Enlightened Monarchy in Russia

"Enlightened monarchy" in Russia is called the state policy, which was led by Empress Catherine II, who ruled in 1762-1796. In the style of her leadership of the country, she was guided by the then Western standards. What was the policy of enlightened absolutism? Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, France - all these countries, like Russia, adhered to this course then. It consisted of reforms that updated the state system and abolished some feudal survivals.

Power in the country remained exclusively in the hands of the autocratic ruler. This feature was the main contradiction that distinguished the policy of enlightened absolutism. The Habsburg monarchy, Russia and other major European powers embarked on the path of reform due to the birth of capitalism. Changes were tightly controlled from above and therefore did not become full-fledged

The origins

The Russian enlightened monarchy arose under the influence of French culture, which shaped the views of Catherine II, her entourage and a significant part of the country's educated people. On the one hand, it was a fashion of aristocrats for etiquette, European dresses, hairstyles and hats. However, French trends were reflected in the spiritual climate of the nobility.

Wealthy merchants and merchants, as well as high-ranking officials began to get acquainted with the West European humanitarian culture, history, philosophy, art and literature under Peter I. In the era of Catherine, this process reached a peak. It is the educated aristocracy that is the social pillar of the monarchy during the period of enlightened absolutism. Books and visiting foreigners incorporated progressive ideas into the representatives of the nobility. Rich people began to travel often to Europe, to know the world, to compare Western orders and customs with Russian ones.

"The Order" of Catherine

Catherine II came to power in 1762. She was German by birth, had a European education and habits, corresponded with the great French enlighteners. This “intellectual baggage” affected the style of government. The empress wanted to reform the state, make it more effective and modern. So the enlightened monarchy of Catherine 2 appeared.

Already in the same 1762, the counselor of the empress Nikita Panin presented her with a draft reform of the imperial council. A statesman argued that the old system of governing the country was ineffective because it allowed the emergence of influential favorites. The transition from absolutism to an enlightened monarchy also consisted in the fact that Catherine opposed herself to the former rulers of the post-Petrine era, when politics was run by all kinds of courtiers.

In general, Panin proposed the creation of an advisory body. Catherine rejected his project, deciding to supplement this document. So a plan was born for a complete overhaul of the previous legislation. The main thing that the empress wanted to achieve was order in governing the country. To do this, it was necessary to completely revise the old laws and add new ones.

Soon, Catherine established a Commission to create a draft new Code. As a recommendation for her, the empress composed "The Order." It had more than 500 articles in which the basic principles of the Russian legal system were formulated. The document of Catherine referred to the works of great thinkers of that time: Montesquieu, Beccaria, Just, Bilfeld. In “The Order” all that was represented by the enlightened monarchy in Russia was reflected. The features, content, significance of this document went back to the ideology of advanced enlighteners.

The theoretical arguments of Catherine were even too liberal and therefore not applicable to the then Russian reality, since they inflicted a blow on the interests of the privileged nobility - the main pillar of state power. One way or another, but many of the sovereign's arguments remained only within the bounds of good wishes. On the other hand, in Nakaz Ekaterina stated that Russia is a European power. So she confirmed the political course laid down by Peter I.

Layers of the Russian population

Catherine II believed that the enlightened monarchy in Russia was based on the social division of society. She called the ideal state the absolutist model. The empress explained her fidelity to the “natural” right of some to rule, while others to be governed. Catherine’s postulates were based on references to the history of Russia, where the autocracy had the most ancient roots.

The monarch was called not only a source of power, but also a figure consolidating the whole society. He had no restrictions other than ethical. The monarch, considered Catherine, was to show indulgence and ensure "the bliss of everyone and everyone." The enlightened monarchy set as its goal not to limit the freedom of people, but to direct their energy and activity towards achieving common prosperity.

The empress divided Russian society into three main strata: the nobility, the middle class and the peasantry. She called freedom the right to do what remains within the law. The laws were declared the main instrument of the state. They were built and formulated according to the "spirit of the people", that is, the mentality. All this was to be ensured by the enlightened monarchy of the second half of the 18th century. Catherine II was the first Russian ruler to talk about the need to humanize criminal law. She considered the main goal of the state not to punish criminals, but to prevent their crimes.

Economy

The economic pillars on which the enlightened monarchy rested were property rights and agriculture. The main condition for the prosperity of the country, Catherine called hard work of all Russian classes. Calling agriculture the basis of the country's economy, the empress did not dissemble. In the second half of the 18th century, Russia remained a deep agricultural country, in which industry lagged noticeably behind the European one.

Many villages under the reign of Catherine II were declared cities, but in fact they remained all the same villages with the previous occupations of the population and appearance. This contradiction was the agrarian and patriarchal nature of Russia. Even with imaginary cities, the country's urban population was no more than 5%.

Russian industry, like agriculture, remained serfdom. At the factories and manufactories, bonded labor was widely used, since the labor of civilian workers cost the enterprises an order of magnitude more. Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution had already begun in England . Russia exported mainly semi-finished products and natural raw materials. The economy almost did not produce finished products on the foreign market.

Judgment and religion

The last chapters of the Catherine’s “Order” were devoted to the courts. The enlightened monarchy in Russia, in short, could not interact with society without this arbiter. Judicial proceedings were of fundamental importance, which the empress could not understand. Catherine delegated many functions to this institution. In particular, the court was supposed to uphold the principle of religious freedom, which applied to any residents of Russia. Catherine also touched on the topic of religion in her correspondence. She opposed the forcible conversion to Christianity of the non-Russian peoples of the country.

An enlightened monarchy is a state that relied heavily on following regulations and laws. That is why Catherine’s Staged Commission has banned the holding of extraordinary court hearings. The empress also opposed the oppression of freedom of speech. However, this did not stop her from bringing down reprisals against those who, in her opinion, encroached on public order by their publications.

Peasant question

The main dilemma faced by the enlightened monarchy in Russia was the future of serfdom. In the era of Catherine II, the slave position of the peasants was never abolished. But it was serfdom that was most criticized by the progressive sections of society. This social evil became the object of attacks by the satirical magazines of Nikolai Novikov ("Purse", "Drone", "Painter"). Like Radishchev, he did not wait for the cardinal changes initiated from above, but was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress.

The fallacy of serfdom was not only in the most inhumane slave position of the peasants, but also in that it impeded the economic development of the Empire. The classes needed freedom in order to work for their own benefit. Work for the landowner, who took away the harvest and earnings, a priori could not be effective. The enrichment of the peasantry occurred only after its liberation in 1861. The enlightened monarchy of Catherine 2, in short, did not dare to take this step for the sake of maintaining internal stability, consisting in the absence of a conflict between the government and the landlords. The remaining transformations of the empress in the village in this case remained only scenery. It was her period of rule - the era of the greatest enslavement of peasants. Already under the son of Catherine Paul I, the corvee decreased, becoming a three-day one.

Criticism of Autocracy

French rationalism and the ideas of the Enlightenment pointed to the shortcomings of feudal forms of government. So the first criticism of autocracy arose. The enlightened monarchy, however, was precisely an unlimited form of power. The state welcomed the reforms, but they should have come from above and not affect the main thing - autocracy. That is why the era of Catherine II and her contemporaries is called the era of enlightened absolutism.

The first to publicly criticize autocracy was writer Alexander Radishchev. His ode to Liberty was the first revolutionary poem in Russia. After the publication of Travel from Petersburg to Moscow, Radishchev was sent into exile. Thus, the enlightened monarchy of Catherine 2, although positioned as a progressive state, did not at all allow freethinkers to change the state system.

Education

In many ways, the transition from absolutism to an enlightened monarchy occurred thanks to the work of prominent scholars. The main luminary of Russian science of the 18th century was Mikhail Lomonosov. In 1755, he founded Moscow University. At the same time, enlightening utopianism was propagated in Masonic lodges, which became extremely popular among nobles.

In the second half of the 18th century, a new network of closed educational institutions appeared in which the children of noblemen, merchants, clergy, soldiers, and heterodities studied. All of them were pronounced class character. Here, as elsewhere, the advantage was in the hands of the nobles. All sorts of buildings were opened for them, where teaching was conducted according to Western European standards.

Curtailing reforms

The activities of the Stated Commission of Catherine II best demonstrate the correlation of the concepts of "absolute monarchy" and "enlightened absolutism." The empress tried to create a state that would be like those models that were described by the main European thinkers of the XVIII century. However, the contradiction was that the Enlightenment and the absolute monarchy could not be compatible. Retaining the autocratic power, Catherine herself impeded the development of state institutions. However, not a single European monarch of the Enlightenment decided on radical reforms.

Perhaps Catherine would have gone for further transformations, if not for a few dramatic events of the second half of the 18th century. The first happened in Russia itself. We are talking about the Pugachevsky uprising that swept the Urals and the Volga region in 1773-1775. The riot began among the Cossacks. Then he embraced the national and peasant strata. Serfs smashed the estates of the nobles, killed yesterday's oppressors. At the peak of the uprising, under the control of Emelyan Pugachev, there were many large cities, including Orenburg and Ufa. Catherine was seriously scared of the biggest riot in the last century. When the troops defeated the Pugachevites, a reaction of the authorities came, and the reforms stopped. In the future, the era of Catherine became the "golden age" of the nobility, when their privileges reached maximum proportions.

Other events that influenced the views of the empress were two revolutions: the war for the independence of the American colonies and the revolution in France. The latter overthrew the Bourbon monarchy. Catherine initiated the creation of an anti-French coalition, which included all the major European powers with the former absolutist system.

Cities and townspeople

In 1785, a Letter of Merit was issued to cities, in which Catherine regulated the status of residents of cities. They were divided into several categories according to social and property characteristics. The first class of “real urban inhabitants” included the nobles who owned real estate, as well as the clergy and bureaucracy. This was followed by guild merchants, workshop artisans, nonresident, foreigners, residents of the village. Well-known citizens stood out separately. These were people with university degrees, owners of large capitals, bankers, ship owners.

The privileges of a person depended on their status. For example, eminent citizens received the right to have their own garden, suburban courtyard and carriage. Also, people with voting rights were identified in the letter. The philistinism and the merchants received the rudiments of self-government. The diploma ordered every 3 years to organize meetings of the wealthiest and most influential citizens. Elected judicial institutions, the Magistrates, were founded. The situation that was formed thanks to the letter was preserved until 1870, that is, until the reforms of Alexander II.

Noble privileges

Simultaneously with the Charter, a more important Charter was issued to the nobility. This document has become a symbol of the entire era of Catherine II and the enlightened monarchy as a whole. He developed the ideas laid down in the Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility, adopted in 1762 under Peter III. Catherine’s granted letter stated that the landowners were the only legitimate elite of Russian society.

The noble title was made hereditary, inalienable, and extended to the entire noble family. His aristocrat could lose only in the event of a criminal offense. So Catherine enshrined in practice her own thesis that the behavior of all noblemen, without exception, should have corresponded to their high position.

By virtue of their "noble origin," the landowners were freed from corporal punishment. Their property right extended to different types of property and, most importantly, to serfs. Nobles could optionally become entrepreneurs, for example, engage in maritime trade. Persons of noble origin were allowed to have factories and factories. The aristocracy was not subject to personal taxes.

The nobles could create their own societies - the Noble Assembly, which had political rights and their own finances. Such organizations were allowed to send reform and transformation projects to the monarch. Meetings were created on a territorial basis and tied to the province. These self-government bodies had leaders of the nobility, the appointment of which was carried out by the governors.

The letter of merit completed the long process of exalting the estate of the landowners. The document recorded that it was the nobles who were considered the main driving social force in Russia. The whole enlightened monarchy was based on this principle. The influence of the nobility gradually began to decline already under the successor of Catherine Paul I. This emperor, being the heir in conflict with his mother, tried to cancel all her innovations. Pavel allowed corporal punishment to be applied to nobles, forbade them to address him personally. Many of Paul’s decisions were reversed under his son Alexander I. However, in the new XIX century, Russia has already entered a new step in its development. Enlightened absolutism remained a symbol of one era - the reign of Catherine II.