The emergence of these assignation roubles was necessary due to large government spending on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the treasury (transactions, especially in foreign trade, were conducted almost exclusively in silver and gold coins). In addition, some governors listened to the complaints of serfs and punished nobles, but this was by no means universal. ; in a word, Anglomania is the master of my plantomania". [78] In the third category fell the work of Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, Ferdinando Galiani, Nicolas Baudeau, and Sir William Blackstone. By cleverly surrounding herself with those allied to her cause she strengthened her hold on the throne. Death and succession. Sette, Alessandro. She appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy. Catherine's decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. He also placed great emphasis on the "proper and effectual education of the female sex"; two years prior, Catherine had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the General Programme for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes. [74][75], Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. [120] By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia. Russia was to stop any involvement in internal affairs of Sweden. [92] The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. [82], During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and European influences that inspired the Russian Enlightenment. Declaring, Didnt I tell you she was capable of anything? Peter proceeded to weep and drink and dither.. Catherine gave away 66,000 serfs from 1762 to 1772, 202,000 from 1773 to 1793, and 100,000 in one day: 18 August 1795. In 1780, she established a League of Armed Neutrality, designed to defend neutral shipping from being searched by the British Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War. The statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. Catherine I of Russia. One of her lovers, Pyotr Zavadovsky, received 50,000 roubles, a pension of 5,000 roubles, and 4,000 peasants in Ukraine after she dismissed him in 1777. At first, the institute only admitted young girls of the noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie as well. In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. [114] Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 17811797). Ostensibly reigning on behalf of Peters heir apparentthe couples 8-year-old son, Paulshe had no intention of yielding the throne once her son came of age. [57] Although she did not want to communicate directly with the serfs, she did create some measures to improve their conditions as a class and reduce the size of the institution of serfdom. If a noble did not live up to his side of the deal, the serfs could file complaints against him by following the proper channels of law. In the west the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover King Stanisaw August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. After holding more than 200 sittings, the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory. Assessment and legacy [ edit] The life of a serf belonged to the state. [89] In 1764, she sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to the educational commission. He was strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, real, and normal schools at the village, town, and provincial capital levels. Catherine did indeed like horses, so much so that a portrait was painted of her on horseback. Her dynasty lost power because of this and of a war with Austria and Germany, impossible without her foreign policy.[48]. The use of these notes continued until 1849. In the plus column, the longest-reigning empress of Russia transformed her empire into one of Europe's great and . [30], Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 17631781), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. To the general public, Catherine is perhaps best known for conducting a string of salacious love affairs. Historical accounts portray Joanna as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Over this tunic she wore a red velvet dolman with very short sleeves. To become serfs, people conceded their freedoms to a landowner in exchange for their protection and support in times of hardship. Because Russia under her rule grew strong enough to threaten the other great powers, and because she was in fact a harsh and unscrupulous ruler, she figured in the Western imagination as the incarnation of the immense . We will remember him forever. [111] Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for economic reasons. She thus spent much of this time alone in her private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality. Elizabeth therefore allowed Catherine to have sexual lovers only after a new legal heir, Catherine and Peter's son, survived and appeared to be strong.[16]. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made the decision then to do whatever was necessary and to profess to believe whatever was required of her to become qualified to wear the crown. Wrens: The history of the Women's Royal Naval Service, The life of Noor Inayat Khan: An unsung hero of WWII. Catherine did turn Russia into a global great power not only a European one but with quite a different reputation from what she initially had planned as an honest policy. Peter III was extremely capricious, adds Hartley. Perhaps most impressively, the empressborn a virtually penniless Prussian princesswielded power for three decades despite the fact that she had no claim to the crown whatsoever. [3] He failed to become the duke of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and at the time of his daughter's birth held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as governor of the city of Stettin. [73] The Chinese Palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi who specialised in the chinoiserie style. The palace of the Crimean Khanate passed into the hands of the Russians. She worked as a maid for most of her childhood and remained illiterate throughout her life. In reality, Catherine the Great died of a stroke and she was discovered collapsed on the floor in her washroom. 679 Words; 3 Pages; Open Document. I hate fountains that torture water in order to make it take a course contrary to its nature: Statues are relegated to galleries, vestibules etc. Her marriage to Peter III of Russia lasted from 1745 until his suspicious death in 1762, and she had at least three lovers during this time (Catherine herself hinted that her husband . Another theory argues that he died through injuries sustained from . . Peter also still played with toy soldiers. In the south the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Bar Confederation and Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. In the end, it seems the misogynists somewhat got their wish since the rumour still doggedly persists to this day. Her death led people to create a lot of rumors. [88] Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions. Longest ruling Russian empress, 17621796, "Catherine II" redirects here. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation[130] until its post-WWI reconstitution. She nationalised all of the church lands to help pay for her wars, largely emptied the monasteries, and forced most of the remaining clergymen to survive as farmers or from fees for baptisms and other services. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. Catherineflanked by Orlov and her growing cadre of supportersarrived at the Winter Palace to make her official debut as Catherine II, sole ruler of Russia. In his 1647 book Beschreibung der muscowitischen und persischen Reise (Description of the Muscovite and Persian journey), German scholar Adam Olearius[136] Olearius's claims about a supposed Russian tendency towards bestiality with horses was often repeated in anti-Russian literature throughout the 17th and 18th centuries to illustrate the alleged barbarous "Asian" nature of Russia. Ruth P. Dawson, "Perilous News and Hasty Biography: Representations of Catherine II Immediately after her Seizure of the Throne." Firstly I was very surprised at her small stature; I had imagined her to be very tall, as great as her fame. She is often included in the ranks of the enlightened despots. Hulus The Great offers an irreverent, ahistorical take on the Russian empress life. Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women, causing 1 in 3 deaths every year? In 1767, Catherine decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil servants automatically would be promoted regardless of office or merit. Still, there was a start of industry, mainly textiles around Moscow and ironworks in the Ural Mountains, with a labour force mainly of serfs, bound to the works. In 1787, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo-Turkish War.[35]. Her foreign policy lacked a long-term strategy and from the very start was characterised by a series of mistakes. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. It was unthinkable they could rule a nation, especially one successfully. Catherine, for her part, claimed in her memoirs that all his actions bordered on insanity. By claiming the throne, she wrote, she had saved Russia from the disaster that all this Princes moral and physical faculties promised.. Catherine the Great was worried that her son, Paul, was not emotionally fit to rule so she planned to replace him with his son, Alexander, as her heir. No evidence conclusively linking Catherine to her husbands death exists, but as many historians have pointed out, his demise benefitted her immensely. The Corps then began to take children from a very young age and educate them until the age of 21, with a broadened curriculum that included the sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, and international law. [47] Catherine failed to reach any of the initial goals she had put forward. This rumor was widely circulated by satirical British and French publications at the time of her death. If we are to believe another popular myth that surrounds her death, it wasnt the horse that killed her but a collapsing toilet seat. Because the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state-funded institution, it represented an opportunity to experiment with new educational theories. It was obvious to her that Peters hostility had evolved into a determination to end their marriage and remove her from public life., Far from resigning herself to this fate, Catherine bided her time and watched as Peter alienated key factions at court. in, Inna Gorbatov, "Voltaire and Russia in the Age of Enlightenment.". They were pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives. Thirty-four years after assuming the throne, Catherine passed away on November 6, 1796. According to History, sexual deviancy has often been tagged to women either in power or who are seeking to change society, among them Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn,and Catherine the Great, among others.Catherine took the throne following the death of Peter and in lieu of their son, Paul, who was only 8 at the time. [56] The understanding of law in Imperial Russia by all sections of society was often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most serfs lived. One evening, while attempting to have sexual intercourse with the stallion, the harness holding the horse broke, sending the beast crashing down on top of her. This reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's murder five years later.[39]. She was the second wife of Peter the Great. Catherine was a patron of the arts, literature, and education. M. B. W. Trent, "Catherine the Great Invites Euler to Return to St. The double doors opened and the Empress appeared. She read widely and corresponded with many of the prominent thinkers of the era, including Voltaire and Diderot. It opened in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1769. A further 2.8million belonged to the Russian state.[55]. She lost the large territories of the Russian protectorate of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania and left its territories to Prussia and Austria. Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin and Ippolit Bogdanovich laid the groundwork for the great writers of the 19th century, especially for Alexander Pushkin. In July 1765, Dumaresq wrote to Dr. John Brown about the commission's problems and received a long reply containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social reforms in Russia. The empress prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria.[80][81]. Though not stupid, he was totally lacking in common sense, argues Isabel de Madariaga in Catherine the Great: A Short History. Both women kissed the child on her forehead following the Russian Orthodox rites. [7] For the smaller German princely families, an advantageous marriage was one of the best means of advancing their interests, and the young Sophie was groomed throughout her childhood to be the wife of some powerful ruler in order to improve the position of the reigning house of Anhalt. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman. She died of natural causes, of a stroke, when she was 67 years old. In reality, Catherine the Great died of a stroke and she was discovered collapsed on the floor in her washroom. [13], According to Alexander Hertzen, who edited a version of Catherine's memoirs, Catherine had her first sexual relationship with Sergei Saltykov while living at Oranienbaum as her marriage to Peter had not been consummated, as Catherine later claimed. [76], Catherine read three sorts of books, namely those for pleasure, those for information, and those to provide her with a philosophy. Catherine the Great actually expired alone and of natural causes. After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 1761), Peter succeeded to the throne as Emperor Peter III, and Catherine became empress consort. Look at the mirror, however, and an entirely different ruler appears: Her reflection is this private, determined, ambitious Catherine, says Jaques. This meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility. Far away from the capital, they were confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the throne.[66]. Historically, when the serfs faced problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters), they often appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine's reign, but she signed legislation prohibiting it. [73], She made a special effort to bring leading intellectuals and scientists to Russia, and she wrote her own comedies, works of fiction, and memoirs. "The circumstances and cause of death, and the intentions and degree of responsibility of those involved can never be known," wrote Robert K. Massie in his seminal biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. [133] The court physician diagnosed a stroke[133][134] and despite attempts to revive her, she fell into a coma. [134] An autopsy confirmed a stroke as the cause of death. [73] In 1779, she hired the Scottish architect Charles Cameron to build the Chinese Village at Tsarskoye Selo (modern Pushkin, Saint Petersburg). This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, subject matter, teacher conduct, and school administration. In 1785, Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing the power of the landed oligarchs. Besides her native German, Sophie became fluent in French, the lingua franca of European elites in the 18th century. This was one of the chief reasons behind rebellions, including Pugachev's Rebellion of Cossacks, nomads, peoples of the Volga, and peasants. Catherine's eldest sonand heirmay have been illegitimate. Her son Pavel later was inoculated as well. In her accession to power and her rule of the empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favourites, most notably Count Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as to accumulate wealth. Ollie Upton/Hulu. [86] She believed a 'new kind of person' could be created by inculcating Russian children with European education. While the nobility provided appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send their own children to private, prestigious institutions. Madame Vige Le Brun vividly describes the empress in her memoirs:[85], the sight of this famous woman so impressed me that I found it impossible to think of anything: I could only stare at her. The global trade of Russian natural resources and Russian grain provoked famines, starvation and fear of famines in Russia. 2. Book. Although German soldiers allegedly saw the cabinet during WWII, no visible proof of the furniture exists leading many historians to believe it's just another salacious fabrication. The monarch was succeeded by her son,. This was another attempt to organise and passively control the outer fringes of her country. [citation needed] Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it when public outcry became too disruptive. Its surprising that someone whos waging war with the Ottoman Empire and partitioning Poland and annexing the Crimea has time to make sketches for one of her palaces, but she was very hands on, says Jaques. . She believed in the . Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness. On 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning, designed and decorated by Antonio Rinaldi. [78] For information about particular nations that interested her, she read Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville's Memoirs de Chine to learn about the vast and wealthy Chinese empire that bordered her empire; Franois Baron de Tott's Memoires de les Turcs et les Tartares for information about the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean khanate; the books of Frederick the Great praising himself to learn about Frederick just as much as to learn about Prussia; and the pamphlets of Benjamin Franklin denouncing the British Crown to understand the reasons behind the American Revolution. The most famous of these rumors is that she died after having sex with her horse. Also, the townspeople tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical[clarification needed] methods. She later wrote that she stayed at one end of the castle, and Peter at the other.[10]. In 1780, Emperor Joseph II, the son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. For example, she took action to limit the number of new serfs; she eliminated many ways for people to become serfs, culminating in the manifesto of 17 March 1775, which prohibited a serf who had once been freed from becoming a serf again.[61]. Central to the institute's philosophy of pedagogy was strict enforcement of discipline. [106], Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. The male-dominated world in which Catherine lived and ruled made her an exception to the norm. Malecka, Anna. Catherine then left with the Ismailovsky Regiment to go to the Semenovsky Barracks, where the clergy was waiting to ordain her as the sole occupant of the Russian throne. She also established a commission composed of T.N. And so she used her lovers as a means to cement her power. [44] Another source of tension was the wave of Dzungar Mongol fugitives from the Chinese state who took refuge with the Russians. [31], Catherine agreed to a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1766, but stopped short of a full military alliance. She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov's child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. Historian Franois Cruzet writes that Russia under Catherine: had neither a free peasantry, nor a significant middle class, nor legal norms hospitable to private enterprise. She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution. He lauded her accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon, a subject on which he published a tragedy in 1768). The commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. The bonnet which held her white hair was not decorated with ribbons, but with the most beautiful diamonds. On the following day, the formal betrothal of Catherine and Peter took place and the long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 in Saint Petersburg. It's unclear if the murder was ordered by Catherine the Great, or carried out without her consent. Vaizemski's Office of State Revenue took centralised control and by 1781, the government possessed its first approximation of a state budget. [115], Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them to high positions for as long as they held her interest and then pensioning them off with gifts of serfs and large estates. Catherine II (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 - 17 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. Catherine held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart, and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia. Her male enemies created the legends that still reverberate around todays World Wide Web. In one portrait, hes managed to just somehow portray both sides of this compelling leader., Meilan Solly The imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. )This practice was not unusual by the court standards of the day . Peter was her second cousin. For example, serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs. Following the war and the defeat of Pugachev, Catherine laid the obligation to establish schools at the guberniya a provincial subdivision of the Russian empire ruled by a governor on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.[97]. While Peter was boorish [and] totally immature, says historian Janet Hartley, Catherine was an erudite lover of European culture. This commission was charged with organising a national school network, as well as providing teacher training and textbooks. [95], From 1768 to 1774, no progress was made in setting up a national school system. She found that piecemeal reform worked poorly because there was no overall view of a comprehensive state budget. [94] The girls who attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the Smolny buildings, within which they acquired a proficiency in French, music, and dancing, along with a complete awe of the monarch. He died at the age of 52 in 1791. Personal life narratives. [107] Judaism was a small, if not non-existent, religion in Russia until 1772. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III. She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young age. On the morning of 5 November 1796 . Awaking from her delirium, however, Sophie said, "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my Orthodox father [clergyman]". ]]> [19] In the first version of her memoirs, edited and published by Alexander Hertzen, Catherine strongly implied that the real father of her son Paul was not Peter, but rather Saltykov.[20]. But when he arrived at his palace and found it abandoned, he realized what had occurred. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility, who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. [32], Peter the Great had succeeded in gaining a toehold in the south, on the edge of the Black Sea, in the Azov campaigns. King Augustus III of Poland died in 1763, so Poland needed to elect a new ruler. At the time, it was widely assumed that Catherine was behind this, but historians aren't so sure."The circumstances and cause of death, and the intentions and degree of responsibility of those . Catherine became a great patron of Russian opera. Catherine was born in Stettin, Province of Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire, as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. By 1759, he and Catherine had become lovers; no one told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of theTerms and Conditions. According to her memoirs, Sophie was regarded as a tomboy, and trained herself to master a sword. She addressed me immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: "I am delighted to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. That is what the legend said. [8] The young Sophie received the standard education for an 18th-century German princess, with a concentration upon learning the etiquette expected of a lady, French, and Lutheran theology. However, because her second cousin Peter III converted to Orthodox Christianity, her mother's brother became the heir to the Swedish throne[4] and two of her first cousins, Gustav III and Charles XIII, later became Kings of Sweden. [102], In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that called themselves the Old Believers, Catherine passed an act that allowed Old Believers to practise their faith openly without interference. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. As Robert K. Massie writes in Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, [F]rom the beginning of her husbands reign, her position was one of isolation and humiliation. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of roubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland and Sweden, to counter the power of the BourbonHabsburg League. Adapted from his 2008 play of the same name, the ten-part miniseries is the brainchild of screenwriter Tony McNamara. They disliked the power she wielded over them as few other women in the world at that time could claim to have such authority. She levied additional taxes on the followers of Judaism; if a family converted to the Orthodox faith, that additional tax was lifted. [132], On 16 November[O.S. Posterity will never forgive me., Contrary to Catherines dire prediction, Peters death, while casting a pall over her rule, did not completely overshadow her legacy. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr John Brown. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Alexander Suvorov and Pyotr Rumyantsev, and admirals such as Samuel Greig and Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. May 14, 2020. And if you can't find enough dirt to your satisfaction, make stuff up. Your Privacy Rights She placed strictures on Catholics (ukaz of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland. The truth of the matter was Catherine couldnt trust the systematic bureaucracy in Russia nor the many noblemen installed by her husband before her. Legend has it Catherine was intimately involved with one of her prized stallions, with who she often spent a great deal of unsupervised time with. [131], Catherine's life and reign included many personal successes, but they ended in two failures. [46], Nicholas I, her grandson, evaluated the foreign policy of Catherine the Great as a dishonest one. Gustav Adolph felt pressured to accept that Alexandra would not convert to Lutheranism, and though he was delighted by the young lady, he refused to appear at the ball and left for Stockholm. Catherine kept her illegitimate son by Grigory Orlov (Alexis Bobrinsky, later elevated to Count Bobrinsky by Paul I) near Tula, away from her court. Her mother was Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The couples loveless marriage afforded Catherine ample opportunity to pursue her intellectual interests, from reading the work of Enlightenment thinkers to perfecting her grasp of Russian. Catherine the Great Builds a New Russia Catherine the Great, who died on this day, dragged Russia into the modern era while leading a life filled with political drama, sexual intrigue - and murder. She fell into a coma and died the next day whilst lying in her bed. Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they, under the new king Agha Mohammad Khan, had again invaded Georgia and established rule in 1795 and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus. Publicly, Catherine evinced an air of charm, wit and self-deprecation.