The Political Evolution of the Old Regime, 1715–89 367followed Voltaire’s footsteps to Berlin with high hopes,
he left protesting against a stifling environment: “Don’t
talk to me about your Berlinese freedom of thought and
writing. It only consists of the freedom to make as
much fun as you like of religion.... Let someone in
Berlin stand up for the rights of the peasants, or protest
against despotism and exploitation as they do now even
in France and Denmark, and you will soon know by ex-
perience which country is to this day the most slavish
in Europe.” Some modern scholars, however, have con-
cluded that Frederick was the greatest of the enlight-
ened despots. One French historian, impressed by a
king of intellect and culture, concluded that he pos-
sessed “the most complete character of the eighteenth
century, being the only one to unite idea with power.”
Catherine the Great and Despotism
in Romanov Russia
The eighteenth century began in Russia, as it did in
France, with one of the most powerful autocrats of the
seventeenth century still holding the throne. When Pe-
ter the Great of Russia died in 1725, he left behind a
royal succession even more troubled than Louis XIV’s
legacy to France. The French got a five-year-old king
and a resurgent aristocracy; the Russians got a genera-
tion of chaotic government in which one heir to the
throne was tortured to death, one former serf was
crowned, and a council of nobles exercised central
power in Russia until 1762 when a strong monarch,
Catherine II, arrived on the throne.
Catherine was the daughter of an impoverished
German duke who had married her off at age sixteen to
a feeble-minded grandson of Peter the Great, the
grand-duke Peter. After childhood worries that a spinal
deformity would make Catherine an ugly, unmarriage-
able drain on her family, she grew into an attractive
woman with deep black hair contrasting with a pale
complexion. Before she had matured into such physical
attractiveness, however, the future empress had built
her identity around her education and her strong, prob-
ing mind. Her intelligence won the attention of the
Russian royal family when hunting for a wife for the un-
educated heir to the throne, Grand-Duke Peter. When
Peter was unable to consummate the marriage, mem-
bers of the royal family who were desperate to perpetu-
ate the dynasty advised Catherine to find a lover who
could produce children. She cheerfully complied and
began a series of affairs that were among the most no-
torious features of her reign—although they hardly dis-
tinguished her from the behavior of male monarchs
such as George I of England or Louis XV of France.
Catherine’s lovers have historical importance be-
cause one of them, Grigori Orlov, an officer in the
royal guards, helped her to usurp the throne. When her
husband was crowned Czar Peter III in 1762, the army
began to conspire against him because he favored an al-
liance with a recent Russian enemy, Frederick the Great
of Prussia. Orlov became a leader of this conspiracy.
When Peter threatened the arrest of his estranged wife,
a military coup overthrew him and named Catherine
empress. Her husband soon died in prison, apparently
killed by one of Orlov’s brothers and possibly with the
connivance of Catherine, who ascended the throne at
age thirty-two.
Catherine II of Russia reigned from 1762 until- She initially faced significant opposition because
she was a foreigner, Lutheran-born in an Orthodox
land, and sexually scandalous. She obtained (and used)
great power largely because she was able to strike a bar-
gain with the aristocracy—the dvorianstvoclass. Like
Frederick II of Prussia, the basis of her reign became
this compromise: She would enhance the position of
the aristocracy and make no reforms at their expense.
Catherine settled the deal by seducing the foremost
leader of the old nobility, Nikita Panin, who then en-
dorsed her claim. Thereafter, she exercised autocratic
powers with a skill that rivaled Peter the Great, earning
a reputation for enlightened despotism, although the
evidence is greater for her despotism than for her en-
lightenment. She initially accepted, but later opposed,
an imperial ukasedrafted by Panin that would have dele-
gated legislative power to a council of nobles. She did
restore to the nobility freedoms it had lost under Peter
the Great. She abolished compulsory state service by
all aristocrats but kept nobles in high diplomatic and
military posts, winning the gratitude of many. She
granted a monopoly on vodka production to nobles,
winning others.
Catherine II best placated the aristocracy by her
policy on serfdom. She had read enough of the
philosophes to be an enlightened enemy of serfdom in
principle, and one of her first decrees upon coming to
the throne had been to alleviate the conditions of serfs
on the royal estates. As European Russia contained fifty
million peasants—55 percent of them serfs on the royal
estates—this was no small matter. And Catherine talked
of abolishing serfdom. Her actions, however, were dif-
ferent: She consistently extended the power of aristo-
crats over their serfs. A decree of 1765, for example,