Chapter X

Catherine II and the empire’s golden age

An autocrat who spoke of law

Richard Brompton’s 1782 oil portrait of Catherine II in ermine and a pale gown, with a crown set beside her. — Richard Brompton, Catherine II, 1782, State Hermitage Museum. A mid-reign court likeness, not a picture from the 1762 coup. Richard Brompton. Public domain (PD-Art reproduction). Image source.

Catherine II inherited both Russias and refused to limit the crown. The sections below follow her Instruction and a commission that wrote no code, the widening of the empire on the Black Sea, the annexation of Crimea, three partitions of Poland, Pugachev’s war, and the charter that thickened serfdom — before her son Paul.

01Enlightenment
02The empire widens
03Crimea
04The partitions of Poland
05Pugachev
06Serfdom

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