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Catherine II (Ekaterina Alekseevna; Catherine the Great) - Empress and Autocrat of Russia (1762-1796). Wife of Peter III and mother of Paul I.


In 1762, Catherine II, relying on the Guards regiments, made a seizure of political power (a palace coup) and became the autocratic empress of Russia.

Catherine Palace

Years of government: 1762-1796 гг.

Peter III, Paul I, Mother of Catherine II (left to right)

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The Catherine Palace (also known as the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, the Great Catherine Palace, the Grand Palace, the Old Palace) is a former imperial palace, the official summer residence of three Russian rulers - Catherine I, Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II; the palace is located 26 km south of the center of St. Petersburg in the former Tsarskoye Selo (now the city of Pushkin).

In order to develop education, the Empress opened the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in 1764. Schools and colleges were actively built in the cities. The Russian Academy appeared in St. Petersburg (1783). The quality of training of their specialists was low, so scientists from Europe were actively invited. Among them were Pallas, Euler and other scientists.

The Empress established a Widow's Treasury, opened orphanages for the homeless, and in 1768 gave herself the first smallpox vaccination. In the same year, 1768, her manifesto on the introduction of paper money in the country was published.

In the 1760s, she invited German colonists to the sparsely populated Volga region. In 1785, the Empress issued Letters of Commendation to the nobility and cities. The nobility turned into a special privileged class, which was exempt from corporal punishment. Citizens received the rights of the “third estate", but their number in Russia was lower than the European one - less than 10%.

Catherine Palace

The Empress was a representative of the ideas of Enlightenment, therefore her policy can be described as "enlightened absolutism". Her first actions in 1763 were:

• The introduction of a ban on the free exchange of copper money for silver. In this way, they tried to reduce inflation.
• Introduction of state regulation of salt prices.
• The abolition of a number of monopolies, for example, on trade with China.
• Creation of a Free Economic Society in 1765. It began publishing its own magazine.

Domestic policy

Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens

Serfdom during her reign only tightened. She distributed 800 thousand serfs to the landlords. In 1764, the Empress carried out the secularization of church lands, monastic peasants became state-owned.

During the reign of Catherine II, the persecution of Old Believers continued and the authorities struggled with various uprisings. The largest of them was Pugachevsky in 1773-1775, which covered the Urals and the Volga region.

In 1775, the Empress carried out provincial and judicial reforms, and in 1782 – city reforms. Many localities received urban status during her reign.

Emelyan Pugachev

V. G. PEROV Pugachev's court. 1875

The main directions of Catherine II's foreign policy were western and southern. In the south, two successful wars were fought with Turkey – in 1768-1774 and 1787-1791, as well as the war with Persia in 1796. They led to the annexation of new territories:

• Crimean Khanate (1783).
• Lands on the Kuban River and in the North Caucasus. Vladikavkaz was founded in 1784, and Yekaterinodar (modern Krasnodar) was founded in 1795.
• Part of modern Georgia according to the St. George's Treatise (1783).
• The lands of the Azov Sea and the Black Sea region to modern Odessa.

In 1772, 1793 and 1795 there were three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Russia, Austria and Prussia took part in them. As a result, a large state disappeared from the map of Europe, and the western border of Russia passed approximately along the line Kamenets-Podolsky-Grodno.

In 1788-1790, the Russian Empire was at war with Sweden for the third time in the XVIII century. The war ended with the Treaty of Verel and the preservation of the pre-war borders.

Foreign policy

Wedding dress of the Empress

Coronation dress

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#The era of palace coups