Russian Revolution - Land of the Tsars - Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great
Among Russia’s most admired rulers was Catherine II , known as Catherine the Great. She ruled Russia from 1762-1796. The well-educated empress read the works of the philosophes, and she exchanged many letters with Voltaire. She ruled with absolute authority, but she also took steps to modernize and reform Russia. In 1767, Catherine formed a commission to review Russia’s laws. She presented it with a brilliant proposal for reforms based on the ideas of Montesquieu and Beccaria.
Among other changes, she recommended allowing religious toleration and abolishing torture and capital punishment. Her commission, however, accomplished none of these lofty goals. Catherine eventually put in places limited reforms, but she could do little to improve the life of Russian peasants. Her thinking about enlightened ideas changed after a massive uprising of serfs in 1773.
With great brutality, Catherine’s army crushed the rebellion. Catherine had previously favored an end to serfdom. However, the revolt convinced her that she needed the nobles support to keep her thrown. Therefore, she gave the nobles absolute power over the serfs. As a result, Russian serfs lost their last traces of freedom.
Catherine Expands Russia
Peter the Great had fought for years to win a port on the Baltic Sea. Likewise, Catherine sought to access to the Black Sea. In two wars with the Ottoman Turks, her armies finally won control of the northern shore of the Black Sea. Russia also gained the right to send ships through Ottoman-controlled straits leading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Catherine also expanded her empire westward into Poland. In Poland, the king was relatively weak, and independent nobles held most of the power. The three neighboring powers—Russia, Prussia, Austria—each tried to assert their influence over the country. In 1772, these land hungry neighbors each took a piece of Poland in what is called the First Partition of Poland. In further partitions in 1793 and 1795, they grabbed up the rest of Poland’s territory. With these partitions, Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. It did not reappear as an independent country until after World War I. By the end of her remarkable reign, Catherine had vastly enlarged the Russian empire. Gaining access to warm-water ports that would not freeze in the winter was Catherine's greatest accomplishment. It allowed Russia to compete on a world economic stage.
