1771 CATHERINE II the GREAT Antique Russian SIBERIAN Kopek Coin Shield i56410

Russia 
– Siberia
Catherine II “Cathrine the Great” of Russia – Empress 1762-1796 A.D.
1771 KM Copper Kopek 25mm (5.40 grams) Kolyvan mint
Reference: C# 3
Monogram of Catherine II with crown above; KM below; all within wreath.
МОНЕТА СИБИРСКАЯ “Money of Siberia” around crowned 
shield being held up by animals inscribed with КОПЕИКА◦1771.

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provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of 
Authenticity.        

Catherine II (Russian:
Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II 
Velikaya), also known as Catherine the Great, born 2

May
[O.S. 
21 April] 1729 as Sophie Friederike Auguste von 
Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in Stettin, Pomerania, reigned as
Empress of Russia
from 9 July [O.S. 
28 June] 1762 until her death (17 November [O.S. 
6 November] 1796). Under her direct auspices the
Russian Empire
expanded, improved its 
administration, and continued to
modernize
along
Western European
lines. Catherine’s rule 
re-vitalized Russia, which grew stronger than ever and became recognized as one 
of the great powers
of Europe. Her successes in 
complex
foreign policy
and her sometimes brutal 
reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably
Pugachev’s Rebellion
) complemented her hectic 
private life.

Catherine took power after a
conspiracy
deposed her husband,
Peter III
(1728-1762), and her reign saw the 
high point in the influence of the
Russian nobility
. Peter III, under pressure 
from the nobility, had already increased the authority of the great landed 
proprietors over their
muzhiks
and
serfs
. In spite of the duties imposed on the 
nobles by the first prominent “modernizer” of Russia, Tsar
Peter I
(1672-1725), and despite Catherine’s 
friendships with the
western European
thinkers of the
Enlightenment
(in particular
Denis Diderot
,
Voltaire
and
Montesquieu
) Catherine found it impractical to 
improve the lot of her poorest subjects, who continued to suffer (for example)
military conscription
. 
The distinctions between peasant rights on
votchina
and pomestie estates 
virtually disappeared in law as well as in practice during her reign.

In 1775 Catherine decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces 
of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by 
increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By 
the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more 
than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much 
as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility 
the
Charter to the Nobility
, increasing further the 
power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the 
Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, 
mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the 
Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power 
of nobles and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws, 
and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she long desired for her 
country. After her death, this was made even more obvious through her son Paul.

Early life

Young Catherine soon after her arrival in Russia, by
Louis Caravaque

Catherine’s father
Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
 
belonged to the
ruling German family
of
Anhalt
, but held the rank of a
Prussian
general in his capacity as Governor of 
the city of Stettin (now
Szczecin
, Poland). Born as Sophia Augusta 
Fredericka (German:
Sophie Friederike Auguste von 
Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, nicknamed “Figchen”) in
Stettin
,
Pomerania
, two of her first cousins became
Kings of Sweden
:
Gustav III
and
Charles XIII
. In accordance with the custom 
then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of
Germany
, she received her education chiefly 
from a French governess and from tutors. Catherine’s childhood was quite 
uneventful. She herself once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm: “I see 
nothing of interest in it.” 
Although Catherine was born a princess, her family had very little money. 
Catherine was to come to power based on her mother’s relations to wealthy 
members of royalty.

The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective
tsar
Peter of Holstein-Gottorp
, resulted from some 
amount of diplomatic management in which
Count Lestocq
, Peter’s aunt (the ruling Russian 
Empress
Elizabeth
), and
Frederick II of Prussia
took part. Lestocq and 
Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in 
order to weaken
Austria
‘s influence and ruin the Russian 
chancellor
Bestuzhev
, on whom Empress
Elizabeth
relied, and who acted as a known 
partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation. Catherine first met Peter III at the 
age of ten. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him. 
She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young 
age.

The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia’s 
mother,
Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
. 
Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and 
court intrigues. Johanna’s hunger for fame centred on her daughter’s prospects 
of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who 
eventually banned her from the country for spying for
King Frederick of Prussia
. The Empress knew the 
family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna’s brother
Charles Augustus
(Karl August von Holstein), 
who had died of smallpox
in 1727 before the wedding could take 
place. Nonetheless, Empress Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who 
on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the 
Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the
Russian people
. She applied herself to learning 
the
Russian language
with such zeal that she rose 
at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (even 
though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe 
attack of pneumonia
in March 1744. When she wrote her
memoirs
, she said she made up her mind when she 
came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever 
was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.

Portrait by George Christoph Grooth of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina 
Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, 1745.

Princess Sophia’s father, a devout German
Lutheran
, opposed his daughter’s conversion to
Eastern Orthodoxy
. Despite his objection, on 28 
June 1744 the
Russian Orthodox Church
received Princess 
Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or
Ekaterina) and the (artificial)
patronymic
Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of 
Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned 
dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at
Saint Petersburg
. Sophia had turned 16, her 
father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The bridegroom, known then as 
Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp
(located in the north-west of 
present-day Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.

As she recalls herself in her memoirs, as soon as she arrived in Russia she 
fell ill with a
pleuritis
which almost killed her. She says she 
owes her survival to frequent
bloodletting
; in one single day she had four 
phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress’ 
disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed 
by a Lutheran priest; she however, awaking from her
delirium
, said: “I don’t want any Lutheran; I 
want my orthodox father.” This raised her in the empress’ esteem.

The newlyweds settled in the palace of
Oranienbaum
, which remained the residence of 
the “young court” for many years to come.

Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist
James Boswell
well, and Boswell reports that 
Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch’s intimate affairs. 
Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth 
Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with
Sergei Saltykov
,
Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
(1734-1783),
Stanisław August Poniatowski
,
Alexander Vasilchikov
, and others. She became 
friends with Princess
Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
, the sister of 
her husband’s mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups 
that opposed her husband. Peter III’s temperament became quite unbearable for 
those who resided in the palace. He would announce trying drills in the morning 
to male servants who would later join Catherine in her room to sing and dance 
until late hours. 
Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna, who would only live to be 
four months old, in 1759. Due to various rumours of Catherine’s promiscuity, 
Peter was led to believe that he was not the child’s biological father and is 
known to have proclaimed, “Go to the devil!” when Catherine angrily dismissed 
his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her own private 
boudoir to hide away from Peter’s abrasive personality.

Of the period before her accession to the Russian throne, Catherine said: 
“Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: If you 
feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does 
not get to be dependent on anything.'”

Reign of Peter III and the coup d’état of July 1762

Tsar Peter III reigned only six months; he died on 17 July 1762.

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 
1761), Peter, the Grand Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, succeeded to the throne as
Peter III of Russia
, and Catherine became
Empress Consort
of Russia. The imperial couple 
moved into the new
Winter Palace
in
Saint Petersburg
.

The Tsar’s eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the 
Prussian king,
Frederick II
, alienated the same groups that 
Catherine had cultivated. Besides, Peter intervened in a dispute between his 
Duchy of Holstein
and
Denmark
over the province of
Schleswig
(see
Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff
).

On the night of 28 June 1762, Catherine the Great was given the news that one 
of her co-conspirators had been arrested by her estranged husband, and that all 
they had been planning must take place at once. She left the palace and departed 
for the Ismailovsky regiment, where Catherine delivered a speech asking the 
soldiers to protect her from her husband. Catherine then left with the regiment 
to go to the Semenovsky Barracks where the clergy was waiting to ordain her as 
the sole occupant of the Russian throne. She had her husband arrested and forced 
him to sign a document of abdication, leaving no one to dispute her accession to 
the throne. Shortly after being arrested, Peter was strangled by his guards. 
Some speculate that Catherine had ordered this done, but there is no evidence to 
back this theory.

Russia and Prussia fought each other during the
Seven Years’ War
(1756-1763) until Peter’s 
accession. Peter’s insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had 
seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760 but now suggested
partitioning Polish territories
with Russia, 
eroded much of his support among the nobility.

Equestrian portrait of the Grand Duchess Yekaterina Alexeyevna

In July 1762, barely six months after becoming the Tsar, Peter committed the 
political error of retiring with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to
Oranienbaum
, leaving his wife in Saint 
Petersburg. On 8 and 9 July, the
Leib Guard
revolted, deposed Peter from power, 
and proclaimed Catherine the Empress of Russia. The bloodless
coup
succeeded.

On 17 July 1762-eight days after the coup and just six months after his 
accession to the throne-Peter III died at
Ropsha
, at the hands of
Alexei Orlov
(younger brother to Gregory Orlov, 
then a court favourite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no 
evidence for Catherine’s complicity in the supposed assassination. 
Other potential rival claimants to the throne existed:
Ivan VI
(1740-1764), in closed confinement at
Schlüsselburg
, in
Lake Ladoga
, from the age of 6 months; and
Princess Tarakanova
(1753-1775). Ivan VI was 
assassinated during an attempt to free him as part of a failed coup against 
Catherine. Apparently, Catherine had given strict instructions to kill the royal 
captive in just such an instance, so her innocence here is unclear. (Ivan was 
thought to be insane because of his years of solitary confinement so might have 
made a poor emperor, even as a figurehead).

Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor, 
succeeded her husband as
Empress Regnant
. She followed the precedent 
established when
Catherine I
(born in the
lower classes
in the Swedish East Baltic 
territories) succeeded her husband
Peter the Great
in 1725.

Historians debate Catherine’s technical status, seeing her as a Regent or as 
a usurper
, tolerable only during the minority of 
her son,
Grand Duke Paul
. In the 1770s, a group of 
nobles connected with Paul (Nikita 
Panin and others) considered a new coup to depose Catherine and 
transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of
constitutional monarchy
. 
However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.

Reign 
(1762-1796)

Imperial monogram

Foreign affairs

During her reign Catherine extended the borders of the
Russian Empire
southward and westward to absorb
New Russia
,
Crimea
,
Northern Caucasus
,
Right-bank Ukraine
, Belarus,
Lithuania
, and
Courland
at the expense, mainly, of two powers 
– the
Ottoman Empire
and the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
. All told, she 
added some 200,000 square miles (520,000 km²) to Russian territory.

Catherine’s
foreign minister
,
Nikita Panin
(in office 1763-81), exercised 
considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, 
Panin dedicated much effort and millions of
rubles
to setting up a “Northern Accord” 
between Russia, Prussia
, Poland, and Sweden, to counter the 
power of the
Bourbon
-Habsburg 
League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out 
of favour and Catherine had him replaced with
Ivan Osterman
(in office 1781-97).

Catherine agreed to a
commercial treaty
with Great Britain in 1766, 
but stopped short of a full military alliance. 
Although she could see the benefits of Britain’s friendship, she was wary of 
Britain’s increased power following
its victory in the Seven Years War
, which 
threatened the
European balance of power
.

Russo-Turkish Wars

Equestrian portrait of Catherine in the
Preobrazhensky Regiment
‘s uniform

While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on 
the edge of the
Black Sea
in the
Azov campaigns
, Catherine completed the 
conquest of the south. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in
south-eastern Europe
after her
first Russo-Turkish War
against the Ottoman 
Empire (1768-74), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history, 
including the
Battle of Chesma
(5-7 July 1770) and the
Battle of Kagul
(21 July 1770).

The Russian victories allowed Catherine’s government to obtain access to the 
Black Sea and to incorporate present-day southern
Ukraine
, where the Russians founded the new 
cities of Odessa
,
Nikolayev
, Yekaterinoslav (literally: “the 
Glory of Catherine”; the future
Dnepropetrovsk
), and
Kherson
. The
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca
, signed 10 July 1774, 
gave the Russians territories at
Azov, Kerch
,
Yenikale
,
Kinburn
, and the small strip of Black Sea coast 
between the rivers
Dnieper
and
Bug
. The treaty also removed restrictions on 
Russian naval or commercial traffic in the
Azov Sea
, granted to Russia the position of 
protector of
Orthodox Christians
in the Ottoman Empire, and 
made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.

Catherine
annexed
the Crimea in 1783, nine years after 
the
Crimean Khanate
had gained nominal 
independence-which had been guaranteed by Russia-from the Ottoman Empire as a 
result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans 
passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1786 Catherine conducted a triumphal 
procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo-Turkish War.

The Ottomans restarted hostilities in the
second Russo-Turkish War (1787-92)
. This war, 
catastrophic for the Ottomans, ended with the
Treaty of Jassy
(1792), which legitimised the 
Russian claim to the Crimea and granted the
Yedisan
region to Russia.

Burney.Russian empress travelling

Russo-Persian War

In accordance to the
treaty
Russia had signed with the Georgians to 
protect them against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains and further 
political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war
against Persia
in 1796 after they had again 
invaded Georgia and established rule over it about a
year prior
and expelled the newly established 
Russian garrisons in the Caucasus.

Although it was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be 
led by a seasoned general (Gudovich), 
the Empress followed the advice of her lover,
Prince Zubov
, and entrusted the command to his 
youthful brother, Count
Valerian Zubov
. The Russian troops set out from
Kizlyar
in April 1796 and stormed the key 
fortress of Derbent
on 10 May. The event was glorified by 
the court poet
Derzhavin
in his famous ode; he was later to 
comment bitterly on Zubov’s inglorious return from the expedition in another 
remarkable poem.

By mid-June, Zubov’s troops overran without any resistance most of the 
territory of modern day
Azerbaijan
, including three principal cities –
Baku,
Shemakha
and
Ganja
. By November, they were stationed at the 
confluence of the
Araks
and
Kura Rivers
, poised to attack mainland
Iran.

It was in that month that the Empress of Russia died and her successor
Paul
, who detested the Zubovs and had
other plans for the army
, ordered the troops to 
retreat back to Russia. This reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the 
powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them 
would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul’s murder five years later.

Relations with 
Western Europe

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between 
Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria and France) and Turkey

Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered 
for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the nineteenth and 
early twentieth century as an international mediator in disputes that could, or 
did, lead to war. She acted as mediator in the
War of the Bavarian Succession
(1778-79) 
between the German states of Prussia and Austria. In 1780 she established a
League of Armed Neutrality
, designed to defend 
neutral shipping from the
British Royal Navy
during the
American Revolution
.

From 1788 to 1790 Russia fought in the
Russo-Swedish War
against Sweden, a conflict 
instigated by Catherine’s cousin, King
Gustav III of Sweden
, who expected to simply 
overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks and 
hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. But Russia’s
Baltic Fleet
checked the Royal Swedish navy in 
a tied
battle off Hogland
(July 1788), and the Swedish 
army failed to advance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the
Theater War
). After the decisive defeat of the 
Russian fleet at the
Battle of Svensksund
in 1790, the parties 
signed the
Treaty of Värälä
(14 August 1790), returning 
all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the
Treaty of Åbo
. Peace ensued for 20 years, aided 
by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.

Partitions of Poland

Catherine II of Russia by
Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder
.

In 1764 Catherine placed
Stanisław Poniatowski
, her former lover, on the
Polish throne
. Although the idea of 
partitioning Poland came from the King Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine took a 
leading role in carrying it out in the 1790s. In 1768 she formally became 
protector of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
, which provoked 
an
anti-Russian
uprising in Poland, the
Confederation of Bar
(1768-72). After the 
uprising broke down due to internal politics in the Polish-Lithuanian 
Commonwealth, she established in the Rzeczpospolita, a system of 
government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a
Permanent Council
, under the supervision of her
ambassadors and envoys
.

After the
French Revolution
of 1789, Catherine rejected 
many principles of the
Enlightenment
that she had once viewed 
favourably. Afraid that the
May Constitution of Poland
(1791) might lead to 
a resurgence in the power of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and that the 
growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to 
the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided 
support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the
Targowica Confederation
. After defeating Polish 
loyalist forces in the
Polish-Russian War of 1792
and in the
Kościuszko Uprising
(1794), Russia completed 
the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory 
with Prussia and Austria (1795).

Relations with Japan

In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in
Kamchatka
and in the
Kuril Islands
. This spurred Russian interest in 
opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783 storms 
drove a Japanese sea captain,
Daikokuya Kōdayū
, ashore in the
Aleutian Islands
, at that time Russian 
territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian 
government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine 
granted Daikokuya an audience at
Tsarskoye Selo
. Subsequently, in 1792, the 
Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by
Adam Laxman
. The
Tokugawa shogunate
received the mission, but 
negotiations failed.

Banking and finance

In 1768 the
Assignation Bank
was given the task of issuing 
the first government paper money. It opened in
St. Petersburg
and in Moscow in 1769. Several 
bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government 
towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, 
which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes.

The emergence of these
Assignation rubles
was necessary due to large 
government spending on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the 
treasury (transactions, especially in foreign trade, were conducted almost 
exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation rubles circulated on equal 
footing with the silver ruble; there was an ongoing market exchange rate for 
these two currencies. The use of these notes continued until 1849.

Arts and culture

Marble statue of Catherine II in the guise of
Minerva
(1789-1790), by
Fedot Shubin

Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature, and 
education. The
Hermitage Museum
, which now occupies the whole
Winter Palace
, began as Catherine’s personal 
collection. At the instigation of her factotum,
Ivan Betskoy
, she wrote a manual for the 
education of young children, drawing from the ideas of
John Locke
, and founded (1764) the famous
Smolny Institute
, which admitted young girls of 
the nobility.

She wrote comedies, fiction, and memoirs, while cultivating
Voltaire
,
Diderot
, and
d’Alembert
-all French
encyclopedists
who later cemented her 
reputation in their writings. The leading economists of her day, such as
Arthur Young
and
Jacques Necker
, became foreign members of the
Free Economic Society
, established on her 
suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She lured the scientists
Leonhard Euler
and
Peter Simon Pallas
from Berlin and
Anders Johan Lexell
from Sweden to the Russian 
capital.

Catherine enlisted
Voltaire
to her cause, and corresponded with 
him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. He lauded her 
accomplishments, calling her “The Star of the North” and the “Semiramis 
of Russia” (in reference to the legendary Queen of
Babylon
, a subject on which he published a 
tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face to face, she mourned him 
bitterly when he died. She acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and 
placed them in the
National Library of Russia
.

Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard that the French 
government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French
Encyclopédie
on account of its irreligious 
spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in 
Russia under her protection.

Four years later, in 1766, she endeavoured to embody in legislation the 
principles of
Enlightenment
she learned from studying the 
French philosophers. She called together at Moscow a Grand Commission-almost a 
consultative parliament-composed of 652 members of all classes (officials, 
nobles, burghers
and
peasants
) and of various nationalities. The 
Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of 
satisfying them. The Empress herself prepared the
“Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly”
, 
pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, 
especially
Montesquieu
and
Cesare Beccaria
.

As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and 
experienced advisors, she refrained from immediately putting them into 
execution. After holding more than 200 sittings the so-called Commission 
dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.

The Inauguration of the
Academy of Arts
, a painting by
Valery Jacobi

In spite of this, Catherine began issuing codes to address some of the 
modernisation trends suggested in her Nakaz. In 1775 the Empress decreed a 
Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The 
Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and 
dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, 
there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the 
government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on 
local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the 
Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each 
district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the 
monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. In the same year, 
Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six 
groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. 
Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 
1781, the Police Ordinance of 1782, and the Statute of National Education of 
1786. In 1777, the Empress described to Voltaire her legal innovations within a 
backward Russia as progressing “little by little”.

During Catherine’s reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and 
European influences that inspired the
Russian Enlightenment
.
Gavrila Derzhavin
,
Denis Fonvizin
, and
Ippolit Bogdanovich
laid the groundwork for the 
great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for
Alexander Pushkin
. Catherine became a great 
patron of
Russian opera
(see
Catherine II and opera
for details).

When
Alexander Radishchev
published his
Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow
in 
1790 (one year after the start of the
French Revolution
) and warned of uprisings 
because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as
serfs
, Catherine
exiled
him to
Siberia
.

Catherine also received
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
(formerly court painter 
to
Marie Antoinette
) at her Tsarskoselo residence 
in
St Petersburg
, by whom she was painted shortly 
before her death. Madame Vigée Le Brun vividly describes the empress in her 
memoirs: “the sight of this famous woman so impressed me that I found it 
impossible to think of anything: I could only stare at her. Firstly I was very 
surprised at her small stature; I had imagined her to be very tall, as great as 
her fame. She was also very fat, but her face was still beautiful, and she wore 
her white hair up, framing it perfectly. Her genius seemed to rest on her 
forehead, which was both high and wide. Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her 
nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive. She addressed me 
immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: “I am delighted 
to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. I am very fond of 
the arts, especially painting. I am no connoisseur, but I am a great art lover.”

Madame Vigée Le Brun also describes the Empress at a gala: “The double doors 
opened and the Empress appeared. I have said that she was quite small, and yet 
on the days when she made her public appearances, with her head held high, her 
eagle-like stare and a countenance accustomed to command, all this gave her such 
an air of majesty that to me she might have been Queen of the World; she wore 
the sashes of three orders, and her costume was both simple and regal; it 
consisted of a muslin tunic embroidered with gold fastened by a diamond belt, 
and the full sleeves were folded back in the Asiatic style. Over this tunic she 
wore a red velvet dolman with very short sleeves. The bonnet which held her 
white hair was not decorated with ribbons, but with the most beautiful 
diamonds.”

Education

Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
, the 
closest female friend of Empress Catherine and a major figure of the
Russian Enlightenment
.

Catherine held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart 
and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia. 
She believed a ‘new kind of person’ could be created by inoculating Russian 
children with European education. Catherine believed education could change the 
hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness. 
This meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing 
them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.

Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her advisor on educational matters. 
Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about 
educational institutions. She also established a commission composed of T.N. 
Teplov, T. con Klingstedt, F.G. Dilthey, and the historian G. Muller. She 
consulted British education pioneers, particularly the Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and 
Dr John Brown. 
In 1764 Catherine sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to 
the educational Commission. The Commission studied the reform projects 
previously installed by I.I. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III. They 
submitted recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education 
for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs. 
However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the Commission 
due to the calling of the Legislative Commission. In July 1765 Dumaresq wrote to 
Dr. John Brown about the commission’s problems and received a long reply 
containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social 
reforms in Russia. Dr. Brown argued that in a democratic country, education 
ought to be under the state’s control and based on an education code. He also 
placed great emphasis on the “proper and effectual education of the female sex”; 
two years prior, Catherine had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the
General Program for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes. 
This work emphasised the fostering of the creation of a ‘new kind of people’ 
raised in isolation from the damaging influence of a backward Russian 
environment. 
The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first 
attempt at achieving that goal. It was charged with admitting destitute and 
extramarital children in order to educate them in any way the state deemed fit. 
Since the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state funded 
institution, the Home represented an opportunity to experiment with new 
educational theories. However, the Moscow Foundling Home was unsuccessful, 
mainly due to extremely high mortality rates, which prevented many of the 
children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the 
state desired.

The
Moscow Orphanage

The
Smolny Institute
, the first Russian
Institute for Noble Maidens
and the 
first European state higher education institution for women

Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, Catherine established the Smolny 
Institute for Noble Girls to educate females. The Smolny Institute was the first 
of its kind in Russia. At first the Institute only admitted young girls of the 
noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie 
as well. 
The girls that attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of 
being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the 
Smolny buildings. Within the walls of the Institute they were taught impeccable 
French, musicianship, dancing, and complete awe of the Monarch. At the 
Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy. 
Running and games were forbidden and the building was kept particularly cold 
because it was believed that too much warmth was harmful to the developing body, 
as was excess play.

During the years 1768-1774, there was no progress made in setting up a 
national school system. 
Catherine continued to investigate educational theory and practice of other 
countries. She made many educational reforms despite the lack of a national 
school system. The remodelling of the Cadet Corps 1766 initiated many 
educational reforms. It then began to take children from a very young age and 
educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from the 
professional military curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics, 
history, and international law. This policy in the Cadet Corps influenced the 
teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps and in the Engineering and Artillery Schools. 
After the war and the defeat of Pugachov, Catherine laid the obligation to 
establish schools at the guberniya-a provincial subdivision of the 
Russian empire ruled by a governor-on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with 
the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.

By 1782 Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the 
information gathered about the educational systems of many different countries. 
A system produced by a mathematician,
Franz Aepinus
, stood out in particular. He was 
strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, 
real, and normal schools at village, town, and provincial capital level. In 
addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of 
National Schools under
Pyotr Zavadovsky
. This commission was charged 
with organising a national school network, training the teachers, and providing 
the textbooks. On 5 August 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was 
promulgated. 
The Statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools 
in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes 
(non-serfs), and co-educational. It also regulated, in detail, the subjects to 
be taught at every age and the method of teaching. In addition to the textbooks 
translated by the Commission, teachers were provided with the Guide to Teachers. 
This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, the subjects 
taught, the behavior of the teacher, and the running of a school.

Judgment of the 19th century was generally critical, claiming that Catherine 
failed to supply enough money to support her educational program. 
Two years after the implementation of Catherine’s program, a member of the 
National Commission inspected the institutions established. Throughout Russia, 
the inspectors encountered a patchy response. While the nobility put up 
appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send 
their children to private, more prestigious institutions. Also, the townspeople 
tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical methods. It is 
estimated that about 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state 
institutions near the end of Catherine’s reign. This was only a minuscule number 
of people compared to the size of the Russian population.

Religious affairs

Catherine II in the Russian national costume

Catherine’s apparent whole-hearted adoption of all things Russian (including
Orthodoxy
) may have prompted her personal 
indifference to religion. 
She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious 
dissent after the onset of the French Revolution.

Politically, Catherine exploited Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy, 
promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule. 
She placed strictures on Roman Catholics (ukaz 
of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state 
control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland. 
Nevertheless, Catherine’s Russia provided an asylum and a base for re-grouping 
to the
Society of Jesus
following the
suppression of the Jesuits
in most of Europe in 
1773.

Islam

Catherine took many different approaches to Islam during her reign. Between 
1762 and 1773, Muslims were actively prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs. 
They were also pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives. 
Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts, 
if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy. 
However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people 
professing the Islamic faith. This Commission promised to protect their 
religious rights, but did not do so. Many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by 
the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure. 
Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it when 
public outcry against equality got too disruptive. After the “Toleration of All 
Faiths” Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build mosques and practice all 
of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to
Mecca
, which had been denied previously. 
Catherine created the
Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly
to help 
regulate Muslim-populated regions, as well as regulate the instruction and 
ideals of Mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by 
Catherine and her government, as a way of regulating the religious affairs of 
her nation.

In 1785 Catherine approved the subsidisation of new mosques and new town 
settlements for Muslims. This was another attempt to organise and passively 
control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with 
mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the
nomadic
people that wandered through southern 
Russia. 
In 1786 Catherine assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school 
system, to be regulated by the government. The plan was another attempt to force 
nomadic people to settle. This allowed the Russian government to control more 
people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of 
Russian law.

Judaism

Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple Devoted 
to the Goddess of Justice, by
Dmitry Levitsky

Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained 
with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Although the government knew that 
Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of what a 
“Jew” is, since the term meant many things during her reign. 
Judaism was a small, if not nonexistent, religion in Russia until 1772. When 
Catherine agreed to the
First Partition of Poland
, Jews were treated as 
a separate people, defined by their religion. In keeping with their treatment in 
Poland, Catherine allowed the Jews to separate themselves from Orthodox society, 
with certain restrictions. She levied additional taxes on the followers of 
Judaism; if a family converted to the Orthodox faith, that additional tax was 
lifted. 
Jewish members of society were required to pay double the tax of their Orthodox 
neighbours. Converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and 
farm as free peasants under Russian rule.

In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia’s economy, Catherine 
included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782. 
While this presented some benefits for Jews-they received recognition as equals 
to any Orthodox citizen-many people attempted to take advantage of this 
equality. Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for 
economic reasons; many Jews were bankers and merchants. Catherine tried to keep 
the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even with a ruse of equality; in 
1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow’s middle class.

In 1785 Catherine declared that Jews were officially foreigners, with 
foreigners’ rights. 
This reestablished the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia 
throughout the Jewish period of failed assimilation. Catherine’s decree also 
denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. Taxes 
doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially 
declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

Russian Orthodoxy

St. Catherine Cathedral in
Kingisepp
, an example of Late 
Baroque architecture

In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign 
counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed 
what
Peter III
had started; the church’s lands were 
expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled 
by the
College of Economy
. 
Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. The 
endowments were often much less than the original intended amount. 
She closed 569 out of 954 monasteries and only 161 got government money. Only 
400,000 rubles of church wealth was paid back. 
While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative 
Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat. 
Their place in government was restricted severely during the years of 
Catherine’s reign.

In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that 
called themselves the
Old Believers
, Catherine passed an act that 
allowed Old Believers to practice their faith openly without interference. 
While claiming religious tolerance, she intended to recall the Believers into 
the official church. They refused to comply, and in 1764 Catherine deported over 
20,000 Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith. 
In later years, Catherine amended her thoughts. Old Believers were allowed to 
hold elected municipal positions after the Urban Charter of 1785, and she 
promised religious freedom to those who wished to settle in Russia.

Religious education was also strictly reviewed. At first, she simply 
attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. 
This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786 Catherine 
excluded all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education. 
By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a 
secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia. She transformed the clergy 
from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people 
to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation.

Personal life

Count
Grigory Orlov
, by
Fyodor Rokotov

Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them 
to high positions 
for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with gifts 
of serfs and large estates. The percentage of state money spent on the court 
increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795. Catherine gave 
away 66,000 serfs from 1762-72, 202,000 from 1773-93, and 100,000 in one day: 18 
August 1795.^:119 
Just as the church supported her, hoping to get their land back, Catherine 
bought the support of the
bureaucracy
. From 19 April 1764, any bureaucrat 
holding the same rank for seven years or more got instantly promoted. On 13 
September 1767 Catherine decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil 
servants would be automatically promoted regardless of office or merit.

After her affair with her lover and adviser
Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin
ended in 1776, 
he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and 
mental faculties to hold her interest (such as
Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov
). Some of these men 
loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after 
the affair ended. One of her lovers,
Pyotr Zavadovsky
, received 50,000 rubles, a 
pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in Ukraine after she dismissed him 
in 1777. 
The last of her lovers,
Prince Zubov
, was 40 years her junior. Her 
sexual independence led to many of the
legends about her
, among them, allegations of 
an erotic appetite for horses.

In her memoirs, Catherine indicated that her first lover,
Serge Saltykov
, had fathered Paul, though Paul 
physically resembled her husband, Peter. 
Catherine kept near
Tula
, away from her court, her illegitimate son 
by Grigori Orlov,
Alexis Bobrinskoy
(later created Count 
Bobrinskoy by Paul). Catherine and Orlov had another child,^[55] 
a daughter, called Elizabeth Alexandrovna Alexeeva (born in Saint Petersburg, 
1761 – died 1844), born one year before Alexis. She married (1787)
Friedrich Maximilian Klinger
and from this 
marriage she had one son, Alexander, who apparently died young in 1812.

Poniatowski

Stanisław August Poniatowski
, the 
last King of
Poland-Lithuania

Sir
Charles Hanbury Williams
, the British 
ambassador to Russia, offered
Stanisław Poniatowski
a place in the embassy, 
in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother’s 
side, came from the
Czartoryski family
, prominent members of the 
pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to 
the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in 
1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. In 1757 Poniatowski 
served in the British forces during the
Seven Years’ War
, thus severing close 
relationships with Catherine. She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in 
December 1757 (not to be confused with
Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia
, the 
daughter of Peter I’s second marriage).

King
Augustus III of Poland
died in 1763, and 
therefore Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as 
a candidate to become the next king.

Catherine sent the
Russian army
into Poland to avoid possible 
disputes. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight, and 
imposing Poniatowski as king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put 
himself under Catherine’s control. News of Catherine’s plan spread and Frederick 
II (others say the Ottoman
sultan
) warned her that if she tried to conquer 
Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her.

She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov’s 
child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. She told Poniatowski to marry someone else to remove all 
suspicion. Poniatowski refused; he never married.

Prussia (through the agency of
Prince Henry
), Russia (under Catherine), and 
Austria (under
Maria Theresa
) began preparing the ground for 
the partitions of Poland. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split 
20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) between them. Russia got territories 
east of the line connecting, more or less,
Riga-Polotsk-Mogilev.

In the second partition, in 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of
Minsk
almost to
Kiev and down the river
Dnieper
, leaving some spaces of
steppe
down south in front of
Ochakov
, on the
Black Sea
.

Later uprisings in Poland led to the third partition in 1795, one year before 
Catherine’s death. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation
until 1918
, in the aftermath of World War I.

Orlov

Catherine the Great’s natural son by Count Orlov -Aleksey 
Grigorievich Bobrinsky, (11 April 1762 – 20 June 1813 in 
his estate of Bogoroditsk, near Tula). Born three months before the 
deposition and assassination by the Orlov brothers of her husband 
Peter III

Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov
, the grandson of a 
rebel in the
Streltsy Uprising
(1698) against Peter the 
Great, distinguished himself in the
Battle of Zorndorf
(25 August 1758), receiving 
three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter’s pro-Prussian sentiment, with 
which Catherine disagreed. By 1759 he and Catherine had become lovers; no one 
told Catherine’s husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very 
useful, and he became instrumental in the 28 June 1762 coup d’état against her 
husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than 
marrying anyone.

Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with 
titles, money, swords, and other gifts. But Catherine did not marry Grigory, who 
proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. He received a palace 
in St. Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Orlov died in 1783. His and Catherine’s son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky 
(1762-1813), had one daughter,
Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky
(Bobrinskaya) 
(1798-1835), who married in 1819 the 34-year-old Prince
Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin
(London, England, 12 
July 1784 – 25 July 1842) who took part in the
Battle of Borodino
(7 September 1812) against
Napoleon
, and later served as Ambassador in
Turin
, the capital of the
Kingdom of Sardinia
.

Potemkin

Catherine II and Potemkin on the
Millennium Monument
in
Novgorod

Grigory Potemkin
was involved in the
coup d’état
of 1762. In 1772, Catherine’s close 
friends informed her of Orlov’s affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. 
By the winter of 1773 the
Pugachev revolt
had started to threaten. 
Catherine’s son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends 
threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help-mostly military-and he became 
devoted to her.

In 1772 Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an 
uprising in the Volga region. She appointed General
Aleksandr Bibikov
to put down the uprising, but 
she needed Potemkin’s advice on
military strategy
.

Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his 
virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favour, and 
his family moved into the palace. He later became governor of
New Russia
.

In 1780, the son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa,
Emperor Joseph II
, toyed with the idea of 
determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet 
Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and travelling with him to 
Saint Petersburg.

Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to 
increase the number of scientists.

Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried that he would not 
finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age 
of 52 in 1791.

Serfs

Rights and conditions

Byrney. Russians

At the time of Catherine’s reign, the landowning noble class owned the
serfs
, who were bound to the land that they 
tilled. Children of serfs were born into
serfdom
and worked the same land that their 
parents had. The serfs had very limited rights, but they were not exactly 
slaves. While the state did not technically allow them to own possessions, some 
serfs were able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for their freedom. 
The understanding of law in
imperial Russia
by all sections of society was 
often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most 
serfs lived. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as accumulate 
wealth. To become a serf, someone would give up their freedoms to a landowner in 
exchange for their protection and support in times of hardship. In addition, 
they would receive land to till but would be taxed a certain percentage of their 
crop to give to their landowner. These were the privileges to which a serf was 
entitled and which nobles were bound to carry out. All of this was true before 
Catherine’s reign, and this is the system she inherited.

Catherine did initiate some changes to serfdom though. If the nobles did not 
live up to their side of the deal, then the serfs could file complaints against 
them by following the proper channels of law. 
Catherine gave them this new right, but in exchange they could no longer appeal 
directly to her. She did this because she did not want to be bothered by the 
peasantry but did not want to give them reason to revolt either. In this act 
though, she unintentionally gave the serfs a legitimate bureaucratic status that 
they had lacked before. 
Some serfs were able to use their new status to their advantage. For example, 
serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and 
non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs. 
Some serfs did apply for freedom and were, surprisingly, successful. In 
addition, some governors listened to the complaints of serfs and punished 
nobles. But this was by no means all-inclusive.

Other than these, the rights of a serf were very limited. A landowner could 
punish his serfs at his discretion, and under Catherine the Great gained the 
ability to sentence his serfs to hard labour in
Siberia
, a punishment normally reserved for 
convicted criminals. 
The only thing a noble could not do to one of his serfs was to kill him or her. 
The life of a serf belonged to the state. Historically, when the serfs faced 
problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters) they often 
appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine’s reign even 
though she signed legislation prohibiting it. 
Although she did not want to communicate directly with the serfs, she did create 
some measures to improve their conditions as a class and reduce the size of the 
institution of serfdom. For example, Catherine took action to limit the number 
of new serfs; she eliminated many ways for people to become serfs, culminating 
in the manifesto of 17 March 1775, which prohibited a serf who had once been 
freed from becoming a serf again. 
However, she also restricted the freedoms of many peasants. During her reign, 
Catherine gave away many state peasants (peasants owned by the state) to become 
private serfs (peasants owned by a landowner), and while their ownership changed 
hands, a serf’s location never did. However, peasants owned by the state 
generally had more freedoms than those owned by a noble.

While the majority of serfs were farmers bound to the land, a noble could 
also have his serfs sent away to learn a trade or be educated at a school, in 
addition to employing them at businesses that paid wages. 
This happened more often during Catherine’s reign because of the new schools she 
established. Only in this way could a serf leave the farm he was responsible 
for.

Attitude towards 
Catherine

The attitude of the serfs toward their
autocrat
had historically been a positive one. However, if the Tsar’s policies were too 
extreme or too disliked then he was not considered to be the true Tsar. In these 
cases, it was necessary to replace this “fake” Tsar with the “true” Tsar, 
whoever he may be. Because the serfs had no political power, they rioted to get 
their message across. But usually, if the serfs did not like the policies of the 
Tsar they saw the nobles as corrupt and evil, preventing the people of
Russia
from communicating with the 
well-intentioned Tsar and misinterpreting his decrees. However, they were 
already suspicious of Catherine upon her accession because she had annulled an 
act by
Peter III
that had essentially freed the serfs 
belonging to the
Orthodox Church
. 
Naturally, the serfs did not like it when Catherine tried to take away their 
right to petition her because they felt as though she had severed their 
connection to the autocrat, and their power to appeal to her. Far away from the 
capital, they were also confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the 
throne.

The peasants were discontented because of many other factors as well, 
including
plague
, crop failure, and epidemics, including 
a major
epidemic in 1771
. The nobles were also imposing 
a stricter rule than ever, reducing the land of each serf and restricting their 
freedoms further beginning around 1767. 
Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during
Pugachev’s Rebellion
of 1774. The serfs 
probably followed someone who was pretending to be the true Tsar because of 
their feelings of disconnection to Catherine and her policies empowering the 
nobles, but this was not the first time that they followed a pretender under 
Catherine’s reign. 
Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real tsar should, helping 
the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally 
acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very 
conservative values, to his cause. 
With all this discontent in mind, Catherine did rule for ten years before the 
anger of the serfs boiled over into a rebellion as extensive as Pugachev’s. But 
under Catherine’s rule, despite her enlightened ideals, the serfs were generally 
unhappy and discontent.

Final months and death

Portrait of Catherine in an advanced age, with the
Chesme Column
in the background

Though Catherine’s life and reign included remarkable personal successes, 
they ended with two failures. Her Swedish cousin (once removed) King
Gustav IV Adolph
visited her in September 1796, 
the empress’s intention being that her granddaughter Alexandra should become 
Queen of Sweden by marriage. A ball was given at the imperial court on 11 
September, when the engagement was supposed to be announced. Gustav Adolph felt 
pressured to accept the fact that Alexandra would not be converting to
Lutheranism
, and though he was delighted by the 
young lady, he refused to appear at the ball and left for
Stockholm
. Catherine was so irritated at this 
that her health was impacted. 
She recovered well enough to begin to plan a ceremony where a favourite grandson 
would supersede her difficult son on the throne, but she died of a stroke before 
the announcement could be made, just over two months after the engagement ball.

On 16 November [O.S. 
5 November] 1796, Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual 
morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers at her study. Her lady’s 
maid,
Maria Perekusikhina
, had asked the Empress if 
she had slept well, and Catherine reportedly replied that she had not slept so 
well in a long time.

Sometime after 9:00 A.M. that morning, Catherine went to her dressing room 
and collapsed from a
stroke
while on the toilet. 
Worried by Catherine’s absence, her attendant, Zakhar Zotov, opened the door and 
peered in. Catherine’s body was sprawled on the floor. Her face appeared 
purplish, her pulse was weak, and her breathing was shallow and laboured. 
The servants lifted Catherine from the floor and brought her to the bedroom. 
Some 45 minutes later, the royal court’s Scottish physician, Dr. John Rogerson, 
arrived and determined that Catherine had suffered a stroke. 
Despite all attempts to revive the Empress, she fell into a coma from which she 
never recovered. Catherine was given the
last rites
and died the following evening at 
approximately 9:45 P.M. 
An autopsy performed on her body the next day confirmed the cause of death as 
stroke.

Catherine’s undated will, discovered in early 1792 by her secretary Alexander 
Vasilievich Khrapovitsky among her papers, gave specific instructions should she 
die: “Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on 
it inscribe my Christian name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six