German states of Prussia and Austria. In 1780 she established a League of Armed Neutrality , designed to defend  neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution .

From 1788 to 1790 Russia fought in the Russo-Swedish War against Sweden, a conflict  instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden , who expected to simply  overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks and  hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. But Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in  a tied battle off Hogland (July 1788), and the Swedish  army failed to advance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theater War ). After the decisive defeat of the  Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties  signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790), returning  all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of Åbo . Peace ensued for 20 years, aided  by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.

Catherine II of Russia by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder .

In 1764 Catherine placed Stanisław Poniatowski , her former lover, on the Polish throne . Although the idea of  partitioning Poland came from the King Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine took a  leading role in carrying it out in the 1790s. In 1768 she formally became  protector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , which provoked  an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (1768-72). After the  uprising broke down due to internal politics in the Polish-Lithuanian  Commonwealth, she established in the Rzeczpospolita, a system of  government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council , under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys .

After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected  many principles of the Enlightenment that she had once viewed  favourably. Afraid that the May Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to  a resurgence in the power of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and that the  growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to  the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided  support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation . After defeating Polish  loyalist forces in the Polish-Russian War of 1792 and in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed  the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory  with Prussia and Austria (1795).

In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and in the Kuril Islands . This spurred Russian interest in  opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783 storms  drove a Japanese sea captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū , ashore in the Aleutian Islands , at that time Russian  territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian  government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine  granted Daikokuya an audience at Tsarskoye Selo . Subsequently, in 1792, the  Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman . The Tokugawa shogunate received the mission, but  negotiations failed.

Banking and finance

In 1768 the Assignation Bank was given the task of issuing  the first government paper money. It opened in St. Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769. Several  bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government  towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money,  which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes.

The emergence of these Assignation rubles was necessary due to large  government spending on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the  treasury (transactions, especially in foreign trade, were conducted almost  exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation rubles circulated on equal  footing with the silver ruble; there was an ongoing market exchange rate for  these two currencies. The use of these notes continued until 1849.

Arts and culture

Marble statue of Catherine II in the guise of Minerva (1789-1790), by Fedot Shubin

Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature, and  education. The Hermitage Museum , which now occupies the whole Winter Palace , began as Catherine's personal  collection. At the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoy , she wrote a manual for the  education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke , and founded (1764) the famous Smolny Institute , which admitted young girls of  the nobility.

She wrote comedies, fiction, and memoirs, while cultivating Voltaire , Diderot , and d'Alembert -all French encyclopedists who later cemented her  reputation in their writings. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker , became foreign members of the Free Economic Society , established on her  suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She lured the scientists Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin and Anders Johan Lexell from Sweden to the Russian  capital.

Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with  him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. He lauded her  accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis  of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon , a subject on which he published a  tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face to face, she mourned him  bitterly when he died. She acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and  placed them in the National Library of Russia .

Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard that the French  government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French Encyclopédie on account of its irreligious  spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in  Russia under her protection.

Four years later, in 1766, she endeavoured to embody in legislation the  principles of Enlightenment she learned from studying the  French philosophers. She called together at Moscow a Grand Commission-almost a  consultative parliament-composed of 652 members of all classes (officials,  nobles, burghers and peasants ) and of various nationalities. The  Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of  satisfying them. The Empress herself prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly" ,  pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe,  especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria .

As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and  experienced advisors, she refrained from immediately putting them into  execution. After holding more than 200 sittings the so-called Commission  dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.

The Inauguration of the Academy of Arts , a painting by Valery Jacobi

In spite of this, Catherine began issuing codes to address some of the  modernisation trends suggested in her Nakaz. In 1775 the Empress decreed a  Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The  Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and  dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign,  there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the  government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on  local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the  Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each  district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the  monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. In the same year,  Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six  groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate.  Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of  1781, the Police Ordinance of 1782, and the Statute of National Education of  1786. In 1777, the Empress described to Voltaire her legal innovations within a  backward Russia as progressing "little by little".

During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and  European influences that inspired the Russian Enlightenment . Gavrila Derzhavin , Denis Fonvizin , and Ippolit Bogdanovich laid the groundwork for the  great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for Alexander Pushkin . Catherine became a great  patron of Russian opera (see Catherine II and opera for details).

When Alexander Radishchev published his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow in  1790 (one year after the start of the French Revolution ) and warned of uprisings  because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as serfs , Catherine exiled him to Siberia .

Catherine also received Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (formerly court painter  to Marie Antoinette ) at her Tsarskoselo residence  in St Petersburg , by whom she was painted shortly  before her death. Madame Vigée Le Brun vividly describes the empress in her  memoirs: "the sight of this famous woman so impressed me that I found it  impossible to think of anything: I could only stare at her. Firstly I was very  surprised at her small stature; I had imagined her to be very tall, as great as  her fame. She was also very fat, but her face was still beautiful, and she wore  her white hair up, framing it perfectly. Her genius seemed to rest on her  forehead, which was both high and wide. Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her  nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive. She addressed me  immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: "I am delighted  to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. I am very fond of  the arts, especially painting. I am no connoisseur, but I am a great art lover."

Madame Vigée Le Brun also describes the Empress at a gala: "The double doors  opened and the Empress appeared. I have said that she was quite small, and yet  on the days when she made her public appearances, with her head held high, her  eagle-like stare and a countenance accustomed to command, all this gave her such  an air of majesty that to me she might have been Queen of the World; she wore  the sashes of three orders, and her costume was both simple and regal; it  consisted of a muslin tunic embroidered with gold fastened by a diamond belt,  and the full sleeves were folded back in the Asiatic style. Over this tunic she  wore a red velvet dolman with very short sleeves. The bonnet which held her  white hair was not decorated with ribbons, but with the most beautiful  diamonds."

Education

Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova , the  closest female friend of Empress Catherine and a major figure of the Russian Enlightenment .

Catherine held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart  and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia.  She believed a 'new kind of person' could be created by inoculating Russian  children with European education. Catherine believed education could change the  hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness.  This meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing  them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.

Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her advisor on educational matters.  Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about  educational institutions. She also established a commission composed of T.N.  Teplov, T. con Klingstedt, F.G. Dilthey, and the historian G. Muller. She  consulted British education pioneers, particularly the Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and  Dr John Brown.  In 1764 Catherine sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to  the educational Commission. The Commission studied the reform projects  previously installed by I.I. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III. They  submitted recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education  for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs.  However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the Commission  due to the calling of the Legislative Commission. In July 1765 Dumaresq wrote to  Dr. John Brown about the commission's problems and received a long reply  containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social  reforms in Russia. Dr. Brown argued that in a democratic country, education  ought to be under the state's control and based on an education code. He also  placed great emphasis on the "proper and effectual education of the female sex";  two years prior, Catherine had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the General Program for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes.  This work emphasised the fostering of the creation of a 'new kind of people'  raised in isolation from the damaging influence of a backward Russian  environment.  The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first  attempt at achieving that goal. It was charged with admitting destitute and  extramarital children in order to educate them in any way the state deemed fit.  Since the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state funded  institution, the Home represented an opportunity to experiment with new  educational theories. However, the Moscow Foundling Home was unsuccessful,  mainly due to extremely high mortality rates, which prevented many of the  children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the  state desired.

The Moscow Orphanage

The Smolny Institute , the first Russian Institute for Noble Maidens and the  first European state higher education institution for women

Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, Catherine established the Smolny  Institute for Noble Girls to educate females. The Smolny Institute was the first  of its kind in Russia. At first the Institute only admitted young girls of the  noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie  as well.  The girls that attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of  being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the  Smolny buildings. Within the walls of the Institute they were taught impeccable  French, musicianship, dancing, and complete awe of the Monarch. At the  Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy.  Running and games were forbidden and the building was kept particularly cold  because it was believed that too much warmth was harmful to the developing body,  as was excess play.

During the years 1768-1774, there was no progress made in setting up a  national school system.  Catherine continued to investigate educational theory and practice of other  countries. She made many educational reforms despite the lack of a national  school system. The remodelling of the Cadet Corps 1766 initiated many  educational reforms. It then began to take children from a very young age and  educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from the  professional military curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics,  history, and international law. This policy in the Cadet Corps influenced the  teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps and in the Engineering and Artillery Schools.  After the war and the defeat of Pugachov, Catherine laid the obligation to  establish schools at the guberniya-a provincial subdivision of the  Russian empire ruled by a governor-on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with  the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.

By 1782 Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the  information gathered about the educational systems of many different countries.  A system produced by a mathematician, Franz Aepinus , stood out in particular. He was  strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial,  real, and normal schools at village, town, and provincial capital level. In  addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of  National Schools under Pyotr Zavadovsky . This commission was charged  with organising a national school network, training the teachers, and providing  the textbooks. On 5 August 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was  promulgated.  The Statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools  in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes  (non-serfs), and co-educational. It also regulated, in detail, the subjects to  be taught at every age and the method of teaching. In addition to the textbooks  translated by the Commission, teachers were provided with the Guide to Teachers.  This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, the subjects  taught, the behavior of the teacher, and the running of a school.

Judgment of the 19th century was generally critical, claiming that Catherine  failed to supply enough money to support her educational program.  Two years after the implementation of Catherine's program, a member of the  National Commission inspected the institutions established. Throughout Russia,  the inspectors encountered a patchy response. While the nobility put up  appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send  their children to private, more prestigious institutions. Also, the townspeople  tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical methods. It is  estimated that about 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state  institutions near the end of Catherine's reign. This was only a minuscule number  of people compared to the size of the Russian population.

Religious affairs

Catherine II in the Russian national costume

Catherine's apparent whole-hearted adoption of all things Russian (including Orthodoxy ) may have prompted her personal  indifference to religion.  She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious  dissent after the onset of the French Revolution.

Politically, Catherine exploited Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy,  promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule.  She placed strictures on Roman Catholics (ukaz  of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state  control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland.  Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for re-grouping  to the Society of Jesus following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in  1773.

Catherine took many different approaches to Islam during her reign. Between  1762 and 1773, Muslims were actively prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs.  They were also pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives.  Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts,  if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy.  However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people  professing the Islamic faith. This Commission promised to protect their  religious rights, but did not do so. Many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by  the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure.  Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it when  public outcry against equality got too disruptive. After the "Toleration of All  Faiths" Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build mosques and practice all  of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to Mecca , which had been denied previously.  Catherine created the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly to help  regulate Muslim-populated regions, as well as regulate the instruction and  ideals of Mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by  Catherine and her government, as a way of regulating the religious affairs of  her nation.

In 1785 Catherine approved the subsidisation of new mosques and new town  settlements for Muslims. This was another attempt to organise and passively  control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with  mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people that wandered through southern  Russia.  In 1786 Catherine assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school  system, to be regulated by the government. The plan was another attempt to force  nomadic people to settle. This allowed the Russian government to control more  people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of  Russian law.

Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple Devoted  to the Goddess of Justice, by Dmitry Levitsky

Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained  with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Although the government knew that  Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of what a  "Jew" is, since the term meant many things during her reign.  Judaism was a small, if not nonexistent, religion in Russia until 1772. When  Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland , Jews were treated as  a separate people, defined by their religion. In keeping with their treatment in  Poland, Catherine allowed the Jews to separate themselves from Orthodox society,  with certain restrictions. She levied additional taxes on the followers of  Judaism; if a family converted to the Orthodox faith, that additional tax was  lifted.  Jewish members of society were required to pay double the tax of their Orthodox  neighbours. Converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and  farm as free peasants under Russian rule.

In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia's economy, Catherine  included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782.  While this presented some benefits for Jews-they received recognition as equals  to any Orthodox citizen-many people attempted to take advantage of this  equality. Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for  economic reasons; many Jews were bankers and merchants. Catherine tried to keep  the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even with a ruse of equality; in  1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow's middle class.

In 1785 Catherine declared that Jews were officially foreigners, with  foreigners' rights.  This reestablished the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia  throughout the Jewish period of failed assimilation. Catherine's decree also  denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. Taxes  doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially  declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

St. Catherine Cathedral in Kingisepp , an example of Late  Baroque architecture

In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign  counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed  what Peter III had started; the church's lands were  expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled  by the College of Economy .  Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. The  endowments were often much less than the original intended amount.  She closed 569 out of 954 monasteries and only 161 got government money. Only  400,000 rubles of church wealth was paid back.  While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative  Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat.  Their place in government was restricted severely during the years of  Catherine's reign.

In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that  called themselves the Old Believers , Catherine passed an act that  allowed Old Believers to practice their faith openly without interference.  While claiming religious tolerance, she intended to recall the Believers into  the official church. They refused to comply, and in 1764 Catherine deported over  20,000 Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith.  In later years, Catherine amended her thoughts. Old Believers were allowed to  hold elected municipal positions after the Urban Charter of 1785, and she  promised religious freedom to those who wished to settle in Russia.

Religious education was also strictly reviewed. At first, she simply  attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools.  This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786 Catherine  excluded all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education.  By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a  secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia. She transformed the clergy  from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people  to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation.

Personal life

Count Grigory Orlov , by Fyodor Rokotov

Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them  to high positions  for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with gifts  of serfs and large estates. The percentage of state money spent on the court  increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795. Catherine gave  away 66,000 serfs from 1762-72, 202,000 from 1773-93, and 100,000 in one day: 18  August 1795.^:119  Just as the church supported her, hoping to get their land back, Catherine  bought the support of the bureaucracy . From 19 April 1764, any bureaucrat  holding the same rank for seven years or more got instantly promoted. On 13  September 1767 Catherine decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil  servants would be automatically promoted regardless of office or merit.

After her affair with her lover and adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776,  he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and  mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov ). Some of these men  loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after  the affair ended. One of her lovers, Pyotr Zavadovsky , received 50,000 rubles, a  pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in Ukraine after she dismissed him  in 1777.  The last of her lovers, Prince Zubov , was 40 years her junior. Her  sexual independence led to many of the legends about her , among them, allegations of  an erotic appetite for horses.

In her memoirs, Catherine indicated that her first lover, Serge Saltykov , had fathered Paul, though Paul  physically resembled her husband, Peter.  Catherine kept near Tula , away from her court, her illegitimate son  by Grigori Orlov, Alexis Bobrinskoy (later created Count  Bobrinskoy by Paul). Catherine and Orlov had another child,^[55]  a daughter, called Elizabeth Alexandrovna Alexeeva (born in Saint Petersburg,  1761 - died 1844), born one year before Alexis. She married (1787) Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and from this  marriage she had one son, Alexander, who apparently died young in 1812.

Stanisław August Poniatowski , the  last King of Poland-Lithuania

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams , the British  ambassador to Russia, offered Stanisław Poniatowski a place in the embassy,  in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother's  side, came from the Czartoryski family , prominent members of the  pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to  the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in  1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. In 1757 Poniatowski  served in the British forces during the Seven Years' War , thus severing close  relationships with Catherine. She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in  December 1757 (not to be confused with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia , the  daughter of Peter I's second marriage).

King Augustus III of Poland died in 1763, and  therefore Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as  a candidate to become the next king.

Catherine sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible  disputes. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight, and  imposing Poniatowski as king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put  himself under Catherine's control. News of Catherine's plan spread and Frederick  II (others say the Ottoman sultan ) warned her that if she tried to conquer  Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her.

She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov's  child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. She told Poniatowski to marry someone else to remove all  suspicion. Poniatowski refused; he never married.

Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry ), Russia (under Catherine), and  Austria (under Maria Theresa ) began preparing the ground for  the partitions of Poland. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split  20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) between them. Russia got territories  east of the line connecting, more or less, Riga-Polotsk-Mogilev.

In the second partition, in 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of Minsk almost to Kiev and down the river Dnieper , leaving some spaces of steppe down south in front of Ochakov , on the Black Sea .

Later uprisings in Poland led to the third partition in 1795, one year before  Catherine's death. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation until 1918 , in the aftermath of World War I.

Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Orlov -Aleksey  Grigorievich Bobrinsky, (11 April 1762 - 20 June 1813 in  his estate of Bogoroditsk, near Tula). Born three months before the  deposition and assassination by the Orlov brothers of her husband  Peter III

Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov , the grandson of a  rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the  Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving  three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with  which Catherine disagreed. By 1759 he and Catherine had become lovers; no one  told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very  useful, and he became instrumental in the 28 June 1762 coup d'état against her  husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than  marrying anyone.

Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with  titles, money, swords, and other gifts. But Catherine did not marry Grigory, who  proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. He received a palace  in St. Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Orlov died in 1783. His and Catherine's son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky  (1762-1813), had one daughter, Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky (Bobrinskaya)  (1798-1835), who married in 1819 the 34-year-old Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (London, England, 12  July 1784 - 25 July 1842) who took part in the Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812) against Napoleon , and later served as Ambassador in Turin , the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia .

Catherine II and Potemkin on the Millennium Monument in Novgorod

Grigory Potemkin was involved in the coup d'état of 1762. In 1772, Catherine's close  friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him.  By the winter of 1773 the Pugachev revolt had started to threaten.  Catherine's son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends  threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help-mostly military-and he became  devoted to her.

In 1772 Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an  uprising in the Volga region. She appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but  she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy .

Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his  virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favour, and  his family moved into the palace. He later became governor of New Russia .

In 1780, the son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Joseph II , toyed with the idea of  determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet  Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and travelling with him to  Saint Petersburg.

Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to  increase the number of scientists.

Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried that he would not  finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age  of 52 in 1791.

Serfs

Byrney. Russians

At the time of Catherine's reign, the landowning noble class owned the serfs , who were bound to the land that they  tilled. Children of serfs were born into serfdom and worked the same land that their  parents had. The serfs had very limited rights, but they were not exactly  slaves. While the state did not technically allow them to own possessions, some  serfs were able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for their freedom.  The understanding of law in imperial Russia by all sections of society was  often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most  serfs lived. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as accumulate  wealth. To become a serf, someone would give up their freedoms to a landowner in  exchange for their protection and support in times of hardship. In addition,  they would receive land to till but would be taxed a certain percentage of their  crop to give to their landowner. These were the privileges to which a serf was  entitled and which nobles were bound to carry out. All of this was true before  Catherine's reign, and this is the system she inherited.

Catherine did initiate some changes to serfdom though. If the nobles did not  live up to their side of the deal, then the serfs could file complaints against  them by following the proper channels of law.  Catherine gave them this new right, but in exchange they could no longer appeal  directly to her. She did this because she did not want to be bothered by the  peasantry but did not want to give them reason to revolt either. In this act  though, she unintentionally gave the serfs a legitimate bureaucratic status that  they had lacked before.  Some serfs were able to use their new status to their advantage. For example,  serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and  non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs.  Some serfs did apply for freedom and were, surprisingly, successful. In  addition, some governors listened to the complaints of serfs and punished  nobles. But this was by no means all-inclusive.

Other than these, the rights of a serf were very limited. A landowner could  punish his serfs at his discretion, and under Catherine the Great gained the  ability to sentence his serfs to hard labour in Siberia , a punishment normally reserved for  convicted criminals.  The only thing a noble could not do to one of his serfs was to kill him or her.  The life of a serf belonged to the state. Historically, when the serfs faced  problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters) they often  appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine's reign even  though she signed legislation prohibiting it.  Although she did not want to communicate directly with the serfs, she did create  some measures to improve their conditions as a class and reduce the size of the  institution of serfdom. For example, Catherine took action to limit the number  of new serfs; she eliminated many ways for people to become serfs, culminating  in the manifesto of 17 March 1775, which prohibited a serf who had once been  freed from becoming a serf again.  However, she also restricted the freedoms of many peasants. During her reign,  Catherine gave away many state peasants (peasants owned by the state) to become  private serfs (peasants owned by a landowner), and while their ownership changed  hands, a serf's location never did. However, peasants owned by the state  generally had more freedoms than those owned by a noble.

While the majority of serfs were farmers bound to the land, a noble could  also have his serfs sent away to learn a trade or be educated at a school, in  addition to employing them at businesses that paid wages.  This happened more often during Catherine's reign because of the new schools she  established. Only in this way could a serf leave the farm he was responsible  for.

The attitude of the serfs toward their autocrat had historically been a positive one. However, if the Tsar's policies were too  extreme or too disliked then he was not considered to be the true Tsar. In these  cases, it was necessary to replace this "fake" Tsar with the "true" Tsar,  whoever he may be. Because the serfs had no political power, they rioted to get  their message across. But usually, if the serfs did not like the policies of the  Tsar they saw the nobles as corrupt and evil, preventing the people of Russia from communicating with the  well-intentioned Tsar and misinterpreting his decrees. However, they were  already suspicious of Catherine upon her accession because she had annulled an  act by Peter III that had essentially freed the serfs  belonging to the Orthodox Church .  Naturally, the serfs did not like it when Catherine tried to take away their  right to petition her because they felt as though she had severed their  connection to the autocrat, and their power to appeal to her. Far away from the  capital, they were also confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the  throne.

The peasants were discontented because of many other factors as well,  including plague , crop failure, and epidemics, including  a major epidemic in 1771 . The nobles were also imposing  a stricter rule than ever, reducing the land of each serf and restricting their  freedoms further beginning around 1767.  Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during Pugachev's Rebellion of 1774. The serfs  probably followed someone who was pretending to be the true Tsar because of  their feelings of disconnection to Catherine and her policies empowering the  nobles, but this was not the first time that they followed a pretender under  Catherine's reign.  Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real tsar should, helping  the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally  acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very  conservative values, to his cause.  With all this discontent in mind, Catherine did rule for ten years before the  anger of the serfs boiled over into a rebellion as extensive as Pugachev's. But  under Catherine's rule, despite her enlightened ideals, the serfs were generally  unhappy and discontent.

Final months and death

Portrait of Catherine in an advanced age, with the Chesme Column in the background

Though Catherine's life and reign included remarkable personal successes,  they ended with two failures. Her Swedish cousin (once removed) King Gustav IV Adolph visited her in September 1796,  the empress's intention being that her granddaughter Alexandra should become  Queen of Sweden by marriage. A ball was given at the imperial court on 11  September, when the engagement was supposed to be announced. Gustav Adolph felt  pressured to accept the fact that Alexandra would not be converting to Lutheranism , and though he was delighted by the  young lady, he refused to appear at the ball and left for Stockholm . Catherine was so irritated at this  that her health was impacted.  She recovered well enough to begin to plan a ceremony where a favourite grandson  would supersede her difficult son on the throne, but she died of a stroke before  the announcement could be made, just over two months after the engagement ball.

On 16 November [O.S.  5 November] 1796, Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual  morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers at her study. Her lady's  maid, Maria Perekusikhina , had asked the Empress if  she had slept well, and Catherine reportedly replied that she had not slept so  well in a long time.

Sometime after 9:00 A.M. that morning, Catherine went to her dressing room  and collapsed from a stroke while on the toilet.  Worried by Catherine's absence, her attendant, Zakhar Zotov, opened the door and  peered in. Catherine's body was sprawled on the floor. Her face appeared  purplish, her pulse was weak, and her breathing was shallow and laboured.  The servants lifted Catherine from the floor and brought her to the bedroom.  Some 45 minutes later, the royal court's Scottish physician, Dr. John Rogerson,  arrived and determined that Catherine had suffered a stroke.  Despite all attempts to revive the Empress, she fell into a coma from which she  never recovered. Catherine was given the last rites and died the following evening at  approximately 9:45 P.M.  An autopsy performed on her body the next day confirmed the cause of death as  stroke.

Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 by her secretary Alexander  Vasilievich Khrapovitsky among her papers, gave specific instructions should she  die: "Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on  it inscribe my Christian name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six