Russian Enlightenment
The year 1703 marked the founding of St. Petersburg, a city built on marshes to serve as Russia's window to Europe. This new capital became the stage for Peter I's intellectual revolution. He gathered a circle of advisors known as the learned druzhina to transform Russian society from within. Feofan Prokopovich delivered sermons that blended Orthodox theology with Western political philosophy. Antiokh Kantemir wrote satires mocking the old Muscovite ways while praising modernization. Vasily Tatishchev produced historiography that framed Russia's history through a rationalist lens.
During the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, these ideas found official footing. Ivan Shuvalov emerged as an ideal enlightened courtier who championed state-sponsored learning. He established Moscow University in 1755 and founded the Imperial Academy of Arts shortly thereafter. These institutions launched the careers of most intellectuals active during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Mikhail Lomonosov stood at the center of this movement as Russia's greatest polymath. His work spanned science, religious philosophy, poetry, and fine arts. Lomonosov left his mark across every branch of knowledge available to him.
Catherine II considered herself an enlightened despot who read Montesquieu and Voltaire daily. She wished to bring Russia up to par with its neighbors not only militarily but also politically and culturally. Her contemporaries questioned her adherence to Enlightenment ideals and labeled her an egoist using concepts for selfish gains. Gender played a primary role in these criticisms since observers interpreted her personality as combining masculine strength with feminine vanity.
Westernization meant legislative changes to economics, politics, and culture throughout the eighteenth century. It entailed the Russian gentry's adherence to a set standard and imitation of Western values. Catherine modernized machinery and refined bureaucracy while accepting Western European tastes. Russia produced more goods and enlisted thousands of troops during her reign. She acquired new lands including Crimea and Poland while updating the army and supporting burgeoning manufactures.
The institution of laws served as means of expanding the state beyond Peter the Great's quantitative changes. Catherine reformed the strong bureaucracy established by Peter I. She established fifty gubernii provinces divided into ten districts where 300,000 to 400,000 people lived. A governor and network of officials ran each province under executive, legislative, and judicial functions. Catherine wanted the gentry to play a role in local political affairs.
In the autumn of 1763, Catherine arranged for her Genevan secretary François-Pierre Pictet to send Voltaire a letter praising her at great length. This correspondence continued until Voltaire's death fifteen years later. The relationship benefited Catherine because she needed to strengthen her claim to power after taking the throne from her husband in a coup d'état. Since the philosophes significantly shaped public opinion in Western Europe, Catherine wanted desperately to gain Voltaire's approval.
Voltaire played an important role in promoting Catherine's image in Europe as her most distinguished western partisan. He wrote pamphlets that supported her policies and had her pronouncements published in the western press. Voltaire even succeeded in convincing the French historian Claude-Carloman de Rulhière not to publish his Histoire ou anecdotes sur la révolution de Russie en l'année 1762. This text provided a disparaging account of Catherine's rise to power.
Catherine's letters often served as a means to woo the influential philosopher to her cause rather than pursue intellectual subjects. She utilized her letters to flatter and cajole the philosopher while sidestepping his inquiries about philosophy. For example, when Voltaire tried to start a discussion about Helvetius translation by Golitsuin, Catherine blithely agreed but confessed she had not read the book yet. Her primary motives appeared propagandistic since she sought no advice on how to rule Russia.
Russia set up state-run schools that provided students with learning in the three Rs and behavior proper for citizenship. The schools stressed two principles above all else: the need to be patriotic and the need to accept innovation. Around 176,000 children passed through Russian public school between 1786 and 1796. Russia lacked the finances and teachers to run schools properly so few children attended public schools.
Secularization officially came to Russia through monetary necessity via the Commission on Church Lands established on the 6th of February 1764. The appropriation of Church lands brought substantial money, land, and peasants under Catherine's control. This reform generated an annual income of 1,370,000 rubles with less than 463,000 returned to the Church each year between 1764 and 1768.
Mikhail Shcherbatov delivered scathing criticism of existing social institutions while maintaining that mass education may be more effective than political reforms. Ivan Betskoy campaigned for comprehensive reform resulting in development of a new breed of citizens. His proposals were implemented when the Smolny Institute was inaugurated for noble maidens. Yekaterina Dashkova led the Russian Academy of Sciences for many years and instituted the Russian Academy in 1783.
The first Russian theater group of this kind was established in Yaroslavl by Fyodor Volkov and Ivan Dmitrievsky during Elizaveta's reign. Aleksandr Sumarokov was responsible for their repertory. During Catherine's reign leading playwrights included Denis Fonvizin who ridiculed provincial gentry and Vladislav Ozerov who authored Neoclassical tragedies.
Opera reached Russia in 1731 when Empress Anna invited Italian opera troupe to show Calandro by Giovanni Alberto Ristori. In 1735 another Italian opera troupe led by composer Francesco Araja worked in St. Petersburg. Araja spent 25 years in Russia and wrote 14 operas including Tsefal i Prokris in 1755, the first opera written in Russian to libretto by Alexander Sumarokov.
Foreign composers like Johann Adolf Hasse, Hermann Raupach, Galuppi, Manfredini, Traetta, Paisiello, Sarti, Cimarosa and Martin y Soler brought important contribution to Russian opera. There were also extremely popular operas by André Ernest Modeste Grétry widely performed at Kuskovo and Ostankino theatres with participation of famous serf-soprano Praskovya Zhemchugova.
In early 1770s, Catherine's secretary Ivan Yelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into far-reaching system uniting some 14 lodges and about 400 government officials. He secured English authorization of first Russian Grand Lodge and became its Provincial Grand Master. Most Russian lodges attracted to Swedish Rite while Ivan Schwarz represented Russia at Wilhelmsbad conference in 1782 where Russia recognized as eighth province of Rite of Strict Observance.
Nikolay Novikov was in charge of Moscow lodges and promoted prosveshchenie combining religious piety, erudition, and commitment to spread learning. However it bore little similarity to skeptical and critical spirit of European Enlightenment. Spooked by French Revolution, Catherine clamped down on Novikov and other Freemasons in late 1780s. Her son Paul interdicted all Masonic assemblies in 1799.
Teachings of Platon Levshin, Metropolitan of Moscow, underlined need for tolerance and encouraged advancement of ecclesiastical education. Even monolith of Russian Orthodox Church seemed to succumb to influences of Enlightenment.
By 1796 when Emperor Paul succeeded his mother on Russian throne, the Russian Enlightenment was very much on wane. Although new monarch fiercely opposed French libertarian influences, he set free radical writers imprisoned by his mother including Novikov and Radishchev. Paul's family enjoyed recitals of didactic fables by Ivan Krylov whose journalistic activity had been denounced by his mother.
The Informal Committee instituted by Alexander I of Russia in 1801 may be viewed as last attempt to implement ideals of Enlightenment in Russian Empire. Mikhail Speransky proceeded to outline ambitious program of political reform but chief propositions not put into execution until great reforms of Alexander II half century later.
Russia's place in world debated by Denis Fonvizin, Mikhail Shcherbatov, Andrey Bolotov, Alexander Radishchev, and Ivan Boltin. These discussions precipitated divide between radical western conservative and Slavophile traditions of Russian thought. Pugachev's Rebellion and French Revolution shattered illusions of rapid political change while intellectual climate altered irrevocably.
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Common questions
When was the Russian Enlightenment period active and what marked its beginning?
The Russian Enlightenment began in 1703 with the founding of St. Petersburg as Russia's window to Europe. This new capital became the stage for Peter I's intellectual revolution that transformed Russian society from within.
Who were the key figures who promoted state-sponsored learning during Elizaveta Petrovna's reign?
Ivan Shuvalov emerged as an ideal enlightened courtier who championed state-sponsored learning by establishing Moscow University in 1755. He also founded the Imperial Academy of Arts shortly thereafter which launched the careers of most intellectuals active during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
How did Catherine II use Voltaire to strengthen her claim to power after taking the throne?
Catherine arranged for her Genevan secretary François-Pierre Pictet to send Voltaire a letter praising her at great length in the autumn of 1763. This correspondence continued until Voltaire's death fifteen years later because she needed to gain his approval to strengthen her claim to power after taking the throne from her husband in a coup d'état.
What specific financial results came from the Commission on Church Lands established on the 6th of February 1764?
The appropriation of Church lands brought substantial money land and peasants under Catherine's control while generating an annual income of 1,370,000 rubles. Less than 463,000 rubles were returned to the Church each year between 1764 and 1768.
When did Russian Freemasonry reach its peak before being clamped down upon by Catherine?
In early 1770s Ivan Yelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into a far-reaching system uniting some 14 lodges and about 400 government officials. Most Russian lodges attracted to Swedish Rite while Russia was recognized as eighth province of Rite of Strict Observance at Wilhelmsbad conference in 1782.