The Russian Enlightenment () refers to the intellectual and cultural movement that flourished in the Russian Empire as part of the broader Enlightenment, during a period of the 18th century in which the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences, which had a profound impact on Russian culture. During this time, the first Russian university was founded, a library, a theatre, a public museum, as well as a relatively independent press. Like other enlightened despots, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences, and education. The Russian Enlightenment differed from its Western European counterpart in that it promoted further modernization of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with abolishing the institution of serfdom in Russia. The Russian Enlightenment did not promote the separation of church and state. Pugachev's Rebellion and the French Revolution 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, Mikhail Shcherbatov, Andrey Bolotov, Alexander Radishchev, and Ivan Boltin; these discussions precipitated the divide between the radical, western, conservative and Slavophile traditions of Russian thought. Intellectuals often used the term prosveshcheniye ('enlightenment; education'), promoting piety, erudition, and commitment to the spread of learning.
Early developments The ideas of the Russian Enlightenment were first espoused by the "learned druzhina" of Peter the Great. It is the spirit which animates the sermons of Feofan Prokopovich, the satires of Antiokh Kantemir, and the historiography of Vasily Tatishchev.
During the reign of Peter's daughter Elizaveta Petrovna the ideas of the Enlightened Absolutism found their way into Russia. Elizaveta's favourite, Ivan Shuvalov, was an ideal enlightened courtier: he was instrumental in the establishment of the Moscow University and the Imperial Academy of Arts, which would start the careers of most intellectuals active during the last quarter of the 18th century.
Shuvalov was also the patron of the greatest Russian polymath, Mikhail Lomonosov, who left his mark in various branches of science, religious philosophy, poetry, and fine arts.
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great considered herself an enlightened despot. She read the most prominent philosophes of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire and tried to adhere to Enlightenment ideas.Billington, James H. The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1966. pp. 217–26. Print. She wished to bring Russia up to par with its neighbors not only in a military sense, but also politically, culturally, and intellectually.
Many of Catherine's contemporaries questioned her adherence to Enlightenment ideals and thought she was an egoist, merely using concepts from the Age of Enlightenment to further her selfish gains. Gender played a primary role in these criticisms. Contemporaries interpreted her personality as combining masculine strength with feminine vanity.
"Westernization" carries different meanings in different countries over varying time periods. But in relation to Russia during the 18th century, the term meant legislative changes to economics, politics and culture. It also entails the Russian gentry's adherence to a set standard and its imitation of the Western values.Kahan, Aracadius. "The Costs of "Westernization" in Russia: The Gentry and the Economy in the Eighteenth Century." Slavic Review 25.1 (1966): 40–66. Westernization in Russia included the modernization of machinery, the refinement of a more efficient bureaucracy, and the acceptance of Western European tastes.
Russia produced more goods, and enlisted thousands of troops during Catherine's reign. While she acquired new lands, including Crimea and Poland, updated the army, and supported burgeoning manufactures, she really wanted to westernize Russia by reforming it, specifically the lives of the gentry, qualitatively. Bringing Russia to an equal level with the rest of Europe 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 to conquer ports in warm waters. Peter I fought the Ottoman Empire over the Crimea. Gaining access to the Crimea would have given Russia access to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles. While Russia occupied Poland, France realized that the Ottoman Empire was the only country in a position to topple Catherine. Supported by France, the Turks told Russia to leave Poland. Russia declared war on the Sultan immediately afterward.Troyat, Henri. Catherine the Great. New York: Penguin Books, 1980. n.p. Print. 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 in November 1776, and imposed a ruler for the reoccupation of the peninsula because of disturbances there.de Madariaga, Isabel. Catherine the Great: A Short History. Vol. 1. n.p.: Yale University, 1990. N. pag. 1 vols. Print. 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 from Muslim to Orthodox Christian rule. The Second Turkish War, 1787–1792, ended with Russia gaining the fortress of Ochakov and the Black Sea shore to the Dniester river, and the Ottoman Empire recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Retaking Constantinople and creating a Christian empire centered there does not appear to be a very enlightened plan. However, Catherine saw land grabbing as an easy way to assert Russia's intentions. By declaring that Constantinople would one day belong to Christians, she also appeased the Church, which still held significant influence in the 18th century. She wished to show Western Europe 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 invaded three separate times, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and divided the once important European state between itself, Austria and Prussia. The 3rd May Constitution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth voted in 1791 was considered by Catherine as a JacobinWolfgang Menzel, Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, , Google Print, p.33 threatJohn Markoff, Waves of Democracy, 1996, , p.121. and as a therefore presenting a threat to Russia's monarchy and its influence in Poland,Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848, Oxford University Press, 1996, , Google print p.84Henry Eldridge Bourne, The Revolutionary Period in Europe 1763 to 1815, Kessinger Publishing, 2005, , Google Print p.161 which ultimately led to a military expedition resulting in the destruction of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.Robert Wokler, Isaiah Berlin's Counter-Enlightenment, DIANE, , Google Print, 108
Catherine's land acquisitions show the quantitative changes she made to the Russian Empire. But she went far beyond this type of modernization that Peter the Great used in Russia. The institution of laws and importation of liberal Western European thought served as means of expanding the state.
Politics
At the advice of her learned correspondents, Catherine introduced a number of changes, ranging from the vast secularization of monastic properties to the domestic reform which envisioned more rational planning for the Russian towns.
Catherine believed in Enlightenment political thought. She reformed the strong and powerful bureaucracy Peter the Great established.Whittaker, Cynthia H. "The Reforming Tsar: The Redefinition of Autocratic Duty in Eighteenth-Century Russia." Slavic Review 51.1 (1992): 77–98. Print. 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 also wanted the gentry to play a role in local political affairs.
Catherine's political reforms went beyond perfecting Russia's bureaucracy. Her Nakaz or "Instruction" expressed her political ideals.de Madariaga, Isabela. Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-century Russia. New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 1998. She wrote this for her Legislative Commission, summoned in 1767 to draft a Code of Laws for Russia. Representatives from all the free estates of the realm, government bodies, and non-Russian people considered the state of Russia'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 20 or 30 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 used the 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.Dixon, Simon. The Modernisation of Russia 1676–1825. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. She drew heavily in the Nakaz from the latest continental jurisprudence but ignored references to natural law.
Criticism of the Empress's reforms abounded. Professor Semyon Desnitsky, a follower of Adam Smith, suggested that Catherine institute elections every five years of a representative Senate and separation of powers. Mikhail Kheraskov 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 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 on secular Western European ideas. No longer did leaders paternalistically protect the Russian homeland.
Russia 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, which was actually conservative in practice.
Culture