Years of reign: 1762-1796
1. For the first time since Peter I reformed the public administration system. Culturally Russia finally became one of the great European powers. Catherine patronized various areas of art: under her, the Hermitage and the Public Library appeared in St. Petersburg.
2. Spent administrative reform , which determined the territorial structure of the country right up to before 1917. She formed 29 new provinces and built about 144 cities.
3. Increased the territory of the state by annexing the southern lands - Crimea, Black Sea region and eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In terms of population, Russia became the largest European country: it accounted for 20% of the European population
4. Brought Russia to first place in the world in iron smelting. By the end of the 18th century, there were 1,200 large enterprises in the country (in 1767 there were only 663).
5. Strengthened Russia's role in the global economy: export volume increased from 13.9 million rubles in 1760 to 39.6 million rubles in 1790. Sailing linen, cast iron, iron, and bread were exported in large quantities. The volume of timber exports increased fivefold.
6. Under Catherine II of Russia The Academy of Sciences has become one of the leading scientific bases in Europe. The Empress paid special attention to the development of women's education: in 1764, the first in Russia were opened educational establishments for girls - the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and the Educational Society for Noble Maidens.
7. Organized new credit institutions - a state bank and a loan office, and also expanded the range of banking operations (since 1770, banks began to accept deposits for storage) and for the first time established the issuance of paper money - banknotes.
8. Gave the fight against epidemics the character of state measures. Having introduced compulsory smallpox vaccination, she decided to set a personal example for her subjects: in 1768, the empress herself was vaccinated against smallpox.
9. She supported Buddhism by establishing the post of Hambo Lama in 1764 - the head of Buddhists in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. The Buryat lamas recognized Catherine II as the incarnation of the main goddess White Tara and since then swore allegiance to all Russian rulers.
10 Belonged to those few monarchs who communicated intensively with their subjects by drawing up manifestos, instructions and laws. She had the talent of a writer, leaving behind a large collection of works: notes, translations, fables, fairy tales, comedies and essays.
Catherine the Great is one of the most extraordinary women in world history. Her life is a rare example of self-education through deep education and strict discipline.
The empress rightfully earned the epithet “Great”: the Russian people called her, a German and a foreigner, “her own mother.” And historians almost unanimously decided that if Peter I wanted to instill in Russia everything German, then the German Catherine dreamed of reviving Russian traditions. And in many ways she did this very successfully.
The long reign of Catherine is the only period of transformation in Russian history about which one cannot say “the forest is being cut down, the chips are flying.” The population of the country doubled, while there was practically no censorship, torture was prohibited, elected bodies of class self-government were created... The “steady hand” that the Russian people supposedly needed so much was of no use at all this time.
Princess Sofia
The future Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, nee Sophia Frederica Augusta, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, was born on April 21, 1729 in the unknown Stettin (Prussia). His father, the unremarkable Prince Christian August, made a good career thanks to his devotion to the Prussian king: regiment commander, commandant of Stettin, governor. Constantly busy in the service, he became for Sofia an example of conscientious service in the public sphere.
Sofia was educated at home: she studied German and French, dance, music, the basics of history, geography, and theology. Her independent character and perseverance were evident in early childhood. In 1744, together with her mother, she was summoned to Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Here she, previously a Lutheran, was accepted into Orthodoxy under the name Ekaterina (this name, like the patronymic Alekseevna, was given to her in honor of Elizabeth’s mother, Catherine I) and was named the bride of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (the future Emperor Peter III), with whom the princess married in 1745.
Uma ward
Catherine set herself the goal of winning the favor of the empress, her husband and the Russian people. From the very beginning personal life Things were not going well, but the Grand Duchess decided that she always liked the Russian crown more than her groom, and turned to reading works on history, law and economics. She was absorbed in studying the works of French encyclopedists and already at that time she was intellectually superior to everyone around her.
Catherine truly became a patriot of her new homeland: she scrupulously observed the rituals Orthodox Church, tried to return the Russian national costume to court use, and diligently studied the Russian language. She even studied at night and once became dangerously ill from overwork. The Grand Duchess wrote: “Those who succeeded in Russia could be confident of success throughout Europe. Nowhere, as in Russia, are there such masters at noticing the weaknesses or shortcomings of a foreigner; you can be sure that nothing will be missed for him.”
The communication between the Grand Duke and the princess demonstrated the radical difference in their characters: Peter’s infantility was opposed by Catherine’s active, purposeful and ambitious nature. She began to fear for her fate if her husband came to power and began to recruit supporters at court. Catherine's ostentatious piety, prudence and sincere love for Russia contrasted sharply with Peter's behavior, which allowed her to gain authority both among high society and among the ordinary population of St. Petersburg.
Double grip
Having ascended the throne after the death of his mother, Emperor Peter III, during his six-month reign, managed to turn the nobility against himself to such an extent that he himself opened the path to power for his wife. As soon as he ascended the throne, he concluded an unfavorable agreement with Prussia for Russia, announced the seizure of the property of the Russian Church and the abolition of monastic land ownership. Supporters of the coup accused Peter III of ignorance, dementia and complete inability to govern the state. A well-read, pious and benevolent wife looked favorably against his background.
When Catherine’s relationship with her husband became hostile, the twenty-year-old Grand Duchess decided to “perish or reign.” Having carefully prepared a conspiracy, she secretly arrived in St. Petersburg and was proclaimed an autocratic empress in the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment. The rebels were joined by soldiers from other regiments, who unquestioningly swore allegiance to her. The news of Catherine's accession to the throne quickly spread throughout the city and was greeted with delight by St. Petersburg residents. Over 14,000 people surrounded the palace, welcoming the new ruler.
The foreigner Catherine had no rights to power, but the “revolution” she committed was presented as a national liberation one. She correctly grasped the critical moment in her husband’s behavior - his contempt for the country and Orthodoxy. As a result, the grandson of Peter the Great was considered more German than the purebred German Catherine. And this is the result of it own efforts: in the eyes of society, she managed to change her national identity and received the right to “liberate the fatherland” from the foreign yoke.
M.V. Lomonosov about Catherine the Great: “On the throne is a woman - a chamber of wisdom.”
Having learned about what had happened, Peter began to send proposals for negotiations, but they were all rejected. Catherine herself, at the head of the guards regiments, came out to meet him and on the way received the emperor’s written abdication of the throne. The long 34-year reign of Catherine II began with a solemn coronation in Moscow on September 22, 1762. In essence, she committed a double takeover: she took power away from her husband and did not transfer it to the natural heir, her son.
The era of Catherine the Great
Catherine ascended the throne with a specific political program based on the ideas of the Enlightenment and at the same time taking into account the peculiarities of the historical development of Russia. Already in the first years of her reign, the Empress carried out a reform of the Senate, which made the work of this institution more efficient, and carried out the secularization of church lands, which replenished the state treasury. At the same time, a number of new educational institutions were founded, including the first educational institutions for women in Russia.
Catherine II was an excellent judge of people; she skillfully selected assistants for herself, not being afraid of bright and talented personalities. That is why her time was marked by the appearance of a galaxy of outstanding statesmen, generals, writers, artists and musicians. During this period there were no noisy resignations, none of the nobles fell into disgrace - that is why Catherine’s reign is called the “golden age” of the Russian nobility. At the same time, the empress was very vain and valued her power more than anything else. For her sake, she was ready to make any compromises to the detriment of her beliefs.
Catherine was distinguished by ostentatious piety; she considered herself the head and defender of the Russian Orthodox Church and skillfully used religion for political interests.
After the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and the suppression of the uprising led by Emelyan Pugachev, the empress independently developed key legislative acts. The most important of them were letters of grant to the nobility and cities. Their main significance is associated with the implementation of the strategic goal of Catherine’s reforms - the creation in Russia of full-fledged estates of the Western European type.
Autocracy in the struggle for the future
Catherine was the first Russian monarch who saw in people individuals with their own opinions, character and emotions. She willingly acknowledged their right to make mistakes. From the distant skies of autocracy, Catherine saw the man below and turned him into the measure of her policy - an incredible somersault for Russian despotism. The philanthropy that she made fashionable would later become main feature high XIX culture century.
Catherine demanded naturalness from her subjects, and therefore easily, with a smile and self-irony, she eliminated any hierarchy. It is known that she, being greedy for flattery, calmly accepted criticism. For example, her secretary of state and the first major Russian poet Derzhavin often argued with the empress on administrative issues. One day their discussion became so heated that the empress invited her other secretary: “Sit here, Vasily Stepanovich. This gentleman, it seems to me, wants to kill me.” His harshness had no consequences for Derzhavin.
One of his contemporaries figuratively described the essence of Catherine’s reign as follows: “Peter the Great created people in Russia, but Catherine II invested souls in them.”
I can’t even believe that behind this beauty were two Russian-Turkish wars, the annexation of Crimea and the creation of Novorossiya, the construction of the Black Sea Fleet, three partitions of Poland, which brought Russia Belarus, Western Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland, the war with Persia, the annexation of Georgia and the conquest of the future Azerbaijan , the suppression of the Pugachev rebellion, the war with Sweden, as well as numerous laws that Catherine personally worked on. In total, she issued 5,798 acts, that is, an average of 12 laws per month. Her pedantry and hard work were described in detail by her contemporaries.
Femininity revolution
In Russian history, only Ivan III (43 years) and Ivan IV the Terrible (37 years) ruled longer than Catherine II. More than three decades of her rule are almost equal to half of the Soviet period, and it is impossible to ignore this circumstance. Therefore, Catherine has always occupied a special place in the mass historical consciousness. However, the attitude towards her was ambiguous: German blood, the murder of her husband, numerous novels, Voltairianism - all this prevented selfless admiration of the empress.
Catherine was the first Russian monarch who saw in people individuals with their own opinions, character and emotions. From the distant skies of autocracy, she saw the man below and turned him into the measure of her policy - an incredible somersault for Russian despotism
Soviet historiography added class cuffs to Catherine: she became a “cruel serfdom” and a despot. It got to the point that only Peter was allowed to stay among the “Great Ones,” and she was pointedly called “the Second.” The empress's undoubted victories, which brought Crimea, Novorossiya, Poland and part of Transcaucasia to Russia, were largely usurped by her military leaders, who, in the struggle for national interests, allegedly heroically overcame the machinations of the court.
However, the fact that in the public consciousness the personal life of the empress overshadowed her political activities indicates that her descendants were searching for psychological compensation. After all, Catherine violated one of the oldest social hierarchies - the superiority of men over women. Its stunning successes, and especially military ones, caused bewilderment, bordering on irritation, and needed some kind of “but”. Catherine gave reason for anger by the fact that, contrary to the existing order, she chose men for herself. The Empress refused to take for granted not only her nationality: she also tried to overcome the boundaries of her own gender, seizing typically male territory.
Manage passions
All her life, Catherine learned to cope with her feelings and ardent temperament. A long life in a foreign land taught her not to give in to circumstances, to always remain calm and consistent in her actions. Later in her memoirs, the empress would write: “I came to Russia, a country completely unknown to me, not knowing what would happen ahead. Everyone looked at me with annoyance and even contempt: the daughter of a Prussian major general is going to be the Russian empress!” Nevertheless, Catherine’s main goal always remained the love of Russia, which, as she admitted, “is not a country, but the Universe.”
The ability to plan a day, not deviate from what is planned, not succumb to blues or laziness and at the same time treat your body rationally could be attributed to German upbringing. However, it seems that the reason for this behavior is deeper: Catherine subordinated her life to the ultimate task - to justify her own stay on the throne. Klyuchevsky noted that approval meant the same to Catherine as “applause for a debutant.” The desire for glory was for the empress a way to actually prove to the world the virtue of her intentions. Such life motivation certainly turned her into self-made.
The fact that in the public consciousness the personal life of the empress overshadowed her political activities indicates the search by her descendants for psychological compensation. After all, Catherine violated one of the oldest social hierarchies - the superiority of men over women
For the sake of the goal - to rule the country - Catherine without regrets overcame a lot of givens: her German origin, her religious affiliation, the notorious weakness of the female sex, and the monarchical principle of inheritance, which they dared to remind her almost to her face. In a word, Catherine decisively went beyond the limits of those constants that those around her tried to place her in, and with all her successes she proved that “happiness is not as blind as it is imagined.”
The thirst for knowledge and increasing experience did not kill the woman in her; in addition, until her last years, Catherine continued to behave actively and energetically. Even in her youth, the future empress wrote in her diary: “You need to create yourself, your own character.” She coped with this task brilliantly, basing her life trajectory on knowledge, determination and self-control. She was often compared and continues to be compared with Peter I, but if he, in order to “Europeanize” the country, made violent changes to the Russian way of life, then she meekly finished what she started with her idol. One of his contemporaries figuratively described the essence of Catherine’s reign as follows: “Peter the Great created people in Russia, but Catherine II put souls into them.”
text Marina Kvash
Source tmnWoman #2/4 | autumn | 2014
Personal life of Catherine II
At the age of 15, Pyotr Ulrich arrived in Russia. Here he formally accepted Orthodox faith and became Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. Even Elizabeth, who was not distinguished by her education, was amazed at her nephew’s meager knowledge. Therefore, they began to teach him again, now in the Russian and Orthodox manner. For this purpose, the teacher of Pyotr Fedorovich was appointed professor of “eloquence and poetry”, head of the art department of the Academy of Sciences, Jacob Shtelin. But all the efforts of the teacher did not produce any positive results. Pyotr Fedorovich spent time playing with soldiers, taking his toy soldiers to parade parades and on guard duty; He became addicted to wine and German beer early on. To bring the heir to reason, Elizabeth decided to marry him. On the issue of choosing a bride for the Grand Duke, the opinions of Russian courtiers were divided. Bestuzhev and his supporters wanted to marry Pyotr Fedorovich to the Princess of Saxony, daughter of King Augustus NI. Chief Marshal Krümmer, Lestocq and other friends of the French ambassador Schetardi intended one of the daughters of the French king to marry the Russian heir. But Elizabeth rejected these options and chose for her nephew a person who was not so noble and rich - Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, born in 1729 and named Sophia Augusta Frederica in honor of her grandmothers. And her parents simply called her Fix. Her mother, Johanna Elisabeth Holstein-Gottorp, was married to 42-year-old Major General Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1727 as a 15-year-old girl. He was the commander of the 8th Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment in the city of Stettin (Pomerania). In the summer of 1742, Frederick II appointed him governor of Stettin and awarded him the rank of lieutenant general. Somewhat later, Christian became duke and co-ruler of Zerbst. On January 1, 1744, Duchess Johanna Elisabeth Fante received a letter from St. Petersburg. It was addressed to them by Krümmer on behalf of Empress Elizabeth I and contained her highest invitation to come to Russia. The matchmaking of the Russian court had important legal significance for Prussia, so its ambassador in St. Petersburg, Lardefeld, promptly informed his king of Elizabeth’s intentions. Frederick 2 welcomed, of course, the upcoming marriage of Fix with the heir to the Russian throne, hoping in the future to have his own agents in St. Petersburg in the person of the “young court”. He wanted to personally talk with the bride, invited her and her mother to Berlin for a private dinner, during which he became convinced that 15-year-old Fix was noticeably smarter than her mother.
After a meeting with the king, the duchess and her daughter, under the name of Countess Rhinebeck, went to distant, snow-covered Russia; On February 5 they reached Mitava (Jelgava), then on their way were Riga, St. Petersburg, and finally on the evening of February 9 they arrived in Moscow at the Annenhof Palace, which in those days temporarily housed Elizabeth's court. From this evening a new page began in the life of the previously little-known girl Fix from the German city of Stettin.
In contrast to her future husband, Fix, from the very first days of her stay in Russia, with enviable persistence and rare diligence, took up the study of the Russian language and Russian customs. With the help of an adjunct and translator at the Academy of Sciences, Vasily Adadurov, she very quickly achieved noticeable success. Already at the end of June in church, during her conversion to the Orthodox faith, she clearly pronounced her confession in pure Russian. Which really surprised everyone present. The Empress even shed tears. Another task, which the young German woman quite consciously solved at that time, was to please both Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, and Empress Elizabeth, and all Russian people.
Later Catherine II recalled: “... truly, I did not neglect anything to achieve this: obsequiousness, obedience, respect, the desire to please, the desire to do what is right, sincere affection, everything on my part was constantly used for this from GM4 to 1761.” .
Having converted to Orthodoxy on June 28, Sh.A., the next day Fike was engaged to Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. After this, she received the title of Grand Duchess and a new name - Ekaterina Alekseevna.
In December 1741, on the way from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Pyotr Fedorovich fell ill with smallpox and lay seriously ill in Khotilov until February. Smallpox disfigured his face. He grew noticeably, but his intelligence remained at the same level, and his childish amusements too.
Finally, the most important day for Ekaterina Alekseevna arrived - the day of her wedding to Pyotr Fedorovich. It took place on August 21 in the capital. Everything was according to Russian custom: the bride’s rich outfit with precious jewelry, the ceremonial service in the Kazan Church, the ceremonial dinner in the gallery of the Winter Palace, and a luxurious ball.
It’s not enough to call Catherine’s marriage unsuccessful or unhappy - it was humiliating and insulting for her as a woman. On his first wedding night, Peter shirked his marital duties, and the subsequent ones were the same. Later, Catherine testified: “... and in this situation the matter remained for nine years without the slightest change.”
Before the wedding, Catherine still hoped for something. She wrote about her attitude towards Peter the groom: “... I can’t say that I liked him or didn’t like him; I only knew how to obey. My mother’s job was to marry me off. But, in truth, I think that the Russian crown is greater I liked him more than his person. He was 16 years old at the time... he talked to me about toys and soldiers, with which he was busy from morning to evening. I listened to him out of politeness and to please him... but we never spoke between myself in the language of love: it wasn’t for me to start this conversation...” The relationship between the young spouses did not work out. Catherine finally realized that her husband would always be a stranger to her. And she thought about him now differently: “... I had a cruel thought for him in the very first days of my marriage. I said to myself: if you love this man, you will be the most unhappy creature on earth... this man hardly looks at you, he talks only about dolls and pays more attention to every other woman than to you; you are too proud to make a fuss about it, therefore... think about yourself, madam" Not every woman in this musty atmosphere of court intrigue, she could rise above her surroundings, always behave outwardly with dignity and think only about herself, about the still completely unclear prospect that awaited her in the future. And only the combination of an extraordinary mind, a strong will beyond her years, considerable courage and, of course, cunning, hypocrisy, unlimited ambition and vanity helped Catherine for 18 years to wage a hidden struggle for her place at the Russian court and, in the end, achieve the coveted crown empress.
After the wedding, Ekaterina Alekseevna’s mother left Russia, and she remained completely alone among the Russians. But this did not upset her; she and her mother had never been spiritually close people. To top it off, the mother’s rash actions only prevented her daughter from maintaining an unblemished good name at court. Most of all, Ekaterina Alekseevna sought the empress’s favor. Despite all the efforts of the Grand Duchess to always please her in everything, the relationship between them was uneven, far from friendly, and sometimes even tense. True, Elizabeth did not skimp on gifts. Before the engagement, Ekaterina Alekseevna received a necklace worth 150 thousand rubles. She was assigned a maintenance of 30 thousand rubles for small expenses.
The Empress very soon realized that she was too hasty in declaring Peter Fedorovich heir to the throne. The behavior of her mediocre nephew often irritated her. Not knowing how to get out of this awkward situation, she involuntarily transferred her dissatisfaction with the heir to the throne to his wife. She was accused of indifference to her husband, that she could not or did not want to influence him in a good way, to captivate him with her feminine charms. Finally, the empress demanded an heir from the young people. But it has not yet been foreseen.
We should not forget that the life of the “young court” took place before the eyes of the servants whom Elizabeth herself appointed. In particular, in 1746, the lady of state, Maria Semyonovna Choglokova, who was especially devoted to the Empress, was assigned to the Grand Duchess as her Chief Chamberlain. This evil and capricious woman, according to Catherine, spied on her and reported everything to Elizabeth. For Peter Fedorovich, the Empress also replaced Chamberlain Krümmer with Prince Vasily Anikitich Repnin, and then, in 1747, with Chamberlain Nikolai Naumovich Choglokov, the husband of Maria Semyonovna. Due to their limitations, the Choglokov couple could not contribute to the rapprochement between the Grand Duchess and the Empress; on the contrary, they introduced excessive wariness and mistrust into their relationship. And apparently, Ekaterina Alekseevna had reason to write: “... it seemed to me that she (Elizabeth. Deg.) was always dissatisfied with me, since it happened very rarely that she did me the honor of entering into a conversation; however, at least and we lived in the same house, and our chambers touched both in the Winter and in the Summer Palace, but we did not see her for whole months, and often more. We did not dare to appear in her chambers without a call, and we were almost never called. We were often scolded on behalf of Her Majesty for such trifles, about which one could not even suspect that they could anger the Empress. For this purpose, she sent not only the Choglokovs to us, but it often happened that she sent a maid, a visiting guest, or someone else to us. "In this way, convey to us not only extremely unpleasant things, but even harsh words tantamount to gross insults. At the same time, it was impossible to be more careful than I was in the depths of my soul, so as not to violate the respect and obedience due to Her Majesty."
At the age of 18, Catherine developed into a beautiful and physically strong woman. The flattery of many around her began to make her head spin pleasantly. To give vent to her youthful energy, she spent a lot of time hunting, boating and dashingly riding a horse. It was not difficult for her to spend the whole day in the saddle, and she sat in it equally beautifully and firmly both in English (as befits a noble aristocrat) and in Tatar (as is customary among real cavalrymen). Her body was well accustomed to the climate of St. Petersburg, and she now radiated health and feminine dignity, while deeply hiding her offended pride and her secret thoughts.
And the Grand Duke continued to play with dolls and study with a detachment of Holstein soldiers, whom he specially called to Russia, which turned all the Russians against him. He placed these Holsteins in Prussian uniform in a special camp in Oranienbaum, where he himself often disappeared, endlessly and without any particular need constructing and setting up guards. Family life still interested him little. And therefore, the French attaché Count d'Allion reported to Versailles: “The Grand Duke still cannot prove to his wife that he is a man.”
Elizaveta Petrovna was tired of waiting for the Grand Duke to become a capable husband, and she found it possible to solve the problem of the heir without his participation. For these purposes, two young men were assigned to the court of the Grand Duchess - Sergei Saltykov and Lev Naryshkin. Saltykov was 26 years old; he had been legally married to one of the court ladies-in-waiting for two years. According to Ekaterina Alekseevna, “he was as beautiful as day, and, of course, no one could compare with him... at court. He had no lack of intelligence, nor the warehouse of knowledge, manners and techniques that give great light and court... in general, both by birth and by many other qualities, he was an outstanding gentleman; he knew how to hide his shortcomings; the biggest of them were a tendency to intrigue and the absence of strict rules...". Later, Ekaterina Alekseevna did not speak so enthusiastically about her favorite. But then Saltykov’s shortcomings, in particular the “lack of strict rules,” that is, his weakness for the fair sex, “have not yet unfolded before her eyes.” Lev Naryshkin was just a kind and cheerful joker in the young company. In the planned “operation” he was assigned the role of cover.
After Easter 1752, Sergei Saltykov began persistently seeking special attention from the Grand Duchess. At first, Ekaterina Alekseevna did not feel entirely confident. She certainly liked this persistent admirer, but she could not help but fear the wrath of the empress. Very soon Choglokova rescued her. Without hesitation, this always strict and impeccable lady frankly told Catherine that “in the interests of succession to the throne,” she was allowed to choose for herself any of the assigned gentlemen. The former girl Fix did not ask stupid questions. She immediately understood what was expected of her, and with an open heart she went towards her first love.
Elizabeth's court once again moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow on December 14, 1752. Ekaterina Alekseevna was also in the empress's retinue along with the Grand Duke. Then she recalled that she set off “with some slight signs of pregnancy”, that “we drove quickly both day and night” and that “at the last station these signs disappeared with strong pains.” This was her first miscarriage.
At the beginning of 1753, Sergei Saltykov arrived in Moscow. Now he met less often with his beloved and, in justification, complained to her that he had many enemies, meaning supporters of Chancellor Bestuzhev. Then Ekaterina Alekseevna decided that their love would not lose its charms if politics were added to it. For this purpose, through one of the court officials, she turned to Bestuzhev with a request to consider her among his loyal allies.
Before this, relations between the Grand Duchess and the Chancellor were unfriendly. The latter experienced hostile feelings towards Pyotr Fedorovich and at the same time transferred his hostility to his wife. Ekaterina Alekseevna also considered Bestuzhev to be the main culprit of all the troubles and difficulties that she had to encounter at court. However, over time, both parties realized that she was mutually interested in friendship. The astute Bestuzhev had long noticed how carefully and intelligently the Grand Duchess behaved in her difficult relationship with her husband and the Empress. Therefore, he willingly accepted her offer, and soon they truly became allies.
After this, the meetings of the young lovers continued. But the Grand Duchess was again unlucky. In the summer of 1753, during the court's stay in Moscow, she danced a lot at her husband's name day, as a result of which a second miscarriage occurred. Of course, this could not please the empress. Therefore, when Elizabeth was informed of the Grand Duchess’s new pregnancy the following spring, she quarantined her.
Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to a son on September 20, 1754. He was named Pavel and was forever taken from his mother to the Empress’s chambers. On the sixth day, the baby was christened, and the Grand Duchess was most highly awarded a reward of 100 thousand rubles. It is interesting that at first Peter Fedorovich was not noted for the attention of the empress, since in reality he had nothing to do with the birth of the child. However, this put him in a ridiculous position at court and gave him a formal reason to express his sharp displeasure. Elizabeth very soon realized her mistake and retroactively ordered that her nephew also be given 100 thousand rubles. As for Sergei Saltykov, the actual father of the newborn, his presence at court became not only unnecessary, but also highly undesirable. Therefore, 17 days after the birth of the baby, he was sent first to Sweden, and then to Dresden, where he spent time in the company of the fair sex, without making his adventures a secret to others.
Baby Pavel was shown to his mother only 15 days after birth. Then the Empress again took him to her apartment, where she personally took care of him and where, according to Catherine, “there were many old ladies around him who, with stupid care, completely devoid of common sense, brought him incomparably more physical and moral suffering than benefit.” because I was in grief." And I read a lot.
Reading was one of Ekaterina Alekseevna’s favorite pastimes - she always had a book with her. At first she was amused by light novels, but very soon she took up serious literature, and if you believe her Notes, she had the intelligence and patience to overcome the nine-volume History of Germany. Kappa and the multi-volume "Bayle's Dictionary", "Lives of Famous Men" by Plutarch and "Life of Cicero", "Letters of Madame de Seville" and "Annals of Tacitus", works by Plato, Montesquieu and Voltaire. The historian S. F. Platonov, in particular, wrote about her: “The degree of her theoretical development and education reminds us of the strength of the practical development of Peter the Great. And both of them were self-taught.”
Only in February 1755 did Ekaterina Alekseevna overcome her hypochondria and appear in society for the first time after giving birth. By this time, Pyotr Fedorovich had completely stopped noticing his wife. He matured and began to court women, while showing a rather strange taste: he liked girls who were ugly and slow in their development more. At first he became interested in the Princess of Courland, the native daughter of the exiled Biron. Ugly, short and slightly hunchbacked, this girl quarreled with her parents, ran away from them from Yaroslavl, accepted the Orthodox faith and, with the permission of the Empress, lived at the Russian court. The Grand Duke was impressed by her German origin and knowledge of the German language. However, the princess turned out to be smarter than her royal admirer and, not agreeing to become his mistress, later married Baron Alexander Ivanovich Cherkasov. Then Pyotr Fedorovich turned his high attention to Elizaveta Vorontsova. The girl Elizaveta Romanovna was the niece of Vice-Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov. In 1749, at the age of 11, she was assigned as a maid of honor to Ekaterina Alekseevna. Foreigners wrote about her that “she swore like a soldier, squinted her eyes, smelled bad and spat when talking.” In the summer of 1755, the English envoy Genbury William arrived in St. Petersburg. In his retinue was the 23-year-old Count Stanislav Poniatowski, a man with a handsome appearance and a superficial education, already quite spoiled by the high society life of Paris, where he had been having fun since 1753. His father, by the way, in his youth served in the troops of the Austrian Prince Eugene. He supported the Swedish king Charles XII, later served as his aide-de-camp, participated in the Battle of Poltava and, together with Charles XII, fled to Turkey, where he defended the interests of the Swedes and contributed to the Turks declaring war against Russia. The son inherited from his father many of the worst traits of his character - unscrupulousness in politics, licentiousness in Everyday life and thirst for easy pleasures.
Very soon Poniatowski became close friends with Lev Naryshkin. And at the beginning of 1756 he brought him together with Ekaterina Alekseevna. Thus began a new fascinating romance for the Grand Duchess. And on December 9, 1758, Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to her second child. The girl was named Anna in honor of her grandmother. And again the empress took the baby from the mother to her chambers. Among his close associates, Pyotr Fedorovich made a statement about this. “God knows, he said, where my wife gets her pregnancy from, I don’t really know if this is my child and whether I should take it personally.” However, when Elizabeth, on the occasion of the birth of a girl, ordered her Cabinet to give her parents 60 thousand rubles each, he accepted this award with great satisfaction.
After the fall of Bestuzhev, relations between the Empress and Ekaterina Alekseevna reached their greatest tension. Instead of the Choglokovs, not just anyone was assigned to the “young court”, but the head of the Secret Chancellery himself, Alexander Shuvalov, and his wife. The Grand Duchess, deprived of any attention after giving birth, was blamed not only for her unkind attitude towards her husband, but also for her unpleasant friendship with Bestuzhev.
IN last days On Shrovetide Week 1759, another quarrel arose between the spouses. At the same time, Pyotr Fedorovich, who had already openly declared Elizaveta Vorontsova the mistress of his half, began to talk to his wife in the tone of an order. In addition, rumors have already spread among the courtiers that Vorontsova will soon become the wife of the Grand Duke, and the Grand Duchess will be sent to a monastery.
Ekaterina Alekseevna, having soberly assessed the situation, wrote a polite but rather bold letter to the empress. In it, she thanked Elizabeth for all her mercies, admitted that she was unhappy that she could not please the Grand Duke and Empress, and therefore asked to let her go back home. She motivated the need for her departure with very compelling arguments: the Grand Duke did not need her at all; since her children were taken from her and their upbringing is in more reliable hands, her departure will not affect their future fate; she is no longer able to remain in the unhealthy environment that has developed around her at court; her departure will calm all her ill-wishers and free the empress from unnecessary troubles.
Of course, Ekaterina Alekseevna was not so naive as to really strive to leave Russia. She knew well that Elizabeth could not bear her nephew for a long time and that she would never dare to dissolve his marriage for the sake of the stupid girl Vorontsova. With this well-calculated act, the Grand Duchess hoped to strengthen her position at court. And she succeeded quite well.
Elizabeth’s conversation with Ekaterina Alekseevna took place at three o’clock in the morning in the presence of Pyotr Fedorovich and Alexander Shuvalov. Ivan Shuvalov was also at that time in the empress’s chambers behind a screen. At first, Elizabeth behaved very strictly - there was anger and impatience in her voice. But the polite and at the same time quite bold and precise answers of the interlocutor gradually disarmed her. An unpleasant conversation between the women ended in moving tears. Then the Grand Duchess was told the words of Elizabeth, which she said to her loved ones about her daughter-in-law: “She loves truth and justice; she is a very smart woman, but my nephew is a fool.”
By the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, her nephew finally lost the respect of many around him and aroused the acute discontent of the majority of Russians. On the contrary, even her opponents began to respect Ekaterina Alekseevna. A large circle of Russian adherents formed around her, among whom were not only guards officers and middle-class nobles, but also influential nobles who stood close to the empress.
Elizabeth herself understood her mistake in appointing a successor to the throne, but she missed time and now, when her health was seriously undermined, she was unable to solve the problem of succession to the throne in a different way. When she died on December 25, 1761 at the age of 52, Peter Fedorovich was proclaimed Russian Emperor (1761-1762).
Bibliography:
1) Zaichkin I. A., Pochkaev I. N. - Russian history. Books I and II.
2) S. F. Platonov “Lectures on Russian history”.
3) Magazine "Rodina" number 1 for 1993.
In the summer of 1742, Frederick 2 appointed him governor Stettin and granted the rank of lieutenant general. Somewhat later Christian became duke and co-ruler Zerbst. On January 1, 1744, Duchess Johanna Elisabeth Fante received a letter from St. Petersburg. It was addressed to im Krümmer on behalf of Empress Elizabeth I, contained her highest invitation to come to Russia. The matchmaking of the Russian court was important for Prussia legal importance, therefore her ambassador in St. Petersburg Lardefeld promptly informed his king of Elizabeth's intentions. Frederick 2 welcomed, of course, the upcoming marriage of Fix with the Russian heir throne, hoping in the future, in the person of the “young court”, to have its own agents in St. Petersburg. He wanted to personally talk with the bride, invited her and her mother to Berlin for a private dinner, during which he was convinced that the 15th summer fix noticeably smarter than his mother.
After a meeting with the king, the duchess and her daughter under the name of countess Rhinebeck went to distant, snow-covered Russia; On February 5 they reached Mitava (Jelgava), then Riga, St. Petersburg were on their way, and finally on the evening of February 9 they arrived in Moscow on Annenhofsky the palace in which in those days Elizabeth's court was temporarily located. From this evening a new page began in the life of this little-known girl Fix from a German city Stettin.
In contrast to her future husband, Fix, from the very first days of her stay in Russia, with enviable persistence and rare diligence, took up the study of the Russian language and Russian customs. With the help of adjunct and translator of the Academy of Sciences Vasily Adadurova She very quickly achieved noticeable success. Already at the end of June in church, during her conversion to the Orthodox faith, she clearly pronounced her confession in pure Russian. Which really surprised everyone present. The Empress even shed tears. Another task, which the young German woman quite consciously solved at that time, was to please both Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, and Empress Elizabeth, and all Russian people.
Catherine II later recalled: “... truly, I did not neglect anything in order to achieve this: obedience, obedience, respect, the desire to please, the desire to do what is right, sincere affection, everything on my part was constantly used for this GM4 to 1761 .”.
The relationship between the young spouses did not work out. Catherine finally realized that her husband would always be a stranger to her. And she thought about him differently now: “... I had a cruel thought for him in the very first days of my marriage. I told myself: if you fall in love with this man, you will be the most miserable creature on earth... this man hardly looks at you, he only talks about dolls and pays more attention to any other woman than to you; You're too proud to make a fuss about it, therefore... think about yourself, madam"
Not every woman in this musty atmosphere of court intrigue could rise above the environment around her, always behave outwardly with dignity and think only about herself, about the still completely unclear prospect that awaited her in the future. And only the combination of an extraordinary mind, a strong will beyond her years, considerable courage and, of course, cunning, hypocrisy, unlimited ambition and vanity helped Catherine for 18 years to wage a hidden struggle for her place at the Russian court and, in the end, achieve the coveted crown empress.
After the wedding, Ekaterina Alekseevna’s mother left Russia, and she remained completely alone among the Russians. But this did not upset her; she and her mother had never been spiritually close people. To top it off, the mother’s rash actions only prevented her daughter from maintaining an unblemished good name at court. Most of all, Ekaterina Alekseevna sought the empress’s favor. Despite all the efforts of the Grand Duchess to always please her in everything, the relationship between them was uneven, far from friendly, and sometimes even tense. True, Elizabeth did not skimp on gifts. Before the engagement, Ekaterina Alekseevna received a necklace worth 150 thousand rubles. For small expenses she was assigned content at 30 thousand rubles.
The Empress very soon realized that she was too hasty in declaring Peter Fedorovich heir to the throne. The behavior of her mediocre nephew often irritated her. Not knowing how to get out of this awkward situation, she involuntarily transferred her dissatisfaction with the heir to the throne to his wife. She was accused of indifference to her husband, that she could not or did not want to influence him in a good way, to captivate him with her feminine charms. Finally, the empress demanded an heir from the young people. But it has not yet been foreseen.
We should not forget that the life of the “young court” took place before the eyes of the servants whom Elizabeth herself appointed. To the Grand Duchess, in particular, in 1746 as her guardian chamberlains State Lady Maria Semyonovna, who was especially devoted to the Empress, was assigned Choglokova. This evil and capricious woman, according to Catherine, spied on her and reported everything to Elizabeth. For Peter Fedorovich, the Empress also replaced Marshal Krümmer with Prince Vasily Anikitich Repnin, and then, in 1747, as chamberlain Nikolai Naumovich Choglokov, husband of Maria Semyonovna.
Due to its limitations Choglokovs could not contribute to the rapprochement between the Grand Duchess and the Empress; on the contrary, she introduced excessive wariness and mistrust into their relationship. And apparently, Ekaterina Alekseevna had reason to write: “... it seemed to me that she (Elizabeth .Money) she was always dissatisfied with me, since it happened very rarely that she did me the honor of entering into a conversation; however, even though we lived in the same house, and our chambers touched in both the Winter and Summer Palaces, we did not see her for entire months, and often more. We did not dare to appear in her chambers without being called, and we were almost never called. We were often scolded on behalf of Her Majesty for such trifles, about which one could not even suspect that they could anger the Empress.
She sent more than one to us for this purpose. Choglokovs, but it often happened that she sent a maid, a housekeeper, or someone of that kind to us to convey to us not only extremely unpleasant things, but even harsh words tantamount to the grossest insults. At the same time, it was impossible to be more careful than I was at heart, so as not to violate the due Her Respect and obedience to the Majesty"
Catherine II Alekseevna the Great (nee Sophia Auguste Friederike of Anhalt-Zerbst, German Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, in Orthodoxy Ekaterina Alekseevna; April 21 (May 2), 1729, Stettin, Prussia - November 6 (17), 1796, Winter Palace, St. Petersburg) - Empress of All Russia from 1762 to 1796.
The daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, Catherine came to power in a palace coup that overthrew her unpopular husband Peter III from the throne.
Catherine's era was marked by the maximum enslavement of the peasants and the comprehensive expansion of the privileges of the nobility.
Under Catherine the Great, the borders of the Russian Empire were significantly expanded to the west (partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and to the south (annexation of Novorossiya).
The system of public administration under Catherine II was reformed for the first time since that time.
Culturally, Russia finally became one of the great European powers, which was greatly facilitated by the empress herself, who was fond of literary activity, collected masterpieces of painting and corresponded with French educators.
In general, Catherine’s policy and her reforms fit into the mainstream of enlightened absolutism of the 18th century.
Catherine II the Great ( documentary)
Sophia Frederica Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst was born on April 21 (May 2, new style) 1729 in the then German city of Stettin, the capital of Pomerania (Pomerania). Nowadays the city is called Szczecin, among other territories it was voluntarily transferred Soviet Union, following the Second World War, Poland and is the capital of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland.
Father, Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst, came from the Zerbst-Dorneburg line of the House of Anhalt and was in the service of the Prussian king, was a regimental commander, commandant, then governor of the city of Stettin, where the future empress was born, ran for duke of Courland, but unsuccessfully , ended his service as a Prussian field marshal. Mother - Johanna Elisabeth, from the Gottorp estate, was a cousin of the future Peter III. Johanna Elisabeth's ancestry goes back to Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, first Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and founder of the Oldenburg dynasty.
His maternal uncle, Adolf Friedrich, was chosen as heir to the Swedish throne in 1743, which he assumed in 1751 under the name of Adolf Friedrich. Another uncle, Karl Eitinsky, according to Catherine I, was supposed to become the husband of her daughter Elizabeth, but died on the eve of the wedding celebrations.
In the family of the Duke of Zerbst, Catherine received a home education. She studied English, French and Italian, dance, music, the basics of history, geography, and theology. She grew up as a playful, inquisitive, playful girl and loved to show off her courage in front of the boys with whom she easily played on the streets of Stettin. The parents were dissatisfied with their daughter’s “boyish” behavior, but they were satisfied that Frederica took care of her younger sister Augusta. Her mother called her Fike or Ficken as a child (German Figchen - comes from the name Frederica, that is, “little Frederica”).
In 1743, the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, choosing a bride for her heir, Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, the future Russian Emperor, remembered that on her deathbed her mother bequeathed to her to become the wife of a Holstein prince, sibling Johann Elisabeth. Perhaps it was this circumstance that tipped the scales in Frederica's favor; Elizabeth had previously vigorously supported the election of her uncle to the Swedish throne and exchanged portraits with her mother. In 1744, the Zerbst princess and her mother were invited to Russia to marry Pyotr Fedorovich, who was her second cousin. She first saw her future husband at Eitin Castle in 1739.
Immediately after arriving in Russia, she began to study the Russian language, history, Orthodoxy, and Russian traditions, as she sought to become more fully acquainted with Russia, which she perceived as a new homeland. Among her teachers are the famous preacher Simon Todorsky (teacher of Orthodoxy), the author of the first Russian grammar Vasily Adadurov (teacher of the Russian language) and choreographer Lange (dance teacher).
In an effort to learn Russian as quickly as possible, the future empress studied at night, sitting by an open window in the frosty air. Soon she fell ill with pneumonia, and her condition was so serious that her mother suggested bringing a Lutheran pastor. Sofia, however, refused and sent for Simon of Todor. This circumstance added to her popularity at the Russian court. On June 28 (July 9), 1744, Sofia Frederica Augusta converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna (the same name and patronymic as Elizabeth’s mother, Catherine I), and the next day she was engaged to the future emperor.
The appearance of Sophia and her mother in St. Petersburg was accompanied by political intrigue in which her mother, Princess Zerbst, was involved. She was a fan of the King of Prussia, Frederick II, and the latter decided to use her stay under the Russian imperial court to establish their influence on Russian foreign policy. For this purpose, it was planned, through intrigue and influence on Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, to remove Chancellor Bestuzhev, who pursued an anti-Prussian policy, from affairs, and replace him with another nobleman who sympathized with Prussia. However, Bestuzhev managed to intercept letters from Princess Zerbst to Frederick II and present them to Elizaveta Petrovna. After the latter learned about the “ugly role of a Prussian spy” that Sophia’s mother played at her court, she immediately changed her attitude towards her and subjected her to disgrace. However, this did not affect the position of Sofia herself, who did not take part in this intrigue.
On August 21, 1745, at the age of sixteen, Catherine was married to Pyotr Fedorovich, who was 17 years old and who was her second cousin. During the first years of their marriage, Peter was not at all interested in his wife, and there was no marital relationship between them.
Finally, after two unsuccessful pregnancies, On September 20, 1754, Catherine gave birth to a son, Pavel.. The birth was difficult, the baby was immediately taken away from the mother by the will of the reigning Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, and Catherine was deprived of the opportunity to raise her, allowing her to see Paul only occasionally. So the Grand Duchess first saw her son only 40 days after giving birth. A number of sources claim that Paul’s true father was Catherine’s lover S.V. Saltykov (there is no direct statement about this in the “Notes” of Catherine II, but they are often interpreted this way). Others say that such rumors are unfounded, and that Peter underwent an operation that eliminated a defect that made conception impossible. The question of paternity also aroused interest among society.
After the birth of Pavel, relations with Peter and Elizaveta Petrovna completely deteriorated. Peter called his wife “spare madam” and openly took mistresses, however, without preventing Catherine from doing the same, who during this period, thanks to the efforts of the English ambassador Sir Charles Henbury Williams, had a relationship with Stanislav Poniatowski, the future king of Poland. On December 9, 1757, Catherine gave birth to her daughter Anna, which caused strong dissatisfaction with Peter, who said at the news of a new pregnancy: “God knows why my wife became pregnant again! I’m not at all sure if this child is from me and whether I should take it personally.”
During this period, the English Ambassador Williams was a close friend and confidant of Catherine. He repeatedly provided her with significant sums in the form of loans or subsidies: only in 1750 she was given 50,000 rubles, for which there are two receipts from her; and in November 1756 she was given 44,000 rubles. In return, he received various confidential information from her - verbally and through letters, which she quite regularly wrote to him as if on behalf of a man (for purposes of secrecy). In particular, at the end of 1756, after the start of the Seven Years' War with Prussia (of which England was an ally), Williams, as follows from his own dispatches, received from Catherine important information about the state of the warring Russian army and about the plan of the Russian offensive, which was transferred to London, as well as to Berlin to the Prussian king Frederick II. After Williams left, she also received money from his successor Keith. Historians explain Catherine’s frequent appeal to the British for money by her extravagance, due to which her expenses far exceeded the amounts that were allocated from the treasury for her maintenance. In one of her letters to Williams, she promised, as a sign of gratitude, “to lead Russia to a friendly alliance with England, to give her everywhere the assistance and preference necessary for the good of all Europe and especially Russia, before their common enemy, France, whose greatness is a shame for Russia. I will learn to practice these feelings, I will base my glory on them and I will prove to the king, your sovereign, the strength of these feelings of mine.”.
Already starting in 1756, and especially during the illness of Elizabeth Petrovna, Catherine hatched a plan to remove the future emperor (her husband) from the throne through a conspiracy, which she repeatedly wrote to Williams. For these purposes, Catherine, according to the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, “begged a loan of 10 thousand pounds sterling from the English king for gifts and bribes, pledging on her word of honor to act in the common Anglo-Russian interests, and began to think about involving the guard in the case in the event of death Elizabeth, entered into a secret agreement on this with Hetman K. Razumovsky, commander of one of the guards regiments.” Chancellor Bestuzhev, who promised Catherine assistance, was also privy to this plan for a palace coup.
At the beginning of 1758, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna suspected the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Apraksin, with whom Catherine was on friendly terms, as well as Chancellor Bestuzhev himself, of treason. Both were arrested, interrogated and punished; however, Bestuzhev managed to destroy all his correspondence with Catherine before his arrest, which saved her from persecution and disgrace. At the same time, Williams was recalled to England. Thus, her former favorites were removed, but a circle of new ones began to form: Grigory Orlov and Dashkova.
The death of Elizaveta Petrovna (December 25, 1761) and the accession to the throne of Peter Fedorovich under the name of Peter III alienated the spouses even more. Peter III began to live openly with his mistress Elizaveta Vorontsova, settling his wife at the other end of the Winter Palace. When Catherine became pregnant from Orlov, this could no longer be explained by accidental conception from her husband, since communication between the spouses had stopped completely by that time. Catherine hid her pregnancy, and when the time came to give birth, her devoted valet Vasily Grigorievich Shkurin set fire to his house. A lover of such spectacles, Peter and his court left the palace to look at the fire; At this time, Catherine gave birth safely. This is how Alexey Bobrinsky was born, to whom his brother Pavel I subsequently awarded the title of count.
Having ascended the throne, Peter III carried out a number of actions that caused a negative attitude towards him from the officer corps. Thus, he concluded an unfavorable agreement for Russia with Prussia, while Russia won a number of victories over it during the Seven Years' War, and returned to it the lands captured by the Russians. At the same time, he intended, in alliance with Prussia, to oppose Denmark (Russia’s ally), in order to return Schleswig, which it had taken from Holstein, and he himself intended to go on a campaign at the head of the guard. Peter announced the sequestration of the property of the Russian Church, the abolition of monastic land ownership, and shared with those around him plans for the reform of church rituals. Supporters of the coup also accused Peter III of ignorance, dementia, dislike for Russia, and complete inability to rule. Against his background, Catherine looked favorably - an intelligent, well-read, pious and benevolent wife, subjected to persecution by her husband.
After the relationship with her husband completely deteriorated and dissatisfaction with the emperor on the part of the guard intensified, Catherine decided to participate in the coup. Her comrades-in-arms, the main of whom were the Orlov brothers, sergeant Potemkin and adjutant Fyodor Khitrovo, began campaigning in the guards units and won them over to their side. The immediate cause of the start of the coup was rumors about the arrest of Catherine and the discovery and arrest of one of the participants in the conspiracy, Lieutenant Passek.
Apparently, there was some foreign participation here too. As A. Troyat and K. Waliszewski write, planning the overthrow of Peter III, Catherine turned to the French and British for money, hinting to them what she was going to do. The French were distrustful of her request to borrow 60 thousand rubles, not believing in the seriousness of her plan, but she received 100 thousand rubles from the British, which subsequently may have influenced her attitude towards England and France.
Early in the morning of June 28 (July 9), 1762, while Peter III was in Oranienbaum, Catherine, accompanied by Alexei and Grigory Orlov, arrived from Peterhof to St. Petersburg, where the guards units swore allegiance to her. Peter III, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, abdicated the throne the next day, was taken into custody and died under unclear circumstances. In her letter, Catherine once indicated that before his death Peter suffered from hemorrhoidal colic. After death (although the facts indicate that even before death - see below), Catherine ordered an autopsy to dispel suspicions of poisoning. The autopsy showed (according to Catherine) that the stomach was absolutely clean, which ruled out the presence of poison.
At the same time, as historian N.I. Pavlenko writes, “The violent death of the emperor is irrefutably confirmed by absolutely reliable sources” - Orlov’s letters to Catherine and a number of other facts. There are also facts indicating that she knew about the impending murder of Peter III. So, already on July 4, 2 days before the death of the emperor in the palace in Ropsha, Catherine sent the doctor Paulsen to him, and as Pavlenko writes, “It is indicative that Paulsen was sent to Ropsha not with medicines, but with surgical instruments for opening the body”.
After her husband's abdication, Ekaterina Alekseevna ascended the throne as reigning empress with the name of Catherine II, publishing a manifesto in which the grounds for the removal of Peter were indicated as an attempt to change the state religion and peace with Prussia. To justify her own rights to the throne (and not the heir to Paul), Catherine referred to “the desire of all Our loyal subjects, obvious and unfeigned.” On September 22 (October 3), 1762, she was crowned in Moscow. As V. O. Klyuchevsky characterized her accession, “Catherine made a double takeover: she took power from her husband and did not transfer it to her son, the natural heir of his father.”.
The policy of Catherine II was characterized mainly by the preservation and development of trends laid down by her predecessors. In the middle of the reign, an administrative (provincial) reform was carried out, which determined the territorial structure of the country until 1917, as well as judicial reform. The territory of the Russian state increased significantly due to the annexation of fertile southern lands - Crimea, the Black Sea region, as well as the eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, etc. The population increased from 23.2 million (in 1763) to 37.4 million (in 1796), In terms of population, Russia became the largest European country (it accounted for 20% of the European population). Catherine II formed 29 new provinces and built about 144 cities.
Klyuchevsky about the reign of Catherine the Great: “The army with 162 thousand people was strengthened to 312 thousand, the fleet, which in 1757 consisted of 21 battleships and 6 frigates, in 1790 included 67 battleships and 40 frigates and 300 rowing ships, the amount of state revenue from 16 million rubles rose to 69 million, that is, it increased more than fourfold, the success of foreign trade: the Baltic - in increasing imports and exports, from 9 million to 44 million rubles, the Black Sea, Catherine and created - from 390 thousand in 1776 to 1 million 900 thousand rubles in 1796, the growth of internal turnover was indicated by the issue of coins in the 34 years of the reign for 148 million rubles, while in the 62 previous years it was issued only for 97 million."
Population growth was largely the result of the annexation of foreign states and territories (which were home to almost 7 million people) to Russia, often occurring against the wishes of the local population, which led to the emergence of “Polish”, “Ukrainian”, “Jewish” and other national issues , inherited by the Russian Empire from the era of Catherine II. Hundreds of villages under Catherine received city status, but in fact remained villages according to appearance and the occupation of the population, the same applies to a number of cities founded by her (some even existed only on paper, as evidenced by contemporaries). In addition to the issue of coins, 156 million rubles worth of paper notes were issued, which led to inflation and a significant depreciation of the ruble; therefore, the real growth of budget revenues and other economic indicators during her reign was significantly less than nominal.
The Russian economy continued to remain agricultural. The share of the urban population has practically not increased, amounting to about 4%. At the same time, a number of cities were founded (Tiraspol, Grigoriopol, etc.), iron smelting more than doubled (for which Russia took 1st place in the world), and the number of sailing and linen manufactories increased. In total, by the end of the 18th century. there were 1,200 large enterprises in the country (in 1767 there were 663). The export of Russian goods to other European countries has increased significantly, including through the established Black Sea ports. However, in the structure of this export there were no finished products at all, only raw materials and semi-finished products, and imports were dominated by foreign industrial products. While in the West in the second half of the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution was taking place, Russian industry remained “patriarchal” and serfdom, which caused it to lag behind the Western one. Finally, in the 1770-1780s. An acute social and economic crisis broke out, which resulted in a financial crisis.
Catherine’s commitment to the ideas of the Enlightenment largely predetermined the fact that the term “enlightened absolutism” is often used to characterize the domestic policy of Catherine’s time. She actually brought some of the ideas of the Enlightenment to life.
Thus, according to Catherine, based on the works of the French philosopher, the vast Russian spaces and the severity of the climate determine the pattern and necessity of autocracy in Russia. Based on this, under Catherine, the autocracy was strengthened, the bureaucratic apparatus was strengthened, the country was centralized and the management system was unified. However, the ideas expressed by Diderot and Voltaire, of which she was a vocal supporter, did not correspond to her domestic policy. They defended the idea that every person is born free, and advocated the equality of all people and the elimination of medieval forms of exploitation and oppressive forms of government. Contrary to these ideas, under Catherine there was a further deterioration in the position of the serfs, their exploitation intensified, and inequality grew due to the granting of even greater privileges to the nobility.
In general, historians characterize her policy as “pro-noble” and believe that, contrary to the empress’s frequent statements about her “vigilant concern for the welfare of all subjects,” the concept of the common good in the era of Catherine was the same fiction as in Russia as a whole in the 18th century.
Under Catherine, the territory of the empire was divided into provinces, many of which remained virtually unchanged until the October Revolution. The territory of Estonia and Livonia as a result of the regional reform in 1782-1783. was divided into two provinces - Riga and Revel - with institutions that already existed in other provinces of Russia. The special Baltic order, which provided for more extensive rights of local nobles to work and the personality of the peasant than those of Russian landowners, was also eliminated. Siberia was divided into three provinces: Tobolsk, Kolyvan and Irkutsk.
Speaking about the reasons for the provincial reform under Catherine, N. I. Pavlenko writes that it was a response to the Peasant War of 1773-1775. led by Pugachev, which revealed the weakness local authorities and their inability to deal with peasant revolts. The reform was preceded by a series of notes submitted to the government from the nobility, in which it was recommended to increase the network of institutions and “police supervisors” in the country.
Carrying out provincial reform in Left Bank Ukraine in 1783-1785. led to a change in the regimental structure (former regiments and hundreds) to the administrative division common to the Russian Empire into provinces and districts, the final establishment of serfdom and the equalization of the rights of the Cossack elders with the Russian nobility. With the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty (1774), Russia gained access to the Black Sea and Crimea.
Thus, there was no longer a need to maintain the special rights and management system of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. At the same time, their traditional way of life often led to conflicts with the authorities. After repeated pogroms of Serbian settlers, as well as in connection with the Cossacks’ support for the Pugachev uprising, Catherine II ordered the disbandment of the Zaporozhye Sich, which was carried out by order of Grigory Potemkin to pacify the Zaporozhye Cossacks by General Pyotr Tekeli in June 1775.
The Sich was disbanded, most of the Cossacks were disbanded, and the fortress itself was destroyed. In 1787, Catherine II, together with Potemkin, visited Crimea, where she was met by the Amazon company created for her arrival; in the same year, the Army of the Faithful Cossacks was created, which later became the Black Sea Cossack Army, and in 1792 they were granted Kuban for eternal use, where the Cossacks moved, founding the city of Ekaterinodar.
Reforms on the Don created a military civil government modeled on the provincial administrations of central Russia. In 1771, the Kalmyk Khanate was finally annexed to Russia.
The reign of Catherine II was characterized by extensive development of the economy and trade, while maintaining the “patriarchal” industry and Agriculture. By a decree of 1775, factories and industrial plants were recognized as property, the disposal of which does not require special permission from their superiors. In 1763, the free exchange of copper money for silver was prohibited, so as not to provoke the development of inflation. The development and revival of trade was facilitated by the emergence of new credit institutions (state bank and loan office) and the expansion of banking operations (acceptance of deposits for safekeeping was introduced in 1770). A state bank was established and the issue of paper money - banknotes - was established for the first time.
State regulation of salt prices has been introduced, which was one of the vital goods in the country. The Senate legislatively set the price of salt at 30 kopecks per pood (instead of 50 kopecks) and 10 kopecks per pood in regions where fish are mass-salted. Without introducing a state monopoly on the salt trade, Catherine hoped for increased competition and, ultimately, an improvement in the quality of the product. However, soon the price of salt was raised again. At the beginning of the reign, some monopolies were abolished: the state monopoly on trade with China, the private monopoly of the merchant Shemyakin on the import of silk, and others.
Russia's role in the global economy has increased- Russian sailing fabric began to be exported to England in large quantities, and the export of cast iron and iron to other European countries increased (consumption of cast iron on the domestic Russian market also increased significantly). But the export of raw materials increased especially strongly: timber (5 times), hemp, bristles, etc., as well as bread. The country's export volume increased from 13.9 million rubles. in 1760 to 39.6 million rubles. in 1790
Russian merchant ships began to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. However, their number was insignificant in comparison with foreign ones - only 7% of the total number of ships serving Russian foreign trade in the late 18th - early 19th centuries; the number of foreign merchant ships entering Russian ports annually during her reign increased from 1340 to 2430.
As the economic historian N.A. Rozhkov pointed out, in the structure of exports in the era of Catherine there were no finished products at all, only raw materials and semi-finished products, and 80-90% of imports were foreign industrial products, the volume of imports of which was several times higher than domestic production. Thus, the volume of domestic manufacturing production in 1773 was 2.9 million rubles, the same as in 1765, and the volume of imports in these years was about 10 million rubles.
Industry developed poorly, there were practically no technical improvements and serf labor dominated. Thus, from year to year, cloth factories could not even satisfy the needs of the army, despite the ban on selling cloth “outside”; in addition, the cloth was of poor quality, and it had to be purchased abroad. Catherine herself did not understand the significance of the Industrial Revolution taking place in the West and argued that machines (or, as she called them, “machines”) harm the state because they reduce the number of workers. Only two export industries developed rapidly - the production of cast iron and linen, but both were based on “patriarchal” methods, without the use of new technologies that were actively being introduced in the West at that time - which predetermined a severe crisis in both industries, which began shortly after the death of Catherine II .
In the field of foreign trade, Catherine’s policy consisted of a gradual transition from protectionism, characteristic of Elizabeth Petrovna, to complete liberalization of exports and imports, which, according to a number of economic historians, was a consequence of the influence of the ideas of the physiocrats. Already in the first years of the reign, a number of foreign trade monopolies and a ban on grain exports were abolished, which from that time began to grow rapidly. In 1765, the Free Economic Society was founded, which promoted the ideas of free trade and published its own magazine. In 1766, a new customs tariff was introduced, significantly reducing tariff barriers compared to the protectionist tariff of 1757 (which established protective duties of 60 to 100% or more); they were reduced even more in the customs tariff of 1782. Thus, in the “moderate protectionist” tariff of 1766, protective duties averaged 30%, and in the liberal tariff of 1782 - 10%, only for some goods rising to 20- thirty%.
Agriculture, like industry, developed mainly through extensive methods (increasing the amount of arable land); The promotion of intensive agricultural methods by the Free Economic Society created under Catherine did not have much result.
From the first years of Catherine's reign, famine began to occur periodically in the village, which some contemporaries explained by chronic crop failures, but the historian M.N. Pokrovsky associated with the beginning of mass grain exports, which had previously, under Elizaveta Petrovna, been prohibited, and by the end of Catherine’s reign amounted to 1.3 million rubles. in year. Cases of mass ruin of peasants have become more frequent. The famines became especially widespread in the 1780s, when they affected large regions of the country. Bread prices have increased significantly: for example, in the center of Russia (Moscow, Smolensk, Kaluga) they increased from 86 kopecks. in 1760 to 2.19 rubles. in 1773 and up to 7 rubles. in 1788, that is, more than 8 times.
Paper money introduced into circulation in 1769 - banknotes- in the first decade of its existence, they accounted for only a few percent of the metal (silver and copper) money supply, and played a positive role, allowing the state to reduce its costs of moving money within the empire. However, due to the lack of money in the treasury, which became a constant phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1780s, an increasing number of banknotes were issued, the volume of which reached 156 million rubles by 1796, and their value depreciated by 1.5 times. In addition, the state borrowed money abroad in the amount of 33 million rubles. and had various unpaid internal obligations (bills, salaries, etc.) in the amount of RUB 15.5 million. That. the total amount of government debts amounted to 205 million rubles, the treasury was empty, and budget expenses significantly exceeded income, which was stated by Paul I upon his accession to the throne. All this gave the historian N.D. Chechulin, in his economic research, the basis to conclude about a “severe economic crisis” in the country (in the second half of the reign of Catherine II) and about the “complete collapse of the financial system of Catherine’s reign.”
In 1768, a network of city schools was created, based on a class-lesson system. Schools began to open actively. Under Catherine, special attention was paid to the development of women's education; in 1764, the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and the Educational Society for Noble Maidens were opened. The Academy of Sciences has become one of the leading scientific bases in Europe. An observatory, a physics laboratory, an anatomical theater, a botanical garden, instrumental workshops, a printing house, a library, and an archive were founded. On October 11, 1783, the Russian Academy was founded.
Compulsory smallpox vaccination introduced, and Catherine decided to set a personal example for her subjects: on the night of October 12 (23), 1768, the empress herself was vaccinated against smallpox. Among the first to be vaccinated were also Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. Under Catherine II, the fight against epidemics in Russia began to acquire the character of state measures that were directly included in the responsibilities of the Imperial Council and the Senate. By decree of Catherine, outposts were created, located not only on the borders, but also on the roads leading to the center of Russia. The “Border and Port Quarantine Charter” was created.
New areas of medicine for Russia developed: hospitals for the treatment of syphilis, psychiatric hospitals and shelters were opened. A number of fundamental works on medical issues have been published.
To prevent their relocation to central regions Russia and attachment to their communities for the convenience of collecting state taxes, Catherine II established the Pale of Settlement in 1791, outside of which Jews had no right to live. The Pale of Settlement was established in the same place where Jews had lived before - on the lands annexed as a result of the three partitions of Poland, as well as in the steppe regions near the Black Sea and sparsely populated areas east of the Dnieper. The conversion of Jews to Orthodoxy lifted all restrictions on residence. It is noted that the Pale of Settlement contributed to the preservation of Jewish national identity and the formation of a special Jewish identity within the Russian Empire.
In 1762-1764, Catherine published two manifestos. The first - “On the permission of all foreigners entering Russia to settle in whichever provinces they wish and the rights granted to them” - called on foreign citizens to move to Russia, the second defined a list of benefits and privileges for immigrants. Soon the first German settlements arose in the Volga region, reserved for settlers. The influx of German colonists was so great that already in 1766 it was necessary to temporarily suspend the reception of new settlers until those who had already arrived were settled. The creation of colonies on the Volga was increasing: in 1765 - 12 colonies, in 1766 - 21, in 1767 - 67. According to the census of colonists in 1769, 6.5 thousand families lived in 105 colonies on the Volga, which amounted to 23.2 thousand people. In the future, the German community will play a significant role in the life of Russia.
During the reign of Catherine, the country included the Northern Black Sea region, the Azov region, Crimea, Novorossia, the lands between the Dniester and the Bug, Belarus, Courland and Lithuania. Total number new subjects acquired in this way by Russia reached 7 million. As a result, as V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote, in the Russian Empire “the discord of interests intensified” between different peoples. This was expressed, in particular, in the fact that for almost every nationality the government was forced to introduce a special economic, tax and administrative regime. Thus, the German colonists were completely exempt from paying taxes to the state and from other duties; the Pale of Settlement was introduced for Jews; from the Ukrainian and Belarusian population in the territory former Speech The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth poll tax was not levied at all at first, and then levied at half the amount. The indigenous population turned out to be the most discriminated against in these conditions, which led to the following incident: some Russian nobles at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. as a reward for their service, they were asked to “register as Germans” so that they could enjoy the corresponding privileges.
On April 21, 1785, two charters were issued: “Certificate on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble nobility” And “Charter of Complaint to Cities”. The Empress called them the crown of her activity, and historians consider them the crown of the “pro-noble policy” of the kings of the 18th century. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “In the history of Russia, the nobility has never been blessed with such diverse privileges as under Catherine II.”
Both charters finally assigned to the upper classes those rights, obligations and privileges that had already been granted by Catherine’s predecessors during the 18th century, and provided a number of new ones. Thus, the nobility as a class was formed by the decrees of Peter I and then received a number of privileges, including exemption from the poll tax and the right to unlimited disposal of estates; and by decree of Peter III it was finally released from compulsory service to the state.
The charter granted to the nobility contained the following guarantees:
Already existing rights were confirmed
- the nobility were exempted from the quartering of military units and commands, from corporal punishment
- the nobility received ownership of the subsoil of the earth
- the right to have their own estate institutions, the name of the 1st estate has changed: not “nobility”, but “noble nobility”
- it was forbidden to confiscate the estates of nobles for criminal offenses; estates were to be transferred to the legal heirs
- nobles have the exclusive right of ownership of land, but the “Charter” does not say a word about the monopoly right to have serfs
- Ukrainian elders were given equal rights with Russian nobles. a nobleman who did not have an officer rank was deprived of the right to vote
- only nobles whose income from estates exceeded 100 rubles could hold elected positions.
Despite the privileges, in the era of Catherine II, property inequality among the nobles increased greatly: against the backdrop of individual large fortunes, the economic situation of part of the nobility worsened. As the historian D. Blum points out, a number of large nobles owned tens and hundreds of thousands of serfs, which was not the case in previous reigns (when the owner of more than 500 souls was considered rich); at the same time, almost 2/3 of all landowners in 1777 had less than 30 male serfs, and 1/3 of landowners had less than 10 souls; many nobles who wanted to enter the public service did not have the funds to purchase appropriate clothing and shoes. V. O. Klyuchevsky writes that many noble children during her reign, even becoming students at the maritime academy and “receiving a small salary (scholarships), 1 rub. per month, “from barefoot” they could not even attend the academy and were forced, according to the report, not to think about the sciences, but about their own food, to acquire funds for their maintenance on the side.”
During the reign of Catherine II, a number of laws were adopted that worsened the situation of the peasants:
The decree of 1763 entrusted the maintenance of military commands sent to suppress peasant uprisings to the peasants themselves.
According to the decree of 1765, for open disobedience, the landowner could send the peasant not only to exile, but also to hard labor, and the period of hard labor was set by him; The landowners also had the right to return those exiled from hard labor at any time.
A decree of 1767 prohibited peasants from complaining about their master; those who disobeyed were threatened with exile to Nerchinsk (but they could go to court).
In 1783, serfdom was introduced in Little Russia (Left Bank Ukraine and the Russian Black Earth Region).
In 1796, serfdom was introduced in New Russia (Don, North Caucasus).
After the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the serfdom regime was tightened in the territories that were transferred to the Russian Empire (Right Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland).
As N.I. Pavlenko writes, under Catherine “serfdom developed in depth and breadth,” which was “an example of a blatant contradiction between the ideas of the Enlightenment and government measures to strengthen the serfdom regime.”
During her reign, Catherine gave away more than 800 thousand peasants to landowners and nobles, thereby setting a kind of record. Most of them were not state peasants, but peasants from lands acquired during the partitions of Poland, as well as palace peasants. But, for example, the number of assigned (possession) peasants from 1762 to 1796. increased from 210 to 312 thousand people, and these were formally free (state) peasants, but converted to the status of serfs or slaves. Possession peasants of the Ural factories took an active part in Peasant War of 1773-1775.
At the same time, the situation of the monastic peasants was alleviated, who were transferred to the jurisdiction of the College of Economy along with the lands. All their duties were replaced by monetary rent, which gave the peasants more independence and developed their economic initiative. As a result, the unrest of the monastery peasants ceased.
The fact that a woman who did not have any formal rights to this was proclaimed empress gave rise to many pretenders to the throne, which overshadowed a significant part of the reign of Catherine II. Yes, just from 1764 to 1773 seven False Peters III appeared in the country(who claimed that they were nothing more than the “resurrected” Peter III) - A. Aslanbekov, I. Evdokimov, G. Kremnev, P. Chernyshov, G. Ryabov, F. Bogomolov, N. Krestov; Emelyan Pugachev became eighth. And in 1774-1775. To this list was added the “case of Princess Tarakanova,” who pretended to be the daughter of Elizaveta Petrovna.
During 1762-1764. 3 conspiracies were uncovered aimed at overthrowing Catherine, and two of them were associated with the name of Ivan Antonovich - the former Russian Emperor Ivan VI, who at the time of Catherine II’s accession to the throne continued to remain alive in prison in the Shlisselburg fortress. The first of them involved 70 officers. The second took place in 1764, when second lieutenant V. Ya. Mirovich, who was on guard duty in the Shlisselburg fortress, won over part of the garrison to his side in order to free Ivan. The guards, however, in accordance with the instructions given to them, stabbed the prisoner, and Mirovich himself was arrested and executed.
In 1771, a major plague epidemic occurred in Moscow, complicated by popular unrest in Moscow, called the Plague Riot. The rebels destroyed the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin. The next day, the crowd took the Donskoy Monastery by storm, killed Archbishop Ambrose, who was hiding there, and began to destroy quarantine outposts and houses of the nobility. Troops under the command of G. G. Orlov were sent to suppress the uprising. After three days of fighting, the riot was suppressed.
In 1773-1775 there was peasant revolt led by Emelyan Pugachev. It covered the lands of the Yaitsk army, the Orenburg province, the Urals, the Kama region, Bashkiria, part of Western Siberia, the Middle and Lower Volga region. During the uprising, the Cossacks were joined by Bashkirs, Tatars, Kazakhs, Ural factory workers and numerous serfs from all the provinces where hostilities took place. After the suppression of the uprising, some liberal reforms were curtailed and conservatism intensified.
In 1772 took place First section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Austria received all of Galicia with its districts, Prussia - Western Prussia (Pomerania), Russia - the eastern part of Belarus to Minsk (Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces) and part of the Latvian lands that were previously part of Livonia. The Polish Sejm was forced to agree to the division and give up claims to the lost territories: Poland lost 380,000 km² with a population of 4 million people.
Polish nobles and industrialists contributed to the adoption of the Constitution of 1791; The conservative part of the population of the Targowica Confederation turned to Russia for help.
In 1793 there took place Second section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, approved at the Grodno Seim. Prussia received Gdansk, Torun, Poznan (part of the lands along the Warta and Vistula rivers), Russia - Central Belarus with Minsk and Novorossiya (part of the territory of modern Ukraine).
In March 1794, an uprising began under the leadership of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the goals of which were to restore territorial integrity, sovereignty and the Constitution on May 3, but in the spring of that year it was suppressed by the Russian army under the command of A.V. Suvorov. During the Kościuszko uprising, the rebel Poles who seized the Russian embassy in Warsaw discovered documents that had a great public resonance, according to which King Stanisław Poniatowski and a number of members of the Grodno Sejm, at the time of the approval of the 2nd partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, received money from the Russian government - in in particular, Poniatowski received several thousand ducats.
In 1795 took place Third section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Austria received Southern Poland with Luban and Krakow, Prussia - Central Poland with Warsaw, Russia - Lithuania, Courland, Volyn and Western Belarus.
October 13, 1795 - a conference of the three powers on the fall of the Polish state, it lost statehood and sovereignty.
An important area of Catherine II’s foreign policy also included the territories of Crimea, the Black Sea region and the North Caucasus, which were under Turkish rule.
When the uprising of the Bar Confederation broke out, the Turkish Sultan declared war on Russia (Russian-Turkish War 1768-1774), using as a pretext the fact that one of the Russian troops, pursuing the Poles, entered the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Russian troops defeated the Confederates and began to win victories one after another in the south. Having achieved success in a number of land and sea battles (Battle of Kozludzhi, Battle of Ryabaya Mogila, Battle of Kagul, Battle of Larga, Battle of Chesme, etc.), Russia forced Turkey to sign the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty, as a result of which Crimean Khanate formally gained independence, but de facto became dependent on Russia. Turkey paid Russia military indemnities in the order of 4.5 million rubles, and also ceded the northern coast of the Black Sea along with two important ports.
After the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia's policy towards the Crimean Khanate was aimed at establishing a pro-Russian ruler in it and joining Russia. Under pressure from Russian diplomacy, Shahin Giray was elected khan. The previous khan, Turkey's protege Devlet IV Giray, tried to resist at the beginning of 1777, but it was suppressed by A.V. Suvorov, Devlet IV fled to Turkey. At the same time, the landing of Turkish troops in the Crimea was prevented and thus an attempt to start a new war was prevented, after which Turkey recognized Shahin Giray as khan. In 1782, an uprising broke out against him, which was suppressed by Russian troops introduced into the peninsula, and in 1783, with the manifesto of Catherine II, the Crimean Khanate was annexed to Russia.
After the victory, the Empress, together with the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, made a triumphal tour of the Crimea.
The next war with Turkey occurred in 1787-1792 and was an unsuccessful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to regain the lands that had gone to Russia during the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774, including Crimea. Here, too, the Russians won a number of important victories, both land - the Battle of Kinburn, the Battle of Rymnik, the capture of Ochakov, the capture of Izmail, the battle of Focsani, the Turkish campaigns against Bendery and Akkerman were repulsed, etc., and sea - the battle of Fidonisi (1788), The Battle of Kerch (1790), the Battle of Cape Tendra (1790) and the Battle of Kaliakria (1791). As a result, the Ottoman Empire in 1791 was forced to sign the Treaty of Yassy, which assigned Crimea and Ochakov to Russia, and also pushed the border between the two empires to the Dniester.
The wars with Turkey were marked by major military victories of Rumyantsev, Orlov-Chesmensky, Suvorov, Potemkin, Ushakov, and the establishment of Russia in the Black Sea. As a result, the Northern Black Sea region, Crimea, and the Kuban region went to Russia, its political positions in the Caucasus and Balkans strengthened, and Russia’s authority on the world stage was strengthened.
According to many historians, these conquests are the main achievement of the reign of Catherine II. At the same time, a number of historians (K. Valishevsky, V. O. Klyuchevsky, etc.) and contemporaries (Frederick II, French ministers, etc.) explained the “amazing” victories of Russia over Turkey not so much by the strength of the Russian army and navy, which were still quite weak and poorly organized, largely a consequence of the extreme decomposition of the Turkish army and state during this period.
Catherine II's height: 157 centimeters.
Personal life of Catherine II:
Unlike her predecessor, Catherine did not carry out extensive palace construction for her own needs. To move around the country comfortably, she set up a network of small travel palaces along the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow (from Chesmensky to Petrovsky) and only at the end of her life began building a new country residence in Pella (not preserved). In addition, she was concerned about the lack of a spacious and modern residence in Moscow and its environs. Although she did not visit the old capital often, Catherine for a number of years cherished plans for the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin, as well as the construction of suburban palaces in Lefortovo, Kolomenskoye and Tsaritsyn. For various reasons, none of these projects were completed.
Ekaterina was a brunette of average height. She combined high intelligence, education, statesmanship and commitment to “free love”. Catherine is known for her connections with numerous lovers, the number of which (according to the list of the authoritative Catherine scholar P.I. Bartenev) reaches 23. The most famous of them were Sergei Saltykov, G.G. Orlov, horse guard lieutenant Vasilchikov, hussar Zorich, Lanskoy, the last favorite there was cornet Platon Zubov, who became a general. According to some sources, Catherine was secretly married to Potemkin (1775, see Wedding of Catherine II and Potemkin). After 1762, she planned a marriage with Orlov, but on the advice of those close to her, she abandoned this idea.
Catherine's love affairs were marked by a series of scandals. So, Grigory Orlov, being her favorite, at the same time (according to M.M. Shcherbatov) cohabited with all her ladies-in-waiting and even with his 13-year-old cousin. The favorite of Empress Lanskaya used an aphrodisiac to increase “male strength” (contarid) in ever-increasing doses, which, apparently, according to the conclusion of the court physician Weikart, was the cause of his unexpected death at a young age. Her to the last favorite, Platon Zubov, was a little over 20 years old, while Catherine’s age at that time had already exceeded 60. Historians mention many other scandalous details (“a bribe” of 100 thousand rubles paid to Potemkin by future favorites of the empress, many of whom were before this by his adjutants, testing their “male strength” by her ladies-in-waiting, etc.).
The bewilderment of contemporaries, including foreign diplomats, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, etc., was caused by the enthusiastic reviews and characteristics that Catherine gave to her young favorites, for the most part devoid of any outstanding talents. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, “neither before Catherine nor after her did debauchery reach such a wide scale and manifest itself in such an openly defiant form.”
It is worth noting that in Europe, Catherine’s “debauchery” was not such a rare occurrence against the backdrop of the general debauchery of morals in the 18th century. Most kings (with the possible exception of Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Charles XII) had numerous mistresses. However, this does not apply to reigning queens and empresses. Thus, the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa wrote about the “disgust and horror” that such persons as Catherine II instill in her, and this attitude towards the latter was shared by her daughter Marie Antoinette. As K. Walishevsky wrote in this regard, comparing Catherine II with Louis XV, “the difference between the sexes until the end of time, we think, will give a deeply unequal character to the same actions, depending on whether they were committed by a man or a woman... besides, the mistresses of Louis XV never influenced the fate of France.”
There are numerous examples of the exceptional influence (both negative and positive) that Catherine’s favorites (Orlov, Potemkin, Platon Zubov, etc.) had on the fate of the country, starting from June 28, 1762 until the death of the Empress, as well as on its domestic and foreign policies and even military actions. As N.I. Pavlenko writes, to please the favorite Grigory Potemkin, who was jealous of the glory of Field Marshal Rumyantsev, this outstanding commander and hero of the Russian-Turkish wars was removed by Catherine from command of the army and was forced to retire to his estate. Another, very mediocre commander, Musin-Pushkin, on the contrary, continued to lead the army, despite his mistakes in military campaigns (for which the empress herself called him “a complete idiot”) - thanks to the fact that he was the “favorite of June 28”, one of those who helped Catherine seize the throne.
In addition, the institution of favoritism had a negative effect on the morals of the higher nobility, who sought benefits through flattery to the new favorite, tried to make “their own man” become lovers of the empress, etc. Contemporary M. M. Shcherbatov wrote that favoritism and debauchery of Catherine II contributed to the decline of the morals of the nobility of that era, and historians agree with this.
Catherine had two sons: Pavel Petrovich (1754) and Alexei Bobrinsky (1762 - son of Grigory Orlov), as well as a daughter, Anna Petrovna (1757-1759, possibly from the future king of Poland Stanislav Poniatovsky), who died in infancy. Less likely is Catherine's motherhood in relation to Potemkin's pupil named Elizaveta, who was born when the empress was over 45 years old.
Doctor of Historical Sciences M.RAKHMATULLIN.
Over the long decades of the Soviet era, the history of the reign of Catherine II was presented with obvious bias, and the image of the empress herself was deliberately distorted. From the pages of a few publications appears a cunning and vain German princess, who insidiously seized the Russian throne and was most concerned with satisfying her sensual desires. Such judgments are based either on an openly politicized motive, or on the purely emotional memories of her contemporaries, or, finally, on the tendentious intent of her enemies (especially among her foreign opponents), who tried to discredit the empress’s tough and consistent defense of Russia’s national interests. But Voltaire, in one of his letters to Catherine II, called her the “Northern Semiramis,” likening her to the heroine Greek mythology, whose name is associated with the creation of one of the seven wonders of the world - the hanging gardens. Thus, the great philosopher expressed his admiration for the empress’s efforts to transform Russia and her wise rule. This essay attempts to impartially talk about the affairs and personality of Catherine II. “I accomplished my task quite well.”
Crowned Catherine II in all the splendor of her coronation attire. The coronation, according to tradition, took place in Moscow on September 22, 1762.
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who reigned from 1741 to 1761. Portrait of the mid-18th century.
Peter I married his eldest daughter, Tsarevna Anna Petrovna, to the Duke of Holstein, Karl-Friedrich. Their son became the heir to the Russian throne, Peter Fedorovich.
Catherine II's mother Johanna Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst, who tried to intrigue secretly from Russia in favor of the Prussian king.
Prussian King Frederick II, whom the young Russian heir tried to imitate in everything.
Science and life // Illustrations
Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna and Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. Their marriage turned out to be extremely unsuccessful.
Count Grigory Orlov is one of the active organizers and executors of the palace coup that elevated Catherine to the throne.
The most ardent participation in the coup of June 1762 was taken by the very young princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova.
Family portrait of the royal couple, taken shortly after Peter III ascended the throne. Next to his parents is the young heir Pavel in oriental costume.
Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, in which dignitaries and nobles took the oath to Empress Catherine II.
The future Russian Empress Catherine II Alekseevna, nee Sophia Frederica Augusta, Princess of Anhaltzerbst, was born on April 21 (May 2), 1729 in the then provincial Stettin (Prussia). Her father, the unremarkable Prince Christian August, made a good career through devoted service to the Prussian king: regiment commander, commandant of Stettin, governor. In 1727 (he was then 42 years old) he married the 16-year-old Holstein-Gottorp princess Johanna Elisabeth.
The somewhat eccentric princess, who had an insatiable passion for entertainment and short trips with her numerous and, unlike her, rich relatives, did not put family concerns in first place. Among her five children, her first-born daughter Fikhen (that’s what everyone in the family called Sofia Frederica) was not her favorite - they were expecting a son. “My birth was not particularly joyfully welcomed,” Catherine would later write in her Notes. The power-hungry and strict parent, out of a desire to “knock out her pride,” often rewarded her daughter with slaps in the face for innocent childish pranks and unchildish stubbornness of character. Little Fikhen found solace in her good-natured father. Constantly busy in the service and practically not interfering in the upbringing of his children, he nevertheless became for them an example of conscientious service in the public sphere. “I have never met a more honest person, both in terms of principles and in relation to actions,” Catherine will say about her father at a time when she had already gotten to know people well.
Flaw material resources did not allow parents to hire expensive, experienced teachers and governesses. And here fate smiled generously on Sofia Frederica. After changing several careless governesses, the French emigrant Elisabeth Cardel (nicknamed Babet) became her kind mentor. As Catherine II later wrote about her, she “knew almost everything without learning anything; she knew all the comedies and tragedies like the back of her hand and was very funny.” The pupil’s heartfelt review paints Babet as “a model of virtue and prudence - she had a naturally exalted soul, a developed mind, an excellent heart; she was patient, meek, cheerful, fair, constant.”
Perhaps the main merit of the clever Kardel, who had an exceptionally balanced character, can be called the fact that she inspired the stubborn and secretive at first (the fruits of her previous upbringing) Fikchen to read, in which the capricious and wayward princess found true pleasure. A natural consequence of this hobby was the precocious girl’s soon-to-be interest in serious works of philosophical content. It is no coincidence that already in 1744, one of the enlightened friends of the family, the Swedish Count Güllenborg, jokingly, but not without reason, called Fickhen a “fifteen-year-old philosopher.” It is curious that Catherine II herself admitted that her acquisition of “intelligence and virtues” was greatly facilitated by the conviction instilled by her mother, “as if I were completely ugly,” which kept the princess from empty social entertainments. Meanwhile, one of her contemporaries recalls: “She was perfectly built, from infancy she was distinguished by a noble bearing and was taller than her years. Her facial expression was not beautiful, but very pleasant, and her open gaze and amiable smile made her whole figure very attractive.”
However, the future fate of Sophia (like many later German princesses) was determined not by her personal merits, but by the dynastic situation in Russia. The childless Empress Elizaveta Petrovna immediately after her accession began to look for an heir worthy of the Russian throne. The choice fell on the only direct successor of the family of Peter the Great, his grandson - Karl Peter Ulrich. The son of Peter I's eldest daughter Anna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich was left an orphan at the age of 11. The prince was educated by pedantic German teachers, led by the pathologically cruel marshal Count Otto von Brümmer. The ducal son, frail from birth, was sometimes kept from hand to mouth, and for any offense he was forced to stand on his knees for hours on the peas, often and painfully whipped. “I order you to be whipped so much,” Brummer began to shout, “that the dogs will lick your blood.” The boy found an outlet in his passion for music, becoming addicted to the pitiful-sounding violin. His other passion was playing with tin soldiers.
The humiliation to which he was subjected day after day produced results: the prince, as contemporaries note, became “hot-tempered, false, loved to brag, and learned to lie.” He grew up to be a cowardly, secretive, capricious beyond measure and a man who thought a lot about himself. Here is a laconic portrait of Peter Ulrich, drawn by our brilliant historian V.O. Klyuchevsky: “His way of thinking and actions gave the impression of something surprisingly half-thought out and unfinished. He looked at serious things with a child’s gaze, and treated children’s undertakings with the seriousness of a mature husband. He looked like a child who imagined himself to be an adult; in fact, he was an adult who remained forever a child."
Such a “worthy” heir to the Russian throne was hastily delivered to St. Petersburg in January 1742 (so that he would not be intercepted by the Swedes, whose king he could also become by his pedigree). In November of the same year, the prince was converted to Orthodoxy against his will and named Peter Fedorovich. But in his soul he always remained a devout German Lutheran, who showed no desire to master the language of his new homeland to any degree. In addition, the heir was not lucky with his studies and upbringing in St. Petersburg. His main mentor, academician Yakov Shtelin, completely lacked any pedagogical talents, and he, seeing the student’s amazing inability and indifference, preferred to please the constant whims of the undergrowth rather than teach him properly the mind.
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Pyotr Fedorovich has already found a bride. What was decisive when the Russian court chose Princess Sofia? The Saxon resident Pezold wrote about this: although she is “from a noble, but such a small family,” she will be an obedient wife without any pretensions to participation in big politics. Elizaveta Petrovna’s elegiac memories of her failed marriage with her mother Sophia’s elder brother, Karl August (shortly before the wedding, he died of smallpox), and the portraits of the pretty princess delivered to the empress, whom everyone “liked at first sight” also played a role in this. "(as Catherine II would write in her Notes without false modesty).
At the end of 1743, Princess Sophia was invited (with Russian money) to St. Petersburg, where she arrived, accompanied by her mother, in February of the following year. From there they headed to Moscow, where the royal court was located at that time, and on the eve of Peter Fedorovich’s birthday (February 9), a very pretty and dressed-up (with the same money) bride appeared before the Empress and the Grand Duke. J. Shtelin writes about Elizaveta Petrovna’s sincere delight at the sight of Sofia. And the mature beauty, stature and greatness of the Russian queen made an indelible impression on the young provincial princess. It was as if the betrothed also liked each other. In any case, the mother of the future bride wrote to her husband that “the Grand Duke loves her.” Fikhen herself assessed everything more soberly: “To tell the truth, I liked the Russian crown more than him (the groom. - M.R.) person".
Indeed, the idyll, if it arose at the beginning, did not last long. Further communication between the Grand Duke and the princess showed a complete dissimilarity in both characters and interests, and in appearance they were strikingly different from each other: the lanky, narrow-shouldered and frail groom was even more inferior compared to the unusually attractive bride. When the Grand Duke suffered from smallpox, his face was so disfigured by fresh scars that Sophia, seeing the heir, could not restrain herself and was frankly horrified. However, the main thing was something else: the stunning infantilism of Pyotr Fedorovich was opposed by the active, purposeful, ambitious nature of Princess Sofia Frederica, who knew her worth, named in Russia in honor of the mother of Empress Elizabeth Ekaterina (Alekseevna). This happened with her adoption of Orthodoxy on June 28, 1744. The Empress gave the convert noble gifts - a diamond cufflink and a necklace worth 150 thousand rubles. The next day, the official betrothal took place, bringing Catherine the titles of Grand Duchess and Imperial Highness.
Assessing later the situation that arose in the spring of 1744, when Empress Elizabeth, having learned about the frivolous attempts of Sophia’s mother, Princess Johanna Elizabeth, prone to intrigue, to act (secretly from the Russian court) in the interests of the Prussian king Frederick II, almost sent her and her daughter back , “to his home” (which the groom, as the bride sensitively perceived, would probably have rejoiced), Catherine expressed her feelings like this: “He was almost indifferent to me, but the Russian crown was not indifferent to me.”
On August 21, 1745, ten days of wedding ceremonies began. Magnificent balls, masquerades, fireworks, a sea of wine and mountains of treats for the common people on Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg exceeded all expectations. However, the newlyweds' family life began with disappointments. As Catherine herself writes, her husband, who had a hearty dinner that evening, “lay down next to me, dozed off and slept safely until the morning.” And so it went on from night to night, from month to month, from year to year. Pyotr Fedorovich, as before the wedding, selflessly played with dolls, trained (or rather, tortured) a pack of his dogs, organized daily shows for an amusing company of court gentlemen of the same age, and at night he enthusiastically taught his wife “gun execution,” bringing her to complete exhaustion. It was then that he first discovered an excessive addiction to wine and tobacco.
It is not surprising that Catherine began to experience physical disgust for her nominal husband, finding solace in reading a wide variety of serious books and horse riding (she used to spend up to 13 hours a day on horseback). As she recalled, the famous “Annals” of Tacitus had a strong influence on the formation of her personality, and newest work French educator Charles Louis Montesquieu's "On the Spirit of Laws" became a reference book for her. She was absorbed in studying the works of French encyclopedists and already at that time she was intellectually superior to everyone around her.
Meanwhile, the aging Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was waiting for an heir and blamed Catherine for the fact that he did not appear. In the end, the empress, at the prompting of her confidants, arranged a medical examination of the couple, the results of which we learn from the reports of foreign diplomats: “The Grand Duke was unable to have children due to an obstacle that is eliminated among eastern peoples by circumcision, but which he considered incurable.” The news of this plunged Elizaveta Petrovna into shock. “Struck by this news, like a thunderclap,” writes one of the eyewitnesses, “Elizabeth seemed speechless, could not utter a word for a long time, and finally began to sob.”
However, tears did not prevent the empress from agreeing to an immediate operation, and in case of failure, she ordered to find a suitable “gentleman” to play the role of the father of the unborn child. He became “handsome Serge,” 26-year-old chamberlain Sergei Vasilyevich Saltykov. After two miscarriages (in 1752 and 1753), on September 20, 1754, Catherine gave birth to the heir to the throne, named Pavel Petrovich. True, evil tongues at court almost said out loud that the child should be called Sergeevich. Pyotr Fedorovich, who had by that time successfully recovered from his illness, also doubted his paternity: “God knows where my wife gets her pregnancy from, I don’t really know if this is my child and should I take it personally?”
Time, meanwhile, showed the groundlessness of suspicions. Pavel inherited not only the specific features of Pyotr Fedorovich's appearance, but, more importantly, the features of his character - including mental instability, irritability, a tendency to unpredictable actions and an irrepressible love for the meaningless drill of soldiers.
Immediately after birth, the heir was separated from his mother and placed under the care of nannies, and Sergei Saltykov was sent from Catherine, who was in love with him, to Sweden on an invented diplomatic mission. As for the grand ducal couple, Elizaveta Petrovna, having received the long-awaited heir, lost her former interest in her. With her nephew, because of his unbearable pranks * and stupid antics, she could not stay “even a quarter of an hour without feeling disgust, anger or grief.” For example, he drilled holes in the wall of the room where the aunt-empress received her favorite Alexei Razumovsky, and not only observed what was happening there himself, but also invited “friends” from his entourage to look through the peephole. One can imagine the power of Elizaveta Petrovna’s anger when she learned about the prank. From now on, the Empress Aunt often calls him in her hearts a fool, a freak, or even a “damned nephew.” In such a situation, Ekaterina Alekseevna, who secured an heir to the throne, could calmly reflect on her future fate.
On August 30, 1756, the twenty-year-old Grand Duchess informed the English ambassador to Russia, Sir Charles Herbert Williams, with whom she was in secret correspondence, that she had decided to “perish or reign.” The life goals of young Catherine in Russia are simple: to please the Grand Duke, to please the Empress, to please the people. Recalling this time, she wrote: “Truly, I did not neglect anything in order to achieve this: obsequiousness, humility, respect, the desire to please, the desire to do the right thing, sincere affection - everything on my part was constantly used from 1744 to 1761 I confess that when I lost hope of success in the first point, I redoubled my efforts to complete the last two; it seemed to me that more than once I succeeded in the second, but the third was a success for me in its entirety, without any limitation by any time, and, therefore, I think I have performed my task quite well."
The methods by which Catherine acquired the “power of attorney of the Russians” did not contain anything original and, in their simplicity, corresponded perfectly to the mental attitude and level of enlightenment of the St. Petersburg high society. Let's listen to her herself: “They attribute this to deep intelligence and a long study of my situation. Not at all! I owe this to Russian old women<...>And in ceremonial meetings, and at simple gatherings and parties, I approached old women, sat down next to them, asked about their health, advised what remedies to use in case of illness, patiently listened to their endless stories about their in my youth, about current boredom, about the frivolity of young people; I myself asked their advice in various matters and then sincerely thanked them. I knew the names of their moseks, lapdogs, parrots, fools; knew when which of these ladies had a birthday. On this day, my valet came to her, congratulated her on my behalf and brought her flowers and fruits from the Oranienbaum greenhouses. Less than two years had passed before the warmest praise for my mind and heart was heard from all sides and spread throughout Russia. In the simplest and most innocent way, I gained great fame for myself, and when the conversation came up about taking the Russian throne, a significant majority found myself on my side.”
On December 25, 1761, after a long illness, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna passed away. Senator Trubetskoy, who announced this long-awaited news, immediately proclaimed the accession to the throne of Emperor Peter III. As the wonderful historian S. M. Solovyov writes, “the answer was sobs and groans throughout the entire palace<...>The majority greeted the new reign gloomily: they knew the character of the new sovereign and did not expect anything good from him." Catherine, even if she had the intention, as she herself recalls, "save the state from that destruction, the danger of which was forced to foresee all the moral and physical qualities of this sovereign." , then, being at that time in the fifth month of pregnancy, she could practically not actively intervene in the course of events.
Perhaps this was for the best for her - during the six months of his reign, Peter III managed to turn the capital’s society and the nobility as a whole against himself to such an extent that he practically opened the way to power for his wife. Moreover, the attitude towards him was not changed either by the abolition of the hated Secret Chancellery, which led to general rejoicing, with its dungeons filled with prisoners with only one notorious cry: “The sovereign’s word and deed!” compulsory public service and giving them freedom to choose their place of residence, occupation and the right to travel abroad. The last act caused such a fit of enthusiasm among the nobility that the Senate even intended to erect a monument made of pure gold to the Tsar-Benefactor. However, the euphoria did not last long - everything was outweighed by the extremely unpopular actions of the emperor in society, which greatly affected the national dignity of the Russian people.
Peter III's deliberately advertised adoration of the Prussian king Frederick II was subjected to angry condemnation. He loudly proclaimed himself his vassal, for which he received the popular nickname “Friedrich’s monkey.” The degree of public discontent jumped especially sharply when Peter III made peace with Prussia and returned to it what he had won with blood without any compensation. Russian soldiers land. This step practically nullified all the successes of the Seven Years' War for Russia.
Peter III managed to turn the clergy against himself, since, by his decree of March 21, 1762, they began to hastily implement the decision taken under Elizabeth Petrovna on the secularization of church lands: the treasury, devastated by many years of war, required replenishment. Moreover, the new tsar threatened to deprive the clergy of their usual magnificent vestments, replacing them with black pastoral robes, and to shave off the priests’ beards.
The addiction to wine did not add to the glory of the new emperor. It did not go unnoticed how extremely cynically he behaved in the days of mournful farewell to the late empress, allowing obscene antics, jokes, loud laughter at her coffin... According to contemporaries, Peter III did not have “a more cruel enemy” in these days than himself, because he does not neglect anything that could harm him." This is confirmed by Catherine: her husband “in the whole empire had no more fierce enemy than himself.” As we see, Peter III thoroughly prepared the ground for the coup.
It is difficult to say exactly when the specific outlines of the conspiracy appeared. With a high degree of probability, its occurrence can be attributed to April 1762, when Catherine received physical ability for real action. The final decision on the conspiracy, apparently, was confirmed after the family scandal that happened in early June. At one of the gala dinners, Peter III, in the presence of foreign ambassadors and about 500 guests, publicly called his wife a fool several times in a row. Then came the order to the adjutant to arrest his wife. And only the persistent persuasion of Prince George Ludwig of Holstein (he was the uncle of the imperial couple) extinguished the conflict. But they did not change the intention of Peter III by any means to free himself from his wife and fulfill his long-standing desire - to marry his favorite, Elizaveta Romanovna Vorontsova. According to reviews from people close to Peter, she “sweared like a soldier, squinted, smelled bad and spat when talking.” Pockmarked, fat, with an exorbitant bust, she was exactly the type of woman that Pyotr Fedorovich liked, who loudly called his girlfriend “Romanova” during drinking sessions. Catherine was threatened with imminent tonsure as a nun.
There was no time left to organize a classic conspiracy with lengthy preparation and thinking through all the details. Everything was decided according to the situation, almost at the level of improvisation, although compensated by the decisive actions of Ekaterina Alekseevna’s supporters. Among them was her secret admirer, Ukrainian Hetman K. G. Razumovsky, at the same time the commander of the Izmailovsky regiment, a favorite of the guards. Those close to Peter III, Chief Prosecutor A. I. Glebov, Field Chief General A. N. Vilboa, Police Director Baron N. A. Korf, as well as Chief General M. N. also showed obvious sympathy for her. The 18-year-old, unusually energetic and girlishly faithful friendship with Catherine, Princess E.R. Dashkova (Peter III’s favorite was her sister), who had extensive connections in the world thanks to her closeness to N.I. Panin and the fact that Chancellor M.I. Vorontsov was her uncle.
It was through the favorite's sister, who did not arouse any suspicion, that officers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment - P. B. Passek, S. A. Bredikhin, brothers Alexander and Nikolai Roslavlev - were recruited to participate in the coup. Through other reliable channels, connections were established with other energetic young guards officers. All of them paved the way for Catherine comparatively easy way to the throne. Among them, the most active and active - “who stood out from the crowd of comrades for his beauty, strength, dash, and sociability” - 27-year-old Grigory Grigorievich Orlov (who had long been in a love affair with Catherine - the boy born to her in April 1762 was their son Alexei). Catherine's favorite was supported in everything by his two equally dashing guards brothers - Alexey and Fedor. It was the three Orlov brothers who were actually the mainspring of the conspiracy.
In the Horse Guards, “everything was directed prudently, boldly and actively” by the future favorite of Catherine II, 22-year-old non-commissioned officer G. A. Potemkin and his same age as F. A. Khitrovo. By the end of June, according to Catherine, her “accomplices” in the guard included up to 40 officers and about 10 thousand privates. One of the main inspirers of the conspiracy was the tutor of Tsarevich Pavel N.I. Panin. True, he pursued goals different from Catherine’s: the removal of Peter Fedorovich from power and the establishment of a regency under his pupil, the young Tsar Pavel Petrovich. Catherine knows about this, and, although such a plan is absolutely unacceptable for her, she, not wanting the fragmentation of forces, when talking with Panin, limits herself to a non-binding phrase: “It is nicer for me to be a mother than the wife of a ruler.”
An incident hastened the fall of Peter III: a reckless decision to start a war with Denmark (with a completely empty treasury) and command the troops himself, although the emperor’s inability to do military work was the talk of the town. His interests here were limited to a love of colorful uniforms, endless drills and the adoption of rude soldierly manners, which he considered an indicator of masculinity. Even the urgent advice of his idol Frederick II - not to go to the theater of military operations before the coronation - had no effect on Peter. And now the guard, spoiled under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by the free life of the capital, and now, at the whim of the tsar, dressed in the hated Prussian-style uniforms, receives an order to urgently prepare for a campaign that does not at all meet the interests of Russia.
The immediate signal for the start of the conspirators' actions was the accidental arrest on the evening of June 27 of one of the conspirators, Captain Passek. The danger was great. Alexey Orlov and guards lieutenant Vasily Bibikov on the night of June 28 hastily galloped to Peterhof, where Catherine was. The brothers Grigory and Fyodor, who remained in St. Petersburg, prepared everything for a proper “royal” meeting in the capital. At six o’clock in the morning on June 28, Alexey Orlov woke up Catherine with the words: “It’s time to get up: everything is ready for your proclamation.” "Like what?" - says Ekaterina, half asleep. “Passek has been arrested,” was A. Orlov’s answer.
And now the hesitations are cast aside, Catherine and the maid of honor get into the carriage in which Orlov arrived. V.I. Bibikov and the chamberlain Shkurin sit at the back, and Alexey Orlov sits on the box next to the coachman. Five versts from the capital they are met by Grigory Orlov. Catherine transfers to his carriage with fresh horses. In front of the barracks of the Izmailovsky regiment, the guards are delighted to take the oath to the new empress. Then the carriage with Catherine and a crowd of soldiers, led by a priest with a cross, head to the Semenovsky regiment, which greeted Catherine with a thunderous “Hurray!” Accompanied by troops, she goes to the Kazan Cathedral, where a prayer service immediately begins and at the litanies “the autocratic Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna and the heir to the Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich were proclaimed.” From the cathedral, Catherine, already an empress, goes to the Winter Palace. Here, the guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, who were a little late and terribly upset by this, joined the two guard regiments. By noon, army units also arrived.
Meanwhile, members of the Senate and Synod and other high officials of the state are already crowding the Winter Palace. Without any delay, they took the oath to the Empress according to a text hastily compiled by the future Secretary of State of Catherine II G. N. Teplov. The Manifesto on Catherine’s accession to the throne “at the request of all our subjects” was also published. Residents of the northern capital are rejoicing; wine flows like a river at public expense from the cellars of private wine merchants. Inflamed by the drink, the common people are having fun and waiting for good deeds from the new queen. But she has no time for them yet. To the exclamations of "Hurray!" The Danish campaign was cancelled. To attract the fleet to his side, a reliable person was sent to Kronstadt - Admiral I. L. Talyzin. Decrees on the change of power were prudently sent to the part of the Russian army located in Pomerania.
What about Peter III? Did he suspect the threat of a coup and what was happening in his inner circle on the ill-fated day of June 28? The surviving documentary evidence clearly shows that he did not even think about the possibility of a coup, confident in the love of his subjects. Hence his disregard for the previously received, admittedly vague, warnings.
Having sat at a late dinner the day before, Peter arrives in Peterhof at noon on June 28 to celebrate his upcoming name day. And he discovers that Catherine is not in Monplaisir - she unexpectedly left for St. Petersburg. Messengers were urgently sent to the city - N. Yu. Trubetskoy and A. I. Shuvalov (one was colonel of the Semenovsky regiment, the other of the Preobrazhensky regiment). However, neither one nor the other returned, swearing allegiance to Catherine without hesitation. But the disappearance of the messengers did not give Peter decisiveness, who from the very beginning was morally crushed by the complete, in his opinion, hopelessness of the situation. Finally, the decision was made to move to Kronstadt: according to a report from the commandant of the fortress P.A. Devier, they were supposedly ready to receive the emperor. But while Peter and his people were sailing to Kronstadt, Talyzin had already arrived there and, to the joy of the garrison, led everyone to the oath of allegiance to Empress Catherine II. Therefore, the flotilla of the deposed emperor (one galley and one yacht) that approached the fortress in the first hour of the night was forced to turn back to Oranienbaum. Peter also did not accept the advice of the elderly Count B. Kh. Minich, returned from exile, to act “like a king”, without delaying an hour, go to the troops in Revel and move with them to St. Petersburg.
And at this time, Catherine once again demonstrates her determination by ordering up to 14 thousand troops with artillery to be drawn to Peterhof. The task of the conspirators who seized the throne is complex and at the same time simple: to achieve the “voluntary” decent abdication of Peter from the throne. And on June 29, General M.L. Izmailov delivers to Catherine a pitiful message from Peter III asking for forgiveness and renouncing his rights to the throne. He also expressed his readiness (if allowed) together with E.R. Vorontsova, adjutant A.V. Gudovich, a violin and his beloved pug to go to live in Holstein, if only he was allocated a boarding house sufficient for a comfortable existence. They demanded from Peter “a written and handwritten certificate” that he renounced the throne “voluntarily and spontaneously.” Peter agreed to everything and humbly declared in writing “to the whole world solemnly”: “From the government Russian state I renounce for all my life."
By noon, Peter was taken under arrest, taken to Peterhof, and then transferred to Ropsha - a small country palace 27 versts from Petersburg. Here he was put “under strong guard” supposedly until the premises in Shlisselburg were ready. Alexey Orlov was appointed as the main “guard.” So, the entire coup, which did not shed a single drop of blood, took less than two days - June 28 and 29. Frederick II later, in a conversation with the French envoy in St. Petersburg, Count L.-F. Segur gave the following review of the events in Russia: “The lack of courage in Peter III ruined him: he allowed himself to be dethroned like a child being sent to bed".
In the current situation, the physical elimination of Peter was the surest and most trouble-free solution to the problem. As if ordered, this is exactly what happened. On the seventh day after the coup, under circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified, Peter III was killed. It was officially announced to the people that Pyotr Fedorovich died from hemorrhoidal colic, which happened “by the will of divine Providence.”
Naturally, contemporaries, as well as historians later, were keenly interested in the question of Catherine’s involvement in this tragedy. There are different opinions on this matter, but they are all based on guesses and assumptions, and there are simply no facts incriminating Catherine of this crime. Apparently, the French envoy Beranger was right when, hot on the heels of the events, he wrote: “I do not suspect in this princess such a terrible soul as to think that she participated in the death of the king, but since the deepest secret will probably always be hidden from general information the real author of this terrible murder, suspicion and infamy will remain with the empress."
A. I. Herzen spoke more definitely: “It is very likely that Catherine did not give the order to kill Peter III. We know from Shakespeare how these orders are given - with a glance, a hint, silence.” It is important to note here that all participants in the “accidental” (as A. Orlov explained in his repentant note to the Empress) murder of the deposed emperor not only did not suffer any punishment, but were then superbly rewarded with money and serf souls. Thus, Catherine, willingly or unwillingly, took this grave sin upon herself. Perhaps this is why the empress showed no less mercy towards her recent enemies: practically none of them were not only sent away according to the current situation Russian tradition into exile, but was not punished at all. Even Peter’s mistress Elizaveta Vorontsova was only quietly installed in her father’s house. Moreover, Catherine II subsequently became the godmother of her first-born. Truly, generosity and forbearance are the faithful weapons of the strong, always bringing them glory and loyal admirers.
On July 6, 1762, the Manifesto signed by Catherine on her accession to the throne was announced in the Senate. On September 22, a solemn coronation took place in Moscow, which greeted her coolly. Thus began the 34-year reign of Catherine II.
Starting to characterize the long reign of Catherine II and her personality, let us pay attention to one paradoxical fact: the illegality of Catherine’s accession to the throne also had its undoubted advantages, especially in the first years of her reign, when she “had to atone for what that legitimate kings have without labor. This very necessity was partly the spring of her great and brilliant deeds." Not only the famous writer and memoirist N.I. Grech, to whom the above judgment belongs, thought so. He is in in this case only reflected the opinion of the educated part of society. V. O. Klyuchevsky, speaking about the tasks facing Catherine, who took, but did not receive, power by law, and noting the extreme confusion of the situation in Russia after the coup, emphasized the same point: “The power seized always has the character of a bill of exchange, according to which are waiting for payment, and according to the mood of Russian society, Catherine had to justify various and discordant expectations.” Looking ahead, let's say that this bill was repaid on time.
Historical literature has long noted the main contradiction of Catherine’s “age of Enlightenment” (though not shared by all experts): the empress “wanted so much enlightenment and such light that she would not be afraid of its “inevitable consequences.” In other words, Catherine II found herself faced with an explosive dilemma: enlightenment or slavery? And since she never resolved this problem, leaving serfdom intact, it seemed to give rise to subsequent bewilderment as to why she did not do this. But the above formula (“enlightenment - slavery”) causes natural questions: were there appropriate conditions in Russia at that time for the abolition of “slavery” and did the society of that time realize the need for a radical change in social relations in the country? Let’s try to answer them.
In determining the course of her domestic policy, Catherine relied primarily on the book knowledge she acquired. But not only. At first, the empress’s transformative fervor was fueled by her initial assessment of Russia as “an unplowed country,” where it was best to carry out all sorts of reforms. That is why on August 8, 1762, only in the sixth week of her reign, Catherine II, by a special decree, confirmed the March decree of Peter III banning the purchase of serfs by industrialists. Owners of factories and mines must henceforth be content with the labor of civilian workers paid under a contract. It seems that she generally had the intention of abolishing forced labor and ridding the country of the “shame of slavery,” as required by the spirit of Montesquieu’s teachings. But her intention was not yet strong enough to decide on such a revolutionary step. In addition, Catherine did not yet have any complete understanding of Russian reality. On the other hand, as one of the smartest people of Pushkin’s era, Prince P. A. Vyazemsky, noted, when the actions of Catherine II had not yet become “a legend of ancient times,” she “loved reforms, but gradual ones, transformations, but not steep ones,” without breaking.
By 1765, Catherine II came to the idea of the need to convene the Statutory Commission to bring the existing legislation “into better order” and in order to reliably find out “the needs and sensitive shortcomings of our people.” Let us remind you that attempts to convene the current legislative body - the Legislative Commission - have been made more than once before, but all of them were in force various reasons ended in failure. Taking this into account, Catherine, endowed with a remarkable mind, resorted to an act unprecedented in the history of Russia: she personally drew up a special “Order”, which was a detailed program of action for the Commission.
As follows from a letter to Voltaire, she believed that the Russian people are “excellent soil on which good seed grows quickly; but we also need axioms that are indisputably recognized as true.” And these axioms are known - the ideas of the Enlightenment, which she laid as the basis for the new Russian legislation. Even V. O. Klyuchevsky specifically highlighted the main condition for the implementation of Catherine’s transformative plans, which she briefly outlined in her “Instructions”: “Russia is a European power; Peter I, introducing European morals and customs among the European people, found such conveniences as "I didn't expect it myself. The conclusion followed naturally: the axioms, which represent the last and best fruit of European thought, will find the same convenience in this people."
In the literature about the “Nakaz”, there has long been an opinion about the purely compilative nature of this main Catherine’s political work. When justifying such judgments, they usually refer to her own words spoken to the French philosopher and educator D'Alembert: “You will see how there I robbed President Montesquieu for the benefit of my empire, without naming him.” Indeed, from the 526 articles of the “Nakaz”, divided into 20 chapters, 294 go back to the work of the famous French educator Montesquieu “On the Spirit of Laws”, and 108 - to the work of the Italian legal scholar Cesare Beccaria “On Crimes and Punishments". Catherine also widely used the works of other European thinkers. However, this was not a simple translation into the Russian style of the works of famous authors, but their creative rethinking, an attempt to apply the ideas contained in them to Russian reality.
(To be continued.)
