The Kingdom of Catherine 2. Five glorious deeds of Catherine II

Catherine II

nee Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst ; German Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg

Empress of All Russia from 1762 to 1796, daughter of Prince Anhalt-Zerbst, Catherine came to power during a palace coup that overthrew her unpopular husband Peter III from the throne

short biography

On May 2 (April 21, O.S.), 1729, Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst, who became famous as Catherine II the Great, Russian Empress, was born in the Prussian city of Stettin (now Poland). The period of her reign, which brought Russia onto the world stage as a world power, is called the “golden age of Catherine.”

The future empress's father, the Duke of Zerbst, served the Prussian king, but her mother, Johanna Elisabeth, had a very rich pedigree; she was the future Peter III's cousin. Despite the nobility, the family did not live very richly; Sophia grew up as an ordinary girl who received her education at home, enjoyed playing with her peers, was active, lively, brave, and loved to play mischief.

A new milestone in her biography was opened in 1744 - when the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna invited her and her mother to Russia. There Sofia was to marry Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, heir to the throne, who was her second cousin. Upon arrival in a foreign country, which was to become her second home, she began to actively learn the language, history, and customs. Young Sophia converted to Orthodoxy on July 9 (June 28, O.S.), 1744, and at baptism received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna. The next day she was betrothed to Pyotr Fedorovich, and on September 1 (August 21, O.S.), 1745 they were married.

Seventeen-year-old Peter had little interest in his young wife; each of them lived his own life. Catherine not only had fun with horse riding, hunting, and masquerades, but also read a lot and was actively engaged in self-education. In 1754, her son Pavel (the future Emperor Paul I) was born, whom Elizaveta Petrovna immediately took from her mother. Catherine's husband was extremely dissatisfied when in 1758 she gave birth to a daughter, Anna, being unsure of her paternity.

Catherine had been thinking about how to prevent her husband from sitting on the throne of the emperor since 1756, counting on the support of the guard, Chancellor Bestuzhev and the commander-in-chief of the army Apraksin. Only the timely destruction of Bestuzhev’s correspondence with Ekaterina saved the latter from being exposed by Elizaveta Petrovna. On January 5, 1762 (December 25, 1761, O.S.), the Russian Empress died, and her place was taken by her son, who became Peter III. This event made the gap between the spouses even deeper. The emperor began to live openly with his mistress. In turn, his wife, evicted to the other end of the Winter Palace, became pregnant and secretly gave birth to a son from Count Orlov.

Taking advantage of the fact that her husband-emperor was taking unpopular measures, in particular, he was moving towards rapprochement with Prussia, did not have the best reputation, and had turned the officers against himself, Catherine carried out a coup with the support of the latter: July 9 (June 28, O.S.) 1762 In St. Petersburg, guards units gave her an oath of allegiance. The next day, Peter III, who saw no point in resistance, abdicated the throne, and then died under circumstances that remained unclear. On October 3 (September 22, O.S.), 1762, the coronation of Catherine II took place in Moscow.

The period of her reign was marked by a large number of reforms, in particular in the system of government and the structure of the empire. Under her tutelage, a whole galaxy of famous “Catherine’s eagles” emerged - Suvorov, Potemkin, Ushakov, Orlov, Kutuzov, etc. The increased power of the army and navy made it possible to successfully pursue the imperial foreign policy of annexing new lands, in particular, the Crimea, the Black Sea region, the Kuban region, and part of the Rech Pospolita, etc. A new era began in the cultural and scientific life of the country. The implementation of the principles of the enlightened monarchy contributed to the opening of a large number of libraries, printing houses, and various educational institutions. Catherine II corresponded with Voltaire and encyclopedists, collected artistic canvases, and left behind a rich literary heritage, including on the topics of history, philosophy, economics, and pedagogy.

On the other hand, its internal policy was characterized by an increased privileged position of the noble class, an even greater restriction of the freedom and rights of the peasantry, and a harsh suppression of dissent, especially after the Pugachev uprising (1773-1775).

Catherine was in the Winter Palace when she had a stroke. The next day, November 17 (November 6, O.S.), 1796, the Great Empress passed away. Her last refuge was the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Biography from Wikipedia

The daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Catherine came to power in a palace coup that overthrew her unpopular husband Peter III from the throne.

Catherine's era was marked by the maximum enslavement of the peasants and the comprehensive expansion of the privileges of the nobility.

Under Catherine the Great, the borders of the Russian Empire were significantly expanded to the west (divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and to the south (annexation of Novorossiya, Crimea, and partly the Caucasus).

The system of public administration under Catherine II was reformed for the first time since the time of Peter I.

Culturally, Russia finally became one of the great European powers, which was greatly facilitated by the empress herself, who was fond of literary activity, collected masterpieces of painting and corresponded with French educators. In general, Catherine’s policy and her reforms fit into the mainstream of enlightened absolutism of the 18th century.

Origin

Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst was born on April 21 (May 2), 1729 in the German city of Stettin, the capital of Pomerania (now Szczecin, Poland).

Father, Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst, came from the Zerbst-Dornburg line of the House of Anhalt and was in the service of the Prussian king, was a regimental commander, commandant, then governor of the city of Stettin, where the future empress was born, ran for duke of Courland, but unsuccessfully , ended his service as a Prussian field marshal. Mother - Johanna Elisabeth, from the Gottorp estate, was a cousin of the future Peter III. Johanna Elisabeth's ancestry goes back to Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, first Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and founder of the Oldenburg dynasty.

His maternal uncle, Adolf Friedrich, was chosen as heir to the Swedish throne in 1743, which he assumed in 1751 under the name of Adolf Friedrich. Another uncle, Karl Eitinsky, according to Catherine I, was supposed to become the husband of her daughter Elizabeth, but died on the eve of the wedding celebrations.

Childhood, education, upbringing

In the family of the Duke of Zerbst, Catherine received a home education. She studied English, French and Italian, dance, music, the basics of history, geography, and theology. She grew up as a playful, inquisitive, playful girl and loved to show off her courage in front of the boys with whom she easily played on the streets of Stettin. The parents were dissatisfied with their daughter’s “boyish” behavior, but they were happy that Frederica took care of her younger sister Augusta. Her mother called her Fike or Ficken as a child (German Figchen - comes from the name Frederica, that is, “little Frederica”).

In 1743, the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, choosing a bride for her heir, Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (the future Russian Emperor Peter III), remembered that on her deathbed her mother bequeathed to her to become the wife of the Holstein prince, Johanna Elisabeth’s brother. Perhaps it was this circumstance that tipped the scales in Frederica's favor; Elizabeth had previously vigorously supported the election of her uncle to the Swedish throne and exchanged portraits with her mother. In 1744, the Zerbst princess and her mother were invited to Russia to marry Pyotr Fedorovich, who was her second cousin. She first saw her future husband at Eitin Castle in 1739.

Around February 12, 1744, the fifteen-year-old princess and her mother proceeded to Russia through Riga, where Lieutenant Baron von Munchausen stood guard of honor near the house in which they were staying. Immediately after arriving in Russia, she began to study the Russian language, history, Orthodoxy, and Russian traditions, as she sought to become more fully acquainted with Russia, which she perceived as a new homeland. Among her teachers are the famous preacher Simon Todorsky (teacher of Orthodoxy), the author of the first Russian grammar Vasily Adadurov (teacher of the Russian language) and choreographer Lange (dance teacher).

In an effort to learn Russian as quickly as possible, the future empress studied at night, sitting by an open window in the frosty air. Soon she fell ill with pneumonia, and her condition was so serious that her mother suggested bringing a Lutheran pastor. Sofia, however, refused and sent for Simon of Todor. This circumstance added to her popularity at the Russian court. On June 28 (July 9), 1744, Sofia Frederica Augusta converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna (the same name and patronymic as Elizabeth’s mother, Catherine I), and the next day she was engaged to the future emperor.

The appearance of Sophia and her mother in St. Petersburg was accompanied by political intrigue in which her mother, Princess Zerbst, was involved. She was a fan of the King of Prussia, Frederick II, and the latter decided to use her stay at the Russian imperial court to establish his influence on Russian foreign policy. For this purpose, it was planned, through intrigue and influence on Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, to remove Chancellor Bestuzhev, who pursued an anti-Prussian policy, from affairs and replace him with another nobleman who sympathized with Prussia. However, Bestuzhev managed to intercept letters from Princess Zerbst to Frederick II and present them to Elizaveta Petrovna. After the latter learned about the “ugly role of a Prussian spy” that Sophia’s mother played at her court, she immediately changed her attitude towards her and subjected her to disgrace. However, this did not affect the position of Sofia herself, who did not take part in this intrigue.

Marriage to the heir to the Russian throne

On August 21 (September 1), 1745, at the age of sixteen, Catherine was married to Pyotr Fedorovich, who was 17 years old and who was her second cousin. During the first years of their marriage, Peter was not at all interested in his wife, and there was no marital relationship between them. Catherine will later write about this:

I saw very well that the Grand Duke did not love me at all; two weeks after the wedding, he told me that he was in love with the maiden Carr, the maid of honor of the empress. He told Count Divier, his chamberlain, that there was no comparison between this girl and me. Divier argued the opposite, and he became angry with him; this scene took place almost in my presence, and I saw this quarrel. To tell the truth, I told myself that with this man I would certainly be very unhappy if I succumbed to the feeling of love for him, for which they paid so poorly, and that there would be no reason to die of jealousy without any benefit for anyone.

So, out of pride, I tried to force myself not to be jealous of a person who doesn’t love me, but in order not to be jealous of him, there was no choice but not to love him. If he wanted to be loved, it would not be difficult for me: I was naturally inclined and accustomed to fulfilling my duties, but for this I would need to have a husband with common sense, and mine did not have this.

Ekaterina continues to educate herself. She reads books on history, philosophy, jurisprudence, works by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Tacitus, Bayle, and a large amount of other literature. The main entertainments for her were hunting, horse riding, dancing and masquerades. The absence of marital relations with the Grand Duke contributed to the appearance of lovers for Catherine. Meanwhile, Empress Elizabeth expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of children of the spouses.

Finally, after two unsuccessful pregnancies, on September 20 (October 1), 1754, Catherine gave birth to a son, Paul. The birth was difficult, the baby was immediately taken away from the mother by the will of the reigning Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, and Catherine was deprived of the opportunity to raise her, allowing her to see Paul only occasionally. So the Grand Duchess first saw her son only 40 days after giving birth. A number of sources claim that Paul’s true father was Catherine’s lover S.V. Saltykov (there is no direct statement about this in the “Notes” of Catherine II, but they are often interpreted this way). Others say that such rumors are unfounded, and that Peter underwent an operation that eliminated a defect that made conception impossible. The question of paternity also aroused interest among society.

Alexey Grigorievich Bobrinsky is the illegitimate son of the Empress.

After the birth of Pavel, relations with Peter and Elizaveta Petrovna completely deteriorated. Peter called his wife “spare madam” and openly took mistresses, however, without preventing Catherine from doing the same, who during this period, thanks to the efforts of the English ambassador Sir Charles Henbury Williams, had a relationship with Stanislav Poniatowski, the future king of Poland. On December 9 (20), 1757, Catherine gave birth to her daughter Anna, which caused strong dissatisfaction with Peter, who said at the news of a new pregnancy: “God knows why my wife became pregnant again! I’m not at all sure if this child is from me and whether I should take it personally.”

During this period, the English Ambassador Williams was a close friend and confidant of Catherine. He repeatedly provided her with significant sums in the form of loans or subsidies: only in 1750 she was given 50,000 rubles, for which there are two receipts from her; and in November 1756 she was given 44,000 rubles. In return, he received various confidential information from her - verbally and through letters, which she quite regularly wrote to him as if on behalf of a man (for purposes of secrecy). In particular, at the end of 1756, after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War with Prussia (of which England was an ally), Williams, as follows from his own dispatches, received from Catherine important information about the state of the warring Russian army and about the plan of the Russian offensive, which he transferred to London, as well as to Berlin to the Prussian king Frederick II. After Williams left, she also received money from his successor Keith. Historians explain Catherine’s frequent appeal to the British for money by her extravagance, due to which her expenses far exceeded the amounts that were allocated from the treasury for her maintenance. In one of her letters to Williams, she promised, as a token of gratitude, “to lead Russia to a friendly alliance with England, to give her everywhere the assistance and preference necessary for the good of all Europe and especially Russia, before their common enemy, France, whose greatness is a disgrace to Russia. I will learn to practice these feelings, I will base my glory on them and I will prove to the king, your sovereign, the strength of these feelings of mine.”

Already starting in 1756, and especially during the period of Elizabeth Petrovna’s illness, Catherine hatched a plan to remove the future emperor (her husband) from the throne through a conspiracy, which she repeatedly wrote to Williams about. For these purposes, Catherine, according to the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, “begged a loan of 10 thousand pounds sterling from the English king for gifts and bribes, pledging on her word of honor to act in the common Anglo-Russian interests, and began to think about involving the guard in the case in the event of death Elizabeth, entered into a secret agreement on this with Hetman K. Razumovsky, commander of one of the guards regiments.” Chancellor Bestuzhev, who promised Catherine assistance, was also privy to this plan for a palace coup.

At the beginning of 1758, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna suspected the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Apraksin, with whom Catherine was on friendly terms, as well as Chancellor Bestuzhev himself, of treason. Both were arrested, interrogated and punished; however, Bestuzhev managed to destroy all his correspondence with Catherine before his arrest, which saved her from persecution and disgrace. At the same time, Williams was recalled to England. Thus, her former favorites were removed, but a circle of new ones began to form: Grigory Orlov and Dashkova.

The death of Elizabeth Petrovna (December 25, 1761 (January 5, 1762)) and the accession to the throne of Peter Fedorovich under the name of Peter III further alienated the spouses. Peter III began to live openly with his mistress Elizaveta Vorontsova, settling his wife at the other end of the Winter Palace. When Catherine became pregnant from Orlov, this could no longer be explained by accidental conception from her husband, since communication between the spouses had stopped completely by that time. Catherine hid her pregnancy, and when the time came to give birth, her devoted valet Vasily Grigorievich Shkurin set fire to his house. A lover of such spectacles, Peter and his court left the palace to look at the fire; At this time, Catherine gave birth safely. This is how Alexey Bobrinsky was born, to whom his brother Pavel I subsequently awarded the title of count.

Coup of June 28, 1762

Having ascended the throne, Peter III carried out a number of actions that caused a negative attitude towards him from the officer corps. Thus, he concluded an unfavorable agreement for Russia with Prussia, while Russia won a number of victories over it during the Seven Years' War, and returned to it the lands captured by the Russians. At the same time, he intended, in alliance with Prussia, to oppose Denmark (Russia’s ally), in order to return Schleswig, which it had taken from Holstein, and he himself intended to go on a campaign at the head of the guard. Peter announced the sequestration of the property of the Russian Church, the abolition of monastic land ownership, and shared with those around him plans for the reform of church rituals. Supporters of the coup also accused Peter III of ignorance, dementia, dislike for Russia, and complete inability to rule. Against his background, 33-year-old Ekaterina looked advantageous - an intelligent, well-read, pious and benevolent wife who was being persecuted by her husband.

After the relationship with her husband completely deteriorated and dissatisfaction with the emperor on the part of the guard intensified, Catherine decided to participate in the coup. Her comrades-in-arms, the main of whom were the Orlov brothers, sergeant Potemkin and adjutant Fyodor Khitrovo, began campaigning in the guards units and won them over to their side. The immediate cause of the start of the coup was rumors about the arrest of Catherine and the discovery and arrest of one of the participants in the conspiracy, Lieutenant Passek.

Apparently, there was some foreign participation here too. As Henri Troyat and Casimir Waliszewski write, planning the overthrow of Peter III, Catherine turned to the French and British for money, hinting to them what she was going to do. The French were distrustful of her request to borrow 60 thousand rubles, not believing in the seriousness of her plan, but she received 100 thousand rubles from the British, which subsequently may have influenced her attitude towards England and France.

Early in the morning of June 28 (July 9), 1762, while Peter III was in Oranienbaum, Catherine, accompanied by Alexei and Grigory Orlov, arrived from Peterhof to St. Petersburg, where the guards units swore allegiance to her. Peter III, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, abdicated the throne the next day, was taken into custody and died under unclear circumstances. In her letter, Catherine once indicated that before his death Peter suffered from hemorrhoidal colic. After death (although the facts indicate that even before death - see below), Catherine ordered an autopsy to be performed in order to dispel suspicions of poisoning. The autopsy showed (according to Catherine) that the stomach was absolutely clean, which ruled out the presence of poison.

At the same time, as historian N.I. Pavlenko writes, “The violent death of the emperor is irrefutably confirmed by absolutely reliable sources” - Orlov’s letters to Catherine and a number of other facts. There are also facts indicating that she knew about the impending murder of Peter III. So, already on July 4, 2 days before the death of the emperor in the palace in Ropsha, Catherine sent the doctor Paulsen to him, and as Pavlenko writes, “it is indicative that Paulsen was sent to Ropsha not with medicines, but with surgical instruments for opening the body "

After her husband's abdication, Ekaterina Alekseevna ascended the throne as reigning empress with the name of Catherine II, publishing a manifesto in which the grounds for the removal of Peter were indicated as an attempt to change the state religion and peace with Prussia. To justify her own rights to the throne (and not the heir to 7-year-old Paul), Catherine referred to “the desire of all Our loyal subjects, obvious and unfeigned.” On September 22 (October 3), 1762, she was crowned in Moscow. As V. O. Klyuchevsky characterized her accession, “Catherine made a double takeover: she took power from her husband and did not transfer it to her son, the natural heir of his father.”

The reign of Catherine II: general information

In her memoirs, Catherine characterized the state of Russia at the beginning of her reign as follows:

Finances were depleted. The army did not receive pay for 3 months. Trade was in decline, because many of its branches were given over to monopoly. There was no correct system in the state economy. The War Department was plunged into debt; the sea barely held on, being in extreme neglect. The clergy was dissatisfied with the taking of lands from him. Justice was sold at auction, and laws were followed only in cases where they favored the powerful.

According to historians, this characterization did not entirely correspond to reality. The finances of the Russian state, even after the Seven Years' War, were by no means depleted or upset: thus, in general, in 1762 the budget deficit amounted to only a little more than 1 million rubles. or 8% of the amount of income. Moreover, Catherine herself contributed to the emergence of this deficit, since only in the first six months of her reign, until the end of 1762, she distributed 800 thousand rubles in the form of gifts to favorites and participants in the coup on June 28 in cash, not counting property, lands and peasants. (which, of course, was not included in the budget). Extreme disorder and depletion of finances occurred precisely during the reign of Catherine II, at which time Russia’s external debt first arose, and the amount of unpaid salaries and government obligations at the end of her reign far exceeded what her predecessors left behind. The lands were actually taken away from the church not before Catherine, but during her reign, in 1764, which gave rise to discontent among the clergy. And, according to historians, no system in public administration, justice and public finance management, which would certainly be better than the previous one, was not created under it;;.

The Empress formulated the tasks facing the Russian monarch as follows:

• The nation that is to be governed must be enlightened.
• It is necessary to introduce good order in the state, support society and force it to comply with the laws.
• It is necessary to establish a good and accurate police force in the state.
• It is necessary to promote the flourishing of the state and make it abundant.
• It is necessary to make the state formidable in itself and inspiring respect among its neighbors.

The policy of Catherine II was characterized mainly by the preservation and development of trends laid down by her predecessors. In the middle of the reign, an administrative (provincial) reform was carried out, which determined the territorial structure of the country until the administrative reform of 1929, as well as judicial reform. The territory of the Russian state increased significantly due to the annexation of fertile southern lands - Crimea, the Black Sea region, as well as the eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, etc. The population increased from 23.2 million (in 1763) to 37.4 million (in 1796), In terms of population, Russia became the largest European country (it accounted for 20% of the European population). Catherine II formed 29 new provinces and built about 144 cities. As Klyuchevsky wrote:

The army with 162 thousand people was strengthened to 312 thousand, the fleet, which in 1757 consisted of 21 battleships and 6 frigates, in 1790 included 67 battleships and 40 frigates and 300 rowing ships, the amount of state revenues from 16 million rubles. rose to 69 million, that is, it increased more than fourfold, the success of foreign trade: the Baltic - in increasing imports and exports, from 9 million to 44 million rubles, the Black Sea, Catherine and created - from 390 thousand in 1776 to 1 million 900 thousand rubles In 1796, the growth of internal circulation was indicated by the issue of coins worth 148 million rubles in the 34 years of his reign, while in the previous 62 years only 97 million were issued.”

At the same time, population growth was largely the result of the annexation of foreign states and territories (which were home to almost 7 million people) to Russia, which often occurred against the wishes of the local population, which led to the emergence of “Polish”, “Ukrainian”, “Jewish” and other national issues inherited by the Russian Empire from the era of Catherine II. Hundreds of villages under Catherine received the status of a city, but in fact they remained villages in appearance and occupation of the population, the same applies to a number of cities founded by her (some even existed only on paper, as evidenced by contemporaries). In addition to the issue of coins, 156 million rubles worth of paper notes were issued, which led to inflation and a significant depreciation of the ruble; therefore, the real growth of budget revenues and other economic indicators during her reign was significantly less than the nominal one.

The Russian economy continued to remain agricultural. The share of the urban population has practically not increased, amounting to about 4%. At the same time, a number of cities were founded (Tiraspol, Grigoriopol, etc.), iron smelting more than doubled (for which Russia took 1st place in the world), and the number of sailing and linen manufactories increased. In total, by the end of the 18th century. there were 1,200 large enterprises in the country (in 1767 there were 663). The export of Russian goods to other European countries has increased significantly, including through the established Black Sea ports. However, in the structure of this export there were no finished products at all, only raw materials and semi-finished products, and imports were dominated by foreign industrial products. While in the West in the second half of the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution was taking place, Russian industry remained “patriarchal” and serfdom, which caused it to lag behind the Western one. Finally, in the 1770-1780s. An acute social and economic crisis broke out, which resulted in a financial crisis.

Characteristics of the board

Domestic policy

Catherine’s commitment to the ideas of the Enlightenment largely predetermined the fact that the term “enlightened absolutism” is often used to characterize the domestic policy of Catherine’s time. She actually brought some of the ideas of the Enlightenment to life. Thus, according to Catherine, based on the works of the French philosopher Montesquieu, the vast Russian spaces and the severity of the climate determine the pattern and necessity of autocracy in Russia. Based on this, under Catherine, the autocracy was strengthened, the bureaucratic apparatus was strengthened, the country was centralized and the management system was unified. However, the ideas expressed by Diderot and Voltaire, of which she was a vocal supporter, did not correspond to her domestic policy. They defended the idea that every person is born free, and advocated the equality of all people and the elimination of medieval forms of exploitation and oppressive forms of government. Contrary to these ideas, under Catherine there was a further deterioration in the position of the serfs, their exploitation intensified, and inequality grew due to the granting of even greater privileges to the nobility. In general, historians characterize her policy as “pro-noble” and believe that, contrary to the empress’s frequent statements about her “vigilant concern for the welfare of all subjects,” the concept of the common good in the era of Catherine was the same fiction as in Russia in the 18th century as a whole

Soon after the coup, statesman N.I. Panin proposed creating an Imperial Council: 6 or 8 senior dignitaries rule together with the monarch (as was the case in 1730). Catherine rejected this project.

According to another project of Panin, the Senate was transformed on December 15 (26), 1763. It was divided into 6 departments, headed by chief prosecutors, and the prosecutor general became its head. Each department had certain powers. The general powers of the Senate were reduced; in particular, it lost legislative initiative and became a body for monitoring the activities of the state apparatus and the highest court. The center of legislative activity moved directly to Catherine and her office with secretaries of state.

It was divided into six departments: the first (headed by the Prosecutor General himself) was in charge of state and political affairs in St. Petersburg, the second was in charge of judicial affairs in St. Petersburg, the third was in charge of transport, medicine, science, education, art, the fourth was in charge of military and land affairs. and naval affairs, the fifth - state and political in Moscow and the sixth - the Moscow judicial department.

Stacked commission

An attempt was made to convene the Statutory Commission, which would systematize the laws. The main goal is to clarify the people's needs to carry out comprehensive reforms. On December 14 (25), 1766, Catherine II published a Manifesto on the convening of a commission and decrees on the procedure for elections to deputies. Nobles are allowed to elect one deputy from the county, citizens - one deputy from the city. More than 600 deputies took part in the commission, 33% of them were elected from the nobility, 36% from the townspeople, which also included nobles, 20% from the rural population (state peasants). The interests of the Orthodox clergy were represented by a deputy from the Synod. As a guiding document for the 1767 Commission, the Empress prepared the “Nakaz” - a theoretical justification for enlightened absolutism. According to V. A. Tomsinov, Catherine II, already as the author of the “Order…” can be counted among the galaxy of Russian jurists of the second half of the 18th century. However, V. O. Klyuchevsky called “Instruction” “a compilation of the educational literature of that time,” and K. Valishevsky called it “a mediocre student’s work” copied from famous works. It is well known that it was almost completely rewritten from the works of Montesquieu “On the Spirit of Laws” and Beccaria “On Crimes and Punishments,” which Catherine herself admitted. As she herself wrote in a letter to Frederick II, “in this work I own only the arrangement of the material, and here and there one line, one word.”

The first meeting was held in the Faceted Chamber in Moscow, then the meetings were moved to St. Petersburg. The meetings and debates continued for a year and a half, after which the Commission was dissolved, under the pretext of the need for deputies to go to war with the Ottoman Empire, although it was later proven by historians that there was no such need. According to a number of contemporaries and historians, the work of the Statutory Commission was a propaganda campaign of Catherine II, aimed at glorifying the empress and creating her favorable image in Russia and abroad. As A. Troyat notes, the first few meetings of the Statutory Commission were devoted only to how to name the empress in gratitude for her initiative to convene the commission. As a result of long debates, from all the proposals (“The Wisest”, “Mother of the Fatherland”, etc.), the title was chosen that has been preserved in history - “Catherine the Great”

Provincial reform

Under Catherine, the territory of the empire was divided into provinces, many of which remained virtually unchanged until the October Revolution. As a result of the regional reform in 1782-1783, the territory of Estonia and Livonia was divided into two provinces - Riga and Revel - with institutions that already existed in other provinces of Russia. The special Baltic order, which provided for more extensive rights of local nobles to work and the personality of the peasant than those of Russian landowners, was also eliminated. Siberia was divided into three provinces: Tobolsk, Kolyvan and Irkutsk.

“Institution for the management of the provinces of the All-Russian Empire” was adopted on November 7 (18), 1775. Instead of a three-tier administrative division - province, province, district, a two-tier structure began to operate - governorship, district (which was based on the principle of a healthy population). From the previous 23 provinces, 53 governorships were formed, each of which was home to 350-400 thousand male souls. The governorships were divided into 10-12 districts, each with 20-30 thousand male souls.

Since there were clearly not enough city centers for counties, Catherine II renamed many large rural settlements into cities, making them administrative centers. Thus, 216 new cities appeared. The population of the cities began to be called bourgeois and merchants. The main authority of the county became the Lower Zemstvo Court, headed by a police captain elected by the local nobility. A district treasurer and a district surveyor were appointed to the districts, following the model of the provinces.

The governor-general controlled several viceroyalities, headed by viceroys (governors), herald-fiscals and refatges. The Governor-General had extensive administrative, financial and judicial powers, and all military units and commands located in the provinces were subordinate to him. The governor general reported directly to the emperor. Governors-General were appointed by the Senate. Provincial prosecutors and tiuns were subordinate to the governor-general.

Finances in the governorships were handled by the Treasury Chamber, headed by the vice-governor, with the support of the Accounts Chamber. Land management was carried out by the provincial land surveyor at the head of the digger. The executive body of the governor (governor) was the provincial government, which exercised general supervision over the activities of institutions and officials. The Order of Public Charity was in charge of schools, hospitals and shelters (social functions), as well as class judicial institutions: the Upper Zemstvo Court for nobles, the Provincial Magistrate, which considered litigation between townspeople, and the Upper Justice for the trial of state peasants. The criminal and civil chambers judged all classes and were the highest judicial bodies in the provinces

Captain police officer - stood at the head of the district, leader of the nobility, elected by him for three years. He was the executive body of the provincial government. In counties, as in provinces, there are class institutions: for nobles (district court), for townspeople (city magistrate) and for state peasants (lower justice). There was a county treasurer and a county surveyor. Representatives of the estates sat in the courts.

A conscientious court is called upon to stop strife and reconcile those who argue and quarrel. This trial was classless. The Senate becomes the highest judicial body in the country.

The city was made a separate administrative unit. Instead of the governor, a mayor was placed at its head, endowed with all rights and powers. Strict police control was introduced in cities. The city was divided into parts (districts) under the supervision of a private bailiff, and the parts were divided into quarters controlled by a quarterly overseer.

Historians note a number of shortcomings of the provincial reform carried out under Catherine II. Thus, N.I. Pavlenko writes that the new administrative division did not take into account the existing connections of the population with trade and administrative centers and ignored the national composition of the population (for example, the territory of Mordovia was divided between 4 provinces): “The reform shredded the territory of the country, as if cutting on a living body." K. Valishevsky believes that the innovations in the court were “very controversial in essence,” and contemporaries wrote that they led to an increase in the amount of bribery, since the bribe now had to be given not to one, but to several judges, the number of which had increased many times over.

Noting that the significance of the provincial reform was “enormous and fruitful in various respects,” N. D. Chechulin points out that at the same time it was very expensive, since it required additional expenses for new institutions. Even according to preliminary calculations of the Senate, its implementation should have led to an increase in total state budget expenditures by 12-15%; however, these considerations were treated “with strange levity”; Soon after the completion of the reform, chronic budget deficits began, which could not be eliminated until the end of the reign. In general, internal management expenses during the reign of Catherine II increased 5.6 times (from 6.5 million rubles in 1762 to 36.5 million rubles in 1796) - much more than, for example, expenses per army (2.6 times) and more than in any other reign during the 18th-19th centuries.

Speaking about the reasons for the provincial reform under Catherine, N. I. Pavlenko writes that it was a response to the Peasant War of 1773-1775 led by Pugachev, which revealed the weakness of local authorities and their inability to cope with peasant revolts. The reform was preceded by a series of notes submitted to the government from the nobility, in which it was recommended to increase the network of institutions and “police supervisors” in the country.

Liquidation of the Zaporozhye Sich

Carrying out reform in the Novorossiysk province in 1783-1785. led to a change in the regimental structure (former regiments and hundreds) to the administrative division common to the Russian Empire into provinces and districts, the final establishment of serfdom and the equalization of the rights of the Cossack elders with the Russian nobility. With the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty (1774), Russia gained access to the Black Sea and Crimea.

Thus, there was no longer a need to maintain the special rights and management system of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. At the same time, their traditional way of life often led to conflicts with the authorities. After repeated pogroms of Serbian settlers, as well as in connection with the Cossacks’ support for the Pugachev uprising, Catherine II ordered the disbandment of the Zaporozhye Sich, which was carried out by order of Grigory Potemkin to pacify the Zaporozhye Cossacks by General Peter Tekeli in June 1775.

The Sich was disbanded, most of the Cossacks were disbanded, and the fortress itself was destroyed. In 1787, Catherine II, together with Potemkin, visited Crimea, where she was met by the Amazon company created for her arrival; in the same year, the Army of the Faithful Cossacks was created, which later became the Black Sea Cossack Army, and in 1792 they were granted Kuban for eternal use, where the Cossacks moved, founding the city of Ekaterinodar.

Reforms on the Don created a military civil government modeled on the provincial administrations of central Russia. In 1771, the Kalmyk Khanate was finally annexed to Russia.

Economic policy

The reign of Catherine II was characterized by extensive development of the economy and trade, while maintaining “patriarchal” industry and agriculture. By a decree of 1775, factories and industrial plants were recognized as property, the disposal of which does not require special permission from their superiors. In 1763, the free exchange of copper money for silver was prohibited, so as not to provoke the development of inflation. The development and revival of trade was facilitated by the emergence of new credit institutions and the expansion of banking operations (in 1770, the Noble Bank began accepting deposits for safekeeping). In 1768, state assignation banks were established in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and since 1769, the issue of paper money - assignats - was established for the first time (these banks were merged into a single State Assignation Bank in 1786).

State regulation of prices for salt was introduced, which was one of the vital goods in the country. The Senate legislatively set the price of salt at 30 kopecks per pood (instead of 50 kopecks) and 10 kopecks per pood in regions where fish are mass-salted. Without introducing a state monopoly on the salt trade, Catherine hoped for increased competition and, ultimately, an improvement in the quality of the product. However, soon the price of salt was raised again. At the beginning of the reign, some monopolies were abolished: the state monopoly on trade with China, the private monopoly of the merchant Shemyakin on the import of silk, and others.

Russia's role in the global economy has increased - Russian sailing fabric began to be exported in large quantities to England, and the export of cast iron and iron to other European countries increased (consumption of cast iron on the domestic Russian market also increased significantly). But the export of raw materials increased especially strongly: timber (5 times), hemp, bristles, etc., as well as bread. The country's export volume increased from 13.9 million rubles. in 1760 to 39.6 million rubles. in 1790

Russian merchant ships began to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. However, their number was insignificant in comparison with foreign ones - only 7% of the total number of ships serving Russian foreign trade in the late 18th - early 19th centuries; the number of foreign merchant ships entering Russian ports annually during her reign increased from 1340 to 2430.

As the economic historian N.A. Rozhkov pointed out, in the structure of exports in the era of Catherine there were no finished products at all, only raw materials and semi-finished products, and 80-90% of imports were foreign industrial products, the volume of imports of which was several times higher than domestic production. Thus, the volume of domestic manufacturing production in 1773 was 2.9 million rubles, the same as in 1765, and the volume of imports in these years was about 10 million rubles. Industry developed poorly, there were practically no technical improvements and serf labor dominated. Thus, from year to year, cloth factories could not even satisfy the needs of the army, despite the ban on selling cloth “outside”; in addition, the cloth was of poor quality, and it had to be purchased abroad. Catherine herself did not understand the significance of the Industrial Revolution taking place in the West and argued that machines (or, as she called them, “machines”) harm the state because they reduce the number of workers. Only two export industries developed rapidly - the production of cast iron and linen, but both were based on “patriarchal” methods, without the use of new technologies that were actively being introduced in the West at that time - which predetermined a severe crisis in both industries, which began shortly after the death of Catherine II.

Monogram EII on a coin from 1765

In the field of foreign trade, Catherine’s policy consisted of a gradual transition from protectionism, characteristic of Elizabeth Petrovna, to complete liberalization of exports and imports, which, according to a number of economic historians, was a consequence of the influence of the ideas of the physiocrats. Already in the first years of the reign, a number of foreign trade monopolies and a ban on grain exports were abolished, which from that time began to grow rapidly. In 1765, the Free Economic Society was founded, which promoted the ideas of free trade and published its own magazine. In 1766, a new customs tariff was introduced, which significantly reduced tariff barriers compared to the protectionist tariff of 1757 (which established protective duties of 60 to 100% or more); they were reduced even more in the customs tariff of 1782. Thus, in the “moderate protectionist” tariff of 1766, protective duties averaged 30%, and in the liberal tariff of 1782 - 10%, only for some goods rising to 20- thirty %.

Agriculture, like industry, developed mainly through extensive methods (increasing the amount of arable land); The promotion of intensive agricultural methods by the Free Economic Society created under Catherine did not have much result. From the first years of Catherine's reign, famine periodically began to arise in the countryside, which some contemporaries explained by chronic crop failures, but the historian M. N. Pokrovsky associated it with the beginning of mass grain exports, which had previously, under Elizaveta Petrovna, been prohibited, and by the end of Catherine's reign amounted to 1 .3 million rub. in year. Cases of mass ruin of peasants have become more frequent. The famines became especially widespread in the 1780s, when they affected large regions of the country. Bread prices have increased significantly: for example, in the center of Russia (Moscow, Smolensk, Kaluga) they increased from 86 kopecks. in 1760 to 2.19 rubles. in 1773 and up to 7 rubles. in 1788, that is, more than 8 times.

Introduced into circulation in 1769, paper money - banknotes - in the first decade of its existence accounted for only a few percent of the metal (silver and copper) money supply, and played a positive role, allowing the state to reduce its costs of moving money within the empire. In her manifesto of June 28, 1786, Catherine solemnly promised that “the number of bank notes should never and under no circumstances exceed one hundred million rubles in our state.” However, due to the lack of money in the treasury, which became a constant phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1780s, an increasing number of banknotes were issued, the volume of which reached 156 million rubles by 1796, and their value depreciated by 1.5 times. In addition, the state borrowed money abroad in the amount of 33 million rubles. and had various unpaid internal obligations (bills, salaries, etc.) in the amount of RUB 15.5 million. That. the total amount of government debts amounted to 205 million rubles, the treasury was empty, and budget expenses significantly exceeded income, which was stated by Paul I upon his accession to the throne. The issuance of banknotes in a volume exceeding the solemnly established limit by 50 million rubles gave the historian N. D. Chechulin, in his economic research, the basis to conclude about a “severe economic crisis” in the country (in the second half of the reign of Catherine II) and about the “complete collapse of the financial systems of Catherine's reign." The general conclusion of N.D. Chechulin was that “the financial and generally economic side is the weakest and most gloomy side of Catherine’s reign.” Catherine II's external loans and the interest accrued on them were fully repaid only in 1891.

Corruption. Favoritism

...In the alleys of Sarskoe village...
Dear old lady lived
Nice and a little prodigal
Voltaire's first friend was
I wrote orders, burned fleets,
And she died while boarding the ship.
It's been dark since then.
Russia, poor power,
Your suppressed glory
She died with Catherine.

A. Pushkin, 1824

By the beginning of Catherine’s reign, a system of bribery, arbitrariness and other abuses by officials was deeply rooted in Russia, which she herself loudly declared shortly after taking the throne. On July 18 (29), 1762, just 3 weeks after the start of her reign, she issued a Manifesto on extortion, in which she stated many abuses in the field of public administration and justice and declared a fight against them. However, as historian V.A. Bilbasov wrote, “Catherine soon became convinced for herself that “bribery in state affairs” is not eradicated by decrees and manifestos, that this requires a radical reform of the entire political system - a task... that was beyond the capabilities of that time, nor even the later ones."

There are many examples of corruption and abuse of officials during her reign. A striking example is the Prosecutor General of the Senate Glebov. He, for example, did not hesitate to take away the wine farms issued by local authorities in the provinces and resell them to “his” buyers, who offered big money for them. Sent by him to Irkutsk, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, investigator Krylov with a detachment of Cossacks captured local merchants and extorted money from them, forcibly persuaded their wives and daughters to cohabitate, arrested the vice-governor of Irkutsk Wulf and essentially established his own power there.

There are a number of references to abuses by Catherine's favorite Grigory Potemkin. For example, as British Ambassador Gunning wrote in his reports, Potemkin “with his own authority and in defiance of the Senate disposed of wine farm-outs in a manner unfavorable to the treasury.” In 1785-1786 Another favorite of Catherine, Alexander Ermolov, formerly Potemkin’s adjutant, accused the latter of embezzling funds allocated for the development of Belarus. Potemkin himself, justifying himself, said that he had only “borrowed” this money from the treasury. Another fact is cited by the German historian T. Griesinger, who points out that the generous gifts Potemkin received from the Jesuits played an important role in allowing their order to open its headquarters in Russia (after the Jesuits were banned throughout Europe).

As N.I. Pavlenko points out, Catherine II showed excessive softness towards not only her favorites, but also towards other officials who had stained themselves with covetousness or other misconduct. Thus, the Prosecutor General of the Senate Glebov (whom the Empress herself called “a rogue and a swindler”) was only removed from office in 1764, although by that time a large list of complaints and cases brought against him had accumulated. During the events of the plague riot in Moscow in September 1771, the commander-in-chief of Moscow, P. S. Saltykov, showed cowardice, fearing the epidemic and the unrest that had begun, wrote a resignation letter to the empress and immediately left for a patrimony near Moscow, leaving Moscow at the mercy of a mad crowd that staged pogroms and murders throughout the city. Catherine only granted his request for resignation and did not punish him in any way.

Therefore, despite the sharp increase in the costs of maintaining the bureaucracy during her reign, abuses did not decrease. Shortly before her death, in February 1796, F.I. Rostopchin wrote: “Crimes have never been as frequent as they are now. Their impunity and insolence have reached extreme limits. Three days ago, a certain Kovalinsky, who was the secretary of the military commission and was expelled by the empress for embezzlement and bribery, has now been appointed governor in Ryazan, because he has a brother, a scoundrel like him, who is friendly with Gribovsky, the head of the office of Platon Zubov. One Ribas steals up to 500,000 rubles a year.”

A number of examples of abuse and theft are associated with Catherine’s favorites, which, apparently, is not accidental. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, they were “mostly grabbers who cared about personal interests, and not about the good of the state.”

The very favoritism of that era, which, according to K. Waliszewski, “under Catherine became almost a state institution,” can serve as an example, if not of corruption, then of excessive expenditure of public funds. Thus, it was calculated by contemporaries that gifts to only 11 of Catherine’s main favorites and the costs of their maintenance amounted to 92 million 820 thousand rubles, which exceeded the annual expenditures of the state budget of that era and was comparable to the amount of external and internal debt of the Russian Empire formed by the end of her reign. “She seemed to buy the love of her favorites,” writes N. I. Pavlenko, “played at love,” noting that this game was very expensive for the state.

In addition to unusually generous gifts, favorites also received orders, military and official titles, as a rule, without any merit, which had a demoralizing effect on officials and military personnel and did not contribute to increasing the efficiency of their service. For example, being very young and not shining with any merits, Alexander Lanskoy managed to receive the Orders of Alexander Nevsky and St. Anne, the ranks of Lieutenant General and Adjutant General, the Polish Orders of the White Eagle and St. Stanislaus and the Swedish Order in 3-4 years of “friendship” with the Empress. Polar Star; and also make a fortune of 7 million rubles. As Catherine’s contemporary, the French diplomat Masson, wrote, her favorite Platon Zubov had so many awards that he looked like “a seller of ribbons and hardware.”

In addition to the favorites themselves, the empress's generosity truly knew no bounds in relation to various persons close to the court; their relatives; foreign aristocrats, etc. Thus, during her reign, she gave away a total of more than 800 thousand peasants. Potemkin gave out about 100 thousand rubles annually for the maintenance of Grigory Potemkin’s niece, and gave her and her groom 1 million rubles for the wedding. She sheltered “a crowd of French courtiers who had a more or less official appointment at Catherine’s court” (Baron Breteuil, Prince of Nassau , Marquis of Bombelle, Calonne, Count of Esterhazy, Count of Saint-Prix, etc.), who also received gifts of unprecedented generosity (for example, Esterhazy - 2 million pounds).

Large sums were paid to representatives of the Polish aristocracy, including King Stanislaw Poniatowski (formerly her favorite), who was “placed” by her on the Polish throne. As V. O. Klyuchevsky writes, Catherine’s very nomination of Poniatowski as King of Poland “led to a string of temptations”: “First of all, it was necessary to prepare hundreds of thousands of chervonnies to bribe the Polish magnates who traded in the fatherland...”. Since that time, sums from the treasury of the Russian state, with the light hand of Catherine II, flowed into the pockets of the Polish aristocracy - in particular, this is how the latter’s consent to the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was acquired.

Education, science, healthcare

In 1768, a network of city schools was created, based on a class-lesson system. Schools began to open actively. Under Catherine, special attention was paid to the development of women's education; in 1764, the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and the Educational Society for Noble Maidens were opened. The Academy of Sciences has become one of the leading scientific bases in Europe. An observatory, a physics laboratory, an anatomical theater, a botanical garden, instrumental workshops, a printing house, a library, and an archive were founded. On October 11, 1783, the Russian Academy was founded.

At the same time, historians do not rate successes in the field of education and science highly. The writer A. Troyat points out that the work of the academy was based mainly not on training its own personnel, but on inviting eminent foreign scientists (Euler, Pallas, Böhmer, Storch, Kraft, Miller, Wachmeister, Georgi, Klinger, etc.), however, “the stay all these scientists at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences did not enrich the treasury of human knowledge.” V. O. Klyuchevsky writes about this, citing the testimony of Manstein’s contemporary. The same applies to education. As V. O. Klyuchevsky writes, when Moscow University was established in 1755, there were 100 students, and 30 years later - only 82. Many students could not pass exams and receive a diploma: for example, during the entire reign of Catherine, not a single physician received an academic diploma, that is, did not pass the exams. Studying was poorly organized (teaching was conducted in French or Latin), and the nobles went to study very reluctantly. There was a similar shortage of students in two maritime academies, which could not even enroll the 250 students required by the state.

In the provinces there were orders for public charity. In Moscow and St. Petersburg there are educational homes for street children, where they received education and upbringing. To help widows, the Widow's Treasury was created.

Compulsory smallpox vaccination was introduced, and Catherine decided to set a personal example for her subjects: on the night of October 12 (23), 1768, the empress herself was vaccinated against smallpox. Among the first to be vaccinated were also Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. Under Catherine II, the fight against epidemics in Russia began to acquire the character of state measures that were directly included in the responsibilities of the Imperial Council and the Senate. By decree of Catherine, outposts were created, located not only on the borders, but also on the roads leading to the center of Russia. The “Border and Port Quarantine Charter” was created.

New areas of medicine for Russia developed: hospitals for the treatment of syphilis, psychiatric hospitals and shelters were opened. A number of fundamental works on medical issues have been published.

National politics

After the annexation of lands that had previously been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Russian Empire, about a million Jews ended up in Russia - a people with a different religion, culture, way of life and way of life. To prevent their resettlement in the central regions of Russia and attachment to their communities for the convenience of collecting state taxes, Catherine II in 1791 established the Pale of Settlement, beyond which Jews had no right to live. The Pale of Settlement was established in the same place where Jews had lived before - on the lands annexed as a result of the three partitions of Poland, as well as in the steppe regions near the Black Sea and sparsely populated areas east of the Dnieper. The conversion of Jews to Orthodoxy lifted all restrictions on residence. It is noted that the Pale of Settlement contributed to the preservation of Jewish national identity and the formation of a special Jewish identity within the Russian Empire.

In 1762-1764, Catherine published two manifestos. The first - “On the permission of all foreigners entering Russia to settle in whichever provinces they wish and the rights granted to them” - called on foreign citizens to move to Russia, the second defined a list of benefits and privileges for immigrants. Soon the first German settlements arose in the Volga region, reserved for settlers. The influx of German colonists was so great that already in 1766 it was necessary to temporarily suspend the reception of new settlers until those who had already arrived were settled. The creation of colonies on the Volga was increasing: in 1765 - 12 colonies, in 1766 - 21, in 1767 - 67. According to the census of colonists in 1769, 6.5 thousand families lived in 105 colonies on the Volga, which amounted to 23.2 thousand people. In the future, the German community will play a significant role in the life of Russia.

During the reign of Catherine, the country included the Northern Black Sea region, the Azov region, Crimea, Novorossia, the lands between the Dniester and the Bug, Belarus, Courland and Lithuania. The total number of new subjects acquired by Russia in this way reached 7 million. As a result, as V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote, in the Russian Empire “the discord of interests intensified” between different peoples. This was expressed, in particular, in the fact that for almost every nationality the government was forced to introduce a special economic, tax and administrative regime. Thus, the German colonists were completely exempt from paying taxes to the state and from other duties; the Pale of Settlement was introduced for Jews; From the Ukrainian and Belarusian population in the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the poll tax was at first not levied at all, and then levied at half the amount. The indigenous population turned out to be the most discriminated against in these conditions, which led to the following incident: some Russian nobles at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. as a reward for their service, they were asked to “register as Germans” so that they could enjoy the corresponding privileges.

Class politics

Nobility and townspeople. On April 21, 1785, two charters were issued: “Charter on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble nobility” and “Charter granted to cities.” The Empress called them the crown of her activity, and historians consider them the crown of the “pro-noble policy” of the kings of the 18th century. As N. I. Pavlenko writes, “In the history of Russia, the nobility has never been blessed with such diverse privileges as under Catherine II.”

Both charters finally assigned to the upper classes those rights, obligations and privileges that had already been granted by Catherine’s predecessors during the 18th century, and provided a number of new ones. Thus, the nobility as a class was formed by the decrees of Peter I and then received a number of privileges, including exemption from the poll tax and the right to unlimited disposal of estates; and by decree of Peter III it was finally released from compulsory service to the state.

Letter of grant to the nobility:

• Already existing rights were confirmed.
• the nobility were exempted from the quartering of military units and commands
• from corporal punishment
• the nobility received ownership of the subsoil of the earth
• the right to have their own class institutions
  • The name of the 1st estate has changed: not “nobility”, but “noble nobility”.
  • it was forbidden to confiscate the estates of nobles for criminal offenses; the estates were to be transferred to the legal heirs.
  • nobles have the exclusive right of ownership of land, but the Charter does not say a word about the monopoly right to have serfs.
  • Ukrainian elders were given equal rights with Russian nobles.
    • a nobleman who did not have an officer rank was deprived of the right to vote.
    • Only nobles whose income from estates exceeded 100 rubles could hold elected positions.

Certificate of rights and benefits to cities of the Russian Empire:

• the right of the elite merchant class not to pay the poll tax was confirmed.
• replacement of conscription with a cash contribution.

Division of the urban population into 6 categories:

• “real city inhabitants” - homeowners (“Real city inhabitants are those who have a house or other building or place or land in this city”)
• merchants of all three guilds (the lowest amount of capital for merchants of the 3rd guild is 1000 rubles)
• artisans registered in workshops.
• foreign and out-of-town merchants.
• eminent citizens - merchants with a capital of over 50 thousand rubles, rich bankers (at least 100 thousand rubles), as well as the city intelligentsia: architects, painters, composers, scientists.
• townspeople, who “support themselves by fishing, handicrafts and work” (who do not have real estate in the city).

Representatives of the 3rd and 6th categories were called “philistines” (the word came from the Polish language through Ukraine and Belarus, originally meaning “city dweller” or “citizen”, from the word “place” - city and “shtetl” - town).

Merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds and eminent citizens were exempt from corporal punishment. Representatives of the 3rd generation of eminent citizens were allowed to file a petition for conferment of nobility.

Granting the nobility maximum rights and privileges and its complete release from responsibilities in relation to the state led to the emergence of a phenomenon that was widely covered in the literature of that era (the comedy “The Minor” by Fonvizin, the magazine “Truten” by Novikov, etc.) and in historical works. As V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote, the nobleman of Catherine’s era “represented a very strange phenomenon: the manners, habits, concepts, feelings he had acquired, the very language in which he thought - everything was foreign, everything was imported, but he had no home no living organic connections with others, no serious business... in the West, abroad, they saw him as a Tatar in disguise, and in Russia they looked at him as a Frenchman who had been accidentally born in Russia.”

Despite the privileges, in the era of Catherine II, property inequality among the nobles increased greatly: against the backdrop of individual large fortunes, the economic situation of part of the nobility worsened. As the historian D. Blum points out, a number of large nobles owned tens and hundreds of thousands of serfs, which was not the case in previous reigns (when the owner of more than 500 souls was considered rich); at the same time, almost 2/3 of all landowners in 1777 had less than 30 male serfs, and 1/3 of landowners had less than 10 souls; many nobles who wanted to enter the public service did not have the funds to purchase appropriate clothing and shoes. V. O. Klyuchevsky writes that many noble children during her reign, even becoming students at the maritime academy and “receiving a small salary (scholarships), 1 rub. per month, “from barefoot” they could not even attend the academy and were forced, according to the report, not to think about the sciences, but about their own food, to acquire funds for their maintenance on the side.”

Peasantry. Peasants in Catherine's era made up about 95% of the population, and serfs - more than 90% of the population, while nobles made up only 1%, and other classes - 9%. According to Catherine’s reform, peasants in non-chernozem regions paid quitrents, and those in the black soil worked off corvée. According to the general opinion of historians, the situation of this largest group of the population in the era of Catherine was the worst in the entire history of Russia. A number of historians compare the position of serfs of that era with slaves. As V. O. Klyuchevsky writes, the landowners “turned their villages into slave-owning plantations, which are difficult to distinguish from North American plantations before the liberation of blacks”; and D. Blum concludes that “by the end of the 18th century. a Russian serf was no different from a slave on a plantation.” Nobles, including Catherine II herself, often called serfs “slaves,” which is well known from written sources.

Trade by peasants reached wide proportions: they were sold in markets, in advertisements on the pages of newspapers; they were lost at cards, exchanged, given as gifts, and forced into marriage. The peasants could not take an oath, take farm-outs or contracts, and could not travel more than 30 miles from their village without a passport - permission from the landowner and local authorities. According to the law, the serf was completely at the mercy of the landowner, the latter did not have the right only to kill him, but could torture him to death - and no official punishment was provided for this. There are a number of examples of landowners maintaining serf “harems” and dungeons for peasants with executioners and instruments of torture. During the 34 years of his reign, only in a few of the most egregious cases (including Daria Saltykova) were landowners punished for abuses against peasants.

During the reign of Catherine II, a number of laws were adopted that worsened the situation of the peasants:

• The decree of 1763 entrusted the maintenance of military commands sent to suppress peasant uprisings to the peasants themselves.
• According to the decree of 1765, for open disobedience, the landowner could send the peasant not only to exile, but also to hard labor, and the term of hard labor was set by him; The landowners also had the right to return those exiled from hard labor at any time.
• A decree of 1767 prohibited peasants from complaining about their master; those who disobeyed were threatened with exile to Nerchinsk (but they could go to court),
• In 1783, serfdom was introduced in Little Russia (Left Bank Ukraine and the Russian Black Earth Region),
• In 1796, serfdom was introduced in New Russia (Don, North Caucasus),
• After the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the serfdom regime was tightened in the territories that were transferred to the Russian Empire (Right Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland).

As N.I. Pavlenko writes, under Catherine, “serfdom developed in depth and breadth,” which was “an example of a blatant contradiction between the ideas of the Enlightenment and government measures to strengthen the serfdom regime.”

During her reign, Catherine donated more than 800 thousand peasants to landowners and nobles, thereby setting a kind of record. Most of them were not state peasants, but peasants from lands acquired during the partitions of Poland, as well as palace peasants. But, for example, the number of assigned (possession) peasants from 1762 to 1796. increased from 210 to 312 thousand people, and these were formally free (state) peasants, but converted to the status of serfs or slaves. Possession peasants of the Ural factories took an active part in the Peasant War of 1773-1775.

At the same time, the situation of the monastic peasants was alleviated, who were transferred to the jurisdiction of the College of Economy along with the lands. All their duties were replaced by monetary rent, which gave the peasants more independence and developed their economic initiative. As a result, the unrest of the monastery peasants ceased.

High clergy(episcopal) lost its autonomous existence due to the secularization of church lands (1764), which gave bishops' houses and monasteries the opportunity to exist without the help of the state and independently of it. After the reform, the monastic clergy became dependent on the state that financed them.

Religious politics

In general, a policy of religious tolerance was declared in Russia under Catherine II. Thus, in 1773, a law on tolerance of all religions was issued, prohibiting the Orthodox clergy from interfering in the affairs of other faiths; secular authorities reserve the right to decide on the establishment of churches of any faith.

Having ascended the throne, Catherine canceled the decree of Peter III on the secularization of lands from the church. But already in February. In 1764 she again issued a decree depriving the Church of land property. Monastic peasants numbering about 2 million people. of both sexes were removed from the jurisdiction of the clergy and transferred to the management of the College of Economy. The state came under the jurisdiction of the estates of churches, monasteries and bishops.

In Little Russia, the secularization of monastic properties was carried out in 1786.

Thus, the clergy became dependent on secular authorities, since they could not carry out independent economic activities.

Catherine obtained from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government equalization of the rights of religious minorities - Orthodox and Protestants.

In the first years of the reign of Catherine II, persecution ceased Old Believers. Continuing the policy of her overthrown husband Peter III, the Empress supported his initiative to return Old Believers, an economically active population, from abroad. They were specially allocated a place in Irgiz (modern Saratov and Samara regions). They were allowed to have priests.

However, already in 1765, persecution resumed. The Senate decided that the Old Believers were not allowed to build churches, and Catherine confirmed this with her decree; Temples that had already been built were demolished. During these years, not only churches were destroyed, but also the entire city of Old Believers and schismatics (Vetka) in Little Russia, which after that ceased to exist. And in 1772, the sect of eunuchs in the Oryol province was persecuted. K. Valishevsky believes that the reason for the persistence of persecution of Old Believers and schismatics, unlike other religions, was that they were considered not only as a religious, but also as a socio-political movement. Thus, according to the teaching widespread among schismatics, Catherine II, along with Peter I, was considered the “Tsar-Antichrist.”

The free resettlement of Germans to Russia led to a significant increase in the number Protestants(mostly Lutherans) in Russia. They were also allowed to build churches, schools, and freely perform religious services. At the end of the 18th century, in St. Petersburg alone there were more than 20 thousand Lutherans.

Behind Jewish religion retained the right to publicly practice faith. Religious matters and disputes were left to the Jewish courts. Jews, depending on the capital they had, were assigned to the appropriate class and could be elected to local government bodies, become judges and other civil servants.

By decree of Catherine II in 1787, in the printing house of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, for the first time in Russia, a complete Arabic text was printed Islamic the holy book of the Koran for free distribution to the “Kyrgyz”. The publication differed significantly from European ones, primarily in that it was Muslim in nature: the text for publication was prepared by Mullah Usman Ibrahim. In St. Petersburg, from 1789 to 1798, 5 editions of the Koran were published. In 1788, a manifesto was issued in which the Empress commanded “to establish in Ufa a spiritual assembly of the Mohammedan law, which has under its authority all the spiritual officials of that law, ... excluding the Tauride region.” Thus, Catherine began to integrate the Muslim community into the system of government of the empire. Muslims received the right to build and restore mosques.

Buddhism also received government support in the regions where he traditionally practiced. In 1764, Catherine established the post of Hambo Lama - the head of the Buddhists of Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. In 1766, the Buryat lamas recognized Catherine as the incarnation of the Bodhisattva White Tara for her benevolence towards Buddhism and her humane rule.

Catherine allowed Jesuit Order, which by that time was officially banned in all European countries (by decisions of European states and a bull of the Pope), move its headquarters to Russia. Subsequently, she patronized the order: she provided it with the opportunity to open its new residence in Mogilev, banned and confiscated all published copies of the “slanderous” (in her opinion) history of the Jesuit order, visited their institutions and provided other courtesies.

Domestic political problems

The fact that a woman who did not have any formal rights to this was proclaimed empress gave rise to many pretenders to the throne, which overshadowed a significant part of the reign of Catherine II. So, only from 1764 to 1773. seven False Peters III appeared in the country (claiming that they were nothing more than the “resurrected” Peter III) - A. Aslanbekov, I. Evdokimov, G. Kremnev, P. Chernyshov, G. Ryabov, F. Bogomolov, N. Krestov; Emelyan Pugachev became eighth. And in 1774-1775. To this list was added the “case of Princess Tarakanova,” who pretended to be the daughter of Elizaveta Petrovna.

During 1762-1764. 3 conspiracies were uncovered that had the goal of overthrowing Catherine, and two of them were associated with the name of Ivan Antonovich, the former Russian Emperor Ivan VI, who at the time of Catherine II’s accession to the throne continued to remain alive in prison in the Shlisselburg fortress. The first of them involved 70 officers. The second took place in 1764, when second lieutenant V. Ya. Mirovich, who was on guard duty in the Shlisselburg fortress, won over part of the garrison to his side in order to free Ivan. The guards, however, in accordance with the instructions given to them, stabbed the prisoner, and Mirovich himself was arrested and executed.

In 1771, a major plague epidemic occurred in Moscow, complicated by popular unrest in Moscow, called the Plague Riot. The rebels destroyed the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin. The next day, the crowd took the Donskoy Monastery by storm, killed Archbishop Ambrose, who was hiding there, and began to destroy quarantine outposts and houses of the nobility. Troops under the command of G. G. Orlov were sent to suppress the uprising. After three days of fighting, the riot was suppressed.

Peasant War of 1773-1775

In 1773-1775 there was a peasant uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev. It covered the lands of the Yaitsk army, the Orenburg province, the Urals, the Kama region, Bashkiria, part of Western Siberia, the Middle and Lower Volga region. During the uprising, the Cossacks were joined by Bashkirs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Ural factory workers and numerous serfs from all the provinces where hostilities took place. After the suppression of the uprising, some liberal reforms were curtailed and conservatism intensified.

Main stages:

• September 1773 - March 1774
• March 1774 - July 1774
• July 1774-1775

On September 17 (28), 1773, the uprising begins. Near the Yaitsky town, government detachments went over to the side of 200 Cossacks, going to suppress the rebellion. Without taking the town, the rebels go to Orenburg.

March - July 1774 - the rebels seize factories in the Urals and Bashkiria. The rebels are defeated near the Trinity Fortress. On July 12, Kazan was captured. On July 17, they were defeated again and retreated to the right bank of the Volga.

Historians believe that the Peasant War of 1773-1775. was one of the manifestations of an acute social crisis that erupted in the middle of Catherine’s reign, which was marked by many uprisings in different parts of the country (Kizhi uprising in Zaonezhie in 1769-1770, the plague riot of 1771 in Moscow, the uprising of the Yaik Cossacks 1769-1772, etc.) . A number of historians point to a change in the nature of social protests, their acquisition of a class, anti-noble character. Thus, D. Blum notes that participants in Pugachev’s uprising killed about 1,600 nobles, and almost half of them were women and children, and cites other cases of murders of nobles during peasant uprisings of that era. As V. O. Klyuchevsky writes, the peasant uprisings during Catherine’s reign “were painted with social color, they were not uprisings of the governed against the administration, but of the lower classes - against the higher, ruling, against the nobility.”

Freemasonry

1762-1778 - characterized by the organizational design of Russian Freemasonry and the dominance of the English system (Elagin Freemasonry).

In the 60s and especially in the 70s. XVIII century Freemasonry is becoming increasingly popular among the educated nobility. The number of Masonic lodges is increasing many times over. In total, approximately 80 Masonic lodges are known to have been established during the reign of Catherine II, whereas previously they numbered only a few. Researchers of Freemasonry associate this, on the one hand, with the fashion for everything new and foreign (one of the founders of Russian Freemasonry I.P. Elagin called it “a toy for idle minds”), and on the other hand, with new trends of the Enlightenment era and the awakening of social interests among the nobility.

Catherine's policy towards Freemasonry was quite contradictory. On the one hand, she had nothing to reproach the Freemasons for, except for the strange rituals that she ridiculed in her comedies. But there were no prohibitions on the activities of Freemasons during her reign, with the exception of isolated cases. On the other hand, as historian V.I. Kurbatov writes, “Catherine was very suspicious of Freemasonry,” in which she “saw a threat to her rule.” These suspicions concerned two points. Firstly, she feared the excessive increase in foreign influence spread through the Masonic lodges. So, when in 1784 the Elagin lodges, for unknown reasons, but at their own request, suspended their work, resuming their meetings only 2 years later, Catherine deigned to transfer to the order “for the conscientiousness of its members, to avoid any contacts with foreign masons, in case of real political relationships, has great respect for them.”

Secondly, the empress’s suspicions concerned the publishing and journalistic activities of the Moscow Masonic lodges of the Martinists and Rosicrucians, headed by N. I. Novikov, I. G. Schwartz and others, in whose books and articles she saw hints addressed to her own rule. In 1786, all these lodges were closed, which was the only case of this kind under Catherine, and some members of these lodges, primarily Novikov himself, as well as M.I. Nevzorov and V.Ya. Kolokolnikov, were subjected to repression. In addition, in 1786, 6 books published by Moscow Rosicrucians were banned. These facts indicate the desire of Catherine II to control Freemasonry and allow only such activities that did not contradict her interests.

Development of literature. The Novikov case and the Radishchev case

Domestic literature in the era of Catherine, as in general in the 18th century, according to a number of historians, was in its infancy, engaged, according to K. Valishevsky, mainly in “processing foreign elements.” The same opinion is expressed by A. Troyat, who writes that Sumarokov, Kheraskov, Bogdanovich and other Russian writers of that era had many direct borrowings from French writers. As stated in the 19th century. French historian A. Leroy-Beaulieu, the tendency of Russia in the 18th century to imitate everything foreign slowed down the birth of an original national literature for a whole century.

The “official” literature of Catherine’s era is represented by several famous names: Fonvizin, Sumarokov, Derzhavin, and a very small number and volume of works written by them, and cannot be compared with Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century. True, there was also “unofficial” literature: Radishchev, Novikov, Krechetov, which was banned, and the authors were subjected to severe repression. A number of other, less well-known authors suffered a similar fate, for example, Knyazhnin, whose historical drama (“Vadim Novgorodsky”) was also banned, and the entire print run was burned. According to historians, the empress’s policy, which, on the one hand, consisted of a kind of personal “guidance” of literary creativity, and on the other hand, strict censorship and repression of objectionable writers, did not contribute to the development of domestic literature.

This applied to both individual works and literary magazines. During her reign, several magazines appeared, but none of them, with the exception of the magazine “Everything and Everything,” published by Catherine herself, could survive for long. The reason was, as G. V. Plekhanov wrote, and with which the historian N. I. Pavlenko agrees, that the publishers of the magazines “considered themselves entitled to criticize, while Felitsa [Catherine II] considered them obliged to admire them.”

Thus, Novikov’s journal “Truten” was closed by the authorities in 1770, as historians believe, due to the fact that it raised sensitive social issues - the arbitrariness of landowners against peasants, endemic corruption among officials, etc. After this, Novikov managed to start the release of the new magazine “Painter”, in which he already tried to avoid sensitive social topics. However, this magazine was closed a few years later. The St. Petersburg Bulletin, which existed for only a little more than two years, and other magazines suffered the same fate.

The same policy was followed in relation to published books - and not only in the country, but also abroad, concerning Russia and imperial politics. Thus, Catherine sharply criticized the book published in 1768 by the French astronomer Chappe d'Auteroche about his trip to Russia, in which he wrote about bribery and human trafficking that reigned among officials, and also published in 1782 in France, "History of Russia" by Levesque (L'Evesque), in which, in her opinion, there was too little praise for the empress.

Thus, according to a number of historians, not only “harmful” works were ostracized, but also “insufficiently useful” ones, dedicated not to the glorification of Russia and its empress, but to some other, “extraneous” and therefore “unnecessary” things. In particular, it is believed that not only the content of individual books and articles, but also Novikov’s publishing activity itself, which was carried out on a large scale (out of 2685 books published in 1781-1790 in Russia, 748 books, that is, 28%, were published Novikov), irritated the Empress.

So, in 1785, Catherine II instructed Archbishop Plato to find out whether there was anything “harmful” in the books published by Novikov. He studied the books he published, which were mostly published for the purposes of public education, and in the end he did not find in them “anything reprehensible from the point of view of faith and the interests of the state.” However, a year later the Novikov Masonic lodges were closed, a number of his books were banned, and a few years later he himself was repressed. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “It was not possible to convincingly formulate the elements of the crime, and Novikov, without trial, by personal decree of Catherine II of May 1, 1792, was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress for 15 years. The decree declared him a state criminal, a charlatan who profited by deceiving gullible people.”

The fate of Radishchev is very similar. As historians point out, in his book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” there are no calls for the overthrow of the existing system and for the elimination of serfdom. However, the author was sentenced to death by quartering (after pardon, it was replaced by a 10-year exile to Tobolsk) - because his book was “filled with harmful speculation that destroys public peace and detracts from the respect due to authority...”.

According to historians, both in the “Novikov case” and in the “Radishchev case” a certain role was played by the wounded pride of Catherine, who was accustomed to flattery and could not stand people who dared to express their critical judgments that ran counter to her own.

Foreign policy

The foreign policy of the Russian state under Catherine was aimed at strengthening Russia's role in the world and expanding its territory. The motto of her diplomacy was as follows: “you need to be on friendly terms with all powers in order to always retain the opportunity to take the side of the weaker... to keep your hands free... not to be dragged behind anyone.” However, this motto was often neglected, preferring to join the weak with the strong, contrary to their opinion and desire.

Expansion of the Russian Empire

The new territorial growth of Russia begins with the accession of Catherine II. After the first Turkish war, Russia acquired in 1774 important points at the mouths of the Dnieper, Don and in the Kerch Strait (Kinburn, Azov, Kerch, Yenikale). Then, in 1783, Balta, Crimea and the Kuban region are annexed. The Second Turkish War ends with the acquisition of the coastal strip between the Bug and the Dniester (1791). Thanks to all these acquisitions, Russia becomes a firm foot on the Black Sea. At the same time, the Polish partitions give Western Rus' to Russia. According to the first of them, in 1773 Russia received part of Belarus (the provinces of Vitebsk and Mogilev); according to the second partition of Poland (1793), Russia received the regions: Minsk, Volyn and Podolsk; according to the third (1795-1797) - Lithuanian provinces (Vilna, Kovno and Grodno), Black Rus', the upper reaches of Pripyat and the western part of Volyn. Simultaneously with the third partition, the Duchy of Courland was annexed to Russia.

Sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The federal Polish-Lithuanian state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth included the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The reason for intervention in the affairs of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the question of the position of dissidents (that is, the non-Catholic minority - Orthodox and Protestants), so that they were equalized with the rights of Catholics. Catherine put strong pressure on the gentry to elect her protege Stanislav August Poniatowski to the Polish throne, who was elected. Part of the Polish gentry opposed these decisions and organized an uprising in the Bar Confederation. It was suppressed by Russian troops in alliance with the Polish king. In 1772, Prussia and Austria, fearing the strengthening of Russian influence in Poland and its successes in the war with the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), offered Catherine to carry out a division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in exchange for ending the war, otherwise threatening war against Russia. Russia, Austria and Prussia sent in their troops.

In 1772, the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place. Austria received all of Galicia with its districts, Prussia - Western Prussia (Pomerania), Russia - the eastern part of Belarus to Minsk (Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces) and part of the Latvian lands that were previously part of Livonia. The Polish Sejm was forced to agree to the division and give up claims to the lost territories: Poland lost 380,000 km² with a population of 4 million people.

Polish nobles and industrialists contributed to the adoption of the Constitution of 1791; The conservative part of the population of the Targowica Confederation turned to Russia for help.

In 1793, the Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place, approved at the Grodno Sejm. Prussia received Gdansk, Torun, Poznan (part of the lands along the Warta and Vistula rivers), Russia - Central Belarus with Minsk and Novorossiya (part of the territory of modern Ukraine).

In March 1794, an uprising began under the leadership of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the goals of which were to restore territorial integrity, sovereignty and the Constitution on May 3, but in the spring of that year it was suppressed by the Russian army under the command of A.V. Suvorov. During the Kościuszko uprising, the rebel Poles who seized the Russian embassy in Warsaw discovered documents that had a great public resonance, according to which King Stanisław Poniatowski and a number of members of the Grodno Sejm, at the time of the approval of the 2nd partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, received money from the Russian government - in in particular, Poniatowski received several thousand ducats.

In 1795, the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place. Austria received Southern Poland with Luban and Krakow, Prussia - Central Poland with Warsaw, Russia - Lithuania, Courland, Volyn and Western Belarus.

October 13 (24), 1795 - a conference of the three powers on the fall of the Polish state, it lost statehood and sovereignty.

Russian-Turkish wars. Annexation of Crimea to Russia

An important area of ​​Catherine II’s foreign policy also included the territories of Crimea, the Black Sea region and the North Caucasus, which were under Turkish rule.

When the uprising of the Bar Confederation broke out, the Turkish Sultan declared war on Russia (Russian-Turkish War 1768-1774), using as a pretext the fact that one of the Russian troops, pursuing the Poles, entered the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Russian troops defeated the Confederates and began to win victories one after another in the south. Having achieved success in a number of land and sea battles (the Battle of Kozludzhi, the battle of Ryabaya Mogila, the Battle of Kagul, the Battle of Larga, the Battle of Chesme, etc.), Russia forced Turkey to sign the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty, as a result of which the Crimean Khanate formally gained independence, but de facto became dependent on Russia. Turkey paid Russia military indemnities in the order of 4.5 million rubles, and also ceded the northern coast of the Black Sea along with two important ports.

After the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia's policy towards the Crimean Khanate was aimed at establishing a pro-Russian ruler in it and joining Russia. Under pressure from Russian diplomacy, Shahin Giray was elected khan. The previous khan, Turkey's protege Devlet IV Giray, tried to resist at the beginning of 1777, but it was suppressed by A.V. Suvorov, Devlet IV fled to Turkey. At the same time, the landing of Turkish troops in the Crimea was prevented and thus an attempt to start a new war was prevented, after which Turkey recognized Shahin Giray as khan. In 1782, an uprising broke out against him, which was suppressed by Russian troops introduced into the peninsula, and in 1783, with the manifesto of Catherine II, the Crimean Khanate was annexed to Russia.

After the victory, the Empress, together with the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, made a triumphal tour of the Crimea.

The next war with Turkey occurred in 1787-1792 and was an unsuccessful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to regain the lands that had gone to Russia during the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, including Crimea. Here, too, the Russians won a number of important victories, both land - the Battle of Kinburn, the Battle of Rymnik, the capture of Ochakov, the capture of Izmail, the battle of Focsani, the Turkish campaigns against Bendery and Akkerman were repulsed, etc., and sea - the battle of Fidonisi (1788), The Battle of Kerch (1790), the Battle of Cape Tendra (1790) and the Battle of Kaliakria (1791). As a result, the Ottoman Empire in 1791 was forced to sign the Treaty of Yassy, ​​which assigned Crimea and Ochakov to Russia, and also pushed the border between the two empires to the Dniester.

The wars with Turkey were marked by major military victories of Rumyantsev, Orlov-Chesmensky, Suvorov, Potemkin, Ushakov, and the establishment of Russia in the Black Sea. As a result, the Northern Black Sea region, Crimea, and the Kuban region went to Russia, its political positions in the Caucasus and Balkans strengthened, and Russia’s authority on the world stage was strengthened.

According to many historians, these conquests are the main achievement of the reign of Catherine II. At the same time, a number of historians (K. Valishevsky, V. O. Klyuchevsky, etc.) and contemporaries (Frederick II, French ministers, etc.) explained the “amazing” victories of Russia over Turkey not so much by the strength of the Russian army and navy, which were still quite weak and poorly organized, largely a consequence of the extreme decomposition of the Turkish army and state during this period.

Relations with Georgia and Persia

Under the king of Kartli and Kakheti, Irakli II (1762-1798), the united Kartli-Kakheti state was significantly strengthened, and its influence in Transcaucasia was growing. The Turks are expelled from the country. Georgian culture is being revived, book printing is emerging. Enlightenment is becoming one of the leading trends in social thought. Heraclius turned to Russia for protection from Persia and Turkey. Catherine II, who fought with Turkey, on the one hand, was interested in an ally, on the other hand, did not want to send significant military forces to Georgia. In 1769-1772, a small Russian detachment under the command of General Totleben fought against Turkey on the side of Georgia. In 1783, Russia and Georgia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, establishing a Russian protectorate over the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in exchange for Russian military protection. In 1795, the Persian Shah Agha Mohammed Khan Qajar invaded Georgia and, after the Battle of Krtsanisi, ravaged Tbilisi. Russia, fulfilling the terms of the treaty, began military operations against it and in April 1796, Russian troops stormed Derbent and suppressed Persian resistance on the territory of modern Azerbaijan, including large cities (Baku, Shemakha, Ganja).

Relations with Sweden

Taking advantage of the fact that Russia entered into a war with Turkey, Sweden, supported by Prussia, England and Holland, started a war with it for the return of previously lost territories. The troops that entered Russian territory were stopped by General-in-Chief V.P. Musin-Pushkin. After a series of naval battles that did not have a decisive outcome, Russia defeated the Swedish battle fleet in the battle of Vyborg, but due to a storm it suffered a heavy defeat in the battle of the rowing fleets at Rochensalm. The parties signed the Treaty of Verel in 1790, according to which the border between the countries did not change.

Relations with other countries

In 1764, relations between Russia and Prussia normalized and an alliance treaty was concluded between the countries. This treaty served as the basis for the formation of the Northern System - an alliance of Russia, Prussia, England, Sweden, Denmark and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against France and Austria. Russian-Prussian-English cooperation continued further. In October 1782, a Treaty of Friendship and Trade with Denmark was signed.

In the third quarter of the 18th century. There was a struggle of the North American colonies for independence from England - the bourgeois revolution led to the creation of the USA. In 1780, the Russian government adopted the “Declaration of Armed Neutrality”, supported by the majority of European countries (ships of neutral countries had the right of armed defense if they were attacked by the fleet of a warring country).

In European affairs, Russia's role increased during the Austro-Prussian War of 1778-1779, when it acted as a mediator between the warring parties at the Congress of Teschen, where Catherine essentially dictated her terms of reconciliation, restoring balance in Europe. After this, Russia often acted as an arbiter in disputes between German states, which turned directly to Catherine for mediation.

One of Catherine’s grandiose plans in the foreign policy arena was the so-called Greek project - joint plans of Russia and Austria to divide Turkish lands, expel the Turks from Europe, revive the Byzantine Empire and proclaim Catherine’s grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, as its emperor. According to the plans, a buffer state of Dacia is created in place of Bessarabia, Moldova and Wallachia, and the western part of the Balkan Peninsula is transferred to Austria. The project was developed in the early 1780s, but was not implemented due to the contradictions of the allies and Russia’s independent conquest of significant Turkish territories.

After the French Revolution, Catherine was one of the initiators of the anti-French coalition and the establishment of the principle of legitimism. She said: “The weakening of monarchical power in France endangers all other monarchies. For my part, I am ready to resist with all my might. It's time to act and take up arms." However, in reality, she avoided participating in hostilities against France. According to popular opinion, one of the real reasons for the creation of the anti-French coalition was to divert the attention of Prussia and Austria from Polish affairs. At the same time, Catherine abandoned all treaties concluded with France, ordered the expulsion of all those suspected of sympathizing with the French Revolution from Russia, and in 1790 she issued a decree on the return of all Russians from France.

Shortly before her death, in 1796, Catherine began the Persian campaign: it was planned that the commander-in-chief Valerian Zubov (who was promoted to commander thanks to the patronage of his brother Platon Zubov, the empress’s favorite) with 20 thousand soldiers would capture all or a significant part of the territory of Persia. Further grandiose plans of conquest, which are believed to have been developed by Platon Zubov himself, included a march on Constantinople: from the west through Asia Minor (Zubov) and at the same time from the north from the Balkans (Suvorov), to implement the Greek project cherished by Catherine. These plans were not destined to come true due to her death, although Zubov managed to win several victories and capture part of the Persian territory, including Derbent and Baku.

Results and assessments of foreign policy

During the reign of Catherine, the Russian Empire acquired the status of a great power. As a result of two successful Russian-Turkish wars for Russia, 1768-1774 and 1787-1791. The Crimean Peninsula and the entire territory of the Northern Black Sea region were annexed to Russia. In 1772-1795 Russia took part in three sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of which it annexed the territories of present-day Belarus and Western Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland. During Catherine's reign, Russian colonization of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska began.

At the same time, many historians consider certain elements of Catherine II’s foreign policy (the liquidation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as an independent state, the desire to capture Constantinople) as having more negative than positive results. Thus, N.I. Pavlenko calls the liquidation of Poland as a sovereign state “an act of robbery on the part of its neighbors.” As K. Erikson writes, “Current historians perceive Catherine’s encroachment on the independence of Poland as barbarism, contrary to the ideals of humanism and enlightenment that she preached.” As noted by K. Valishevsky and V. O. Klyuchevsky, during the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 8 million Slavs found themselves under the “yoke” of Prussia and Austria; Moreover, these sections greatly strengthened the latter, much more than Russia. As a result, Russia with its own hands created formidable potential opponents on its western border in the form of strengthened German states, with whom it will have to fight in the future.

Catherine's successors critically assessed the principles of her foreign policy. Her son Paul I had a negative attitude towards them and hastened to completely reconsider immediately after ascending the throne. During the reign of her grandson Nicholas I, Baron Brunnov prepared a report that said: “We cannot but admit that the methods chosen by Empress Catherine to carry out her plans are far from consistent with the nature of straightforwardness and honor, which are now the unchanging rule of our policy ..." “And our true strength,” Emperor Nicholas I attributed with his own hand.

Catherine II as a figure of the Age of Enlightenment

Catherine II - legislator in the Temple of Justice(Levitsky D. G., 1783, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg)

The long reign of Catherine II 1762-1796 was filled with significant and highly controversial events and processes. The golden age of the Russian nobility was at the same time the age of Pugachevism, the “Nakaz” and the Statutory Commission coexisted with persecution. And yet, Catherine tried to preach among the Russian nobility the philosophy of the European Enlightenment, with which the empress was well acquainted. In this sense, her reign is often called the era of enlightened absolutism. Historians argue about what enlightened absolutism was - the utopian teaching of the enlighteners (Voltaire, Diderot, etc.) about the ideal union of kings and philosophers or a political phenomenon that found its real embodiment in Prussia (Frederick II the Great), Austria (Joseph II), Russia (Catherine II), etc. These disputes are not unfounded. They reflect the key contradiction in the theory and practice of enlightened absolutism: between the need to radically change the existing order of things (class system, despotism, lawlessness, etc.) and the inadmissibility of shocks, the need for stability, the inability to infringe on the social force on which this order rests - the nobility . Catherine II, like perhaps no one else, understood the tragic insurmountability of this contradiction: “You,” she blamed the French philosopher D. Diderot, “write on paper that will endure everything, but I, poor empress, write on human skin, so sensitive and painful." Her position on the issue of the serf peasantry is very indicative. There is no doubt about the empress's negative attitude towards serfdom. She thought more than once about ways to cancel it. But things did not go further than cautious reflection. Catherine II clearly realized that the abolition of serfdom would be received with indignation by the nobles. Feudal legislation was expanded: landowners were allowed to exile peasants to hard labor for any period of time, and peasants were forbidden to file complaints against landowners. Attempts at reforms in the spirit of enlightened absolutism were:

• convening and activities of the Legislative Commission (1767-1768);
• reform of the administrative-territorial division of the Russian Empire;
• adoption of the Charter to the cities, formalizing the rights and privileges of the “third estate” - the townspeople. The city estate was divided into six categories, received limited rights of self-government, elected the mayor and members of the city Duma;
• the adoption in 1775 of a manifesto on freedom of enterprise, according to which permission from government authorities was not required to open an enterprise;
• reforms 1782-1786 in the field of school education.

Of course, these transformations were limited. The autocratic principle of governance, serfdom, and the class system remained unshakable. Pugachev's Peasant War (1773-1775), the capture of the Bastille (1789) and the execution of King Louis XVI (1793) did not contribute to the deepening of reforms. They went intermittently in the 90s. and stopped altogether. The persecution of A. N. Radishchev (1790) and the arrest of N. I. Novikov (1792) were not random episodes. They testify to the deep contradictions of enlightened absolutism, the impossibility of unambiguous assessments of the “golden age of Catherine II”.

Perhaps it was these contradictions that gave rise to the opinion, prevailing among some historians, about the extreme cynicism and hypocrisy of Catherine II; although she herself contributed to the emergence of this opinion with her words and actions. First of all, as a result of her actions, the bulk of the Russian population became even more disenfranchised, deprived of normal human rights, although she had the power to achieve the opposite - and for this it was not necessary to abolish serfdom. Her other actions, such as the liquidation of sovereign Poland, were also unlikely to correspond to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which she verbally adhered to. In addition, historians provide examples of her specific words and actions that support this opinion:

• As V. O. Klyuchevsky and D. Blum point out, in 1771 Catherine thought it was “indecent” that peasants were being sold at public auctions “under the hammer,” and she issued a law prohibiting public auctions. But since this law was ignored, Catherine did not seek its implementation, and in 1792 she again allowed the trade of serfs at auctions, while prohibiting the use of the auctioneer’s hammer, which, apparently, seemed especially “indecent” to her.
• Another example they give is about Catherine’s decree, which prohibited peasants from filing complaints against landowners (for this they were now threatened with whipping and lifelong hard labor). Catherine issued this decree on August 22, 1767, “at the same time that the deputies of the Commissions were listening to the articles of the Order on freedom and equality”;
• D. Blum also gives the following example: landowners often kicked out old or sick peasants onto the streets (while giving them their freedom), who as a result were doomed to death. Catherine, by her decree, obliged the landowners to take a receipt from the peasants before this that they agreed to this
• As A. Troyat points out, Catherine constantly referred to the serfs as “slaves” in her correspondence. But as soon as the French educator Diderot used this word during a meeting with her, she was terribly indignant. “There are no slaves in Russia,” she said. “The serf peasants in Russia are independent in spirit, although they feel coerced in their bodies.”
• N.I. Pavlenko cites a number of letters from Catherine to Voltaire. In one of them (1769) she wrote: “... our taxes are so light that there is not a man in Russia who does not have a chicken whenever he wants it, and for some time they have preferred turkeys to chickens.” In another letter (1770), written at the height of the famine and riots that engulfed different parts of the country: “In Russia everything is going as usual: there are provinces in which they almost do not know that we have been at war for two years. There is no shortage of anything anywhere: they sing thanksgiving prayers, dance and have fun.”

A special topic is the relationship between Catherine and the French enlighteners (Diderot, Voltaire). It is common knowledge that she was in constant correspondence with them, and they expressed a high opinion of her. However, many historians write that these relations were in the nature of obvious “sponsorship”, on the one hand, and flattery, on the other. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, having learned that Diderot needed money, Catherine bought his library for 15 thousand livres, but did not take it, but left it to him, “appointing” him as a lifelong caretaker of his own library with payment of a “salary” from Russian treasury in the amount of 1000 livres per year. She showered Voltaire with various favors and money, and acquired his library after his death, paying generous sums to his heirs. For their part, they did not remain in debt. Diderot lavished praise and flattery on her, and “put his critical notes under the carpet” (thus, only after his death were his sharp critical “Remarks on Catherine’s Mandate” discovered). As K. Waliszewski points out, Voltaire called her the “northern Semiramis” and argued that the sun, illuminating the world of ideas, moved from the West to the North; wrote, based on materials “prepared” for him on Catherine’s orders, the history of Peter I, which caused ridicule from other European scientists. A. Troyat notes that Voltaire and Diderot competed in exaggerated praise of Catherine, citing relevant examples (thus, Diderot, in turn, wrote that he “puts her on the same level” with Caesar, Lycurgus and Solon, above Frederick the Great, and only after the meeting with her in Russia, his soul, previously the “soul of a slave,” became a “free soul,” etc.), and they were even jealous of each other for her favors and attention. Therefore, even A.S. Pushkin wrote about the “disgusting buffoonery” of the empress “in relations with the philosophers of her century,” and according to Friedrich Engels, “The court of Catherine II turned into the capital of the enlightened people of that time, especially the French; ... she was so successful in misleading public opinion that Voltaire and many others praised the “northern Semiramis” and proclaimed Russia the most progressive country in the world, the fatherland of liberal principles, the champion of religious tolerance.”

And yet, it was during this era that the Free Economic Society appeared (1765), free printing houses operated, heated journal debates took place, in which the Empress personally participated, the Hermitage (1764) and the Public Library in St. Petersburg (1795), and the Smolny Institute were founded noble maidens (1764) and pedagogical schools in both capitals.

Ekaterina and educational institutions

In May 1764, the first educational institution for girls in Russia was founded - the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens. Next, the Novodevichy Institute was opened for the education of bourgeois maidens. Soon, Catherine II drew attention to the Land Noble Corps, and its new charter was adopted in 1766. By developing the Decree of “Institutions for the management of the provinces of the All-Russian Empire” in 1775, Catherine II actively began to resolve problems in education. She assigned the responsibility to open schools at the provincial and district levels to the orders of public charity. In 1780, Catherine made an inspection tour of the northwestern regions of Russia. This trip showed the progress achieved and what still remained to be done in the future. For example, in Pskov she was informed that a school for petty-bourgeois children, unlike those of the nobility, had not been opened. Catherine immediately donated 1000 rubles. for the establishment of a city school, 500 rubles. - to the theological seminary, 300 - to the orphanage and 400 - to the almshouse. In 1777, the state Commercial School for merchants was opened. In St. Petersburg, Catherine II, using her own funds, founded an educational institution at St. Isaac's Cathedral in 1781. In the same year, six more schools were organized at the temples. By 1781, 486 people were studying there.

At the same time, as historian Kazimir Valishevsky writes, “The beginning of public education in the form that it now exists in Russia was laid by educational institutions opened in St. Petersburg by Novikov, whom Catherine considered an enemy and rewarded with prison and chains for his work for the good of Russia "

Ekaterina - writer and publisher

Catherine belonged to a small number of monarchs who communicated so intensely and directly with their subjects through the drafting of manifestos, instructions, laws, polemical articles and indirectly in the form of satirical works, historical dramas and pedagogical opuses. In her memoirs, she admitted: “I cannot see a clean pen without feeling the desire to immediately dip it in ink.”

Catherine was engaged in literary activities, leaving behind a large collection of works - notes, translations, fables, fairy tales, comedies “Oh, time!”, “Mrs. Vorchalkina’s Name Day”, “The Hall of a Noble Boyar”, “Mrs. Vestnikova with her Family”, “The Invisible Bride” "(1771-1772), essay, libretto for five operas ("Fevey", "Novgorod Bogatyr Boeslavich", "The Brave and Bold Knight Akhrideich", "Gorebogatyr Kosometovich", "Fedul with Children"; premieres took place in St. Petersburg in 1786-91). Catherine acted as the initiator, organizer and author of the libretto of a pompous national-patriotic project - the “historical performance” “Oleg’s Initial Management”, for which she attracted the best composers, singers and choreographers (the premiere took place in St. Petersburg on October 22 (November 2), 1790). All St. Petersburg performances based on Catherine’s works were extremely richly furnished. The operas “Fevey” and “Gorebogatyr”, as well as the oratorio “Initial Management” were published in clavier and score (which was an extraordinary rarity in Russia at that time).

Catherine participated in the weekly satirical magazine “Everything and everything”, published since 1769. The Empress turned to journalism in order to influence public opinion, so the main idea of ​​the magazine was to criticize human vices and weaknesses. Other subjects of irony were the superstitions of the population. Catherine herself called the magazine: “Satire in a smiling spirit.”

However, some historians believe that a number of her works and even letters were written not by herself, but by some anonymous authors, pointing out too sharp differences in style, spelling, etc. between her different works. K. Valishevsky believes that some of her letters could have been written by Andrei Shuvalov, and literary works by N. I. Novikov during the period of their “reconciliation” after 1770. Thus, all of her comedies that were successful were written only during her “ friendship" with Novikov, at the same time, the later comedy "Woe is the Hero" (1789) is criticized for rudeness and vulgarity, uncharacteristic of comedies of the 70s.

She was jealous of negative assessments of her work (if any). Thus, having learned after Diderot’s death about his critical note addressed to her “Instruction,” she made rude statements about the French enlightener in a letter to Grimm on November 23 (December 4), 1785.

Development of culture and art

Catherine considered herself a “philosopher on the throne” and had a favorable attitude towards the Enlightenment, corresponded with Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alembert. Under her, the Hermitage and the Public Library appeared in St. Petersburg. She patronized various fields of art - architecture, music, painting It is impossible not to mention the mass settlement of German families in various regions of modern Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries initiated by Catherine. The goal was the modernization of Russian science and culture.

At the same time, many historians point to the one-sided nature of such patronage on the part of Catherine. Money and awards were generously bestowed mainly on foreign figures of science and culture, who spread the fame of Catherine II abroad. The contrast is especially striking in relation to domestic artists, sculptors and writers. “Catherine does not support them,” writes A. Troyat, “and shows towards them a feeling between condescension and contempt. Living in Russia, Falcone was indignant at the tsarina’s rudeness towards the excellent artist Losenko. “The poor fellow, humiliated, without a piece of bread, wanted to leave St. Petersburg and came to me to pour out his grief,” he writes. Fortia de Piles, who traveled around Russia, is surprised that Her Majesty allows the talented sculptor Shubin to huddle in a cramped closet, having neither models, nor students, nor official orders. Throughout her reign, Catherine commissioned or gave subsidies to very few Russian artists, but she did not skimp on purchasing works by foreign authors.”

As N.I. Pavlenko notes, “the poet G.R. Derzhavin during his entire life of service at court received only 300 souls of peasants, two gold snuff boxes and 500 rubles.” (although he was not only a writer, but also an official who carried out various assignments), while foreign writers, without doing anything special, received entire fortunes from her. At the same time, it is well known what kind of “reward” a number of Russian writers Radishchev, Novikov, Krechetov, Knyazhnin received from her, who were repressed, and their works were banned and burned.

As K. Valishevsky writes, Catherine surrounded herself with “mediocre foreign artists” (Brompton, Koenig, etc.), leaving talented Russian artists and sculptors to the mercy of fate. Engraver Gabriel Skorodumov, who studied his art in France and was discharged from there by Catherine in 1782, did not find work at Her Majesty's court, and he was forced to work as a carpenter or apprentice. The sculptor Shubin and the artist Losenko did not receive orders from the empress and her courtiers and were in poverty; Out of despair, Losenko gave himself up to drunkenness. But when he died, and it turned out that he was a great artist, the historian writes, Catherine “willingly added his apotheosis to her greatness.” “In general, national art,” concludes Valishevsky, “owes to Catherine only a few models from the Hermitage, which served for study and imitation by Russian artists. But apart from these models, she gave him nothing: not even a piece of bread.”

The episode with Mikhail Lomonosov, which occurred at the very beginning of the reign of Catherine II, is also known: in 1763, Lomonosov, unable to withstand the single fight in the dispute between Normanists and anti-Normanists, submitted his resignation with the rank of state councilor (then he was a collegiate councilor); Catherine initially granted his request, but later reversed her decision, apparently not wanting to quarrel with one of the most prominent Russian scientists. In 1764, Catherine II personally visited Lomonosov’s house, honoring him, but in January 1765 she allowed the young German historian Schlözer access to historical archives, which was opposed by Lomonosov, who assumed that Schlötzer was taking them abroad for the purpose of publication and enrichment (here, perhaps, there is a personal insult to Lomonosov, who was not allowed to visit these archives); but his reproaches remained unanswered, especially since already in January 1765 he fell ill with pneumonia and died in April.

Catherine II and propaganda

Many historians point out that propaganda played an exceptionally large role in Catherine’s activities, and some even believe that propaganda was the main meaning of her entire reign. Among the obvious examples of propaganda actions of Catherine II are:

1. A competition for the best solution to the peasant question was announced in 1765 under the auspices of the Free Economic Society. Over the course of 2 years, 162 competitive works were sent, including 155 from abroad. The prize was awarded to a member of the Dijon Academy, Bearde de Labey, who presented a “balanced” essay, proposing not to rush either to abolish serfdom or to allocate land to the peasants, but first to prepare the peasants for the perception of freedom. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, despite the wide resonance that the competition had in Russia and abroad, “the competition essays were kept secret, their content was the property of the persons who were members of the competition commission.”

2. Catherine’s “Order” (1766) and the work of the Legislative Commission (1767-1768), the debates of which lasted a year and a half with the participation of more than 600 deputies and ended with the dissolution of the commission. “The Order” was published 7 times during Catherine’s reign in Russia alone, and “gained wide popularity not only in Russia, but also beyond its borders, for it was translated into the main European languages.”

3. The trip of Catherine and her retinue in 1787 with a large group of foreigners (about 3,000 people in total) from St. Petersburg to the south of Russia to glorify Russia’s victories over the Ottoman Empire and success in developing the conquered lands. It cost the treasury between 7 and 10 million rubles. To organize the trip: in some cities along the route, buildings were specially built in which the motorcade would stop; urgently carried out (according to Count Langeron) repairs and painting of the facades of buildings along the advance of the motorcade, and the population was obliged to put on their best clothes on the day of its passage; from Moscow (according to M. M. Shcherbatov) all beggars were removed; a re-enactment of the battle of Poltava was organized, in which 50 thousand people took part; some cities (Bakhchisarai) were illuminated with numerous lights, so that even at night they shone as if they were day. In Kherson, guests were greeted by the inscription: “The path to Constantinople.” As N.I. Pavlenko notes, at that time there was a drought in Russia, and famine was approaching, which then swept the entire country; and Türkiye regarded the entire event as a provocation and immediately started a new war with Russia. In Europe, after this trip, a myth appeared about “Potemkin villages”, built by Potemkin specifically to “throw dust in the eyes” of the empress.

4. Among the achievements of Catherine’s reign was the figure of 3,161 factories and plants built by 1796, while before the reign of Catherine II, the number of factories and plants on the territory of the Russian Empire was only a few hundred. However, as academician S. G. Strumilin established, this figure greatly overestimated the actual number of factories and factories, since even kumis “factories” and sheepdog “factories” were included in it, “only for greater glorification of this queen.”

5. Catherine's letters to foreigners (Grimm, Voltaire, etc.), as historians believe, were also part of her propaganda. Thus, K. Waliszewski compares her letters to foreigners with the work of a modern news agency, and further writes: “her letters to her favorite correspondents, like Voltaire and Grimm in France and Zimmermann and partly Mrs. Behlke in Germany, cannot be called anything other than purely journalistic articles. Even before being published, her letters to Voltaire became the property of everyone who followed the slightest act and word of the Ferney patriarch, and literally the entire educated world followed them. Grimm, although he usually did not show her letters, told them their contents everywhere he visited, and he visited all the houses of Paris. The same can be said about the rest of Catherine’s correspondence: it was her newspaper, and individual letters were articles.”

6. So, in one of her letters to Grimm, she quite seriously assured him that in Russia there are no thin people, only well-fed ones. In a letter to Belke at the end of 1774, she wrote: “It used to be that, driving through the village, you saw little children in only a shirt, running barefoot in the snow; now there is not a single one who does not have an outer dress, a sheepskin coat and boots. The houses are still wooden, but they have expanded and most of them are already two floors.” In a letter to Grimm in 1781, she presented him with the “result” of her reign, where, along with the number of provinces and cities she established and the victories she won, she indicated, among other things, that she had issued 123 “decrees to alleviate the lot of the people.”

7. In a letter to Belke on May 18 (29), 1771, after the epidemic began in Moscow and official quarantine was introduced, she wrote: “Whoever tells you that there is a pestilence in Moscow, tell him that he lied...” .

Personal life

Unlike her predecessor, Catherine did not carry out extensive palace construction for her own needs. To move around the country comfortably, she set up a network of small travel palaces along the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow (from Chesmensky to Petrovsky) and only at the end of her life began building a new country residence in Pella (not preserved). In addition, she was concerned about the lack of a spacious and modern residence in Moscow and its environs. Although she did not visit the old capital often, Catherine for a number of years cherished plans for the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin, as well as the construction of suburban palaces in Lefortovo, Kolomenskoye and Tsaritsyn. For various reasons, none of these projects were completed.

Ekaterina was a brunette of average height. She was known for her connections with numerous lovers, the number of which (according to the list of the authoritative Catherine scholar Pyotr Bartenev) reaches 23. The most famous of them were Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Orlov, horse guard lieutenant Vasilchikov, Grigory Potemkin, hussar Semyon Zorich, Alexander Lanskoy; the last favorite was the cornet Platon Zubov, who became a general. According to some sources, Catherine was secretly married to Potemkin (1775, see Wedding of Catherine II and Potemkin). After 1762, she planned a marriage with Orlov, but on the advice of those close to her, she abandoned this idea.

Catherine's love affairs were marked by a series of scandals. So, Grigory Orlov, being her favorite, at the same time (according to Mikhail Shcherbatov) cohabited with all her ladies-in-waiting and even with his 13-year-old cousin. The favorite of Empress Lanskaya used an aphrodisiac to increase “male strength” (contarid) in ever-increasing doses, which, apparently, according to the conclusion of the court physician Weikart, was the cause of his unexpected death at a young age. Her last favorite, Platon Zubov, was a little over 20 years old, while Catherine’s age at that time had already exceeded 60. Historians mention many other scandalous details (“a bribe” of 100 thousand rubles paid to Potemkin by the empress’s future favorites, many of who were previously his adjutants, testing their “male strength” by her ladies-in-waiting, etc.).

The bewilderment of contemporaries, including foreign diplomats, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, etc., was caused by the enthusiastic reviews and characteristics that Catherine gave to her young favorites, most of whom were devoid of any outstanding talents. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “neither before Catherine nor after her did debauchery reach such a wide scale and manifest itself in such an openly provocative form.”

Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park. Painting by artist Vladimir Borovikovsky, 1794

It is worth noting that in Europe, Catherine’s “debauchery” was not such a rare occurrence against the backdrop of the general debauchery of morals in the 18th century. Most kings (with the possible exception of Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Charles XII) had numerous mistresses. However, this does not apply to reigning queens and empresses. Thus, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa wrote about the “disgust and horror” that such persons as Catherine II instill in her, and this attitude towards the latter was shared by her daughter Marie Antoinette. As K. Waliszewski wrote in this regard, comparing Catherine II with Louis XV, “the difference between the sexes until the end of time, we think, will give a deeply unequal character to the same actions, depending on whether they were committed by a man or a woman... moreover the mistresses of Louis XV never influenced the fate of France.”

There are numerous examples of the exceptional influence (both negative and positive) that Catherine’s favorites (Orlov, Potemkin, Platon Zubov, etc.) had on the fate of the country, starting from June 28 (July 9), 1762 until her death the empress, as well as on her domestic and foreign policies and even on military actions. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, to please the favorite Grigory Potemkin, who was jealous of the glory of Field Marshal Rumyantsev, this outstanding commander and hero of the Russian-Turkish wars was removed by Catherine from command of the army and was forced to retire to his estate. Another, very mediocre commander, Musin-Pushkin, on the contrary, continued to lead the army, despite his mistakes in military campaigns (for which the empress herself called him “a complete idiot”) - thanks to the fact that he was the “favorite of June 28”, one of those who helped Catherine seize the throne.

In addition, the institution of favoritism had a negative effect on the morals of the higher nobility, who sought benefits through flattery to the new favorite, tried to make “their own man” become lovers of the empress, etc. Contemporary M. M. Shcherbatov wrote that favoritism and debauchery of Catherine II contributed to the decline of the morals of the nobility of that era, and historians agree with this.

Catherine had two sons: Pavel Petrovich (1754) and Alexei Bobrinsky (1762 - son of Grigory Orlov), as well as a daughter, Anna Petrovna (1757-1759, possibly from the future king of Poland Stanislav Poniatovsky), who died in infancy. Less likely is Catherine's motherhood in relation to Potemkin's pupil named Elizaveta, who was born when the empress was over 45 years old.

The translator of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Pakarin, pretended to be the son (and, according to another version, the son-in-law of Catherine II).

Awards

• Order of St. Catherine (10 (21) February 1744)
• Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (June 28 (July 9), 1762)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (June 28 (July 9), 1762)
• Order of St. Anne (28 June (9 July) 1762)
• Order of St. George 1st class. (26 November (7 December) 1769)
• Order of St. Vladimir 1st class. (22 September (3 October) 1782)
• Prussian Order of the Black Eagle (1762)
• Swedish Order of the Seraphim (27 February (10 March) 1763)
• Polish Order of the White Eagle (1787)

Artistic images of Catherine

To the cinema

• “Forbidden Paradise”, 1924. Pola Negri as Catherine
• “The Caprice of Catherine II”, 1927, Ukrainian SSR. In the role of Catherine - Vera Argutinskaya
• "The Loose Empress", 1934 - Marlene Dietrich
• "Munchausen", 1943 - Brigitte Horney.
• "A Royal Scandal", 1945 - Tallulah Bankhead.
• “Admiral Ushakov”, 1953. In the role of Catherine - Olga Zhizneva.
• "John Paul Jones", 1959 - Bette Davis
• “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, 1961 - Zoya Vasilkova.
• “The Missing Letter”, 1972 - Lydia Vakula
• “There is an idea!”, 1977 - Alla Larionova
• "Emelyan Pugachev", 1978; “Golden Age”, 2003 - Via Artmane
• “The Tsar’s Hunt”, 1990 - Svetlana Kryuchkova.
• "Young Catherine", 1991. In the role of Catherine - Julia Ormond
• “Dreams about Russia”, 1992 - Marina Vladi
• “Anecdotiada”, 1993 - Irina Muravyova
• “Russian revolt”, 2000 - Olga Antonova
• “Russian Ark”, 2002 - Maria Kuznetsova
• “Like Cossacks”, 2009 - Nonna Grishaeva.
• “The Empress and the Robber”, 2009. In the role of Catherine - Alena Ivchenko.

TV movies

• “Great Catherine”, 1968. In the role of Catherine - Jeanne Moreau
• “Meeting of Minds”, 1977. Jane Meadows plays Catherine.
• “The Captain’s Daughter”, 1978. In the role of Ekaterina - Natalya Gundareva
• “Mikhailo Lomonosov”, 1986. In the role of Catherine - Katrin Kochv
• “Russia”, England, 1986. Starring Valentina Azovskaya.
• “Countess Sheremeteva”, 1988. In the role of Catherine - Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina.
• “Vivat, midshipmen!”, 1991; "Midshipmen-3", (1992). In the role of Princess Fike (future Catherine) - Kristina Orbakaite
• “Catherine the Great”, 1995. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Catherine
• “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, (2002). In the role of Ekaterina - Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina.
• “The Favorite”, 2005. In the role of Ekaterina - Natalya Surkova
• “Catherine the Great”, 2005. In the role of Catherine - Emily Bruni
• “With a Pen and a Sword”, 2007. In the role of Catherine - Alexandra Kulikova
• “The Secret of the Maestro”, 2007. In the role of Catherine - Olesya Zhurakovskaya
• “Catherine’s Musketeers”, 2007. In the role of Catherine - Alla Oding
• “Silver Samurai”, 2007. In the role of Catherine - Tatyana Polonskaya
• “The Romanovs. Film Fifth", 2013. In the role of young Catherine - Vasilisa Elpatievskaya; in adulthood - Anna Yashina.
• “Ekaterina”, 2014. In the role of Ekaterina - Marina Alexandrova.
• “The Great”, 2015. In the role of Catherine - Yulia Snigir.
• "Catherine. Takeoff”, 2016. Marina Alexandrova plays the role of Catherine.

In fiction

• Nikolay Gogol. “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” (1832)
• Alexander Pushkin. "The Captain's Daughter" (1836)
• Grigory Danilevsky. "Princess Tarakanova" (1883)
• Evgeniy Salias. “St. Petersburg Action” (1884), “In Old Moscow” (1885), “Senate Secretary” (1896), “Petrine Days” (1903)
• Natalya Manaseina. "The Zerbst Princess" (1912)
• Bernard Show. "Great Catherine" (1913)
• Lev Zhdanov. "The Last Favorite" (1914)
• Peter Krasnov. "Catherine the Great" (1935)
• Nikolai Ravich. "Two Capitals" (1964)
• Vsevolod Ivanov. "Empress Fike" (1968)
• Valentin Pikul. “With a Pen and a Sword” (1963-72), “The Favorite” (1976-82)
• Maurice Simashko. "Semiramis" (1988)
• Nina Sorotokina. “Date in St. Petersburg” (1992), “Chancellor” (1994), “The Law of Pairing” (1994)
• Boris Akunin. "Extracurricular Reading" (2002)
• Vasily Aksyonov. "Voltairians and Voltairians" (2004)

Monuments to Catherine II

Simferopol (restored)

• In 1846, a monument to the empress was inaugurated in the city named in her honor - Ekaterinoslav. During the Civil War, the director of the local historical museum saved the monument from drowning in the Dnieper by the Makhnovists. During the occupation of Dnepropetrovsk by the Nazis, the monument was taken out of the city in an unknown direction. To this day it has not been found.
• In Veliky Novgorod, on the Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia”, among the 129 figures of the most outstanding personalities in Russian history (as of 1862), there is the figure of Catherine II.
• In 1873, a monument to Catherine II was unveiled on Alexandrinskaya Square in St. Petersburg.
• In 1890, a monument to Catherine II was erected in Simferopol. Destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1921.
• In 1904, a monument to Catherine II was unveiled in Vilna. Dismantled and evacuated deep into Russia in 1915.
• In 1907, a monument to Catherine II was opened in Yekaterinodar (it stood until 1920, and was restored on September 8, 2006).
• In Moscow, in front of the building of the Studio of Military Artists named after M. B. Grekov (Sovetskaya Armii St., 4), a monument to Catherine II was unveiled, which is a bronze statue of the Empress on a pedestal.
• In 2002, in Novorzhevo, founded by Catherine II, a monument was unveiled in her honor.
• On September 19, 2007, a monument to Catherine II was unveiled in the city of Vyshny Volochyok; sculptor Yu. V. Zlotya.
• On October 27, 2007, monuments to Catherine II were unveiled in Odessa and Tiraspol.
• In 2007, a monument to Catherine II was unveiled in the city of Marks (Saratov region).
• On May 15, 2008, a monument to Catherine II was unveiled in Sevastopol.
• On September 14, 2008, a monument to Catherine II the Great was unveiled in Podolsk. The monument depicts the Empress at the moment of signing the Decree of October 5, 1781, which reads: “... we most graciously command that the economic village of Podol be renamed a city...”. The author is Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Rozhnikov.
• On July 7, 2010, a monument to Catherine the Great was erected in eastern Germany in the city of Zerbst.
• On August 23, 2013, as part of the Irbit Fair, the monument in Irbit, demolished in 1917, was rediscovered.
• In June 2016, the monument to Catherine II was restored in the capital of Crimea, Simferopol.
• On August 13, 2017, a monument to Catherine II was opened in the city of Luga, which is a bronze statue of the Empress on a pedestal. The author of the figure is sculptor V. M. Rychkov.

Catherine on coins and banknotes

Gold half for palace use with the profile of Catherine II. 1777

Gold 2 rubles for palace use with the profile of Catherine II, 1785

Buried here
Catherine the Second, born in Stettin
April 21, 1729.
She spent 34 years in Russia, and left
There she married Peter III.
Fourteen years old
She made a triple project - like it
To my spouse, Elizabeth I and the people.
She used everything to achieve success in this.
Eighteen years of boredom and solitude forced her to read many books.
Having ascended the Russian throne, she strove for good,
She wanted to bring happiness, freedom and property to her subjects.
She easily forgave and did not hate anyone.
Indulgent, loved ease in life, cheerful by nature, with the soul of a republican
And with a kind heart - she had friends.
The work was easy for her,
In society and verbal sciences she
I found pleasure.

Years of reign: 1762-1796

1. For the first time since Peter I reformed the public administration system. Culturally Russia finally became one of the great European powers. Catherine patronized various areas of art: under her, the Hermitage and the Public Library appeared in St. Petersburg.

2. Conducted administrative reform, which determined the territorial structure of the country right up to before 1917. She formed 29 new provinces and built about 144 cities.

3. Increased the territory of the state by annexing the southern lands - Crimea, Black Sea region and eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In terms of population, Russia became the largest European country: it accounted for 20% of the European population

4. Brought Russia to first place in the world in iron smelting. By the end of the 18th century, there were 1,200 large enterprises in the country (in 1767 there were only 663).

5. Strengthened Russia's role in the global economy: export volume increased from 13.9 million rubles in 1760 to 39.6 million rubles in 1790. Sailing linen, cast iron, iron, and bread were exported in large quantities. The volume of timber exports increased fivefold.

6. Under Catherine II of Russia The Academy of Sciences has become one of the leading scientific bases in Europe. The Empress paid special attention to the development of women's education: in 1764, the first educational institutions in Russia for girls were opened - the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and the Educational Society for Noble Maidens.

7. Organized new credit institutions - a state bank and a loan office, and also expanded the range of banking operations (since 1770, banks began to accept deposits for storage) and for the first time established the issuance of paper money - banknotes.

8. Gave the fight against epidemics the character of state measures. Having introduced compulsory smallpox vaccination, she decided to set a personal example for her subjects: in 1768, the empress herself was vaccinated against smallpox.

9. She supported Buddhism by establishing the post of Hambo Lama in 1764 - the head of Buddhists in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. The Buryat lamas recognized Catherine II as the incarnation of the main goddess White Tara and since then swore allegiance to all Russian rulers.

10 Belonged to those few monarchs who communicated intensively with their subjects by drawing up manifestos, instructions and laws. She had the talent of a writer, leaving behind a large collection of works: notes, translations, fables, fairy tales, comedies and essays.

Catherine the Great is one of the most extraordinary women in world history. Her life is a rare example of self-education through deep education and strict discipline.

The empress rightfully earned the epithet “Great”: the Russian people called her, a German and a foreigner, “her own mother.” And historians almost unanimously decided that if Peter I wanted to instill in Russia everything German, then the German Catherine dreamed of reviving Russian traditions. And in many ways she did this very successfully.

The long reign of Catherine is the only period of transformation in Russian history about which one cannot say “the forest is being cut down, the chips are flying.” The population of the country doubled, while there was practically no censorship, torture was prohibited, elected bodies of class self-government were created... The “steady hand” that the Russian people supposedly needed so much was of no use at all this time.

Princess Sofia

The future Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, nee Sophia Frederica Augusta, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, was born on April 21, 1729 in the unknown Stettin (Prussia). His father, the unremarkable Prince Christian August, made a good career thanks to his devotion to the Prussian king: regiment commander, commandant of Stettin, governor. Constantly busy in the service, he became for Sofia an example of conscientious service in the public sphere.

Sofia was educated at home: she studied German and French, dance, music, the basics of history, geography, and theology. Her independent character and perseverance were evident in early childhood. In 1744, together with her mother, she was summoned to Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Here she, previously a Lutheran, was accepted into Orthodoxy under the name Ekaterina (this name, like the patronymic Alekseevna, was given to her in honor of Elizabeth’s mother, Catherine I) and was named the bride of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (the future Emperor Peter III), with whom the princess married in 1745.

Uma chamber

Catherine set herself the goal of winning the favor of the empress, her husband and the Russian people. From the very beginning, her personal life was unsuccessful, but the Grand Duchess decided that she always liked the Russian crown more than her groom, and turned to reading works on history, law and economics. She was absorbed in studying the works of French encyclopedists and already at that time she was intellectually superior to everyone around her.

Catherine truly became a patriot of her new homeland: she scrupulously observed the rituals of the Orthodox Church, tried to return the Russian national costume to court use, and diligently studied the Russian language. She even studied at night and once became dangerously ill from overwork. The Grand Duchess wrote: “Those who succeeded in Russia could be confident of success throughout Europe. Nowhere, as in Russia, are there such masters at noticing the weaknesses or shortcomings of a foreigner; you can be sure that nothing will be missed for him.”

The communication between the Grand Duke and the princess demonstrated the radical difference in their characters: Peter’s infantility was opposed by Catherine’s active, purposeful and ambitious nature. She began to fear for her fate if her husband came to power and began to recruit supporters at court. Catherine's ostentatious piety, prudence and sincere love for Russia contrasted sharply with Peter's behavior, which allowed her to gain authority both among high society and among the ordinary population of St. Petersburg.

Double grip

Having ascended the throne after the death of his mother, Emperor Peter III, during his six-month reign, managed to turn the nobility against himself to such an extent that he himself opened the path to power for his wife. As soon as he ascended the throne, he concluded an unfavorable agreement with Prussia for Russia, announced the seizure of the property of the Russian Church and the abolition of monastic land ownership. Supporters of the coup accused Peter III of ignorance, dementia and complete inability to govern the state. A well-read, pious and benevolent wife looked favorably against his background.

When Catherine’s relationship with her husband became hostile, the twenty-year-old Grand Duchess decided to “perish or reign.” Having carefully prepared a conspiracy, she secretly arrived in St. Petersburg and was proclaimed an autocratic empress in the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment. The rebels were joined by soldiers from other regiments, who unquestioningly swore allegiance to her. The news of Catherine's accession to the throne quickly spread throughout the city and was greeted with delight by St. Petersburg residents. Over 14,000 people surrounded the palace, welcoming the new ruler.

The foreigner Catherine had no rights to power, but the “revolution” she committed was presented as a national liberation one. She correctly grasped the critical moment in her husband’s behavior - his contempt for the country and Orthodoxy. As a result, the grandson of Peter the Great was considered more German than the purebred German Catherine. And this is the result of her own efforts: in the eyes of society, she managed to change her national identity and received the right to “liberate the fatherland” from foreign yoke.

M.V. Lomonosov about Catherine the Great: “On the throne is a woman - a chamber of wisdom.”

Having learned about what had happened, Peter began to send proposals for negotiations, but they were all rejected. Catherine herself, at the head of the guards regiments, came out to meet him and on the way received the emperor’s written abdication of the throne. The long 34-year reign of Catherine II began with a solemn coronation in Moscow on September 22, 1762. In essence, she committed a double takeover: she took power away from her husband and did not transfer it to the natural heir, her son.

The era of Catherine the Great

Catherine ascended the throne with a specific political program based on the ideas of the Enlightenment and at the same time taking into account the peculiarities of the historical development of Russia. Already in the first years of her reign, the Empress carried out a reform of the Senate, which made the work of this institution more efficient, and carried out the secularization of church lands, which replenished the state treasury. At the same time, a number of new educational institutions were founded, including the first educational institutions for women in Russia.

Catherine II was an excellent judge of people; she skillfully selected assistants for herself, not being afraid of bright and talented personalities. That is why her time was marked by the appearance of a galaxy of outstanding statesmen, generals, writers, artists and musicians. During this period there were no noisy resignations, none of the nobles fell into disgrace - that is why Catherine’s reign is called the “golden age” of the Russian nobility. At the same time, the empress was very vain and valued her power more than anything else. For her sake, she was ready to make any compromises to the detriment of her beliefs.

Catherine was distinguished by ostentatious piety; she considered herself the head and protector of the Russian Orthodox Church and skillfully used religion for political interests.

After the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and the suppression of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev, the empress independently developed key legislative acts. The most important of them were letters of grant to the nobility and cities. Their main significance is associated with the implementation of the strategic goal of Catherine’s reforms - the creation in Russia of full-fledged estates of the Western European type.

Autocracy in the struggle for the future

Catherine was the first Russian monarch who saw in people individuals with their own opinions, character and emotions. She willingly acknowledged their right to make mistakes. From the distant skies of autocracy, Catherine saw the man below and turned him into the measure of her policy - an incredible somersault for Russian despotism. The philanthropy that she made fashionable would later become the main feature of the high culture of the 19th century.

Catherine demanded naturalness from her subjects, and therefore easily, with a smile and self-irony, she eliminated any hierarchy. It is known that she, being greedy for flattery, calmly accepted criticism. For example, her secretary of state and the first major Russian poet Derzhavin often argued with the empress on administrative issues. One day their discussion became so heated that the empress invited her other secretary: “Sit here, Vasily Stepanovich. This gentleman, it seems to me, wants to kill me.” His harshness had no consequences for Derzhavin.

One of his contemporaries figuratively described the essence of Catherine’s reign as follows: “Peter the Great created people in Russia, but Catherine II invested souls in them.”

I can’t even believe that behind this beauty were two Russian-Turkish wars, the annexation of Crimea and the creation of Novorossiya, the construction of the Black Sea Fleet, three partitions of Poland, which brought Russia Belarus, Western Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland, the war with Persia, the annexation of Georgia and the conquest of the future Azerbaijan , the suppression of the Pugachev rebellion, the war with Sweden, as well as numerous laws that Catherine personally worked on. In total, she issued 5,798 acts, that is, an average of 12 laws per month. Her pedantry and hard work were described in detail by her contemporaries.

Femininity revolution

In Russian history, only Ivan III (43 years) and Ivan IV the Terrible (37 years) ruled longer than Catherine II. More than three decades of her rule are almost equal to half of the Soviet period, and it is impossible to ignore this circumstance. Therefore, Catherine has always occupied a special place in the mass historical consciousness. However, the attitude towards her was ambiguous: German blood, the murder of her husband, numerous novels, Voltairianism - all this prevented selfless admiration of the empress.

Catherine was the first Russian monarch who saw in people individuals with their own opinions, character and emotions. From the distant skies of autocracy, she saw the man below and turned him into the measure of her policy - an incredible somersault for Russian despotism

Soviet historiography added class cuffs to Catherine: she became a “cruel serfdom” and a despot. It got to the point that only Peter was allowed to stay among the “Great Ones,” and she was pointedly called “the Second.” The empress's undoubted victories, which brought Crimea, Novorossiya, Poland and part of Transcaucasia to Russia, were largely usurped by her military leaders, who, in the struggle for national interests, allegedly heroically overcame the machinations of the court.

However, the fact that in the public consciousness the personal life of the empress overshadowed her political activities indicates that her descendants were searching for psychological compensation. After all, Catherine violated one of the oldest social hierarchies - the superiority of men over women. Its stunning successes, and especially military ones, caused bewilderment, bordering on irritation, and needed some kind of “but”. Catherine gave reason for anger by the fact that, contrary to the existing order, she chose men for herself. The Empress refused to take for granted not only her nationality: she also tried to overcome the boundaries of her own gender, seizing typically male territory.

Manage passions

All her life, Catherine learned to cope with her feelings and ardent temperament. A long life in a foreign land taught her not to give in to circumstances, to always remain calm and consistent in her actions. Later in her memoirs, the empress would write: “I came to Russia, a country completely unknown to me, not knowing what would happen ahead. Everyone looked at me with annoyance and even contempt: the daughter of a Prussian major general is going to be the Russian empress!” Nevertheless, Catherine’s main goal always remained the love of Russia, which, as she admitted, “is not a country, but the Universe.”

The ability to plan a day, not deviate from what is planned, not succumb to blues or laziness and at the same time treat your body rationally could be attributed to German upbringing. However, it seems that the reason for this behavior is deeper: Catherine subordinated her life to the ultimate task - to justify her own stay on the throne. Klyuchevsky noted that approval meant the same to Catherine as “applause for a debutant.” The desire for glory was for the empress a way to actually prove to the world the virtue of her intentions. Such life motivation certainly turned her into self-made.

The fact that in the public consciousness the personal life of the empress overshadowed her political activities indicates the search by her descendants for psychological compensation. After all, Catherine violated one of the oldest social hierarchies - the superiority of men over women

For the sake of the goal - to rule the country - Catherine without regrets overcame a lot of givens: her German origin, her religious affiliation, the notorious weakness of the female sex, and the monarchical principle of inheritance, which they dared to remind her almost to her face. In a word, Catherine decisively went beyond the limits of those constants that those around her tried to place her in, and with all her successes she proved that “happiness is not as blind as it is imagined.”

The thirst for knowledge and increasing experience did not kill the woman in her; in addition, until her last years, Catherine continued to behave actively and energetically. Even in her youth, the future empress wrote in her diary: “You need to create yourself, your own character.” She coped with this task brilliantly, basing her life trajectory on knowledge, determination and self-control. She was often compared and continues to be compared with Peter I, but if he, in order to “Europeanize” the country, made violent changes to the Russian way of life, then she meekly finished what she started with her idol. One of his contemporaries figuratively described the essence of Catherine’s reign as follows: “Peter the Great created people in Russia, but Catherine II put souls into them.”

text Marina Kvash
Source tmnWoman #2/4 | autumn | 2014

Ekaterina Alekseevna Romanova (Catherine II the Great)
Sophia Augusta Frederica, Princess, Duchess of Anhalt-Zerb.
Years of life: 04/21/1729 - 11/6/1796
Russian Empress (1762 – 1796)

Daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst and Princess Johanna Elisabeth.

Catherine II - biography

Born April 21 (May 2), 1729 in Schettin. Her father, Prince Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerb, served the Prussian king, but his family was considered impoverished. Sophia Augusta's mother was the sister of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden. Other relatives of the mother of the future Empress Catherine ruled Prussia and England. Sofia Augusta, (family nickname - Fike) was the eldest daughter in the family. She was educated at home.

In 1739, 10-year-old Princess Fike was introduced to her future husband, heir to the Russian throne Karl Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who was the nephew of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich Romanov. The heir to the Russian throne made a negative impression on high Prussian society, showing himself to be ill-mannered and narcissistic.

In 1744, Fike arrived in St. Petersburg secretly, under the name of Countess Reinbeck, at the invitation of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The bride of the future emperor accepted the Orthodox faith and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Marriage of Catherine the Great

On August 21, 1745, the wedding of Ekaterina Alekseevna and Pyotr Fedorovich took place. A brilliant political marriage turned out to be unsuccessful in terms of relationships. He was more formal. Her husband Peter was interested in playing the violin, military maneuvers and mistresses. During this time, the spouses not only did not become close, but also became complete strangers to each other.
Ekaterina Alekseevna read works on history, jurisprudence, works of various educators, learned the Russian language well, traditions and customs of her new homeland. Surrounded by enemies, not loved by her husband or his relatives, Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to a son (the future Emperor Paul I) in 1754, constantly fearing that she might be expelled from Russia. “I had good teachers - a misfortune with solitude,” she would write later. Sincere interest and love for Russia did not go unnoticed and everyone began to respect the wife of the heir to the throne. At the same time, Catherine amazed everyone with her hard work; she could personally brew her own coffee, light the fireplace, and even do her laundry.

Novels of Catherine the Great

Unhappy in her family life, in the early 1750s Ekaterina Alekseevna began an affair with guards officer Sergei Saltykov.

His royal aunt did not like the behavior of Peter III while still in the status of Grand Duke; he actively expressed his Prussian sentiments against Russia. The courtiers notice that Elizabeth favors his son Pavel Petrovich and Catherine more.

The second half of the 1750s was marked for Catherine by an affair with the Polish envoy Stanislav Poniatowski (who later became King Stanislav Augustus).
In 1758, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Anna, who died before she was even two years old.
In the early 1760s, a dizzying, famous romance arose with Prince Orlov, which lasted more than 10 years.

In 1761, Catherine's husband Peter III ascended the Russian throne, and relations between the spouses became hostile. Peter threatens to marry his mistress and send Catherine to a monastery. And Ekaterina Alekseevna decides to carry out a coup with the help of the guard, the Orlov brothers, K. Razumovsky and her other supporters on June 28, 1762. She is proclaimed empress and sworn allegiance to her. The spouse's attempts to find a compromise fail. As a result, he signs an act of abdication from the throne.

Reforms of Catherine the Great

On September 22, 1762, the coronation of Catherine II took place. And in the same year, the empress gave birth to a son, Alexei, whose father was Grigory Orlov. For obvious reasons, the boy was given the surname Bobrinsky.

The time of her reign was marked by many significant events: in 1762 she supported the idea of ​​I.I. Betsky to create the first Orphanage in Russia. She reorganized the Senate (1763), secularized the lands (1763-64), abolished the hetmanate in Ukraine (1764) and founded the first women's educational institution in the capital at the Smolny Monastery. She headed the Statutory Commission 1767-1769. During her reign, the Peasants' War of 1773-1775 took place. (rebellion of E.I. Pugachev). Issued the Institution for governing the province in 1775, the Charter to the nobility in 1785 and the Charter to the cities in 1785.
Famous historians (M.M. Shcherbatov, I.N. Boltin), writers and poets (G.R. Derzhavin, N.M. Karamzin, D.I. Fonvizin), painters (D.G. Levitsky, F.S. Rokotov), ​​sculptors (F.I. Shubin, E. Falcone). She founded the Academy of Arts, became the founder of the State Hermitage collection, and initiated the creation of the Academy of Russian Literature, of which she made her friend E.R. Dashkova the president.

Under Catherine II Alekseevna as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774, 1787-1791. Russia finally gained a foothold in the Black Sea; the Northern Black Sea region, the Kuban region, and Crimea were also annexed. In 1783, she accepted Eastern Georgia under Russian citizenship. Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were carried out (1772, 1793, 1795).

She corresponded with Voltaire and other figures of the French Enlightenment. She is the author of many fictional, journalistic, dramatic, and popular science works, and “Notes.”

External Catherine's politics 2 was aimed at strengthening Russia's prestige on the world stage. She achieved her goal, and even Frederick the Great spoke of Russia as a “terrible power” from which, in half a century, “all of Europe will tremble.”

In the last years of her life, the empress lived with concerns about her grandson Alexander, was personally involved in his upbringing and education, and seriously thought about transferring the throne to him, bypassing her son.

Reign of Catherine II

The era of Catherine II is considered the heyday of favoritism. Separated in the early 1770s. with G.G. Orlov, in subsequent years, Empress Catherine replaced a number of favorites (about 15 favorites, among them the talented princes P.A. Rumyantsev, G.A. Potemkin, A.A. Bezborodko). She did not allow them to participate in solving political issues. Catherine lived with her favorites for several years, but parted for a variety of reasons (due to the death of the favorite, his betrayal or unworthy behavior), but no one was disgraced. Everyone was generously awarded ranks, titles, and money.

There is an assumption that Catherine II secretly married Potemkin, with whom she maintained friendly relations until his death.

“Tartuffe in a Skirt and Crown” nicknamed A.S. Pushkin, Catherine knew how to win people over. She was smart, had political talent, and had a great understanding of people. Outwardly, the ruler was attractive and majestic. She wrote about herself: “Many people say that I work a lot, but it still seems to me that I have done little when I look at what remains to be done.” Such enormous dedication to work was not in vain.

The life of the 67-year-old empress was cut short by a stroke on November 6 (17), 1796 in Tsarskoe Selo. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In 1778, she composed the following epitaph for herself:

Having ascended to the Russian throne, she wished well
And she strongly wanted to give her subjects Happiness, Freedom and Prosperity.
She easily forgave and did not deprive anyone of their freedom.
She was lenient, didn't make life difficult for herself, and had a cheerful disposition.
She had a republican soul and a kind heart. She had friends.
Work was easy for her, friendship and the arts brought her joy.

Catherine's spouses:

• Peter III
• Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin (according to some sources)

• Pavel I Petrovich
• Anna Petrovna
• Alexey Grigorievich Bobrinsky
• Elizaveta Grigorievna Tyomkina

At the end of the 19th century, the collected works of Catherine II the Great were published in 12 volumes, which included children's moral tales written by the empress, pedagogical teachings, dramatic plays, articles, autobiographical notes, and translations.

In cinema, her image is reflected in the films: “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, 1961; "Royal Hunt", 1990; “Vivat, midshipmen!”, 1991; “Young Catherine”, 1991; "Russian Revolt", 2000; "Golden Age", 2003; “Catherine the Great”, 2005. Famous actresses played the role of Catherine (Marlene Dietrich, Julia Ormond, Via Artmane, etc.).

Many artists captured the appearance of Catherine II. And works of art clearly reflect the character of the empress herself and the era of her reign (A. S. Pushkin “The Captain’s Daughter”; B. Shaw “The Great Catherine”; V. N. Ivanov “Empress Fike”; V. S. Pikul “The Favorite”, “Pen and Sword”; Boris Akunin “Extracurricular Reading”).

In 1873 monument Catherine II The Great was opened on Alexandrinskaya Square in St. Petersburg. On September 8, 2006, a monument to Catherine II was opened in Krasnodar, on October 27, 2007, monuments to Catherine II Alekseevna were opened in Odessa and Tiraspol. In Sevastopol - May 15, 2008

The reign of Ekaterina Alekseevna is often considered the “golden age” of the Russian Empire. Thanks to her reform activities, she is the only Russian ruler who, like Peter I, was awarded the epithet “Great” in the historical memory of her compatriots.

A foreigner by birth, she sincerely loved Russia and cared about the welfare of her subjects. Having taken the throne through a palace coup, the wife of Peter III tried to implement the best ideas of the European Enlightenment into the life of Russian society. At the same time, Catherine opposed the outbreak of the Great French Revolution (1789-1799), outraged by the execution of the French king Louis XVI of Bourbon (January 21, 1793) and predetermining Russia's participation in the anti-French coalition of European states at the beginning of the 19th century.

Catherine II Alekseevna (nee Sophia Augusta Frederica, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst) was born on May 2, 1729 in the German city of Stettin (modern territory of Poland), and died on November 17, 1796 in St. Petersburg.

The daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was in the Prussian service, and Princess Johanna Elisabeth (née Princess Holstein-Gottorp), she was related to the royal houses of Sweden, Prussia and England. She received a home education, the course of which, in addition to dance and foreign languages, also included the basics of history, geography and theology.

In 1744, she and her mother were invited to Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, and baptized according to Orthodox custom under the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna. Soon her engagement to Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (future Emperor Peter III) was announced, and in 1745 they got married.

Catherine understood that the court loved Elizabeth, did not accept many of the oddities of the heir to the throne, and, perhaps, after Elizabeth’s death, it was she who, with the support of the court, would ascend to the Russian throne. Catherine studied the works of figures of the French Enlightenment, as well as jurisprudence, which had a significant impact on her worldview. In addition, she made as much effort as possible to study, and perhaps understand, the history and traditions of the Russian state. Because of her desire to know everything Russian, Catherine won the love of not only the court, but also the whole of St. Petersburg.

After the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine’s relationship with her husband, never distinguished by warmth and understanding, continued to deteriorate, taking on clearly hostile forms. Fearing arrest, Ekaterina, with the support of the Orlov brothers, N.I. Panina, K.G. Razumovsky, E.R. Dashkova, on the night of June 28, 1762, when the emperor was in Oranienbaum, carried out a palace coup. Peter III was exiled to Ropsha, where he soon died under mysterious circumstances.

Having begun her reign, Catherine tried to implement the ideas of the Enlightenment and organize the state in accordance with the ideals of this most powerful European intellectual movement. Almost from the first days of her reign, she has been actively involved in government affairs, proposing reforms that are significant for society. On her initiative, a reform of the Senate was carried out in 1763, which significantly increased the efficiency of its work. Wanting to strengthen the dependence of the church on the state, and to provide additional land resources to the nobility supporting the policy of reforming society, Catherine carried out the secularization of church lands (1754). The unification of administration of the territories of the Russian Empire began, and the hetmanate in Ukraine was abolished.

A champion of Enlightenment, Catherine creates a number of new educational institutions, including for women (Smolny Institute, Catherine School).

In 1767, the Empress convened a commission, which included representatives of all segments of the population, including peasants (except serfs), to compose a new code - a code of laws. To guide the work of the Legislative Commission, Catherine wrote “The Mandate,” the text of which was based on the writings of educational authors. This document, in essence, was the liberal program of her reign.

After the end of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. and the suppression of the uprising under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev, a new stage of Catherine’s reforms began, when the empress independently developed the most important legislative acts and, taking advantage of the unlimited power of her power, put them into practice.

In 1775, a manifesto was issued that allowed the free opening of any industrial enterprises. In the same year, a provincial reform was carried out, which introduced a new administrative-territorial division of the country, which remained until 1917. In 1785, Catherine issued letters of grant to the nobility and cities.

In the foreign policy arena, Catherine II continued to pursue an offensive policy in all directions - northern, western and southern. The results of foreign policy can be called the strengthening of Russia’s influence on European affairs, three sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, strengthening of positions in the Baltic states, annexation of Crimea, Georgia, participation in countering the forces of revolutionary France.

The contribution of Catherine II to Russian history is so significant that her memory is preserved in many works of our culture.

Doctor of Historical Sciences M.RAKHMATULLIN.

Over the long decades of the Soviet era, the history of the reign of Catherine II was presented with obvious bias, and the image of the empress herself was deliberately distorted. From the pages of a few publications appears a cunning and vain German princess, who insidiously seized the Russian throne and was most concerned with satisfying her sensual desires. Such judgments are based either on an openly politicized motive, or on the purely emotional memories of her contemporaries, or, finally, on the tendentious intent of her enemies (especially among her foreign opponents), who tried to discredit the empress’s tough and consistent defense of Russia’s national interests. But Voltaire, in one of his letters to Catherine II, called her the “Northern Semiramis”, likening her to the heroine of Greek mythology, whose name is associated with the creation of one of the seven wonders of the world - the Hanging Gardens. Thus, the great philosopher expressed his admiration for the empress’s efforts to transform Russia and her wise rule. This essay attempts to impartially talk about the affairs and personality of Catherine II. “I did my job pretty well.”

Crowned Catherine II in all the splendor of her coronation attire. The coronation, according to tradition, took place in Moscow on September 22, 1762.

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who reigned from 1741 to 1761. Portrait of the mid-18th century.

Peter I married his eldest daughter, Tsarevna Anna Petrovna, to the Duke of Holstein, Karl-Friedrich. Their son became the heir to the Russian throne, Peter Fedorovich.

Catherine II's mother Johanna Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst, who tried to intrigue secretly from Russia in favor of the Prussian king.

Prussian King Frederick II, whom the young Russian heir tried to imitate in everything.

Science and life // Illustrations

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna and Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. Their marriage turned out to be extremely unsuccessful.

Count Grigory Orlov is one of the active organizers and executors of the palace coup that elevated Catherine to the throne.

The most ardent participation in the coup of June 1762 was taken by the very young princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova.

Family portrait of the royal couple, taken shortly after Peter III ascended the throne. Next to his parents is the young heir Pavel in oriental costume.

Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, in which dignitaries and nobles took the oath to Empress Catherine II.

The future Russian Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, nee Sophia Frederica Augusta, Princess of Anhaltzerbst, was born on April 21 (May 2), 1729 in the then provincial Stettin (Prussia). Her father, the unremarkable Prince Christian August, made a good career through devoted service to the Prussian king: regiment commander, commandant of Stettin, governor. In 1727 (he was then 42 years old) he married the 16-year-old Holstein-Gottorp princess Johanna Elisabeth.

The somewhat eccentric princess, who had an insatiable passion for entertainment and short trips with her numerous and, unlike her, rich relatives, did not put family concerns in first place. Among her five children, her first-born daughter Fikhen (that’s what everyone in the family called Sofia Frederica) was not her favorite - they were expecting a son. “My birth was not particularly joyfully welcomed,” Catherine would later write in her Notes. The power-hungry and strict parent, out of a desire to “knock out her pride,” often rewarded her daughter with slaps in the face for innocent childish pranks and unchildish stubbornness of character. Little Fikhen found solace in her good-natured father. Constantly busy in the service and practically not interfering in the upbringing of his children, he nevertheless became for them an example of conscientious service in the public sphere. “I have never met a more honest person, both in terms of principles and in relation to actions,” Catherine will say about her father at a time when she had already gotten to know people well.

The lack of financial resources did not allow parents to hire expensive, experienced teachers and governesses. And here fate smiled generously on Sofia Frederica. After changing several careless governesses, the French emigrant Elisabeth Cardel (nicknamed Babet) became her kind mentor. As Catherine II later wrote about her, she “knew almost everything without learning anything; she knew all the comedies and tragedies like the back of her hand and was very funny.” The pupil’s heartfelt review paints Babet as “a model of virtue and prudence - she had a naturally exalted soul, a developed mind, an excellent heart; she was patient, meek, cheerful, fair, constant.”

Perhaps the main merit of the clever Kardel, who had an exceptionally balanced character, can be called the fact that she inspired the stubborn and secretive at first (the fruits of her previous upbringing) Fikchen to read, in which the capricious and wayward princess found true pleasure. A natural consequence of this hobby was the precocious girl’s soon-to-be interest in serious works of philosophical content. It is no coincidence that already in 1744, one of the enlightened friends of the family, the Swedish Count Güllenborg, jokingly, but not without reason, called Fickhen a “fifteen-year-old philosopher.” It is curious that Catherine II herself admitted that her acquisition of “intelligence and virtues” was greatly facilitated by the conviction instilled by her mother, “as if I were completely ugly,” which kept the princess from empty social entertainments. Meanwhile, one of her contemporaries recalls: “She was perfectly built, from infancy she was distinguished by a noble bearing and was taller than her years. Her facial expression was not beautiful, but very pleasant, and her open gaze and amiable smile made her whole figure very attractive.”

However, the future fate of Sophia (like many later German princesses) was determined not by her personal merits, but by the dynastic situation in Russia. The childless Empress Elizaveta Petrovna immediately after her accession began to look for an heir worthy of the Russian throne. The choice fell on the only direct successor of the family of Peter the Great, his grandson - Karl Peter Ulrich. The son of Peter I's eldest daughter Anna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich was left an orphan at the age of 11. The prince was educated by pedantic German teachers, led by the pathologically cruel marshal Count Otto von Brümmer. The ducal son, frail from birth, was sometimes kept from hand to mouth, and for any offense he was forced to stand on his knees for hours on the peas, often and painfully whipped. “I order you to be whipped so much,” Brummer began to shout, “that the dogs will lick your blood.” The boy found an outlet in his passion for music, becoming addicted to the pitiful-sounding violin. His other passion was playing with tin soldiers.

The humiliation to which he was subjected day after day produced results: the prince, as contemporaries note, became “hot-tempered, false, loved to brag, and learned to lie.” He grew up to be a cowardly, secretive, capricious beyond measure and a man who thought a lot about himself. Here is a laconic portrait of Peter Ulrich, drawn by our brilliant historian V.O. Klyuchevsky: “His way of thinking and actions gave the impression of something surprisingly half-thought out and unfinished. He looked at serious things with a child’s gaze, and treated children’s undertakings with the seriousness of a mature husband. He looked like a child who imagined himself to be an adult; in fact, he was an adult who remained a child forever."

Such a “worthy” heir to the Russian throne was hastily delivered to St. Petersburg in January 1742 (so that he would not be intercepted by the Swedes, whose king he could also become by his pedigree). In November of the same year, the prince was converted to Orthodoxy against his will and named Peter Fedorovich. But in his soul he always remained a devout German Lutheran, who showed no desire to master the language of his new homeland to any degree. In addition, the heir was not lucky with his studies and upbringing in St. Petersburg. His main mentor, academician Yakov Shtelin, completely lacked any pedagogical talents, and he, seeing the student’s amazing inability and indifference, preferred to please the constant whims of the undergrowth rather than teach him properly the mind.

Meanwhile, 14-year-old Pyotr Fedorovich has already found a bride. What was decisive when the Russian court chose Princess Sofia? The Saxon resident Pezold wrote about this: although she is “from a noble, but such a small family,” she will be an obedient wife without any pretensions to participation in big politics. Elizaveta Petrovna’s elegiac memories of her failed marriage with her mother Sophia’s elder brother, Karl August (shortly before the wedding, he died of smallpox), and the portraits of the pretty princess delivered to the empress, whom everyone “liked at first sight” also played a role in this. "(as Catherine II would write in her Notes without false modesty).

At the end of 1743, Princess Sophia was invited (with Russian money) to St. Petersburg, where she arrived, accompanied by her mother, in February of the following year. From there they headed to Moscow, where the royal court was located at that time, and on the eve of Peter Fedorovich’s birthday (February 9), a very pretty and dressed-up (with the same money) bride appeared before the Empress and the Grand Duke. J. Shtelin writes about Elizaveta Petrovna’s sincere delight at the sight of Sofia. And the mature beauty, stature and greatness of the Russian queen made an indelible impression on the young provincial princess. It was as if the betrothed also liked each other. In any case, the mother of the future bride wrote to her husband that “the Grand Duke loves her.” Fikhen herself assessed everything more soberly: “To tell the truth, I liked the Russian crown more than him (the groom. - M.R.) person."

Indeed, the idyll, if it arose at the beginning, did not last long. Further communication between the Grand Duke and the princess showed a complete dissimilarity in both characters and interests, and in appearance they were strikingly different from each other: the lanky, narrow-shouldered and frail groom was even more inferior compared to the unusually attractive bride. When the Grand Duke suffered from smallpox, his face was so disfigured by fresh scars that Sophia, seeing the heir, could not restrain herself and was frankly horrified. However, the main thing was something else: the stunning infantilism of Pyotr Fedorovich was opposed by the active, purposeful, ambitious nature of Princess Sofia Frederica, who knew her worth, named in Russia in honor of the mother of Empress Elizabeth Ekaterina (Alekseevna). This happened with her adoption of Orthodoxy on June 28, 1744. The Empress gave the convert noble gifts - a diamond cufflink and a necklace worth 150 thousand rubles. The next day, the official betrothal took place, bringing Catherine the titles of Grand Duchess and Imperial Highness.

Assessing later the situation that arose in the spring of 1744, when Empress Elizabeth, having learned about the frivolous attempts of Sophia’s mother, Princess Johanna Elizabeth, prone to intrigue, to act (secretly from the Russian court) in the interests of the Prussian king Frederick II, almost sent her and her daughter back , “to his home” (which the groom, as the bride sensitively perceived, would probably have rejoiced), Catherine expressed her feelings like this: “He was almost indifferent to me, but the Russian crown was not indifferent to me.”

On August 21, 1745, ten days of wedding ceremonies began. Magnificent balls, masquerades, fireworks, a sea of ​​wine and mountains of treats for the common people on Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg exceeded all expectations. However, the newlyweds' family life began with disappointments. As Catherine herself writes, her husband, who had a hearty dinner that evening, “lay down next to me, dozed off and slept safely until the morning.” And so it went on from night to night, from month to month, from year to year. Pyotr Fedorovich, as before the wedding, selflessly played with dolls, trained (or rather, tortured) a pack of his dogs, organized daily shows for an amusing company of court gentlemen of the same age, and at night he enthusiastically taught his wife “gun execution,” bringing her to complete exhaustion. It was then that he first discovered an excessive addiction to wine and tobacco.

It is not surprising that Catherine began to experience physical disgust for her nominal husband, finding solace in reading a wide variety of serious books and horse riding (she used to spend up to 13 hours a day on horseback). As she recalled, the famous “Annals” of Tacitus had a strong influence on the formation of her personality, and the newest work of the French educator Charles Louis Montesquieu “On the Spirit of Laws” became a reference book for her. She was absorbed in studying the works of French encyclopedists and already at that time she was intellectually superior to everyone around her.

Meanwhile, the aging Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was waiting for an heir and blamed Catherine for the fact that he did not appear. In the end, the empress, at the prompting of her confidants, arranged a medical examination of the couple, the results of which we learn from the reports of foreign diplomats: “The Grand Duke was unable to have children due to an obstacle that is eliminated among eastern peoples by circumcision, but which he considered incurable.” The news of this plunged Elizaveta Petrovna into shock. “Struck by this news, like a thunderclap,” writes one of the eyewitnesses, “Elizabeth seemed speechless, could not utter a word for a long time, and finally began to sob.”

However, tears did not prevent the empress from agreeing to an immediate operation, and in case of failure, she ordered to find a suitable “gentleman” to play the role of the father of the unborn child. He became “handsome Serge,” 26-year-old chamberlain Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov. After two miscarriages (in 1752 and 1753), on September 20, 1754, Catherine gave birth to the heir to the throne, named Pavel Petrovich. True, evil tongues at court almost said out loud that the child should be called Sergeevich. Pyotr Fedorovich, who had by that time successfully recovered from his illness, also doubted his paternity: “God knows where my wife gets her pregnancy from, I don’t really know if this is my child and should I take it personally?”

Time, meanwhile, showed the groundlessness of suspicions. Pavel inherited not only the specific features of Pyotr Fedorovich's appearance, but, more importantly, the features of his character - including mental instability, irritability, a tendency to unpredictable actions and an irrepressible love for the meaningless drill of soldiers.

Immediately after birth, the heir was separated from his mother and placed under the care of nannies, and Sergei Saltykov was sent from Catherine, who was in love with him, to Sweden on an invented diplomatic mission. As for the grand ducal couple, Elizaveta Petrovna, having received the long-awaited heir, lost her former interest in her. With her nephew, because of his unbearable pranks * and stupid antics, she could not stay “even a quarter of an hour without feeling disgust, anger or grief.” For example, he drilled holes in the wall of the room where the aunt-empress received her favorite Alexei Razumovsky, and not only observed what was happening there himself, but also invited “friends” from his entourage to look through the peephole. One can imagine the power of Elizaveta Petrovna’s anger when she learned about the prank. From now on, the Empress Aunt often calls him in her hearts a fool, a freak, or even a “damned nephew.” In such a situation, Ekaterina Alekseevna, who secured an heir to the throne, could calmly reflect on her future fate.

On August 30, 1756, the twenty-year-old Grand Duchess informed the English ambassador to Russia, Sir Charles Herbert Williams, with whom she was in secret correspondence, that she had decided to “perish or reign.” The life goals of young Catherine in Russia are simple: to please the Grand Duke, to please the Empress, to please the people. Recalling this time, she wrote: “Truly, I did not neglect anything in order to achieve this: obsequiousness, humility, respect, the desire to please, the desire to do the right thing, sincere affection - everything on my part was constantly used from 1744 to 1761 I admit that when I lost hope of success in the first point, I redoubled my efforts to complete the last two; it seemed to me that more than once I succeeded in the second; the third was a success for me in its entirety, without any limitation by any time, and, therefore, I think I have performed my task quite well."

The methods by which Catherine acquired the “power of attorney of the Russians” did not contain anything original and, in their simplicity, corresponded perfectly to the mental attitude and level of enlightenment of the St. Petersburg high society. Let’s listen to her herself: “They attribute this to deep intelligence and a long study of my situation. Not at all! I owe this to Russian old women<...>And in ceremonial meetings, and at simple gatherings and parties, I approached old women, sat down next to them, asked about their health, advised what remedies to use in case of illness, patiently listened to their endless stories about their young years, about current boredom, about frivolity of young people; I myself asked their advice in various matters and then sincerely thanked them. I knew the names of their moseks, lapdogs, parrots, fools; knew when which of these ladies had a birthday. On this day, my valet came to her, congratulated her on my behalf and brought her flowers and fruits from the Oranienbaum greenhouses. Less than two years had passed before the warmest praise for my mind and heart was heard from all sides and spread throughout Russia. In the simplest and most innocent way, I gained great fame for myself, and when the conversation came up about taking the Russian throne, a significant majority found myself on my side.”

On December 25, 1761, after a long illness, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna passed away. Senator Trubetskoy, who announced this long-awaited news, immediately proclaimed the accession to the throne of Emperor Peter III. As the wonderful historian S. M. Solovyov writes, “the answer was sobs and groans throughout the entire palace<...>The majority greeted the new reign gloomily: they knew the character of the new sovereign and did not expect anything good from him." Catherine, even if she had the intention, as she herself recalls, "save the state from that destruction, the danger of which was forced to foresee all the moral and physical qualities of this sovereign." , then, being at that time in the fifth month of pregnancy, she could practically not actively intervene in the course of events.

Perhaps this was for the best for her - during the six months of his reign, Peter III managed to turn the capital’s society and the nobility as a whole against himself to such an extent that he practically opened the way to power for his wife. Moreover, the attitude towards him was not changed either by the abolition of the hated Secret Chancellery, which led to general rejoicing, with its dungeons filled with prisoners with only one notorious cry: “The sovereign’s word and deed!” compulsory public service and giving them freedom to choose their place of residence, occupation and the right to travel abroad. The last act caused such a fit of enthusiasm among the nobility that the Senate even intended to erect a monument made of pure gold to the Tsar-Benefactor. However, the euphoria did not last long - everything was outweighed by the extremely unpopular actions of the emperor in society, which greatly affected the national dignity of the Russian people.

Peter III's deliberately advertised adoration of the Prussian king Frederick II was subjected to angry condemnation. He loudly proclaimed himself his vassal, for which he received the popular nickname “Friedrich’s monkey.” The degree of public discontent jumped especially sharply when Peter III made peace with Prussia and returned to it the lands conquered with the blood of Russian soldiers without any compensation. This step practically nullified all the successes of the Seven Years' War for Russia.

Peter III managed to turn the clergy against himself, since, by his decree of March 21, 1762, they began to hastily implement the decision taken under Elizabeth Petrovna on the secularization of church lands: the treasury, devastated by many years of war, required replenishment. Moreover, the new tsar threatened to deprive the clergy of their usual magnificent vestments, replacing them with black pastoral robes, and to shave off the priests’ beards.

The addiction to wine did not add to the glory of the new emperor. It did not go unnoticed how extremely cynically he behaved in the days of mournful farewell to the late empress, allowing obscene antics, jokes, loud laughter at her coffin... According to contemporaries, Peter III did not have “a more cruel enemy” in these days than himself, because he does not neglect anything that could harm him." This is confirmed by Catherine: her husband “in the whole empire had no more fierce enemy than himself.” As we see, Peter III thoroughly prepared the ground for the coup.

It is difficult to say exactly when the specific outlines of the conspiracy appeared. With a high degree of probability, its occurrence can be attributed to April 1762, when Catherine, after giving birth, received the physical opportunity for real action. The final decision on the conspiracy, apparently, was confirmed after the family scandal that happened in early June. At one of the gala dinners, Peter III, in the presence of foreign ambassadors and about 500 guests, publicly called his wife a fool several times in a row. Then came the order to the adjutant to arrest his wife. And only the persistent persuasion of Prince George Ludwig of Holstein (he was the uncle of the imperial couple) extinguished the conflict. But they did not change the intention of Peter III by any means to free himself from his wife and fulfill his long-standing desire - to marry his favorite, Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova. According to reviews from people close to Peter, she “sweared like a soldier, squinted, smelled bad and spat when talking.” Pockmarked, fat, with an exorbitant bust, she was exactly the type of woman that Pyotr Fedorovich liked, who loudly called his girlfriend “Romanova” during drinking sessions. Catherine was threatened with imminent tonsure as a nun.

There was no time left to organize a classic conspiracy with lengthy preparation and thinking through all the details. Everything was decided according to the situation, almost at the level of improvisation, although compensated by the decisive actions of Ekaterina Alekseevna’s supporters. Among them was her secret admirer, Ukrainian Hetman K. G. Razumovsky, at the same time the commander of the Izmailovsky regiment, a favorite of the guards. Those close to Peter III, Chief Prosecutor A. I. Glebov, Field Chief General A. N. Vilboa, Police Director Baron N. A. Korf, as well as Chief General M. N. also showed obvious sympathy for her. The 18-year-old, unusually energetic and girlishly faithful friendship with Catherine, Princess E.R. Dashkova (Peter III’s favorite was her sister), who had extensive connections in the world thanks to her closeness to N.I. Panin and the fact that Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov was her uncle.

It was through the favorite's sister, who did not arouse any suspicion, that officers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment - P. B. Passek, S. A. Bredikhin, brothers Alexander and Nikolai Roslavlev - were recruited to participate in the coup. Through other reliable channels, connections were established with other energetic young guards officers. All of them paved Catherine a relatively easy path to the throne. Among them, the most active and active - “who stood out from the crowd of comrades for his beauty, strength, dash, and sociability” - 27-year-old Grigory Grigorievich Orlov (who had long been in a love affair with Catherine - the boy born to her in April 1762 was their son Alexei). Catherine's favorite was supported in everything by his two equally dashing guards brothers - Alexey and Fedor. It was the three Orlov brothers who were actually the mainspring of the conspiracy.

In the Horse Guards, “everything was directed prudently, boldly and actively” by the future favorite of Catherine II, 22-year-old non-commissioned officer G. A. Potemkin and his same age as F. A. Khitrovo. By the end of June, according to Catherine, her “accomplices” in the guard included up to 40 officers and about 10 thousand privates. One of the main inspirers of the conspiracy was the tutor of Tsarevich Pavel N.I. Panin. True, he pursued goals different from Catherine’s: the removal of Peter Fedorovich from power and the establishment of a regency under his pupil, the young Tsar Pavel Petrovich. Catherine knows about this, and, although such a plan is absolutely unacceptable for her, she, not wanting the fragmentation of forces, when talking with Panin, limits herself to a non-binding phrase: “It is nicer for me to be a mother than the wife of a ruler.”

An incident hastened the fall of Peter III: a reckless decision to start a war with Denmark (with a completely empty treasury) and command the troops himself, although the emperor’s inability to do military work was the talk of the town. His interests here were limited to a love of colorful uniforms, endless drills and the adoption of rude soldierly manners, which he considered an indicator of masculinity. Even the urgent advice of his idol Frederick II - not to go to the theater of military operations before the coronation - had no effect on Peter. And now the guard, spoiled under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by the free life of the capital, and now, at the whim of the tsar, dressed in the hated Prussian-style uniforms, receives an order to urgently prepare for a campaign that does not at all meet the interests of Russia.

The immediate signal for the start of the conspirators' actions was the accidental arrest on the evening of June 27 of one of the conspirators, Captain Passek. The danger was great. Alexey Orlov and guards lieutenant Vasily Bibikov on the night of June 28 hastily galloped to Peterhof, where Catherine was. The brothers Grigory and Fyodor, who remained in St. Petersburg, prepared everything for a proper “royal” meeting in the capital. At six o’clock in the morning on June 28, Alexey Orlov woke up Catherine with the words: “It’s time to get up: everything is ready for your proclamation.” "Like what?" - says Ekaterina, half asleep. “Passek has been arrested,” was A. Orlov’s answer.

And now the hesitations are cast aside, Catherine and the maid of honor get into the carriage in which Orlov arrived. V.I. Bibikov and the chamberlain Shkurin sit at the back, and Alexey Orlov sits on the box next to the coachman. Five versts from the capital they are met by Grigory Orlov. Catherine transfers into his carriage with fresh horses. In front of the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment, the guards are delighted to take the oath to the new empress. Then the carriage with Catherine and a crowd of soldiers, led by a priest with a cross, head to the Semenovsky regiment, which greeted Catherine with a thunderous “Hurray!” Accompanied by troops, she goes to the Kazan Cathedral, where a prayer service immediately begins and at the litanies “the autocratic Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna and the heir to the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich were proclaimed.” From the cathedral, Catherine, already an empress, goes to the Winter Palace. Here, the guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, who were a little late and terribly upset by this, joined the two guard regiments. By noon, army units also arrived.

Meanwhile, members of the Senate and Synod and other high officials of the state are already crowding the Winter Palace. Without any delay, they took the oath to the Empress according to a text hastily compiled by the future Secretary of State of Catherine II G. N. Teplov. The Manifesto on Catherine’s accession to the throne “at the request of all our subjects” was also published. Residents of the northern capital are rejoicing; wine flows like a river at public expense from the cellars of private wine merchants. Inflamed by the drink, the common people are having fun and waiting for good deeds from the new queen. But she has no time for them yet. To the exclamations of "Hurray!" The Danish campaign was cancelled. To attract the fleet to his side, a reliable person was sent to Kronstadt - Admiral I. L. Talyzin. Decrees on the change of power were prudently sent to the part of the Russian army located in Pomerania.

What about Peter III? Did he suspect the threat of a coup and what was happening in his inner circle on the ill-fated day of June 28? The surviving documentary evidence clearly shows that he did not even think about the possibility of a coup, confident in the love of his subjects. Hence his disregard for the previously received, admittedly vague, warnings.

Having sat at a late dinner the day before, Peter arrives in Peterhof at noon on June 28 to celebrate his upcoming name day. And he discovers that Catherine is not in Monplaisir - she unexpectedly left for St. Petersburg. Messengers were urgently sent to the city - N. Yu. Trubetskoy and A. I. Shuvalov (one was colonel of the Semenovsky regiment, the other of the Preobrazhensky regiment). However, neither one nor the other returned, swearing allegiance to Catherine without hesitation. But the disappearance of the messengers did not give Peter decisiveness, who from the very beginning was morally crushed by the complete, in his opinion, hopelessness of the situation. Finally, the decision was made to move to Kronstadt: according to a report from the commandant of the fortress P.A. Devier, they were supposedly ready to receive the emperor. But while Peter and his people were sailing to Kronstadt, Talyzin had already arrived there and, to the joy of the garrison, led everyone to the oath of allegiance to Empress Catherine II. Therefore, the flotilla of the deposed emperor (one galley and one yacht) that approached the fortress in the first hour of the night was forced to turn back to Oranienbaum. Peter also did not accept the advice of the elderly Count B. Kh. Minich, returned from exile, to act “like a king”, without delaying an hour, go to the troops in Revel and move with them to St. Petersburg.

And at this time, Catherine once again demonstrates her determination by ordering up to 14 thousand troops with artillery to be drawn to Peterhof. The task of the conspirators who seized the throne is complex and at the same time simple: to achieve the “voluntary” decent abdication of Peter from the throne. And on June 29, General M.L. Izmailov delivers to Catherine a pitiful message from Peter III asking for forgiveness and renouncing his rights to the throne. He also expressed his readiness (if allowed) together with E.R. Vorontsova, adjutant A.V. Gudovich, a violin and his beloved pug to go to live in Holstein, if only he was allocated a boarding house sufficient for a comfortable existence. They demanded from Peter “a written and handwritten certificate” that he renounced the throne “voluntarily and spontaneously.” Peter agreed to everything and humbly declared in writing “to the whole world solemnly”: “I renounce the government of the Russian state for my entire life.”

By noon, Peter was taken under arrest, taken to Peterhof, and then transferred to Ropsha - a small country palace 27 versts from Petersburg. Here he was put “under strong guard” supposedly until the premises in Shlisselburg were ready. Alexey Orlov was appointed as the main “guard.” So, the entire coup, which did not shed a single drop of blood, took less than two days - June 28 and 29. Frederick II later, in a conversation with the French envoy in St. Petersburg, Count L.-F. Segur gave the following review of the events in Russia: “The lack of courage in Peter III ruined him: he allowed himself to be dethroned like a child being sent to bed".

In the current situation, the physical elimination of Peter was the surest and most trouble-free solution to the problem. As if ordered, this is exactly what happened. On the seventh day after the coup, under circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified, Peter III was killed. It was officially announced to the people that Pyotr Fedorovich died from hemorrhoidal colic, which happened “by the will of divine Providence.”

Naturally, contemporaries, as well as historians later, were keenly interested in the question of Catherine’s involvement in this tragedy. There are different opinions on this matter, but they are all based on guesses and assumptions, and there are simply no facts incriminating Catherine of this crime. Apparently, the French envoy Beranger was right when, hot on the heels of the events, he wrote: “I do not suspect in this princess such a terrible soul as to think that she participated in the death of the king, but since the deepest secret will probably always be hidden from the public information about the real author of this terrible murder, suspicion and infamy will remain with the empress.”

A. I. Herzen spoke more definitely: “It is very likely that Catherine did not give the order to kill Peter III. We know from Shakespeare how these orders are given - with a glance, a hint, silence.” It is important to note here that all participants in the “accidental” (as A. Orlov explained in his repentant note to the Empress) murder of the deposed emperor not only did not suffer any punishment, but were then superbly rewarded with money and serf souls. Thus, Catherine, willingly or unwillingly, took this grave sin upon herself. Perhaps this is why the empress showed no less mercy towards her recent enemies: practically none of them were not only sent into exile, according to the established Russian tradition, but were not punished at all. Even Peter’s mistress Elizaveta Vorontsova was only quietly installed in her father’s house. Moreover, Catherine II subsequently became the godmother of her first-born. Truly, generosity and forbearance are the faithful weapons of the strong, always bringing them glory and loyal admirers.

On July 6, 1762, the Manifesto signed by Catherine on her accession to the throne was announced in the Senate. On September 22, a solemn coronation took place in Moscow, which greeted her coolly. Thus began the 34-year reign of Catherine II.

Starting to characterize the long reign of Catherine II and her personality, let us pay attention to one paradoxical fact: the illegality of Catherine’s accession to the throne also had its undoubted advantages, especially in the first years of her reign, when she “had to atone for what that legitimate kings have without labor. This very necessity was partly the spring of her great and brilliant deeds.” Not only the famous writer and memoirist N.I. Grech, to whom the above judgment belongs, thought so. In this case, he only reflected the opinion of the educated part of society. V. O. Klyuchevsky, speaking about the tasks facing Catherine, who took, but did not receive, power by law, and noting the extreme confusion of the situation in Russia after the coup, emphasized the same point: “The power seized always has the character of a bill of exchange, according to which are waiting for payment, and according to the mood of Russian society, Catherine had to justify various and discordant expectations.” Looking ahead, let's say that this bill was repaid on time.

Historical literature has long noted the main contradiction of Catherine’s “age of Enlightenment” (though not shared by all experts): the empress “wanted so much enlightenment and such light that she would not be afraid of its “inevitable consequences.” In other words, Catherine II found herself faced with an explosive dilemma: enlightenment or slavery? And since she never resolved this problem, leaving serfdom intact, it seemed to give rise to subsequent confusion about why she did not do this. But the above formula (“enlightenment - slavery”) causes. natural questions: were there appropriate conditions in Russia at that time for the abolition of “slavery” and was the society of that time aware of the need for a radical change in social relations in the country? Let’s try to answer them.

In determining the course of her domestic policy, Catherine relied primarily on the book knowledge she acquired. But not only. At first, the empress’s transformative fervor was fueled by her initial assessment of Russia as “an unplowed country,” where it was best to carry out all sorts of reforms. That is why on August 8, 1762, only in the sixth week of her reign, Catherine II, by a special decree, confirmed the March decree of Peter III banning the purchase of serfs by industrialists. Owners of factories and mines must henceforth be content with the labor of civilian workers paid under a contract. It seems that she generally had the intention of abolishing forced labor and ridding the country of the “shame of slavery,” as required by the spirit of Montesquieu’s teachings. But her intention was not yet strong enough to decide on such a revolutionary step. In addition, Catherine did not yet have any complete understanding of Russian reality. On the other hand, as one of the smartest people of Pushkin’s era, Prince P. A. Vyazemsky, noted, when the actions of Catherine II had not yet become “a legend of ancient times,” she “loved reforms, but gradual ones, transformations, but not steep ones,” without breaking.

By 1765, Catherine II came to the idea of ​​​​the need to convene the Statutory Commission to bring the existing legislation “into better order” and in order to reliably find out “the needs and sensitive shortcomings of our people.” Let us recall that attempts to convene the current legislative body - the Legislative Commission - have been made more than once before, but all of them, for various reasons, ended in failure. Taking this into account, Catherine, endowed with a remarkable mind, resorted to an act unprecedented in the history of Russia: she personally drew up a special “Order”, which was a detailed program of action for the Commission.

As follows from a letter to Voltaire, she believed that the Russian people are “excellent soil on which good seed grows quickly; but we also need axioms that are indisputably recognized as true.” And these axioms are known - the ideas of the Enlightenment, which she laid as the basis for the new Russian legislation. Even V. O. Klyuchevsky specifically highlighted the main condition for the implementation of Catherine’s transformative plans, which she briefly outlined in her “Instructions”: “Russia is a European power; Peter I, introducing European morals and customs among the European people, found such conveniences as I didn’t expect it myself. The conclusion followed naturally: the axioms, representing the last and best fruit of European thought, will find the same convenience in this people.”

In the literature about the “Nakaz”, there has long been an opinion about the purely compilative nature of this main Catherine’s political work. When justifying such judgments, they usually refer to her own words spoken to the French philosopher and educator D'Alembert: “You will see how there I robbed President Montesquieu for the benefit of my empire, without naming him.” Indeed, from the 526 articles of the “Nakaz”, divided into 20 chapters, 294 go back to the work of the famous French enlightener Montesquieu “On the Spirit of Laws”, and 108 - to the work of the Italian legal scholar Cesare Beccaria “On Crimes and Punishments”. However, this was not the case. a simple translation into the Russian style of the works of famous authors, but their creative rethinking, an attempt to apply the ideas contained in them to Russian reality.

(To be continued.)