Catherine The Great
Throughout history, Russia has been viewed
as a regressive cluster of barely
civilized people on the verge of barbarism.
In the eighteenth century, ideas of
science and secularism grasped hold of
Europe, and Russian Czars, realizing how
behind Muscovite culture was, sought
out this knowledge, attempting to imbed it
into Russian society. Catherine II
was one of these Czars. She listened to both
the ideas of the philosophers
and the problems of her people and strove to
enlighten Russia by codifying
the laws, establishing an elected government,
funding hospitals, and forming
a functioning school board. Her attempts,
however, were met with only partial
success. Her reforms received much
criticism, especially from the serfs, and
Catherine was forced to realize,
through the Pugachev Rebellion in 1773, that
enlightening all of Russia was an
impossibility. Catherine II’s greatest
glory was seen in her foreign policies,
as she solved two fundamental
problems for Russia by winning victories over
Turkey and Poland. As well,
she established a League of Armed Neutrality and
spoke out against the French
Revolution. Catherine’s reign created both
prosperity and poverty for Russia.
In order to decide whether she was truly
great, one must evaluate her
accomplishments upon the foundation of Russian
ideals. At the end of the
seventeenth century, Russia was a country in
transition. The death of Czar
Alexis in 1676 marked a change in Russian society,
a movement from
traditional Muscovite culture toward new, educated concepts.
Reforms in
the 1650s divided and weakened the Russian Orthodox Church, and a few
bold
individuals began to adopt a semi-westernized lifestyle. By
western
standards, however, Russia still seem backward, and at best, "a
fringe nation
of Europe...without benefit of middle class, universities,
academies, or secular
culture" (Oblensky and Stone 144). The rebellion of the
musketeers, or
streltsy, in 1682 exposed a web of destructive feuds,
religious superstition and
xenophobia within Russia. Peter I took the throne
in 1682 and reigned until
1725, with themes of war, love of foreigners,
and love of the sea marking his
rule. He and his army defeated Sweden at
Poltava in 1709, he founded a navy at
St. Petersburg, and he expanded the
policy of hiring foreigners. Peter wrought
numerous changes, attempting to
impose order on the Russian society, but, along
with these reforms, he forged
a gap between the upper Russian classes and the
peasant population. After his
death, Russia was turned over to several meager
Czars: Peter’s wife,
Catherine I, a self-indulged illiterate, from 1725-27;
Peter, his 12 year
old grandson, from 1727-30; his niece Anna, a woman with no
political
interests from 1730-40; and Ivan VI, an infant from, 1740-41 (Oblensky
and
Stone 145). In 1741, Peter’s daughter, Elizabeth was raised to the
throne,
overthrowing Ivan VI. Lavish baroque palaces, an increase in western
culture,
and the taking of Berlin from Prussia in the Seven Years War
characterized her
reign. Again, Russia seemed to be establishing itself as a
powerful society.
However, Elizabeth’s successor, Peter III, undid much
of what she had
accomplished, as he returned Russia’s gains from the Seven
Years War to his
hero Frederick the Great (Oblensky and Stone 145). Within
six months of his
succession, Peter was overthrown by a Guards’ coup in
favour of his German
wife, Catherine II. Catherine was thirty-three years old
when she ascended the
Russian throne. She had survived a loveless
marriage, in which "ambition alone
sustained her" (Gooch 6). Ignored by her
husband, Peter III, she dedicated her
time to learning the Russian language,
studying the writings of the philosophes,
and adapting cleverly to her new
environment—skills which constitute important
aspects of her reign. Schooled
by these teachings, she favoured religious
tolerance, justice tempered with
mercy (Gooch 91), education for women, civil
rights determined within the
bounds of class and estate, and the classical style
in art and architecture.
A women quite out of the ordinary, Catherine possessed"high intelligence, a
natural ability to administer and govern, a remarkable
practical sense,
energy to spare, and an iron will" (Riasanovsky 256). Along
with her
determination went courage and optimism, self-control, skill in
discussion
and propaganda, and a clever handling of men and circumstances to
best serve
her ends. Yet, together with her virtues, Catherine had certain
weaknesses:
her determination easily became ruthlessness, just as her ambition
became
vanity (Gooch 96). "Even Catherine II’s admirers sometimes noticed
that she
lacked something, call it charity, mercy, or human sympathy"
(Riasanovsky
256). Indisputably, however, for the first time since Peter
the Great, Russia
had acquired a sovereign who worked day and night, paying
personal attention to
all kinds of matters, great and small. Catherine began
her reign with numerous
enlightened, ambitious ideas, based on her readings
of the philosophes. She took
the first step toward liberalism by forming the
Legislative Commission in which
elections were introduced, codifying the
Russian laws, creating a uniform school
system and establishing a branch of
public hospitals. Upon her inauguration to
the throne, Catherine had asked
God to help her observe the law of the Orthodox
Church, strengthen and
defend the beloved fatherland, preserve justice,
eradicate evil, all lies and
impositions, and finally, to set up state
institutions, by means of which the
government would work within set limits and
each department would have a
defined sphere of action so that general good order
would be maintained. For
these purposes, she investigated every case that had
come to her attention in
order to discover the shortcomings that existed in
Russia and how to best
relieve them (Dukes 51). In the first year of her reign,
she noticed the
general confusion and the inadequacy existing in the arrangement
and the
application of imperial laws. Peter the Great attempted twice to
codify
Russia’s laws, first in 1700 and again in 1714, with similar
attempts made by
his successors, particularly Elizabeth. None, however, were
successful. For two
years Catherine prepared her Instructions, or Nakaz—a set
of principles which
reflected her opinions on the political and legal
structure desirable for Russia
(Hosking 95). Although Catherine had no
intention of granting her subjects a
constitution, and although her
propaganda greatly exaggerated the radical nature
of her intentions, the
Nakaz was a strikingly liberal document (Riasanovsky
258). To discover
the needs and wants of the Russian people, Catherine formed a
Law Code
Commission in 1767. The members were elected in local gatherings of
the
relevant estates: the nobility, the townsfolk, the state peasants, the
Cossacks,
the odnodvortsy—descendants of the militarized peasants who had
staffed the
frontier lines—and the non-Russians. (Hosking 98). Deputies were
sent to
Moscow from all districts and towns, each with their own nakaz,
or cahier, in
which the requests and statements of grievance originating from
their electors
were drafted. However, the representatives were "insensitive
to the broad
vision of creative statesmanship laid before them by their
monarch" (Dukes
100) and efforts were directed only at obtaining what
they could within the
existing system rather than recommending fundamental
reforms. Catherine was
quick to realize that the members were unaware of the
needs of society as a
whole and that they were unable to exercise
self-restraint for the general good
(Dukes 101). Conveniently, she dismissed
the Commission in 1768 when Russia went
to war against Turkey. Nevertheless,
the drafts written by the electives were
not wasted, as the materials were
employed in a "Description of the Russian
Empire and its International
Administration and Legal Enactments," published
in 1783. This proclamation
was the closest thing that Russia had to a law code
for the next 50 years
(Hosking 100). It denounced capital punishment and
torture, it argued for
crime prevention and, in general, "was abreast of
advanced Western thought
for criminology" (Riasanovsky 259). Catherine decided
that, before positing
common interests, which did not exist, she should put more
backbone into
fragmented Russia by creating institutions which would enable
citizens to
work together at least within their own estates and orders;
Catherine
adopted the task of laying the foundation for a civilized Russian
society.
Catherine’s first contribution toward forming an enlightened nation
was to
create a system of hospitals. Although medical science had yet to reach
a
respected position, Russia lacked, as did many other countries, a method
of
administering the small amounts of medical knowledge it did possess. In
attempts
to alleviate this, Catherine funded the Town Hospital at St.
Petersburg, the St.
Petersburg House for Lunatics, and the Foundling
Hospital; as well, she
popularized vaccinations. The Empress donated money to
fund the Town Hospital at
St. Petersburg, where poor were admitted
without payment (Kochan 26). Upon
admittance, they were shaved, bathed, and
put in tidy dress. The hospital
consisted of 300 well spread beds with
curtains and a professor of electricity
who was permanently employed to
relieve diseases. Likewise, the St. Petersburg
House for Lunatics was
constructed, which became renowned for its gentle
treatment. Unlike other
mental hospitals, it did not use chains to subdue raving
patients, but
instead used thongs, and, it only used gentle remedies, such as a
strict
diet, for mental disorders (Kochan 26). Finally, Catherine built
the
Foundling Hospital on the banks of the Muskva. This hospital broke
new ground,
for it was one of the first establishments of its kind. Through
it, Catherine
intended to discourage infanticide. A branch was set up in St.
Petersburg in
1770, which acted as both a lie-in-hospital, admitting all
pregnant women
without pay, and a school, teaching girls sewing and boys the
arts. The function
of the Foundling Home has been described as "the
transformation of private
indiscretion into national benefit" (Kochan 27)
since all children were
accepted without charge—the mother just had to state
the name of the child and
whether it had been baptized. Furthermore, it was
through Catherine that
vaccinations became widespread. Smallpox took the
lives of many Russians, and
permanently disfigured its survivors. Catherine
was one of the first people in
Russia to submit to an inoculation against
the disease (Kochan 27). In 1768, she
summoned the Quaker, Dr. Thomas
Dimsdale to perform the procedure; later that
year, she had a Smallpox
Hospital built, which, twice a year, inoculated
children without charge.
Through this, Catherine attempted to both instill
scientific ideas in
Russia—she decreed that Russia be equipped to produce its
own medicines and
surgical instruments—and, to save the lives of many
commoners (Riasanovsky
264). However, rather than seek medical aid,
unenlightened peasants ran to
The Virgin as a cure from the disease. The
peasants were unable to appreciate
the hospitals along with many of
Catherine’s other broad visions.
Catherine’s final social reform was in the
education system. Not only did the
Empress reorganize the schools of elite
classes—such as the Cadet Corps—and
introduce the first female
schools—such as the Smolny Institute for Noble
Girls—she also created a
successful nationwide education system of elementary
and secondary schooling.
Russian education was a failure up to the 1760s
for several reasons: it lacked
textbooks, it had no set curriculum, it used a
wide application of over-rigorous
discipline, it stressed education for
state-service purposes, and it was limited
by Russian superstitions. It was
Russian tradition that reading secular books
was a temptation from the devil
(Miliukov 5), and so, grammar was taught with
Church Slavonic print and
church books until the 1760s. This practice was
harmful because, by the
1700’s, Church Slavonic was no longer the vernacular
(Dukes 30). Catherine
alleviated this by drafting an index of secular books to
be used in schools,
including The Primer, Rules for Pupils, On the Duties of Man
and Citizen,
History of the World, Introduction to European Geography, and
Russian
Grammar. Prior to Catherine, the curriculum was as useless as the
textbooks
since it laid emphasis on only a few practical subjects, and was, for
the
most part, without "rhyme or reason" (Dukes 31). The Russians of the
first
half of the eighteenth century tended to view education as "general,
separate
pieces of information, and that to learn these and become an educated
man was
simple" (Dukes 31). Catherine observed this restraint, and formed a
system of
successive learning, where specific subjects were studied in four
grade
levels, each level increasing in difficulty. Through this, Catherine gave
her
people understanding, not just superficial knowledge. Russians also
believed
that severe discipline aided knowledge, a belief which stemmed
partly from the
nature of military Russian education and partly from teachers
wanting dumb
obedience (Dukes 31). It was also the consequence of the
seventeenth century
religious theory, that children were naturally wicked and
that they had to be
purged before they could learn, that led to the physical
abuse of children
(Dukes 31). This abuse handicapped Russian education by
creating mindless
followers instead of outspoken thinkers. Catherine
condemned this practice by
banning physical punishment in schools, and
therefore, taking the first step in
creating a non-militaristic, rational
education system. Another concept that
impeded Russian schooling was Peter
the Great’s notion that the purpose of
education was the preparation of the
young for services of the state (Dukes 32).
Consequently, people did not
learn for curiosity’s sake, and they did not
experiment. The installation of
provincial schools was Catherine’s solution.
In 1786, the Statute of
Popular Schools was produced and published. Although F.I.
Iankovich, a
Serbian graduate, was its chief architect, the Statute reflected,
to a
considerable degree, the education plans composed by Catherine (Dukes
242).
This education system was nationwide, with cost-free elementary and
secondary
schooling for boys and girls, including serfs with the permission
of their land
owners. The Education Statute stated that, in every provincial
capitol, there
must be one major school, consisting of four grades and, in
every provincial and
district town, one minor school with two grades. The
classes were to study
reading, writing, catechism, elementary grammar and
arithmetic, drawing, church
history—from teachers rather than clergy—and,
rudimentary civics, all in
their native tongue, as well as in the foreign
language which was most useful
for everyday life, depending on where the
school was situated (Obolensky and
Stone 211). This system recognized
that, education is for the prosperity of the
individual, and not the state,
and in order for Russians to become broad-minded,
they must acquire the
fundamentals of knowledge. The final concept that made
Russian education
a failure was the influence of a peculiar Russian culture,
composed of
ancient, Slavic superstition and folklore, and simple, but
powerful
Orthodox Christian faith (Dukes 34).