Russian Enlightenment - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Russian Age of Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

was a period in the eighteenth century in which the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences. This time gave birth to the first Russian university, library, theatre, public museum, and relatively independent press. Like other enlightened despots

Enlightened absolutism

Enlightened absolutism is a form of absolute monarchy or despotism in which rulers were influenced by the Enlightenment. Enlightened monarchs embraced the principles of the Enlightenment, especially its emphasis upon rationality, and applied them to their territories...

, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences, and education. The national Enlightenment differed from its Western European counterpart in that it promoted further Modernisation of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with attacking the institution of serfdom in Russia. The Pugachev Rebellion and French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

may have shattered the illusions of rapid political change, but the intellectual climate in Russia was altered irrevocably. Russia's place in the world was debated by Denis Fonvizin

Denis Fonvizin

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...

, Mikhail Shcherbatov

Mikhail Shcherbatov

Prince Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov was a leading ideologue and exponent of the Russian Enlightenment, on the par with Mikhail Lomonosov and Nikolay Novikov. His view of human nature and social progress is kindred to Swift's pessimism. He was known as a statesman, historian, writer and...

, Andrey Bolotov

Andrey Bolotov

Andrey Timofeyevich Bolotov was the most distinguished Russian agriculturist of the 18th century.Bolotov was born and spent most of his adult life in the family estate of Dvoryaninovo, in the Tula region to the south of Moscow. He was brought up by his parents in Livland, where his father's...

, Ivan Boltin, and Alexander Radishchev

Alexander Radishchev

Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow...

; these discussions precipitated the divorce between the radical, Westernizing and conservative, Slavophile

Slavophile

Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...

traditions of Russian thought.

Early developments

The ideas of the Russian Enlightenment were first espoused by the "learned druzhina

Druzhina

Druzhina, Drużyna or Družyna in the medieval history of Slavic Europe was a retinue in service of a chieftain, also called knyaz. The name is derived from the Slavic word drug with the meaning of "companion, friend". -Early Rus:...

" of Peter the Great. It is the spirit which animates the sermons of Feofan Prokopovich

Feofan Prokopovich

thumb|Theophan ProkopovichFeofan/Theophan Prokopovich was an archbishop and statesman in the Russian Empire, of Ukrainian descent. He elaborated and implemented Peter the Great's reform of the Russian Orthodox Church...

, the satires of Antiokh Kantemir, and the historiography of Vasily Tatishchev

Vasily Tatishchev

Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev was a prominent Russian statesman, and ethnographer, best remembered as the author of the first full-scale Russian history...

.

During the reign of Peter's daughter Elizaveta Petrovna the ideas of the Enlightened Absolutism

Enlightened absolutism

found their way into Russia. Elizaveta's favourite

Favourite

A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...

, Ivan Shuvalov

Ivan Shuvalov

Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education...

, was an ideal enlightened courtier

Courtier

A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

: he was instrumental in the establishment of the Moscow University and the Imperial Academy of Arts

Imperial Academy of Arts

The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, completed 25 years later in 1789...

, which would spawn the careers of most intellectuals active during the last quarter of the 18th century.

Shuvalov was also the patron of the greatest Russian polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...

– Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Lomonosov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...

– who left his mark in various branches of natural science, religious philosophy, poetry, and fine arts. Although his research inevitably eroded the authority of religious doctrines, Lomonosov himself was a devout Christian.

Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great considered herself an enlightened despot

Despot

Despot may refer to:* Despot , a Byzantine court title* Despotism, a form of government in which power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or a small groupPeople with the surname Despot:...

. She read the most prominent philosophes of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

and tried to adhere to Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

ideas. She wished to bring Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

up to par with its neighbors not only militarily but also politically, culturally, and intellectually.

Many of Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

’s contemporaries questioned her adherence to Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

ideals and thought she was an egoist, and merely used concepts from the Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

to further her selfish gains. Gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

played a primary role in these criticisms. Contemporaries interpreted her personality as combining masculine strength with feminine vanity.

“Westernization

Westernization

Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...

” carries different meanings in different countries over varying time periods. But in relation to Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

during the eighteenth century, “westernization

Westernization

” meant legislative changes to economics, politics and culture. It also entails the Russian gentry’s adherence to a set standard and its imitation of “Western” values. “Westernization

Westernization

” includes the modernization of machinery, the refinement of a more efficient bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

, and the acceptance of Western European tastes.

Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

produced more goods, and enlisted thousands of troops during Catherine’s

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

reign. While she acquired new lands, including Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

and Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, updated the army, and supported burgeoning manufactures, she really wanted to westernize Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

by reforming Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

, specifically the lives of the gentry

Russian nobility

The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...

, qualitatively. Bringing Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

to an equal level with the rest of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

intellectually was a major concern of Catherine’s. For this reason she created laws that justified her rule.

Foreign Policy

Almost every Russian ruler has sought warm water ports. Peter I

Peter I of Russia

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

fought the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

over the Crimea

Crimea

. Gaining access to the Crimea

Crimea

would have given Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

access to the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

and the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

. While Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

occupied Poland, France

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

realized that the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

was the only country in a position to topple Catherine. Supported by France

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

, the Turks

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

told Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

to leave Poland. Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

declared war on the Sultan immediately afterward. After several successful victories including the destruction of the Turkish naval fleet, Catherine impressed many European powers. “Catherine, who had at first been treated as a dilettante in politics, now appeared to all the Western chanceries as an evil genius.

Catherine returned to the Crimea

Crimea

in November of 1776, and imposed a ruler for the reoccupation of the peninsula because of disturbances there. The Crimeans revolted in 1778, after which the Russians went in the same year and installed their own leader to the throne.

Because she gained significant diplomatic power in the early 1770s Catherine considered something called the “Greek Project”. This consisted of pushing the Turks out of Europe but it also carried another more utopian aspect: reclaiming Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

from Muslim to Orthodox Christian rule. The Second Turkish War, 1787–1792, ended with Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

gaining the fortress of Ochakov and the Black Sea

Black Sea

shore to the Dniester River, and the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

recognizing Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

’s annexation of Crimea

Crimea

.

Retaking Constantinople

Constantinople

and creating a Christian empire centered there does not appear to be a very enlightened plan. However, Catherine saw land grabs as an easy way to assert Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

’s intentions. By declaring that Constantinople

Constantinople

would one day belong to Christians, she also appeased the church

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

which still held significant influence in the 18th century. She wished to show Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

that her country would be a powerful presence in European political matters. Catherine’s partition of Poland was an even more blatant example of power politics. Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

invaded three separate times, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and divided the once important European state between itself, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

and Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

. The 3rd May Constitution

Constitution of May 3, 1791

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a "Government Act" on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution...

of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

voted in 1791 was considered by Catherine as a Jacobin

Jacobin (politics)

A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...

threat and as a therefore presenting a threat to Russia's monarchy and its influence in Poland, which ultimately led to a military expedition

Polish-Russian War of 1792

The Polish–Russian War of 1792 or War in Defence of the Constitution was fought between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on one side, and the Targowica Confederation and the Russian Empire on the other....

resulting in the destruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

.

Catherine’s land acquisitions show the quantitative changes she made to the Russian empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. But she went far beyond this type of modernization that Peter the Great used in Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. The institution of laws and importation of liberal Western European thought served as means of expanding the state

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

Politics

At the advice of her learned correspondents, Catherine introduced a number of reforms, ranging from the vast secularization

Secularization

Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...

of monastic properties to the domestic reform which envisioned more rational planning for the Russian towns.

Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

believed in Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

political thought. She reformed the strong and powerful bureaucracy Peter the Great established. She established fifty "gubernii" provinces, divided into ten districts. 300,000 to 400,000 people lived in each province and 20,000 to 30,000 lived in every district. A governor, and a network of officials, divided by executive, legislative, and judicial functions were ideally supposed to run each province. Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

also wanted the gentry

Russian nobility

to play a role in local political affairs.

Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

’s political reforms went beyond perfecting Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

’s bureaucracy. Her Nakaz
Nakaz
Nakaz, or Instruction, of Catherine the Great was a statement of legal principles authored by Catherine II of Russia, and permeated with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. It was compiled as a guide for the All-Russian Legislative Commission convened in 1767 for the purpose of replacing the...

or "Instruction

Nakaz

Nakaz, or Instruction, of Catherine the Great was a statement of legal principles authored by Catherine II of Russia, and permeated with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. It was compiled as a guide for the All-Russian Legislative Commission convened in 1767 for the purpose of replacing the...

" expressed her political ideals. She wrote this for her Legislative Commission, summoned in 1767 to draft a Code of Laws for Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. Representatives from all the free estates of the realm, government bodies, and non-Russian people considered the state of Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

’s laws. Several of her advisers suggested putting in place a council to regulate legislation but this was promptly rejected. Once Catherine began to lose the slightest amount of power she reverted to the ways of the past: autocratic rule. She ruled through a series of functional colleges headed by boards under presidents, who worked in cooperation with an appointed administrative Senate of twenty or thirty people. The Senate possessed no legislative powers. Catherine kept the power to pass laws.

She realized the need for the establishment of laws. Some argue that Catherine

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

used the Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

as a way of placing “her rule on firm philosophic foundations and providing a national guide for the moral leadership of Europe.” Others say she used her laws for purely practical reasons. She established a civil law code in January 1774 and a criminal code during the second half of the 1770s, but never finished a unitary code. She drew heavily in the Nakaz
Nakaz
Nakaz, or Instruction, of Catherine the Great was a statement of legal principles authored by Catherine II of Russia, and permeated with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. It was compiled as a guide for the All-Russian Legislative Commission convened in 1767 for the purpose of replacing the...

from the latest continental jurisprudence but ignored references to natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

.

Criticism of the Empress

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

’s reforms abounded. Professor Semeon Desnitskii, a follower of Adam Smith

Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...

, suggested that Catherine institute elections every five years of a representative Senate and separation of powers. Mikhail Kheraskov

Mikhail Kheraskov

Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov was regarded as the most important Russian poet by Catherine the Great and her contemporaries.Kheraskov's father was a Romanian boyar who settled in the Ukraine...

used novels and poems to show that the duty of the autocrat was to transition from an enlightened absolute monarch to a constitutional or limited monarch.

To understand the significance of Catherine’s rule, one must look back on Peter the Great’s reign. Peter established the idea of a “reforming tsar.” He broke away from the old Muscovite

Grand Duchy of Moscow

The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....

conception of the Russian sovereign as “good tsar.” From his reign on all tsars were judged by the standard of: modernizing economics, society, politics and cultural life, gaining influence abroad, and leading Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

on secular Western European ideas. No longer did leaders paternalistically protect the Russian homeland

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

became a major European power because of Peter’s reforms. From Peter’s rule set the precedent for succeeding leaders. For the next 150 years, Russian rulers followed “reform conservatism” which consisted of maintaining the state’s power, fighting off fundamental change, but also adopting progressive changes that gave the autocracy a feature of liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

, which was actually conservative in practice.

Culture

Considered the “only articulate ideologist to rule Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

between Ivan IV and Lenin,” Catherine not only wanted to have military and political equality with Western European countries but she also strove to emulate their enlightened rule by supplanting western thought

Age of Enlightenment

and practices onto the Russian gentry

Russian nobility

. Catherine did this because of universal standards Europeans used to compare themselves.

In contrast to Peter I, who regulated Russian society through public ceremony and legislation, Catherine promoted “the internal mechanisms of behavior regulation.” She attempted to achieve this remarkable goal through education. Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

set up state-run schools that provided students with learning in the three Rs

The three Rs

The three Rs are the foundations of a basic skills-orientated education program within schools: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.The phrase is attributed to a toast given by Sir William Curtis around 1825...

as well as the behavior proper for citizenship. The schools stressed two principles above all else: the need to be patriotic, and the need to accept innovation.

The upper classes

Russian nobility

’ increased purchasing power caused them to see themselves as equals to the French

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

, British

Early Modern Britain

Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the...

, Swiss, Danish and Swedes. This led the gentry

Russian nobility

, viewed as the “pillar of absolutism and of the Russian state,” to “domesticate—in the most literal sense of the word—the appointments of Western European polite society."

Catherine called the gentry

Russian nobility

, in her Nakaz
Nakaz
Nakaz, or Instruction, of Catherine the Great was a statement of legal principles authored by Catherine II of Russia, and permeated with the ideas of the French Enlightenment. It was compiled as a guide for the All-Russian Legislative Commission convened in 1767 for the purpose of replacing the...

as “an Appellation of Honour, which distinguishes all those who are adorned with it from every other Person of Inferior Rank.” In 1785, she fused the notion of reward for service with the idea of inherited rank in “Declaration of the Rights, Freedom and Privileges of the Well-Born Russian Nobility”: “The right to the name of dvoryanin
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...

(gentry) comes down from the quality and virtue of those men who took the lead in ancient times and distinguished themselves by particular service.” She codified this by ordering assemblies of the gentry

Russian nobility

in regional centers to keep genealogical records. Catherine’s reforms allowed those with historically powerful families to keep their status in society, and others to rise due to service. A nobleman no longer showed his refinement through his servitude to the court but through what he owned and what company he kept.

Catherine’s Smol’nyi Institute in St. Petersburg, based on the French Maison royale de Saint Louis

Maison royale de Saint-Louis

The Maison Royale de Saint-Louis was a 'pensionnat' or boarding school for girls set up in 1684 at Saint-Cyr in France by king Louis XIV at the request of his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, who wanted a school for girls from impoverished noble families...

, taught upper-class girls polite manners in society and gave them a moral education. Girls studied not only “dance, music, sewing drawing, and household economy” but also “law, mathematics, languages, geography, history, economy, architecture, science, and ethics.”

Her Sub-Commission on Education concerned itself not with the subtleties of sciences, but with primary, secondary, and higher education, in order to teach children the duties required of those who live in society. The Sub-Commission began its work in May 1768 and used English universities, the Prussian system of national education and “Irish school” as models. The state then established free, co-educational high schools and primary schools in provincial towns in 1786. By 1764, district towns received primary schools however; rural schools did not come into existence. Few children attended public schools. Around 176,000 children passed through Russian public school between 1786 and 1796. Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

lacked the finances and teachers to run schools properly.

Secularization

Secularization

Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...

, a “western

Age of Enlightenment

” principle, officially came to Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

through monetary necessity. Of course Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

ideas about religion influenced the gentry

Russian nobility

but Catherine established the Commission on Church Lands on February 6, 1764 to support the finances of the state. The appropriation of church

Russian Orthodox Church

lands to the state brought a substantial amount of money, land, and peasants under Catherine’s control.

Economics

The state’s efforts to “westernize” Russia’s

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

gentry

Russian nobility

greatly affected their economic cirmcumstances. The wealthiest classes

Russian nobility

gained more income in order to afford education and western habits. The gentry

Russian nobility

consisted of a fairly impoverished majority and small extremely wealthy minority. The lower gentry farmed and lived slightly better than the few serfs they had. In 1777, 59 percent of the gentry owned less than twenty serfs. The lives of serfs

Russian serfdom

The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin , is translated as serf.-...

and peasants remained relatively the same during Catherine’s reign. In 1762 the peasantry was divided into three groups: private serfs, church

Russian Orthodox Church

peasants, and state peasants. Consisting of 56 percent of the peasantry, private serfs were bound to their villages because of tax purposes and military conscription. Their masters had a legal responsibility to feed them in time of famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, care for them in old age, and pay their poll-tax.

The upper classes

Russian nobility

of Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

put more money into manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

, which grew during Catherine’s reign. The number of enterprises increased from 600-700 in 1762 to over 2,000 when her reign ended. Russian

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

agriculture grew during Catherine’s reign due to the economic pressure put upon the gentry

Russian nobility

that needed more wealth in order to indulge in Western European tastes. The gentry

Russian nobility

used potentially arable land

Arable land

In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...

in old areas as well as new land on the peripheries of the empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. This expansion occurred during the 1780s and 90s.

Throughout Catherine’s reign she tried to find a balance between liberal political economic

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

ideas in the tradition of Adam Smith

Adam Smith

, and the strong regulation started by Peter I

Peter I of Russia

. She preferred hired labor in industry, lowered internal tariffs and custom duties, and did not support monopolies. Catherine forbade the purchase of serfs for industry.

In the 1762, the church

Russian Orthodox Church

owned two-thirds of ploughed land. After Catherine’s reform, secularized church

Russian Orthodox Church

land brought the state

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

“an annual income of 1,370,000 rubles, of which less than 463,000 was returned to the church

Russian Orthodox Church

each year between 1764 and 1768.”

Catherine and Voltaire

Catherine first initiated the relationship between herself and Voltaire

Voltaire

, and she went to very great lengths to make his acquaintance. In the autumn of 1763, Catherine arranged for her Genevan secretary François-Pierre Pictet, an acquaintance of Voltaire, to send Voltaire a letter (supposedly written by Catherine herself) in which Pictet praised her at great length. Catherine made many other attempts to link herself to the French philosophes: she offered to publish the Encyclopédie

Encyclopédie

Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...

in Russia, arranged for several of Voltaire's plays to be produced at the Court of St. Petersburg, asked for copies of his complete works, and invited him to come to Russia. Her flattery eventually won over Voltaire, and they began writing letters to each other in the autumn of 1763, continuing to do so until Voltaire's death fifteen years later.

A relationship with Voltaire benefited Catherine for several reasons. Firstly, Catherine felt the need to strengthen her claim to power, having only recently taken the throne from her husband in a coup d'état. Since the philosophes significantly shaped public opinion in Western Europe, Catherine wanted desperately to gain Voltaire's approval. She used him to spread support of her policies throughout Western Europe. Voltaire also interested Catherine on an intellectual level, as they shared a common interest in politics, philosophy, and literature. Her correspondence with Voltaire provided an outlet for her intellectual curiosity.

Voltaire likewise benefited from Catherine's friendship. Long an admirer of enlightened despotism, Voltaire approved of Catherine's secular policies. He thought that his correspondence with Catherine would help him explore the possibilities for enlightened despotism and allow him to compare the laws and customs of Russia with those of France. By 1763, Voltaire had long been interested in Russia on an intellectual level, having written in 1759 the Histoire de l'Empire de Russie sous Pierre le Grand. Furthermore, because Voltaire was persecuted in Europe for his ideas and even exiled from Paris, he appreciated the Russian Empress's flattery and recognition of his talents and progressive thinking.

Voltaire played an important role in promoting Catherine's image in Europe. He has been described as Catherine's "most distinguished western partisan, her most enthusiastic devotee, and her most indefatigable and eloquent propagandist." In addition to singing her praises among his circles of friends, Voltaire wrote pamphlets that supported Catherine's policies and had her pronouncements and letters published in the western press, particularly targeting anti-Russian publications such as the Gazette de France, the Gazette de Cologne, and the Courrier d'Avignon. Voltaire even succeeded in convincing the French historian Claude-Carloman de Rulhière

Claude-Carloman de Rulhière

Claude-Carloman de Rulhière was a French poet and historian.He was born at Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis. He became aide-de-camp to Marshal Richelieu, whom he followed through the Hanoverian campaign of 1757 to his government at Bordeaux in 1758; and at the age of twenty-five he was sent to St...

not to publish his Histoire ou anecdotes sur la révolution de Russie en l'année 1762, which provided a disparaging account of Catherine's rise to power.

Correspondence

The main topics of discussion in the Voltaire-Catherine letters were Russia's foreign and domestic affairs. Despite their mutual affection for literature, art, and philosophy, very rarely did Catherine and Voltaire discuss such topics. One scholar has suggested that Catherine did not have the intellectual capacity to hold such discussions with Voltaire, and that Catherine brought up primarily political affairs in her letters in order to impart her political ideas onto Voltaire. They did discuss cultural matters in the year 1772, which suggests that Catherine wanted to distract Voltaire from her recent partition of Poland.

Both Catherine and Voltaire wrote to each other in generally approbatory tones. Voltaire's letters to Catherine have been described as "a catalogue of extravagant and unqualified compliments, and fulsome approbation of her policies." He even addressed her as "my Catherine." While Catherine also flattered Voltaire in her letters, she wrote in a more contrived manner, perhaps due to the fact that her secretary Pictet thoroughly revised the letters (unlike the letters she wrote to Frederick the Great) prior to sending them. The main difference between the two sets of letters seems to be that "[Catherine] compliments Voltaire, to tickle his vanity and play on his prejudices," while Voltaire's compliments "convey undertones of hero-worship."

Domestic Affairs

In their discussions of Russia's domestic affairs, Catherine only related to Voltaire news that would cast Russia and her rule in a positive light. She sent him news that depicted Russia as an economically stable and prosperous country and to depict herself as the epitome of an enlightened despot.

Catherine greatly exaggerated Russia's economic stability and greatly misinformed Voltaire on the subject. For instance, Catherine in the correspondence never mentioned the Pugachev rebellion of 1773-74. When Voltaire brought up the subject, Catherine brushed it off by simply saying that she had it under control. As a result, Voltaire never realized the significant economic hardship of Russia's peasant class that had triggered the revolt.

They often discussed legislation, as both strongly advocated for the absolute power of the law. Voltaire asked for information on Catherine's regulations, and Catherine sent Voltaire a copy of her Instructions, which he read twice. The subject of serfdom, in regard to which Voltaire advocated emancipation, also figured prominently in their correspondence. Although Voltaire sent Catherine advice on the subject, he never pushed his ideas, nor did he condemn Catherine for not taking more progressive action against the institution.

Nevertheless, Voltaire made clear his stance regarding serfdom in his submission for an essay competition held by the Free Economic Society of St. Petersburg in 1767. For the subject topic of the contest, Catherine chose “the merits of private ownership of land by the peasants.” Voltaire's essay, to his disappointment, only received an honorable mention.

Foreign Affairs

The majority of Catherine and Voltaire’s correspondence took place during the years 1769-1744, a period in which Catherine found herself largely involved with foreign affairs. Thus, much of their correspondence focuses on Russia's wars in Poland

Poland

and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

and on the themes of religion and civilization.

When Catherine first invaded Poland, Voltaire believed, popular opinion to the contrary, that she had done so on the basis of religious tolerance. He believed that she wanted to restore the rights of the non-Catholic Polish minorities rather than to acquire Polish land. Voltaire was proven wrong in 1722, after Catherine's first partition of the country. However, he never condemned Catherine for deceiving him, but rather congratulated both her and the Poles on the outcome. Their discussions of Poland thus reveal what Peter Gay has called a "lack of accurate information, compounded by a deliberate refusal to learn the truth." The affair greatly damaged Voltaire's reputation in Europe.

Another major topic of conversation was Russia's relations with Turkey. As a philosophe, Voltaire disagreed with war in general. However, in his letters he encourages Catherine to go to war with Turkey. Voltaire saw the Turks as fundamentally uncivilized, and Russia's expansionism as thus a crusade not for religion but in the name of enlightenment. He even suggested to Catherine that Russia, Prussia, and Austria unite to partition Turkey. Catherine, however, wanted to conquer Turkey for political and economic reasons. Namely, she wanted to expand Russia's borders to the Black Sea to obtain a base from which she could target Constantinople

Constantinople

Education

A more conservative approach was taken by Mikhail Shcherbatov

Mikhail Shcherbatov

, a publicist and historian whose notion of liberty was influenced by the works of Rousseau. Shcherbatov delivered a scathing criticism of the existing social institutions, maintaining that mass education– rather than far-reaching political reforms and the abolition of serfdom– may be more effective in improving the morals of Russian society.

On a related note, Ivan Betskoy

Ivan Betskoy

Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi or Betskoy was a Russian school reformer who served as Catherine II's advisor on education and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts for thirty years...

campaigned for the comprehensive reform of education which would result in the development of a "new breed of citizens". His proposals have been implemented in part, e.g., the Smolny Institute was inaugurated for noble maidens, in keeping with Fenelon's doctrine that girls' education was key to moral regeneration of the corrupt modern society.

We could call the Catherine II as founder of Russian state university on land use planning, it was announced on May 25, 1779 (on May 14, Julian Calendar

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...

) that the Surveying School should be opened. The school was named Konstantinovsky by the name of Great Prince Konstantin Pavlovich, the grandson of Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

who was born in the year. The government and Catherine II of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

herself patronized and supported the school from the date of its establishing emphasizing a significance of land management and special surveying education. Lack of land surveyors and state importance of land surveying initiated establishing of the school. The legislation of the day emphasized significance of land management: "Current surveying is a business, which is performed not only to the benefit and peace of every holder but the state business containing the Emperor glory and advantage of peace and quiet for all the State."

Catherine's friend Yekaterina Dashkova– sometimes viewed as a precursor of feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

– led the Russian Academy of Sciences

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

for many years. In 1783, she instituted the Russian Academy

Russian Academy

The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example of the Académie française...

, which she modeled after the French Academy. Seeking to promote knowledge and study of the Russian language

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, the Russian Academy prepared the first comprehensive dictionary of the Russian language.

Even the monolith of the Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox Church

seemed to succumb to the influences of the Enlightenment. The teachings of Platon Levshin

Platon Levshin

Plato II or Platon II was the Metropolitan of Moscow from 1775 to 1812. He personifies the Age of Enlightenment in the Russian Orthodox Church....

, Metropolitan of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, underlined the need for tolerance and encouraged the advancement of ecclesiastical education.

Arts

Ideas of the Enlightenment were popularized by the nascent Russian theatre. The first Russian troupe was established in Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...

by Fyodor Volkov

Fyodor Volkov

Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov was a Russian actor and founder of the first permanent Russian theater.The stepson of merchant Polushkin from Kostroma, Fyodor Volkov received a versatile education. He established the very first public theater in Yaroslavl in 1750, which would later bring fame to the...

and Ivan Dmitrievsky

Ivan Dmitrievsky

Ivan Afanasyevich Dmitrevsky is generally regarded as the most influential actor of Russian Neoclassicism and "Russia's first great tragedian"....

during Elizaveta's reign. Aleksandr Sumarokov was responsible for the repertory of their theatre.

During Catherine's reign the leading playwrights included Denis Fonvizin

Denis Fonvizin

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...

, who ridiculed the rusticity of provincial gentry and their thoughtless imitation of all things French; Vladislav Ozerov

Vladislav Ozerov

Vladislav Aleksandrovich Ozerov was the most popular Russian dramatist in the first decades of the 19th century....

, who authored a great number of Neoclassical

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

tragedies with touches of sentimentalism

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism is used in different ways:* Sentimentalism , a theory in moral epistemology concerning how one knows moral truths; also known as moral sense theory* Sentimentalism , a form of literary discourse...

; and Yakov Knyazhnin

Yakov Knyazhnin

Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin was Russia's foremost tragic author during the reign of Catherine the Great. Knyazhnin's contemporaries hailed him as the true successor to his father-in-law Alexander Sumarokov, but posterity, in the words of Vladimir Nabokov, tended to view his tragedies and comedies...

, whose drama about a popular uprising against Rurik

Rurik

Rurik, or Riurik , was a semilegendary 9th-century Varangian who founded the Rurik dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and later some of its successor states, most notably the Tsardom of Russia, until 1598....

's rule was declared Jacobin

Jacobin (politics)

and publicly burnt in 1791.

Even Catherine's favourite poet, Gavrila Derzhavin– who sought in his ode

Ode

Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...

s to combine amusement with instruction– would see some of his poems banned from print during the last years of her reign.

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

reached Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

in 1731, when Empress Anna invited the Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

opera troupe to show Calandro
Calandro
Calandro is an opera buffa in three acts composed by Giovanni Alberto Ristori to a libretto by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicini. The libretto was based on the comedy Il Calandro by Bernardo Dovizi...

by Giovanni Alberto Ristori

Giovanni Alberto Ristori

Giovanni Alberto Ristori was an Italian opera composer and conductor. He was the son of Tommaso Ristori, the leader of an opera troupe belonging to the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony August II the Strong...

during the celebration of her coronation in Moscow

Moscow

. In 1735 another Italian opera troupe led by composer Francesco Araja

Francesco Araja

Francesco Domenico Araja was an Italian composer who spent 25 years in Russia and wrote at least 14 operas for the Russian Imperial Court including Tsefal i Prokris, the first opera written in the Russian language.-Biography:He was born and...

was invited to work in St. Petersburg. Araja spent 25 years in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

and wrote 14 operas for the Russian Court including Tsefal i Prokris
Tsefal i Prokris
Tsefal i Prokris , is an opera seria in three acts by the Italian composer Francesco Araja. Dating to 1755, it was the first opera written in the Russian language....

(1755), the first opera written in Russian

Russian language

to the libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

by Alexander Sumarokov

Alexander Sumarokov

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the reign of classicism in Russian literature....

.

Foreign composers like Johann Adolf Hasse, Hermann Raupach

Hermann Raupach

Hermann Friedrich Raupach was a German composer.-Biography:Hermann Raupach was born at Stralsund in Germany, the son and pupil of composer and organist Christoph Raupach and the nephew of Lutheran church historian Bernhard Raupach...

, Galuppi, Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini was an Italian composer, harpsichordist and a music theorist.-Biography:Manfredini was born in Pistoia, near Florence....

, Traetta

Tommaso Traetta

Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta was an Italian composer.-Biography:Traetta was born in Bitonto, a town near Bari, near the top of the heel of the boot of Italy. He eventually became a pupil of the composer, singer and teacher Nicola Porpora in Naples, and scored a first success with his...

, Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...

, Sarti

Giuseppe Sarti

Giuseppe Sarti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born on 28 December, but his baptism certificate proves the later date impossible...

, Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...

and Martin y Soler, Ivan Kerzelli

Ivan Kerzelli

Ivan Kerzelli or Cherzelli was an opera composer and conductor in Imperial Russia of 18th century....

, Antoine Bullant, brought important contribution to the Russian opera

Russian opera

Russian opera is the art of opera in Russia. Operas by composers of Russian origin, written or staged outside of Russia, also belong to this category, as well as the operas of foreign composers written or intended for the Russian scene. These are not only Russian-language operas...

, to the Italian libretti as well as Russian libretti. There were also extremely popular operas by the Belgian/French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

André Ernest Modeste Grétry

André Ernest Modeste Grétry was acomposer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège , who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques....

that were widely performed, including in Kuskovo

Kuskovo

Kuskovo was the summer country house and estate of the Sheremetev family. Built in the mid-18th century, it was originally situated several miles to the east of Moscow but now is part of the East District of the city. It was one of the first great summer country estates of the Russian nobility,...

and Ostankino theatres, where they were given with participation of the famous serf-soprano Praskovya Zhemchugova

Praskovya Zhemchugova

Praskovia Ivanovna Kovalyova-Zhemchugova also Kovaleva or Kovalyova, Kovaleva-Zhemchugova, Zhemchugova-Sheremeteva, and Sheremeteva or Sheremetyeva was a Russian serf actress and soprano opera singer.- Career :Praskovia was one of the best...

at the private opera of Nikolai Sheremetev

Nikolai Sheremetev

Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev was a Russian count, the son of Petr Borisovich Sheremetev, notable grandee of the epoch of empresses Anna Ivanovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, and Catherine II. He was also the grandson of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev.His father P. B...

.

Catherine II sent some domestic composers like Berezovsky

Maksym Berezovsky

Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky was a Ukrainian composer, opera singer, and violinist.Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized throughout Europe and the first to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. His most popular works are his sacred choral pieces written for the...

and Bortniansky abroad to study art of music composition and later they produced some operas in Italian and French. And only at the beginning of 1770s the first modest attempts of the composers of Russian origin to compose operas to the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n librettos were made. Among these were successful one-act opera Anyuta
Anyuta
Anyuta is a one-act comic opera to a libretto by Mikhail Popov. First performed in 1772, it was one of the first operas written in the Russian language ....

(1772) to the text by Mikhail Popov

Mikhail Popov

Mikhail Popov may refer to:*Mikhail Abramovich Popov , Russian businessman and politician, first mayor of Perm*Mikhail Vasilyevich Popov, Russian writer and poet*Mikhail Vladimirovich Popov , Russian footballer...

, and opera Melnik – koldun, obmanshchik i svat (The Miller who was a Wizard, a Cheat and a Match-maker) to the text by Alexander Ablesimov

Alexander Ablesimov

Aleksander Onisimovich Ablesimov, was a Russian opera librettist, poet, dramatist, satirist and journalist.-Biography:Worked as copyist for Alexander Sumarokov. Published his fables and satirical poems...

with music by Mikhail Sokolovsky (1779).

The most important contribution in the opera genre were made by Vasily Pashkevich

Vasily Pashkevich

Vasily Alexeyevich Pashkevich also Paskevich was a Russian composer, singer, violinist and teacher who lived during the time of Catherine the Great.-Biography:...

with his The Carriage Accident (Neschastye ot karety, 1779), The Miser to the text by Yakov Knyazhnin

Yakov Knyazhnin

after Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

(1782), and Fevey

Fevey

Fevey is an opera by Vasily Pashkevich to a Russian libretto by Catherine II of Russia.Empress Catherine II had literary ambitions and wrote nine opera librettos. This one, an allegorical fairy tale, was called The Story of Tsarevich Fevey...

to the libretto by Catherine II (1786), as well as by Italian trained Yevstigney Fomin

Yevstigney Fomin

Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin was a Russian opera composer of the 18th century.-Biography:...

with his The Coachmen at the Relay Station (Yamshchiki na podstave, 1787), Orfey i Evridika, opera-melodrama to the text by Yakov Knyazhnin

Yakov Knyazhnin

(1792), and The Americans (Amerikantsy, comic opera, 1800).

Other music

In 1746 the first public concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

took place in Russia. This soon became a tradition. Concert life was dominated by foreign musicians before Russian virtuosos appeared in the 1780–1790s; these included the violinist Ivan Khandoshkin

Ivan Khandoshkin

Ivan Yevstafyevich Khandoshkin was a Russian violinist and composer. He has been described as "the finest Russian violinist of the eighteenth century". He studied under Tito Porta with other Italian influences being Domenico dall’Oglio and Pietro Peri...

and singer Elizaveta Sandunova. The senator Grigory Teplov

Grigory Teplov

Grigory Nikolayevich Teplov was a Russian academic administrator of lowly birth who ruled the Petersburg Academy of Sciences and wielded influence over Little Russia in his capacity as the secretary and advisor to Kirill Razumovsky...

was also an amateur

Amateur

An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....

musician who printed in 1751 the collection of his songs entitled Idle Hours Away from Work. Publishing music business, sales of foreign sheet music, and music lovers’ periodicals flourished from the 1770s onward.

The overture

Overture

Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...

and songs from Ivan Kerzelli

Ivan Kerzelli

Ivan Kerzelli or Cherzelli was an opera composer and conductor in Imperial Russia of 18th century....

’s opera

Opera

Derevenskiy vorozheya (The Village Wizard) were printed in Moscow 1778; they were the first opera fragments printed in Russia. Sales of musical instruments (like keyboards, guitars and harps) were also growing. Sacred music genres were transformed under the foreign influences. The Italian operatic composers such as Galuppi and Sarti were involved in producing liturgies for the church service. The genre of the choral concerto (the cycle of three–four contrast movements) became traditional in liturgic music of Degtyaryov, Vedel, Bortnyansky, Berezovsky, Davydov, and Turchaninov.

Aftermath

By 1796, when Emperor Paul succeeded his mother on the Russian throne, the Russian Enlightenment was very much on the wane. Although the new monarch was fiercely opposed to the French libertarian influences, he set free the radical writers imprisoned by his mother, including Novikov and Radishchev. Paul's family enjoyed recitals of didactic fables by Ivan Krylov

Ivan Krylov

Ivan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...

, a fabulist whose journalistic activity had been denounced by his mother.

The Informal Committee, instituted by Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

in 1801, may be viewed as the last attempt to implement the ideals of the Enlightenment in the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. Mikhail Speransky

Mikhail Speransky

Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was probably the greatest of Russian reformers during the reign of Alexander I of Russia. He was a close advisor to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and later to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, he is sometimes called the father of Russian liberalism.-Early life and...

proceeded to outline an ambitious program of political reform, but his chief propositions were not put into execution until the great reforms of Alexander II

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

half a century later.

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