background top icon
background center wave icon
background filled rhombus icon
background two lines icon
background stroke rhombus icon

Download "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век"

input logo icon
Table of contents
|

Table of contents

0:00
Екатерина Вторая Великая: Империя неудержимо расширяется
4:12
Диктатура дворянства: каких целей хотела Екатерина добиться в своей внутренней политике
7:58
Закон о забвении. Иоанн Антонович и спецоперация по его возведению на трон
14:36
Легисломания Екатерины: Реформа сената, Уложенная комиссия, губернская реформа и.. что в итоге?
26:13
Политэкономия XVIII века. Введение бумажных денег, инфляция и долги. Экспорт, импорт и проблема суверенного торгового флота
34:13
Во что обошлись России фавориты?
39:18
Европейские беженцы. Миграционная политика и почему выгодно быть немцем?
42:35
Где брать налоги? Секуляризация церковных земель и политика веротерпимости в Золотой век дворянства
56:51
Многопартийная Польша. Как расширялась империя, и почему Запад беспрекословно признал независимость Крыма?
1:08:15
Бельмо в глазу или аллерген? Почему Запад не любит Россию?
1:11:49
Привилегии крымских татар и новая война с реваншистской Турцией
1:15:42
Кто хотел расчленить Польшу? Воссоединение русских земель
1:17:54
Революционная Франция. Агрессивная фразеология Екатерины и военный нейтралитет
1:19:39
Империя расширяется: защита Грузии, противостояние Персии. Присоединение Чукотки и пограничные столбы на океанском побережье
1:24:00
Итоги правления Екатерины II
1:37:05
Чаадаев, Ключевский, Хомяков и другие историки о правлении Екатерины II
1:39:55
Каким человеком была Екатерина Великая?
1:58:16
«Надо бороться не с последствиями, а с идеями»
2:06:13
Чего не было бы без Екатерины II?
Video tags
|

Video tags

Екатерина II
екатерина 2
екатерина великая
екатерина 2 биография
лекторий
лекторий достоевский
история россии
история россии екатерина 2
история
наказ екатерины 2
губернская реформа екатерины 2
золотой век дворянства
екатерина 2 внутренняя политика
внутренняя политика екатерины 2
внешняя политика екатерины 2
екатерина 2 внешняя политика
расширение российской империи
разделы речи посполитой
французская революция
итоги правления екатерины 2
российская империя
екатерина2
лекторийdостоевский
dостоевский
каналдостоевский
лекции
екатеринаii
екатеринавторая
историяроссии
18век
российскийфондкультуры
Subtitles
|

Subtitles

subtitles menu arrow
  • ruRussian
Download
00:00:12
The Nobles' Bank accepted money with deposits at 5 percent. And it didn’t even crash.
00:00:17
At some point, we could have deprived England of its fleet if we had stopped the supply of ship timber and hemp.
00:00:26
If you steal a little, then there’s something to steal. He spent couple of years close to the body – and received 7 million rubles.
00:00:49
Good afternoon. Welcome to our channel. Today we’ll talk about Catherine the Great, aka Catherine II. It’s a large and complex topic.
00:00:58
I’ll try to speak in blocks and tell about the pleasant things and unpleasant things. Catherine's foreign policy was a pleasant thing.
00:01:06
Her brilliant victories, wars won, the international prestige of the Russian Empire, all the reasons why we love that glorious time.
00:01:14
Catherine's domestic policy is an unpleasant topic. It was unpleasant not because it was a cruel time, as in the days of her predecessors.
00:01:27
But because the expectations from Catherine’s reign, form that bright, talented, educated, strong woman, were much bigger than the real reforms that were actually carried out.
00:01:46
As for her domestic policy, there was more talk than action. There was more self-admiring, PR, more plans and projects than she actually managed to implement.
00:02:01
First things first. We’re used to measure the success or failure of a state by the wars won and lost, by the expansion of territory, by the growth of its political influence. It’s quite logical.
00:02:14
At the same time, the economy, the financial system, the development of industry and agriculture, the life of the people and the growth of the living standards of the population were kind of left behind.
00:02:29
The most important question was left without attention. Did people back then begin to live better and happier than before her?
00:02:38
There were not so many cases in our history when our people’s well-being steadily improved, on the contrary,
00:02:45
the growth of the state’s power was achieved through the use of the so-called mobilization model. That is, through exploitation of the common people.
00:03:00
It was always like that, at all times. For example, the British Empire was the beneficiary of the carefully planned organized plunder of overseas colonies.
00:03:12
Who exactly benefited? The top of the British aristocracy. The life of Liverpool dock workers, middle-England miners or Manchester weavers didn’t improve in any way from colonial windfalls.
00:03:25
When we talk about Europe as a socially prosperous society, it applies only to Western Europe and part of the Anglo-Saxon world in the second half of the twentieth century.
00:03:36
When gradually, but constantly, the standard of living of the population was rising.
00:03:40
We’re not going to talk about why it happened. After all, it’s quite obvious that it happened because there was fierce competition with the Soviet model of development, with the communist half of the world.
00:03:51
In this respect, Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the shards of the British Empire, have made a showcase out of themselves.
00:04:04
I’m talking about salesmanship. It doesn’t mean that it will continue like that forever.
00:04:09
There’s no external need for that right now. Let's get back to Catherine. Catherine's domestic policy had little room for opportunities.
00:04:18
On the one hand, Catherine, as an intelligent woman, understood the need for political and economic reforms.
00:04:24
On the other hand, she understood that she had no one to rely on, except for the gentry. The active, educated, armed class of Russian society.
00:04:35
But in order to rely on the gentry, it was necessary to give them more and more privileges, financial opportunities, material benefits and etc.
00:04:43
By a twist of fate and thanks to her own political agility, Catherine ended up at the top of the enormous Russian Empire. Companions were rewarded, armies were put under oath.
00:04:56
There was a huge country in front of her. And that country had to be managed.
00:05:01
It was necessary to delve into the issues of economics, finance, social policy, religion. In her memoirs, Catherine wrote the following, I quote:
00:05:14
“Finances were drained. The army didn’t receive a salary for three months. Trade was in decline, as many of its branches were monopolized.
00:05:24
The military department was completely in debt, the navy was barely holding on. The clergy were dissatisfied because their lands were taken away.
00:05:34
There was no justice and the laws were abided only when high-ranking people needed it.” From Catherine’s notes we see that the country was absolutely ruined and there was no real management of the economy.
00:05:49
It’s common for every new ruler to accuse his predecessor of all mortal sins. But Catherine outdid everyone. She blamed Peter III for absolutely everything.
00:06:01
Of course, there was certain slyness there. As a matter of fact, by 1762, after Elizabeth’s reign, after Peter III’s short six-month reign, and even after The Seven Years' War, the country wasn’t in such a bad state.
00:06:20
True, there was a budget deficit. According to historians, it was a little more than eight, maximum ten percent of the annual state budget. It’s the ideal economic state for any modern nation.
00:06:37
Moreover, I have to say that Catherine contributed to the deficit increase, because, having come to power, in the first six months, she gave another million rubles as a gift to the participants in the coup.
00:06:50
Almost the same amount as the budget deficit in cash, plus land, plus property, orders, titles, peasants, and etc. There were other problems as well.
00:07:03
Catherine's main political problem was that she was an absolute usurper. She had zero rights to the throne. She had no rights at all.
00:07:14
Peter III was the grandson of Peter the Great. This was written even it in his title. And who was Catherine?
00:07:21
Even if one would believe that her husband had died from hemorrhoid, she could only become a regent to her son, the legitimate heir to the throne.
00:07:36
But she wasn’t going to let anyone have the power, not even her own son. That’s why in Russian history Catherine is the champion when it comes to the number of impostors.
00:07:47
Only in the first seven years of her reign in Russia there were seven false Peter III’s. Apart from the eighth, Emelyan Pugachev. On average, one impostor per year.
00:07:58
Also during the first three years of her reign three conspiracies connected with Ivan VI were uncovered.
00:08:05
That unfortunate boy with the iron mask of Russian history was the great-grandson of Peter the Great's brother Ivan, who was imprisoned.
00:08:15
There was one legislative concept in ancient Rome. It was called the Condemnation of memory. It wasn’t just one act of law.
00:08:24
But a systematic approach that was applied to people who had already lost power. Who were declared outlaw. Their memory was buried in oblivion.
00:08:38
This meant that their names were excluded from all official accounts. Or that those documents were destroyed.
00:08:46
If their names were carved on buildings, they were removed together with stone. Busts and statues were destroyed.
00:08:53
The Romans were practical people, they used to cut off the statue’s heads and attach other heads. This was done to several Roman emperors.
00:09:04
That approach was applied several times in our history. For example, in the middle of the twentieth century it was forbidden to mention Trotsky while speaking of the October Revolution.
00:09:14
Photographs, paintings were retouched. You know all this very well. Do you remember that famous picture of Lenin playing chess with Gorky in Capri?
00:09:25
I saw 4 versions of that photo. Lenin plays chess with Gorky, yawning. Lenin plays chess with Gorky and Bagdanov stands nearby and helps him.
00:09:35
He was also photoshopped. And there was another version with some Lenin’s comrade, who gave him advice.
00:09:45
He was carefully erased. The Condemnation of memory. In the Russian Empire, only one emperor became the victim of that law. The same Ivan.
00:09:57
All his portraits, papers with his name on them, passports, church books and other documents were destroyed. All published church sermons with his mention were confiscated.
00:10:09
Even the ode dedicated to him by Lomonosov. Even after one hundred and fifty years, in the twentieth century, poor Ivan wasn’t mentioned among the rulers on the Alexander Garden Obelisk.
00:10:22
He wasn’t pictured by the great jeweler Faberge on the famous work dedicated to the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty.
00:10:29
All coins that were in use in Russia with his name on them were sent for remelting. And people who didn’t hand in those coins were declared state criminals.
00:10:49
Now it’s a colossal numismatic rarity. There’s a wonderful private museum of numismatics in the center of Moscow, it belongs to Alekperov, the founder of Lukoil.
00:11:00
It’s open to the public, you can sign up for a tour on the Internet. In my opinion it’s one of the best private numismatic museums in the world.
00:11:08
I wonder if it has the coin with Ivan’s face there. Since then, it was forbidden to name anyone in the Romanov family Ivan.
00:11:15
When Catherine ascended the throne, after just a couple of years, Lieutenant Mirovich, who served in the fortress where Ivan was imprisoned, tried to free him.
00:11:27
He thought that he was just as brave as Orlov. He thought that he would get all the glory, if he had freed the illegally imprisoned emperor.
00:11:35
Mirovich knew the structure of the guard service in the fortress, he knew the soldiers, and the soldiers knew him. It was the most stupid coup attempt in our history.
00:11:44
Two people were involved. Mirovich and his comrade, another officer. They had the following plan. They wanted to somehow free the emperor, to come to Petersburg with him and to show him to the troops.
00:11:57
They were sure that everyone would swear allegiance to him and the reign of the usurper would come to an end. It all went wrong from the beginning.
00:12:05
A day before the operation, his only accomplice drowned in the Neva. That was a bad swim. Mirovich was left all alone. But he was brave, what he lacked in brains he made up for in courage.
00:12:25
He arrived to the fortress all alone. Lined up the soldiers and told them: “You know me. I order to release the Emperor Ivan VI.
00:12:34
Soldiers are disciplined people. Why not? They were ordered and they lined up, loaded their guns and started walking.
00:12:42
That part of the garrison, that saw a small group of soldiers approaching, locked itself inside the fortress and didn’t let Mirovich and his soldiers in. But it didn’t stop our rebel.
00:12:53
There were no cell phones, it was impossible to call for help. But Mirovich didn’t choke. He found a cannon, aimed it at the gate and boom!!
00:13:05
The team inside the fortress thought that that madman couldn’t be stopped. So the gates opened and he was let in. He ran inside, broke through to the cell where poor Ivan was.
00:13:17
And saw a corpse inside that cell. The two guards closest to his cell had clear instructions from Catherine - at the slightest attempt to free him, he had to be immediately killed.
00:13:34
They completed their task, stabbed him to death. Mirovich realized that nothing would work out and surrendered to the authorities. The case was investigated.
00:13:46
I guess the investigators were shocked by the fact that there was no conspiracy. It was just a reckless scheme of two people. Mirovich was executed.
00:13:57
By the way, it was the first execution in Russia since Anna Ioannovna’s reign. First execution in 22 years. Can you imagine! Mirovich was executed.
00:14:07
Those two officers who were the last to see the living emperor and carried out the death sentence went to serve somewhere in the province. They were given bonuses.
00:14:18
Salary ten years ahead. They were also told not to be seen in the capital ever again and thanked for the service. They were strictly forbidden to correspond with each other.
00:14:28
By the way, back then it was quite a humane fate. Under different circumstances, in a different country and at a different time, they would have been killed immediately.
00:14:35
Just think of the Kennedy case. From the very beginning, Catherine acted extremely harsh in the struggle for power. She showed no liberalism.
00:14:46
But in addition to the obvious conspirators, there were also many oppositionists at court. The most famous of them was Nikita Panin, who advocated the restriction of royal power. He had 2 ideas.
00:14:57
The first one was supported by Catherine, and the second one was rejected. The idea was to create an imperial council, which was supposed to include several senior dignitaries who would rule together with the monarch.
00:15:10
It was an attempt to reincarnate the Supreme Privy Council, to slightly limit monarchy. At first, Catherine liked the project, said that Panin did a good job.
00:15:25
And then she slowly buried it. She wasn’t going to share power with anyone. She supported the second idea. The reform of the Senate. It turned into a kind of monitoring body, partly judicial, partly auditing.
00:15:39
A kind of symbiosis between the Auditing Chamber and the Supreme Court. The biggest problem was that Catherine, declaring her commitment to the liberal ideas of the French Enlightenment, acted with extreme caution.
00:15:59
Again, the reforms of the Senate, the failed Panin’s reform. The next expression that’s worth remembering is the calling of the Legislative Commission. The Legislative Commission was a kind of pre-parliament.
00:16:13
Catherine had the following idea - to gather representatives so that they would develop some new laws and publicly support her ideas.
00:16:24
At the same time, she wanted to see what problems actually worried the population. Not those who lived in the center of St. Petersburg, but the whole country.
00:16:30
So there was a Congress of People's Deputies. How was the Legislative Commission formed? There was one representative of the gentry from one county.
00:16:41
One citizen from one city. One state peasant from one province. One foreigner from one people. That is one Bashkir, one Tatar, one Kalmyk, and etc.
00:16:58
Territorially national quotas were opened. In total, more than 600 deputies entered the commission. More deputies than the State Duma has today.
00:17:06
It turned out that a third of them were from the gentry, another third from the townspeople, but nobles were among the townspeople too. Nobles elected by the townspeople.
00:17:16
Another 20 percent from peasants and Cossacks. That is, from the rural population. There was even a representative from the clergy. He was sent there by the synod.
00:17:26
By the way, Catherine did one truly great thing. No one had thought of it before Catherine, and no one dared to do it after her.
00:17:32
Each deputy got not only a salary, but he was also promised personal physical immunity from persecution. Attention. Parliamentary immunity.
00:17:46
Not only for the period of commission’s work, but for life. Imagine that. Lifetime parliamentary immunity.
00:17:53
That meant that they could speak the truth, say what they wanted and nothing would happen to them. And of course the deputies took advantage of that right.
00:17:59
In the course of work, Catherine presented a mandate written by her own hand. It was like a technical task for the deputies.
00:18:07
What to think about, what to worry about. It was written in the style of her favorite childhood book “The Spirit of Law”. It consisted of 655 articles.
00:18:20
Here are actual Catherine’s wordings, the quintessence of the tasks that the monarch and the noble assembly were facing.
00:18:25
First. We need to educate the nation. Second. It’s necessary to restore order in the state, to support the society and force it to comply with the laws.
00:18:36
Third. It’s necessary to establish a good police force in the state. Fourth. It’s necessary to do everything possible for the heyday of the state and make it abundant. New ideas.
00:18:46
Fifth. It’s necessary to make the state ferocious so that its neighbors would respect it. All in all, she was for everything good and against everything bad.
00:18:57
The commission began its work as it should. Its first legislative act, decisively tough and uncompromising, was aimed at telling everything like it was.
00:19:09
The Parliament in Russia was a force. Its first law was to give the Empress the title of Great Catherine, the Wise Mother of the Fatherland. The Wise Mother couldn’t take it. She was then in her 30s.
00:19:22
She ordered to make laws and not apologies for her qualities. However, she accepted the title of Mother of the Fatherland, because she realized that it contributed to her legitimization.
00:19:36
The Commission didn’t develop a single fateful decision. It didn't agree on anything.
00:19:42
Among the issues that were discussed at that commission was the demand to deprive the gentry of its privileges - namely, land ownership and serfs.
00:19:48
Deputies, philistines, merchants believed that those insane privileges of the gentry were completely inhuman. They believed that the right to own land and serfs had to be taken away from the gentry and given to everyone.
00:20:02
So that any person who had money could easily buy slaves, a plantation and work like in America. Why did the two percent of the population have such exclusive rights!?
00:20:13
Catherine reduced everything to a propaganda action. She wrote to all her correspondents abroad about what an incredible congress she had gathered.
00:20:23
Taking advantage of the upcoming war with Turkey, she dismissed the commission. By the way, in the course of the work of the commission, the rights of the gentry were also not infringed in any way.
00:20:32
During her reign, Catherine issued a royal decree that forbid serfs to file complaints against their landowners. They were even deprived of the right to complain.
00:20:44
A few years later, in 1773, Pugachev's Peasants' War swept Russia. We’ll talk about it separately.
00:20:53
Based on the results of that war, Catherine drew certain conclusions and carried out what was later called the provincial reform of 1775.
00:21:02
She tried to introduce a rigid vertical within the loose system of power. What was done? Firstly, a clear two-door vertical of control appeared. The capital. The emperor.
00:21:17
Then, governorships or provinces and the county. That was, the region and the district. This simple system of territorial division exists to this day. The number of provinces had been increased.
00:21:33
On average, 350-400 thousand male souls lived in each of them. Slightly more than a million people, including children. Then, each province was divided into 10-12 counties.
00:21:48
The borders were formed according to the population. That was, 20-30 thousand male adult souls per each. There was one governor-general for several provinces.
00:22:01
There were governors, and above them were Governor-Generals. Today we can compare them with presidential envoys in federal districts.
00:22:10
They obeyed personally to the Empress. But unlike modern officials, they had unlimited power.
00:22:19
Both the judicial system and the financial system were subordinate to them, even all the military units located on the territory of the provinces under his jurisdiction were subordinate to them.
00:22:30
This’s a dream for any modern governor. There were not enough cities for new counties. Therefore, Catherine simply renamed 216 large rural settlements into cities.
00:22:44
Therefore, when they say that the city was founded by Catherine, it means that it was turned from a village into a city. The city, just like in Gogol’s tales, had a local governor.
00:22:59
And the city was divided into parts under the supervision of a precinct chief of police. Those parts were districts. Districts were divided into blocks which were headed by an overseer.
00:23:11
A very simple system. Cities, districts, blocks. It’s easy to remember. As Soviet textbooks would say, it was a progressive reform, but it cost a lot of money.
00:23:25
Under Catherine the bureaucracy expenses increased 5-6-7 times. They even exceeded the army expenses, which were also very big. Afterwards, Catherine completely liquidated the Zaporozhian Sich.
00:23:42
After we reached the Black Sea, the Zaporozhian Sich turned out to be a purely internal formation. Its task was to protect the borders. The Cossacks were violent fellows.
00:23:55
People complained about them all the time. They either robbed some local landowners, or offended Serbian settlers, or plundered trade caravans. The central government got tired of it.
00:24:09
As a result, in 1775, a decree was issued on the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. Some Cossacks were offended and fled to Turkey.
00:24:19
Those Cossacks who realized that times had changed entered a new formation - the Black Sea Cossack Host. To which later, at Potemkin’s initiative, Catherine transferred a huge territory – Kuban.
00:24:39
Beautiful fertile lands with a warm climate. The Cossacks moved to Kuban. They formed the famous Kuban Cossack army.
00:24:54
They founded the city of Ekaterinodar – todays beautiful city of Krasnodar. By the way, I heard what our Ukrainian comrades historians said.
00:25:05
They quite seriously stated that since the Cossacks resettled in Kuban, it means that Kuban is originally Ukrainian land.
00:25:16
They said that it would be good to hand over Kuban, the Krasnodar Territory and the Rostov Region to Ukraine. That’s some peculiar logic. We have a wonderful people - the Kalmyk people.
00:25:31
They once moved from Mongolia. They lived there quietly until the warlike Manchus began to harass them. Then all the Kalmyks asked the Russian Empire for protection.
00:25:47
They received lands with difficult climatic conditions in the lower reaches of the Volga, where the Kalmyks are now. The empire sheltered a whole people.
00:25:59
Is this a reason to conclude that the Astrakhan region and Kalmykia are primordially Mongolian lands? But Ukrainian historians and politicians find it quite logical.
00:26:13
As for the economy. Catherine was good at political matters and matters of legislation, but she knew nothing about economics.
00:26:20
She didn’t understand anything about the economic and industrial processes that were taking place at that time in Europe. She seriously believed that machines were harmful, that they deprived people of work.
00:26:35
Therefore, the industrial revolution would bring only losses to the state. There were also not many bright ideas in the tax legislation.
00:26:45
Even those protectionist measures that Elizabeth brought into trade were canceled by Catherine. Often this had rather bad consequences for the Russian economy.
00:26:56
For example, under Elizabeth, the export of grain was banned, and Catherine rather thoughtlessly canceled it, giving the gentry the opportunity to make money on it.
00:27:06
Because on the foreign markets grain cost as much as oil does right now. It costs more than in the domestic market. So the tycoons enriched themselves.
00:27:14
In the domestic market, grain immediately rose in price by 4-5 times. What was the result? Starvation. It was under Catherine that peasant Russia began to starve. As for the industry.
00:27:29
The industry, which Peter the Great developed so rapidly, developed very slowly under Catherine. There were many reasons for that. Not only the empress's dislike for industrialization.
00:27:49
She wasn’t into modern technologies, not into IT and artificial intelligence, as one would say today. The problem was that there were no industrial conditions back then.
00:28:00
In England everything was simple. Peasants were driven off the land as a result of fencing. What was their perspective? To die of hunger? To steal?
00:28:07
They would have been hanged according to the anti-vagrant law. First they catch you, then they hang you. The conversation was brief. They had to work in order to have a roof over their heads.
00:28:17
The job was terrible. The goal was to survive. Those peasants made up the future English proletariat. There was no fencing in Russia. Even the serf’s fate, while he lived on land, was in his own hands.
00:28:34
More work meant more harvest. One was lucky if his wife gave birth to many sons, the family occupied more space. While you were on land, you were your own man.
00:28:47
As soon as one went to work at a metallurgical plant, for example, one could only count on a corner in the barracks, on stew and some token payment. Nobody wanted that.
00:28:58
Therefore, they were attached as serfs to the factory. In fact, it was like slave labor. The next step was the financial reform. The introduction of paper money. It was an innovation.
00:29:09
Peter III decided to introduce paper money. It was a good idea. The amount of money increased, payments became simpler, the economy grew and payments became safer.
00:29:25
It was one thing to carry heavy silver, and another - a few banknotes. It was fast and convenient. Catherine immediately canceled her husband’s right decision. Waited a few years.
00:29:38
And then returned to this idea, as well as to many other of his ideas. Everything here was ambiguous.
00:29:44
At first, she promised that no more than fifty million would be printed in paper money. It was almost comparable to the annual budget of the empire. But there wasn't enough money.
00:29:54
There were wars, problems, minions that had to be pleased. So more and more money was printed. Catherine didn’t know much about inflation. In the end money devalued.
00:30:06
The number of goods and the number of printed paper money didn’t correspond in any way. Therefore, prices rose. Moreover, a gap appeared between the value of metal money and paper money.
00:30:23
A very dangerous thing. When Paul I came to power, the first thing he did was to publicly burn a whole mountain of paper money right in front of the Winter Palace on Palace Square.
00:30:45
It was a serious way to fight inflation. The Ministry of Finance should note that. In 1796, by the end of Catherine’s reign, the state had a huge debt. More than two hundred million rubles.
00:30:57
A significant part of the debt was to foreign banks. Expenditure exceeded income. The deficit that was there when Catherine came to the throne was nothing compared to the deficit that was there when she died.
00:31:10
External loans and yielded interest were fully repaid by the Russian Empire only a hundred years later, under her great-great-great-grandson Alexander III.
00:31:21
Nevertheless, financial institutions began to work under Catherine. By the way, banks appeared that deposited money.
00:31:28
For example, the Nobles' Bank established under Catherine accepted money with deposits at 5 percent. And it didn’t even crash. I mean it was still a Nobles' Bank. It was a matter of honor.
00:31:46
As for exports and imports. Everything was as usual, there was nothing new. In exports, priority was given to raw materials: forest, bread, hemp. Please note that this was all strategic commodity.
00:31:57
As for hemp and forest – that was our fleet. At some point, we could have deprived England of its fleet. If we had stopped the supply of ship timber and hemp to the UK. There were recycled products.
00:32:13
For example, metal. In terms of iron production, Russia was the world leader back then. Even then, fabrics accounted for a large share of our exports.
00:32:21
Then, 100 years later, by the end of the 19th century, Russia became the world's main fabric producer, something we can only hope for today.
00:32:29
The export volume increased significantly under Catherine. By three times. But there was a problem because we exported all those goods through foreign carriers.
00:32:39
Russia didn’t have its own merchant fleet. Well it did, but it was a small one. We had a large navy, but a small merchant fleet. Our own carriers accounted for less than 10% of all exports.
00:32:50
It meant that all foreign shipowners, all foreign transport companies profited immensely from Russia. You can imagine what the difference was.
00:33:00
How much they paid for the goods in St. Petersburg, how much they sold it for in London, Amsterdam, Germany.
00:33:08
As I said, grain exports increased many times under Catherine due to her abandoning the policy of protectionism and allowing free exports.
00:33:16
As for corruption. Catherine began, like all other monarchs. She issued an imperial decree on the suppression of covetousness. She said that it was immoral, that it was bad, that she was going to fight it.
00:33:27
Of course, it didn’t happen. Catherine wasn’t trying all that hard. Not as hard as Peter the Great was. She thought that if you steal, then there’s something to steal. Her approach was quite liberal.
00:33:43
As for medicine. Under Catherine, the first specialized hospitals were founded. Especially after the plague. You can watch a lecture about it on our channel. It’s a very interesting story.
00:33:56
After that, hygiene was promoted even more. People talked about how important it was to clean rooms, bathhouses, to frequently wash underwear.
00:34:06
Specialized hospitals were opened, where they treated venereal diseases. A psychiatric hospital was also opened. As for the economy, I can only say that it was an extremely costly institution.
00:34:18
According to some reports, the cost of gifts for her main minions exceeded 90 million rubles.
00:34:28
This is huge amount of money, comparable to half of the internal and external debt of the Russian Empire at the end of the reign of the Empress.
00:34:37
And in addition to financial gifts, the minions also received orders and ranks. This had a demoralizing effect on ordinary civil servants, on the military and officers.
00:34:52
Imagine what General Suvorov must have felt, faced with the minion Alexander Lansky, who was just over 20 years old.
00:35:01
Who, after being intimate with the Empress, received the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of St. Anna, the rank of lieutenant general, the highest Polish Order, the highest Swedish Order.
00:35:16
He made a fortune of 7 million rubles and didn’t take part in a single military battle. He fought exclusively somewhere at the empress’s court.
00:35:27
Moreover, the older Catherine became the younger and more handsome and stupid her minions became. All of them were no match for Potemkin and Grigory Orlov.
00:35:38
Platon Zubov was the last of her minions. A French diplomat and freemason wrote the following: "When he put on his uniform, he had so many medals on him, he looked like a seller."
00:35:54
The empress was pretty generous. She gave out huge amount of money not only to her minions, but to their relatives too. Gifts for the wedding, gifts for the birth.
00:36:05
After the French Revolution she sheltered a huge number of French aristocrats, kept them at court. I’ve already mentioned medicine. But it’s impossible not to note Catherine’s initiative for vaccinating against smallpox.
00:36:22
She showed amazing courage and decency. She not only promoted vaccination, making it mandatory for everyone at court, but she got vaccinated herself. She was the first royalty in Europe to do so.
00:36:37
In addition, she was given the most dangerous version of that vaccine. She was grafted with human smallpox, taken directly from a patient’s abscess.
00:36:44
The incision was made and part of the pus was placed into a healthy body. After that, the person who received that vaccination was quarantined. He drank plenty of water, doctors took good care of him.
00:37:00
He would get smallpox but in a lighter form. At the same time, every 10th person got full-fledged smallpox. Many didn’t survive.
00:37:09
Catherine was the first in the country to be vaccinated against smallpox. She went into quarantine right after that. She got sick in a mild form, and literally a week later she felt excellent.
00:37:18
Grigory Orlov was the second to inoculate. He was a reckless guy, he immediately went on a bear hunt after vaccination. He didn’t get sick, he was very healthy.
00:37:26
Then the heir to the throne, Paul, was vaccinated, and etc. Gradually, the entire St. Petersburg nobility got vaccinated.
00:37:32
I cannot but say, since our lectures are coming out in a difficult epidemiological time, no matter how hard Catherine tried,
00:37:43
no matter how she promoted vaccination by personal example, Russia didn’t overcome smallpox.
00:37:56
Smallpox, having receded a little from the center of the empire, continued to strike the outskirts and sometimes the capital for another 150 years.
00:38:06
Until the decree of the Allied Council of People's Commissars and other determined guys who came to power introduced mandatory vaccination. Without any objections.
00:38:20
It was carried out by harsh methods and reached its peak, as it’s not difficult to guess, in the thirties. In those years, the conversation was brief.
00:38:30
You could either voluntarily get vaccinated, or first cut down the forest, and then still get vaccinated. The last patient with smallpox, one of the most terrible diseases in world history, was recorded in the Soviet Union in 1936.
00:38:46
The USSR was the only country in the world at that time that completely overcame this deadly threat. Completely. Before the United States, before all European countries.
00:38:59
Each of us remembers the smallpox vaccination that we got at school. Speaking of vaccination and how dangerous diseases can and should be defeated.
00:39:10
As the territory of the country expanded, the empire felt the need for population flow. Catherine pursued a remarkable emigration policy. She actively invited foreigners.
00:39:28
In 1763, all foreigners who came to Russia were allowed to freely settle in any province. A while later, a list of special benefits for migrants was approved.
00:39:40
The temptation for the poor Europeans, mainly for the Germans, was so strong that eventually Russia even had to stop accepting emigrants. Then the process was restarted.
00:39:50
Thus, hundreds of German colonies on the Volga, the so-called Germans of the Volga region, appeared.
00:39:56
Excellent economically successful active and hardworking people came to Russia and raised our country, becoming real Russian patriots.
00:40:07
The country‘s territory was constantly expanding. Under Catherine, the Black Sea region, Pryazovia, Crimea, Novorossia, the Lands between the Dniester and the Bug, modern Belarus, Courland, Lithuania became part of it.
00:40:20
These were all developed areas. The total number of new subjects exceeded 7,000,000. At the same time, Catherine's national policy was also quite liberal for her time.
00:40:30
Each new people retained the right to religious and cultural identity, a differentiated approach was applied in the economy, and a special tax administrative regime was introduced for a number of nationalities.
00:40:43
For example, the German colonists that I’ve mentioned were completely exempt from paying taxes for quite a long time.
00:40:50
Little Russians and Belarusians had to pay half of the tax - 50 percent. At first, there were no taxes at all.
00:40:58
Unfortunately, the indigenous population was the most discriminated one, it was in a worse economical state than those whom the empire attracted.
00:41:06
This led to rather unsettling cases, when Russian nobles asked to become Germans as a reward for their service. That way they could receive the privileges that the German settlers had.
00:41:22
Catherine became the first Russian monarch to deal with the Jewish issue.
00:41:27
After the annexation of the Little Russian, Belarusian and Lithuanian lands, Russia turned out to have the largest Jewish community. Over one million people.
00:41:38
It was under Catherine that the so-called Pale of Settlement appeared. According to one version, it happened because of Moscow and St. Petersburg merchants, who simply couldn’t handle the competition.
00:41:52
Jewish merchants were enterprising and supported each other. So thanks to fearing this competition, complaining about it, our merchants managed to draw that line.
00:42:02
Everyone should trade where they live. In Moscow, they wanted to trade the old fashioned way. They didn’t want any taverns and shops there. Everyone had their own place.
00:42:12
The Pale of Settlement wasn’t meant for the Jews though. It’s a big misconception. It was meant for the Judaea.
00:42:19
As soon as the Jew converted to Orthodoxy, he acquired all the rights and freedoms of the empire’s citizenship.
00:42:27
He could go anywhere, enter the civil service, go to university, but he had to change his religion.
00:42:33
Catherine got back to the earlier canceled ideas of her husband Peter the Third on the secularization of the church.
00:42:42
Huge Russia’s territories assigned to monasteries were exempted from taxes. And those monasteries were already half empty by that time.
00:42:51
There were few monks there. Some of them were completely abandoned. However, they owned lands and taxes from those lands went to the monasteries. The country needed money.
00:43:04
Therefore, Catherine thought a little and got back to her husband’s idea. 2 million monastery peasants were handed over to the treasury. All church lands became state lands.
00:43:18
As for Catherine’s confessional policy. One should note her progressiveness and religious tolerance. First, she forbade the Orthodox clergy to interfere in the affairs of other confessions.
00:43:29
The Orthodox were supposed to mind their own business, and all other confessions were to be monitored by secular authorities. The priests weren't supposed to interfere anymore.
00:43:36
As for the old believers. As we remember, Peter III wanted to completely equate the Old Believers with the Russian Orthodox Church.
00:43:42
Catherine started this initiative, but then gradually gave up on it. The persecution of the Old Believers resumed again, which, of course, was unfair and, most importantly, harmful to the country.
00:43:55
Because if we look at pre-revolutionary Russia, which was developing at an incredible economic pace, we’ll see that at the end of the nineteenth
00:44:03
and beginning of the twentieth century, all the famous families of merchants, manufacturers, industrialists, millionaires - were Old Believers.
00:44:13
The Old Believers were an economically very efficient part of the population. They were not only diligent, but they also had high ethical standards.
00:44:22
They didn’t drink, worked hard, supported each other in internal transactions, almost never entered into written contracts, always kept their word. A handshake was enough for them.
00:44:35
Deals with Old Believer merchants were discussed over tea, not over alcohol. If the deal was complicated, they didn't say they negotiated for three days and made a deal for a million.
00:44:51
They said they made a deal for two samovars. They sat in a tavern, and until they drank together two samovars, they didn’t agree. But if they agreed, then the issue was definitely resolved.
00:45:05
Imagine how much money one could save on notarial legal services. Why did notaries and lawyers appear? Because people deceived each other. It’s a European practice.
00:45:15
Or they forgot what they agreed on. Usually the one who wanted to deceive forgot. However, Catherine's liberal approach to the Old Believers was soon, unfortunately, replaced by new persecutions.
00:45:24
The Old Believers were exiled to the east, to Altai, Transbaikalia. By the way, thanks to the Old Believers, these territories received a powerful economic boost.
00:45:34
Lutherans were also allowed to publically show their faith. Only in St. Petersburg under Catherine there were more than twenty thousand Lutherans. Churches and Lutheran schools were built, services were held.
00:45:48
The Jews only had that right within the limits of the Pale of Settlement. Many religious matters and disputes were left to the Jewish courts.
00:45:58
Jews, depending on their capital, were assigned to the corresponding class, were elected to local governments, and even became judges. Again, within their territory.
00:46:09
Muslims were given the right to build and rebuild mosques. On Catherine’s personal instruction, the Koran was printed for the first time in Russia at the state expense in the printing house of the Academy of Sciences.
00:46:19
It was distributed free of charge to the Kirghiz. From the Volga-Ural Tatars, Catherine later received the respectful nickname “Abi Pasha”.
00:46:28
Which meant - grandmother-queen, the patroness of the faithful. Even Buddhism received state support in those areas where it was widespread.
00:46:37
Some concessions also affected the eternal opponents of the Orthodox, the Catholics.
00:46:43
For example, the Jesuit order, which by that time had already been banned everywhere in Europe, was allowed to open its headquarters in Russia and later in Mogilev.
00:46:55
As for the most painful peasant question, here Catherine said more than did. She was afraid to disturb the gentry. There are different points of view here.
00:47:09
On the one hand, those benefits and privileges were completely beyond common sense.
00:47:16
But many modern Russian and foreign historians, such as Dominik Levin, believe that it was the only way to keep a literate territory more or less under control,
00:47:27
relying on an organized group of enlightened and properly state-oriented people. Because the nobles in Russia were not European feudal lords, they were sovereign people.
00:47:39
They didn’t receive direct funding, they lived off the estates they owned. Unless they were in the military or government service.
00:47:47
They constituted that permanent empire’s support, a much better and more reliable support than in other European countries. By the way, the number of officials in Russia has always been very small.
00:47:59
For example, the number of officials in Russia and in Prussia were approximately the same under Catherine. At the same time, Prussia was territorially one percent of Russia.
00:48:09
Let’s talk about other privileges that the gentry received under Catherine. I’ll list them very briefly. All the pre-existing privileges were reconfirmed.
00:48:17
The exclusive noble’s right of land ownership was established. Not a nobleman couldn’t own land under Catherine. No matter how much money he had. This right of ownership also extended to the subsoil.
00:48:31
Everything that was found in that land - ore, coal - also belonged to the owner of the land. The lands of the nobles were exempted from quartering troops on them. Only with their own consent.
00:48:44
If a nobleman wanted to let a military unit into his estate, then he let it. If he didn't want to – the troops went to the forest or peasant lands.
00:48:52
By the way, if the military unit was quartered on peasant lands, all expenses automatically fell upon the peasants. The army could pay for something, or not. The confiscation of estates was excluded.
00:49:08
Even if the nobleman was punished, imprisoned, deprived of his money, the estate was transferred to his closest relatives. There was no principle of confiscation back to the treasury.
00:49:25
The gentry were given the right to have their own class institutions. By the way, the Cossack foremen on the territory of Little Russia, modern Ukraine, also became Russian nobles.
00:49:36
But all the good that was done for the gentry and partly for the philistinism. The word philistine means city dweller. Place is Polish for city. So, philistines are city dwellers.
00:49:54
Muscovites are philistines. All the good that was done for the nobles and the philistines didn’t affect the peasants in any way. Peasants lived much worse under Catherine than before her.
00:50:06
They lost their right to complain about the nobleman. That’s when Saltychikha appeared. There was no one to complain about the lady.
00:50:14
The landlord got the right to exile his serf not just to Siberia, but to hard labor. If he behaved badly – he went to hard labor. Later he could return him from hard labor if he changed his mind.
00:50:28
Then send him again. The sale of peasants - wholesale and retail, with families and without, was very popular. Newspapers were filled with such ads, I quote:
00:50:40
“For sale: Efim Osipov, 23 years old, 40 rubles. He has a wife, Maria Dementieva, 30 years old, 8 rubles. They have children - son Kuryan, 4 years old, 5 rubles,
00:50:52
daughter Vasilisa, 9 years old, 3 rubles. Matryona, one year old, 50 kopecks (cents)”. I think one could bargain if he was to buy the whole family. By the way, the human-being market rose.
00:51:05
At the beginning of Catherine's reign, when buying an estate, a male peasant soul with land cost about 30 rubles, and towards the end of her reign, the price gradually increased to 100 rubles. Inflation.
00:51:20
There was lack of staff. At a retail price, a healthy worker without land with some useful skills, for example, a coachman, a tailor, not to mention serf artists, was a special exclusive market.
00:51:35
Remember in “Woe from Wit” one landowner created a theater from serfs. “He made Moscow admire their beauty, but didn’t allow debtors to post-pay. Cupids and Zephyrus are all sold singly!”
00:51:49
In 1771, young Catherine decided to ban a very egregious thing - auctions for the sale of people. She didn’t want the hammer and the lining up on stage.
00:52:04
She didn’t want any of that: “Open your mouth, turn around, bend over.” Such auctions were banned. But the gentry were outraged. They had to buy serfs without inspection.
00:52:15
They said that they couldn’t invest the money they earned through blood and sweat. The Empress relented and met the gentry half-way.
00:52:23
She returned the auctions, but without the hammer. The hammer was just too much. Chairs could be sold with a hammer, but people couldn’t. She was a big liberal.
00:52:37
The peasants couldn’t take an oath, couldn’t take a ransom, couldn’t leave their village anywhere for more than 30 miles without the permission of the landowner.
00:52:48
The landowner didn’t have the right to kill his serf, since his life didn’t belong to the landowner. He could torture him to death. There was no punishment for that. There’s a lot of evidence of serf harems.
00:53:02
As Klyuchevsky wrote, many landlords turned their villages into slave plantations, which were similar to the North American plantations before the emancipation of the Negroes began.
00:53:14
So, despite all her ideas of enlightened absolutism, Catherine consistently hardened the position of the peasants. The peasants were almost completely illiterate.
00:53:23
They didn’t have their own newspapers or magazines. Everything we know about the horrors of serfdom is due to such public trials as Saltychikha, or from the works of noble writers like Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy.
00:53:39
Let's just imagine what the peasants could tell about several centuries of serfdom, if someone gave them such an opportunity.
00:53:46
I think that Shalamov’s and Solzhenitsyn’s tales would fade against what was really happening under Catherine. Therefore, it’s no surprise that people felt colossal injustice.
00:53:59
The whole potential of hatred, which spilled over during the peasant war led by Pugachev, launched the Red Wheel of the 1917 year.
00:54:10
Despite all this, we still associate Catherine's reign and her domestic politics with enlightened absolutism, ideas influenced by Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and other liberal authors of the 18th century.
00:54:25
By those who believed that a person was born free, those who advocated equality, those who stood for eliminating the medieval forms of government, exploitation.
00:54:33
Catherine talked a lot about the need to abolish serfdom, about freedoms, about equality. But she did nothing.
00:54:48
If we’re talking about the social structure of society, Catherine turned out to be a much less enlightened monarch than her contemporaries.
00:54:56
Than Frederick of Prussia, than Emperor Joseph of Austria, who actually abolished serfdom. Here's what we need to think about. Could she actually do it?
00:55:06
What fate would await her if she’d tried to fulfill everything that she believed in, at least in her younger years? After all, as the experience of the Legislative Commission showed, the country didn’t need it.
00:55:18
But the peasants did. As Pushkin once said, although I think he quoted Madame De Stal: “In my opinion, Russia’s autocracy is a form of government limited by a noose”.
00:55:31
To be more precise, a government limited by a weapon belt, a snuffbox and a lots of other ways to stop the reign of an emperor who doesn’t suit the elite.
00:55:40
Catherine knew it very well, she felt it and understood it. Thanks to the experience of their predecessors and Russia’s following history.
00:55:52
Joseph Stalin is credited with the following statement: “There’s logic of intentions and logic of circumstances. The logic of circumstances is always stronger than the logic of intentions”.
00:56:03
Maybe he didn't say that. But the author of that expression clearly understood the deep nature of power.
00:56:11
The ruler who understands that is considered to be pragmatic by his descendants, he has a chance to achieve something during his reign. And the one who doesn’t - can lose power very quickly.
00:56:23
The liberal Catherine turned out to be a pragmatic ruler. Therefore, she was successful. Not in everything, certainly not in the issue with the Russian peasantry.
00:56:33
However, unlike her husband and her heir, she achieved a lot. Her main success was her foreign policy. International politics, new successful wars.
00:56:44
Let’s talk about the directions. The first direction was Poland. It became the first serious foreign policy problem for the young empress. There’s always been a controversial situation in Poland.
00:57:01
It was an unstable state. There was no central authority. An ugly symbiosis of the monarchy and the noble republic.
00:57:09
The local population was in an even worse situation than in Russia. It was absolutely horrible there. Plus, there were religious oppression and national oppression there.
00:57:19
In 1763, shortly after the death of the Polish king August III, Catherine brought to power in Poland a man whom she, of course, liked.
00:57:40
The polish aristocrat, handsome, clever man, her former minion Stanislav Poniatowski. He was crowned in 1764. He became a good king, he wanted to have peace and order in his country.
00:57:54
He was very grateful to Catherine, his patroness. But of course, the Polish magnates didn’t want peace and order. They had their own non-national interests. This has always been Poland’s problem.
00:58:07
A few years later, the Sejm, the highest class representative body of Poland, gathered. The future fate of the state was discussed there. How the country should live on. There were different parties.
00:58:17
The Russian party wanted Poland to be an independent state, but loyal to our allies. Let me stress, we wanted a united Poland. We always did.
00:58:31
There was the French party that always wove plots at the Polish court. There was the Prussian party, the Austrian party, of course the party of its own magnates.
00:58:42
There was a very large, very serious party at the Papal Throne, at Rome. That's what it was called, the Catholic Party. It was against any equalization of the rights of Catholics.
00:58:55
And the gentry were all Catholics. The party didn’t want to be considered equal to those Orthodox rejects.
00:59:06
Nevertheless, after this Sejm an agreement was signed between Russia and Poland on eternal friendship. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
00:59:15
An eternal friendship between Russia and Poland. According to that agreement, Poland became Russia’s ally, while maintaining its independence.
00:59:25
Russia gave guarantees of Polish unity and Polish independence from any other powers, but at the same time, the rights of Catholics and dissidents were equalized on the territory of Poland.
00:59:33
Those dissidents were non-Catholics, primarily Orthodox. Unfortunately, some Polish magnates and clergy didn’t agree with that and the so-called Bar Confederation appeared.
00:59:46
Sounds nice - Bar Confederation. Everyone who disagreed, who was against Russia, against the Russian orientation, gathered in the Bar fortress. They rebelled and the Russian-Polish war began.
01:00:01
That’s when Russia’s young General Suvorov proved himself for the first time. His star was just beginning to rise back then. He became major general because of the fight with the bar confederates.
01:00:14
Why am I talking with such irony about the bar confederates? Because the Bar fortress is located in the Vinnitsa region. Therefore, I’d call those rebels Zhmerynka confederates.
01:00:28
Suvorov crashed those confederates. The local population, Little Russians, Belarusians didn’t support those confederates. They relied on foreigners.
01:00:40
Their last impregnable fortress, which they defended, was in Krakow. That fortress was defended by the Polish gentry and the French garrison.
01:00:51
Who acted on the part of the Russians? Russian troops, Polish troops, the central government, that was against the Confederates. Volunteers from the local population joined.
01:01:03
But the most interesting, unique case in history – the volunteer Jewish military units joined the battlefield. Suvorov was a determined guy and loved non-standard solutions.
01:01:14
He distributed weapons to the peaceful Jewish population, which couldn’t stand the gentry. I doubt that they stormed the fortress, history doesn’t record that though.
01:01:23
But who knows. But they performed their security functions with great accuracy. Those armed units helped the Russian army very much back then.
01:01:34
After the final defeat of the confederation, the so-called first partition of Poland took place. It happened at the initiative of Austria and Prussia with Russia’s resistance. We didn’t need that partition.
01:01:49
We’ll talk about that later. Turkey decided to intervene during the Russian-Polish war. Turkey naturally couldn’t sit still.
01:01:57
The Turks decided that the Russians were stuck in a war somewhere on top of the political map of the world and it was time to take something away from Russia.
01:02:04
At Turkey’s initiative, the first of Catherine's Russian-Turkish wars began. I’m not going to talk much about it, because we all read about it at school. I'll tell you just a few episodes. First one.
01:02:15
Catherine and Alexei Orlov, the brother of her minion, proposed a non-standard tactical move:
01:02:22
to attack Turkey not as usual through the Crimea, through Moldavia and Wallachia, but to attack Turkey from backside, from Greece and the Mediterranean Sea.
01:02:37
Even from Lebanon. So, the squadron under the command of Orlov made the first campaign in the history of Russia around the whole of Europe from St. Petersburg.
01:02:48
Imagine the impression that our squadron made while passing through the English Channel. Those were dozens of frigates, guns, stops in the ports. All that with serious diplomatic accompaniment.
01:02:59
Because nobody really liked that. What else could be done? There were many Russians and they were strong. So we went around Europe, caused the rise of the Greek national movement.
01:03:08
Orlov even managed to recreate Greek statehood on part of the Greek islands in those four years. There was such an independent province, but, unfortunately, the Turks took it over.
01:03:23
But the icing on the cake was the enchanting victory of the Russian fleet in Chesma. The Turkish fleet was burned. That victory produced the effect of a bombshell in the world community.
01:03:40
Nobody expected that from the Russian fleet. Even Orlov was happy. Suvorov fought together with Rumyantsev on land. They even seized Izmail.
01:03:56
Solid victories. We’re always outnumbered and we still always win. There wasn’t a single lost battle.
01:04:02
So the first of Catherine's Russian-Turkish wars, through long complex diplomatic negotiations, ended with a large number of concessions in Russia’s favor.
01:04:14
Including the main concession, the recognition of Crimea’s independence. Crimea was an official protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. This territory was recognized as independent.
01:04:26
Catherine ate her enemies bit by bit, not at once, she cut them like a steak. She hadn’t decided at that time whether she needed the Crimea or not.
01:04:34
I’d like to stress once again that Crimea wasn’t our today's Crimea, it was the Black Sea and Kuban, and part of Ciscaucasia. It was a large territory, the Crimean Khanate.
01:04:42
For starters, it was recognized as independent. Russian military bases were created in the Crimea, Kerch also passed to Russia.
01:04:49
Russia began to actively influence the choice of the Crimean Khans, to decide who will be the next Crimean Khan.
01:04:55
I’m not going to list all the Girays, you can read about them in textbooks, how they replaced each other. There were pro-Turkish Girays, then pro-Russian Girays.
01:05:03
Then again pro-Turkish, then pro-Russian brothers. That whole story with the Crimea lasted for a very long time.
01:05:11
It got to the point that Potemkin convinced Catherine that it wasn’t profitable for the empire to continue those half-measures. The empire suffered big losses, but without any result.
01:05:23
All those semi-independent states, all those recognized but incomprehensible Crimean khanates… Those issues had to be resolved. Crimea was ours.
01:05:33
At first, the decree of the empress on the inclusion of the Crimea and its adjacent territories into the Russian empire was accepted in secret. The decree was signed, Potemkin's hands were untied.
01:05:48
He was a very good diplomat, not only a brilliant manager. Potemkin held negotiations with the Crimean khans and persuaded each of them one by one to side with Russia.
01:05:58
When Potemkin decided that it was time to publish the edict, he did it in a very beautiful place, just imagine - Crimea, mountains, the top of the cliff, flags, tents, guardsmen.
01:06:12
There, on the top of the cliff, the entire Crimean elite gathered. Crimean nobility voluntarily swore allegiance to the empress. The Empress was represented by Potemkin.
01:06:22
Without a single drop of blood, Crimea became part of Russian. I’m talking about the moment of its transition from being independent to being part of the Russian empire.
01:06:37
By the way, there were many interesting moments during Russian-Turkish wars. Not only Crimea, but also Lebanon almost became ours.
01:06:43
You may not believe it, but it’s true. In 1773, the Lebanese Sheikh Yuzov, a Druze by nationality, turned to Russia for help. Apparently, he was fed up with the oppression from the Ottomans.
01:07:00
The Russians were nearby and after a month-long siege, Beirut fell and became part of Russia.
01:07:08
The Lebanese sheikh officially turned to Catherine II with a request to annex Lebanon to Russia as either a province or a vassal territory. But at that moment, Potemkin wasn’t next to Catherine.
01:07:25
So she was advised not to, because Lebanon was too far away from Russia and it would be very costly to support it economically. Very Britishwise.
01:07:37
Russia never formed colonies that were cut off from its territory, as Britain did. Catherine gave up on Lebanon, thanked for the trust, but gave up. I'll help you in any way I can, but nothing more.
01:07:51
So Lebanon didn’t become ours, it's a pity. The ongoing conflicts around Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria are a significant part of modern history.
01:08:03
This modern history could have taken a different turn. If there was, for example, the Lebanese-Syrian Horde Federal District.
01:08:10
If Catherine had made a different decision, who knows what might have happened. In 1774, in the village of Kuchuk-Kainarji, a peace treaty was signed, which recognized the independence of Crimea.
01:08:22
According to that treaty, Turkey promised Russia a lot, but did little. For example, it promised an indemnity for the atonement of its aggression.
01:08:31
After all, it was Turkey that attacked Russia, but didn’t pay in the end. That led to the next stage of the Russian-Turkish war, after which the Crimea, the Krasnodar region, the Northern Black Sea region became finally ours.
01:08:45
I cannot but note one thing. 10 years later, after the peace treaty was finally signed and Turkey recognized Crime’s entry into the Russian empire, there were no sanctions from the world community.
01:09:02
The only country that was against it was France. It expressed some dissatisfaction about it, but nothing serious.
01:09:10
Because of that, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, then he was called the President of the College of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Osterman,
01:09:16
the son of that very remarkable Andrey Osterman, whom we talked about a lot in previous lectures, summoned the French ambassador to St. Petersburg and reminded him.
01:09:28
That Empress Catherine, I quote: “Didn’t say anything about France seizing Corsica, and therefore expects the same impartial attitude of the French king to the annexation of Crimea to Russia.”
01:09:51
No matter how much we tried to observe the rules of honor in international relations in the 20th century,
01:09:58
looking as impartially as possible, although of course our blood was boiling, at the violation by the West of the agreements on NATO moving to the east,
01:10:08
at including Eastern European countries into NATO, at including the former republics of the Soviet Union into NATO, at the Novorizhsky partition of Yugoslavia,
01:10:19
that was followed by the death of tens of thousands of people, at the absolutely outrageous story in Kosovo, at the overthrow of legitimate leaders of states, we have never been repaid in kind.
01:10:35
No matter how legally justified were our actions, no matter what referenda were backing them up,
01:10:46
no matter how much we acted within the limits of today's, yesterday's and tomorrow's international law…
01:10:52
I'm talking about the episode with the Crimea, or about the episode that happened a little earlier when Russia supported the Ossetia people during Georgia’s attacks.
01:11:02
The same courtesy was never shown to us. Never. Why? Not because then the rules of honor worked and now they don’t. It's just that back then Russia was strong enough to enforce these laws.
01:11:16
In international relations everything’s fair. Everything’s simple. The strong one is always right.
01:11:21
If we want to be treated equally and impartially, as in the times of Catherine, when she told the French king how to behave, it’s very easy to achieve this.
01:11:38
We have to be as strong as Russia was in Catherine's time. That was a little digress. But I'm sure it’s all ahead for us.
01:11:51
What happened to the Crimean people after the annexation? Russia acted wisely, as always. All Crimean Tatars were given the same rights as Russian people had.
01:12:01
The peasants became peasants, but there was no serfdom in the Crimea, so they remained state peasants. The Crimean Tatar gentry received all the rights of the Russian gentry.
01:12:12
The landowners retained all their rights and their land holdings that were part of Russia. There were no restrictions in terms of religion, there was no persecution of the faithful.
01:12:27
Do what you want - pray, build mosques, whatever. The empire was for diversity.
01:12:33
The only thing was that the land that belonged to the Crimean Khan, as well as the land of those Crimean feudal lords who refused to become Russian citizens, but emigrated to Turkey, became Imperial property.
01:12:49
You abandoned it yourself. The land cannot be abandoned. 250 years later, right after Crimea’s annexation, the development of the territory began.
01:13:00
The Plans for the peninsula were drawn up. Geological surveys were conducted. Books were printed.
01:13:07
By the way, books were printed in Tatar, Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages for distribution in the Crimea among the local population. New buildings were built.
01:13:16
We’re used to the Greek names of the cities of the northern Black Sea region - Sevastopol, Simferopol, Kherson, Melitopol, Feodosia, Evpatoria.
01:13:25
Those cities acquired or restored old Greek names with a promise of more to come. I mean the restoration of the Byzantine Empire. That was Potemkin’s next step, the next step of the empress as well.
01:13:40
By the way, the construction of Sevastopol was also Potemkin’s concern. Sevastopol, in translation from Greek - a majestic city, a holy city, a city worthy of worship.
01:13:52
That’s what it actually became. The southern capital of Russia, at least its main southern naval base. It seemed to us that the Crimean issue was settled, but the Turks thought otherwise.
01:14:03
As usual, Turkey wanted a rematch. Just a few years later, in 1787, a new Turkish-Russian war began. Again Turkey attacked Russia. That war was called the Potemkin war.
01:14:19
The Turks were persuaded by the British, the French, they promised their help. The Austrians were on our side. As usual, everything went wrong.
01:14:29
At first, the Turks pressed the Austrians a little, but then Suvorov, Potemkin and Ushakov came into battle. The triumphant names that every schoolchild should remember.
01:14:46
Ochakov, Rybnik, Izmail. In 1791, on the territory of modern Romania, at the Russian base that was controlled by Potemkin, another peace treaty was signed.
01:15:04
According to that treaty the entire northern Black Sea region, the Crimea and Kuban were finally assigned to Russia. The border with the Ottoman Empire moved to the Dniester.
01:15:15
Our positions in the Caucasus and the Balkans were significantly strengthened. Russia’s authority as a world superpower skyrocketed.
01:15:24
By the way, on the eve of the signing of the treaty, Potemkin died. I’m sure that if Potemkin had survived, our borders would have moved even further
01:15:33
and many new wonderful lands would have become part of the Russian empire. Potemkin was a good negotiator. Let’s go back to Poland.
01:15:42
We can talk for a long time about the partition of Poland. About its first and second partitioning. I’d like to remind you of two things that are being now constantly forgotten.
01:15:50
None of the partitions of Poland was Russia’s initiative. Russia was absolutely satisfied with united Poland.
01:15:56
Poland, which was part of an allied bloc and was ruled by an adequate, pleasant monarch, Stanislav Poniatowski. Who by the way was a true Polish patriot.
01:16:07
Prussia and Austria wanted to divide Poland. They were literally drooling. What was Catherine to do?
01:16:14
Wait until Poland was divided and Russian lands that once became part of Poland together with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
01:16:22
lands inhabited by 99% of the Russian Orthodox population, Little Russians, Belorussians, would become Prussia’s lands? Austria’s lands? Lands of German states?
01:16:40
No, Catherine was a good diplomat and strategist. She drew the line very clearly in tough negotiations with her bosom friends the Germans.
01:16:55
She said that only lands that were historically considered Russian would be included in the Russian empire.
01:17:02
Our Grand Dukes, Ivan III, Ivan the Terrible, the great Moscow princes, called themselves the Sovereign of All Russia.
01:17:13
But that title that didn’t indicate the current state of affairs, because back then Russia was still young and small.
01:17:26
Of course, this was a claim for Kyiv, and Smolensk, and the lands of the original Russian western principalities, Little and White Russia.
01:17:39
Therefore, Catherine used to say that she didn’t take a single inch of the original Polish lands. That that sin laid on the Prussians and Austrians.
01:17:50
She only got back Russian lands and that's it. Catherine had an interesting attitude towards revolutionary France.
01:17:56
As you know, whoever is not a liberal in his youth has no heart, whoever is not a conservative in old age has no brains. By old age, Catherine became very conservative.
01:18:05
Her conservatism was fueled by all that French terror, execution of kings and queens and by crazy Jacobinism in France. Catherine didn’t like that.
01:18:17
She became one of the initiators of the very first anti-French coalition. She said that the weakening of monarchical power in France endangered all other monarchies.
01:18:27
She was ready to fight with all her might. She said that it was time to act, that it was time to take up arms. She renounced all the treaties concluded with France.
01:18:38
She banished from Russia all those suspected of sympathy for the Jacobins and the French Revolution. She didn't send them to jail, didn't send me to Siberia, she just told them to leave the country.
01:18:46
She issued a strict decree on the return of all Russians temporarily living in France. Throughout Europe she was known as the main enemy of revolutionary France.
01:18:58
She opposed the French rebels so actively that all the monarchs of Europe applauded her. She completely forgot what was happening at that moment with Poland. Poland fell out of the spotlight.
01:19:10
What did Catherine do next? Catherine who claimed to head the anti-French forces. What did she do? Nothing. Not a single Russian soldier under Catherine went to war with revolutionary France.
01:19:22
She used all possible excuses in order not to get involved in the war that the monarchs of Europe started against France. In words, she criticized the revolutionaries.
01:19:33
She said that that was the most correct approach, let them fight with each other. In the Caucasus, in Georgia, under Catherine, the famous Georgievsky treatise was issued.
01:19:42
Eastern Georgia became Russia’s closest ally and vassal. She turned to Catherine for help, for protection.
01:19:53
You have to understand that Georgia back then and Georgia today are two completely different things. Back then Georgia wasn’t a mono-ethnic state.
01:20:02
It was a territory inhabited by different peoples. The very territory of Georgia predetermined a certain division between those peoples, a certain historical fate and different ways of those peoples coming to those lands.
01:20:25
Therefore, Georgia became part of Russia voluntarily, gradually, as the pressure of the aggressors grew. The Turks and Persians were the aggressors. Why?
01:20:38
Because those weren’t only other states, but also a different culture, a different religion. Those facts were very important at that time.
01:20:47
They had to be punished. Tbilisi had to be burned. That was exactly what happened. All that pushed the Georgian principalities and kingdoms towards their co-religionists, towards Russia.
01:21:00
Of course, we treated the Georgians as brothers, as close relatives. After the Shah of Persia invaded Georgia in 1795 and burned Tbilisi,
01:21:12
and by that time Eastern Georgia was already officially Catherine’s vassal, in accordance with our allied obligations, troops were sent to fight Persia.
01:21:22
Our troops stormed Derbent, crushed all Persians that were on the territory of modern Azerbaijan, occupied Baku and were ready to invade Persia.
01:21:33
It was assumed that the brother of that last unpleasant Catherine's minion Platon Zubov, Valerian Zubov,
01:21:42
the commander of those troops of 20,000 soldiers, was to invade Persia and go towards Istanbul. Towards Constantinople.
01:21:56
Meanwhile, from the north, from the Balkans, Suvorov would attack Constantinople.
01:22:02
Thus, the Turks would be surrounded on both sides and over Constantinople, over St. Sophia, an Orthodox cross would be erected.
01:22:09
All these plans weren’t meant to be, because Catherine died. Paul immediately canceled the Persian campaign, Valerian Zubov was recalled.
01:22:17
By the way, he was the most decent of all the Zubov brothers. A real combat officer. The expeditionary force was disbanded and our troops were withdrawn from Transcaucasia.
01:22:27
In the Far East Chukotka finally officially became part of Russia under Catherine. But on special terms. The Chukchi were exempted from all types of tax for a long period, for 10 years if I’m not mistaking.
01:22:40
Later they paid an absolutely symbolic tax. Chukchi foremen were given special imperial signs, which they placed everywhere on the coast.
01:22:48
I don’t know exactly what they looked like, maybe some stones or bronze stars, eagles. It wasn’t done by chance.
01:22:55
English and French ships had already begun to sail along the coast, keeping an eye on the northern part of Russia. Therefore, there were signs right on the shore - this is Russian land.
01:23:05
The Chukchi were also told to live as they did before. If there were any problems, they would be protected. The self-government on the territory of Chukotka remained the same until the 1930s.
01:23:18
Those moments are shown in the film “Chief of Chukotka”, when reindeer-breeding collective farms and state farms began to appear there, and until that moment the Chukchi lived there.
01:23:28
But if there were problems, the Chukchi turned to senior comrades and they helped them. That was the imperial approach. We didn’t interfere in internal affairs.
01:23:35
The colonization of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska also began under Catherine II. It ended under Paul and Alexander the First, who left us those lands.
01:23:58
It must be said that Catherine's historiography was not as lucky as it seems. Sure, in imperial times she was Catherine the Great. However, the Soviet historiography removed the word "great".
01:24:09
And she became Catherine II. At the same time, she was considered a rather successful empress, but a cruel serf-owner.
01:24:19
The Saltychikha case was presented as a strange exception, and not as a characteristic of her reign. She was a serf-owner who ruthlessly suppressed the Pugachev uprising.
01:24:31
You know, just as the liberals say that the Red Army defeated Hitler in spite of Zhukov, Stalin and the Soviet regime,
01:24:43
it is said that the outstanding Catherine’s generals - Suvorov, Ushakov, Rumyantsev, Kutuzov defended the national interests of our country in spite of Catherine’s orders.
01:25:04
They won wars, despite constant intrigues and opposition at court. Pushkin called her a Tartuffe in a skirt.
01:25:13
Hinting that she was hypocritical and that her liberal-democratic ideas that she wrote about to the French enlighteners didn’t correlate with her actual deeds.
01:25:28
The last nail in Catherine’s reputation was the sale of Alaska. Our wonderful group "Lyube" sang: “Catherine, you were wrong”.
01:25:39
And now the vast majority of our people are sure that Catherine sold Alaska to America. Let's see what happened during the 34 years of Catherine's reign.
01:25:53
I'll start with the number itself - 34. It’s a colossal term. She ruled longer than anyone who ruled in modern times. It’s much longer than Stalin, twice as long as Brezhnev, half of the Soviet Union’s existence.
01:26:09
And Catherine came to power as a mature person, she was already 33. Under Catherine, the Russian empire declared by Peter finally fully developed as a stable and great power.
01:26:26
When we talk about empire, it’s important to stress the following. The concept of empire and the concept of monarchy are like both red and round. These are completely different things.
01:26:37
An empire can be a republic, and a constitutional monarchy, even a Jamahiriya, it doesn’t matter.
01:26:44
An empire is a form of cohabitation of a multinational and multi-confessional people on a vast territory. It’s a form of a dormitory.
01:26:55
At the same time, several important principles are necessary for the empire’s existence. The first one. Many peoples, ethnic groups and many religions. The second one. Large territory.
01:27:06
The third one. An over the top idea, an attractive ideology and an attractive cultural model. It’s all also very important. All these principles came together under Catherine.
01:27:20
The empire under Catherine became still objectively gaseous, that is, it acquired an impulse for constant self-expansion.
01:27:28
Russia is located in a difficult place, not on an island, not on a separate continent, it’s not protected by two oceans like the United States, not protected by seas like England.
01:27:40
It’s not protected by mountains like Spain. Russia constantly stands in the way of its militant neighbors.
01:27:48
Objectively, the only way to keep up, being at the crossroads of that movement, is to constantly build giant walls. We tried to do that.
01:27:59
Ivan the Third, Ivan the Terrible tried to defend themselves from the Crimean Tatars, the Horde, they built forts in Kronstadt, defending themselves from the British and the Swedes.
01:28:10
That required enormous resources. Therefore, it turned out that the only form of self-defense of the Russian empire is a constant gaseous expansion with friendly inclusion
01:28:21
and absorption of neighbors, whom we offered an interesting and beneficial form of existence. The elites integrated even with more rights than the indigenous elites had.
01:28:35
Let’s go back to Catherine. She declared herself a 100% successor to Peter’s deeds. Just like Stalin and all other leaders declared themselves Lenin’s successor.
01:28:47
As Alexander the First later said: “Under my rule, everything will be like it was under my grandmother Catherine.” And Catherine considered herself a follower of the ideas of Peter the Great.
01:28:58
An incredible monument, the Bronze Horseman, erected by her in St. Petersburg, was an excellent evidence of that approach. It was a Monument in Peter’s honor with the inscription:
01:29:08
"To Peter the First from Catherine the Second". From second to first. There was a declaration of direct continuity in that brief but poetic phrase.
01:29:21
And now I’ll list the main results of Catherine's reign. Firstly, the growth of the country. Russia had grown incredibly in terms of area.
01:29:30
There was the entry of the easternmost territories including Chukotka and the full demarcation of the border with China.
01:29:36
In the south, in the Caucasus region, there was a voluntary entry of Georgia and the conquest of the future of Azerbaijan, its reconquest from Persia.
01:29:46
In the west it was the partial acquisition of Swedish territories. As a result of several traditional Swedish aggressions against Russia, Sweden each time lost part of its lands.
01:29:58
And there was also the absorption of Lithuania, western Belarus and western Ukraine and a small part of the Polish lands. The final absorption of Courland.
01:30:08
And finally, the most important thing. In the south-west, the solution to the centuries-old problem of Russia - the Crimea, the Kuban, the modern Novorossia, the entire Black Sea region.
01:30:19
The richest, most fertile lands, which have always caused a terrible headache for Russia. These lands were seized by Catherine almost without a single shot.
01:30:34
It was different with Turkey, because the Turks attacked us. According to various estimates, Catherine took over a country with a population from 20 to 24 million people.
01:30:48
By the end of her reign, the population exceeded 37 million. It almost doubled. Russia became the most populated country in Europe.
01:30:58
To a certain extent, that growth was caused by the annexation of new territories, but that wasn’t all. The population of the original Central Russian lands also grew.
01:31:08
In comparison to Peter. I think we’ll be lucky enough to talk about Peter in a separate lecture.
01:31:15
But unfortunately, by the end of Peter's reign, the population of Russia was significantly reduced due to many circumstances. Under Catherine, it almost doubled.
01:31:26
We’re talking about the fact that under Catherine the gentry reached the maximum of their rights and privileges. It really was so.
01:31:33
The liberties of the gentry, declared and legalized by her husband Peter the Third, was still in effect under Catherine. And then the gentry’s privileges only expanded.
01:31:42
The gentry were originally service people who were required to serve in the army. Peter the Great made that service lifelong. Later it was limited to 25 years.
01:31:52
Peter the Third and Catherine abolished compulsory military service and the gentry could do whatever they wanted. Civil service, management of estates, sciences, whatever.
01:32:02
And only in 1874, with the introduction of universal military service, the gentry again lost the right not to serve in the army.
01:32:13
They began to serve in the army on a par with other social classes of the Russian Empire. The strengthening of the entire administration system of the empire was undoubtedly Catherine’s merit.
01:32:26
A good, well-thought-out and reform of the administrative-territorial structure that functions even today.
01:32:33
Today we have federal districts, regions, under Catherine there was a Governor-General, provinces, counties, and districts and quarters in cities. Not much has changed.
01:32:48
It wasn’t a bad idea. It all led to the growth of geopolitical power and authority of our country. Turning it into one of the greatest powers of that era.
01:32:57
The cultural policy is another very important feature of a true empire. The opening of the Hermitage, the first public library, the patronage of art, the opening of the Academy of Sciences,
01:33:07
the Academy of Arts, the creation of educational institutions, the successful policy in the field of public health.
01:33:14
Let me remind you once again that Russia was the first in the world to conduct an effective smallpox vaccination campaign. Of course, let’s not idealize.
01:33:22
There were also many problems, primarily in terms of the economy. Catherine wasn’t a great economist. To be frank, there were no economists in Russia at that time, neither good nor bad.
01:33:32
Unfortunately, Russia lagged behind there. The preservation of serfdom didn’t allow developing the industry. Catherine didn’t interfere with entrepreneurship, but she didn’t help much either.
01:33:43
She didn't really believe in business. Moreover, she didn’t approve of the gentry doing business. She believed that the gentry were supposed to serve the state.
01:33:51
Catherine didn’t understand the principles of industrialization and mechanization.
01:33:55
She didn’t really believe in machines, she believed that factories, such as in England, with large complex mechanisms were unnatural, that they deprived people of work.
01:34:05
Of course, that was an outdated point of view, which doesn’t speak of Catherine as a supporter of high technologies. Another problem was the complete imbalance of the financial system.
01:34:14
Catherine, following Peter, first canceled, then reintroduced paper money, bank notes. It was a reasonable and progressive measure.
01:34:23
It revived trade, simplified calculations, but unfortunately Catherine didn’t understand at all what inflation was. Moreover, we began to understand what inflation was only after 1991.
01:34:37
In Strugatskys book “Prisoners of Power” an observer that was abandoned on the island asks the astronaut who arrived from the communist far away:
01:34:47
“Do you even understand what inflation is?” It seems that the Strugatskys themselves didn’t really understand what it was. It was something bourgeois and terrible.
01:34:56
Catherine also didn’t understand what inflation was, that’s why a lot of printed money was produced. Prices were rising, GDP growth and production goods couldn’t keep up with the emergence of new banknotes.
01:35:08
There were a lot of problems. Having lifted the ban on the export of grain introduced under Elizabeth and turning on the printing press, Catherine noticed the fact that during the years of her reign the price of bread increased almost 10 times.
01:35:21
It was profitable to sell bread abroad, and not profitable to sell it within the country. Hence the price increased non-stop. And this’s the main product of consumption, grain.
01:35:32
Everything was made from it. Her reforms. Both the war and the fleet required expenses. Therefore, the public debt grew constantly under Catherine.
01:35:41
By the end of her reign, it had reached a huge sum. More than 200 million rubles. Fortunately, That debt was mostly domestic.
01:35:50
Catherine understood that money should be borrowed within the state, also from the gentry. That one shouldn’t borrow from abroad.
01:35:57
And finally, her minions, relatives, closest associates. “The old lady was sweet and kind,” as Pushkin wrote. She spared no money for her loved ones.
01:36:07
She spent money on estates, serfs. Especially on her minions. It was a heavy burden on the economy and the finances of the country.
01:36:16
These distortions, which were not only objective, but also subjective, had very harsh side effects. Money had to be taken from somewhere, and the screws were tightened up.
01:36:27
The gentry worshipped Catherine. Peasants, workers – hated her, they didn’t understand and feared her. The terrible Pugachevism was a direct result of such an unfair, wrong and insane economic policy.
01:36:42
Catherine drew the right conclusions from it, but only in terms of administrative reform and in terms of increasing the rights of local self-government. No economic conclusions were drawn.
01:36:52
However, big things are always seen from a distance. There were far more pluses in her reign than minuses.
01:36:57
This is confirmed by similar opinions of historians of completely different beliefs. I’ll cite several opinions of historians and publicists of the 19th century, who didn’t agree on anything, except for assessing Catherine's actions.
01:37:16
An outspoken liberal, one of the most vehement critics of the autocracy, an ultra-Westernist, Chaadaev wrote:
01:37:24
“The reign of Catherine II was of such a national character that no nation has ever been identified to such an extent with its government as the Russian people in these victories years”.
01:37:39
Slavophil, Khomyakov compared the reign of Catherine II and her grandson Alexander: “Under Catherine, Russia existed only for Russia.
01:37:52
But under Alexander, it becomes some kind of service force for Europe. Khomyakov stressed that Catherine's policy was completely pragmatic.
01:38:03
Good was what was good for Russia. Alexander tried to create a general welfare, a system of checks and balances in Europe. That didn’t appeal to our national interests.
01:38:13
I’ll quote Decembrist Bestuzhev: “Catherine II encouraged enlightenment, multiplied schools, founded the Russian academy and with the same dip pen with which she decided the fate of the state, wrote Russian poetry.
01:38:31
By her own example, she set her subjects up for competition. Catherine’s merits of education are incalculable. All of our best writers appeared under her rule”.
01:38:42
In a sense, Catherine really set the tone for Russian literature. Thanks to her notes, tales and plays. They may not have been the most talented, she treated them with irony.
01:38:54
She wrote: "My next unsuccessful Shakespeare’s imitation." Without them, there would be no Pushkin's Boris Godunov. Catherine wasn’t born a genius.
01:39:03
She didn’t have those fantastic personal qualities that we attribute to Bonaparte, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar. She was a self-educated person. Such a typical self-made Queen.
01:39:16
Klyuchevsky wrote interestingly about the Empress’s mind: “Catherine didn’t impress with either the depth or brilliance of her mind.
01:39:23
Her mind wasn’t particularly deep, but flexible and cautious, quick-witted. Such a smart mind that knew its place and didn’t prick the eyes of others.
01:39:35
Catherine knew how to be smart to the point and in moderation. An interesting observation. She was smart, but to the point and in moderation.
01:39:44
I doubt that we’ll ever meet a woman in history who would manage a huge state so cleverly. Last time I promised to tell you a little about Catherine's personal qualities.
01:39:58
About her lifestyle that formed her ability to govern the state. She was well aware that the most effective orders and instructions were those that her subordinates sincerely wanted to carry out.
01:40:13
Carry out with zeal. Therefore, before deciding something, before ordering something, she carefully calculated how her instructions would be perceived by her subordinates.
01:40:27
She created a system of motivation for their execution. Sometimes she even provoked her subordinates, acted as if it was their idea in the first place.
01:40:37
It was Potemkin who wanted to annex the Crimea and Novorossia. It was him. Then she entrusted it to him.
01:40:44
Thus, she achieved the most sincere zeal of her subordinates in fulfilling her wishes and commands. She was a workaholic.
01:40:54
Catherine throughout her life got up at 6 am in the summer and in the warm season. In winter or in old age, she could get up at 7-8 in the morning.
01:41:07
She never had breakfast. For breakfast she drank strong coffee. Approximately 100 g per cup. Coffee was expensive, it was a rare drink, so her servants never threw away what was left.
01:41:20
They left it to dry, then took it home. It could be brewed many more times. A standard portion of strong espresso is this much coffee per cup. And 100 g is way more.
01:41:31
She was on a diet all the time. She worried about her lifestyle. For breakfast, she was traditionally served crisp bread with sugar, or jam, but she never ate it.
01:41:43
She fed it to her dogs, or simply gave it to the servants. Only coffee. Usually she dined at one or two pm, before that she worked. From 6 in the morning and until two o’clock she worked.
01:41:58
Reports, meetings, documents. Only coffee. Her lunch was very short. It wasn’t a traditional Russian meal that lasted for two hours and then was followed by another two hours of sleep as in pre-Petrine times.
01:42:12
No. Lunch lasted an hour tops. It was always very simple. The only delicacy that Catherine allowed herself was fruit jelly. Usually she ate boiled beef, cucumbers, vegetables.
01:42:23
Very healthy food. She worked until six o’clock, with a break for fitness. I’ll talk about that separately. She had a light dinner in the evening. Then a game of cards, some conversations.
01:42:40
In her advanced years she was very fond of knitting. Someone read to her outloud, some reports or some clever literature. She wasn’t into fiction. She liked classics.
01:42:50
At the same time, she knitted some absurdities, for example, clothes for her dogs or some things for her grandchildren when she became a grandmother.
01:42:59
She mocked herself all the time. She said that she had a French tutor that taught her to knit in Germany, after all, no one thought that she would become a queen, just a housewife.
01:43:08
She went to bed at 10 pm. If Grigory Orlov or Potemkin suddenly visited her, she could go to bed later. Because again she had to get up early in the morning. Her working day began at 6 am.
01:43:18
She was always very patient with criticism. She loved when people argued with her, if they were arguing to the point. And her subordinates liked it.
01:43:26
For some time, the future Minister of Justice, our great poet Gavrila Derzhavin worked as her secretary of state for her. Derzhavin once loudly argued with her, he even raised his voice.
01:43:40
She spoke quietly, and he shouted, while proving his point. In the end, Catherine couldn’t stand it. She rang the bell and one of her servants came in.
01:43:48
She asked him to sit next to her, she was afraid that her secretary of state would attack. She treated it with tolerant irony.
01:43:59
She relaxed when she was horseback riding. She could easily march 10-15 km a day. It was some sort of sport. I guess that's it.
01:44:09
It’s pretty interesting. She had such a calm, slow paced life, such a busy schedule, and she still managed to do a lot.
01:44:17
I’m talking about Novorossia, Poland, the war with Sweden, the war with Persia, the East, the Crimean Khanate and many intrigues of big European politicians. Success everywhere.
01:44:30
Amazing. What Catherine’s personal qualities are important for us from the state’s point of view? Of course, her patriotism. It wasn’t a feeling of love for native birch trees.
01:44:43
They weren’t her birch trees, she was from Germany after all. It was a sincere feeling that she had a chance to rule a huge, unusual, very original country.
01:44:55
And her duty as a ruler was to do everything so that that country would live happily. Plus, her glory depended on the glory of her country. She understood that like no one else.
01:45:06
That’s why Catherine became the most Russian ruler on the throne. She spoke Russian everywhere. She made Russian dresses fashionable at court.
01:45:19
Catherine was the first to wear a kokoshnik. Peter the First eradicated everything Russian, Catherine returned the Russian dress.
01:45:28
Even military uniform dresses, which she designed for court ladies, were sewn exclusively from Russian materials. Of course, Catherine wasn’t a believer, most likely she was an agnostic.
01:45:43
But at the same time she understood where she lived. She understood how important the Orthodox faith was for her subjects.
01:45:52
Therefore, she carefully followed all the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. Once again she knew the Russian language better than all her subjects, both orally and in writing.
01:46:04
When she was 15, she studied Russian all night long sitting near an open window and fell seriously ill. She almost died. She easily communicated in Russian with people of all social classes.
01:46:17
She wrote a lot, not only plays and magazine articles. She also became the first children's writer in our history.
01:46:24
She wrote cautionary tales and even chapters of textbooks for her grandchildren. Children's literature also appeared under Catherine.
01:46:38
The next very important feature for any ruler, and here she sets an example for us - an incredible ability to understand people. It’s probably an innate quality, but it has to be developed.
01:46:50
And Catherine knew how to work on herself like no one else. Her own words on this subject: “Study people, try to use them without trusting them completely.
01:47:03
Look for good qualities, even if there’s only one. Most of the time it’s hidden somewhere in the distance. Virtue doesn’t show itself, it’s not greedy, it doesn’t fuss and allows you to forget about itself.
01:47:19
Catherine was an unprecedented personnel genius. She easily put up with people’s shortcomings, because she saw their main qualities.
01:47:29
She was surrounded by different people, but she knew how to entrust important things to truly right people, professionals in their field. Catherine changed the attitude towards the sovereign.
01:47:43
If earlier people were afraid of the sovereign, they feared him greatly, Catherine tried to be kind like the sun. She wanted people to strive to get closer to her.
01:48:01
After all, people used to say that one should stay away from the sovereign, otherwise he would burn him. Catherine didn’t want to burn anyone, she wanted to praise.
01:48:09
People wanted to be around her, dreamed of receiving some kind of assignment, dreamed of showing their worth. She always sought to praise publicly, to scold in private.
01:48:23
She wrote: “I scold whispering, but I reward loudly and in front of everyone.” By the way, she widely practiced the material form of stimulation.
01:48:32
We say that the favorites got rich. But everyone who ensured success under Catherine - Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Ushakov, the civil administration of Bezborodko and so on -
01:48:44
they all received very high rewards for their successes. And Rumyantsev, and Suvorov, and Ushakov were all poor nobles.
01:48:53
By the end of their lives, they not only became admirals and field marshals with dozens of medals, but very rich people. Because Catherine appreciated talented people.
01:49:05
By the way, Stalin, who’s often presented as a great recruiting specialist, despite the slogan “cadres are the key to everything” and despite tons of correct declarations, constantly made personnel mistakes.
01:49:19
His so-called animal instinct let him down all the time. He could learn something from Catherine here. It's one thing to say and another to do.
01:49:30
In addition to the ability to understand people, to make the right bets on the right people, Catherine also knew how to communicate with people.
01:49:38
She knew how to listen carefully and draw her own conclusions, knew how to be or seem supportive and carefree. I’d like to point out another her amazing quality.
01:49:48
She was always cheerful with her subjects. It seemed to them that she was always in a good mood, that nothing could anger her and piss her off, nothing and no one.
01:50:00
She always talked with her subjects smiling, it seemed to them that she was always happy. It’s hard for me to say what it cost her and whether it was natural for her.
01:50:14
But this is a very rare and amazing quality. By the way, Diderot, from whom Catherine bought his famous library, appointing him a life-long curator with a salary paid for many years in advance,
01:50:27
spent several months in St. Petersburg and often talked with her. Then he gave her very flattering references.
01:50:32
He said that she had inimitable firmness in her thoughts, an ease in her expressions, incredible knowledge of the matter, incredible knowledge of everyday life.
01:50:41
There wasn’t a single matter that wasn’t aware of. This wasn’t surprising, since Diderot didn’t manage anything and anyone in his life except for his wife.
01:50:48
He was stunned by Catherine's level of competence. Her outward democracy , her meetings with Diderot, her well-known correspondence with Voltaire
01:50:59
and other French European Enlighteners – this also speaks of her remarkable talent for conducting an information campaign. Let me give you another example of her information campaign.
01:51:09
Somewhere at the turn of the late 80s and early 90s, in the midst of another war with Turkey during Potemkin's lifetime,
01:51:18
there was a threat that the British Empire would get involved in the war with all its colossal power, that it would fight on Turkey’s side.
01:51:25
There was a high risk of that. Britain pressed, Britain demanded Russia to stop. Even Petersburg was afraid.
01:51:32
Potemkin himself expressed concerns about seeking a compromise. But only Catherine saw the weakness of the British system of government.
01:51:42
And that weakness was the democracy of its system of government. William Pitt was the Prime Minister of Britain.
01:51:48
Catherine, through our ambassador Vorontsov, ordered to fund the opposition British Whig Party so they would stage a stunt in the Parliament and proclaim that they don’t want a war with Russia.
01:52:02
And huge funds were spent on organizing a large-scale pr-campaign in the British press. The British society was electrified to such an extent that posters were hung out with the slogan
01:52:17
"We won’t let you fight with Russia." All the newspapers wrote that a war with Russia would destroy the British economy,
01:52:23
that trading with Russia was too profitable, that they shouldn’t start a war over the Turks for the sake of a piece of land. Either Crimea or Bessarabia, no one knew exactly where it was.
01:52:31
British interests lay in the sphere of profitable trade with Russia. Bit pursued his personal interests, getting involved in that war. The information campaign couldn’t have worked better.
01:52:42
The British government abandoned the plans for military pressure on Russia. I think, Catherine, smiling once again, realized how much more efficient the absolute monarchy was in those conditions
01:52:56
than such a power dependent on capital. Catherine’s most important quality was the ability to separate the desired from the possible. In other words, her pragmatism.
01:53:04
The ability to maneuver while remaining consistent and not getting carried away with ideas to the detriment reality. We constantly reproach her for not freeing the serfs.
01:53:14
100 years will pass and her great-great-great-grandson Alexander II, signing the manifesto on the liberation of the peasants, which not only “matured”,
01:53:23
but already “overmatured” a thousand times, will triple the protection of the Winter Palace. Will spend his night not in his bedroom, fearing an assassination attempt the day the manifesto is published.
01:53:33
Relief crew with security will be on duty in the Winter Palace, which will be able to evacuate the emperor and the imperial family in case of unrest.
01:53:42
To such an extent, the Emperor of All Russia, the absolute monarch, was afraid of his own company and was afraid of a noble conspiracy, when he freed the peasants.
01:53:54
Did Catherine not understand that? She understood better than anyone else. First of all, thanks to her unfortunate spouse’s fate,
01:54:03
who believed that absolute monarchy meant that he could do whatever he wanted. By the way, his son Paul I didn’t understand it either and paid for it.
01:54:13
Once again, I’d like to note that she was very accessible, very democratic. She didn’t have any excess personal protection. She liked to walk with companions.
01:54:23
The story that Pushkin describes in The Captain's Daughter, when Masha, walking in the park near the imperial residence, accidentally meets Catherine on a bench ...
01:54:33
There were dozens of such cases. I’m sure Pushkin heard of them. It was a possible situation. She tried to boost her subjects’ ego in every possible way.
01:54:44
For example, when saying goodbye after dinner or after a small reception when she was the first to go to bed, she forbade people to stand up.
01:54:56
The Empress stands up and leaves. A lady. And the men continue to play cards. Please sit down, don't get up. Admiral Prince of Nassau, an honored naval officer in the Russian service,
01:55:07
after some unsuccessful naval battle, where he lost several ships, not only resigned, but also sent all his medals to Catherine, starting with the order of St. Andrew the First-Called, St. George.
01:55:22
He declined his admiral's rank and all his awards and hung his head with shame. Catherine returned all the medals back to him and wrote:
01:55:31
“Sure, you failed, my dear admiral, but I remember all your seven victories. They redeem you. You will be glorious once again." She understood the mistakes and failures of her subjects.
01:55:44
Foreign policy. Conducting the most active and, as our opponents say, aggressive, and we call it fair and effective, foreign policy, including the annexation of new territories to the empire,
01:55:58
Catherine never found herself in international isolation. She was incredibly adept at combining international alliances.
01:56:11
She always showed miracles of diplomatic equilibristic in any conflict and found the right allies. She was never alone.
01:56:20
There was no such case with the division of the Commonwealth, with the war with Persia, with the difficult history of the annexation of Crimea, the war with Sweden.
01:56:29
Catherine was never in international isolation. On the opposite, the majority was always on her side. As for the so-called Catherine's conservatism and reactionism at the end of her reign…
01:56:44
I recently read what Boris Akunin wrote. It’s a very standardized opinion that in her youth Catherine was a liberal, and in her old age she became a terrible reactionary, a defender of the autocracy.
01:56:57
All the powder of liberalism was brushed off from her, and after the French Revolution Catherine, allegedly, began to stifle all freedoms. Novikov, Radishchev.
01:57:07
She began to stifle non-systemic opposition. It’s not entirely true. I'll start with the fact that after the storming of the Bastille, there was no rise in reaction in Russia.
01:57:15
In 1789, the French ambassador wrote to Paris with bewilderment: “In St. Petersburg, not only Russians celebrate the fall of the Bastille, but also all foreigners living in St. Petersburg:
01:57:30
the Germans, the Swedes, the Poles. They drink champagne, congratulate and hug each other. France is now free." First, all the news was published in the St. Petersburg newspapers.
01:57:40
A declaration of the rights of the citizen that was adopted by the revolutionary convention was even published in the newspapers.
01:57:47
I read that a special exhibition of revolutionary literature brought from France was organized in one of the military educational institutions. Including Jacobin literature.
01:57:55
You do understand that everyone who studied at that military educational institution knew the French language back then? Afterwards there was a free discussion about the contents of those books.
01:58:04
The Marseillaise was performed without words, but the music was played in the presence of Empress Catherine. What was the reaction?
01:58:12
Those magazines and newspapers that published news about revolutionary France were not subjected to any persecution. Here I must say, France was Russia's main geopolitical opponent.
01:58:24
All the troubles in France played into Catherine's hands. Catherine quite frankly wrote in correspondence with one of her long-term friends, I quote:
01:58:34
“I’m constantly thinking about how to turn France, Austria, Prussia and England against each other so that they are busy.” She incited them to fight against revolutionary France.
01:58:46
They have to be busy and not pay attention to me, because I have some unfinished business. Unfinished business in Catherine’s understanding was
01:58:55
- to deal with Poland and to carry out the Greek project, which would have been impossible to implement if France had opposed it.
01:59:04
It was then, during the revolution in France, that amazing window of opportunity opened, which, according to Catherine, would have made it possible to fulfill the age-old Russian dream
01:59:15
- to occupy Constantinople and unite the third and the second Rome. Let me remind you that grandson Konstantin was named so to become a Greek emperor in union with Russia.
01:59:29
He even learned Greek as a child. Unfortunately, that opportunity wasn’t taken for two reasons: Potemkin’s early death and Catherine’s sudden death.
01:59:39
One could have done it afterwards. I don't see why it wasn’t possible. Europe was busy fighting revolutionary France, it definitely had no time for Turkey and Constantinople.
01:59:50
Catherine understood that perfectly. After the execution of the king and queen in France, Catherine understood the danger of radical revolutionary ideas.
02:00:01
The screws were slowly tightening up. But even in that respect, she understood the main thing. That it was necessary to fight not with the consequences, but with the causes.
02:00:12
The causes were the ideas. Her reaction to the book published in a small edition by Radishchev "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow"
02:00:22
was the reaction to the danger of an idea that could undermine the autocracy. There is a story about her son Paul who was a less diplomatic person than his mother.
02:00:34
As if they were discussing the events in revolutionary Paris and Paul said: “Mom, I don’t understand why they are messing around with the rebels. They all must be shot with cannons”.
02:00:47
Catherine sighed: “Son, don’t you understand that guns cannot defeat ideas? If you don’t understand this, a sad fate awaits you.”
02:00:57
In the midst of revolutionary events in France after the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobin dictatorship, she wrote to Baron Grimm: “I feel that France can return its great power.
02:01:12
It looks like it will become an even stronger power than before. It can happen in the near future, but only under one condition.”
02:01:19
It’s as if she felt that that window of opportunity with the Greek project was closing.
02:01:23
“If a brave, daring, bright and powerful person appears in France, who will come, restore order and lead the country.” When she wrote that, young Napoleon was probably about 25 years old.
02:01:38
But he was already a brigadier general. A few years later he would lead a campaign in Italy, and then in Egypt. Catherine's prophetic words will come true.
02:01:47
Let's sum up. Catherine's policy was pragmatic, consistent, firm and always with excellent information support. She was able to understand the deep nature of power.
02:01:58
The autocratic imperial power, especially in Russia, was not an opportunity to realize one's desires, the divine right of kings, one’s desire to dictate one's will uncontrollably.
02:02:09
It was a very subtle balancing mechanism, accounting for checks and balances. Autocracy in Russia was an operator console.
02:02:17
it was the ability to conjoin the different interests of different groups of elites and balance on those interests.
02:02:25
Paul didn’t understand that, he tried to act like his father. He didn’t rule for long, although the he was a bright man. We’ll talk about that separately. He ruled for 4 years.
02:02:35
One can talk endlessly about Catherine's character and behavior. But I’d like to say a few words about what kind of grandmother she was.
02:02:45
It seems to me that it’s also very important, because we always talk about the fact that in her old age she was a reactionary. We say that the young Platon Zubov was old enough to be her grandchildren.
02:02:55
The truth is, she was a very wise and intelligent grandmother. She didn’t have a good relationship with her son, but she sincerely loved her grandchildren.
02:03:04
She not only wrote fairy tales for them and made a schedule of lessons, but also systematically taught them to be educated and enlightened rulers of Russia.
02:03:15
She was engaged in their education and upbringing every day. If you read Catherine's instructions to those teachers who taught Alexander and Konstantin,
02:03:25
you’ll see that those were very clever instructions, exemplary pedagogy. She ordered that her grandchildren should be raised in Spartan conditions.
02:03:33
That in the rooms where they lived, it should always be cold, ideally 15-16 degrees. They had to be quenched. They had to sleep in a cold, well-ventilated room. On hard mattresses.
02:03:45
No feather beds, no soft pillows and blankets. Just constant bathing in cold water, healthy food, no sweets and no bread. And there had to be not much food.
02:03:57
She may not have understood industry on a large scale, but she understood how important it was to develop children's interest in mechanics, in all sorts of technical innovations.
02:04:09
The first typewriter that appeared in Russia, was ordered by Catherine from abroad for her beloved grandson Alexander. So that he would master typing, not only writing by hand.
02:04:24
Catherine invented children's overalls. The one in which all our children and grandchildren wear and was very proud of it. She sewed those overalls for her grandchildren.
02:04:35
When she found out that the Swedish king was expecting a child, she sent him patterns with a letter, where she told that these clothes were very warm
02:04:42
and good for the northern climate, that in cold weather children wouldn’t catch a cold in it.
02:04:46
She perfectly understood that there was the concept of education, and the concept of willpower. She taught her grandchildren to think freely.
02:04:57
Alexander’s main teacher was the Swiss La Harpe. He was an educated man and an ardent Republican. To such an extent that, being a nobleman, he officially abandoned the prefix “de”.
02:05:08
He was actually De La Harpe. He said “de” was unfair, that all people were born equal. That kind of person raised Alexander. She tried hard to instill masculinity in her children, courage.
02:05:20
After the occupation of Moscow by Napoleon in September 1812, the whole court demanded that Alexander compromised.
02:05:30
People said that Napoleon wouldn’t conquer Russia, that we should give him half of Poland, pay him a small contribution. Anything for Bonaparte to withdraw his troops from Moscow.
02:05:44
Alexander replied that we would fight to the end. That he would rather be the king of Kamchatka than allow a foreigner to dictate the terms of peace to him.
02:06:01
That unexpected decisiveness that appeared in the young emperor was the result of Catherine’s right upbringing.
02:06:11
All the triumphs of the 19th century - the great Russian literature, theater, art, all military and political triumphs, our liberation of Europe, our troops in Paris,
02:06:25
the Congress of Vienna, Russia being the gendarme of Europe, none of this would ever have happened if the foundation of those victories had not been laid by Catherine.
02:06:35
True, Peter gave the empire the development thrust. This frigate, which carried Russia at full sail from victory to victory.
02:06:44
But Catherine equipped that vessel and gave it commands. All the brilliant generals and heroes of 1812, starting from Kutuzov and Bagration, were all officers brought up by Catherine's eagles.
02:07:00
In conclusion, I’d like to say the most important thing. Catherine’s main advantage was that she didn’t tear herself away from the country.
02:07:08
She perfectly understood that with all her super vague rights to the throne, she had only one path - to constantly prove her effectiveness to Russian society.
02:07:22
Only that way could she avoid the fate of False Dmitry, only that way could she really remain an effective and beloved empress for centuries.
02:07:32
She realized that her greatness was the greatness of her country, her new homeland. I’ll end our long story with Catherine’s own words from her special notebook:
02:07:46
“I wish only well for the country to which the Lord has brought me. He is my witness. For the glory of this country is my glory.”
02:07:57
Well said. See you soon.

Description:

Все лекции Владимира Мединского вы можете послушать и посмотреть с помощью мобильного приложения "Лектория Достоевский": • Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.historic.app • App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9/id1513138478 Мобильное приложение сохраняет историю просмотров и имеет другие удобные функции. Дорогие друзья! Для вашего удобства мы подготовили обобщенный рассказ об эпохе правления Екатерины II – «Империя расширяется». Чего хотела и чего смогла добиться Екатерина во внутренней политике? Как менялась роль дворянства как станового хребта Российской империи? Как Екатерина смогла добиться невозможного – решить ВСЕ внешнеполитические задачи, стоящие перед страной? И, наконец, каким человеком была Екатерина? Какие личные качества позволили ей стать Екатериной Великой? Смотрите и слушайте в рассказе Владимира Мединского по русской истории XVIII века на канале Лекторий Dостоевский. *** Телеграм-канал автора / обратная связь: https://t.me/vr_medinskiy *** Таймкоды: 00:00 Екатерина Вторая Великая: Империя неудержимо расширяется 04:12 Диктатура дворянства: каких целей хотела Екатерина добиться в своей внутренней политике 07:58 Закон о забвении. Иоанн Антонович и спецоперация по его возведению на трон 14:36 Легисломания Екатерины: Реформа сената, Уложенная комиссия, губернская реформа и.. что в итоге? 26:13 Политэкономия XVIII века. Введение бумажных денег, инфляция и долги. Экспорт, импорт и проблема суверенного торгового флота 34:13 Во что обошлись России фавориты? 39:18 Европейские беженцы. Миграционная политика и почему выгодно быть немцем? 42:35 Где брать налоги? Секуляризация церковных земель и политика веротерпимости в Золотой век дворянства 56:51 Многопартийная Польша. Как расширялась империя, и почему Запад беспрекословно признал независимость Крыма? 01:08:15 Бельмо в глазу или аллерген? Почему Запад не любит Россию? 01:11:49 Привилегии крымских татар и новая война с реваншистской Турцией 01:15:42 Кто хотел расчленить Польшу? Воссоединение русских земель 01:17:54 Революционная Франция. Агрессивная фразеология Екатерины и военный нейтралитет 01:19:39 Империя расширяется: защита Грузии, противостояние Персии. Присоединение Чукотки и пограничные столбы на океанском побережье 01:24:00 Итоги правления Екатерины II 01:37:05 Чаадаев, Ключевский, Хомяков и другие историки о правлении Екатерины II 01:39:55 Каким человеком была Екатерина Великая? 01:58:16 «Надо бороться не с последствиями, а с идеями» 02:06:13 Чего не было бы без Екатерины II? Подсказки в видео: Екатерина II (1729-1762): Екатерина II. Молодые годы | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykm7mNFfAKE Румянцев: мажор, новатор, полководец | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZEQ8ssBm4k Суворов | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQupdhOMgI Потемкин: О роли личного в истории | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqpUtC2pVY Чума давно ушла, а проблемы все те же | Эпидемия чумы в Москве | Пандемия Российской Империи https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceKcxnbaOAc Подпишитесь на канал: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsCAuG4sK9had2F-nnUfyA?sub_confirmation=1 Подпишитесь на ВТОРОЙ КАНАЛ с прямыми трансляциями с мероприятий: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPw03nFJLTYHF_ltJUcTV8A?sub_confirmation=1 📚 Наш сайт: https://dostoverno.ru/ 📚 Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser 📚 VK: https://vk.com/lectorydostoevsky 📚 FB: https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser 📚 OK: https://ok.ru/dostoevsky.lectory 📚 Telegram: https://t.me/dostoevsky_fm_dostoverno 📚 Rutube: https://rutube.ru/channel/23630029/ Видео предоставлено ООГО «Российский фонд культуры» https://rcfoundation.ru/

Preparing download options

popular icon
Popular
hd icon
HD video
audio icon
Only sound
total icon
All
* — If the video is playing in a new tab, go to it, then right-click on the video and select "Save video as..."
** — Link intended for online playback in specialized players

Questions about downloading video

mobile menu iconHow can I download "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век" video?mobile menu icon

  • http://unidownloader.com/ website is the best way to download a video or a separate audio track if you want to do without installing programs and extensions.

  • The UDL Helper extension is a convenient button that is seamlessly integrated into YouTube, Instagram and OK.ru sites for fast content download.

  • UDL Client program (for Windows) is the most powerful solution that supports more than 900 websites, social networks and video hosting sites, as well as any video quality that is available in the source.

  • UDL Lite is a really convenient way to access a website from your mobile device. With its help, you can easily download videos directly to your smartphone.

mobile menu iconWhich format of "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век" video should I choose?mobile menu icon

  • The best quality formats are FullHD (1080p), 2K (1440p), 4K (2160p) and 8K (4320p). The higher the resolution of your screen, the higher the video quality should be. However, there are other factors to consider: download speed, amount of free space, and device performance during playback.

mobile menu iconWhy does my computer freeze when loading a "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век" video?mobile menu icon

  • The browser/computer should not freeze completely! If this happens, please report it with a link to the video. Sometimes videos cannot be downloaded directly in a suitable format, so we have added the ability to convert the file to the desired format. In some cases, this process may actively use computer resources.

mobile menu iconHow can I download "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век" video to my phone?mobile menu icon

  • You can download a video to your smartphone using the website or the PWA application UDL Lite. It is also possible to send a download link via QR code using the UDL Helper extension.

mobile menu iconHow can I download an audio track (music) to MP3 "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век"?mobile menu icon

  • The most convenient way is to use the UDL Client program, which supports converting video to MP3 format. In some cases, MP3 can also be downloaded through the UDL Helper extension.

mobile menu iconHow can I save a frame from a video "Екатерина II (1762-1796): Екатерина II. Империя расширяется | Курс Владимира Мединского | XVIII век"?mobile menu icon

  • This feature is available in the UDL Helper extension. Make sure that "Show the video snapshot button" is checked in the settings. A camera icon should appear in the lower right corner of the player to the left of the "Settings" icon. When you click on it, the current frame from the video will be saved to your computer in JPEG format.

mobile menu iconWhat's the price of all this stuff?mobile menu icon

  • It costs nothing. Our services are absolutely free for all users. There are no PRO subscriptions, no restrictions on the number or maximum length of downloaded videos.