Madeline Filoon

Ms. Tavani
October 13, 2014


Catherine the Great of Russia
An Absolute Monarch

Catherine is an absolute monarch because she gained control over nobility, army, and religion. She
was married to Peter III, and then had a love child with Sergius Saltykov part of the Polish Nobility, Paul I
the eventual emperor was born due to the fact that Peter couldnt have children and Russia needed an heir.
Even with the people she had sexual encounters with they all benefited from it because she would end
things on good terms and they would all get some sort of prize whether it be a label or money.
Catherine had her husband killed by Aleskey Orlov who got Peter drunk in his prison cell then
strangled him to death. This shows she has control of Nobility because due to the fact that her husband
was on a bad note with everyone and alienated everyone important to benefit Russia, offended aristocrats,
the Russian Orthodox Church, and all the imperial guards. Which is exactly how she won over the nobility
due to the fact that she was on their side and not his. I believe that if he never alienated her in the
beginning of their marriage she would have tried to spare his life due to all the plea letters to her groveling
for her help in getting him out of there, Im sure it also helped that she was sleeping with Polish Nobel.
She won over the army because she was friendly with them all whether they where her partners or
just workers, after Peter made serious threats to disband them and make their duty extremely hard and life
threatening. He also put everyone close to war after making problems with Denmark, which would benefit
more of the Germans then the Russians. So after Catherine learned the ins and the outs of the military
she wound up being able to win their trust, especially adding borders to the Russia Border such as Crimea,
New Polish, Prussia, and Austria.
She controlled the religion because after winning over the Russian Orthodox Church after Peter
pushed them away she gained control. She forced the church to stop converting the Muslims and accept
their religion. She demanded that every citizen must belong to religion but not necessarily Russian
Orthodox Christianity. She believed that the thought of religion provided alternative means of social


discipline. This would help her reduce the probable cause of rebellion throughout Russia. Although they
where allowed to believe in any religion the Russian state intervened and had Muslim leaders also learn
Christianity.
She also achieved everything she was trying to during her period of rein by bringing sophisticated
western culture to Russia, new legal code, and territorial expansion. She imported artist, intellectuals, atet,
patronized philosophers and corresponded with voltaire. Increased trade, restricted torture/capital
punishment. Allowed limited religion toleration. Tried to improve education and local government. She also
granted the serfs their freedom. Despite the fact that she didnt really show a lot of censorship because
many new what she was doing but no one really minded what she did because in the end it benefitted
everyone which made Catherine the Great an absolute ruler.
































Works Cited

"Catherine the Great's Ascent." History House:. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/catherine_two/>.
"Russia: Catherine The Great's Lessons On Religious Tolerance."
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1070928.html>.
"The History Connection." Catherine The Great. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.thehistoryconnection.com/Catherine-The-Great.html>.