The Memoirs of Catherine the Great by Catherine the Great Page A

document that reflects Catherine’s nature as a ruler through her evaluations of Peter III and Elizabeth, and through her own actions as Grand Duchess. In his history of Peter the Great, Voltaire saw evidence for the tremendous difference one ruler could make in a nation as a lesson in reform for Europe. Despite disagreements among the
philosophes
about the dangers of a strong monarch, which was a necessary evil in their programs for reform, Catherine captured their imagination as a “great man” of her age, who might in their lifetime inscribe an enlightened government on the tabula rasa of the Russian state. 66 She read their works, and could bring to life their ideas—for rational, secular government and for natural laws, inalienable rights, and a social contract. She promoted Russia and herself shamelessly, but only Diderot accepted her invitation to visit Russia in 1773–74, and he left disillusioned, as Catherine later read in his posthumous memoirs. 67 Her famous response to his theories was that rulers must “work on human skin.” 68 More successful was her extensive correspondence with Diderot’s friend Grimm, who was in St. Petersburg in 1773; after many conversations, they began a relatively informal, wide-ranging exchange that lasted until her death. Her letters contain her responses to his biweekly newsletter,
Literary Correspondence
(1753–90), with new works and French news that was sent to fifteen royal subscribers, who like Catherine (who subscribed in 1764) were heads of state and nobles in central and eastern Europe. The French Revolution brought an end to Grimm’s newsletter and to Catherine’s support for the
philosophes,
whose radical ideas she held responsible for attacks on monarchy, and she banned their books. She of course disappointed them by not living up to their ideals. Yet, just as she balanced their theories with the exigencies of rule, the
philosophes
also made compromises to have the ear and generous support of one of Europe’s most powerful rulers.
    In practice, during her thirty-four-year reign, Catherine maintained absolute rule as she consolidated control over Russia’s administration and vast lands by organizing them in a consistent manner. Although the memoirs take place before her reign, Catherine nevertheless carefully projects the ability and reasonable behavior necessary for an enlightened, absolute Russian ruler. She institutionalized Peter the Great’s reforms, thus building a solid foundation for the Russia of the next two centuries. She continued his, Elizabeth’s, and Peter III’s secularization of Russia by subordinating the Orthodox Church’s land and serfs to the state, in a decree she first published abroad in French (1764). Like her predecessors, Catherine attempted long-overdue legal reforms, including the codification of existing laws and the establishment of legal training, through the elected Legislative Commission (1767–68), a consultative process that allowed her to consolidate her position but also cost Catherine her ambition to undo serfdom.
    Relations with her advisers and the nobility were central to her hold on power, and Peter III and the coup had raised their expectations. Catherine’s reign has been referred to as “the golden age of the Russian nobility,” and her memoirs indicate her willingness to please those upon whom she depended. 69 In particular, Peter III had freed the nobility from compulsory service to the state (1762), which Catherine agreed to only when she reorganized the nobility into a more independent, privileged body (1785). At the same time, Catherine used the nobility to institute a system of local administrative control over extensive, sparsely populated territory (1775). This problem became especially urgent after the plague in Moscow (1770–72) that killed 120,000, and which together with Pugachev’s armed uprisings (1773–74) in the southern borderlands reaching up to Kazan challenged her authority. In this