Catherine the Great
1729 - 1796

The Russian empress Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great,
reigned from 1762 to 1796. She expanded the Russian Empire,
improved administration, and vigorously pursued the policy of
Westernization. Her reputation as an "enlightened despot,"
however, is not wholly supported by her deeds.
Born in the German city of Stettin on April 21, 1729, Catherine
was the daughter of Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst and
Princess Johanna Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Her education
emphasized the subjects considered proper for one of her
station: religion (Lutheranism), history, French, German, and
music.
When Catherine was 15, she went to Russia at the invitation of
Empress Elizabeth to meet - and perhaps marry - the heir to the
throne, the Grand Duke Peter, an immature and disagreeable youth
of 16. As the Empress had hoped, the two proved amenable to a
marriage plan; but Catherine later wrote that she was more
attracted to the "Crown of Russia," which Peter would eventually
wear, than to "his person." When Catherine had met the important
condition imposed upon her as a prospective royal consort, that
she be converted to the Russian Orthodox faith, she and the
young Grand Duke were married in 1745.
The marriage turned out to be an unhappy one in which there was
little evidence of love or even affection. Peter was soon
unfaithful to Catherine, and after a time she became unfaithful
to him. Whether Peter was the father of Paul and Anna, the two
children recorded as their offspring, remains a moot question.
Although amorous interests were important in Catherine's
personal life, they did not overshadow her intellectual and
political interests. A sharp-witted and cultivated young woman,
she read widely, particularly in French, at that time the first
language of educated Europeans. She liked novels, plays, and
verse but was particularly interested in the writings of the
major figures of the French Enlightenment, such as Diderot,
Voltaire, and Montesquieu.
Catherine was ambitious as well as intelligent. She always
looked ahead to the time when Peter would succeed to the throne
and she, as his empress, would be able to exercise great
political influence. In anticipation of her future status she
sought the reputation of being a true Russian. She worked
diligently at mastering the Russian language and took care to
demonstrate devotion to the Russian Orthodox faith and the
Russian state. Thus she gave prominence to a significant
difference between her attitude and that of her husband, who
displayed open contempt for the country he was to rule. She
assured herself of further advantage by the studied use of her
charm and vivacity in cultivating the goodwill of important
personages.
Ascent to Power
When Empress Elizabeth died on Dec. 25, 1761, Peter was
proclaimed Emperor Peter III, and Catherine became empress.
Friends warned that she might not enjoy her status for long
since Peter was planning to divorce her, and she was advised to
flee. She decided to ignore the warning, and the wisdom of her
decision was soon demonstrated. Within a few months after coming
to the throne, Peter had aroused so much hostility among
government, military, and church leaders that a group of them
began plotting a coup to remove him, place his 7-year-old son,
Paul, on the throne, and name Catherine as regent until the boy
should come of age. But they had underestimated Catherine's
ambition - she aimed at a more exalted role for herself. On June
28, 1762, with the aid of her lover Gregory Orlov, she rallied
the troops of St. Petersburg to her support and declared herself
Catherine II, the sovereign ruler of Russia (she later named
Paul as her heir). She had Peter arrested and required him to
sign an act of abdication. When he sought permission to leave
the country, she refused it, intending to hold him prisoner for
life. But his remaining days proved few; shortly after his
arrest he was killed in a brawl with his captors.
Early Reign (1762-1764)
Catherine had ambitious plans regarding both domestic and
foreign affairs, but during the first years of her reign her
attention was directed toward securing her position. She knew
that a number of influential persons considered her a usurper
and her son, Paul, the rightful ruler; she also realized that
without the goodwill of the nobility and the military she could
be overthrown by a coup as readily as she had been elevated by
one. Her reaction to this situation was to take every
opportunity for conciliating the nobility and the military and
at the same time striking sharply at those who sought to replace
her with Paul.
As for general policy, Catherine understood that Russia needed
an extended period of peace during which to concentrate on
domestic affairs and that peace required a cautious foreign
policy. The able Count Nikita Panin, whom she placed in charge
of foreign affairs, was well chosen to carry out such a policy.
Attempts at Reform (1764-1768)
By 1764 Catherine felt sufficiently secure to begin work on
reform. In her thinking about the problems of reform, she
belonged to the group of 18th-century rulers known as
"enlightened despots." Influenced by the ideas of the
Enlightenment, these monarchs believed that a wise and
benevolent ruler, acting according to the dictates of reason,
could ensure the well-being of his or her subjects.
It was in the spirit of the Enlightenment that Catherine
undertook her first major reform, that of Russia's legal system,
which was based on the antiquated, inequitable, and inefficient
Code of Laws, dating from 1649. For more than 2 years, inspired
by the writings of Montesquieu and the Italian jurist Beccaria,
she worked on the composition of the "Instruction," a document
to guide those to whom she would entrust the work of reforming
the legal system. This work was widely distributed in Europe and
caused a sensation because it called for a legal system far in
advance of the times. It proposed a system providing equal
protection under law for all persons and emphasized prevention
of criminal acts rather than harsh punishment for them.
In June 1767 the Empress created the Legislative Commission to
revise the old laws in accordance with the "Instruction." For
the time and place, the Commission was a remarkable body,
consisting of delegates from almost all levels of society except
the lowest, the serfs. Like many others, Catherine had great
hopes about what the Commission might accomplish, but
unfortunately, the delegates devoted most of their time to the
exposition of their own grievances, rather than to their
assigned task. Consequently, though their meetings continued for
more than a year, they made no progress, and Catherine suspended
the meetings at the end of 1768. The fact that she never
reconvened the Commission has been interpreted by some
historians as an indication that she had lost faith in the
delegates; others feel, however, that she was more interested in
having the reputation of being an "enlightened" ruler than in
actually being one.
War and Revolt (1768-1774)
Foreign affairs now began to demand Catherine's major attention.
She had sent troops to help the Polish king Stanislas (a former
lover) in suppressing a nationalist revolt aimed at reducing
Russia's influence in Poland. In 1768 the Polish rebels appealed
to Turkey for aid, and the Turkish sultan, grateful for an
opportunity to weaken a traditional enemy, declared war on
Russia. But his act was based on serious miscalculation, and his
forces were soundly beaten by the Russians. This turn of events
led Austria to threaten intervention on Turkey's behalf unless
Catherine agreed not to take full advantage of her victory.
Faced by this dangerous alternative, she agreed to show
restraint in return for a portion of Polish territory. Thus in
1772 Austria and Russia annexed Polish territory in the First
Partition of Poland. Two years later, after lengthy
negotiations, Catherine concluded peace with Turkey, restricting
herself to relatively modest but nonetheless important gains.
Russia received as a territorial concession its first foothold
on the Black Sea coast, and Russian merchant ships were allowed
the right of sailing on the Black Sea and through the
Dardanelles.
Even before the conclusion of peace with the Turks, Catherine
had to concern herself with a revolt led by the Cossack Yemelyan
Pugachev. It proved to be the most ominous internal threat she
ever had to face. The rebel leader claimed that reports of Peter
III's death were false and that he himself was the deposed
emperor. He convinced many serfs, Cossacks, and members of other
dissatisfied groups that when Catherine II was deposed and
"Peter III" was returned to the throne their oppression would be
ended. Soon tens of thousands were following him, and the
uprising, which started in the south and spread up the Volga
River, was within threatening range of Moscow. Pugachev's defeat
required several major expeditions by the imperial forces, and a
feeling of security returned to the government only after his
capture late in 1774. The revolt was a major landmark in
Catherine's reign. Deeply alarmed by it, she concluded, along
with most of the aristocracy, that the best safeguard against
rebellion would be the strengthening of the local administrative
authority of the nobility rather than measures to ameliorate the
condition of the lower classes.
Domestic Affairs (1775-1787)
Much of Catherine's fame rests on what she accomplished during
the dozen years following the Pugachev uprising, when she
directed her time and talent to domestic affairs, particularly
those concerned with the administrative operations of
government. Her reorganization in 1775 of provincial
administration - in such a way as to favor the nobility - stood
the test of time; but her reorganization of municipal government
10 years later was less successful.
Catherine attached high importance to expanding the country's
educational facilities. She gave serious consideration to
various plans and in 1786 adopted one providing for a
large-scale educational system. Unfortunately she was unable to
carry out the entire plan; but she did add to the number of the
country's elementary and secondary schools, and some of the
remaining parts of her plan were carried out during succeeding
reigns.
Another of Catherine's chief domestic concerns was the
enhancement of Russia's economic strength. To this end she
encouraged trade by ending various restrictions on commerce, and
she promoted the development of underpopulated areas by
attracting both Russians and foreigners to them as settlers.
The arts and sciences received much attention during Catherine's
reign not only because she believed them to be important in
themselves, but also because she saw them as a means by which
Russia could attain a reputation as a center of civilization.
Under her direction St. Petersburg was beautified and made one
of the world's most dazzling capitals. With her encouragement,
theater, music, and painting flourished; stimulated by her
patronage, the Academy of Sciences reached new heights. Indeed,
during her reign St. Petersburg became one of the major cultural
centers of Europe.
Foreign Affairs (1787-1795)
Catherine gradually came to believe that it would be possible to
strip Turkey of both Constantinople and its European possessions
if only Austria would join Russia in the undertaking. And,
having gained Austria's lukewarm support, she began the
deliberate pursuit of a policy so intolerably aggressive toward
Turkey that in 1787 the Sultan finally declared war on Russia.
As in past encounters, the Russian forces proved superior to the
Turks, but they required 4 years to achieve victory. By the
Treaty of Jassy (1792) Catherine won from Turkey a large area on
the Black Sea coast and gained Turkish agreement to Russia's
annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. But she was not able to
carry out her original plan of annexing Constantinople and
Turkey's European territory, since Austria had withdrawn its
support of this action and other powers vigorously opposed it.
While the Russo-Turkish War was in progress, Polish nationalists
again tried to strengthen the Polish state and end Russian
influence within it. As before, their efforts were futile,
leading only to unqualified disaster for their unfortunate
country - the Second Partition of Poland (1793), in which Russia
and Prussia annexed Polish territory; and the Third Partition
(1795), in which Russia, Austria, and Prussia divided what
remained of an independent Poland.
Problem of Succession
As she grew older, Catherine became greatly troubled because her
heir, Paul, who had long been given to violent and unpredictable
extremes of emotion, was becoming so unsettled and erratic that
she doubted his fitness to rule. She considered disclaiming him
as heir and naming his oldest son, Alexander, as her successor.
But before she was able to alter her original arrangement, she
died of a stroke on Nov. 6, 1796.
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