The reign of Catherine 2

The reign of Catherine II in Russia (1762 - 1796) is the time of great changes and significant events in the life of the people.

The future Russian empress, nee Sofya August Fredrika Anhalt-Zerbstskaya first came to Russia in 1745 at the invitation of Elizabeth. In the same year she married the Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (Peter 3). The dislike of her husband and Elizabeth's illness led to a situation when a threat of her expulsion from Russia arose. Relying on the Guards Regiment, in 1762 she committed a bloodless coup and became empress. In such conditions the reign of Catherine II began.

The Empress carried out active reformatory activities, striving to strengthen personal power. In 1767, he convened the Commission to write a new code. The assembly of legislators, however, turned out to be disagreeable to Catherine and was dissolved

In 1763, to improve the management system, she held a senatorial reform. In the Senate there are six departments and he lost the right to lead the state apparatus, having become the highest judicial and administrative body. The Berg-Collegium, the Chief Magistrate and the Manufactory-College were restored. The centralization of the country and the bureaucratization of power were parallel to a steady pace. To resolve the financial difficulties in 1763-1764 Catherine conducts secularization of church lands (transferring them to secular property), which allowed replenish the treasury and neutralize the clergy as a powerful political force.

The reign of Catherine II was not mild. For the time of her reign, Pugachev's uprising took place. The peasant war of 1773-1775 showed that this layer of society does not support it. And Catherine decides to strengthen the absolutist state, relying only on the nobility.

"Chartered letters" to the nobility and cities (1785) ordered the structure of society, strictly denoting the closedness of estates: the nobility, the clergy, merchants, philistinism and serfs. The dependence of the latter constantly increased, creating the conditions for the offensive of the "noble golden age".

In the reign of Catherine the feudal system reached its apogee in Russia. The Empress did not seek to change the foundations of social life. Based on the labor of the serf empire, the throne's support to the faithful nobility and the wise empress ruling all, this was the life of the country during this period. Domestic and foreign policies were carried out exclusively in the interests of a centralized state. The imperial approach was typical of the provinces (Russia Minor, Livonia and Finland), and expansion also extended to the Crimea, the Polish Kingdom, the North Caucasus, where national problems have already begun to escalate. In 1764 the Hetmanate in Ukraine was liquidated, the Governor-General and the President of the Maloros Board was appointed to rule it.

In 1775, the reform of management began. Instead of 23 provinces, 50 new ones were created. The Treasury Chamber managed the industry, the Order - public institutions (hospitals and schools), the courts separated from the administration. The system of governing the country became uniform, subordinate to governors, central colleges, governors and, finally, the empress.

It is known that the reign of Catherine II is also the height of favoritism. But if under Elizabeth this phenomenon did not bring tangible harm to the state, now the wide distribution of state lands and serfs to the empress noblemen began to cause discontent.

The enlightened absolutism of Catherine is the time for the implementation of the ideas of the social and political theories of the 18th century, according to which the development of society must go on in an evolutionary way under the guidance of an enlightened and beloved monarch, assisted by philosophers.

The results of the reign of Catherine II are very significant for Russian history. The state's territory has grown substantially, treasury revenues quadrupled, and the population grew by 75%. However, enlightened absolutism solved all the urgent problems and could not.