Catherine the great II

Catherine the great was a Russian empress from 1762 to 1796 when she died.
Some people consider her to be a non-absolute ruler and others consider her an
absolute ruler. Personall! " belie#e that she is an absolute ruler for man ears.
$lthough she wasn%t absolute towards the beginning of her time as ruler! she later
became one. &o be considered an absolute ruler is when a person 'eeps all the power
to them and does not share with anone. &he criteria that ma'es somebod an absolute
ruler are control o#er nobilit! control of the militar! control of religion! and that our
beliefs are the onl legitimate ideas in societ. Catherine was all of the abo#e.
(irst off! Catherine had full control of the church. $t first she ga#e the church to
the people and allowed them to own it. &hen she later changed her mind. She belie#ed
that the church should belong to state propert and not the people anmore. So! she did
ma'e the church state propert. )ecause man serfs belonged there! the also became
state propert and became sub*ect to pa ta+es.
Catherine the great faced man uprisings during her time of rule! one of them
being the poached rebellion. Catherine wanted to help impro#e the serf%s notabilit.
Serfs are the lower class in the countr! the opposite of the boars. She wanted to gi#e
them more legal rights and ma'e them become more li'e the boars. &hen what
happened was the poached rebellion. &his is considered to be one of the biggest
rebellions in Russian histor. $ gu b the name of poached said that he was peter the
"""! which was Catherine%s late husband. Poached was a serf. Catherine then became
angr at him. ,an serfs supported poached in his rebellion. Catherine then became
made at all the serfs. She then changed her mind and made the serfs e#en worse. She
forced them unto oppressi#e conditions. &o help with this uprising and help pre#ent
others from happening! she decided to impro#e the militar. She made them a much
stronger militar. &his also shows that she has full control of the militar. &hat is another
piece of e#idence to pro#e that she was an absolute ruler.
Catherine the great also had control of legal sstems. She created the na'a-
which is a legal sstem. "t is prett much a list of laws that needed to be followed. Some
of the laws were to outlaw punishment and torture! declare all men to be e.ual! and she
thought of helping the terrible situation that the serfs are in. /hen finali-ing the na'a-!
people had more freedom to e+press their thoughts and feelings about the countr and
its problems. $lthough this ma be considered non absolute! Catherine still has control
of the rights. 0a'a- became well 'nown for its ideas rather than the influence it had.
&he na'a- soon fell through because of the poached rebellion. )ecause she hated the
serfs from the rebellion! she too' awa their freedoms. &hat%s wh she still has control
o#er their rights.
Catherine the great is also an absolute ruler because she b di#ine rights. &o
lead with di#ine rights means that a person rules to the will of god instead of to the will
of their people or sub*ects. "n Catharine%s situation! she once 'illed her husband. She
said that he died an une+pected death from colic. She said that his death was e#idence
of god1s di#ine intent. &his is an e+ample of how she belie#es in ruling b di#ine rights.
Catherine pro#ed that she was an absolute ruler in man was. She belie#ed that
ruling in an absolute form was the best wa to run the go#ernment. She had control of
the church! the arm! rights and economic reforms such as the serf issue. "n the end
she did not resol#e the serf problem and put man of them in a worse position. She was
an absolute ruler and held all the power for ma*orit of her ruling.
Resources
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h31-gr6c.htm
http://www.biography.com/people/catherine-ii-
9!16"page#3
http://historyofrussia.org/catherine-the-great-
biography/