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The Reforms of Catherine 2 in Russia
After the death of Peter I, his reform course was continued by Catherine II, who managed to express the national interests of Russians and go down in history as the great Empress who ruled the country for 34 years (1762-1796).
N. M. Karamzin, assessing the reforms of Catherine II, wrote:
"Catherine II was the true successor of Petrov's greatness and the second reformer of the new Russia."
Her reign marked the beginning of the era of enlightened absolutism, the chronological framework of which is determined by different historians in different ways.
The most generally accepted is the point of view of I. A. Fedosov, who counts the epoch from 1762 until 1815.
Enlightened absolutism is a pan European phenomenon.
In Europe, it is represented by such outstanding personalities as King Frederick II of Prussia, Gustav III of Sweden, Emperor Joseph II of Austria, etc.
This era was permeated with the ideas of the French enlighteners and was characterized by the emergence of a new class — the bourgeoisie, which openly declared its claims to economic and political power, sharply criticized despotic rulers and the dominance of the Catholic Church.
The ideas of the Enlightenment were widely spread outside of their countries.
Catherine II, being a person of European education, was aware of the need for upcoming changes and seriously undertook a thorough study of the works of S. P. Montesquieu, Voltaire, D'Alembert, D. Diderot, etc.
During her reign, she seeks to carry out liberal reforms aimed at forming a "new breed of people" in Russia, which would become the social basis for the European type of development, tries to introduce a broad popular education, tries to eradicate serfdom.
Political instability under her predecessors and a series of palace coups led Catherine II to the idea of the need to strengthen personal power, without which she could not imagine the possibility for deep transformations.
Catherine II was aware of the imperfection of the existing legislation and the complete lack of law and order in the country.
She believed that many of the previous decrees became unfit for execution, since their authors were guided by outdated considerations that were incomprehensible to contemporaries.
In the XVII century, a Special commission was created, the purpose of which was to eliminate the shortcomings existing in the legislation and identify the needs and moods in society.
With great enthusiasm, the Empress began to create a new Code based on the principles of the new philosophy and science discovered by the modern age of Enlightenment.
To this end, she took up the compilation of her famous instructions, which received the name "Order"in historical literature.
The main text of the" Order " contains 20 chapters divided into 546 articles, of which 245 were borrowed from the work of S. P. Montesquieu "On the spirit of laws" and 106 — from the book of the learned lawyer C. Beccaria "On crimes and Punishments".
In addition, Catherine II used the works of German scientists Bilfeld and Just, as well as the French encyclopedia and Russian legislation.
In her reasoning, the empress proceeds from the belief that Russia is a European country, and that its size has determined the only form of government acceptable to it in the form of an absolute monarchy.
It is difficult not to agree with L. I. Semennikova, who claims that in Russia they have always seen the meaning of transformations through the state, while in the West, along with this, the orientation was mainly on the development of elements of civil society.
Catherine II did not allow the idea of limiting her own autocracy.
"A vast state presupposes an autocratic power in the person who rules this world...
Any other rule was not only harmful to Russia, but also in the end ruinous.
What is the pretext for autocratic rule?
Not to take away people's freedom, but to direct their actions to get the greatest good from everyone."
In her "Mandate", she has advanced in the interpretation of the foundations of the monarch's power, she concretizes the concept of unlimited power and considers the royal person as a source of state power and the right belonging to her in the publication and interpretation of the laws of the Russian Empire.
The compiler of the" Order " believed that for the successful implementation of reforms, it is necessary to grant civil rights, first of all, to "the ruling class itself".
It is interesting to note that no one, especially in Russia, had them.
Even members of the aristocracy were subjected to corporal punishment.
If Peter I took the first steps towards a legal state regulated by laws, then the "Order" deepens this idea, explaining in many articles the meaning of the law in all spheres of life.
The peasant question is the weakest developed in the "Order".
The first edition of the "Order" was published in 1767.
It was published 7 times with a total circulation of about 5 thousand copies and became widely known not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders, as it was translated into many European languages.
The work of the Established Commission showed that the Russian nobility is the most conservative part of society and firmly stands guard over its interests.
And the fight against them may end with the loss of power.
Therefore, taking advantage of the outbreak of war with Turkey, the Established Commission of 1768 was dissolved.
There are still disputes in the historical literature, why did Catherine II need to convene it?
The answer is not simple.
We should not forget that the Enlightenment gave rise to people's faith in the omnipotence of laws, in their ability to change and improve society, and such a careful approach to the election of deputies showed an example of the emergence of new people with inner freedom and independence of behavior.
An integral part of the policy of enlightened absolutism is the secularization of church possessions.
Bourgeois revolutions in the XVII—XVIII centuries.
in Europe, they violated the undivided rule of the church ideology, which denied a person the right to freedom of personality, speech, statements, and actions.
Enlightened monarchies joined this trend of the time.
So Catherine II completed the subordination of the church to the state, which was begun by Peter I.
By a decree of February 26, 1764, the monastic and church patrimony with the peasants who inhabited them were transferred to the Collegium of Economics.
The most complete assessment of this phenomenon was given by N. I. Pavlenko, who believed that the secularization of church patrimony went in three main directions.
It deprived the clergy of an economic base.
If under Peter I the patriarchate was abolished and a Synod was established that was completely dependent on the state, then under Catherine II, monasteries and dioceses became completely dependent on the state, which took them for its maintenance.
The third result is the relief of the situation of peasants who previously belonged to spiritual landowners.
The conclusion is simple: the church was integrated into the state structure, which reduced its influence on society.
In the 60s and 70s, a wave of peasant demonstrations swept through Russia.
The largest of them is the uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev, who pretended to be the murdered Emperor Peter III.
The popular uprising had a sobering effect on the Empress and pushed her to the idea that the existing system of local government is not able to prevent the spread of peasant unrest.
On November 7, 1775, the "Institution for the Administration of the Province" was published, which entailed profound transformations in the state structure.
The reform marked the beginning of the creation of an orderly system of provincial administration.
During this period, Russia took a major step towards the separation of the branches of government.
The court was separated from the administration and the police.
This was not yet an actual separation of powers, since the Empress continued to retain full power in her hands, but there was an organizational formation of the judicial power, its separation from the administrative one.
(See Semennikova L. I.
Russia in the world community of civilizations. - p. 234.).
In addition, according to the decrees of 1775, all estates (except serfs) received the right to participate in the affairs of local self government and the court.
Of course, the role of the nobility was predominant, since the highest officials of the provincial administration were appointed by the government from the circles of the nobility, and the composition of the county administration was elected by local noble societies.
It should be noted that while carrying out the provincial reform, Catherine II tried to keep up with the West, where the local authorities had quite broad powers.
It was responsible for trade, education, medicine, and everyday life.
In Russia, these elements appeared much later, in the XIX century.
- with the emergence of zemstvos.
10 years after the provincial reform of 1785, "Charters to Cities and the nobility" were issued.
The charter granted to cities transferred to city societies the right of a legal entity that could independently dispose of property and income from it.
In addition, according to the decree, the citizens were divided into 5 categories: merchants, burghers, nobles and officials, clergy.
Their rights and privileges, varying in scope and meaning, depended on the class category, property status.
The sixth category — peasants living in cities were not included in the number of citizens, although taxes were taken from them in double amounts — both in the village and in the city.
According to the second charter, the nobles received a number of personal and corporate rights.
The most important of them is the right to own land on the rights of private property, freedom in choosing occupations.
A nobleman could not be subjected to corporal punishment and could not be deprived of noble dignity, honor, life and estate without a trial.
It is interesting to note that only under Catherine II, the nobles managed to get their civil rights and retained their corporate identity.
In the following years, Catherine II and her entourage pursued a course to further strengthen absolutism, centralize and bureaucratize management, take measures in the interests of various estates.
The nobles receive generous grants — land, serfs.
Catherine II also carried out certain transformations in the economic sphere.
In the middle of the XVIII century, the development of agriculture was still extensive, unlike in Western Europe, where it followed an intensive path.
The extensive nature of the development of agriculture was explained by the presence of a large number of vacant lands and an insufficient level of agrotechnical science.
Therefore, the Kazakh, South Ukrainian steppes and other lands were gradually developed.
It was only in 1765 that a free economic society emerged, which began to regularly publish its "Works" on various branches of the economy, plant breeding, animal husbandry, etc.
The main goal of the society is the rational organization of landowners and peasants ' farms, the dissemination of useful advice and knowledge.
Within the framework of this economic society, a competition was announced for the best essay on the topic "What is more useful for society, so that a peasant owns land or a movable estate, how far should his rights to this or that estate extend?".
The very existence of the society and the consideration of topical issues during its meetings is another step towards the Europeanization of the country and the continuation of the policy of enlightened absolutism.
As you know, not only Russians, but also foreign citizens took part in the competition.
The award for the best work was awarded to A. Ya.
Palenov.
But, unfortunately, his ideas and thoughts remained not in demand by society.
The introduction of useful initiatives progressed extremely slowly.
Serf labor did not contribute to the introduction of innovations.
But despite everything, this society existed in Russia until October 1917.
The decree of 1763, which allowed the sale of bread abroad, was of great importance for the development of the economy.
This brought a huge income to the landowner, contributed to the expansion of trade, although it increased the exploitation of the peasants.
The industry was developing at a high rate.
At the end of the reign of Catherine II, 167 mining plants and 1094 manufacturing enterprises operated in Russia.
There was a process of formation of the manufactory from small commodity production, which was generally an indicative sign of the development of domestic industry.
An important incentive for the development of entrepreneurship were concessions to the merchants: in 1766, a decree was issued to exempt them from conscription and replace it with the payment of a monetary contribution, the proclamation of freedom of entrepreneurship in 1775, which consisted in granting merchants and peasants the right to start enterprises.
Such industrialists as the Guchkovs, Morozovs, and Bugrimovs came out of the peasants.
However, it is impossible not to see that the development of the capitalist system was hindered by serfdom.
But gradually, a characteristic feature of the development of the main branches of the manufacturing industry, and above all the textile industry, was the growing use of freelance labor.
From that moment on, we can talk about the existence of a stable free labor market.
Another decree of 1779 doubled the wages of assigned peasants at factories, and exempted their owners from mandatory supplies of iron and shells to the treasury.
It is interesting to note that the government gave privileges not only to the nobility and rich merchants, but also to the artisan and peasant estates.
But this was not enough, since the serfdom forms of exploitation of workers, the lack of money for the modernization of production, the state monopoly led to the fact that at the end of the XVIII century.a clear lag between Russian industry and European industry appeared.
Under Catherine II, the reform of education was continued.
It brings serious thoroughness to the system hastily created by Peter the Great, giving it a wide state scale and subordinating it to the solution of socio political tasks.
The entire education system was based on the ideas of the French enlighteners Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, etc.
The most consistent conductor of these ideas in Russia was a talented teacher and organizer of the enlightenment, I. I. Betskoy.
Based on the theory of natural education Zh.
- Zh.
According to Russo, Betskoy believed that the most effective way of raising a child is possible in closed schools, the number of which began to grow rapidly under him.
The indisputable merit of Catherine II was the opening of the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg, which marked the beginning of women's school education in Russia.
Established in 1763, the Medical Academy was the first educational institution in Russia that trains professional doctors.
Under Catherine II, science, literature and socio political thought were further developed.
Ekaterina Dashkova became the first woman in Russia to head the Academy of Sciences.
The names of A. N. Radishchev, the famous publisher and publicist N. I. Novikov are associated with the birth of democratic traditions in Russian society.
Analyzing the development of Russia throughout the XVIII century, it should be noted its indisputable achievements in all spheres of activity.
The country acquired a brighter architectural appearance, new cities grew, large industrial centers were created.
The era of Catherine II was marked by a surge of scientific discoveries, bright literary talents.
Democratic traditions were established in the socio political life.
The foreign policy of Catherine II was characterized by the further expansion of the country's territory and the strengthening of its international authority.
At the same time, the economic and cultural successes of Russia, its international prestige could not hide the difficult situation of the common people, whose work and talent these successes were achieved.
Hard work, endurance and patience could not withstand the brutal exploitation of the autocracy, which led to powerful unrest.
Catherine II experienced a terrible and merciless peasant revolt under the leadership of E. Pugachev.
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