Reforms: the Nakaz and Catherine's Legislative Commission
- In 1766, four years after the beginning of her reign, Catherine began working on the Nakaz, or Instruction, a document that was intended "to be a guideline for a complete rewriting of the Russian legal code...raise the levels of government administration, of justice, and of tolerance within her empire...announce to Europe that a new era, informed by the principles of the Enlightenment, was beginning in Russia." (Massie 343).
- Catherine's Nakaz, which was published in 1767, dealt with the social, political, judicial, and economic condition of Russia , the role of law in society, and the ideal relationship between crime and punishment (Massie 345).
- In the Nakaz, Catherine presented a variety of Enlightenment-influenced ideas: she condemned torture, included elements of the social contract theory, and (though unsuccessfully) attempted to address the issue of Russian serfdom and the rights of serfs; sections that called for greater freedoms for serfs (such as the right to self-emancipation) were ultimately omitted from the final edition of the Nakaz
- Catherine's Nakaz, which was intended as an instruction for the Legislative Commission (a body of delegates selected from free groups across Russia, created to inform Catherine of their needs/grievances in order to aid her in the creation of a new code of laws (Massie 351)), was heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophers: the Nakaz was influenced by Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, Beccaria’s An Essay on Crimes and Punishments, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, Baron Bielfield’s Political Institutions, and Catherine’s correspondences with Voltaire and Diderot (Instruction).
- Ultimately, Catherine did not succeed in creating a new draft of a law code, as she intended to do with her Legislative Commission; however, she did succeed in "making the case for the importance of education, for abolishing torture, and for very limited capital punishment." (Instruction). In addition, Catherine succeeded in introducing some elements of Western law and political discussion to Russia, as well as establishing more significant links between Russian law and the Enlightenment.
Excerpts from the Nakaz: Catherine's Enlightenment Influences
- “14. The Form of Government, therefore, which best attains this End, and at the same Time sets less Bounds than others to natural Liberty, is that which coincides with the Views and Purposes of rational Creatures, and answers the End, upon which we ought to fix a steadfast Eye in the Regulations of civil Polity.”
- “83. In these Governments, the Legislature will apply itself more to prevent Crimes than to punish them, and should take more Care to instil Good Manners into the Minds of the Citizens, by proper Regulations, than to dispirit them by the Terror of corporal and capital Punishments.”
- “158. The Laws ought to be written in the common vernacular Tongue; and the Code, which contains all the Laws, ought to be esteemed as a Book of the utmost Use, which should be purchased at as small a Price as the Catechism. If the Case were otherwise, and the Citizen should be ignorant of the Consequences of his own Actions, and what concerns his Person and Liberty, be will then depend upon some few of the People who have taken upon themselves the Care of preserving and explaining them. Crimes will be less frequent in proportion as the Code of Laws is more universally read, and comprehended by the People. And, for this Reason, it must be ordained, That, in all the Schools, Children should be taught to read alternately out of the Church Books and out of those which contain the Laws....”
- “194. (1) No Man ought to be looked upon as guilty before he has received his judicial Sentence; nor can the Laws deprive him of their Protection before it is proved that he has forfeited all Right to it.”
- “512. It is true there are cases where Power ought and can exert its full influence without any danger to the State. But there are cases also where it ought to act according to the limits prescribed by itself.”
- “520. All this will never please those flatterers who are daily instilling this pernicious maxim into all the sovereigns on Earth, that Their people are created for them only. But We think, and esteem it Our glory to declare, that ‘We are created for Our people’.” (Catherine II The Instructions 1-12)
- After the publication of the Nakaz in 1767, Catherine the Great issued an imperial manifesto that called for all free estates of the Russian Empire to select delegates for a legislative commission that was created to inform Catherine of the "grievances, needs, and hopes" of free Russians in order to provide a base for the creation of a new code of laws (Massie 351). Though this effort was ultimately unsuccessful, Catherine's Legislative Commission established an important link between herself and the Enlightenment. The Legislative Commission set a precedent for popular participation in government, an idea that was closely associated with a major topic of Enlightenment thought--the questioning of the relationship between a government and its subjects, especially in terms of political participation.
Reforms: Catherine the Great and Secularization
- In 18th century Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was the most powerful religious institution in the Empire. The Church was extremely wealthy as well as powerful, and owned 1/3 of Russia's land and serfs by 1762, the first year of Catherine's reign (Oldenbourg-Idalie).
- Before the beginning of her reign, Catherine's husband (the emperor Peter III) had attempted secularization. In 1762, after coming to power, Catherine returned properties to the church in order to compensate for their support for her rise to power. However, Catherine began to consider re-secularizing church properties for the following reasons:
- The Russian treasury had been bankrupted by the Seven Years' War (Massie 291)
- The Russian economy was extremely weak--no credit was available from abroad, millions of rubles' worth of unpaid bonds occupied the treasury, Russian commerce was monopolized by a handful of wealthy private citizens, and the price of grain had skyrocketed (Massie 291)
- Catherine and many government officials believed that the church's wealth should be used for the needs of the state (Massie 297)
"You are the successors to the apostles who were commanded by God to teach mankind to despise riches, and who were themselves poor men. Their kingdom was not of this world. I have frequently heard these words from your lips. How can you presume to own such riches, such vast estates? If you wish to obey the laws of your own order, if you wish to be my most faithful subjects, you will not hesitate to return to the state that which you unjustly possess."
--Catherine II
(Massie 301)
--Catherine II
(Massie 301)
- In 1764, Catherine officially secularized the property of the church, transferring much of the church's wealth in land and serfs to the Russian government; the Russian Orthodox Church officially became a state institution (Massie 301).
- By challenging Church authority and questioning the role of the Church in secular affairs (ex: the ownership of land and serfs), Catherine explored and established another link with the ideals of the Enlightenment in relation to the role of the Church. As evidenced by individuals such as Voltaire and Diderot who questioned the Catholic Church in their works, challenging Church authority was a major element of Enlightenment thought.