Catherine II: “I want a common goal - to make everyone happy”

On April 21 (May 2, according to the new style), 1729, 291 years ago, the Empress Catherine II was born, as was Peter the Great, she was also called the Great. The unique materials of the extensive collection of the Presidential Library The House of Romanov. The Zemsky Cathedral of 1613 they illustrate her life and deeds for the good of Russia. The Empress is illustrated in a separate collection Catherine II (1729-1796), which includes biographical essays, historical studies, political documents, memoirs of contemporaries, as well as her notes and letters.

Friederike Auguste Sophie of Anhalt-Bernburg is daughter of Prince Charles Augustus. As commander of an infantry regiment in the Prussian city of Stettin, he "...settled with his young wife on the main Stettin Street, Domstrasse, № 791... In this same house, on April 21, 1729, at half past three in the morning, the Tserbst princess was born, future Catherine II”, - writes Vasily Bilbasov in History of Catherine II, available on the Presidential Library’s portal (1900).

An inquisitive and lively girl received her home education, and at 15 Empress Elizabeth Petrovna invited her to Russia as the bride of Peter Feodorovich, the future emperor Peter III. The young princess lovingly accepted her new homeland. In Orthodoxy, she received a new name - Ekaterina Alekseevna, she studied the Russian language, Russian history and traditions.

The marriage with Peter was unsuccessful and after his accession to the throne in 1762, Catherine, fearing arrest, together with her associates and with the support of the guard, organized a palace coup. Peter III, who was not popular, abdicated and soon died in Ropsha under unclear circumstances. Clever and courageous Catherine decided not to give power to the heir, her 7-year-old son Paul. September 22 (October 3), 1762, she was crowned in Moscow and became Empress Catherine II.

At that time, many areas of the country's life were in decline, and the empress began energetic reform activities, while developing the trends laid down by her predecessors, primarily Peter I. The transformation program was associated with the ideas of the European Enlightenment. Vladimir Kallash in the publication “What Catherine II Did for Russian Public Enlightenment” (1896) quotes the Empress’s early notes: “God bears witness to me that I wish and only want the good of the country into which the Lord brought me. Her glory is mine too... I want a common goal - to make everyone happy”.

In 1763, the Senate was reformed, in 1764 the church lands became the property of the state, the criminal legislation softened, and in 1769 state loans first appeared.

At that time, specially created election commissions took part in the preparation of the reforms, and after the suppression of the Pugachev uprising in 1775, Catherine II prepared the most important reforms herself, relying on Western European sources and models.

The number of innovations and transformations was very large: judicial, provincial and educational reforms were carried out, the principles of free enterprise were proclaimed, metal money was replaced by paper money, legislative drafting of estates was completed. Catherine stopped the smallpox epidemic: she introduced vaccinations, and she was the first to be vaccinated to set an example for her subjects.

Having made many important government affairs and transformations over the long years of rule, from 1762 to 1796, Catherine in the Rules of Management, cited in the Notes of Empress Catherine the Second (1907), only in second place indicated that “good order must be introduced in the state, to support society and make it comply with the laws”, and put in the first place the need to educate the nation, which should govern”.

Catherine II was very well-read. In "Notes on Catherine the Great, consisting of her Secretary of State and Cavalier Adrian Moiseevich Gribovsky" (1847), posted on the Presidential Library’s portal, the author writes: "The Empress knew almost by heart Pericles, Lycurgus, Solon, Montesquieu, Locke, and Slav the times of Athens, Sparta, Rome, the new Italy and France and the history of all states... ”, and this is far from a complete circle of its reading. She left an extensive literary heritage - comedies, fables, poems, political and diplomatic correspondence, notes of various kinds, historical works. “Catherine II followed the successes of historical science in Russia, she was interested in it and took part in her activities herself”, we read in the report of Vladimir Ikonnikov “Empress Catherine II as a Historian” (1911).

The buildings of the Small and Large Hermitage Museum, as well as the Hermitage Theater were built by order of Catherine II, and the collections of art acquired by her laid the foundation for the creation of the State Hermitage Museum, the founder of which is considered to be her.

The empress’s activities contributed to the fact that in the field of education and culture, Russia firmly and finally became one of the developed European powers. The reign of Catherine the Great is often called the "golden age" of Russian history.

Catherine II suddenly died on November 6 (17 in a new style) on November 1796 and was buried next to her husband Peter III in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.