The main directions of Catherine's policy 2 table. The main directions of Russia's foreign policy under Catherine II. Other events of Russian foreign policy under Catherine II

Conclusion

List of sources used

Introduction

In domestic politics Catherine did not imitate either Peter or Elizabeth, even less did she imitate the German rulers who were in Rus'. Under her, Russian people were in charge, and the interests of Russia were understood in a purely Russian way. Catherine was a national empress no less than Elizabeth.

In foreign policy, Catherine knew how to understand the primordial tasks of Russian politics and therefore was a direct imitator of Peter. Of the three issues of Russian foreign policy that stood under Peter - Swedish, Polish and Turkish - Peter resolved only the first. His successors did not allow either the second or the third. They were allowed by Catherine II. By the time of Catherine, the tasks of Russia were to take the Crimea and the northern shores of the Black Sea from Turkey, in other words, to create the natural geographical borders of the country in the south. In relation to Poland, the tasks of Russia were to liberate the Orthodox Russian population of Poland from Catholic-Polish domination, i.e. take the Old Russian lands from Poland. Catherine fulfilled all this: under her rule, Russia conquered the Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea and annexed all Russian regions from Poland, except for Galicia.

This was the most important result of Catherine's foreign policy, which increased the population of the empire by 12 million people; but this did not exhaust its content.

1. Russian-Turkish wars

In the 60s. In the 18th century, France was Russia's main opponent in the international arena. The purpose of her policy towards Russia was clearly expressed by Louis XV: "Everything that is able to plunge this empire into chaos and make it return to darkness is beneficial to my interests." The French government adhered to the traditional line of strengthening the so-called "Eastern Barrier", which included the states bordering Russia - Sweden, the Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire. French diplomacy had twice used its influence in the past to push Sweden and the Ottoman Empire into war with Russia. The country that would connect the two extreme links of the "Eastern Barrier" was the Commonwealth. It was she who became the place of clash of conflicting interests of France, Austria, Russia, Prussia and even the Ottoman Empire. Being in a state of decline and having lost the importance of a sovereign state, the Commonwealth allowed more powerful neighbors to interfere in their internal affairs.

In the early 60s. expected the death of the aged King Augustus III. France, Austria, Prussia and the Ottoman Empire were preparing for the upcoming political struggle in connection with the choice of a new king. The Russian government also took an active part in it, interested in the fact that the successor was the conductor of its influence. On the basis of the unity of interests, an alliance between Russia and Prussia took shape. The goals of the participants in this alliance were far from the same. If Catherine II preferred to have an integral Rzeczpospolita, located in the sphere of Russian influence, then Frederick II, concluding this alliance, had in mind the far-reaching plans for its territorial division, which he could not implement without the consent of Russia. At the same time, there were coinciding interests of the allies - they consisted in maintaining conditions that would open up broad opportunities for interference in the internal affairs of the Commonwealth. In 1764 Stanislav Poniatowski, a protege of Russia, was elected king, supported also by Prussia. After 4 years, the dissident issue was resolved in a spirit pleasing to the allies: non-Catholics, on a par with Catholics, could occupy all positions. Dissatisfied with this decision, part of the Polish gentry organized a confederation in Bar, which entered into an armed struggle with the Russian troops stationed in the Commonwealth.

The Ottoman Empire, closely following the events in the Commonwealth and incited by France, demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from there, as well as the rejection of patronage to dissidents. In 1768 she declared war on Russia. By the second half of the XVIII century. The Ottoman Empire lost its former power. Its economic resources turned out to be weaker than those of Russia, which also had a strong land army, a powerful navy and talented military leaders. This allowed Russia to wage war on land and at sea with equal success, and to achieve victories over a superior enemy in numbers. During the first three years of the war, the Ottoman troops failed to win a single victory; they left Khotyn, Iasi, Bucharest, Izmail and other fortresses in the Danube theater of operations. Two of the Ottomans' many defeats were particularly devastating. The first, on June 25-26, 1770, when the Russian squadron, having circled Europe, appeared in the Mediterranean Sea and won a brilliant victory near Chesma. Locked in the bay, all enemy ships, with the exception of one, were burned. The Ottoman army numbered 150 thousand people with 150 guns, while Rumyantsev had 27 thousand people and 118 guns. Nevertheless, the Russian troops inflicted a crushing defeat on the Ottomans - they lost the entire convoy and all artillery. It became obvious that the goal for which the Porte started the war would not be achieved. Moreover, she had to make territorial concessions. Russia undertook a peace initiative, which, however, did not meet with the support of the Sultan's government.

The Ottoman Empire was pushed to continue the war primarily by France, which agreed to sell its ships to it to restore the fleet lost in the Battle of Chesme. The Russian victories in London did not cause delight either, but the British government, interested in maintaining trade with Russia, limited itself to withdrawing its officers from the Russian fleet. Austria had its own reasons to openly support the Ottoman Empire - she herself claimed part of the Danubian principalities, which were in the hands of Russian troops. Under the alliance agreement concluded with the Sultan's court, Austria undertook by any means, including military, to seek the return to the Ottomans of all territories occupied by the Russians.

Prussia took an ambiguous position. Being formally an ally of Russia, she secretly created difficulties for Russian diplomacy. Under these conditions, the tsarist government could not oppose the implementation of the plan for the division of the Commonwealth, with which Austria and Prussia, starting from 1768, turned to Russia. The actual division of the Commonwealth began in 1770, when Austria and Prussia occupied part of its territory. The convention of 1772 formalized the first division of the Commonwealth: Austria captured Galicia, Pomerania, as well as part of Greater Poland, went to Prussia. Russia received part of Eastern Belarus.

The words of Catherine II addressed to Diderot - "if I could still refuse to partition, I would gladly do it" - this time fully correspond to the attitude of Russia at that time to the partition of the Commonwealth. By agreeing to partition the Commonwealth, Russia split Austria from the Ottoman Empire. Not relying on effective outside help, the Ottomans in 1772 agreed to negotiate peace. The main point of disagreement was the question of the fate of the Crimea - the Ottoman Empire refused to grant it independence, while Russia insisted on it. Hostilities resumed, and proceeded in conditions when Russia was engulfed in a peasant war. Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov in June 1774 managed to defeat the Ottomans at Kozludzha. The enemy agreed to resume negotiations. The tsarist government was also interested in an immediate end to the war, so that the freed forces could be used to suppress popular movement inside the country. On July 10, 1774, negotiations in the Bulgarian village of Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi ended with the signing of a peace treaty.

Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn, as well as Kabarda passed to Russia along the Kyuchuk-Kainarji world. Russia received the right to build navy on the Black Sea, its merchant ships could freely pass through the straits, Moldavia and Wallachia, although formally they remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact they were under the protectorate of Russia. The Sultan's court, which was the initiator of the war, undertook to pay Russia an indemnity of 4.5 million rubles. Two outcomes of a tense war had enormous consequences for Russia: the fertile lands of the Northern Black Sea region became the object of economic development; Crimea, from where for many centuries the khans carried out predatory raids, ceased to be a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, which strengthened the security of the southern borders of Russia.

The independence of the Crimea, guaranteed by the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhysky peace, was the most sensitive loss of the Ottoman Empire. The goal of her foreign policy in the coming decades was to return Crimea to her sphere of influence. As early as 1775, the Ottomans flagrantly violated the terms of the treaty by proclaiming their protege Devlet Giray as khan. In response, the Russian government sent troops to the Crimea and approved its candidate Shagin-Giray on the khan's throne. However, Ottoman agents staged an uprising against him. Devlet-Girey landed on a Turkish ship in Cafe to regain the Khan's throne, but was defeated by the troops of Shahin-Girey and went home. The rivalry between the two powers in the struggle for the Crimea ended with the promulgation on April 8, 1783 of the decree of Catherine II on the inclusion of Crimea into Russia. Thus, the Ottoman Empire was deprived of its foothold in military clashes with Russia. In the same 1783, the Treaty of Georgievsky was concluded with Eastern Georgia, which strengthened the position of the peoples of Transcaucasia in the struggle against the Iranian and Ottoman yoke.

With the establishment of allied relations with Austria, Catherine II came up with a foreign policy plan, called the "Greek project". It provided for the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire from Europe by creating from its possessions (Bessarabia, Moldavia and Wallachia) the buffer state of Dacia, headed by Catherine's grandson Constantine. The meaning of the existence of Dacia was to deprive Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire of common borders. Austria did not object to the project, counting on rounding off its possessions at the expense of the Ottoman lands, but its territorial claims were so exorbitant that the plan to create Dacia remained on paper.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire, although in 1784 recognized the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, but intensively prepared for a war with it. The warlike moods of the Sultan's court were kindled by England and Prussia, intending to extract their own benefits from the conflict: England sought to expel Russia from the Black Sea coast by proxy, since the establishment of Black Sea ports could deprive English merchants of the benefits that they derived from the weakness of the Russian merchant fleet in the Baltic; Frederick II incited the Ottoman court to war with Russia, guided by views of the next division of the Commonwealth, for he knew that Russia, involved in the war, would not be able to oppose his plans. France also assisted the Ottoman Empire in preparing for the war - under the guidance of its inspectors and officers, the fortifications and combat training of the Ottoman army were improved.

At the end of July 1787, the Sultan's court in an ultimatum demanded from Russia the recognition of its rights to Georgia and the admission of Ottoman consuls to the Crimea. Russia, not interested in opening hostilities due to the severe crop failure that hit the country, was ready to make concessions, but the Ottoman Empire, without waiting for an answer to the ultimatum, opened hostilities by attacking Kinburn. An attempt to capture the fortress by landing was repulsed by Suvorov. The failure of the Ottomans intensified the hostile actions of the English government. It forbade the entry into its ports of the Russian squadron, which was preparing to depart from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. The recruitment of British officers to serve in the Russian fleet was also prohibited. The same England and Prussia pushed Sweden to war against Russia.

On the part of Sweden, this was the second attempt to revise the terms of the Peace of Nystadt: in the summer of 1788, without declaring war, she attacked Russia. The Swedish king Gustav III carefully prepared for the conflict, because, counting on easy victories, he sought to strengthen his power and break the resistance of the opposition. The king had reason to hope for success: the main forces of the Russian army and its best commanders were in the south. Gustav III did not skimp on boastful statements - he said that he intended to take possession of Estonia, Livonia and Courland, and along with them Petersburg and Kronstadt. Before leaving Stockholm for the theater of war, he announced to the ladies of the court that he "hopes to give them breakfast at Peterhof." The outbreak of hostilities revealed the complete inconsistency and even absurdity of Swedish claims: in a fierce battle on July 6 near Fr. Gotland Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral S.K. Greiga was victorious, forcing the Swedish ships to seek refuge in Sveaborg.

The war did not bring any benefits to the Swedes, but it significantly complicated the position of Russia in the southern theater of operations, primarily by depriving it of the opportunity to transfer the Baltic Fleet to the Mediterranean Sea and raise the peoples of the Balkans languishing under its yoke against the Ottoman Empire. The war with Sweden, in addition, entailed considerable costs. At the same time, the hopes of England and Prussia, and indeed the Ottoman Empire, that Russia was not capable of waging a war on two fronts, collapsed. The Ottoman army, like the fleet, suffered one defeat after another throughout the war, and during the war, the high combat skills of soldiers and sailors, as well as the military leadership talents of A.V. Suvorov and the outstanding talent of the naval commander F.F. Ushakov. In 1788 he distinguished himself Black Sea Fleet: in June, the rowing flotilla of the Ottomans was defeated on the Dnieper - Bug estuary, and on July 3, at about. Fidonisi, the Russian squadron defeated the Ottoman fleet, which had a numerical superiority. These victories made it impossible for the Ottomans to help the besieged Ochakov, taken in a fierce assault in December. In the campaign of 1789 offensive operations Ottomans on land were paralyzed by A.V. Suvorov. On July 21, Suvorov, after a 60 km march, attacked the Ottomans at Focsany on the move, where 25 thousand Russians and Austrians were forced to flee 30 thousand Ottomans. The victory was achieved by a decisive bayonet attack, undertaken after a 9-hour battle. On August 28-29, a naval victory was won between Fr. Tendra and Gadzhibey. The most notable battle of the entire war was the assault on Ishmael. This powerful fortress with a garrison of 35 thousand people with 265 guns was considered impregnable. Its unsuccessful siege by Russian troops began in September 1790. On December 2, A.V. appeared near Izmail. Suvorov. Intensive preparations for the assault on the fortress immediately began: a ditch was dug in the training camp and a rampart was poured, corresponding to the dimensions of the fortifications, and the troops trained in overcoming obstacles. 5 days before the start of the assault, Suvorov sent the famous ultimatum to the commandant of the fortress: "24 hours for reflection and freedom; my first shots are already captivity; assault is death." At dawn on December 11, the assault began: the troops crossed the ditch, climbed the shaft along the assault ladders, broke into the fortress and, step by step, pushing the fiercely resisting enemy, captured it. The capture of Izmail is one of the heroic deeds of Russian soldiers - in the storming of the fortress, high morale and remarkable training of soldiers and officers were combined with the military genius of A.A. Suvorov. The capture of Ishmael crowned the outcome not only of the 1790 campaign, but of the entire war.

On December 29, 1791, the Treaty of Jassy was concluded. The goals for which the Ottoman Empire unleashed the war were not achieved. The Treaty of Yassy confirmed the annexation of Crimea to Russia and the establishment of a protectorate over Georgia. The results of the war for Russia did not correspond either to its military successes, or to the victims and financial costs it suffered. Only the territory between the Bug and the Dniester was attached to it. Bessarabia, Moldavia and Wallachia were returned to the Ottomans. Modest for Russia, the results of the war were due to the fact that England did not part with the idea of ​​​​creating an anti-Russian coalition. Earlier, Russian diplomacy managed to frustrate these plans. In order not to be isolated, the government had to force peace negotiations.

Three circumstances determined Russia's successes in the wars with the Ottoman Empire and Sweden: in these wars, Russia had the opportunity not to attack, but to repel the aggressive actions of its neighbors; combat readiness of the Russian regular army was immeasurably higher than the Swedish and especially the Ottoman - the militia of the latter, having a double, triple superiority in numbers, invariably suffered defeat from well-trained and armed Russian regiments; an important reason for the victorious end of the wars was the presence in the Russian army and navy of talented commanders (P.A. Rumyantsev, A.A. Suvorov) and naval commanders (G.A. Spiridov, F.F. Ushakov). They raised the art of war to a higher level. Suvorov, instead of the cordon strategy that dominated Europe, the meaning of which was the uniform distribution of troops along the entire front line using fortresses as strongholds, used a more effective means of crushing the enemy - concentrating the main forces on the main battlefield. He considered the purpose of the operation not to maneuver and deplete the enemy's resources, to destroy his manpower.

The famous work of Suvorov "The Science of Victory" is filled with many aphorisms and catchphrases understandable to both the officer and the soldier. He considered the main virtues of a warrior to be patriotism, courage, endurance, and determination. Naval commander F.F. Ushakov, who relied on his own experience and the experience of his predecessor G.A. Spiridov, like Suvorov, did not know defeat. He considered the main goal of the battle to be the destruction of the enemy fleet and, above all, the flagship, on which the fire should be concentrated.

The schools of Suvorov and Ushakov gave the country many talented military leaders: Kutuzov, Bagration and many others in the army, Senyavin, Lazarev and others in the navy.

2. Polish question

In 1763, the Polish king August III, who had been placed on the throne by Anna Ioannovna, died. A fierce struggle for power began between the magnate groups. The country was torn apart by internal contradictions. Power was exercised by the Sejm. Delegates from local sejmiks had the right to "liberum veto", ie. each deputy could appeal against any decision of the meeting. National contradictions were also very sharp in the country. The peoples of Ukraine and Belarus that were part of it were under the cruel socio-economic and national oppression of the Polish gentry.

After the struggle between the magnate groups of Potocki and Czartoryski, the latter, supporters of the pro-Prussian orientation, won. Their relative, a longtime acquaintance of Catherine, Stanislav Poniatowski, was placed on the throne. His government tried to carry out a number of reforms in the collapsing country, but these attempts aroused fierce resistance from other groups of the gentry. The right of confederation, that is, the creation of an armed opposition, was used. Supporters of reforms in the city of Bar (in Ukraine) created their own confederation. Catherine sent troops against them, led by Suvorov. Russia tried in every possible way to strengthen its influence in Poland. On this path, she found herself in very difficult relations with Prussia. Russia's great successes in the struggle against Turkey compelled Prussia to act jointly with Austria on the Polish question in order to moderate Russia's demands in the south. Russia did not benefit from the division of Poland and the strengthening at its expense of such states as Prussia and Austria. Poland suited Russia better as a buffer state on the border with stronger neighbors. But in the current situation, Russia was forced to go to the division of Poland. One treaty was concluded between Russia and Prussia, the other between Russia and Austria. Both were signed in July 1772. Under pressure from the two powers, in September 1773 the Polish Sejm sanctioned an agreement on the first partition of Poland. Russia received the entire Dvina and part of the Upper Dnieper region, the provinces of Polotsk, Vitebsk, Mstislav, part of Minsk and part of Polish Livonia. Austria captured Western Ukraine - Galicia.

In the 70-80s of the XVIII century. the question of the Right-bank Ukraine was increasingly connected with the question of Russia's further advance to the Black Sea, and this, in turn, gave rise to the Russian-Turkish conflict with renewed vigor. The entire foreign policy of Russia was tied into a complex Baltic-Polish-Eastern knot. The increased power of Russia allowed Catherine II to exert a very strong influence on the entire course of foreign policy relations in Europe. During the war for the Bavarian inheritance that broke out between Austria and Prussia, Catherine acted as an arbitrator. The Peace of Teschen in 1779, which ended this war, the terms of which were guaranteed by Catherine, led to a significant increase in the influence of Russian diplomacy on the entire course of affairs in Germany. Russia also played an outstanding role in the events connected with the war of the American colonies for independence. Russia rejected an attempt by England to use her forces to wage war in America. Moreover, in February 1780 she published a declaration of "armed neutrality". The declaration proclaimed that every neutral ship is under the protection of all neutral states and has the right to defend itself at sea with weapons. Responsibility for violence against neutral ships falls on the ships of the attacking powers. Most of the states have joined this declaration.

At this time, there is a change in the main course of foreign policy. Strained relations with England, cooling in relations with Prussia - all this led to the fall of the "Northern Accord". The process of rapprochement with Austria begins, laid down with the meeting of Catherine II in 1780 in Mogilev with the Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Even the figures in the foreign policy department are changing. Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin is replaced by Aleksander Andreyevich Bezborodko, a talented diplomat and statesman. Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, Catherine's favorite, begins to play a large role in foreign policy.

The basic concept of foreign policy is also changing. The so-called "Greek project" is born. It was supposed to expel the Turks from Europe, and on the territory of the former Ottoman Empire to create a Greek empire headed by representatives of the Russian ruling house. From the Danubian principalities - Moldavia and Wallachia - a new buffer state was to be formed (which bore the ancient name - Dacia). Austria was supposed to be the main ally, for which she was supposed to get under her influence the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. Scientists have not yet decided whether the "Greek project" was a real foreign policy program or it was just an illusion, the fruit of the court theorists' reflections. Most likely, those researchers who argue that the real project of Russia's foreign policy of the 80s of the XVIII century are right. ("Greek project") did not exist.

Be that as it may, things were moving towards a new war with Turkey. In 1783, Russia annexed the Crimea, which, of course, caused dissatisfaction with the Turkish government. Defiantly not fulfilling the conditions of the Kuchuk-Kaynardzhi agreement, Turkey itself declared war. The position of Russia was soon complicated by the performance of Sweden. King Gustav III began the siege of the fortress of Neishlot and presented clearly impossible demands to Russia. But the defense of Neishlot and the brilliant victory of the Russian fleet in July 1788 near Gotland over the Swedish fleet forced the Swedish government to conclude peace.

Russia has achieved outstanding success in the war with Turkey. Under the leadership of A.V. Suvorov, the fortress of Ochakov was taken, the Turks were defeated at Focsani and Rymnik. One of the brightest pages of this war is the capture of the Izmail fortress. But the betrayal of Austria and the Swedish danger forced Russia to be careful. In 1791, the Treaty of Jassy was signed, according to which Turkey undertook to steadily fulfill the conditions of the previous peace, recognized the new border with Russia along the Dniester and the annexation of Crimea.

In Poland, after the first partition, Russia's influence increased significantly. In this country, a movement is beginning to grow to strengthen the economy and political system through reforms. A number of positive measures were taken by the Diet of 1788, which was called the Four-Year Diet. On May 3, 1791, this Sejm adopted a new constitution, which was distinguished by a certain progressiveness. But little has been done to improve the lives of the lower strata of the population, especially those of Ukrainian and Belarusian origin.

Representatives of the foreign policy departments of Russia, Prussia and Austria crossed their "diplomatic swords" in Poland. It is difficult to say who was superior to whom in deceit, but for Poland itself, events unfolded dramatically. In the summer of 1791, Russian troops that took part in the war with Turkey were transferred to Poland. Immediately in the city of Targovice a confederation arose, to which the Polish king joined. The tsarist troops soon took Warsaw. On May 3, the constitution was repealed, and in March 1793 the second partition of Poland took place. Byelorussia with Minsk and Right-bank Ukraine departed to Russia. Prussia captured Gdansk (Danzig), Torun and Greater Poland with Posen. The rest of Poland, with a population of 4 million people, was surrounded on all sides by strong and hostile states that imposed their conditions on it. This caused a patriotic upsurge. Soon one of the parts of the Polish army rebelled. Krakow becomes the center of the uprising, and the talented general Tadeusz Kosciuszko becomes its head. He occupied Warsaw. Soon the uprising spread to Lithuania, Greater Poland and Pomerania. However, a significant part of the peasantry was disappointed with the measures taken by Kosciuszko, which significantly weakened his strength. Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov defeated the Polish troops. At the beginning of 1795, the third partition of Poland was carried out, which destroyed the independent Polish state. Most of the lands of Poland with Warsaw were given to Prussia, Lesser Poland with Lublin went to Austria. Russia received Lithuania, Western Belarus and Western Volhynia. The Duchy of Courland, which was dependent on the Commonwealth, was also annexed to Russia. The annexation of the ancient Russian lands to Russia was logical, as it preserved the national integrity of the East Slavic peoples. However, the relationship of the tsarist government to Ukraine and Belarus should not be idealized, remembering that sometimes violent Russification, which caused great harm to the development of national self-consciousness. As for Poland, it was the tragedy of the Polish people, who for centuries were deprived of their statehood and became the prey of neighboring states.

3. Russia and the revolution in France

There are two stages in the attitude of Russian tsarism towards the events in France. At the first, which, however, did not last long, the royal court considered the revolution that had begun as an event Everyday life, i.e. like a riot of hungry mob, which the royal power is able to quickly deal with. Neither Catherine nor her entourage considered what was happening in Paris the result of deep social contradictions, but connected it with temporary financial difficulties and the personal qualities of the unlucky king.

As the revolution developed and the feudal order was decisively broken, the mood of the ruling circles in St. Petersburg changed. They soon became convinced that the revolution threatened the fate of the throne not only in Paris, but also all the feudal-absolutist regimes of Europe. Catherine was also convinced of something else: Louis XVI and the French nobility could not restore the old order on their own. The fears of the Russian court were shared by the holders of the thrones of Austria and Prussia.

In 1790, an alliance was concluded between Austria and Prussia with the aim of military intervention in the internal affairs of France. It was not possible to immediately realize these intentions, since Austria, Russia and Prussia were preoccupied with the division of the Commonwealth, and Russia, in addition, was at war with the Ottoman Empire. At this stage, the absolutist regimes limited themselves to developing plans for intervention and providing material assistance to the French emigration and the counter-revolutionary nobility at home. Catherine loaned 2 million rubles to the French princes to put together a mercenary army. She became the soul of the coalition created to fight revolutionary France.

According to the Russian-Swedish alliance, Gustav III undertook to land a landing force in the Austrian Netherlands, which was to be joined by the troops of the French princes, as well as Austria and Prussia. Catherine, instead of the troops employed in the Russian-Turkish war, undertook to issue a subsidy in the amount of 300 thousand rubles until the end of it.

The performance of the coalition did not take place for two reasons: the death of Leopold II and the assassination of Gustav III forced the campaign to be postponed; but the main reason was that the monarchical regimes had detected the advance of the ideas of the revolution to the frontiers of their own dominions, and considered it a paramount task to stop this advance. It's about about the events in the Commonwealth.

This federal state included Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus.

For a century, from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century, Lithuanian principality experienced a deep economic crisis due to the continuous wars of the Commonwealth. They emptied the treasury and depleted economic resources. In 1648, the population of the principality numbered about 4.5 million people, two decades later it almost halved (2.3 million), by the end of the Northern War it had decreased to 1.8 million people, and only by 1772 it reached 4 8 million. Hard trials fell on the lot of the Lithuanian and Belarusian peoples: the economy in the villages and crafts in the cities were abandoned.

The government of the Commonwealth pursued a policy of Polonization and Catholicization of the Belarusian population. In 1697, a law was passed declaring Polish the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Even earlier, in 1673, non-Catholics were denied access to the nobility.

The backward forms of socio-economic life, the weak degree of centralization, which allowed the magnates to have their own armed forces, threatened the independence of the existence of the Commonwealth as a sovereign state.

The weakness of the Commonwealth gave rise to interference in its internal affairs by strong neighbors and made it possible to carry out its first division. The constitution of May 3, 1791 retained its feudal privileges for the gentry, the peasants remained in serfdom, Catholicism retained the importance state religion. However, the constitution abolished the "liberum veto", forbade the organization of separatist confederations, and transferred executive power to the king. The division of the Commonwealth into the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was abolished, and a united Poland was proclaimed on their basis.

The strengthening of statehood was contrary to the interests of Prussia, Austria and Russia. They had a formal reason to interfere in the affairs of the Commonwealth, since it was not allowed to change the constitution and cancel the "liberum veto". In the Commonwealth itself, some magnates and gentry opposed the strengthening of royal power. As a sign of protest against the constitution, on May 3, 1791, with the support of Catherine II, they organized a confederation in Targovitsy and turned to Russia for help. At the call of the confederation, Russian and Prussian troops were moved to the Commonwealth, conditions were created for a new division.

In January 1793, a Russian-Prussian treaty was concluded, according to which Polish lands (Gdansk, Torun, Poznan) went to Prussia, and Russia was reunited with the Right-Bank Ukraine and the central part of Belarus, from which the Minsk province was formed.

The second partition of Poland caused the rise of the national liberation movement in it, led by a participant in the struggle of the North American colonies for independence, General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. It began in March 1794 in Krakow, and in April - in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In the autumn of 1794, A.V. Suvorov stormed the Warsaw suburb of Prague. The uprising was crushed, Kosciuszko was taken prisoner.

In 1795, the third partition of Poland took place, which put an end to its existence. The agreement was signed in October 1795, but, without waiting for its conclusion, the initiator of the division, Austria, sent its troops to Sandomierz, Lublin and Chelminsk lands, and Prussia - to Krakow. The western part of Belarus, western Volhynia, Lithuania and the Duchy of Courland went to Russia. The last king The Commonwealth abdicated, and the ancient throne of the Polish kings from Krakow was brought to St. Petersburg and installed in ... the dressing room of the Russian Empress. On it, she will die "sitting on the ship" (according to A. Pushkin) in November 1796.

The reunification of Belarus and Western Ukraine with Russia and the incorporation of Lithuania and Courland into Russia had two consequences. The Polish-Lithuanian feudal lords retained their possessions, and duties were collected from the peasants in the same amount. It could not be otherwise - tsarism, ruthlessly exploiting its own people, showed full solidarity in this matter with the Lithuanian and Polish feudal lords, who were granted the rights and privileges of the Russian nobility.

But this side was blocked by positive results. The Russian government eliminated the self-will of the Polish-Lithuanian magnates, depriving them of the right to keep their troops and fortresses. The population of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Western Ukraine was drawn into the orbit of the all-Russian market. For him, the time of peaceful labor came, the squabbles between the gentry, which had a detrimental effect on the economy of peasants and townspeople, ceased. Russia provided protection from the outside, which the weak Rzeczpospolita could not guarantee. Religious persecution of the Orthodox stopped, and Catholics were granted freedom of religion. The reunification with Russia of peoples ethnically close to Russians contributed to the mutual enrichment of their cultures.

In the years when the monarchs were absorbed by the divisions of the Commonwealth, events in France developed as usual: on August 10, 1792, the monarchy was overthrown there, two days later the king's family was in custody; On September 20, the interventionist troops that invaded France suffered a crushing defeat at Valmy; On January 21, 1793, the execution of the former King Louis XVI took place. This event shocked monarchist Europe.

The Empress took steps to organize a new anti-French coalition. In March 1793, a convention was signed between Russia and England on a mutual obligation to assist each other in the fight against France: close their ports to French ships and prevent France from trading with neutral countries. This time the matter was limited to sending Russian warships to England to blockade the French coast - the empress did not dare to send ground forces to help the British, who were at war with France at that time - they were necessary to fight the rebels of Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

As soon as the movement in the Commonwealth was suppressed, a counter-revolutionary tripartite alliance was concluded between Russia, England and Austria at the end of 1795. In Russia, preparations began for a 60,000-strong expeditionary corps for operations against France. The death of the empress prevented the dispatch of this corps.

Conclusion

So, during the reign of Catherine II and her skillfully pursued foreign policy, lands with a population of up to 7 million people were conquered from Poland and Turkey, and total strength the population of the empire increased from 19 million people (1762) to 36 million (1796); the army increased from 162,000 to 312,000; fleet since 21 battleships and 6 frigates reinforced to 67 linear and 40 frigates; the amount of state revenues rose from 16 million rubles to 69 million rubles; the number of factories increased from 500 to 2,000; the import and export of foreign Baltic trade was increased from 9 million to 44 million rubles; the import and export of the external Black Sea (created by Catherine) trade was increased from 390 thousand to 1,900 thousand rubles.

We have seen that Catherine in foreign policy refused to follow her predecessors, Elizabeth and Peter III. She deliberately deviated from the traditions that had developed at the Petersburg court, and yet the results of her activities were essentially such that they completed the traditional aspirations of the Russian people and government.

List of used literature

1. Zaichkin I.A., Pochkaev I.N. Russian history from Catherine the Great to Alexander II. M.: INFO, 1999. - 256s.
2. Isaev I.A. History of the state and law of Russia. Full course lectures. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1994 - 534p.
3. Minenko N.A. Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century. M.: Enlightenment, 2005. - 326s.
4. Platonov S.F. Full course of lectures on Russian history. - St. Petersburg: Litera, 1999. - 256 p.
5. Eidelman N.Ya. Edge of Ages. Political struggle in Russia. End XIII - early XIX centuries. M.: Enlightenment, 1982 - 366s.

It falls on the period from 1762 to 1796.

At this time, the Seven Years' War was coming to an end in Europe, and Russia was going through a period of rapprochement with Prussia and preparations for a war with Denmark, which Peter III was about to launch. Having come to power, Catherine II managed to remain neutral in the Seven Years' War, stop preparations for war with Denmark, and weaken and eradicate Prussian influence at her court.

Turkish question

The territories of the Black Sea, the North Caucasus and the Crimea were under the rule of Turkey. In 1768, under a far-fetched pretext (referring to the fact that one of the detachments of the Russian army entered the territory of the Ottoman Empire, pursuing the Poles participating in the uprising of the Bar Confederation), the Sultan of Turkey announced the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, which lasted 6 years.

However, Russia won the war, and the territory of the Crimean Khanate formally became independent, but in fact became dependent on Russia. In addition, under the terms of the peace treaty, the northern coast of the Black Sea went to Russia.

In an attempt to return these territories, Turkey unleashed another war (1787 - 1792), which she also lost, and was forced to cede Ochakov and Crimea to Russia. The result of these two wars was a significant expansion of the territory of the Russian Empire: now the border with the Ottoman Empire was moved to the very Dniester. In addition, as a result of skillful manipulations by the empress, who managed to put a pro-Russian ruler on the throne of the Crimean Khanate, the Crimean Khanate also became part of Russia.

Polish question

The formal reason for intervening in the internal affairs of the Commonwealth, which included the Kingdom of Poland, was the demand to equalize the rights of Orthodox and Protestants with Catholics. As a result of pressure from Catherine II, August Poniatowski occupied the Polish throne, which resulted in the discontent of the Polish gentry and the uprising of the Bar Confederation, which was suppressed by Russian troops. Prussia and Austria, realizing that Russian influence in Poland had increased significantly, offered the Russian Empire to divide the Commonwealth.

The first partition took place in 1772, as a result, Russia received part of the Latvian lands and the eastern part of Belarus. The next division took place after the citizens of the Commonwealth, who opposed the adoption of the Constitution of 1791, turned to Russia for help. As a result of the division approved at the Grodno Seimas in 1793, Russia received the Right-Bank Ukraine and Central Belarus, including Minsk. And, finally, after the uprising of T. Kosciuszko, in 1795, the last, third partition took place, as a result of which the Commonwealth ceased to exist, and Russia expanded its territory by joining Western Belarus, Courland, Lithuania and Volhynia.

Georgian question

King Erekle II of Kartli-Kakheti turned to Russia to protect his state from the encroachments of the Persians and Turks, and the empress agreed, sending a small detachment to Georgia. After that, in 1783, the Russian Empire and the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti signed an agreement (“Treaty of St. George”), according to which the kingdom became a protectorate of Russia in exchange for military protection.

Swedish question

Sweden, with the support of England, Holland and Prussia, invaded the territory of the Russian Empire, taking advantage of the fact that Russia was at war with Turkey. However, Russia managed to win here too, and as a result, sign the Treaty of Verel with Sweden (1790), according to the terms of which, the borders between the states remained unchanged.

Other countries

Foreign policy The empress was aimed not only at expanding the territory of the empire, but also at strengthening Russia's position in the international arena. First of all, it normalized relations with Prussia (a union treaty was signed in 1764), which later made it possible to create the so-called Northern System - an alliance of several European states, including Russia and Prussia, against Austria and France.

In October 1782, Russia signed an agreement on cooperation with Denmark. During the Austro-Prussian war (1778 - 1779) Catherine II acted as an intermediary between the parties, essentially dictating her terms of reconciliation, and thereby restoring balance in Europe.

failures

Like almost any politician, Catherine II also had plans that did not materialize. First of all, this is the Greek project - plans to divide the Turkish lands together with Austria, as well as the Persian campaign with the aim of conquering large territories of Persia, and then Constantinople. The latter was not completed due to the death of the empress, although certain steps were taken.

Results and assessment

The territory of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine II expanded significantly due to the annexed and conquered territories, the colonization of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands began. The position of the empire in Europe was also strengthened through the conclusion of numerous cooperation agreements. However, historians are ambivalent about the foreign policy of the empress. Some argue that the destruction of the sovereignty of the Commonwealth was unacceptable.

Critical attitude to the methods of Catherine II and her successors, Paul I and, later, Nicholas I. Nevertheless, the tasks that Catherine II faced as the ruler of one of the most powerful powers, she successfully solved, even if the means she chose were always adequate and far-sighted.

V. Eriksen "Equestrian portrait of Catherine the Great"

“Catherine made a double seizure: she took away power from her husband and did not transfer it to her son, the natural heir of her father” (V.O. Klyuchevsky).

Having ascended the Russian throne in this way, Catherine II began her reign by formulating the primary tasks for her activities:

1. It is necessary to educate the nation, which should govern.
2. It is necessary to introduce good order in the state, to support society and force it to comply with the laws.
3. It is necessary to establish a good and accurate police force in the state.
4. It is necessary to promote the flourishing of the state and make it abundant.
5. It is necessary to make the state formidable in itself and inspire respect for its neighbors.

Let us now consider how Catherine II realized these tasks.

The term "enlightened absolutism" is often used to characterize the domestic policy of Catherine II. Yes, under it the autocracy was strengthened, there was a strengthening of the bureaucratic apparatus. But the ideas of Diderot and Voltaire that every person is born free, that all people are equal, that despotic forms of government should be abolished - this did not correspond to her internal policy. Under Catherine, the situation of the peasants worsened, and the nobles received more and more privileges.

Domestic politics

Reformation of the Senate and Statutory Commission

By project statesman N.I. Panin in 1763 the Senate was reorganized. It was divided into six departments: the first was headed by the Prosecutor General, who was in charge of state and political affairs in St. Petersburg, the second - judicial in St. Petersburg, the third - transport, medicine, science, education, art, the fourth - military land and naval affairs, the fifth - state and political in Moscow and the sixth - the Moscow Judicial Department.

As for the Legislative Commission, it was created to systematize laws. But the meetings were held for only six months, after which the commission was dissolved. The main result of her activities was the approval of the title "Great" for the Empress (others were also proposed: "The Wise One", "Mother of the Fatherland" and others). Thus, it was not as a result of merit that she received such a title - it was ordinary court flattery.

D. Levitsky "Portrait of Catherine II"

Provincial reform

In 1775, the "Institution for the administration of the provinces of the All-Russian Empire" was adopted. Its essence was that three links were eliminated administrative division: province, province, county, and two were introduced: province and county. 50 provinces were formed (instead of 23). The provinces were divided into 10-12 counties. Governor General(viceroy) obeyed 2-3 provinces. He had administrative, financial and judicial powers. Governor ruled the province and reported directly to the emperor. Governors were appointed by the Senate. Treasury Chamber headed by the vice-governor was engaged in finance in the province. Land management - provincial surveyor. The executive body of the governor was the provincial board, which exercised general supervision over the activities of institutions and officials. Order of public charity oversaw schools, hospitals and orphanages, as well as estate judicial institutions: Upper Zemsky Court for Nobles, provincial magistrate, who considered litigation between townspeople, and Top violence for the trial of the state peasants. Criminal and Civil Chamber judged all classes, they were the highest judicial bodies in the provinces.

At the head of the county was police captain, leader of the nobility, elected for three years.

Was created conscientious court, called to reconcile those who argue and quarrel, he was classless. The Senate is the highest judicial body in the country..

216 new cities were formed (mostly these were large cities renamed into cities). rural settlements). The population of the cities began to be called philistines and merchants. The main administrative unit was the city. At its head was mayor, he was endowed with all rights and powers. Strict police control was introduced in the cities. The city was divided into parts (districts) that were under supervision private bailiff, and parts were divided into quarters controlled by quarter supervisor.

According to historians, provincial reform led to a significant increase in the cost of maintaining the bureaucracy.

Founding of the Kuban and annexation of the Kalmyk Khanate

In 1771, Catherine II issued a decree on the liquidation of the Kalmyk Khanate and the annexation of the Kalmyk state to Russia. A special Expedition of Kalmyk affairs was established under the office of the Astrakhan governor, which began to take charge of the affairs of the Kalmyks. But this accession did not happen immediately: since the 60s, Catherine has consistently limited the khan's power, until a conspiracy to leave for their historical homeland, Dzungaria (a region of Central Asia in northwest China. A region with a semi-desert and steppe landscape) matured within the khanate . This turned out to be a great disaster for the people, who lost about 100 thousand people.

Other provincial reforms

The territory of Estonia and Livonia was divided into 2 provinces - Riga and Revel. Three provinces were created in Siberia: Tobolsk, Kolyvan and Irkutsk.

Economy

A state bank was established and the issue of paper money - banknotes - was established.

State regulation of prices for salt was introduced - it was one of the most valuable goods. But the state monopoly was not introduced, so the price of salt increased.

Exports have grown: sailing cloth, cast iron, iron, timber, hemp, bristle, bread - mainly raw materials and semi-finished products. And industrial products accounted for 80% of imports. Russian merchant ships began to enter the Mediterranean Sea.

Catherine II did not understand the significance of the development of industry, because. believed that this would reduce the number of employees.

Industry and Agriculture developed mainly due to extensive methods (increase in the amount of arable land). During her reign, famines were not uncommon in the countryside, which was explained by crop failures, but some historians believe that this was the result of massive grain exports.

During the reign of Catherine II, bribery and other forms of arbitrariness of officials flourished (what we now call corruption), she knew about it herself and tried to fight, but to no avail. As the historian V. Bilbasov writes, “Ekaterina soon became convinced herself that “bribery in state affairs” was not eradicated by decrees and manifestos, that this required a radical reform of the entire state system - a task ... that turned out to be beyond the reach of either that time or later.”

Historians note the exorbitant growth of favoritism under Catherine II, which did not contribute to the well-being of the state, but increased costs. They also received awards without any measure. For example, her favorite Platon Zubov had so many awards that he looked like "a seller of ribbons and hardware." During her reign, she gave away a total of more than 800 thousand peasants. For the maintenance of Grigory Potemkin's niece, she gave out about 100 thousand rubles annually, and for the wedding she gave her and her fiancé 1 million rubles. Near her was a crowd of French courtiers, whom she generously endowed. Large sums were paid to representatives of the Polish aristocracy, including King Stanislaw Poniatowski (in the past - her favorite).

Education and science

Catherine II paid special attention to women's education. In 1764, the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens was opened.

Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens

Hood. Galaktionov "Smolny Institute"

This is the first women's educational institution in Russia. It was founded on the initiative of I. I. Betsky and in accordance with the decree of Catherine II in 1764 and was originally called the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens. It was created to "give the state educated women, good mothers, useful members of the family and society."

Catherine, a fan of the progressive ideas of the French Enlightenment, wanted to establish an educational institution, which had no equal then in Europe. According to the charter, children entered the institution no older than six years of age and remained there for 12 years. Parents had to give a receipt that before the expiration of this period they would not pick up their children from the educational institution. The empress expected that the children would be removed from the ignorant environment and formed into educated people, thus, they would create a "new breed of people" in the future. The decree provided for the education of two hundred noble maidens in the newly built Novodevichy Convent. At first it was a closed institution for noble children, and in 1765 a department was opened at the institute “for petty-bourgeois girls” (non-noble estates, except for serfs). The building for the Meshchansky School was erected by the architect Y. Felten.

K.D. Ushinsky

In 1859-1862. K. D. Ushinsky was the class inspector of the institute, who carried out a number of progressive transformations in it (a new seven-year curriculum with a large number hours allotted for the Russian language, geography, history, natural science, etc.). After Ushinsky's forced departure from the institute, all of its major transformations were eliminated.

Pupils of the institute wore uniform dresses of a certain color: in younger age- coffee, in the second - dark blue, in the third - blue and at an older age - white. Lighter colors symbolized increasing education and accuracy.

The program included teaching Russian literature, geography, arithmetic, history, foreign languages, music, dancing, drawing, secular manners, various types of home economics, etc.

The emperor and members of his family attended the final public examination. At the end of the institute, the six best graduates received a "cipher" - a gold monogram in the form of the initial of Empress Catherine II, which was worn on a white bow with gold stripes.

Some pupils of the institute became ladies-in-waiting of the court (the ladies-in-waiting made up the retinue of empresses and grand duchesses).

The training course of the institute was equated to the course of women's gymnasiums.

In October 1917, the Institute, headed by Princess V.V. Golitsyna, moved to Novocherkassk.

The last Russian issue took place in February 1919 in Novocherkassk. Already in the summer of 1919, the institute left Russia and continued to work in Serbia.

"Cipher" of the best graduates of the Smolny Institute

Under Catherine II, the Academy of Sciences became one of the leading scientific bases in Europe. An observatory, a physics office, an anatomical theater were founded, Botanical Garden, tool workshops, printing house, library, archive. Founded in 1783 Russian Academy. Russian Academy(also Imperial Russian Academy, Russian Academy) was created by Catherine II and Princess E. R. Dashkova on the model of the French Academy for the Study of the Russian Language and Literature in St. Petersburg. The main result of this product of the Russian Enlightenment was the publication of the Russian academic dictionary. In 1841 the academy was transformed into the 2nd Department of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

But historians do not appreciate the successes in the field of education and science under Catherine II: educational establishments always experienced a shortage of students, many students could not pass exams, studies were not well organized.

Under Catherine, Orphanages for homeless children were organized, where they received education and upbringing. To help widows, the Widow's Treasury was created. The fight against epidemics during her reign began to take on the character of state events.

National politics

Catherine II in 1791 established the Pale of Settlement for Jews: on the lands annexed as a result of the three partitions of Poland, as well as in the steppe regions near the Black Sea and sparsely populated territories east of the Dnieper. The conversion of Jews to Orthodoxy removed all restrictions on residence. The Pale of Settlement contributed to the preservation of Jewish national identity, the formation of a special Jewish identity within the Russian Empire.

In 1762, Catherine II issued a manifesto "On allowing all foreigners entering Russia to settle in which provinces they wish and on the rights granted to them." There was a list of benefits for immigrants. So arose German settlements in the Volga region reserved for migrants. The influx of German colonists was very large, already in 1766 it was necessary to temporarily suspend the reception of new settlers until the settlement of those who had already entered. During the reign of Catherine, Russia included Northern Black Sea region, Sea of ​​Azov, Crimea, Right-bank Ukraine, lands between the Dniester and the Bug, Belarus, Courland and Lithuania.

Monument to Catherine II in the city of Marx, Saratov region

But this seemingly positive phenomenon turned out to be incidental - the “discord of interests” intensified when the indigenous population turned out to be in a worse situation and when some Russian nobles late XVIII- early 19th century as a reward for their service, they were asked to “record as Germans” so that they could enjoy the corresponding privileges.

Under Catherine, the privileges of the nobility were further strengthened. Peasants made up about 95% of the population, and serfs - more than 50% of the population. According to the general opinion of historians, the position of this largest group of the population in the era of Catherine was the worst in the history of Russia. Trade in peasants reached a wide scale: they were sold in the markets, in advertisements on the pages of newspapers; they were lost at cards, exchanged, given, forcibly married. She adopted a number of laws that worsened the situation of the peasants. During her reign, she gave away more than 800,000 peasants to the landowners and nobles. The result of this policy was the Peasants' War of 1773-1775.

Catherine pursued a policy of religious tolerance; in the first years of her reign, the persecution of the Old Believers ceased. She even supported the initiative of Peter III to return the Old Believers from abroad. But on the other hand, the number of Protestants (mainly Lutherans) increased due to the mass migration of Germans to Russia.

pretenders to the throne

Catherine's coming to power illegally gave rise to a series of contenders for the Russian throne: from 1764 to 1773. seven False Peters III appeared in the country (who claimed that they were “the resurrected Peter”), Emelyan Pugachev became the eighth. And in 1774-1775. the “case of Princess Tarakanova” was added, posing as the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna.

During her reign, 3 conspiracies against her were uncovered, two of them were associated with the name of Ivan Antonovich (Ivan VI), who at the time of accession to the throne of Catherine II was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress.

Freemasonry is gaining more and more popularity in the circles of the educated nobility. Catherine II tried to control Freemasonry and allow only such activities that did not contradict her interests.

Literature

Russian literature in the era of Catherine, as well as in the 18th century as a whole, according to a number of historians, was mainly engaged in "processing foreign elements." The "official" literature of the era of Catherine is represented by several famous names: Fonvizin (read about him on our website: Sumarokov, Derzhavin (read about him on our website:). There was also “unofficial” literature: Radishchev, Novikov, Krechetov, which was banned, and the authors were severely repressed. For example , Knyaznin, whose historical drama ("Vadim Novgorodsky") was banned, and the entire print run was burned.

Novikov's journal "Truten" was closed by the authorities in 1770 due to the fact that it raised acute social issues - the arbitrariness of the landowners against the peasants, corruption among officials, etc. The St. Petersburg Bulletin, which existed only a little over two years, and other magazines. In A. Radishchev's book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" there are no calls for the overthrow of the existing system and the abolition of serfdom. But the author was sentenced to death by quartering (after a pardon, it was replaced by a 10-year exile in Tobolsk) because his book "is filled with harmful philosophies that destroy public peace, detract from the respect due to the authorities ...". Catherine loved flattery and could not stand people who dared to express their critical judgments that ran counter to her own.

Culture and art under Catherine

Foundation of the Hermitage

Hall of the Hermitage

State Hermitage in St. Petersburg - the largest in Russia and one of the world's largest art and cultural-historical museums. The history of the museum begins in 1764, with collections of works of art that Catherine II began to acquire privately. Initially, this collection was housed in a special palace wing - the Small Hermitage (from fr. ermitage- a place of solitude), hence the common name of the future museum was fixed. In 1852, from a greatly expanded collection, it was formed and opened to the public. Imperial Hermitage.

To date, the museum's collection includes about three million works of art and monuments of world culture, from the Stone Age to the present day.

Founding of the Public Library

Old library building, early 19th century

In 1795, by the highest order of Empress Catherine II, Imperial Public Library. The basis of the Imperial Public Library is the Załuski Library (400,000 volumes), which was declared the property of the Russian government as a war trophy after the suppression in 1794 of the uprising led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the capture of Warsaw by A. Suvorov. At present, it is a particularly valuable object of national heritage and constitutes the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples. Russian Federation. One of major libraries peace.

Catherine II patronized various areas of art - architecture, music, painting.

The palaces of the era of Catherine II (Winter, Bolshoi Catherine, Catherine in Moscow) and the parks around them in their luxury and splendor were not inferior to the palaces and parks of the French kings and had no other equal in Europe. Everyone competes in the luxury of carriages, thoroughbred horses, brilliance of teams, the main goal is to appear no worse than others.

Catherine's foreign policyII

V. Borovikovsky "Catherine on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park"

Foreign policy under Catherine was aimed at strengthening the role of Russia in the world and expanding its territory. The motto of her diplomacy was: One must be on friendly terms with all powers in order to always retain the opportunity to take the side of the weaker ... to keep one's hands free ... not to drag one's tail behind anyone.

Under Catherine, the growth of Russia was as follows: after the first Turkish war in 1744, Russia acquires Kinburn, Azov, Kerch, Yenikale. Then, in 1783, Balta, Crimea and the Kuban region join. Second Turkish war ends with the acquisition of the coastal strip between the Bug and the Dniester (1791). Russia stands firmly on the Black Sea.

At the same time, the Polish sections give back Western Rus' to Russia: in 1773, Russia receives part of Belarus (Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces); in 1793 - Minsk, Volyn and Podolsk; in 1795-1797 - Lithuanian provinces (Vilna, Kovno and Grodno), Black Rus', the upper reaches of the Pripyat and the western part of Volhynia. Simultaneously with the third section, the Duchy of Courland was annexed to Russia.

An important direction of the foreign policy of Catherine II was also the accession as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars of the territories of Crimea, the Black Sea region and the North Caucasus, which were under Turkish rule. The wars with Turkey were marked by major military victories for Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Potemkin, Kutuzov, and Ushakov.

In 1790, the Verel peace treaty with Sweden was signed, according to which the border between the countries did not change.

Relations between Russia and Prussia normalized, and an alliance treaty was concluded between the countries.

After French Revolution Catherine was one of the initiators of the anti-French coalition and the establishment of the principle of legitimism. She said: “The weakening of the monarchical power in France endangers all other monarchies. For my part, I am ready to resist with all my might. It's time to act and take up arms." But in reality, she abstained from participating in hostilities against France.

During the reign of Catherine the Russian Empire acquired the status great power. As a result of two successful Russian-Turkish wars for Russia, 1768-1774 and 1787-1791. the Crimean peninsula and the entire territory of the Northern Black Sea region were annexed to Russia. In 1772-1795. Russia took part in the three sections of the Commonwealth, as a result of which it annexed the territories of present-day Belarus, Western Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland. During the reign of Catherine, the Russian colonization of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska began.

During the long reign of Catherine II (34 years) there was a lot of good and bad. But we agree with the words of Catherine's contemporary, Russian historian and publicist Prince M.M. Shcherbatov, who wrote that the favoritism and debauchery of Catherine II contributed to the decline in the morals of the nobility of that era.

Chronology

• 1764 Decree on the secularization of church lands.
• 1765 Decree on permission for landowners to exile serfs to hard labor.
• 1768 - 1774 I Russian-Turkish war.
• 1772, 1793, 1795 Three partitions of Poland between Russia, Austria and Prussia.
• 1773 - 1775 The uprising led by Yemelyan Pugachev.
• 1774 Signing of the Kyuchuk-Kainajir peace treaty between Russia and Turkey.
• 1775 Provincial reform.
• 1785 Letters of grant to the nobility and cities.
• 1787 - 1791 II Russian-Turkish war.
• 1796 - 1801 The reign of Paul I.

"Enlightened absolutism" Catherine II

"Have the courage to use your mind," - so the German philosopher Immanuel Kant defined the mentality of the era, which was called the Age of Enlightenment. In the second half of the XVIII century. In connection with the general economic recovery in the ruling circles of European countries, there is a growing awareness of the need to modernize the economic and political system. This pan-European phenomenon is traditionally referred to as Enlightened absolutism. Without essentially changing state forms absolute monarchy, within the framework of these forms, the monarchs carried out reforms in various sectors.

The ideas of the French enlighteners Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot brought to the fore society, a particular person, his personal prosperity, which was a reflection of the emerging ideology of a new class - the bourgeoisie. Rousseau proposed to create a democratic state in which everyone could take part in governance. Voltaire actively preached humanity and justice, insisted on the abolition of medieval forms of legal proceedings. Diderot called for the abolition of estate privileges, the liberation of the peasants.

Catherine II became acquainted with the works of the French Enlighteners while still a princess. Having ascended the throne, she made an attempt to implement these ideas on Russian soil. The key word for her was “law”.

In 1767, Catherine convened a special commission in Moscow to draw up a new code of laws of the Russian Empire to replace the outdated Council Code of 1649. 572 deputies representing the nobility, clergy, state institutions, peasants and Cossacks. The serfs, who made up half of the country's population, did not participate in the work of the commission.

Catherine prepared a special "Instruction" of the Commission for drafting a new Code - a theoretical justification for the policy of enlightened absolutism. "Instruction" consisted of 20 chapters and 655 articles, of which Catherine borrowed 294 from Montesquieu. “I own only the arrangement of the material, but in some places a line, another,” she wrote to Frederick II. The main provision of this document was the rationale for the autocratic form of government and serfdom, and the features of enlightenment were seen in the creation of courts, separated from administrative institutions, recognizing the rights of people to do what the laws allow. The articles that protected society from despotism and the arbitrariness of the monarch deserve a positive assessment. The institutions were given the right to draw the attention of the sovereign to the fact that "such and such a decree is contrary to the Code, that it is harmful, obscure, that it is impossible to execute it according to it." Of progressive importance were the articles that determined the economic policy of the government, which included concern for the construction of new cities, the development of trade, industry and agriculture. The commission, having worked for just over a year, was dissolved under the pretext of starting a war with Turkey, but mainly because Catherine, having learned the positions of various groups of the population, considered the task completed, although not a single law was passed.

The main social support of the autocracy in Russia remained the nobility. It opposed the huge mass of the peasantry and the weak third estate. The autocracy was strong and relied in carrying out its policy on the army and the bureaucratic apparatus.

It is important to emphasize that, in contrast to the openly pro-noble and pro-serf policy of the autocracy of the previous period, the policy of “enlightened absolutism” was carried out in new forms.

In February 1764, secularization of church land ownership was carried out, as a result, more than a million souls of peasants were taken away from the church, and a special collegium, the Collegium of Economics, was created to manage them. A lot of the former church land was transferred to the nobles in the form of a grant.

A series of decrees of the 60s crowned the feudal legislation, which turned the serfs into people completely defenseless from the arbitrariness of the landowners, who were obliged to meekly obey their will. In favor of the feudal lords, in 1765, a decree was issued providing for the assignment to the nobles of all the lands seized by them from various categories of peasants. According to the Decree of January 17, 1765, the landowner could send the peasant not only to exile, but also to hard labor. In August 1767, Catherine II issued the most feudal decree in the entire history of serfdom. By this decree, any complaint of a peasant against a landowner was declared the gravest state crime. Legally, the landlords were deprived of only one right - to deprive their serfs of life.

In the “enlightened age” of Catherine, peasant trade reached enormous proportions. The decrees adopted in these years testified to the development of serfdom in depth. But serfdom also developed in breadth, including new categories of the population in its sphere of influence. The decree of May 3, 1783 forbade the peasants of the Left-bank Ukraine from transferring from one owner to another. This decree of the tsarist government legally formalized serfdom in the Left-bank and Sloboda Ukraine.

A manifestation of "enlightened absolutism" was the attempt of the empress to form public opinion through journalism. In 1769, she began to publish the satirical magazine “Vssakaya Vyaschina”, where human vices and superstitions were criticized, opened the printing house of Moscow University, headed by N.I. Novikov is a Russian educator, publicist and writer. Pushkin called him "one of those who spread the first rays of enlightenment." He made available to a wide range of readers the works of W. Shakespeare, J.B. Moliere, M. Cervantes, works of French enlighteners, Russian historians. Novikov published many magazines, where for the first time in Russia there was criticism of serfdom. Thus, it was in the age of Catherine that, on the one hand, the feudal system reached its apogee, and on the other hand, a protest against it was born not only from the side of the oppressed class ( peasant war under the leadership of E. Pugachev), but also from the emerging Russian intelligentsia.

Foreign policy of Catherine II

Illustration 29. The Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century (European part)

Two main questions in the international policy of Catherine, posed and resolved by her during her reign:

• First, the territorial one is the task of advancing the southern border of the state (the Black Sea, Crimea, the Sea of ​​Azov, the Caucasus Range).
• Secondly, the national one is the reunification with Russia of the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands that were part of the Commonwealth.

After the Seven Years' War, France became one of Russia's main opponents in the international arena, which sought to create the so-called "Eastern Barrier", consisting of Sweden, the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. The Commonwealth becomes an arena for clashes between these states.

In the conditions of the aggravated situation, Russia managed to conclude an alliance with Prussia. Catherine II preferred to have an integral Rzeczpospolita, while Frederick II strives for its territorial division.

The Ottoman Empire, closely following the events in the Commonwealth, demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from there. In 1768 she declared war on Russia. During the first years of the war, Turkish troops were forced to leave Khotyn, Iasi, Bucharest, Izmail and other fortresses in the Danube theater of operations.

Two major victories of the Russian troops should be noted.

The first occurred on June 25-26, 1770, when the Russian squadron, having circled Europe, appeared in the Mediterranean Sea and won a brilliant victory near Chesma. A month later, the talented commander P.A. Rumyantsev in the battle of Cahul inflicted a serious defeat on the Turks. This did not stop the hostilities.

France continued to push the Ottoman Empire into war with Russia. On the other hand, Austria supported Turkey, pursuing its own goals in this war - to conquer part of the Danubian principalities, which were in the hands of Russian troops. Under these conditions, the Russian government was forced to agree to the division of the Commonwealth. The convention of 1772 formalized the first division of the Commonwealth: Austria captured Galicia, Pomerania, as well as part of Greater Poland, went to Prussia. Russia received part of Eastern Belarus.

Now Turkey in 1772 agreed to conduct peace negotiations. The main point of disagreement in these negotiations was the question of the fate of the Crimea - the Ottoman Empire refused to grant it independence, while Russia insisted on it. Hostilities resumed. Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov in June 1774 managed to defeat the Turkish troops at Kozludzha, which forced the enemy to resume negotiations.

On July 10, 1774, negotiations in the Bulgarian village of Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi ended with the signing of a peace treaty. In this world, Kerch, Yenikale, and also Kabarda passed to Russia. At the same time, she received the right to build a navy on the Black Sea, her merchant ships could freely pass through the straits. Thus ended the First Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774).

However, already in 1775, the Turks violated the terms of the agreement, arbitrarily proclaimed their protege Devlet-Girey as the Crimean Khan. In response, the Russian government sent troops into the Crimea and approved its candidate, Shahin-Giray, on the khan's throne. The rivalry between the two powers in the struggle for the Crimea ended with the promulgation in April 1783 of the decree of Catherine II on the inclusion of Crimea into Russia.

Of the other foreign policy steps of Russia of that period, the Georgievsky tract should be singled out. In 1783, an agreement was concluded with Eastern Georgia, which went down in history under the name “Treaty of St. George”, which strengthened the positions of the peoples of Transcaucasia in the struggle against the Iranian and Ottoman yoke.

The Ottoman Empire, although it recognized the annexation of Crimea to Russia, however, was intensively preparing for a war with it.. It was supported by England, Prussia, France. At the end of July 1787, the Sultan's court demanded the right to Georgia and the Crimea, and then began hostilities by attacking the fortress of Kinburn, but this attempt was repulsed by Suvorov.

In the defeat of the Ottoman army and navy, great merit belongs to the outstanding Russian commander Suvorov, who was at the head of the army, and the outstanding talent of the naval commander F.F. Ushakov.

1790 was marked by two outstanding victories. At the end of August, a naval victory was won over the Turkish fleet. Another important event of this period was the assault and capture of the fortress of Ishmael. This powerful fortress with a garrison of 35 thousand people with 265 guns was considered inaccessible. On December 2, A.V. appeared near Izmail. Suvorov, at dawn on December 11, the assault began, and the fortress was taken by Russian troops.

These victories of the Russian troops forced Turkey to end the war, and at the end of December 1791 to conclude a peace treaty, which confirmed the annexation of Crimea to Russia and the establishment of a protectorate over Georgia. Thus ended the Second Russo-Turkish War (1787-1791).

Poland continues to occupy a large place in Russia's foreign policy during these years. In the Commonwealth itself, some magnates and gentry turned to Russia for help. At their call, Russian and Prussian troops were brought into the Commonwealth, conditions were created for its new division.

In January 1793, a Russian-Prussian treaty was concluded, along which Polish lands (Gdansk, Torun, Poznan) departed to Prussia, and Russia was reunited with the Right-Bank Ukraine and the central part of Belarus, from which the Minsk province was later formed - the second partition of Poland took place.

The second division of the Commonwealth caused the rise of the national liberation movement in it, led by General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. In the autumn of 1794, Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov entered Warsaw. The uprising was crushed, while Kosciuszko himself was taken prisoner.

In 1795, the third partition of the Commonwealth took place, which put an end to its existence. The agreement was signed in October 1795, Austria sent its troops to Sandomierz, Lublin and Chelminsk lands, and Prussia - to Krakow. The western part of Belarus, Western Volyn, Lithuania and the Duchy of Courland went to Russia. The last king of the Commonwealth abdicated and lived in Russia until his death in 1798.

The reunification with Russia of Belarus and Western Ukraine, ethnically close to the Russian peoples, contributed to the mutual enrichment of their cultures.

Pavel I

The reign of Paul I (1796 - 1801) is called by some historians "unenlightened absolutism", others - "military-police dictatorship", and others - the reign of the "romantic emperor". Having become emperor, the son of Catherine II tried to strengthen the regime by strengthening discipline and power in order to exclude all manifestations of liberalism and freethinking in Russia. characteristic features his were sharpness, irascibility, imbalance. He tightened the order of service of the nobles, limited the effect of the Charter to the nobility, brought Prussian orders in the army, which inevitably caused discontent among the upper class of Russian society. On March 12, 1801, with the participation of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander I, the last palace coup in history was carried out. Pavel was killed in the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg.

Catherine II - Russian empress, who ruled the state for 34 years. During the era of her reign, Russia pursued an active foreign policy, which resulted in the strengthening of the prestige of the state in the world political arena and a significant increase in the country's territory.

The resumption of Russia's active foreign policy

33-year-old Catherine (nee Sophia Augusta-Frederica) came to power in 1762 as a result of a palace coup. Her husband, the legitimate ruler of the Empire, Peter III, was imprisoned in a fortress and later killed.

The foreign policy of the new ruler was directed on the all-round strengthening of the political role of Russia and expansion of the sphere of its possessions. The main directions of the external expansion of the Empire during the reign of Catherine, who received the nickname "The Great", were the west (Europe) and the south (Ottoman Empire).

The Empress formulated some theses of Russian diplomacy that time:

• Be friends with all the great powers.
• Always keep your hands free for necessary actions.
• Do not follow anyone's tail (meaning - to pursue an independent policy).

In these theses there was one more point - "to take the side of the weak." This is due to Catherine's early philosophical hobbies, her belief in justice as the highest good.

In fact Russian diplomacy often deviated from this noble point - you can take for example the sections of the Commonwealth that occurred during the reign of Catherine.

Partitions of Poland

In 1763, in the weakening and torn by internal contradictions of the Commonwealth, there was another government crisis associated with death King August III. Various factions of the Polish nobility put forward their candidacies as contenders for the throne.

Catherine did not fail to take advantage of this, proposing her own candidacy - her former lover Stanislav Poniatowski. Despite the resistance of a significant part of the gentry, Poniatowski was eventually approved as the new Polish king.

However, the western neighbors - Prussia and Austria - did not want such an increase in Russian influence in Central Europe, and, threatening war, demanded that their territorial claims to Poland be satisfied. Russia was forced to agree to these demands.

As a result, the Prussians received Western Pomerania, the Austrians - Galicia. The Russian Empire, which annexed from Poland, could not stand aside eastern lands of Belarus and part of Lithuania.

In 1792 there was a war between Russian Empire and Poland, which led to the second partition of Poland. As a result of which Prussia received land along the Vistula and Warta rivers, Russia - the rest of Belarus and Novorossia. Austria did not participate in the second section.

Following the second partition in the Commonwealth, in 1794 an uprising broke out under the leadership of the Polish Generalissimo Kosciuszko. This uprising covered a significant part of the country, as well as the Polish lands previously annexed to Russia and Prussia.

The suppression of the Polish uprising was commanded by the great Russian commander Alexander Suvorov. Under his command, Russian troops were able to defeat the Polish forces within six months. The Russian protege, King Poniatowski, was arrested for supporting the rebels and sent to St. Petersburg, where he signed his abdication.

In the next year, 1795, the remaining territory of Poland was divided among the three powers. As a result, Poland lost its statehood for a century and a half.

South direction

No less important for Russia throughout the 18th century is south direction. Here are the restless Muslim neighbors of the Empire - Ottoman and Persian Empires, as well as the Caucasian highlanders and the Crimean Khanate, who were in vassal dependence on the Turks. Relations with Turkey escalated to the limit by 1768, when the Sultan declared war on Russia.

The outbreak of the Turkish war lasted six years, the main area of ​​hostilities was concentrated in southern Ukraine, in the Black Sea steppes. The result of the war was the unconditional victory of the Russian army, as a result of which Turks lost control of the Crimean Khanate, which de facto became a Russian protectorate.

However, the Ottoman Sultan could not accept defeat, and 13 years later, having accumulated new forces, he again attacked Russia. In this war, which lasted until 1792, Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov showed his military talent in all its glory.

Under his leadership, the Russian army won a number of brilliant victories - the capture of Ochakov and the assault on Izmail, the battle of Rymnik. As a result, most of the northern Black Sea region went to Russia. The political positions of the Empire in the Balkans and Transcaucasia were significantly strengthened.

In 1783, Georgia voluntarily signed an agreement on a protectorate from Russia. In 1796, Persian troops invaded Georgia, and, having defeated a small Georgian army, they ravaged Tbilisi. In response, Russia declared war on the Persians, which lasted a little over six months.

During Persian campaign Russian troops occupied the territory of modern Caspian Dagestan, which then belonged to the Persians. The Russian army entered Azerbaijan, allied with Persia, and occupied the cities of Derbent, Ganja and Baku.

Other destinations

Catherine the Great pursued an active policy in other areas as well. In 1788 began two-year war with Sweden. Taking advantage of the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, the Swedes decided to return by force the lands they had lost during the time of Peter I.

However, after a series of sea and land battles, without achieving success, the Swedes were forced to sign a peace treaty restoring the pre-war status quo.

During the North American War of Independence from England, Catherine officially declared a policy of neutrality. Also, the state remained neutral during the Austro-Prussian War, acting as an arbiter between these two German powers.

During the reign of Catherine II, active development of the coast by Russian sailors and pioneers began. Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

As a result, the Northwestern tip of the American continent was included in the Russian Empire as the American county of the Irkutsk province. The final result of the foreign policy activities of Catherine the Great was the consolidation of the status of a superpower for the Russian Empire, as well as significant expansion of its territory.