Early Russia was a collection of cities that gradually coalesced into an empire. In the early part of the ninth century, a Scandanavian people known as the Varangians crossed the Baltic Sea and landed in Eastern Europe. The leader of the Varangians was the semilegendary warrior Rurik, who led his people in 862 to the city of Novgorod on the Volkhov River. It Is uncertain whether Rurik took the city by force or was invited to rule there (a primary source known as the Russian Primary Chronicles tells the story that the people invited him to rule over them). From Novgorod, Rurik's successors extended the power of the city southward. In 882, he gained control of Kiev, a Slavic city that had arisen along the Dnepr River around the 5th century. The attainment of rule over Kiev marked the first establishment of a unified, dynastic state in the region. Kiev became the center of a trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, and Kievan Rus', as the empire came to be known, flourished for the next three hundred years.
By 989 Vladimir I was ruler of a kingdom that extended to as far south as the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the lower reaches of the Volga River. Having decided to establish a state religion, Vladimir carefully considered a number of available faiths and decided upon Greek Orthodoxy, thus allying himself with Constantinople and the West.
In 1054, Kievan Rus' was rife with internecine strife and had broken up into regional power centers. Internal divisions were made worse by the depradations of the invading Cumans (better known as the Kipchaks).
Kievan Rus' struggled on into the 13th century, but was decisively destroyed by the arrival of a new invader--the Mongols. In 1237 Batu Khan launched an invasion into Kievan Rus' from his capital on the lower Volga. Over the next three years the Mongols (or Tatars) destroyed all of the major cities of Kievan Rus' with the exceptions of Novgorod and Pskov. The regional princes were not deposed, but they were forced to send regular tribute to the Tatar state, which became known as the Empire of the Golden Horde. Invasions of Russia were attempted during this period from the west as well, first by the Swedes (1240) and then by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (1242). In the best news of the era for Russia, both were decisively defeated by the great warrior Alexander Nevsky, a prince of Novgorod who earned his surname from his victory over the Swedes on the Neva River.
For the next century or so, very little seems to have happened in Russia. In fact, given the tribute demanded by the Tatars, there wasn't much money available for building, campaigns, or anything else of that sort. With the Tatars off to the southwest, the northeastern cities gradually gained more influence--first Tver, and then, around the turn of the 14th century, Moscow. As a sign of the city's importance, the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred to the city, making it the spiritual capital of Russia. By the latter part of the century, Moscow felt strong enough to challenge the Tatars directly, and in 1380 a Muscovite prince named Dmitri Donskoy had the audacity to attack them. His decisive victory at Kulikovo Field immediately made him a popular hero, though the Tatar retaliation two years later maintained their rule over the city. It wasn't until 1480, after another century had passed, that Moscow was strong enough to throw off Tatar rule for good. Its ruler at that time was Grand Duke Ivan III, better known as Ivan the Great. Ivan began by subjugating most of Moscow's rival cities, and by the time he tore up the charter binding it to Tatar tribute he was effectively in control of the entire country. However, it wasn't until the reign of his grandson, Ivan IV (the Terrible), that Russia became a unified state.
Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)
Ivan IV was the grand duke of Moscow 1533–84 and the first Russian ruler to assume formally the title of tsar. When his mother died, her regency alternated among several feuding boyar families.
Boyars - upper nobility in Russia from the 10th through the 17th cent. The boyars originally obtained influence and government posts through their military support of the Kievan princes. Their power and prestige, however, soon came to depend almost completely on landownership. The boyars occupied the highest state offices and through a council advised the prince. When political power shifted to Moscow in the 14th and 15th cent., the boyars retained their influence. However, as the Moscow grand princes consolidated their power, the influence of the boyars was gradually eroded, particularly under Ivan III and Ivan IV. Their ancient right to leave the service of one prince for another was curtailed, as was their right to hold land without giving obligatory service to the czar. The political turmoil of the Time of Troubles further weakened the boyars, and in the 17th cent. the rank and title of boyar was abolished by Peter I.
Boyar rule ended only in 1546, when Ivan announced his intention of becoming tsar. He was crowned in 1547. As tsar, Ivan attempted to establish tsarist autocracy at the expense of boyar power. In the early years of his reign, he reduced the arbitrary powers of the boyar provincial governors, transferring their functions to locally elected officials. The former boyars’ council was replaced by a “chosen council” consisting of members who owed their status to the tsar. In 1566, Ivan summoned what was probably the first general council of the realm (Zemsky Sobor), composed of representatives of different social ranks, including merchants and lower nobility. After reorganizing the army, Ivan conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, thereby inaugurating Russia’s eastward expansion. The conquest of Siberia by the Cossack Yermak took place late in his reign. Ivan also began trade with England via the White Sea in the mid-1550s. To improve his access to the Baltic Sea, he undertook a campaign against Livonia. In the resulting war with Poland and Sweden, he was at first successful but was later defeated by Stephen báthory, king of Poland and Lithuania. The peace treaties forced the tsar to renounce his territorial gains and cede additional territory to Sweden.
In his later years, Ivan’s character, always stern, grew tyrannical. Apart from the reverses of the war, the change has been attributed to humiliations at the hands of the boyars during his childhood; a serious illness and resistance at that time to his efforts to secure the succession of his infant son; the death of his wife, Anastasia Romanov, and the defection to Poland of his favorite, Prince Andrew Kurbsky. Suspecting conspiracies everywhere, he acted ruthlessly to consolidate his power. In 1565 he set aside an extensive personal domain, the oprichnina, under his direct control. He established a special corps (oprichniki), responsible to him alone, to whom he granted part of this domain at will. With the help of this corps, he diminished the political influence of the boyars and forcibly confiscated their lands in a reign of terror. Many boyars were executed or exiled. Fits of rage alternated with periods of repentance and prayer; in one of his rages he killed his son and heir, Ivan. Two sons, Feodor I and Dmitri, survived the czar, but after his death his favorite, Boris Godunov, gained power.
When Ivan the Terrible died in 1584, he was succeeded by his son Fyodor, who was not exactly up to filling the shoes of an autocratic legend. Fyodor left most of the management of the kingdom to his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, and it was not long before Godunov began to work to secure the succession for himself. In 1591, he murdered Fyodor's younger brother Dmitri. When Fyodor died in 1598, Godunov was made tsar, but his rule was never accepted as entirely legitimate. Within a few years a pretender arose in Poland, claiming to be Dmitri, and in 1604 he invaded Russia. Godunov died suddenly the next year, and the "Time of Troubles" began. For the next eight years both the first and a second false Dmitri laid claims to the throne, both supported by invading Polish armies. Finally, in 1613, the Poles were ousted from Moscow, and the boyars unanimously elected Michael Romanov as Tsar. The Romanov dynasty was to rule Russia for the next 304 years, until the Russian Revolution brought an end to the Tsarist state.
For the first few generations, the Romanovs were happy to maintain the status quo in Russia. They continued to centralize power, but they did very little to bring Russia up to speed with the rapid changes in economic and political life that were taking place elsewhere in Europe. Peter the Great decided to change all of that.
Romanov was czar of Russia 1613–45 and the founder of the Romanov dynasty. His election as czar, following successive appearances of false pretenders, ended the Time of Troubles, a period of social and political chaos in Russia that had begun in the late 16th cent. The real power in the government was Michael’s father, the patriarch Philaret (d. 1633). During Michael’s reign the peasantry was further reduced to serfdom; peace was temporarily obtained with Poland and Sweden; and some Western industrial and military techniques were introduced by foreign manufacturers and other experts. Michael was succeeded by his son Alexis.
Alexis was tsar of Russia 1645–76. His reign, marked by numerous popular outbreaks, was crucial for the later development of Russia. A new code of laws (Ulozhenie) was promulgated in 1649 and remained in effect until the early 19th cent.; it favored the middle classes and the landowners, but tied the peasants to the soil. The reforms of Patriarch Nikon resulted in a dangerous schism in the Russian Church, and Nikon’s deposition was a prelude to the abolition of the Moscow patriarchate in 1721. A serious revolt against the tsar among the Don Cossacks under Stenka Razin (1670) was quelled by 1671. Alexis was succeeded by his son Feodor III. A younger son, by a second marriage, became Peter I (Peter the Great).
Ulozhenie – Law Code of 1649 - included 967 articles; possibly the most reaching article was the establishment of serfdom. Previous laws bound a serf to the land. There had been a statute of limitations on how long a run away serf could be sought, captured and forced to return to their master's land. The new law code removed this limitation and set the stage for a serf system which closely resembled slavery.
Stenka Razin & Razin Rebellion – after the Ulozhenie of 1649, many revolts occurred. The culmination of the discontentment was at a revolt in the Don and Volga reigns 1667-1671. This uprising led by Stenka Razin - the commander of a band of propertyless Don Cossacks. he raided through the lower Volga valley and across the Caspian Sea. On his return (1670) to the Don, Razin rebelled against the authority of the tsar. His force of some 7,000 men took Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), Astrakhan, Saratov, and Samara, and was joined by serfs, peasants, and non-Russian tribes of the middle and lower Volga region. However, he was defeated by government troops at Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) and fled to the Don, where the propertied Cossacks delivered him to the government. Razin was executed at Moscow. His exploits have long been celebrated in song and legend.
Outcome of the Stenka-Razin rebellion: Cossacks lost independence – greater state encroachment. Bigger unification in north; efficacy of new style of military.
Patriarch Nikon - introduced a series of reforms in the church. Believed the Russian church had strayed from the Greek original. Changes he introduced: spelling of key words, cross with three fingers instead of two, etc. These changes were greatly opposed among clergy and faithful – they considered his changes arbitrary and needless, and wanted to maintain Russian tradition. However, later the church council adopted his reforms. Those who did not accept these reforms were called schismatics.
Raskol (The Church Schism) – Patriarch Nikon wanted to implement reforms which would make the Russian more similar to the Greek church. He was greatly opposed by the Zealots of Piety, who claimed that the reason Russian practice was different from Greek was because Moscow was the Third Rome – the last center of true Orthodoxy. A church council convened in 1666, which accepted and endorsed Nikon’s reforms. Not conforming to the reforms was an offense.( The struggle between church and state was settled in favor for the state. The church then fell under even greater state control)
Old Believers - “old ritualists”, claimed that if Moscow were the Third Rome, reform was unnecessary. They rejected the reforms and clung to the old ways. This schism drew its chief support from the peasantry, parish presorts (of lower-class orgiina0, and some merchants. To defend themselves and their principles, they resorted to flight, passive resistance. Remained a disruptive element, refusing to pay taxes or serve in army.
Alexis had two cihldren from his first (Miloslavski) marriage: Feodor III, Sophia Alekseyevna, and the semi-imbecile Ivan. From his second marriage (Naryshkin) Peter I was born. In 1682 a struggle broke out for the succession between the Naryshkin and Miloslavsky clans. The Naryshkins at first succeeded in setting Ivan aside in favor of 10-year-old Peter. Shortly afterward, however, the Miloslavsky party incited the streltsi (semimilitary formations in Moscow) to rebellion. In the bloody disorder that followed, Peter witnessed the murders of many of his supporters. As a result of the rebellion Ivan, as Ivan V, was made (1682) joint tsar with Peter, under the regency of Sophia Alekseyevna.
Peter I (Peter the Great)
Peter I was tsar of Russia 1682–1725 and was a major figure in the development of imperial Russia. A virtual exile, Peter spent most of his childhood in a suburb of Moscow, surrounded by playmates drawn both from the nobility and from the roughest social elements. His talent for leadership soon became apparent when he organized military games that became regular maneuvers in siegecraft. In 1689, Sophia Alekseyevna attempted a coup against Peter; this time, however, aided by the loyal part of the streltsi, he overthrew the regent. For several years, until Peter assumed personal rule, the Naryshkins ran the government. Ivan V, whose death in 1696 left Peter sole czar, took no part in the government.
Russia was almost continuously at war during Peter’s reign. In the 16th and early 17th cent. the country had fought periodically in the northwest against Sweden, in an attempt to gain access to the Baltic Sea, and in the south against the Ottoman Empire. While continuing the policy of his predecessors, Peter drew Russia into European affairs and helped to make it a great power. His earliest venture was the conquest of Azov from the Ottomans in 1696, after an unsuccessful attempt in 1695. Peter then embarked on a European tour, traveling partly incognito, to form a grand alliance against the Ottoman Empire and to acquire the Western techniques necessary to modernize Russia’s armed forces. Peter also gained considerable knowledge of European industrial techniques.
In 1698 he returned to Russia, began to modernize the armed forces, and launched domestic reforms. After concluding peace with the Ottomans, Peter, in alliance with Denmark and the combined Saxony-Poland, began the Northern War against Charles XII of Sweden.
Northern War – 1700–1721, general European conflict. It arose chiefly from the desire of the neighbors of Sweden to break Swedish supremacy in the Baltic area, and from the conflicting ambitions of Peter I of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden. The lasting results of the Northern War were the waning of Swedish power, the establishment of Russia as a major power of Europe, with its “window” on the Baltic Sea, and the decay of Poland.
Peter had returned to Russia in 1698 at the news of a military revolt allegedly instigated by Sophia Alekseyevna. He took drastic vengeance on his opponents and forced Sophia into a convent. On the day after his return, Peter personally cut off the beards of his nobles and shortly thereafter ordered them to replace their long robes and conical hats with Western dress. This attack on the symbols of old Muscovy marked the beginning of Peter’s attempt to force Russia to adopt European appearance and other features of Western culture. Most of Peter’s reforms followed his predecessors’ tentative steps, but his demonic pace and brutal methods created an impression of revolutionary change.
The reforms were sporadic and uncoordinated; many of them grew out of the needs of Peter’s almost continuous warfare. He introduced conscription on a territorial basis, enlarged and modernized the army, founded and expanded the navy, and established technical schools to train men for military service. To finance this huge military establishment, he created state monopolies, introduced the first poll tax, and placed levies on every conceivable item.
Poll tax - a capital tax levied equally on every adult in the community. Although no longer a significant source of revenue for any major country, the poll tax did provide large sums for many governments until well into the 1800s. Dushi = souls: hence, all souls had to pay tax. Because slaves were not considered persons legally, thy paid no taxes, but the new capitation tax had to be paid by all male “souls”. Actually, the landowner’s power increased while serfs became slaves in virtually every way.
Also meant that an annual consensus of the population must be taken each year: creation of internal passports – registers people by place of living and greatly limits freedom of movement.
Peter encouraged and subsidized private industry and established state mines and factories to provide adequate supplies of war materials. Peter reformed the administrative machinery of the state. He introduced a supervisory senate and a new system of central administration and tried to reform provincial and local government.
Peter also attempted to subordinate all classes of Russian society to the needs of the state. He enlarged the service nobility (the body of nobles who owed service to the state), imposed further duties on it, and forced the sons of nobles to attend technical schools. To control the nobles he introduced the Table of Ranks, which established a bureaucratic hierarchy in which promotion was based on merit rather than on birth. The nobility’s economic position was strengthened by changes in the laws of land tenure. The serfs (who paid the bulk of taxes and made up most of the soldiery) were bound more securely to their masters and to the land. Peter subordinated the church to the state by replacing the patriarchate with a Holy Synod, headed by a lay procurator appointed by the tsar.
Table of Ranks – Peter attempted to subordinate all classes of Russian society to the needs of the state. He enlarged the service nobility (the body of nobles who owed service to the state), imposed further duties on it, and forced the sons of nobles to attend technical schools. To control the nobles he introduced the Table of Ranks, which established a bureaucratic hierarchy in which promotion was based on *merit* rather than on birth. The nobility’s economic position was strengthened by changes in the laws of land tenure. The serfs (who paid the bulk of taxes and made up most of the soldiery) were bound more securely to their masters and to the land.
The Table of Ranks implanted military ranks in civil service and judiciary: 14 ranks, work up by merit and service. Opened up the way for non-nobles to become nobles.
Holy Synod - Peter the Great as part of his great reform of the empire, set about reforming the national Church. This reform was openly, frankly, in the direction of subjecting the Church to the State, that is to himself. His modern and liberal ideas never went to the length of modifying his own absolute authority. The Holy Synod replaced the office of the Patriarch.
(1721) – basically, the Holy Synod signified the making of the church a part of state apparatus. Implications: tsar removed a potential threat; the church became an institution of the state, not a spiritual institution; it separated individuals by faith, etc.
Peter introduced changes in manners and mores. The ban on beards (Decree on Shaving, 1705) and Muscovite dress was extended to the entire male population, women were released from their servile position, and attempts were made to improve the manners of the court and administration. Peter sent many Russians to be schooled in the West and was responsible for the foundation (1725) of the Academy of Sciences. He reformed the calendar and simplified the alphabet. The transfer of the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, built on the swamps of Ingermanland at tremendous human cost, was a dramatic symbol of Peter’s reforms. Although Peter sought to enforce all his reforms with equal severity, he was unable to eradicate the traditional corruption of officials or to impose Western ways on the peasantry.
His reforms were often considered whimsical and sacrilegious and met widespread opposition. The conservatives among the clergy accused him of being the antichrist. In 1721, Peter had himself proclaimed “emperor of all Russia.” In 1722 he declared the choice of a successor to be dependent on the sovereign’s will -- Law on Succession, 1722. However, he died before appointing his successor.
Law on Succession – 1722: another of Peter’s reforms – states that the autocrat choses his successor (who doesn’t have to be his eldest son) – gives more power to tsar, since he can chose by merit, legacy etc. However, Peter didn’t designate his successor before his death. This Decree denounced the law of primogeniture and declared that the choice of a successor lay solely with the ruling emperor. (except for this period, 1722 to 1797, succession was thereafter regulated by the law of primogeniture.
Although many of Peter’s innovations were too hasty and arbitrary to be successful, his reign was decisive in the long process of transforming medieval Muscovy into modern Russia.
Nemetskaia sloboda – Moscow’s foreign or "German" suburb. With the expansion under Peter the Great, more non-Orthodox people lived in the area. For example: Catholics from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine etc, Uniates (Orthodox people who accepted Rome and the Pope). The church tried to prevent this by creating suburbs where non-believers had to live. Peter the Great liked to hang out in this suburb, where he befriended individuals who later had a great impact in his life (he transgressed norms by doing this, though)
Peter’s personal traits ranged from bestial cruelty and vice to the most selfless devotion to Russia. Peter subordinated the lives and liberties of his subjects to his own conception of the welfare of the state. Like many of his successors, he concluded that ruthless reform was necessary to overcome Russia’s backwardness. Peter remains one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Those who regard Russia as essentially European praise him for his policy of Westernization, and others who consider Russia a unique civilization attack him for turning Russia from its special path of development. Those impressed by imperial expansion and state and social reforms tend to regard Peter’s arbitrary and brutal methods as necessary, while others appalled by his disregard of human life conclude that the cost outweighed any gains.
Catherine I
Catherine I was tsarina of Russia 1725–27. As mistress of Aleksandr D. Menshikov she had met Tsar Peter I (Peter the Great), who made her his mistress. After her conversion from the Lutheran to the Orthodox Church (when she changed her name from Martha to Catherine), Peter, who had divorced his first wife, married her (1712). In 1724 he had her crowned tsarina and joint ruler. Her loyalty and devotion to her difficult husband were remarkable. When Peter died without naming a successor, Menshikov and the imperial guards raised Catherine to the throne. Her policy was dominated by Menshikov. Peter II succeeded her.
Peter II was tsar of Russia 1727–30. He was Peter I’s grandson and the Alexis’ son. Succeeded on the death of Catherine I. He was too young to rule, but he willingly lent himself to a court intrigue, led by the Gallitzin and Dolgoruki families, which resulted in the fall of the all-powerful minister, A. D. Menshikov. Peter was betrothed to Catherine Dolgoruki, but died of smallpox on his wedding day. He was succeeded by his cousin Anna Ivanovna.
Anna Ivanovna ruled from 1730-1740. She was the daughter of Ivan V and niece of Peter I (Peter the Great). She was chosen tsarina by the Supreme Privy Council, which thus hoped to gain power for itself. Anna signed articles limiting her power (“The Conditions to Anna’s succession to the throne”), but she soon restored autocratic rule, with support from the lesser nobility and the imperial guards. She made minor concessions to the nobles but restored the security police and terrorized opponents.
The Conditions - 1730 nobles tried to limit the power of the autocrat: They pushed for Anna, daughter of Peter’s half brother, to become empress. But they put conditions on her reign – she couldn’t marry, appoint a heir, declare war, appoint high officials, give away land, etc. (restricted monarchy!) However, Anna tore up the conditions once she came to power, abolished the Supreme Privy Council, and re-established the autocracy.
This could’ve been an absolute change – could have been a restricted monarchy; instead Anna “defeated” the nobles. However, she *did* help out the nobles – she repealed the law on Entail, said that land could be passed to whomever, reduced military compulsory service from life to 25 years, exempted one son from every noble family from service, etc.
Distrusting the nobility, she excluded Russians from high positions and surrounded herself with Baltic Germans. Her favorite, Biron, had the greatest influence.
E.J.Biron - favorite of empress Anna of Russia 1690–1772. Rose to an all-powerful position under Anna, through whose influence he was elected duke of Courland. After Anna’s death (1740) he was made regent for her grandnephew Ivan VI. Biron’s unscrupulousness had earned him general hatred, and shortly after he became regent a coup ousted and banished him (1741). Tsar Peter III later recalled him and Catherine II secured the restoration of his title, but Biron never regained his former influence.
Bironovshchina – era of Biron: often, nationalist call Anna’s entire rule “Bironovshchina” because of his dominant role. This haughty, cruel man established the Secret Chancellery, which arrested many highly placed dignitaries. In his reign of terror many were execute and more than 20,000 were sent to Siberia, often without trial or the empress’s knowledge. This represented a restoration of Peter’s secret police (the Preobrazhensky board). Executions, favoritism, and abuse of power. Terror against noblemen designed to silence opponents of autocracy.
Allied with Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Anna intervened in the War of the Polish Succession, installed Augustus III as king of Poland, and attacked Turkey in 1736. During Anna’s reign began the great Russian push into central Asia. She was succeeded by her grandnephew, Ivan VI.
Ivan VI was tsar of Russia 1740–41. He succeeded his great-aunt Empress Anna as an infant. His mother was Anna Leopoldovna, who served as a regent until IvanVI grew up. However, in 1741 Elizabeth overthrew Anna Leopoldovna’s regime and became empress. Ivan ended up growing up in solitary confinement, while Anna L. was imprisoned and died in childbirth
Empress Elizabeth
Elizabeth was empress of Russia 1741–62; was the daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. She gained the throne by overthrowing the young czar, Ivan VI, and the regency of his mother, Anna Leopoldovna. Her coup was made possible by her popularity with the imperial guards, who hated the German favorites of Anna Leopoldovna. Elizabeth herself, armed, led the bloodless revolution. Guided in her foreign policy by her chancellor, A. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Elizabeth sought to rid Russia of German influence. She victoriously sided against Frederick II of Prussia in the Seven Years War, but her death and the accession of her nephew, Peter III, took Russia out of the war and made Frederick’s ultimate victory possible. During her reign the nobles acquired more power over their serfs and gained a dominant position in local government, while the terms of service they owed the state were shortened. The Univ. of Moscow and the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg were founded during her reign.
Peter III
Peter III was tsar of Russia in 1762. He was Anna’s son, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his aunt, Elizabeth. One of his first acts was to take Russia out of the Seven Years War and to conclude an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia, whom he passionately admired. He thus saved Prussia from almost certain defeat and sacrificed all the advantages Russian arms had gained in the conflict. In 1744, Peter had married Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who was to later become Tsarina Catherine II. Although he was dissolute and, it is alleged, mentally unbalanced, Peter’s domestic policy was in some respects liberal. He abolished the secret police and granted greater religious freedom, and he virtually ended the nobles’ obligation to give service to the state. He aroused hostility, however, by his contempt for the Orthodox Church and by his concern with gaining Holstein. In the summer of 1762 a conspiracy against Peter, headed by Catherine’s lover Grigori Orlov and his brother Aleksey, was set in motion. Catherine was proclaimed sole ruler, and the imperial guards, led by Catherine in person (who had donned the guards’ uniform), set out for Peterhof, where they forced Peter to sign his abdication. A few days later he was assassinated by his guards, probably led by Aleksey Orlov. Catherine’s role in this is uncertain.
Catherine II (Catherine the Great)
Catherine the Great ruled from 1762-1796. She began her rule with great projects of reform. In 1755 she drew up a document, based largely on the writings of Beccaria and Montesquieu, to serve as a guide for an enlightened code of laws.
Englightened absolutism – The response to the philosophical challenges to the institution of monarchy during the Enlightenment and the steady erosion of monarchical power and rise of democratic sentiment during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, led to a new form of absolutism: "Enlightened Absolutism." Russia was also known for this: and as well, it was ruled by powerful, absolutist monarchs, who violently and aggressively invaded and stole territory from weaker states. Catherine the Great is one of the widely known “enlightened despots”. All of these monarchs attempted to rule their countries with an absolute and iron fist while instituting reforms based on Enlightenment principles. For example, Catherine attempted to put Enlightenment principles to work by ameliorating the institution of serfdom. Enlightened absolutism was essentially an attempt to justify absolute power in its capacity to create a better life for its subjects, which included establishing rights, which are principles of self-rule.
In 1767 Catherine summoned a legislative commission (with representatives of all classes except the serfs) to put this guide into law, but she disbanded the commission before it could complete the code.
Legislative commission of 1767 – In an attempt at political reform, Catherine convened the Legislative Commission in 1767 to codify the laws of the realm, and in the process rationalize and modernize Russian law and life. The commission consisted of 564 deputies, 28 appointed from state institutions and 536 elected. Of the elected deputies, 161 came from the landed gentry, 208 from the townspeople, 79 from the peasants, and 88 from the cossacks and national minorities. The serfs (agricultural laborers bound to an estate and its owner) and clergy were excluded. As the basis for its work, the commission received Catherine's Nakaz, or Instricutions to the Legislative Commission, a strikingly liberal document that presented the empress’s vision of the ideal government, from the form of its laws to its education and social structure. The Nakaz was still careful to preserve such a pillar of the Russian system as autocracy—justified, however, in the utilitarian terms of the Age of Reason rather than as a divine dispensation. The commission met for a year and a half, holding 203 sessions and utilizing subcommittees, but it produced no desired results. Instead, the members of the commission split along class lines. Gentry delegates argued with merchant representatives over the rights to own serfs and to engage in trade and industry, and the gentry deputies clashed with those of the peasants on the crucial issue of serfdom. The outbreak of war against the Ottoman Empire in 1768 provided a good occasion for disbanding the Legislative Commission.
Some have questioned the sincerity of Catherine’s “enlightened” outlook, and there is no doubt that she became more conservative as a result of the peasant rising (1773–74) under Pugachev.
The Pugachev rebellion – Pugachev was a Russian peasant leader, head of the peasant rebellion of 1773–74. A Don Cossack, he exploited a widespread peasant belief that Peter III had not actually been murdered. Claiming to be Peter III, he soon found himself at the head of an army and of a revolutionary movement. His followers—Cossacks, peasants, runaway serfs, Tatar bands, and serfs from the mines and factories—all belonged to the lower classes, whose rights and liberties had been increasingly curtailed in the past two centuries. Pugachev announced the abolition of serfdom. His army overran the middle and lower Volga districts and the Ural region and took Kazan and several fortresses, committing barbarous excesses and threatening the throne of Catherine II, who was waging war on the Ottoman Empire. However, the rebels lacked experienced leadership and were ultimately defeated. Pugachev was betrayed, taken to Moscow, and beheaded. As a result of the rebellion Catherine introduced the administrative reform (1775) that increased the central government’s control over outlying areas and more firmly entrenched the institution of serfdom.
The nobility’s administrative power was strengthened when Catherine reorganized (1775) the provincial administration to increase the central government’s control over rural areas. This reform established a system of provinces, subdivided into districts, that endured until 1917.
Fundamental Laws of 1775 - After the Pugachev rebellion, Catherine's alliance with the gentry became quite explicit. The empress referred to herself as the "first landlord of the realm." The new system of local self-government, which she introduced in 1775 and which lasted until 1864, was related to the Pugachev rebellion and the resulting panic and collapse of all local authority. To remedy the situation, the empress emphasized decentralization, a clear distribution of power and functions, and the participation of the local gentry. She subdivided some 15 major administrative units, through which the country was governed at the time, to make a total of 50 units by the end of her reign. Each of these provinces was subdivided into some ten districts. The appointed governor of each province was assisted by a complicated network of institutions and officials. Local gentry participated in local administration and were urged to display initiative and energy in supporting the new system. Catherine the Great tried—not very successfully—to separate the legislative, executive, and judicial functions, without impairing her ultimate control from Saint Petersburg. She organized the judicial branch with different courts and procedures for different classes. These laws gave the nobility some voice in local government, but the upcoming Charter to the Nobility of 1785 gave them still more power.
The Fundamental Laws reformed land structure: Gubernii - province; administrative unit above the uezd level. Uezdy - districts; smallest administrative unit in tsarist Russia. Volost – township, organs of peasant self-government in the post-emancipation period.
In 1785, Catherine issued a charter to the nobility (1785) of each district and province a legal body with the right to petition the throne, freed nobles from taxation and state service and made their status hereditary, and gave them absolute control over their lands and peasants. Another charter to the towns (1785) proved of little value to them. Catherine extended serfdom to parts of Ukraine and transferred large tracts of state land to favored nobles. The serfs’ remaining rights were strictly curtailed. She also encouraged colonization of Alaska and of areas gained by conquest. She increased Russian control over the Baltic provinces and Ukraine.
Charter to the nobility – Peter III had released the nobility from all service obligations. Now Catherine made the "personal privileges" of nobles the cornerstone of her decree. They were to be lords and masters over their estates and the provinces in which they were located. All the nobility's rights and privileges were inviolate, guaranteed by law in perpetuity. Nobles could only be tried by their peers, and they were specifically exempt from corporal punishment. The army was forbidden to quarter troops in the homes of nobility. And nobles were exempt from personal government taxes. Also other economic benefits: they could buy and sell villages, and the peasants who lived and worked in them. They sell for profit agricultural produce and handicrafts items created by their field and house serfs. They could purchase and run factories in their villages, but not in towns. Finally, the new Charter created an Assembly of the Nobility in each province. These Assemblies met in luxurious appointed buildings (often the most grand building in town) and helped the nobility to create a corporate culture and a corporate presence. They nobles held elections, discussed and legislated on local affairs, and sent petitions to the local governor, as the representative of the sovereign. In a word, nobles became costly parasites contributing absolutely nothing to the public welfare, but taking everything free of charge from the peasantry. Their only obligation was to answer immediately the call to duty in times of war or national emergencies.
Charter to the towns – redefined the structure of urban society by dividing inhabitants into guilds and reorganizing governance of towns. Urban dwellers were divided into categories, depending on class origin, education, and socio-economic status. Like the nobles, towns had elections of a sort for the position of major and town council, called a duma, the term later used for the first elected assembly in 1907 under Nicholas II and resurrected on the collapse of the Soviet regime for the new parliament.
Catherine attempted to increase Russia’s power at the expense of its weaker neighbors, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. In 1764 she established a virtual protectorate over Poland. In 1783 she annexed the Crimea.
Catherine also extended Russian influence in European affairs. Catherine increased the power and prestige of Russia by skillful diplomacy and by extending Russia’s western boundary into the heart of central Europe. An enthusiastic patron of literature, art, and education, Catherine wrote memoirs, comedies, and stories, and corresponded with the French Encyclopedists, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d’Alembert (who were largely responsible for her glorious contemporary reputation). She encouraged some criticism and discussion of social and political problems until the French Revolution made her an outspoken conservative and turned her against all who dared criticize her regime. Although she had many lovers, only Orlov, Potemkin, and P. L. Zubov were influential in government affairs.
With the onset of the French Revolution, Catherine became strikingly
conservative and increasingly hostile to criticism of her policies. From 1789
until her death, she reversed many of the liberal reforms of her early reign.
One notable effect of this reversal was that, like Peter the Great, Catherine
ultimately contributed to the increasingly distressing state of the peasantry in
Russia.
She was succeeded by her son
Paul I.
Paul I was tsar of Russia 1796–1801, son and successor of Catherine II. His mother disliked him intensely and sought on several occasions to change the succession to his disadvantage. During Catherine’s lifetime Paul opposed her domestic policy, which strengthened the nobility, and her expansionist foreign policy. Upon his accession he introduced a law of succession based on primogeniture to strengthen the autocracy against the nobility. Paul rescinded many of the nobles’ rights, limited the power of the imperial guards, and attempted to place limits on the nobility’s exploitation of their serfs. He encouraged trade and industry and attempted to modernize the armed forces. His erratic conduct and whimsical application of petty regulations, however, caused great discontent. He prohibited foreign travel, certain types of dress, and the importation of Western books and music. In foreign policy, Paul joined (1798) the second coalition against France, but withdrew from the coalition the next year. He formed an armed neutrality league of Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia to counter English interference in neutral shipping, and he ordered an abortive invasion of India. Dissatisfaction with his rule, particularly among the nobles and military officers, led to a conspiracy against Paul, and he was murdered. His son and successor, Alexander I, knew of the conspiracy but did not participate in the murder.
Barschina – From serfs, landlords generally required barshchina, a work obligation, usually three days a week of compulsory labor at no pay, and obrok, a cash payment, as well as lesser services such as providing produce from the land the serfs farmed. Serfs had virtually no rights; they were not even allowed to petition the state regarding abuses by the landowners; they could own no real property; they had no freedom of movement (they could not leave the estate without the landowner's permission); and they could be sold like challels. Furthermore, the owner exercised wide judicial and police powers extending even to the serfs' private lives and choice of marriage partners. Paul sought to limit barshchina, and that peasants could not be sold without land.
Alexander I was tsar of Russia 1801–25, son of Paul I (in whose murder he may have taken an indirect part). In the first years of his reign the liberalism of his Swiss tutor, Frédéric César de La Harpe, seemed to influence Alexander. He suppressed the secret police, lifted the ban on foreign travel and books, made attempts to improve the position of the serfs, and began to reform the backward educational system. In 1805, Alexander joined the coalition against Napoleon I, but after the Russian defeats at Austerlitz and Friedland he formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon’s Continental System. Alexander requested M. M. Speranski to draw up proposals for a constitution, but adopted only one aspect of Speranski’s scheme, an advisory state council (or Unofficial Committee), and dismissed him in 1812 to placate the nobility. Relations with France deteriorated, and Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Alexander’s defeat of the French made him one of the most powerful rulers in Europe.
Mikhail Speranski – (1772–1839) – was chief adviser to Alexander I. He proved an outstanding administrator, and in 1809 he drew up proposals for a constitution at Alexander’s request. His plan called for some popular participation in legislation and for administrative reorganization of the country to provide limited local self-government; Alexander never adopted his proposals. Speranski did succeed in some reforms. He reorganized several ministries, emphasizing promotion on the basis of merit, and introduced a progressive income tax on the nobles. His proposals antagonized both nobles and bureaucrats, and shortly before the Napoleonic invasion of Russia they accused him of secret dealings with the French. Alexander exiled him in 1812. Later he went back to St. Petersburg but never regained his influence with Alexander. Under Nicholas I he was responsible for the codification of Russian law.
Unofficial Committee - Alexander I was raised in a liberal way by his grandmother and by his teachers. When he came to power he immediately exercised these progressive views by dismissing all the orders of his father. In the beginning, he set up an unofficial committee of close friends who decided important questions in ruling the country. In general, the committee was to change completely the legislative and administrative system of the country. The government also spent a lot of money on education. New schools and new universities were opened. When the emperor realized that his unofficial committee was not able to make radical reforms, the committee was dismissed. From 1807-1812 he had counseller Michael Speransky who was working out a new constitution which would be the new basis for future democratic reforms. Alexander I liked the project, and was planning to implement it starting in 1810, but then had a change of heart and Speransky's proposal was never realized.
At first his foreign policy was liberal, but from 1812 on, Alexander was preoccupied by a vague, mystical Christianity, which contributed to his increasing conservatism. Under the influence of the pietistic Juliana Krüdener and others, he created the Holy Alliance to uphold Christian morality in Europe.
Alexander’s religious fervor was partly responsible for the establishment of military colonies, which were agricultural communities run by peasant soldiers. Intended to better the lot of the common soldier, the colonies became notorious for the regimentation and near-serfdom imposed on the soldiers. Alexander abrogated many of his earlier liberal efforts. His policies caused the formation of secret political societies, and when Alexander’s brother Nicholas I succeeded him the societies led an abortive revolt (Decembrists).
His reign is also characterized by the rise of Freemasonry.
Freemasonry –
Napoleon’s invasion - In June of 1812, Napoleon began his fatal Russian campaign, a landmark in the history of the destructive potential of warfare. Virtually all of continental Europe was under his control. Having gathered nearly half a million soldiers, from France as well as all of the vassal states of Europe, Napoleon entered Russia at the head of the largest army ever seen. The Russians, under Marshal Kutuzov, could not realistically hope to defeat him in a direct confrontation. Instead, they begin a defensive campaign of strategic retreat, devastating the land as they fell back and harassing the flanks of the French. As the summer wore on, Napoleon's massive supply lines were stretched ever thinner, and his force began to decline. By September, without having engaged in a single pitched battle, the French Army had been reduced by more than two thirds from fatigue, hunger, desertion, and raids by Russian forces.
Nonetheless, it was clear that unless the Russians engaged the French Army in a major battle, Moscow would be Napoleon's in a matter of weeks. The Tsar insisted upon an engagement, and on September 7, with winter closing in and the French army only 70 miles from the city, the two armies met at Borodino Field. By the end of the day, 108,000 men had died--but neither side had gained a decisive victory. Kutuzov realized that any further defense of the city would be senseless, and he withdrew his forces, prompting the citizens of Moscow to began a massive and panicked exodus. When Napoleon's army yo Moscow, they found a city depopulated and bereft of supplies, a meagre comfort in the face of the oncoming winter. To make matters much, much worse, fires broke out in the city that night, and by the next day the French were lacking shelter as well.
After waiting in vain for Alexander to offer to negotiate, Napoleon ordered his troops to begin the march home. Because the route south was blocked by Kutuzov's forces (and the French were in no shape for a battle) the retreat retraced the long, devastated route of the invasion. Having waited until mid-October to depart, the exhausted French army soon found itself in the midst of winter--in fact, in the midst of an unusually early and especially cold winter. Temperatures soon dropped well below freezing, cossacks attacked stragglers and isolated units, food was almost non-existent, and the march was five hundred miles. Ten thousand men survived. The campaign ensured Napoleon's downfall and Russia's status as a leading power in post-Napoleonic Europe. Yet even as Russia emerged more powerful than ever from the Napoleonic era, its internal tensions began to increase.
Nicholas I & the Decembrists
Nicholas I was tsar of Russia 1825–55. His brother and predecessor Alexander I, died childless. Constantine, Paul’s second son, was next in succession but had secretly renounced the throne after marrying a Polish aristocrat. This secrecy resulted in confusion at Alexander’s death and touched off the Decembrist uprising, a rebellion against Nicholas, which he crushed on the first day of his reign.
Decembrist Revolt - Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian Tsars had followed a fairly consistent policy of drawing more political power away from the nobility and into their own hands. This centralization of authority in the Russian state had usually been accomplished in one of two ways--either by simply taking power from the nobles and braving their opposition (Ivan the Terrible was very good at this), or by compensating the nobles for decreased power in government by giving them greater power over their land and its occupants. Serfdom, as this latter system was known, had increased steadily in Russia from the time of Ivan the Terrible, its inventor. By the time of Catherine the Great, the Russian Tsars enjoyed virtually autocratic rule over their nobles. However, they had in a sense purchased this power by granting those nobles virtually autocratic power over the serfs, who by this time had been reduced to a state closer to slavery than to peasantry.
By the nineteenth century, both of these relationships were under attack. In the Decembrist revolt in 1825, a group of young, reformist military officers attempted to force the adoption of a constitutional monarchy in Russia by preventing the accession of Nicholas I. They failed utterly, and Nicholas became the most reactionary leader in Europe.
Pavel Pestel – leader of Decembrist revolt?
OTHER:
Alexander Radishchev – (1749–1802) - Russian writer and liberal. Of a noble family, he studied in Leipzig and there came under the influence of French Enlightenment thinkers. His most important work is A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. This is an outspoken attack on serfdom and a plea for peasant emancipation and ownership of the land. Catherine II was enraged and exiled Radishchev to Siberia. All of his books were ordered destroyed. He was allowed by Paul I to return to his estate in 1797 and was granted full pardon by Alexander I in 1801, but, broken by exile, he committed suicide the next year.
Nikolai Novikov – (1744–1818) - Russian journalist and publisher. In 1769, with the Drone, he started the vogue of the satirical magazine modeled on Addison’s Spectator. This and subsequent journals were halted by Catherine II in 1774 because of their sharp attacks on serious social injustice. He published several other short-lived satirical journals and huge numbers of books designed to spread enlightenment at a modest price, and again was stopped by imperial order. Novikov was imprisoned (1792–96) for affiliation with the Freemasons. Released a broken man, he retired to study mysticism in seclusion.
Nicholas Karamzin – (1766–1826) - Russian historian and writer. Wrote Letters of a Russian Traveler – about a journey to Western Europe; brought a cosmopolitan awareness into Russian writing. Karamzin made the Russian literary language more polished, elegant, and rhythmic. These reforms were important for later writers, especially Pushkin. Karamzin’s sentimental story of a betrayed peasant girl, “Poor Lisa” (1792), forecast the novel of social protest. He believed in a strong monarchic state, but criticized 18th-century rulers.
French Revolution - began in 1789. in October, Louis XVI and the Royal Family were removed from Versailles to Paris. The King attempted, unsuccessfully, to flee Paris in 1791. The King was brought to trial in 1792, and executed in 1793. In January of 1793 the revolutionary government declared war on Britain, a war for world dominion which had been carried on, with short intermissions, since the beginning of the reign of William and Mary, and which would continue for another twenty-two years.
Napoleon Buonaparte became Emperor in May of 1804.
The French Revolution was not only a crucial event considered in the context of Western history, but was also, perhaps the single most crucial influence on intellectual, philosophical, and political life in the nineteenth century. In its early stages it portrayed itself as a triumph of the forces of reason over those of superstition and privilege. It deeply impacted the thinking of the “enlightened” rulers such as Catherine the Great
Enlightenment - term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th cent.—Newton, Descarters, Locke etc - fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and the confidence in human reason that spread to influence all of 18th-century society. Currents of thought were many and varied, but certain ideas may be characterized as pervading and dominant. A rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility.
The major champions of these concepts were the philosophes, who popularized and promulgated the new ideas for the general reading public. These proponents of the Enlightenment shared certain basic attitudes. With supreme faith in rationality, they sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered the state the proper and rational instrument of progress. Catherine the Great as the prototype of the “enlightened despot”.
Masonic lodges played an important role in disseminating the new ideas throughout Europe.
Partitions of Poland - The basic causes leading to the three successive partitions (1772, 1793, 1795) that eliminated Poland from the map were the decay and the internal disunity of Poland and the emergence of its neighbors, Russia and Prussia, as leading European powers. The first partition was proposed when Frederick II of Prussia feared that Russia was about to take the Danubian principalities from the Ottoman Empire and thus provoke an Austro-Russian war. Frederick proposed that Russia annex part of Poland in return for renouncing the Danubian principalities and that Prussia and Austria take parts of Poland to balance Russia’s gain. This arrangement satisfied Catherine II of Russia, who had long contemplated such a partition. The partition of 1772 gave Pomerelia and Ermeland to Prussia, Latgale and Belarus E of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers to Russia, and Galicia to Austria.
When in 1791 the remainder of Poland showed signs of regeneration, particularly in the adoption of a new constitution, a Russian army invaded Poland (1792). Prussia invaded the country in turn, and in 1793 a second partition—this time without Austrian participation—was arrived at. Only the central section of Poland was left independent, and that under Russian control.
The national uprising under Thaddeus Kosciusko (1794) and the conservative rulers’ reaction to the French Revolution led to the final partition of 1795; all of Poland was divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Russia, which also formally annexed Courland, received the major share of territory, but the capital, Warsaw, went to Prussia.
Duma - Russian name for a representative body or council. Usually provides for a state council (an upper house, with some members appointed by the tsar and others elected by the nobility, the zemstvos, the clergy, trade and industry, and the university faculties) and for the Duma (a lower house elected by a system of suffrage that was neither equal nor direct); no law is to be passed without the consent of the Duma.
Copyright © 2004 by TP. All rights reserved.
Revised:
05/15/07 14:35:10 -0700.