Catherine 2 came to power as a result of the unsuccessful reign of her husband Peter 3. He, thanks to his shortsightedness, ruled Russia for less than a year and fell a victim of a palace coup. Catherine who came in his place was at times smarter and more cunning. As for her reforms, so initially she was going to give Russia completely new, progressive laws. However, her activity was limited to the nobility, who placed the empress in power. But still, some of Catherine the Great’s ideas were reflected in her reforms.
So, Catherine 2 reform began with the transformation of the Senate. The fact is that it was from this side that a danger came undermining its power. Based on this, on December 15, 1763, a manifesto was issued on the transformation of the Senate. From that very moment, the senate lost all legislative power. But at the same time, his judicial powers remained. His executive branch also remained .
With this role, the Senate significantly increased the importance of the Attorney General. Catherine appointed Vyazemsky to this position, who was her confidant. At that time, Vyazemsky was famous for his honesty and integrity. Thanks to this, he was entrusted with the management of the treasury, finance, justice, control and supervision. All provincial prosecutors were subordinate to him. But so significant was the role of only the prosecutor general. The Senate itself was divided into six parts. Each was headed by his own chief prosecutor. The first department dealt with external and internal political affairs. However, this was only a law-enforcement aspect - nothing more. The second dealt with court cases in such an aspect as appeal. Under the jurisdiction of the third were the western outskirts of the empire, education and the police. The fourth was in charge of naval and military affairs. The fifth department along with the sixth were located in Moscow. One was involved in court cases, the other was a Senate office.
It should be noted that Empress Catherine 2 began to carry out the reforms precisely from where she should have - she curbed the only legislative body that could significantly impede her rule.
Next is the judicial reform of Catherine 2 and the provincial reform. All this can be safely attributed to the continuation of the undertakings of Peter 1. For starters, instead of the three-membered division of the empire into counties, provinces and provinces, a two-term division was introduced - into the county and province. This was necessary to significantly improve judicial, supervisory and financial activities. In this case, the enlargement of the provinces.
First of all, Catherine 2 reforms aimed at improving the economic and political situation in the country. She perfectly understood that in any other variant, what could happen to her as with her predecessor Peter 3.
However, due to her dependence on the nobility, she could not afford to improve the situation of the peasants. And from that they eventually began to raise uprisings. The most famous of them is the
Pugachev uprising, which, incidentally, showed that Empress Catherine 2 did not carry out the reforms in the most proper way. First of all, it affected the provincial reform. After all, a country divided into huge provinces was very, very weakly controlled by the center. So after the uprising, a whole series of measures were taken to solve this problem.