Catherine the Great

by Dixon, Simon

• ISBN13: 9780582098039
• ISBN10: 0582098033
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Neither a comprehensive 'life and times' nor a conventional biography, this is an engaging and accessible exploration of rulership and monarchial authority in eighteenth century Russia. Its purpose is to see how Catherine II of Russia conceived of her power and how it was represented to her subjects. Simon Dixon asks essential questions about Catherin'es life and reign, and offers new and stimulating arguments about the Englightenment, the power of the monarch in early modern Europe, and the much-debated role of the "great individual" in history.

Author Biography

Simon Dixon is Professor of Modern History, University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
The problem of power	p. 1
Catherine the Great, 1729-96	p. 1
Power and the 'great man'	p. 5
Power defined: coercion or consensus?	p. 8
The power of the monarch in early-modern Europe	p. 12
Catherine takes power	p. 23
Power hungry? Catherine before her accession	p. 23
The coup of 1762	p. 28
Consequences of the coup: Peter, Paul and Pugachev	p. 32
Images of power	p. 41
The representation of power and the power of representation	p. 41
Theatre of power: the court	p. 48
Powers behind the throne? Catherine, favouritism and female rule	p. 53
The power of ideas: Catherine and the philosophes	p. 64
The philosophes and the monarch	p. 64
Despotism	p. 70
The power of the legislator	p. 75
Toleration	p. 78
War and expansion	p. 80
Catherine and Russian political culture	p. 88
Political culture and public opinion	p. 88
Cosmopolitanism and national diversity in the Enlightenment	p. 90
Catherine as writer	p. 94
Catherine and the 'public sphere'	p. 98
Catherine's patronage of scholarship and the arts	p. 102
Catherine and her critics: censorship and freedom of expression	p. 104
Enlightened despotism	p. 113
Enlightened despotism	p. 113
Utility and the common good	p. 115
Religion and the Church	p. 116
Empire	p. 119
Populationism and public health	p. 121
Economy	p. 123
Serfdom and social policy	p. 124
Central and local government	p. 128
Crime and punishment	p. 130
Education	p. 133
Power relationships in Russia	p. 141
Catherine and her ministers	p. 141
Catherine and the nobility	p. 148
Russia as a European great power	p. 155
Catherine and the making of Russian foreign policy	p. 155
Prussia, Poland and the 'northern system', 1762-74	p. 160
Austria, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimea, 1774-89	p. 164
Catherine and the French Revolution	p. 169
Epilogue: power transferred and transformed	p. 178
The death of an empress	p. 178
Further Reading	p. 182
Index	p. 189
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