Catherine the Great: life and legacy

Catherine the Great

Sometimes in history, events occur that are so out of the ordinary that they actually alter a river of time that has not changed its course in decades or even generations. This is what took place when Catherine the Great, a woman and non-Russian, unexpectedly became Tsarina of Russia in 1762 without any claim to the throne. Catherine welcomed the Western world for 34 years and showed the strength and power of women rulers, but much of her rule went unrecognized until historians, such as Isabel de Madariaga author of Catherine the Great: A Short History, reintroduced Catherine.

Born in 1729, Catherine was christened Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, a daughter of a minor German prince in Prussian service. Although born in a time when females had few rights, her father recognized her intelligence and ingenuity and allowed her to receive a formal education. In 1744, she married Grand Duke Peter of Holstein, heir to the Russian throne. Despite being German, she attempted to be as Russian as her mother in-law Elizabeth I. She not only studied the Russian language, but also assumed the name Catherine II in honor of her mother and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the marriage was not a happy one, to say the least. She remained childless until her first love affair, and then had a son, Paul. (His actual father is not known to this day.)

When Empress Elizabeth died, Peter became the Emperor. Peter may not have been stupid, writes de Madariaga, but he had little common sense and alienated all the parties at court. He withdrew from a war against Prussia, signed a peace treaty, abandoned all Russian conquests and angered the Orthodox hierarchy by taking over Church lands. In order to marry his mistress, he threatened to repudiate Catherine to disinherit his son. He also embarked on a military campaign against Denmark. All these decisions made a number of people very desirous to overthrow his empire. Soon his enemies succeeded, and Catherine was proclaimed empress. At this time, at the age of 33, Catherine's journal noted: "One should do good and avoid doing evil as much as one reasonably can, out of love of humanity. It is in the interest of the state" (4). She prosecuted and exiled no high-ranking officers who had served under Peter and never showed herself to be vindictive.

Even before she started her rule, Catherine proved herself much different than her husband and many of the others of the court. When her husband was still alive, she spent her time reading about politics, history and government, especially French literature and the life of her model king Henri IV of France. Thus, although she was new to the throne, Catherine already had a good foundation in the theory of government and comparative politics. In addition, her legislation was considerably influenced by Montesquieu's Esprit des.

Regularly, she sought out Western scholars for feedback. Voltaire became a regular correspondent. She sent him a copy of the Statute of Local Administration in 1775 and regularly wrote him about the state of affairs. She also corresponded often with Diderot, whose Great Encyclopedia was one of her favorite sources. When the editors were refused a license to publish in Paris, she offered to continue printing and publish it in Russia. Diderot came for a six-month trip: Catherine found him "impractical and theoretical" (97), but enjoyed his company none the less.

All such authors and their commentaries were new to Russia, which had been kept apart from this area of the world. "In search to bring enlightenment to those Russians who could not read either French or German, Catherine also launched a Society for the Translation of Foreign Books" (95) that published the works by Voltaire, Rousseau, Mably, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Robertson's History of America, and Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, which also influenced her political work. Books on theology remained taboo for some time. Of interest, the only printing presses at that time were owned by the state: "No one thought of starting one." That, too, changed in 1783 when Elizabeth published an edict allowing anyone, anywhere, of any social estate, to set up a printing press. Notes de Madariaga, "It is hard to argue that Catherine's regime was intellectually oppressive, as many of her detractors have done, in the face of such a clear example of her confidence in the response of society to her rule." (97). A lax censorship and publishing permission epitomized Catherine's personal outlook of encouragement of enterprise in as many fields as possible rather than state control.

Catherine, herself, was a prolific writer. Thousands of sheets of paper covered in her journals have survived. The most noteworthy of all was her 1767 Great Instruction, published to present before the elected representatives of nobles, townspeople, Cossacks, tribesmen and state peasants, not serfs, the general principles through which the assembly should codify laws. The 650 articles of the Instruction defined the functions of social estates and described the means of establishing rule of law and citizen welfare. Catherine was influenced by German and French thinkers of the time, perhaps even the works of Adam Smith. Proudly, she published her Instruction in over 25 languages, including English. It was so radical that it was condemned by the Sorbonne in Paris. From the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, Catherine drew her condemnation of torture in judicial proceedings in her Great Instruction: "The usage of torture is contrary to al the dictates of nature and reason: even mankind itself cries out against it, and demands loudly the total abolition of it" (30). This commentary, again, was completely new to Russia, as was writing a document of law in simple, easy-to-understand prose that could be purchased at a very low price and used by children to learn how to read. Catherine also declared state peasants a social group and granted them certain rights, including courts where they were allowed to elect assessors. Similarly, she reorganized the estate of the state peasants, setting up a society similar to the noble assembly and the town society.