The Political Evolution of the Old Regime, 1715–89 369tions (more than one thousand of them from free peas-
ants), held more than two hundred meetings, and quib-
bled over details. The commission agreed to vote
Catherine a new title (“the Great and All-Wise Mother
of the Fatherland”), but it could not agree upon a legal
code. At best, it gave Catherine ideas for later years.
The need for reform in Russia was dramatized by a
rebellion of serfs and the Cossacks of southern Russia in
1773–75, known as Pugachev’s Rebellion. Emilian Pu-
gachev was a Cossack—a people who had lost their au-
tonomy in 1772—and a deserter from the Russian
army. He organized discontented serfs, Cossacks, and
religious minorities into a rebel army in 1773. Pugachev
announced that he was Czar Peter III, claiming he had
been dethroned by Catherine and the great nobles. He
formed a “royal court” among the rebels and proclaimed
the emancipation of the serfs, giving them the incentive
to fight for his victory. Pugachev’s rebels withstood the
Imperial army for nearly two years, capturing the town
of Kazan, and stimulating serf rebellions throughout
the region. The government took Pugachev so seri-
ously that new defenses were built around Moscow to
prepare for his attack. The rebellion collapsed in 1775
when Pugachev’s own forces betrayed him. He was
taken to St. Petersburg, exhibited in an iron cage, and
then beheaded. Catherine ordered that Pugachev not
be tortured but agreed that his questioning could in-
clude the artful extraction of his teeth. Her principles
against torture did not protect Pugachev’s followers.
Special troops scoured the countryside, tracking down
rebellious serfs. Most were executed “according to
Christian canon”—cutting off their hands and feet be-
fore beheading them, then leaving the bodies to rot at
roadside while heads were displayed on pikes in town.
Catherine II achieved her most important reforms
in the aftermath of Pugachev’s rebellion, but they did
little to improve the conditions of serfdom. First, she
reorganized the government of Russian provinces in
1775 by dividing Russia into fifty administrative
provinces, each subdivided into districts. Local nobles
were named to head district governments. Councils,
elected by town dwellers as well as nobles, shared in
the government. Separate courts were established for
nobles, burghers, and free peasants. Catherine carried
this administrative reform further in 1785 when she is-
sued the Charter of Towns. Following the strict hierar-
chy of corporative society, the charter divided the
urban population into six legal categories, ranging from
the great merchants and leaders of the wealthiest guilds
down to manual laborers. It allowed all six categories of
town dwellers, including the unskilled working class, to
participate in elections for the town council. Catherine
the Great thus gave signs of enlightened aspiration, and
she achieved a few noteworthy changes. But the fore-
most characteristic of her reign was still despotism, and
the condition of the serfs worsened significantly under
her rule.