Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes. This spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In the west, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, King Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. 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.[43]. 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. About. On 5 August 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was created. As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and experienced advisors, she refrained from immediately putting them into practice. Then, on December 22, General Suvarov captured the important fortress of Ismail at the mouth of the Danube. The commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. 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.[106]. Sophie recalled in her memoirs that as soon as she arrived in Russia, she fell ill with a pleuritis that almost killed her. [6][failed verification], Sophie's childhood was very uneventful apart from the duel. Sette, Alessandro. Catherine's decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. Catherine I (Russian: ... Peter had fought his entire life to clear up corruption in Russia. In the east, Russia started to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America. [48] In 1762, he unilaterally abrogated the Treaty of Kyakhta, which governed the caravan trade between the two empires. [34], Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–1781), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. 5 November] 1796, Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers; she told her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, that she had slept better than she had in a long time. She transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation. [134], After her affair with her lover and adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov and Nicholas Alexander Suk[135]). Catherine II[a] (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 in Szczecin – 17 November 1796[b]), most commonly known as Catherine the Great,[c] was Empress of All Russia from 1762 until 1796—the country's longest-ruling female leader. He was wounded and captured and the rebellion quickly collapsed. Cambridge University Press, (England), (1931), Reprint (1971). Her foreign policy lacked a long-term strategy and from the very start was characterized by a series of mistakes. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. "[7] Although Sophie was born a princess, her family had very little money. [109] Two years after the implementation of Catherine's program, a member of the National Commission inspected the institutions established. When Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland, the large new Jewish element was treated as a separate people, defined by their religion. In addition to the textbooks translated by the commission, teachers were provided with the "Guide to Teachers". Catherine created the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly to help regulate Muslim-populated regions as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of mullahs. However, military conscription and the economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and of private landowners intensified the exploitation of serf labour. But in fact they wrote a Constitution which could be used by Paul without a coup in the case of Catherine's disease/death and to display the ideas of the "Great Russian Revolution of 1762" in their opinion. ", James A. Duran, "The Reform of Financial Administration in Russia during the Reign of Catherine II.". However, usually, if the serfs did not like the policies of the tsar, they saw the nobles as corrupt and evil, preventing the people of Russia from communicating with the well-intentioned tsar and misinterpreting her decrees. Only when a new legal heir, the son of Catherine and Peter, had appeared to be strong and to survive, had Elizabeth allowed Catherine to have real sexual lovers because Elizabeth probably wanted to leave both Catherine and her accomplice Peter III without any rights for a Russian throne in revenge for the participation of the pair in military plots to crown Peter and Catherine. [citation needed]. [86] In the third category fell the work of Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, Ferdinando Galiani, Nicolas Baudeau and Sir William Blackstone. From 1788 to 1790, Russia fought a war against Sweden, a conflict instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden, who expected to simply overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks, and hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. Others represented the Viazemskii and Trubetskoi families. She seized territory from Poland and she did not die under a horse. [15] Catherine disparaged her husband as devoted to reading "Lutheran prayer-books, the other the history of and trial of some highway robbers who had been hanged or broken on the wheel". At stake was Swedish control of swathes of … Pre-eminent figures in Catherinian Russia include: Marriage, reign of Peter III, and coup d'état, Partitions of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Old Style Date: 21 April 1729 – 6 November 1796, "Despot" is not derogatory in this context. He was deposed by troops loyal to his wife, Catherine, the … in by H. M. Scott, ed., Roderick P. Thaler, "Catherine II's reaction to Radishchev. Shortly after the outbreak of war, 113 officers in the Finnish town of Anjala dispatched a letter to Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia calling for peace on the basis of the pre-1743 status quo—one favourable to Sweden. 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. Prince Vasily Dolgoruky advanced into the Crimea, conquering the peninsula. Dr. Brown argued, in a democratic country, education ought to be under the state's control and based on an education code. Finally Catherine annexed the Crimea in 1783. Catherine II of Russia With the ascent to throne of Tsarina Catherine II (1762), the Russian foreign policy experienced a fundamental change. Because the serfs had no political power, they rioted to convey their message. 2. Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordinance of 1782, and the Statute of National Education of 1786. The official cause, after an autopsy, was a severe attack of haemorrhoidal colic and an apoplexy stroke.[29]. The heavily outnumbered Poles, some 35,000 soldiers with 200 guns, defended their capital with great valor, repulsing two major assaults by the Russo- Prussian armies, whose combined strength totalled 100,000 soldiers and 250 guns. She refused from the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp which had ports on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and from having Russian army in Germany. She also established a commission composed of T.N. They submitted recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs. The Russians then backed revolts in Turkish-controlled Egypt and Greece. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman. By 1759, Catherine and he had become lovers; no one told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography, USA. [40][41], It was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be led by the seasoned general, Ivan Gudovich, but the empress followed the advice of her lover, Prince Zubov, and entrusted the command to his youthful brother, Count Valerian Zubov. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. [12] It was during this period that she first read Voltaire and the other philosophes of the French Enlightenment. It was a significant change in the balance of power. Taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians. [53], Catherine imposed a comprehensive system of state regulation of merchants' activities. The peace deal in 1791 let Turkey regain Belgrade but cede control of other parts of the Balkans. Although she could see the benefits of Britain's friendship, she was wary of Britain's increased power following its victory in the Seven Years' War, which threatened the European balance of power. She provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. [79] She ordered the planting of the first "English garden" at Tsarskoye Selo in May 1770. ", A. Lentin, "Catherine the Great and Denis Diderot". Russia at the time was ruled by Peter's mother, the empress Elizabeth. The ultimate goal for the Russian government, however, was to topple the anti-Russian shah (king), and to replace him with a half-brother, Morteza Qoli Khan, who had defected to Russia and was therefore pro-Russian. Apparently this had been overlooked by Catherine, who was fond of both. [117] Judaism was a small, if not non-existent, religion in Russia until 1772. When Sophie's situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran pastor. Besides her native German, Sophie became fluent in French, the lingua franca of European elites in the 18th century. [125], 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. At the naval Battle of Chesme, fought off the Mediterranean coast of Turkey on July 6, 1770, a Russian force led by Admiral Aleksei Orlov overwhelmed a Turkish fleet. At first, she simply attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. [104], From 1768 to 1774, no progress was made in setting up a national school system. The use of these notes continued until 1849. [47], The Qianlong emperor of China was committed to an expansionist policy in Central Asia and saw the Russian empire as a potential rival, making for difficult and unfriendly relations between Beijing and Saint Petersburg. Russian economic development was well below the standards in western Europe. [98] In 1764, she sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to the educational commission. Catherine separated the Jews from Orthodox society, restricting them to the Pale of Settlement. [105] However, Catherine continued to investigate the pedagogical principles and practice of other countries and made many other educational reforms, including an overhaul of the Cadet Corps in 1766. 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. Her goal was to modernize education across Russia. [81] The Chinese Palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi who specialised in the chinoiserie style. [101] The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. In Anjala League. Isabel de Madriaga, “Catherine II and the Serfs: A Reconsideration of Some Problems”, M. B. W. Trent, "Catherine the Great Invites Euler to Return to St. At the time of Peter III's overthrow, other potential rivals for the throne included Ivan VI (1740–1764), who had been confined at Schlüsselburg in Lake Ladoga from the age of six months, and was thought to be insane. The victory was short-lived, however. The rebellion ultimately failed and in fact backfired as Catherine was pushed away from the idea of serf liberation following the violent uprising. Even before the reign of Catherine, Russia was involved in several wars, including the Northern War and the War of the Austrian Succession. The Commonwealth had become the Russian protectorate since the reign of Peter I, but he did not intervene into the problem of political freedoms of dissidents advocating for their religious freedoms only. The peace lasted for 14 years. [85] She especially liked the work of German comic writers such as Moritz August von Thümmel and Christoph Friedrich Nicolai. However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith. Incredibly, at the beginning of September, the siege was broken by the Poles. In the 1730s, though, the Ottomans retook Belgrade and defeated Russian encroachments in the Crimea. She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution. Isabel De Madariaga, "Catherine the Great." 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. The SEVEN YEARS WAR, in which Russia at first had been an Austrian ally, was still going on; yet her late husband had switched sides and Prussia's king Frederick the Great had, using the Russian army, defeated the Austrians one last time. She acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and placed them in the National Library of Russia. 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. [76] Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real tsar should, helping the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very conservative values, to his cause. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started: The church's lands were expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the College of Economy. Kosciusko’s poorly armed forces were soon forced back to Warsaw, which was besieged in late August. He accepted annexation in exchange for safety and on April 8, 1783, Catherine the Great signed the decree that declared Russia’s annexation of Crimea. [149][150] According to Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: "The empress's body lay in state for six weeks in a large and magnificently decorated room in the castle, which was kept lit day and night. After Peter took a mistress, Catherine became involved with other prominent court figures. [78] By 1790, the Hermitage was home to 38,000 books, 10,000 gems and 10,000 drawings. Sergei Saltykov was used to make Peter jealous and relations with Saltykov were platonic ones. [26][27] On 17 July 1762—eight days after the coup that amazed the outside world[28] and just six months after his accession to the throne—Peter III died at Ropsha, possibly at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Grigory Orlov, then a court favourite and a participant in the coup). She avoided force and tried persuasion (and money) to integrate Moslem areas into her empire. [66] Some serfs did apply for freedom and were successful. General Alexander Suvarov then tackled the Turks at Shulma in June 1774 and won a famous victory. [123] This re-established the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia throughout the Jewish Haskalah. [127] While claiming religious tolerance, she intended to recall the believers into the official church. Under Catherine's rule, despite her enlightened ideals, the serfs were generally unhappy and discontented. By 1790, Europe was a continent in which there was great expertise in the conduct of warfare, and whose technology and organization for war was superior to those of any other societies in the world. [4] He tried to become the duke of Duchy of Courland and Semigallia but in vain 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. ", Brenda Meehan-Waters, "Catherine the Great and the problem of female rule. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people who wandered through southern Russia. Far away from the capital, they were confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the throne.[74]. Under her reign, Russia grew larger, its culture was revitalised, and it was recognized as one of the great powers worldwide. Willem Mons and his sister Matrena had begun selling their influence to those who wanted access to Catherine and, through her, to Peter. 2, part 2, Chapter 3, V]. In 1757, Poniatowski served in the British Army during the Seven Years' War, thus severing close relationships with Catherine. [126] While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat. Catherine the Great also had the large but weakly ruled state of Poland in her sights. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split 52,000 km2 (20,000 sq mi) among them. [65] Some serfs were able to use their new status to their advantage. She lost the large territories of the Russian protectorate of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania and left its territories to Prussia and Austria. The choice of Princess Sophie as wife of the future tsar was one result of the Lopukhina Conspiracy in which Count Lestocq and Prussian king Frederick the Great took an active part. Her Swedish cousin (once removed), King Gustav IV Adolph, visited her in September 1796, the empress's intention being that her granddaughter Alexandra should become queen of Sweden by marriage. The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era,[1] is considered a Golden Age of Russia. The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruction of 1767 in the English Text of 1768". This allowed the Russian government to control more people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of Russian law. The emergence of these assignation rubles 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). Her original name was Marta Skowronska, and it is not an exaggeration to say her fate was one that so many young girls of every epoch desperately desired – to marry a prince and have a wealthy and a happy life. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. Over the period from 1792 to 1815, this expertise was to be heightened even further, as the conduct of war took a very new turn under one of the greatest commanders in history Napoleon Bonaparte. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 in Saint Petersburg. The bridegroom, known as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of present-day[update] Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739. Cavalry forces, such as Polish lancers or hussars, Cossacks from the steppes of southern Russia, or the spahis of the Ottomans, were often crucial during campaigns, whereas they played a more peripheral role in western Europe. [44], In 1764, Catherine placed Stanisław August Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne. The origin of Paul I//The history of Gatchina, "Coronation of the Empress Catherine II [Описание коронации, миропомазания и причащения императрицы Екатерины II-й]", "Slave Trade in the Early Modern Crimea From the Perspective of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources", https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/XXXVI.2.185, "Naive Monarchism and Rural Resistance In Contemporary Russia", "How Catherine the Great Shook up Europe's Male Power Structure", "Alexander the Great vs Ivan the Terrible", Some of the code of laws mentioned above, along with other information, Manifesto of the Empress Catherine II, inviting foreign immigration, Historical Myths: The Death of Catherine the Great, Family tree of the ancestors of Catherine the Great, http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/Catherine.html, Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Catherine Alexeievna (Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst), Natalia Alexeievna (Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt), Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg), Anna Feodorovna (Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld), Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia), Elena Pavlovna (Charlotte of Württemberg), Alexandra Iosifovna (Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg), Maria Pavlovna (Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin), Elizabeth Feodorovna (Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine), Alexandra Georgievna (Alexandra of Greece and Denmark), Elizaveta Mavrikievna (Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg), Anastasia Nikolaevna (Anastasia of Montenegro), Militza Nikolaevna of Montenegro (Milica of Montenegro), Maria Georgievna (Maria of Greece and Denmark), Viktoria Feodorovna (Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Catherine_the_Great&oldid=1002474336, Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Lutheranism, Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Order of St. George of the First Degree, People of the War of the Bavarian Succession, Mistresses of Stanisław August Poniatowski, Articles containing Russian-language text, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from May 2020, Articles lacking reliable references from November 2018, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text, Articles with failed verification from November 2020, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2008, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2009, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020, Articles with Russian-language sources (ru), Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, According to court gossip, this lost pregnancy was attributed to. Russo-Swedish War (1741–43) Also known as the Hats' Russian War. Learn how your comment data is processed. On 21 June the fleet met a Russian squadron off Saaremaaisland and after chasing the Russians down tried to provoke a conflict by demanding Russians render honors to the Swedes from which Russians had been exempted in the previous peace treaties. [8][9] The more than 300 sovereign entities of the Holy Roman Empire, many of them quite small and powerless, made for a highly competitive political system as the various princely families fought for advantage over each other, often via political marriages. Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the partitions of Poland. [86] Catherine expressed some frustration with the economists she read for what she regarded as their impractical theories, writing in the margin of one of Necker's books that if it was possible to solve all of the state's economic problems in one day, she would have done so a long time ago. ", Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter, “Legal Identity and the Possession of Serfs in Imperial Russia,”. [42], By mid-June 1796, Zubov's troops overran without any resistance most of the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan, including three principal cities—Baku, Shemakha, and Ganja. But great women aren’t born, they’re made…and Catherine quickly showed how far she’d go for power. In 1794 Polish nationalists, commanded by Thaddeus Kosciusko, began to rebel against the dismemberment of their country. 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