Enlightened absolutism and the Nakaz
Catherine II was born a German princess and came to the throne in 1762 after the coup against her husband Peter III. She read the French thinker Montesquieu and the Italian Beccaria, and wrote to Voltaire. The Enlightenment was a movement that said reason should guide government, laws should be fair and cruelty should end.
Enlightened absolutism means a ruler keeps all power but says she will use it for reform and the common good. In 1767 Catherine wrote the Nakaz ("Instruction"), a guide for lawmakers. It said that laws should aim at the good of all, that torture was wrong and that punishment must be fair. But it also said that Russia's size needed one strong ruler, so autocracy stayed.
The Legislative Commission (1767 to 1768)
In 1767 Catherine called a Legislative Commission in Moscow to write a new law code. More than five hundred deputies came: nobles, townspeople, state peasants, Cossacks and non-Russian peoples, and some from government offices. Serfs sent no deputies.
The deputies brought written requests (called "instructions") from their home areas, and the Commission debated them. Nobles asked for more rights and protection of serfdom; townspeople asked for trade rights; peasants asked for relief. The Commission could not agree on a code. In December 1768 Catherine closed it, using the start of a war with the Ottoman Empire as the reason.
It made no new code, but Catherine learned what the different groups wanted, and used it later in her reforms.
Provincial reform (1775)
The Pugachev revolt (1773 to 1775) showed that local government was weak. In 1775 Catherine divided Russia into smaller provinces (gubernii), each with about 300,000 to 400,000 men on the tax lists, and each province into districts with fewer people. By 1796 there were about fifty provinces. Each had a governor sent by the ruler, a treasury, police and separate courts for nobles, townspeople and state peasants.
Nobles elected some local officials, so they took part in running their districts. The result: the state's officers sat closer to the people, the nobles gained a role, and order was easier to keep.
The charters of 1785
The Charter to the Nobility confirmed and widened what nobles had won: freedom from compulsory state service (from 1762), freedom from taxes and corporal punishment, the right to own land and serfs, courts of their own peers and assemblies in each province that elected a leader (a "marshal"). It made the nobles a clear, protected estate.
The Charter to the Towns gave townspeople rights too. Citizens were grouped in categories; merchants joined guilds by their wealth; the town had an elected council (duma) and mayor. Rich merchants gained safety from corporal punishment and the right to run trade.
There was no charter for peasants. In 1767 Catherine even forbade serfs to complain against landlords, and the 1785 charter kept the landlord's rights. So the reforms helped the top and the middle, not the bottom.
Key formulas and definitions
- Enlightened absolutism: an all-powerful ruler who claims to use reason for reform.
- Nakaz (1767): Catherine's Instruction to lawmakers, based on Enlightenment ideas.
- Legislative Commission (1767 to 1768): deputies from several estates (not serfs); no code made.
- Provincial reform (1775): about 50 provinces of 300,000 to 400,000 men each, split into districts.
- Charter to the Nobility (1785): freedom from service, taxes and corporal punishment; land and serfs kept.
- Charter to the Towns (1785): guilds, town council and rights for merchants.
Worked examples
1. Why is Catherine's rule called "enlightened absolutism"?
She held total power (absolutism) but read Enlightenment thinkers and used their ideas in the Nakaz, in plans for fair laws and in local reforms. The power stayed with her, so it was reform from above.
2. Why did the Legislative Commission fail to make a code?
The estates wanted different things, for example nobles wanted serfdom protected and townspeople wanted trade rights. There was no agreement, and in 1768 the war with the Ottoman Empire gave Catherine a reason to close it.
3. Who gained most from the 1785 charters, and who gained nothing?
The nobles gained most: freedom from service, taxes and corporal punishment, plus control of land and serfs. Townspeople gained some rights. Serfs gained nothing and landlords kept power over them.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Legislative Commission wrote a new law code. It met and ended with no code.
- Saying serfs sat in the Commission. Serfs had no deputies.
- Believing enlightened absolutism means a limited ruler. The ruler kept all power.
- Mixing the charters: the Charter to the Nobility (1785) is not the 1762 decree that ended compulsory service, though it confirmed it.