Reseña

Empress Catherine II of Russia came from the Prussian aristocracy and at the age of 15 was betrothed to the future Tsar Peter III of Russia. She became empress in 1762 after the deposition of Peter III, a government she held for 34 uninterrupted years. Under her mandate, enormous political, economic and cultural reforms were observed at the domestic level. Regarding the latter, it is important to mention his well-known cultural patronage and the introduction of the Enlightenment in Russia. Finally, at the external level, there was an increased military role in Europe, the borders of the Russian Empire were expanded, and even relations with Japan were established.

Actividades

• Símbolos de poder [es]
  • España > Geografía e Historia > 3º ESO > Sociedades y territorios. Geografía. Historia. Historia del arte
  • España > Geografía e Historia > 4º ESO > Sociedades y territorios. Geografía. Historia. Historia del arte

Justificaciones

• Catherine II was the empress who ruled over the Russian Empire for 34 years.
• She introduced European traditions, such as legal philosophy, politics and moral in force, as well as medicine, art, culture, and education in the Russian Empire.
• She represents enlightened absolutism.
• She protected and promoted the development of art, philosophy and science with the creation of museums such as the Hermitage.
• He maintained an enormous correspondence with philosophers such as Voltaire and Montesquieu or the enlightened Secretary of State Floridablanca in which he was in agreement with some enlightened ideas, but against the French revolutionaries.
• It opened the doors for a commercial relationship with the Far East through Japan.

Biografía

Catherine II of Russia [...] German (Prussian) princess of the Anhalt-Zerbst dynasty, was sent by her family to Russia to marry Grand Duke Peter, grandson of Tsar Peter the Great. Once settled in St. Petersburg [...] she entered the Russian Orthodox Church, a gesture that proved decisive for her political future [...].
After the coup d'état engineered by Catherine herself and once the tsar was deposed, Catherine II of Russia took the leadership of the empire, ready to profoundly transform its administrative and productive structures in accordance with the trends that were to define enlightened despotism. [She won the respect of most of the European rulers and of the enlightened intellectuals of the time, such as Voltaire and the encyclopedist Diderot, who was one of her closest advisors. 
[...] In 1764 the Tsarina imposed Stanislaus Poniatowski as king of Poland and thus brought Polish laws under her observance. He had to rely on the Russian landed aristocracy to develop his program of liberalizing and rationalist reforms. To gain this support, he not only maintained the old privileges of the nobility, but also dispensed them from military service and strengthened his power over the serfs by granting the nobles the right to deport them to Siberia (1765) and instituting serfdom in the Ukraine (1783). These concessions allowed him, on the other hand, to institute a series of liberalizing measures, such as the secularization of church property (1764).
[...] In foreign policy he maintained an expansionist policy, seizing Lithuania, White Russia - after the divisions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 -, Crimea and, after another victory over Turkey, the territory located between the Dniester and the Bug. In addition, he established the first relations for a future trade with Japan.

[...] Catherine brought from Europe legal, political and moral philosophy, as well as medicine, art, culture and education [...].
Catherine was noted for her patronage of the arts and science.  She affiliated herself with the ideals of the Enlightenment and considered herself "a philosopher on the throne". She showed great concern for her image abroad, and sought to be seen in Europe as an enlightened and civilized monarch, despite the fact that in Russia she often played the role of a tyrant [...].
Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature and education. She founded the superb art collection that today houses the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg [...]
On the other hand, she founded the Smolny Institute for young noble ladies, even admitting the daughters of wealthy merchants, along with the daughters of the nobility. She got the scientists Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas to leave Berlin to move to the Russian capital and was the first to be vaccinated to demonstrate the scientific breakthrough that this entailed. Within months of his ascension to the throne, having heard that the French government was threatening to stop publication of the Encyclopédie, he proposed to Diderot to complete his great work in Russia under his protection. He tried to implement some of Montesquieu's ideas through the creation of the Grand Commission (consultative parliament) composed of 652 members from all walks of life. However, the fear resulting from the French Revolution put a stop to the project. Catherine became a great bibliophile and patron of Russian opera, although she also banished writers such as Alexandr Radishchev when he complained about the tsarina's government in his work Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow (1790).
Finally, he possessed a literary talent that led him to create several works [...].

Fernández, Tomás and Tamaro, Elena. «Biografía de Catalina II la Grande». In Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea, 24/10/2022,  https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/catalina_ii.htm   

Wikipedia, 24/10/2022, https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalina_II_de_Rusia#Arte_y_cultura    

Obras

Bibliografía

- Enciso, Luis Miguel. (2001). La Europa del siglo XVIII. Barcelona: Península.
- Massie, Robert. (2012). Catherine the Great: portrait of a woman. Editorial Head of Zeus.
- Zaretsky, Robert. (2019). Catherine & Diderot: the empress, the philosopher, and the fate of the Enlightenment. London: Harvard University Press.

- Troyat, Henri. (2008) Catalina la Grande. Madrid: Editorial Vergara.

- de Madariaga, Isabel. (1981). Russia in the age of Catherine the Great. London: Yale University Press.

Audiovisual resources
- Film (1934). The Scarlet Empress.
- Series (2019). Catalina la Grande.
- Series (2020). The Great.

Online resources
Wikipedia, 29/03/2022,  https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalina_II_de_Rusia
Wikipedia, 29/03/2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great
Biografía y vidas, 29/03/2022,  https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/catalina_ii.htm

Enfoque Didáctico

In geography and history, the figure of Catherine the Great can be taught in 4th of ESO as part of the contents of 18th century and the Crisis of the Ancient Régime. 
She can also be introduced in geography and history in 2nd of ESO, in relation to absolutism and parliamentarianism. 
She can also be linked with other subjects, such as language and literature in 4th of ESO, art foundations in 1st of Bachillerato and history of art in 2nd of Bachillerato in relation to patronage and collecting as elements of social differentiation and art as a means of progress, criticism and socio-cultural transformation from Enlightenment thought to the present day, bringing students closer to the art of the Russian Enlightenment.
Catherine the great and her particular cultural interest would help to break with the only approach of the Enlightenment in France. Students could know that did not only the Enlightenment took place in France, but also in other countries like Russia.  

Documentos