Section 8.38

Enlightened Despotism:

Russia

Introduction• Russia embraced French

culture• Didn’t contribute to

intellectual revolution of 17th century

• Passively received the Enlightenment through France

• Upper Class adopted French language and culture

– westernization further divides them from the lower classes

Peter the Great allowed upper class women to take part in social life at dinners and balls.

Russia after Peter the Great• Peter the Great died in 1725• Decreed each Tsar name own successor (killed

Alexis)• Instability followed the death of Peter I (Great) as

competing factions vie for the throne• German faction and Russian faction

• Succeeded by wife Catherine I (peasant origin)• Peter II (son of Alexis) ruled from (1727-30)• Anna (1730-40) and Ivan VI (1740: < a year)• Elizabeth (1740-1761) (Peter I’s daughter)

– Led Russia into 7 Years’ War against Prussia

• Peter III (1762)• 6/22/1762 he is overthrown by a coup led by his

wife – Considered a half wit, physically and mentally

weak– Murdered on July 7, 1762 by Count Grigory

Orlov• Cause of so much violence = No principle of

succession

Peter III (Peter Feodorovich)Emperor Of All Russia (1761-1762)

Grigory Orlov

Catherine the Great 1762 – 1796: Domestic Program

• Of German heritage– Came to Russia at 15 to be

married– Learned Russian, became

Orthodox, hated Peter III• Robust and vigorous

– Had many, many lovers– Got up a 5 AM, lit her own fire, – Intelligent

• Corresponded with Voltaire, bought Diderot’s library, benefactor to Philosophes

• Instituted reforms– Summoned Legislative

Commission in 1767– Gathered info on nation, checked

for individuals’ loyalty

Catherine the Great of Russia

Catherine the Great 1762 – 1796: Domestic Program Continued

• Reforms– Legal codification– Restrictions on the use of

torture– Support of religious

toleration• But wouldn’t allow Old

Believers to build chapels– Rearranged administrative

districts from 10 to 50 gubernii

Pugachev’s Rebellion• Condition of serfs was deteriorating• Sold, separated from families, used in

mines• Old Believers aggravated the problem

– Kept Stephen Razin’s memory alive• Muzhiks (Russian peasants) were anti-

French– Saw Boyars as cultural traitors

• Pugachev claimed to be Peter III (back from Egypt)

• Really a Don Cossack (settlers of Don River), former soldier

• Declares the end of taxes, serfdom, and conscription

• Joined by hundreds of thousands (Tartars, Kirghiz, Cossacks, serfs)

– Pillaged, murdered priests, landlords

• Famine (1774) the undoing of the revolution

• Pugachev captured, drawn and quartered– Catherine had prohibited the use

of torture at his trial • Reaction to the rebellion is

repression• Power is conceded to the landlords

– Had dictatorial power over their own serfs

• Condition of the serfs deteriorates into slavery

• Moscow Gazette: “For sale, two plump coachmen, two girls 18 and 15, quick at manual work, two barbers…”

Pugachev’s Rebellion

Emelian Pugachev1740-1775

Russia before Catherine’s ExpansionReaches the

Pacific and Central Asia

Moscow only 200 miles from Polish threat

No access to Black Sea

Eastern Question

Expansionism of Catherine• Hoped to settle Eastern Question

(territory of Ottoman Empire)– 1772 developed the Greek project

• Planned to replace Muslims with Greek Orthodox in Anatolia

– Russo-Turkish Wars (1768-74, 1787-92) in alliance with Austria, planned the partition of the Ottoman Empire

– Coveted Constantinople (warm water port)

• blocked by European balance of power– designs aroused alarm in Prussia

and Great Britain• saw its dominance in the

Mediterranean threatened by Russian ambitions.

• 1772 Catherine is appeased with first partition of Poland

• 1774 signed treaty at Kuchuk Kainarji on Danube and founded Odessa– gave Russia territorial gains, the role of protector of

Greek Orthodox subjects, allowed Russian shipping to pass through the Straits

• Catherine wanted to gain Austrian backing in next war with Turks

• showed Joseph II artificial on-street villages designed by her lover Potemkin– lined with Happy villagers – has come to mean bogus evidence of nonexistent

prosperity • War got sidetracked by French Revolution• Catherine encourged Prussia and Austria to war with

France in the name of the Ancien Regime• Meanwhile she finished off Poland in 1795 (third partition

of Poland)

Expansionism of Catherine

Expansion of Catherine

the Great

1774 treaty at Kuchuk Kainarji on Danube and founded Odessa

1772 developed the Greek project

1795 the third partition of Poland

A tale of two Czars• Catherine is torn between

East and West• Absolutist

– Limited reform is realized– The nobility is stronger

than under Peter– Serfdom is

indistinguishable from slavery

• Enlightened despot– Tuned in to the west– Recognized the standards

of the Enlightenment– Groomed Alexander I for

leadership with a western education

Limitations of Enlightened Despotism• Catherine needed consent of Boyars

• Kept tradition of coup d’ etat in her mind

• “You write only on paper, but I have to write on human skin, which is incomparably more irritable and ticklish.” to Diderot

• Revolution from above

• Governments told people that reform was needed

• Special privileges are bad

• Past ways are ineffective

• States are sovereign

• Old established rights are questioned

• Jesuits are a barrier to progress

• Legal systems are made uniform

• Citizens are made more equal

Resistance• King is a hereditary ruler

– revolution cannot be achieved by undoing the foundation of its power

• Appeasements required by the nobility– Europe saw a feudal reactionary movement

beginning to take place• Religion challenged the authority of the

enlightened rulers• French Revolution is threatening the old orders• Monarchy had run its course

– Viewed as backward, medieval• Liberalism was about to assert itself