Catherine’s foreign policy likewise placed her among
the great monarchs of the century, all of whom considered expansion
a central duty. Assisted by able statesmen and generals, the
empress successfully conducted two Turkish wars; as a result,
Russia reached its “natural” borders in the south
and on the Black Sea. However, the heavy taxation and military
recruitment that inevitably accompanied warfare resulted in
widespread dissatisfaction among the lower orders. More ambitious
and probably foolhardy was the empress’s Greek Project
to replace the old Byzantine Empire, which had been destroyed
in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. Plans called for Russia to pose
as the protector of Orthodox Christians, free the Balkans and
Constantinople from Muslim rule, and establish a new Greek
Empire, not part of the Russian Empire but headed by Catherine’s
carefully named grandson, Konstantin Pavlovich (Constantine)
(1779–1831). The empress was nothing if not audacious,
but the other European states would not allow such an expansion
of Russia’s power and territory.
Catherine’s other foreign policy thrust, into Poland,
was taken in conjunction with Austria and Prussia. Poland lay
in the midst of these three powers and, in the 18th century,
suffered from a host of problems connected with having an elected
(rather than hereditary) king, a fractious nobility, and a
multinational, multiconfessional population. In 1772, on a
pretext, the three powers stepped in and seized territory occupied
by one-third of Poland’s population. A program of reform
based on Enlightenment principles fell into place and culminated
in the Constitution of May 3, 1791, but Poland’s neighbors
were not interested in her recovery. Despite a rebellion, two
other partitions, in 1793 and 1795, divided Poland out of existence,
and the country would not recover its independence until 1918.
In addition to the philosophes’ crediting Catherine
for domestic and foreign policy triumphs, the men and women
of the Enlightenment also recognized her leadership in cultural
affairs. She scorned censorship rules, and the freedom of publication
allowed the arts to flourish. The empress herself wrote plays,
fables, memoirs, journal articles, a history of Kievan Rus’,
and countless letters to philosophes; she let it be known that
she read the poetry and prose that appeared in print and encouraged
a public dialogue with authors about the literary and political
issues of the day. In Catherine’s reign, Mikhail Kheraskov
(1733–1807) wrote Russia’s first national epic;
Nikolai Novikov (1744–1818) established the private book
trade; and the verse of Gavriil Derzhavin (1743–1816)
and the stories of Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826) laid
the foundations for the golden ages of poetry and prose that
made Russian culture so celebrated in the 19th century.
Throughout the 18th and well into the 19th century, the increasing
size, military might, and level of civilization of the Russian
Empire stood in bold contrast to the ulcer of serfdom. Peasant
rebellions have occurred with constancy throughout all of human
history, but the largest ever recorded broke out in Russia
in 1773. In that year, an illiterate Old Believer and army
deserter, the Cossack Emil'ian Pugachev (ca. 1742–1775),
claimed he was the deposed Peter III (r. 1761–62), set
up a court, issued decrees ending taxation and military service,
and called for the extermination of officials and landlords.
A horde of urban and rural workers, minorities, deserters,
and religious dissidents fell behind Pugachev; they assassinated
3,000 officials and 2,500 noblemen, gutted 400 estates, inflamed
East and South Russia, and threatened the city of Moscow. As
per usual, a better-trained and -equipped army ruthlessly suppressed
the uprising, but popular anger remained. In 1790, Aleksandr
Radishchev (1749–1802) wrote A Journey from St. Petersburg
to Moscow, in which he decried the evils of serfdom, begged
the empress to end the inhumanity, raised the specter of a
new Pugachev-type uprising, and made the sharp point that the
Enlightenment of which Catherine was so proud was a veneer
and that Russia would remain barbaric until emancipation and
rule of law were effected. The empress, panicked by the French
Revolution which had just broken out, abandoned her liberal
policies and sentenced Radishchev to death, though she later
reduced the sentence.
The shadow of the French Revolution hung over the last years
of Catherine’s reign, especially the beheading of Louis
XVI (r. 1774–92) and the assassination of the Swedish
King Gustav III (r. 1771–92). Catherine’s zeal
for reform ended; she engaged in political censorship; she
allowed “favorites” to conduct policy; she no longer
cared to communicate with her public. She died in 1796.
© 2003-2004
The New York Public Library
are
specific to Muscovy/Russia's internal development.
are
important world historical or cultural events.
indicates
specific points of sociocultural or military engagement between
Muscovy/Russia and foreign powers or individuals. 
