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Catherine The Great: An Enlightened Visionary
Empress Catherine II of Russia was not a Catherine, Russian, nor royal; however, she became one of the greatest Russian monarchs in history. The rule of this incredible woman in an era of enlightenment and change is a testimony to her vision, intellect, and capabilities as an absolute monarch. Catherine began life as Princess Sophia-Augusta Frederike of the small Germanic principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. In 1745, at the age of fifteen, she converted to the Orthodox religion of Russia, taking on the name of Ekaterina Alekseevna and married her second cousin, Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, heir to the Russian throne. Catherine II established herself as Empress of Russia after her coup d’etat in June 1762, when she overthrew the rule of her incapable husband, Emperor Peter III. She then ruled Russia as a great autocratic Empress for thirty-four years, until her death in 1796. In the context of the change that was occurring during the eighteenth century, one recognizes that Catherine the Great was a revolutionary monarch in that she embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment both theoretically and in practice. It is due to her impressive reforms in terms of education, social policy, Russian culture, legal policy and economics and her successful military exploits and expansion that Empress Catherine II is considered a “great monarch” and a positive influence within eighteenth century Russia.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, despite the efforts of Peter the Great, the culture of Russia was still quite distinct from that of Europe. His reforms remained incomplete, and thus Russia remained separate from the European nations. It was through Catherine II’s strong influence on Russian society that this distinction would begin to diminish and that the foundations for freedom of speech would be set. As an avid reader of the works of emblematic personalities such as Voltaire, Beccaria, Diderot, and Montesquieu, Catherine II herself was also a prolific writer. Her writings dealt with all topics involving politics, Russian history, education, economics, and linguistics. Catherine II, through the writing of stories for her grandchildren, was also responsible for producing the first Russian stories specifically for children. It was through her extensive writings and communications that Catherine II was able to “promote an enlightened Russia and monarch together, and defend them against their many foreign critics, on a European historical, political, social, cultural, and intellectual stage” (Cruse and Hoogenboom, xx). In addition to her personal writings, Catherine II created a Society for the Translation of Foreign Books. This allowed for enlightened ideas to be spread to those who could not understand French or German. Further additions to Russian society included the Russian Academy of Science and the Russian Academy of Language, both directed by Princess Catherine Dashkova, an original and unusual appointment by Catherine II. In the uniting her country, Catherine II was able to “avoid the use of force in dealing with internal ethnic and religious minorities” when she successfully assimilated the Russian Muslims (Fisher, 1). A final major contribution to change in Russian society was Catherine II’s “edict allowing anyone of any social estate to set up a printing press providing that it was registered with the local chief of police” and the shift of the role of censorship (de Madariaga, 97). This edict removed state control and manipulation of written and publicized opinions and translations and combined with decreased censorship indicated Catherine II’s “desire to encourage social forces to be active and show enterprise in as many fields as possible” (de Madariaga, 98). It is this beginning of open press that can be considered the starting point for liberty of speech in Russia. The culture of Russia changed drastically throughout Catherine II’s rule as the enlightened ideas of the philosophes were reaching many Russian citizens and the gulf between Europe and Russia was being bridged.
To further increase the power of her empire, Catherine II recognised the need to produce wealth by manipulating available resources. Thus her economic policy would foster the beginnings of capitalism in Russia. In order to increase the number of agriculturalists, tradesmen, and entrepreneurs within the Russian state Catherine II began a “major program of immigration and settlement that was backed by manifestos promising exemption from taxation, a special department to administer to their affairs, …and religious tolerance” (de Madariaga, 177). Further manifestos allowed all Russian citizens of any social estate freedom of economic enterprise, which removed the requirement to ask for government permission to set up a workshop or factory. With the rise in Russian production, taxes for imports were increased while taxation upon exports was decreased. This encouraged the consumption of these cheaper Russian goods both within and outside the state. Consequently water transportation had to be improved, which Catherine II achieved by “considerably extend[ing] the network of navigable waterways” and decreasing tariffs on goods through the Black Sea ports (de Madariaga, 183). In addition, Catherine II formed the “beginnings of an effective centralized state financial administration” by introducing Treasury Chambers to each province and district that were responsible for reporting to the new Office of State Revenues in the Senate and “administering the collection of revenue [and special taxes] and disbursement of what was required locally” (de Madariaga, 186). Throughout her reign, Catherine II began a system of capitalism, improved production and trade, and introduced organized state financial administration.
In her social policies, Catherine II “attempted to organize and give corporate form to the various social estates and to codify the laws setting out their rights and duties” (de Madariaga, 120). She developed the Charter of Nobility maintaining and outlining the rights and duties of the nobility. A Charter to the Towns was developed for the merchants and townspeople. Depending on the town-dwellers distinction the charter promised that they would not be deprived of their life, status, property, or reputation without a trial by their peers, that they could buy themselves out of the recruit levy and could not be conscripted to perform services for the state, and that higher guilds were freed from corporal punishment. The final and newly recognized social group within Russia were the peasants. As one of their rights, Peasant law courts were established. Catherine II never liberated the serfs of her country, “perhaps due to threats, fear of alienating the nobility or weakening the economy”, or the danger of another revolt, such as the Pugachev; however, she did manage to instate a few rights for the serfs (Newman et al., 152). Under Catherine II’s rule, the Statue of 1775 allowed landowners to be prosecuted for cruelty towards their serf, governors to sequester estates where serfs were being ill-treated, and declared that no serf that had been freed could be returned to serfdom. Although unable to produce legislation to free the serf, Catherine II believed that “serfdom…ought to be a rare condition” (Thomson, 103). The distinguishing of rights for all social estates was a landmark in Russian history because prior to Catherine II they had never been fully formulated.
With the introduction of specific rights it was only logical that a legal reform and proper administration had to be instituted. The source of these changes was the Statute of 1775. This Statute called for a network of law courts to be established, which included the central civil and criminal courts in the provincial capital that branched into the upper, district, and lower land courts for the nobles; the upper and district court for townspeople; and the higher and lower summary courts for the peasants. To any of these courts the appropriate social estate had the right to elect assessors to advise the judge. Further, a Court of Conscience was built in each province to deal with cases of witchcraft, sexual offences, lunacy, minors, more than one social class, and appeals to be freed on bail. The Board of Social Welfare was created to set up schools at the provincial and district level, hospitals, almshouses, workhouses, and houses of correction. The Police Ordinance of 1782 produced several civil servants responsible for maintaining order and other functions such as public hygiene, inspection of public baths, street lighting, fire fighting, control of foodstuffs, and control of the labour market. Provisions in the Statute also dealt with medical services, leading to the creation of inoculation hospitals, the establishment of the first college of medicine, and making the presence of a hospital in each province a necessity. Through Catherine II “Russian society was given a legal framework in which it could develop and the Russian state for the first time in its history penetrated to the local level, laid down channels of communication between all classes and the centre, and opened up the possibility of…maintaining law and order” (de Madariaga, 79).
An immensely important aspect of Catherine II’s reign was her influence over the educational practices of the period. Her approach to education employed “basic common sense, [an] understanding of children, and humaneness” (de Madariaga, 108). When constructing the educational system, Catherine II began by setting up a teacher-training institute to create a foundation for proper instruction. She constructed Foundling Homes that were authorized to accept abandoned and illegitimate children and the Smol’nyy Convent for noble girls with a second building for lower class girls attached to it. The purpose of these institutions was to create “‘a new kind of people’ …by isolating children from all corrupting influences…[and teaching them] with a general curriculum…[so that] pupils [would] be imbued with a high moral sense of duty to society and to their fellow men” (de Madariaga, 105). Children were encouraged to use play as a form of learning and corporal punishment was forbidden. In 1786, the Statute of National Schools was issued and enforced that Russian be the language of tuition, that the curriculum must include mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, and classical languages, and most significantly that instruction was free for all people, including girls and serfs (with the permission of their masters). Using education as a means of improving society was one of the largest demonstrations of Catherine II’s enlightened reign.
The immense expansion of Russian territory and the numerous successful military exploits are an expression of the formidable power of the Russian state and the strategic intelligence of her ruler. It was during the reign of Catherine II that “Russia acquired new territories totalling a quarter of the area of European Russia: creat[ing] outlets to the Black Sea and the Baltic, and doubl[ing] the strength of the army and Russian fleet” (Oldenbourg, 279). Throughout her rule she managed to “settle two of the great problems of Russia’s political inheritance: the position of Poland and the acquisition of the Black Sea coast” (Oliva, 8). Catherine II gained political influence in Poland by successfully inserting Stanislas Poniatowski as king. This lead to the destruction of Poland and it being partitioned into three regions divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Despite having lost Russian influence over some of Poland, Catherine II maintained the greatest portion of the country at the end of the third partition. Catherine II engaged in two major wars with Turkey ending in favourable treaties for the Russians. In the first Turkish war, Catherine II attacked the Balkan Peninsula and with the leadership of Prince Golitsyn was able to occupy Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, and Bucharest, the capital of Wallachia. Further, the newly built Russian fleet was unleashed into the Mediterranean, where they destroyed the Turkish fleet. This war ended in the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji with Russia gaining the shores of the Black Sea where the Cossack had fought, area around the Sea of Azov, part of Kuban, and the fortress of Kerch guarding the straits between the two seas. This political, economic, and social victory meant that Russia had finally succeeded in obtaining a footing on the fertile northern shore of the sea. Upon careful analysis of the Treaty, certain clauses also provided further rights to the Russians and “by virtue of them Russia was to put forward her claim to the right to intervene in the domestic affairs of [the Turkish] empire” (Thomson, 147 – 148). In 1783, Russia was successful in the annexation of the Crimea and after the second Turkish war this annexation would be legitimized with the Treaty of Jassy. As a result of her successful military exploits, Catherine II increased the territory of Russia by 518 000 km2 by absorbing New Russia, Crimea, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland. These military accomplishments and vast territorial expansion are the most distinguishing characteristics of her great reign.
The extraordinary accomplishments of a woman who was never destined to be Russian or an Empress are extensive and innumerable. Catherine the Great achieved reforms and feats that other monarchs did not even dare to attempt. She was a working autocratic monarch who became memorable and great through her changes to Russian culture including freedom of speech, the development of a free public education system, the formulation of rights for all classes, the development of capitalism, the beginnings of a centralized legal system, and her expansion and military successes over the Ottoman Empire and Poland. By embracing the Enlightenment ideas prominent in the eighteenth century Catherine the Great was able to transform Russia into one of the major European powers and it is for this reason that Empress Catherine II of Russia is considered to be an incredible leader and visionary. While many Russian rulers before her dreamed of achieving the status of a European power; it was through the work of this foreign Empress that these dreams would become a reality.
