Historical Figures

Catherine II, Empress of All the Russias


Catherine II the Great was Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. Installing herself on the throne following a coup against her husband, Tsar Peter III, she continued the process of Westernization of Russia begun by Peter the Great. “Enlightened despot” with authoritarian methods, corresponding with the philosophers of the Enlightenment, she enlarged her empire at the expense of the Turks and Poles, and reformed the administration. His long reign (34 years) is marked by the cultural influence of Russia throughout Europe, but also by a real political hardening within the country. Catherine The Great will say one day "I leave it to posterity to judge impartially what I have done".

Becoming Empress of Russia

Sophie Auguste d'Anhalt-Zerbst, future Catherine II of Russia, was born on May 2, 1729 in Stettin in Pomerania, to an officer father of the King of Prussia and a fashion-loving princess mother. A little neglected by her parents, helped by a French governess, she read a lot, became very mature for her age and when she reached the age of fifteen, Empress Elisabeth asked her for the future Tsar Peter III. The presentations were made in February 1744:the young sixteen-year-old boy was a passionate admirer of King Frederick II of Prussia, loved hunting but played with dolls.

Forced to convert to the Orthodox religion, Sophie married on August 21, 1745 in Saint Petersburg Charles Frederic, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, nephew and successor of Empress Elisabeth of Russia, grandson of Peter the Great, she took the name of Catherine II. The young girl quickly becomes disillusioned and her life turns into a nightmare:her husband brutalizes her, plays the violin in the middle of the night, drinks in the morning... Still not having an heir eight years after the wedding, Empress Elisabeth then decides to find her a lover:a young officer named Saltykov "the Handsome Serge". She gives birth to the future Paul I, who is taken from her immediately and whom she will not see until forty days later...they will never get along anyway!

Peter III acceded to the throne on January 5, 1762 and withdrew from the alliance with France and Austria against Prussia, thus saving his idol Frederick II. The future of Catherine II is very dark, her husband wants to lock her up and install her mistress instead. Unpopular, and on his way, he closes all the private chapels, and prepares to abolish serfdom. The officers of his guard revolted, took an oath of loyalty to Catherine, the Tsar abdicated, was imprisoned and then was found dead in June 1762, officially of hemorrhoidal colic; in fact he was murdered.

Catherine, is proclaimed empress and crowned on September 22 in the old cathedral in the heart of Moscow. She keeps the statesman who was active under Empress Elisabeth and under Peter, as well as Chancellor Vorontzov and discovers the alarming situation of her country:deficit of seventeen million rubles for a country of one hundred million inhabitants, complaints of corruption, extortion, injustices!

Catherine II's reforms

Becoming head of state, Catherine II will be keen to continue the policy of the tsars, increasing the greatness of Russia. The nobility owns large estates and acquires rights over the serfs. Catherine II therefore tackles agricultural techniques by sending experts to study the land and propose new crops. It provides financial assistance to landowners to acquire machinery and use modern cattle breeding techniques. Then, it takes care of the mining operations and sends geologists to the field. She also founded the first School of Mines in Saint Petersburg with an underground mine for student learning.

It encourages individuals to develop trade by authorizing them to create factories and attracts foreigners, such as Germans and Moravians. New industries are born:linen, leather goods, furniture and pottery, porcelain. He still lacked shipbuilding:Catherine II called on Admiral Knowles in England to build warships.

Relentlessly pursuing the expansion of her country, she abolishes export duties and Russia sends wood, hemp, flax, leather, furs, clothing and iron by camel caravan to Manchuria and China. In exchange, Russia imports cotton, tobacco, silk, silver, tea. From ninety-eight factories in Russia at the time of Peter the Great, they will increase to three thousand one hundred and sixty at the end of the reign of Catherine II, thus succeeding in bailing out Empress Elisabeth's debts and obtaining a profit.

In 1767, Catherine II published new codes, following peasant demands. The nobility of the lands is dissatisfied, which will lead to the peasant revolt led by Pougatchev in 1773-1774, who will himself be executed in 1775, publicly in Moscow! As a result, it established a Charter of the nobility in 1785, where the privileged can participate in public affairs, have the right to elect a provincial marshal, to participate in general assemblies, have freedoms such as exemption from punishment bodily harm, no killing without trial, exemption from taxes, the right to create businesses and industries, the right to keep their lands with the established peasants... this is how the power of the landlords over the peasants is increases, as does the number of serfs and Catherine II's greatest regret is not having succeeded in abolishing serfdom.

Catherine the Great, protector of the Arts, Letters

Her desire to build is pressing, but before any final construction, she asks the architects to make exterior and interior models. It even provides for a kind of model city:the main street is made up of large squares, administrative buildings and shops, all very spaced out to avoid fires. New cities appear like Sevastopol, Kherson and Saint Petersburg is enriched with palaces and monuments made by French and Italian artists, notably the Pavlovsk Palace in the south of the city.

The Russian sovereign also notes the lack of education for young people. In 1764, she transformed a convent in Saint Petersburg into a boarding school for young noble and middle-class girls, the Smolny Institute, then established the Statute of Schools for all of Russia. In all the districts of the cities, a school establishment is built and directed by two professors. In provincial towns, a large school will have six teachers.

Attracted to the arts, she created the Academy of Fine Arts, whose program is still followed today. The youngest begin their fifteen-year education at the age of five/six and go on a "world tour of masterpieces" by going to the biggest capitals. The dance academy is modernized in order to be recognized worldwide. Russia soon became the country of ballets and nowadays, the biggest stars come from its school (Nureyev, Barychnikov). According to the habits of this academy, education is free, the youngest enter at the age of ten and stay there for nine years.

She also set up anatomy classes where models sometimes pose naked in front of students. Indeed, the means in the field of public health are insufficient. Noting that the greatest cause of infant mortality is smallpox, she founded the first College of Medicine in Russia in 1763 to train doctors, surgeons and pharmacists and appealed to the great Scottish doctor, Thomas Dimsdale to have a vaccination performed. mass.

Catherine II volunteered in 1768 to lead by example. Faced with the success of this vaccine, she acquired houses in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to transform them into hospitals. In 1775, when she reorganized the provinces, she decided that each capital must have a hospital, each region of twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants must have a doctor, a surgeon and a medical student.

Catherine II's foreign policy

In order to expand its territories, Catherine II wishes to expand towards the Black Sea, the Baltic and Central Europe. Its foreign policy is mainly carried out by letters addressed to foreign sovereigns, in particular Frederick II of Prussia.

Despite everything, the King of Prussia does not make it easy for the Empress. Indeed, Catherine II had placed on the throne of the Polish republic her former lover Poniatowski and hoped to maintain the domination of Russia over this state. Frederick II of Prussia, taking advantage of the difficulties between Russia and the Turks, imposed the division of Poland in 1772 into three parts attributed to Russia, Prussia and Austria. The second partition of Poland in 1793 was more favorable to Russia and two years later, despite the Polish insurrection, Poland disappeared as a state.

The first declaration of war was made by the Sultan of the Porte in 1769, Catherine II retaliated and succeeded in burning a Turkish squadron in 1770. After several conflicts, the Porte demanded the peace in 1774 by the treaty of Kutchuk-Kaïnardji. Russia thus obtained the freedom of navigation on the Black Sea and the independence of the Crimea in 1783. But in 1786, the Sultan relaunched the war and Russia finally won during the Treaty of Iasi in 1792, it was as well as Odessa and its port are born. However, Russia is not satisfied:the Turks still refuse access to the straits to warships.

When the French Revolution broke out, the sovereign, although inspired by the Enlightenment, very quickly perceived the danger represented by the ideas coming from France. From an enlightened despot, she quickly became an unconditional supporter of the counter-Revolution by loosening her purse strings.

The private life of Catherine II

Neither inhuman nor cold, her affective life is nevertheless empty. Her love for her grandsons is insufficient, so she has relationships with many men, and her lovers will become ministers, generals, ambassadors and princes.

Rising around seven o'clock in the morning, she read the reports and received the members of her government. Around noon, the court takes its place in front of a magnificently laid table, the Empress promoting the expansion of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory. She likes boiled beef and introduces the potato to Russia, ordering its cultivation there, although this vegetable is considered the herb of the devil.

In the afternoon, she plays cards with the courtiers and loses astronomical sums, but she is good at billiards. In the evening, there is entertainment:Monday Comédie Française, Tuesday Russian comedy, Wednesday tragedy, Thursday opera. Weekends are reserved for the masked ball:in love with luxury, she sometimes changes her outfit three times on this occasion! In her everyday life, she does not wear the same dress twice and for official ceremonies she adopts fitted military dress for women, made by French designers.

She maintains an abundant correspondence with the great philosophers and foreign writers, Voltaire and Diderot are her confidants, Diderot travels to Russia at the age of sixty. When Voltaire dies, Catherine II manages to buy back all of her library, which she installs in an annex of her winter palace called the Hermitage, thus building up a collection of more than seven thousand works annotated by the hand of the writer. . Today, they are kept in a 24-hour guarded room in the National Library of Russia, which has grown from 100 volumes to almost 38,000 volumes.

A fan of baths, she goes there several times a week and selects those around her to accompany her. In her favorite palace in Tsarskoye Selo, she had a pavilion built for cold baths, the rooms of which were covered with jasper. Always in the same place, she had the amber room made. Called the eighth wonder of the world, six tons of this stone are needed for this room where the Empress feels particularly good, amber having soothing and medicinal properties.

Her love life is eventful, and Catherine II does a lot for her lovers:she will spend ninety-two million rubles on her favorites, when the state budget was sixty ten million rubles a year…. Her first lover may have been the father of Paul I; he leaves the place to the ambassador of Saxony the future king of Poland Stanislas Poniatowski. But very quickly, she prefers to converse with him rather than anything else. Then comes the time of Orlov, a young soldier of twenty-five, as gifted in love as in warlike exploits.

Link with Potemkin and end of reign

Arrived at the age of forty-five, she befriends a thirty-five-year-old soldier Grigory Potemkin (brother of Orlov). Educated, competent, he is the first favorite with whom she discusses state policy and entrusts him with important matters. During their affair which lasted two years, she wiped off his gambling debts, offered him the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg...she made him a Prince of the Empire. To stay in his little papers, Potemkine will act like Madame de Pompadour:he chooses the future lovers of the Empress. Examined by a doctor, a countess then analyzes their cultures and their sexual performance ... if the elected official, he will become a key figure at court, he will dine with the Empress, will be at her side during ceremonies.

A few years later, appears the young Alexander Lanskoy aged twenty-five… who dies a year later! Either following a strong intake of aphrodisiacs, or poisoned by Potemkin who became jealous! His last favorite Zubov will only be twenty-two years old.

Cathering a heart attack, Catherine II died on November 17, 1796 at the age of 67 in Tsarskoye. Although she preferred to see her grandson Alexander succeed her, it was her son Paul I who ascended the throne.

Bibliography

- Catherine II:A Golden Age for Russia, by Hélène Carrère d'Encausse. Plural, 2011.

- Catherine II, Courage Triumphant, by Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan. Perrin, 2021.

- Catherine II, biography of Anna Moretti. Ellipses, 2018.