Profiles in Power Catherine the Great - Enlightened Ennpress?

Simon Henderson places a key figure into the context of modern Russian history.

Catherine in her teens with her fiance Peter Fedorovich. He became Emperor as Peter III in 1762 but died later that year, after Catherine's coup.

the relationship between the Empress and the Enlightenment, In 1847 the historian Wilhelm Roseler coined the term 'enlightened absolutism' to refer to the policies followed by certain European rulers from 1760 to 1790, including administrative centralisation, religious toleration and the subordination of the church to the state. The most prominent of these monarchs, Frederick II of Prussia, Joseph II of Austria and Catherine II of Russia, also held an interest in the philosophy and culture of the Enlightenment, and professed some degree of commitment to its values. The Empress belongs among these enlightened absolutists and, whilst she maintained that the Russian Empire needed autocratic rule in order to keep her strong and safe from external threat, she did not believe this rule had to be despotic. The 'enlightened', 'republican' image cultivated by Catherine was questioned by few in 18th-century Europe, Nor was the compatibility of this republicanism with absolute Isabel de Madariaga, Catherine's COIiUeiniiduuM. ll [b urily luLently that monarchy. The term 'republican' did greatest biographer, has written, historians have sought to resurrect her not carry the same democratic 'Since I first took Catherine seriously image, replacing contempt with connotations as it came to have after as a ruler, some forty years ago, I have praise and understanding. the French Revolution, Herein lies the grown to like her very much,' Yet heart of the matter, Catherine's ideals many historians have not allowed the Catherine and her Critics and policies were products of the 18th Empress to grow on them. She has Much of the debate concerning century; her pretensions to be elicited strong and passionate Catherine's reign has revolved around 'enlightened' were specific to Russia

14 History Review Match 100 S She was a dynamic, energetic, thoughtful monarch, sometimes generous, sometimes cruel, always vain, always tenacious, but with an unswerving commitment to modernising Russia.

at that time. Historians who have meanings, we should analyse supported by the Guards Regiment. concentrated great effort on Catherine's intentions and policies Cathenne was certainty relieved when, scrutinising how closely Catherine's and the constraints which she faced. It in 1764, she heard of the words matched her actions, how true is to be argued here that Catherine assassination of Ivan VI, who had been she was to the Enlightenment as the Great was indeed distinguished. deposed as an infant in 1741. It is not expressed by the ideas of philosophers She was a dynamic, energetic, surprising, given this context, that such as Voltaire, Diderot, and thoughtful monarch, sometimes Catherine actively cultivated a forceful Montesquieu, have rather missed the generous, sometimes cruel, always image of power; she needed to deflect point. The Enlightenment was not a vain, always tenacious, but with an attention from her questionable political manifesto and did not provide unswerving commitment to legitimacy. Yes, the Empress was vain, a blueprint for action, ln fact Diderot modernising Russia. but she was also very skilful. Her told Catherine that 'he did not like to correspondence with Voltaire, treat serious matters in a systematic Catherine's Coup Diderot, Grimm and others was part way'. Born in 1729, as Princess Sophia of of a public relations offensive in 19th-century Russian liberal Anhalt Zerbst, Catherine was the Europe. She consciously crafted the historians, such as Alexander Herzen, daughter of a minor German prince. In image of an enlightened mother of accused the Empress of seeking 1774 she married the grandson of Russia. She cruised down the Volga in merely power, not progress or an Peter I. The match was not a good 1767, constructed awe-inspiring improvement in social welfare. They one, and there were problems from celebrations following victory in war claimed that Catherine's professions the beginning. Peter was a most with the Turks, and emerged from of enlightenment were a mere sham, difficult and boonsh man, who once crowds in towns on her way to the adopted to present an attractive court-martialled a rat caught in his Crimea in 1787 with rouge covered facade to the West. Soviet historians wife's bedchamber and then executed cheeks from kissing the bourgeois labelled her a hypocrite, proclaiming It. it is not surprising that Catherine ladies. liberal and enlightened ideals on the found comfort in the arms of several Catherine the Great was a keen one hand but practising oppressive lovers, and it is still not known student of the presentations of power. despotism on the other. Her reign was whether her son, the future Tsar Paul, Her policies were wholly viewed as a defence of the ruling was fathered by Peter or Sergey understandable and were consistent class's interest and an oppression of Saltykov, Peter III ascended the throne with the projection of power in the the peasantry concealed by a following the death of Elizabeth in Russian court. Peter the Great had profession of concern for progress and 1761. He had little of the flair for used Roman imagery extensively enlightenment. It is claimed that the leadership that wouid be shown by his during his reign and replaced Tsar with Empress's reign saw the apogee of wife. the title 'imperator'. She used very serfdom, a stinging indictment for a Peter allowed his admiration for deliberate and powerful symbolism in ruler professing to be 'enlightened'. Prussian militarism to alienate the displaying a move towards greater Others have moved away from Guards Regiment when he snatched westernisation, the most visual and criticising the gap between the an unfavourable peace from the jaws striking example being St Petersburg. projected image and the policy reality, of victory over Prussia in 1762. He Cathenne's accession to power and and argued that in fact her words then alienated many with his overt her deliberate cultivation of a were not particularly 'enlightened' in disrespect for the Orthodox Church. In powerful and distinct imagery of rule the first instance. the spring of 1762 a whisper of can be seen as examples of continuity. Much of this criticism of Catherine change was heard in the corridors of In her 1762 coup she trod in the belongs to a period when her major power, and, led by the Oriov brothers, footsteps of many predecessors, internal reforms were viewed from the Catherine was proclaimed Empress painting herself as the enlightened perspective of liberal, populist or and received the support of a group of matriarch, just as Peter had been the Soviet historians, who were sceptical Guards Officers. Peter, absent at the dynamic westerniser. as to whether any good could have time of the coup, was arrested on his ever come from a Tsar. They were pre- return and, conveniently, died shortly Instructing the Nobility occupied with showing that Catherine afterwards. Given this context, Cathenne's Great was not an 'enlightened' ruler. Yet, This was certainly a murky episode, Instruction of 1767 emerges more rather than viewing Catherine as a yet it is characteristic of the politics of clearly. !t should be viewed as part of hypocrite and analysing the gap St Petersburg in the 18th century. an attempt by the Empress to cement between her words and actions from Peter the Great's decree in 1722 that her power; it was the product of her the perspective and ideals of a the Emperor was entitled to name his impressive reading and literary different era, with different values and successor, led to a series of coups expression, but also a statement of

History Review Match 200S 15 Yes, the Empress was vain, but she was also very skilful.

to conceal its desperate weakness' as well as to camouflage the actual power wielded by the nobles. For some historians, the reign of Catherine saw both a 'golden age' for the nobility and, consequently, the apogee of serfdom. It has been argued that the nobles erased what they pleased from Catherine's Instruction. Certainly the Empress's advisors recommended she remove some of her observations on serfdom. In 1907 the suppressed sections of Chapter XI were discovered, and revealed that Catherine had suggested that serfs should be entitled to purchase their freedom, or that servitude shouid be limited to a penod of six years. Some have interpreted this omission as early evidence of the Empress's reliance on the nobility. After all, here was a ruler who had come to power largely as a result of a conspiracy headed by leading noble This portrait illustrates Catherine recognised, therefore, that the families. Powerful nobles, already writing the Instruction, in which Instruction grew out of Catherine's relieved of the obligation to sen/e the she set out her principles for love of literature, and it was monarch by Peter III, were in no mood stylistically indebted to Montesquieu's governing Russia. to surrender their privileged place in L'Esprit des Lois. The Empress had no the social order. The Charter of the concrete plan of action, but she did Nobility of 1785 has been seen as a have a reforming impulse, and she veritable 'Bill of Rights' for the nobles, loved to read, write and inspire modernising intent. Deputies were to and, coming ten years after the debate. She was also conscious of the be elected to the Legislative Provincial Reforms, completed the need to solidify her position by Commission, which would be handover of power in the provinces to distancing herself from her dead composed of over 600 men drawn the landed nobility. from the nobility, state peasantry and husband, by instigating a move other social groups. The Instruction towards her own ideas for reform. But spells out Catherine's views on the what grew out of this reforming Catherine and the Serfs social, political, judicial and economic impulse? Clearly this interpretation of the issues in Russia and starts by Since at least the 16th century, the power relations in Russia under proclaiming that the nation is a constellation of power in Russia Catherine did not bode well for the European state. There was certainly revolved around the interlocking peasantry. Blum has argued that the considerable vanity and self- relationship between the Tsar, the Empress turned over 800,000 indulgence in the Instruction and church (until the late seventeenth peasants to private proprietors. The Catherine's contact with the century), the nobility, and the 1763 law limiting freedom of philisophes was central to the image peasantry. Any attempt at reform movement by requiring the peasant to of power which she consciously would necessarily be played out within get a permit from the landlord before projected, but her commitment to this complex socio-political construct, he could leave the property has been study and to intellectual debate was and it is with reference to these power cited as evidence that Catherine genuine. Unlike Frederick II, Catherine relationships that historians have enserfed peasants in the name of did her own writing, and she was criticised Catherine most severely. It fiscal expediency. The state, it is prolific. She also encouraged others to has been argued that after 1762 the argued, abandoned the peasant to read and think. Annual expenditure Russian monarchy became the virtual supervision by the nobility, so that the on books dunng Catherine's reign was prisoner of the nobility. According to Russian serf became barely 80,000 roubles, and she established a Richard Pipes, 'The trappings of distinguishable from a chattel slave. library for her palace staff. It must be imperial omnipotence served merely The death penalty was meted out by

16 History Review March 2005 Peter was a most difficult and boorish man, who once court-martialled a rat caught in his wife's bedchamber and then executed it.

serf owners under the guise of Empress eroded the methods by countryside. Catherine attempted to punishment: if the serf was not able to which people could be enserfed bring the rule of law to the provinces, withstand the blows of the lash, that (though the extension of the poll tax with boards of welfare and education, was not the master's fault. to the Ukraine in 1783 did result in the courts and police offices that were Certainly Catherine had to rely on expansion of serfdom). Catherine's partly staffed by elected members of the nobility to aid her in ruling Russia memoirs show her deep concern over the local nobility and urban and in supervising the provinces. This the treatment of the serfs and her population. Of course, much of the was especially so following the disappointment at the lack of support day-to-day administration of the Pugachev revolt of 1773-4. Claiming her initiatives received at the provinces was left to the nobility, and to be Peter III, Pugachev led the largest Legislative Commission. In 1767 it was their own interpretations of upheaval in Russia prior to the 1905 forbidden for foster parents to enserf Catherine's edicts. However, there and 1917 revolutions, and left a illegitimate children. In 1781 was a tentative move towards the 'spectre to haunt future generations enserfment of prisoners of war was creation of an educated bureaucracy. of landlords and officials'. The revolt prohibited and a law passed that saw The Empress herself worried about engulfed the whole basin of the marriage of a free man to a serf the lack of competent officials, but middle Volga, together with the Yaik woman emancipate the woman. some did exist, and they brought new Valley and the southern and central Catherine is known to have ideas of legality to the provinces. Urals. The insurgence was part of the investigated and then bought out Catherine therefore was keen to conflict between the rise of serfdom landowners who were reported to ill- foster greater education. Not only did and autocracy, but was also a sectional treat their serfs. Furthermore, taken as she love literature, she was a great conflict between the expanding centre a percentage of the population, the sponsor of the theatre and collector of and the receding frontier. Certainly proportion of the peasantry that were art. She moved to bring greater the Pugachev revolt emphasised the serfs remained the same between the education to her people. In 1786 the symbiotic relationship between beginning and end of her reign, and Russian Statute of National Education Catherine and the nobility. The nobles the number of legally free state was promulgated and attempted to looked to Cathenne for protection peasants increased. set up a national school system. against the raging rebellion, whilst Catherine was ahead of her time in Catherine declared herself the 'first Crossroads of Change decreeing that corporal punishment landowner' of Russia and relied on the In terms of the socio-political was not to be used in the schools, nobility to keep order. development of Russia, Catherine's though brutality to children Those who seek to defend reign is a crossroads of change. From continued. Importing an Austrian Catherine from her critics cite the the vantage point of Catherinian system implemented by Jankovic, she Pugachev revolt as evidence of the Russia we can look back to the did choose a school structure which great constraints faced by the solidification of the service state, and was non-disruptive to empire and built Empress, and show the mutual forward to the nse of the bureaucracy. on authority. However, by the reliance between Catherine and the The reign of the Empress both saw the standards of the 1780s Russian nobility as reason for her tentative apogee of serfdom and set in motion schools were undeniably modern and approach to social reform. Rather than the process that led to its destruction. advanced when compared with the seeing her as insincere in her concern Following the Pugachev revolt, rest of Europe. Catherine was also the for the peasantry, historians have Catherine set about reforming the founder of the first girls' school in recently highlighted what Catherine provinces. The provincial reforms of Russia, for the daughters of the did achieve, and what she might have 1775 were a calculated attempt to nobility and bourgeoisie. Catherine achieved had circumstances been bring greater co-ordination and was, therefore, responsible for the different. Catherine has been accused efficiency to the Russian provinces. By emergence of a provincial of making grants of settled estates as setting up local councils and government structure committed to rewards to servitors or favourites, thus assemblies and giving nobles who efficiency and the rule of law, which converting many state peasants into served the state a place in them, was cemented by the genesis of a new private serfs. In fact, her land grants Catherine bound the nobility to each education system. These reforms had were from territories annexed from other and the state. In some respects a slow but significant impact upon Poland after the three partitions, and the 1762 decision by Peter III to socio-political relations in Russia. she made very few grants from abolish compulsory state service saw What we see in the reign of Russian state peasants- the state emancipating itself from the Catherine is the beginning of the Catherine was well aware of, and nobility. The local assemblies ensured crumbling of the Petrine state, a criticised, the harsh conditions faced the nobles served a useful purpose process which was accelerated in the by serfs. Throughout her reign the rather than loafing around in the first half of the 19th century. In the

History Review Murth 200S 17 The Empress had no concrete plan of action, but she did have a reforming impulse, and she loved to read, write and inspire debate.

Catherinian period, and after, the continuity and gradual change for the peace of Kuchuk Kainardzhi of nobles' importance to the state Russia. The Empress herself played an 1774 brought with it not only the infrastructure was declining, and an active role in foreign affairs, just as she success of the independence of ever more powerful bureaucracy did in ali other spheres of government. Crimea but further Austrian and achieved dominance. In 1861 the serfs Indeed, despite reliance on a close Prussian interference in Poland. were emancipated. The group of advisers, she insisted on It is in her dealings with Poland and professionalised, 'enlightened' seeing every dispatch- Furthermore, in her response to the French bureaucrats were the dnving force the impressive image of authority that Revolution that many histonans have behind emancipation; the role of Catherine projected made a criticised Catherine, Those who wish Alexander )l was to give them their memorable and significant impact on to show the limits of Catherine's head, by denying serfdom a stay of visiting foreign envoys. She furthered 'enlightened' stance point to her execution. When we look beyond the the extent to which Russia was condemnation of the French distraction of weighing up how involved in European affairs, and rivals Revolution and to the partitions of genuine Catherine was in her were increasingly unable to deny this Poland, It is worth stating, however, approach to the relationship between influence. Even the French eventually that Russia was the last of the lord and peasant, we see a more accepted Cathenne's imperial titie in European powers to go to war with subtle phenomenon emerging. The 1772, France, While the other powers were Empress' reign was witness to the The Empress operated within the indeed fighting the French crossroads of a significant shift in this traditional constraints of foreign (unsuccessfully at this point) Catherine relationship, as the Petrine state relations, attempting to protect attempted to take advantage in began to dissolve- Russia's interests in the Baltic, Poland Poland, By 1795, the year before her Again, in foreign relations, we can and the Crimea- Intervention in Poland death, the third partition of Poland locate the Catherinian era on a line of in 1768 led to war with the Turks, and had been concluded, Catherine strengthened Russia's position at the expense of her traditional enemies, profiting in Poland whilst the Western powers played out their rivalries - rivalries which Catherine kept Russia out of.

Conclusion With the issue of Poland, we return to where we began, with the assessment of Catherine's great biographer. De Madariaga states that she finds the treatment of Poland and Stanislas Poniatowski unforgivable, 'The destruction of Poland was carried out with ruthlessnessand an undercurrent of raillery which is extremely unpleasant and Catherine's bullying of Stanislas himself was downright cruel.'

The Cake of Kings': this cartoon illustrates the plans being cooked up by Catherine and the monarchs of Austria (Joseph II) and Prussia (Frederick II) to partition Poland in 1772.

18 History Review March 2005 From the Catherinian era we can look back to the Petrine state and forward to its crumbling at the onslaught of bureaucratisation - and what is most interesting is the role played by Catherine in this process.

Yet what seems 'enlightened' in Issues to Debate Simon Henderson teaches one epoch may not in another, and o Was Catherine the Great's history at Teesdale questions of how 'enlightened' 'enlightenment' a sham? Comprehensive School in Catherine was are futile, Catherine o What roles did the nobility play Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. He herself believed that politics was during Catherine's rule? won the Guardian Award for founded on three words: o How important a figure was Outstanding New Teacher in 'circumstance, conjecture and Cathenne the Great in modern the North East and Cumbria in conjuncture'. It has been argued Russian history? 2003. above that we must see Catherine pnmarily in the context of developments in Russian history in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her patronage of the arts and sponsorship of education saw a continuing process of westernisation, and her relationship with the nobility saw the acceleration of the unravelling of the service state. From the Catherinian era we can look back to the Petnne state and forward to its crumbling at the onslaught of bureaucratisation - and what is most interesting is the role played by Catherine in this process.

Further Reading J, Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia (Princeton University Press, 1961) S, Dixon, Catherine the Great (Longman, 2001) A, Lentin, Enlightened Absolutism, 1760-1790 {A\/em, 1985) I- de Madariaga, 'Catherine the Great - A Personal View,' History Today. 51(11) (November 2001) and Catherine the Great: A Short History (Yale University Press, 2nd edn, 2002) M- Raeff (ed,) Catherine the Great - A Proffle (Macmillan, 1972} R. Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime (Penguin, 2nd edn,, 1995)

A portrait of an ageing Catherine the Great. She died in 1796, at the age of 67.

HistoryReview March 2005 19