During the 18th century Russia was
controlled by women for nearly three-quarter of the century. Catherine I – Peter the Great’s widow ruled
from 1725 till 1727. Then her niece, Anne, was regent for Ivan IV, from 1730
till 1740. Peter’s second daughter ruled from 1741 till 1762. After that in
1762 Catherine II began her reign. During all this time two male rulers were
murders and according to the records were unsuitable and one died of smallpox,
Apparently Catherine was full of contradiction. She
was a German Princess and became the supreme ruler of all the Russians. In
spite of being an enlightened thinker she pushed the people into great poverty
and serfdom.
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| CATHERINE AT A YOUNG AGE |
In 1742 the Empress Elizabeth demanded her nephew
German prince Peter of Holstein to move to Russia and made him her heir. She
was also looking around for a suitable bride for Peter. She found a mysterious
German princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst. Sophie was brought to Russia, learned
Russian, converted to the Russian Orthodox religion and changed her name to
Catherine. She married Peter when she was 16 yeas old.
The following years, Catherine was humiliated all
the time. She was ignored by the court and her husband Peter. Peter loved to
play with soldiers and was not very bright. Catherine was intelligent and well
educated. During this time she read an enormous amount and gave birth to two
children whom were not fathered by her husband.
In 1762 Peter became tsar and made plans of getting
rid of Catherine but she was the favourite of the court, army and public
opinion. Catherine overthrew her husband and declared herself Empress of
Russia. Eight days later Peter was murdered. Catherine continued to rule Russia
for 34 years.
After Peter the Great started to modernise Russia
Catherine decide to continue. She wrote to all the most advanced thinkers of
Europe and Catherine had liberal ideas. She decided to reform law and ownership.
She began to confiscate all the land from the clergies and made them servant of
the crown. With all the money in her hand she started to reform the law into a
popular constitution. However, her plans were too advanced and they came to
nothing. She desperately wanted to free all serfs but the landowners went into
revolt because they owned them and could make them work for nothing. Serfs were agricultural workers and the
backbone of Russia’s economy and for the landowners the real wealth. Catherine then dropped her plan to free them
and thought of strengthening the system.
She started to give great areas of land to her favourites including the
serfs and with that she created more serfdom.
Outside of Russia Catherine was more successful. She
pushed the boundaries further in the south, east and west. When Catherine stepped on the throne she had
20 million subjects and at her death she had 36 million. She conquered great
areas from Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, smaller ones from Sweden and
Denmark. The whole areas together added a 518,000 sq km to Russia. The first
partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria, Catherine put an
ex-lover on the throne. After the third
partition Poland stopped to be a country and the major part went to
Russia. After the war between Russia and
Turks, Russia became the Crimea and the north coast of the Black Sea. A newly
built city Odessa became Russia’s main port for trade to the Mediterranean.
Although Russia gained a tremendous amount of land it cost a fortune and
Catherine had to add new taxes on the peasant. Great amount were spent on
building a formidable army and navy.
Catherine was a great diplomat and did not get involved in a
confrontation with France, Austria and Prussia.
Catherine’s reign was in an era of great men
reigning at the same time. There was Joseph II of Austria-Hungary, Gustavus III
of Sweden and Fredrick the Great of Prussia. Even when she was surrounded by
great men she still stood out. This was due to being very clever, harsh and
scrupulous. She melted into a Russian
totally in her affection and alliances. Yet she remained a western European
with her belief of liberal ideas and in the style of a glittering, intellectual
court she surrounds herself with. She made her name with kindness to discarded
favourites but was completely ruthless in crushing rebellions in southern
Russia and Poland.
During her reign trade was flourishing and 100
cities were built and old ones rebuilt and expanded. Catherine led Russia to
become one of the greatest powers and has remained ever since.
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| CATHERINE'S SON AND SUCCESSOR PAUL I |
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