On a frosty winter morning , February 12, 1744, bypassing the border barrier of the city of Riga, a carriage with two women entered the territory of the Russian Empire. One of them was the wife of the sovereign German prince of Anhalt-Zerbst - Johannes Elizabeth. Next to her was her fifteen-year-old daughter, Sophia Augusta, Frederick Anhalt-Zerbst - the future Russian empress and autocrat Catherine 2, who earned her title the Great. One of the brightest pages of Russian history is associated with the name of this woman.
Inherited Russia
The era of the reign of Catherine 2 began with a palace coup on June 28, 1762, as a result of which yesterday the modest and inconspicuous German princess, who received the name of Catherine in Orthodoxy, took the place of her extremely unpopular wife of Emperor Peter III.
As Catherine 2 testified in her memoirs, Russia, inherited from the former Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, needed radical reforms of the whole way of life. No salary was paid in the army, since the treasury was extremely exhausted. The lack of proper organization of the state economy led to a decline in trade, as its main industries were monopolized.
Serious problems were observed in the military and naval departments. Corruption among government officials made itself felt with particular acuteness, taking on ever larger proportions. Bribery encompassed the judiciary, and laws were in effect only when it was beneficial to the wealthy and powerful.
Prominent figures of the Catherine era
As a statesman of the highest rank, Catherine 2 possessed a very valuable quality - the ability to catch any practical thought, and then realize it for her own purposes. The empress selected the people who were in her inner circle based on their business qualities, not being afraid of talented and bright personalities. Thanks to this, the era of the reign of Catherine 2 was marked by the appearance of a whole galaxy of prominent statesmen, military leaders, writers, musicians and artists. It was the conditions created during this period that helped to fully reveal their abilities.
Such figures of the era of Catherine 2 as the generals A.V. Suvorov and P. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, writers D. Fonvizin and A. Radishchev, historian N. Karamzin and poet - the predecessor of A.S. Pushkin - G., forever entered the history of Russia. Derzhavin. Next to them are those who stood at the origins of Russian musical culture - this is the composer, teacher and conductor D. Bortnyansky, the outstanding violinist Ivan Khandoshkin, as well as the founder of the Russian national opera V. Pashkevich.
Action program
The history of the era of Catherine 2 was formed on the basis of tasks, the circle of which the Empress outlined for herself as follows:
- Every effort should be made to educate the nation that it has been ruled to govern.
- To streamline public life, it is necessary to instill in society respect for existing laws.
- To maintain internal order in the state, it is important to create a police force that meets all the necessary requirements.
- It is necessary to contribute to the flourishing of the country's economy and abundance in it.
- The combat effectiveness of the army should be strengthened in every way, and thus, Russia's authority should be raised in the face of other states.
The beginning of the implementation of plans
The entire era of Catherine 2 became the period of the implementation of these plans. The very next year after coming to power, the empress carried out senate reform, which allowed to increase the efficiency of public administration in many ways. As a result of changes made to the work of this authority, the Senate, divided into 6 separate departments, and having lost the functions of managing the state apparatus, became the highest judicial and administrative institution.
Secularization of Church Lands
It is known that during the reign of Catherine 2, Russia became the scene of a large-scale action to seize (secularize) and transfer church lands to the state fund. The need for such actions, which met with a very mixed response in society, was caused by the desire to make every effort to fill the state budget deficit.
As a result of the measures taken, about 500 monasteries were abolished, which allowed the transfer of 1 million serf souls to state ownership. Due to this, significant funds began to flow into the treasury. In a short time, the government paid off the debt to the army and managed to ease the general economic crisis. One of the consequences of this process was also a significant weakening of the influence of the church on the life of secular society.
Attempted Legal Reform
The era of Catherine 2 was also marked by an attempt to raise the structure of the internal life of Russia to a higher level. The empress believed that most of the injustices in the state can be overcome legally by developing a set of laws that meet the interests of all sectors of society. It was to replace the outdated Council Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, adopted in 1649.
To implement what was planned in 1767, the Stylized Commission was created, consisting of 572 deputies representing the nobility, merchants and Cossacks. The empress herself joined in her work. Having carefully studied the works of Western thinkers, she drew up a document called “The Order of Empress Catherine,” consisting of 20 chapters, divided into 526 articles.
It emphasized the need for the estate structure of the state and the creation of conditions in it that ensure strong autocratic power. In addition, many issues were examined, both legal and purely moral in nature. Unfortunately, these her works did not bring the expected result. After working for two years, the Commission was unable to develop the necessary code of laws, since all its members stood guard over their narrow-class interests and privileges.
Reform of the territorial division of the state
It is worth mentioning another important undertaking undertaken by Catherine 2. The era of absolutism in all countries of the world without exception was characterized by harsh centralized power. In order to ensure its more effective provision in Russia, the empress launched a new administrative division of the state in 1775.
From now on, the entire territory of the country consisted of 50 provinces, 300-400 thousand inhabitants in each, which, in turn, were divided into counties with a population of 20 to 30 thousand people. This contributed not only to exercising control over the life of all, even the most remote areas of the country, but also to more accurately taking into account tax-paying souls, that is, persons subject to taxation.
Extension of noble privileges
The era of Catherine 2 was a very favorable period for the Russian nobles. In 1785, a document was developed, developed by the Empress and dubbed the "Charter of the Nobility". On the basis of this set of privileges, drawn up in the form of a law, representatives of the upper class were sharply separated from the rest of the country's population.
They were guaranteed exemption from paying taxes and compulsory public service, as had been the case since Peter 1. Criminal and civil cases were subject to consideration only by a special noble court, and corporal punishment was forbidden to them. According to the empress, this was supposed to contribute to the eradication of servile psychology among the nobles and to instill self-esteem in them.
Empress - enlightener of the people
Russia in the era of Catherine 2 took a big step forward on the path of public education. As a result of the next state reform, the secondary education system was implemented. Within its framework, a whole series of closed educational institutions began to operate throughout Russia, among which were educational homes, noble and city schools, as well as institutions of noble maidens. In addition, the provinces received widespread non-verbal biennial county and four-year city schools. As a result of the development of teaching methods for various disciplines, unified training plans were introduced.
The age of enlightenment of Catherine 2 is also memorable by the creation of a female education system. It began with the opening of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg in 1764 and the creation of an Educational Society for them. From now on, young noblewomen were required not only to speak several foreign languages, but also to study a number of academic disciplines.
During the reign of Catherine 2, the Russian Academy of Sciences, rising to an unprecedented height, took a leading place in Europe. On its basis, a physical office and an observatory, a botanical garden and a Kunstkamera, an anatomical theater and a vast library were created. Thus, the culture of the era of Catherine 2 created a solid foundation for the further development of scientific thought in Russia.
The good deeds of the empress
Under Catherine 2, who rightfully earned the title of Great, progress was observed in all areas of life. The population of the country has significantly increased, which is indisputable evidence of an improvement in the lives of its citizens. As a result, hundreds of new cities and villages appeared. Industry and agriculture received an unprecedented impetus in their development, as a result of which Russia first began to export bread. All this gave a significant increase in income, which allowed to increase the treasury by 4 times.
Two important events of Russian history, such as the appearance of paper money and the beginning of vaccination against smallpox, are also associated with the name of the empress, and Catherine, to set an example to others, the first allowed herself to be vaccinated. Since then, the prevention of this terrible disease, which claimed thousands of lives, has been carried out regularly.
The expansion of the territory of Russia
The merits of Catherine the Great and the expansion of the country's borders are undeniable. During the years of her reign, wars were waged twice with the Ottoman Empire (1768-1774 and 1787-1791). As a result of the victories won, Russia was able to secure access to the Black Sea and include in its composition the territories, called Little Russia. These included Crimea, the Northern Black Sea region, as well as the Kuban region. In 1783, Russia took Georgia under its citizenship.
The era of Catherine 2 was also marked by events related to the partition of the Commonwealth. As a result of the active hostilities that took place in 1772, 1793 and 1795, the lands that were torn away from it in the past by the Polish-Lithuanian invaders were reintroduced into Russia. These include Western Belarus, Volhynia, Lithuania and Courland.
Strengthening Serfdom
At the same time, it should be noted that the reign of Catherine 2 was marked by such a negative phenomenon as an even greater enslavement of the peasants. Despite the fact that, being a man of enlightenment and thinking at the European level, the empress understood the whole perniciousness of serfdom, and even worked on a project to abolish it, she was forced to submit to tradition that had been established for centuries.
In the early days of her reign, Catherine issued a decree requiring the peasants to fully and unconditionally obey the landlords. Under her, the practice of distributing land together with the peasants living on them in the ownership of the favorites, as well as as an incentive for distinctions in public service, took on even greater scope.
At the same time, the very form of exploitation of peasants was tightened. It is known, in particular, that for those of them who paid the landlord to the landlord (these were mainly residents of the northern regions of Russia, where farming was ineffective), the amount charged doubled. At the same time, the situation of peasants, obliged to work off corvee on landowners' lands, worsened. If before their work was limited to three days a week, now this rule has been canceled, and everything depended on the arbitrariness of the owner.
Reactions to such oppression were uprisings that periodically broke out in different parts of the country, the largest of which was the peasant war led by Yemelyan Pugachev, which swept the Urals and the Volga region in the period 1773-1775.
Epilogue
Having completed her thirty-four-year period of rule, the empress passed away on November 17, 1796. However, this did not end the era of palace coups in Russia. Catherine 2 left behind the heir to the throne - her son Paul, crowned on April 16, 1797 and killed by the conspirators after 4 years.