Catherine stabilized the army by ending Peter’s Prussian alliance and halting the Danish war, while reassuring Prussia. Facing bankruptcy, rising prices, and corruption, she demanded full reports and offered her own funds when she learned the treasury was empty.

She banned grain exports, abolished monopolies, and appointed Vyazemsky as procurator general, expecting honesty over flattery. Panin led foreign affairs and proposed an Imperial Council that would limit her authority; Catherine rejected it.

Catherine moved against the church’s wealth. Archbishop Dimitry supported reform, but Metropolitan Arseniy denounced her and questioned her legitimacy. He was defrocked, exiled, and imprisoned. In 1764, Catherine secularized church lands, making church peasants state peasants and clergy salaried employees.

Of Russia’s 20 million people, up to half were enserfed, officially bound to the land on which they worked for the landowner. By the 18th century, enserfed people were effectively treated as property by their owners, bought and sold apart from the land. Those living under industrial serfdom endured especially brutal conditions. Under Empress Elizabeth, revolts had been put down by the army.

In 1762, Catherine banned factory owners from buying enserfed people without land, unintentionally sparking strikes. She sent troops to suppress unrest but ordered investigations into abuses. Though personally opposed to serfdom and proposing gradual abolition, Catherine also granted thousands of peasants as serfs to her supporters. Massie likens her “hypocrisy” to that of Thomas Jefferson, who enslaved many people, and details the lived experiences of those who were subject to their enslavers’’ wills, “always subject to abuse and humiliation, always prey to predatory lust” (309).

Gregory Orlov remained central in Catherine’s early reign but resisted a subordinate role. Catherine compensated him with wealth and honors. He secretly boasted he could remove her as easily as he installed her. Catherine considered marrying him, but Panin warned such a union would threaten Paul’s succession. Rumors of a secret marriage heightened public concern. Catherine investigated a similar case involving Razumovsky, who destroyed supposed proof of his own marriage to Elizabeth.

In 1763, Captain Khitrovo plotted to kill the Orlovs to prevent what he saw as a national disaster. Public sympathy protected him from punishment. Catherine, reassured by widespread opposition, issued a “Manifesto of Silence,” ending talk of marriage. She would keep Orlov as her companion for nine more years.

The imprisoned former Tsar Ivan VI remained a threat to Catherine. Held in isolation for 18 years, he was severely affected by his imprisonment. Catherine ordered that his strict confinement continue. Panin renewed secret instructions: Iin the event of an attempted rescue, Ivan was to be killed. In 1764, Lieutenant Mirovich attempted to free and restore Ivan. When he reached the cell, he found Ivan dead; guards had followed Panin’s orders and killed him. Catherine was shocked but relieved. Mirovich confessed and was executed, the first such execution in 22 years. The guards were rewarded. With Ivan’s death, no legitimate adult claimant remained.

Catherine sought to reshape Europe’s view of Russia through engagement with Enlightenment ideas. She corresponded extensively with Voltaire, who praised her as an enlightened monarch. After his death in 1778, she purchased his library.

She also supported Denis Diderot, buying his library but allowing him to keep it as her paid librarian. Although Diderot was an old man who hated travel and had never left France, he traveled to Russia to thank Catherine in 1773. The two developed a “cordial” relationship, frequently discussing philosophy and politics. Diderot urged sweeping reforms but, while Catherine agreed morally with many of his points, she considered them impractical, given the constraints on her power to make radical changes. Voltaire wrote to Catherine, expressing jealousy. Over time, Catherine’s closest intellectual ally became Friedrich Melchior Grimm, who served as her cultural agent and confidant.

In 1766 Catherine told Voltaire she was working on her Nakaz, or Instruction, to guide a complete rewriting of the Russian legal code. She worked on it for two years. Of 526 articles, 294 were adapted from Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws and 108 from Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments.

The Nakaz declared “Russia is a European state” (345) and argued for the necessity of absolutism tempered by “fundamental laws,” defining Russia as a “moderate autocracy.” It defined political liberty as the right to do whatever laws allow and advocated restricting capital punishment. It rejected torture as “contrary to sound judgment” (347), arguing an innocent person will confess to end the pain. It condemned punishments that maim and called for due process.

Catherine’s attempt to address serfdom was least successful. She showed drafts to Orlov and Panin. Panin warned, “These are axioms which will bring down walls” (348). She submitted the draft to the Senate and educated noblemen, who struck out more than half of her points. Two key articles allowing enserfed people to buy freedom and limiting servitude were omitted. The final version amounted to one-quarter of her original.

Catherine made no claim to originality, telling Frederick she had “decked myself out in peacock’s feathers” (350) but Voltaire called it “the finest monument of the age” (350). Catherine’s hoped-for reforms were so radical, the French government banned its publication.

In December 1766, Catherine called on enfranchised Russians to elect delegates to a Legislative Commission of 564 delegates from government, nobility, townspeople, state peasants, Cossacks, and non-Russian tribes. The assembly was purely advisory; Catherine retained all final decision-making power.

Before the commission met, Catherine traveled down the Volga to see her empire’s heartland. In Kazan she wrote Voltaire about the difficulty of designing laws for so many different peoples. On July 30, she opened the commission in the Kremlin, presenting each delegate with a copy of the Nakaz. The delegates debated what title to bestow on the empress, with “Catherine the Great” receiving the most votes, although she refused all titles. The commission reviewed over 1,000 petitions. For the first time, representatives spoke frankly about their problems. Catherine often listened from behind a curtain.

The St. Petersburg session was dominated by class debates. The explosive subject of serfdom arose. Proposals for eventual abolition were shouted down. Conservative nobles passionately defended serfdom and playwright Sumarokov argued that common people did not have the feelings of noblemen.

Facing overwhelming opposition from the nobility, Catherine backed away from her reforms. The commission dragged on for 18 months through more than 200 sessions without producing a single new law. On December 18, 1768, she prorogued it indefinitely. The commission never met again, though it provided Catherine a valuable picture of social conditions. The assembly established a precedent for popular participation not repeated until 1905.

Catherine assumed absolute control of foreign policy. Her first objective was Poland, a chaotically governed kingdom with an elected king and a Diet—legislative assembly—where any member could use veto to terminate a session. Catherine decided to place her former lover, Poniatowski, as candidate for the Polish throne. She sent an ambassador with bribes and moved 30,000 soldiers to the frontier. She allied with Frederick of Prussia; in a secret corollary, they resolved to use force to ensure a “free election.”

Stanislaus wished to return to Catherine, not become king. She made clear he would not rejoin her as her lover; the crown was his compensation. Stanislaus sent a despairing letter begging to be near her rather than be made king. Catherine wanted a dependent man who loved her on the Polish throne to ensure domination and sent 14,000 Russian troops to surround Warsaw. On August 26, 1764, Stanislaus was unanimously elected. Catherine wrote to Panin, “My congratulations on the new king we have made” (371).

Catherine attempted to force the Polish Diet to grant rights to Orthodox and Protestant “dissidents.” When the Diet refused, she sent troops. In October 1767, the Russian ambassador arrested two bishops; the intimidated Diet submitted. In response, conservative Catholic nobles formed the Confederation of Bar. Russia sent more troops.

Turkey, alarmed by Russian military presence in Poland and encouraged by France, declared war in October 1768. Catherine was undismayed. Russian troops occupied Azov and Taganrog. General Rumyantsev inflicted devastating defeats at Larga and Kagul. Catherine sent her Baltic fleet to the Mediterranean; on June 25, 1770, at Chesme Bay, Alexis Orlov’s fleet annihilated the Turkish navy.

Russia’s victories and expansionism alarmed Europe. Frederick proposed that Prussia, Austria, and Russia each take a piece of Poland, and Catherine agreed. On August 5, 1772, the three powers signed the partition agreement. Poland lost almost a third of its territory.

The Turkish war continued. A new Russian offensive in June 1774 was a victory: The resulting Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardzhi brought Russia access to the Black Sea, independence for the Crimean Tatars, and free navigation through the Turkish straits to the Mediterranean.

Catherine addressed her people’s health, founding Russia’s first College of Medicine, a foundling hospital, and decreeing that every province must have a general hospital. She kept a personal physician, Dr. John Rogerson, a young Scotsman.

Catherine was interested in reducing outbreaks of smallpox in Russia. She invited Scottish doctor Thomas Dimsdale to St. Petersburg. On October 12, 1768, Dimsdale inoculated Catherine using infected matter from a peasant boy named Alexander Markov. She recovered quickly and Paul was also inoculated. Her example was followed by 140 members of the nobility. Inoculation clinics spread across Russia.

In 1771, bubonic plague reached Moscow. By August, the daily death toll had reached hundreds. A mob tore apart Archbishop Ambrosius when he removed a supposedly miraculous icon spreading contagion. The governor asked to leave and Gregory Orlov volunteered to take control, visiting patients, distributing food, and opening orphanages. His actions, combined with cold weather, brought the epidemic under control. Catherine covered him with honors. Estimates for the number of deaths in Moscow range from 55,000 to 100,000.

During the Turkish war’s last year, the Pugachev rebellion arose. Led by Don Cossack Emelyan Pugachev, it united Cossacks, serfs, peasants, and tribal groups. Pugachev proclaimed himself Tsar Peter III, claiming Catherine tried to kill him because he planned to liberate enserfed people. He issued manifestos promising freedom, an end to taxes, and the extermination of the nobility.

Pugachev attacked Yaitsk, and government Cossack troops deserted to his side. He besieged Orenburg, establishing headquarters at Berda. The government, focused on Turkey, initially sent only a small detachment, which was routed. In his headquarters, Pugachev played the tsar, distributing titles and “marrying” a Cossack’s daughter.

Pugachev’s decrees unleashed hatred against the nobility. Landlords and their families were tortured and killed. By spring 1774, with his army exceeding 15,000 men, Catherine understood this was a national revolution. She summoned General Bibikov and gave him full power, instructing him not to use torture. Bibikov’s forces routed Pugachev’s army, lifting the six-month siege of Orenburg. Pugachev fled. Bibikov died suddenly of fever. Catherine believed the rebellion was over.

In July 1774, Pugachev attacked with 20,000 men, capturing and burning Kazan. Catherine considered going to Moscow but was dissuaded. With peace in Turkey secured, veteran forces under Suvorov moved against the rebels. Pugachev’s campaign continued along the Volga until his defeat in August. Betrayed by his followers, he was captured and sent to Moscow in an iron cage. Catherine forbade torture during his interrogation. Declared a criminal acting alone, he was sentenced to be beheaded and quartered in January 1775.

Catherine obliterated all traces of Pugachev: His house was razed, his name forbidden, and the Yaik River renamed the Ural. In the countryside, landowners exacted pitiless revenge on the peasantry. The Pugachevshchina was the greatest internal upheaval in Russia until the revolutions of 20th century. Catherine never forgot it. After Pugachev, there was no further talk of eliminating serfdom. She concluded enlightenment needed to happen at a more gradual pace.