On The Enlightened Despotism Of Catherine Ⅱ

In the 18th century, an important reform of social and political life in Russia was the implementation of the enlightened despotism of Catherine II. Enlightened despotism referred to the implementation of limited democracy and the rule of law, without activating the autocratic system. This paper is divided into three parts to elaborate respectively the reasons, the specific contents and the nature of the enlightened despotism of Catherine II.The first part elaborated the reasons of the enlightened despotism of Catherine II in the aspects of her thinking and social conditions in Russia. Catherine began to know some thinking of the Enlightenment when she was the Grand Duchess. By reading the works of Enlightenment thinkers and exchanging ideas directly with the Enlightenment thinkers, she gradually brought forth the thoughts of "enlightened despotism". Some of the thinking of French Enlightenment, such as the rational skepticism of Pierre Bayle, the Republican ideology of Montesquieu and the rational despotism of Voltaire had affected her deeply. Based on the cognizing, suspicion and absorption of the thinking of the Enlightenment, Catherine finally brought forth the thoughts of "enlightened despotism", which embodied "the combination of the Sovereign and a philosopher". Catherine's policies of the "enlightened despotism" was not only connected with her thoughts, but also decided by the prevailing social conditions. On the beginning of her accession, Catherine's ruling was extremely instable, and the financial conditions were also increasingly distressed. What's more, the peasant uprisings broke out everywhere because of the intensification of the domestic class conflicts. In such a situation, Catherine needed to strengthen her political power and develop economics on one hand, and to take measures to ease the class contradictions on the others hand. "Enlightened despotism" was quite in line with the domestic social situation, because it can stabilize the implementation of aristocratic dictatorship while making some concessions to the peasants and the emerging bourgeoisie. In addition, the international situation had some influences on Catherine's "enlightened despotism". In the second half of the 18th century, many other European monarchs also implemented "enlightened despotism" policies, and that gave some international supports to Catherine in the process of her enlightened despotism.The second part elaborated the specific contents of Catherine's enlightened despotism in three aspects: the policy of "free economy", administrative and judicial reforms, and the military innovations. The economic policy of Catherine's enlightened despotism was to implement the so-called "free economy" which was on benefit of a few strong sectors, under the premise of not touching the foundation of the serf system. In agriculture, Catherine nationalized the estates of the monasteries, churches and senior monks, and abolished the feudal territory of the church, so that the serfs were transferred into "economic farmers". This policy greatly stimulated the peasants'enthusiasm of producing. Catherine had also established a free economic association, which played a positive role in the introductions of agricultural technology and the developments of agricultural technology, so that it promoted the agricultural development. In the business, Catherine abolished the rights of business monopoly, and advocated free trading. She established the Commercial Committee to supervise and control the import and protect domestic industries. Since then, the Russian industry developed gradually because of the increasing proportion of the capital composition, and handicraft workshops for various types also developed in different extend. Foreign trade in the entire period of Catherine had been maintaining a surplus. The judicial reformation included the deprivation of legislative powers of feudal lords, and the establishment of a centralized judicial system. Administrative reforms were mainly embodied in the local and central levels, among which the regional administrative structure was simplified and central administrative power was concentrated highly in three main committees. In army building, Catherine set up a new military service system in which officers could serve the army on voluntary and the lifelong service of soldiers was repealed. She also vigorously developed the army and navy equipment, and enhanced the military of Russia.The third part mainly elaborated the aristocratic character of Catherine's enlightened despotism. Her enlightened despotism in essence strengthened the basis for the rule of the aristocracy. The new committee of codification established under the leadership of Catherine was mainly composed of the aristocracy, and the initiative of its activities was held in the hands of the aristocracy. On this premise, all the laws and policies with liberal tendencies, including the "guidance", were blocked by the aristocracy, and as a result the so-called new committee of codification didn't created any decree from its establishment in 1767 to its final stop in 1774. The final stop of the new committee of codification reflected the essential conflict between Catherine's enlightened despotism thoughts and the social and historical reality in Russia. However, there was great consistency between Catherine's enlightened despotism practices and the interests of the aristocracy. Besides the development of production and the increasing of social wealth, the enlightened despotism also consolidated the political and military domination of the aristocracy, which was particularly reflected in the reform of administrative divisions. The Charter of Aristocracy consolidated the political and economic privileges of the aristocracy, and strengthened the autocratic character of the aristocracy much further. Although the Charter of Cities provided citizens the freedom and autonomy, it was undeniable that the growth of the citizens and the merchant class were strongly suppressed by the aristocracy, and that the wealth growth of the city finally increased the material foundation of the aristocratic rule. The outcome might seem contradictory, but was consistent with the logic development of Russian history. Both the tendency of liberal thinking of the Sovereign and the new growth in Russian society were variations of Russian Aristocratic politics. These two new forces would be repressed by the conservative aristocracy without strong and solid foundation, and the limited growth of the new forces was to be inevitably swallowed by the conservative forces.