The “Magnificent Age” - Catherine II TL

[alexmilman]

1. First things first. July 17, 1762

““You can do many things with bayonets, but it is rather uncomfortable to sit on them.”
Taleyrand
“The art of governing is not to let people get old in their position.”
“Nothing in the world is more haughty than a man of moderate capacity when once raised to power.”
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”
Napoleon
“Study people, try to use them without entrusting them indiscriminately.”
“Paper tolerates everything”
“Politics is not a hospital. He who is weak is taken out with his heels forward.”
Catherine II

​

[Note: except for the last sentence, this chapter is pretty much OTL; CII needs some time to get comfortable and start displaying its “improved” personality. 😉]

The coup was completed. Peter III had been sitting in Ropsha closely guarded by a bunch of people assembled from those who hated him most with Alexey Orlov, one of the most prominent figures of the plot (and brother of Catherine’s current lover) in charge. The obvious question was how to handle the situation without ending up smelling like s—t. Well, actually the immediately involved personages were divided into two different groups, each with its own attitudes:

• People in Ropsha and those who may come there within few days. None of them, and especially Alexey Orlov, had been excessively smell sensitive but none of them wanted to end up as a scapegoat. Some of them had the personal grudges with the former emperor and Alexey was a strong supporter of the “family idea” of his brother Grigori marrying Catherine.
• Catherine and the “responsible figures” like Count Panin and Hetman Razumovsky were much more sensitive regarding the appearances and a need to explain situation to the European courts so a whole variety of options had been considered all the way to sending Peter to Holstein.

Catherine was in a rather precarious situation: besides betraying her husband she was also planning to usurp the throne from her own son and her support base at that moment was quite narrow: the Guards regiments. Well, “sitting on the bayonets” could be uncomfortable in general but since the death of Peter I this was the case more often than not so it could be OK if not rather inconvenient nuance: the Guards, indeed, put on the Russian throne 4 out of 7 Russian rulers (counting herself) but now there was a potential problem. Her husband, if he was not such an indecisive person, could crush the coup, even if initially successful, with a very big iron fist: the army of 60,000 composed of the veterans of the 7YW under command of the best Russian general of that war, P.A.Rumyantsev, was staying in the Kolberg-Stettin region and Rumyantsev was openly loyal to Peter who promoted him into general-in-cheif and awarded with the highest Russian Order of St. Andrew and Holsten order of St. Anna. If Peter without wasting time rode west sending the fast couriers to Rumyantsev, then Catherine’s reign would last only for as long as it would take the vanguard troops of Rumyantsev’s army arrive to St.Petersburg vicinity and perhaps even less so: the Guards (3 infantry and one cavalry regiments with a close to zero military experience) were not something capable to resist the overwhelming force of the veterans and most probably some of the plotters would simply deliver Catherine to her husband to save their hides.

This did not happen and Rumyantsev swore the loyalty oath to the new regime but, with so many people breaking their oaths to Peter III, who could guarantee that he would stick to his own if situation changes? For example, what if Peter somehow gets free? What about the nobility (as opposite to a small group of the St.Petersburg aristocrats) among whom Peter, after his Ukaz of Freedom of Nobility, was quite popular? What about the very influential Count Panin who was a governor of Tsesarevich Paul and wanted him om a throne with Catherine being a regent and himself a brain behind the throne? What if he gets in alliance with Rumyantsev?

Something has to be done but what?

Letters sent to Catherine by Alexey Orlov from Ropsha:

#1. “… Our freak got very ill and was covered by his unaddented colic, and I'm afraid that he may die tonight, and even more afraid, he may not …”
#2. “… I’m fearing You Majesty’s wrath, so that you did not think anything bad about use and so that we did not became the reason of your enemy’s death… he is now so sick that I doubt that he will survive until evening, he is now unconscious and all our team is praying that he would be out of our hands as soon as possible…”

However, their collective prayer was clearly ignored Above and possibility to get out with a clean reputation was gone.

#3. “… Mother, he is not in the world, but no one thought about it, and how should we plan to raise our hands against the Sovereign. But, empress, trouble happened: we were drunk, and he too, he argued with Prince Fyodor [Baryatinsky]; we didn't have time to push them aside and he was gone. We are all guilty….” There is a tiny problem: unlike the 1st two, there is no surviving original of the third letter and the only source of information is a “copy” of that letter made by … Fedor Rastopchin. This may be fine if Rastopchin was not one of the most dishonest people in Russia of his time, which was quite a fit to accomplish. So this specific letter may or may not exist. Not that this would change much.

Here goes the well-published event. Alexey Orlov personally reports Catherine about the event, with Count Panin being very conveniently present (probably just dropped by or something) as a witness, and Catherine utters a historic sentence [1]: “My glory is dead! The future generations will never forgive me for this involuntary crime.” (err… did she had any “glory” at the moment?). Very dramatic and quoted to death. Well, considerations regarding the posthumous glory definitely were outweighed by the considerations of gratitude to the Orlov family…

There are numerous versions on who exactly and how exactly killed Peter. There was no doubts that Orlov let the assassins to get to the late emperor but who were the assassins? The story about a brawl and occasional death never was taken seriously and three names had been circulated:

• A.M.Shwanvich, officer of the Guards who during the reign of Elizabeth as an …er… “official enemy” of the Orlov brothers. Usually, the brothers, by a combined power of their fists, had been dominating the drinking and billiard establishments but Shwanwich was stronger than any of them and eventually there was a mutual agreement that when there is one to one situation, Orlov leaves the place but if they are in plural, Shwanwich would have to leave. On some occasion of “one to many” Shwanvich did left but by whatever reason got excessively pissed off and when Alexey got out, hit him with a sword leaving a terrible scar on his face (absent on the official portraits). After the coup he expected a revenge but Alexey behaved quite friendly a procured for him a good position. So he could act out of a gratitude.
• G.N.Teplov - worked as a secretary in the Young Court. Austrian ambassador described him as: “Recognized by everyone for the most insidious deceiver of the whole state, however, very dexterous, inseduating, self-serving, flexible, ready to do anything for money money.” Asked Peter to be allowed to participate in the operas staged in Oranienbaum theater. Peter did not allow it, as the professional level of musicians and actors in the Oranienbaum Theater was extremely high, and amateur Teplov had nothing to do there. Teplov was offended and insulted the Grand Duke, for which he was subjected to a 3-day arrest.
• F. G. Volkov received the same refusal for creative reasons. Arriving in Moscow in 1752 with his theater from Yaroslavl, he was liked by Empress Elizabeth and received an invitation to stay and work as a director of the court theater troupe. The Oranienbaum opera was extremely popular in these years, and Volkov was very vain. Perhaps he perceived the Grand Duke as his direct competitor on stage, or maybe he just wanted to be the head of the Oranienbaum theater. Peter didn't let Volkov up to his theater and the latter openly defamed Peter's productions and Peter himself. The whole court knew about Volkov's hatred of the Grand Duke.

Of course, none of these reasons was enough for putting the definite accusations except, perhaps, for the fact that there was no obvious reason for including civilians like Teplov and Volkov into the Ropsha “team” and even a lesser reason for an actor Volkov sitting at the Peter’s dinner table.

The official bulletin was blaming “hemorrhoid colic”. Of course, nobody was punished: what was there to punish for?

Most of Peter’s Holstein troops had been sent back home on a very bad ship, which sunk on a route with everyone on board.

But now the poor widow was free to get herself properly crowned (something that Peter did not do during his short reign) and, with the coronation date being scheduled for September 22 in Moscow (where all Russian rulers had been crowned), her schedule had been quite busy and, except for very few closest associates who got their bonuses immediately, the rest of those expecting benefices had to wait and hope. Of course, everybody who could put couple sentences together had been writing the panegyrics hoping to attract the imperial attention and the proper rewards. Well, the things are not always going as we expect….

___________
[1] Someone remarked that the historical sentences has to be stupid giving “Doctor Livingston, I presume?” as the best example. You are traveling in an area where Livingston is the only white person on hundreds miles in any direction so whom else are you expecting to met?

 

[alexmilman]

2. Coronation and other things

“The wind is howling in the field and a fool is getting rich in his dream.”
Ukrainian proverb
“Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world.”
ABBA
“Слишком много орлов.” [1]
Joke at the coronation of Catherine II
“Catherine belonged to those spiritual constructions that do not understand what a belief is and why it is needed when there is a consideration.”
“Having conceived the project, she thought more about what would be said about her than about what would come out of the planned business.”
V. Kluchevski, ‘Catherine II’

​

General situation.
From the report sent to Maria Theresa: “Horror and surprise gripped the nobility at the news of the change of power. Most of the nation seemed once and for all not disposed to the foreign origin of the new sovereign.” Taking into an account that at least since the time of Elizabeth the Russian “secret service” was very good in intercepting and decoding the international mail, Catherine most probably was familiar with the content of this report but even without reading it she could not avoid knowing that her position was quite shaky on more than one account:

• Her foreign origin - Peter III, with all his “Germanishness”, was a grandson of Peter I but she was a 100% German.
• The 7YW combined with a systematic mismanagement completely destroyed the Russian finances and the soldiers were not receiving salaries for more than a year with the arrears amounting to 15,000,000 rubles.
• In the state affairs he did not have any reliable political backup:
  • Count Panin was in almost open opposition after she “bypassed” Paul: being his governor, Panin expected to become a true power behind the throne. His reputation of the greatest Russian expert in the foreign affairs made him indispensable so Catherine stuck with him but could not fully trust him. The only thing these two had in common was an idea of a close alliance with Prussia.
  • Hetman K. Razumovsky supported the coup mostly because he, as a honorary lieutenant-colonel of Izmailovsky Guards Regiment, would have to go to war with Denmark and he did not want to: being enormously rich, he was enjoying his life style and had no intention to suffer any war-related inconveniences. “At Razumovsky's kitchen, a whole bull, ten rams, a hundred chickens and other things in the appropriate number were exterminated daily. His main chef was the famous Barido, left in Russia by the Marquis de la Chétardie and considered even higher than Duval himself, the French cook of Frederick II. Razumovsky's servants numbered up to three hundred.” As a compensation for the services granted during the coup he expected that the hetmanship will be made hereditary. Anyway, neither he nor his elder brother Alexey, even if neither was a fool, could be of any serious help in the state affairs even if just because they never were engaged in a state business during the reign of Elizabeth and had no intention to exert themselves.
  • Orlov family got very close to the throne but, even before the coup, Catherine had few illusions about usefulness of Grigory outside the bed and the Guards regiments; within weeks after Peter’s death any doubts on this account disappeared and he started being a burden rather than an asset. Catherine still wanted him as a lover but was he a good ROI? Alexey, seemingly, was a different story in the brains area but he stuck to the family loyalty. The other three brothers were useful mostly in the fistfight. All of them expected enormous rewards and they were not alone in these expectations. Catherine’s personal problem was that she became emotionally quite attached to Grigory and her calculating brain had difficulties in overcoming other parts of her anatomy (just in case, of course I’m talking exclusively about her heart 😜) even when Grigory started behaving increasingly obnoxiously not in private but in public as well.

Situation was “catastrophic but not serious” [2]:

Being foreign. Even during the time of Elizabeth Catherine had been diligently working upon image of “being more Russian than the Russians” starting from the public display of her newly acquired Orthodoxy and all the way to learning the Russian. An issue of her accent [3] was a debatable but as far as the writing was concerned, she was helped by two things:

• Good secretary.
• Absence of a coherent Russian grammar, which allowed her to make 4 mistakes in 3 letter word without becoming a laughingstock [4].

Official coronation, being something of a sacral ceremony, would fully legitimize her and after this the task will be just stick to the image pushing her Russishness down everybody’s throats.

Russian finances were such an area that to call it “grey” would sound as an unhealthy optimism. To start with, nobody could tell for sure what was the state income because so far attempts of the previous reigns to create a functional structure of the collection and accounting had been failing. It was, more or less, known how much state is spending but an additional beauty of the situation was the fact that in an absence of formal budget it was totally at the ruler’s whim to move money from one category to another or to make more copper money.

In a much advertised move Catherine “found” the needed amount in the “cabinet money” and distributed them to the troops. Of course, this act of a “generosity” [5] produced a lot of praise and greatly increased a number of the bayonets on which she was now sitting.

The bad part was that something had to be done, and fast, to put the finances into at least some semblance of an order and nobody could tell for sure how to perform such a miracle. Especially if the task involved increase of the state revenues without completely destroying the already impoverished peasants and alienating nobility.

The safest course of actions was to announce a return to the fiscal administrative structure created by Peter (three “collegiums” dealing with the finances) because with reference to the Great One you simply can’t miss (and, of course, nobody would dare to remind that Peter run Russian economy to the ground and immediately after his death his taxation system had to be abolished). How things will be done in a reality is a completely different issue but reputation of someone dutifully following the Peter’s course was a great PR. Actually, wouldn’t it be a great idea to say something along the lines that before starting with something new, she is always ordering to check if Peter planning to do it and always find that he did? This would not even be a lie: during his reign Peter issued enormous number of all types of instructions (all the way to the fashion of the trousers and the useful instructions about finding a toilet when you came to visit someone) so it would be physically impossible to prove that he did miss something.


“Asset”. Actually, as far as the advisory assets were involved, there was one readily available. Peter III released, among others, Fieldmarshal Munnich and made him a member of the Imperial council. Allegedly, during the coup he gave Peter reasonable advice to flee to Revel and join Rumyantsev’s army, which advice Peter did not follow. After the coup he swore loyalty to Catherine. Fieldmarshal was 78 years old but still quite active and there was no doubt in his vast experience in the state and military affairs.

Catherine dissolved Peter’s Imperial Council … and replaced it with Council of the Imperial Court [6] of which Munnich became a member. She also found him quite useful in getting advices on various “unofficial” issues. [7] At last she found a loyal person who also was quite intelligent and experienced. Advices of the old fieldmarshal tended to be on a decisive side and Catherine started feeing herself more sure in what began to shape in her mind as a future course of actions.

Preparing to coronation was not an easy task. The ceremony had to be impressive, well-organized and, most important, promoting Catherine’s image as “Mother of the country”. Ceremonial robes already were mentioned but the most important item was a crown. So far, each ruler had her or his coronation crown and these first imperial crowns, as well as the royal crowns, were also treated pragmatically - after the coronation they were taken apart and the jewels that decorated them were used for various other purposes (only one or two survived). But Catherine decided to get one which would last to be used by her successors.

The great imperial crown for the sacred coronation of Empress Catherine II, was made by the court jeweler Jerome Pozier. According to his memoirs, Ekaterina instructed the chamberlain Betsky to break outdated jewelry and use stones on a new crown. Pozier selected everything that could be useful for the crown - the largest stones, diamond and colored, "which was the richest thing that is available in Europe." In addition to the stones, 1 pound of gold and 20 pounds of silver were released to make the crown. As a result, despite the jeweler's efforts to make the crown light, it turned out to be "five pounds of weight". What the work of the crown cost, not counting the stones that were state property, is unknown. But the book "Diamond Fund" reports that the total bill of Posier for the work related to the coronation was 50,000 rubles, which was equal to the total amount released for the coronation as a whole.

The crown has 37 very fine, large, white pearls, nineteen diamonds, all averaging over 5 carats (1.0 g) in weight, the largest being the large Indian pear-shaped stone of 12⅝ cts in front, set between two bands of diamonds above and below, numerous small diamonds. At the center and apex of the central arch is a diamond rosette of twelve petals from which rises a large red spinel, weighing 398.72 carats. This spinel, in turn, is surmounted by a cross of five diamonds. In total, the crown has 4936 diamonds.

_______
[1] “Too many eagles” - the coronation robe of CII was embroidered with the imperial eagles (172 total) and at the ceremony she was surrounded by Orlov brother («Орлов» is derived from «орел», “the eagle”).
[2] Definition coined by the A-H military during WWI.
[3] Obviously, the contemporaries had been praising her Russian but those who were at court had to and those who were not at court would not know one way or another.
[4] It was quite normal to write the words based on how they are sound so instead of «еще» she was writing «исчо».
[5] It seems, unless CII invented some gimmick, that during the 7YW Elizabeth was hoarding money, including war subsidies from the Hapsburgs, considering them as her personal cash.
[6] In OTL created only in 1768. Initially, to deal with the issues related to the Ottoman War, but kept functioning all the way to 1801. ITTL CII is faster at figuring out a need for a permanent advisory institution.
[7] In OTL he was used mostly in his capacity of an engineer overseeing construction works at Kronstadt, Revel and Rågervik ports and Ladoga Canal.

 

[alexmilman]

3. Coronation (cont)

“That's the day created by the Lord! Let's rejoice and be happy!”
A. Sumarokov, Speech on accession of Catherine II on the throne
“Flattery is like a weapon painted in the picture: it is pleasant, but there is no benefit.”
Pythagoras
“We always like flattering when it comes to the qualities we lack. Tell the fool that he is very smart and the rogue that he is the most honest person in the world, and they will embrace you.”
H. Fielding
“Human ingratitude knows no boundaries”.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“Any undertaking is always divided into four stages: the first is intimidation; the second is entanglement; the third is the punishment of the innocent; the fourth is the rewarding of the uninvolved.”
general principle of management​

Intermission. For those who interested in the “historical specifics”, I just found a price tag for what will become in the future the Great Imperial Crown. Cost of the precious stones in it amounted to 2,000,000 rubles. Of course, pretty much all of them already had been available but, to get an idea what this meant, in 1767 all expenses on the army amounted to 9,800,000 rubles and those on the Imperial Court - 2,600,000.

On September 13, 1762, the solemn entry of the sovereign into Moscow took place under the ringing of bells and the roar of cannons. The streets of Moscow were decorated with garlands, hung carpets and tapestries, thick greens of fir trees and many flowers. All the ladies were instructed to come to the coronation in the "rombronds of color", and the Knights of the Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Alexander Nevsky - in the Order's attire. Against their background, the empress's outfit looked particularly impressive, truly creating a triumphant image of imperial power.
On September 22, at about ten o'clock in the morning, to the sounds of trumpets and timpani, the solemn procession moved to the Assumption Cathedral. The Empress at this time was in her inner palace and was preparing for the sacraments: chrismation and communion. From the inner chambers, the empress went to the audience chamber, where there were regalia prepared in advance. After the usual sprinkling of the royal way with holy water, the procession from the Red Porch to the Assumption Cathedral began. The Empress was walking under a canopy, in a brocade dress decorated with a gold posement and embroidered double-headed eagles.
“More than twenty bishops and forty archimandrites and other clerics, headed by Archbishop Demetrius of Novgorod, met Catherine at the door of the cathedral. In the prece of all the clergy, Catherine Alekseevna went to the royal gate, where she kissed the holy icons, and then ascended the throne and sat on the imperial throne prepared for her. Wearing a porphyry and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, she laid the crown on herself. At this time, a volley of cannons was hit on Red Square. Then there were congratulations from the subjects, and Archbishop Demetrius of Novgorod from the entire Russian Fatherland addressed the Imperial Majesty with a congratulatory speech, after which he also performed the rite of anointing over Catherine. Then Catherine went to the throne through the Royal Gate and there she joined the Holy Mysteries in the royal rank.”

Then the whole procession led by the Empress went to the Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals for the usual ritual of bowing to the most famous icons and relics (all this with a heavy coronation garb) and returned to the palace. On the way the assembled troops and enthusiastic crowd was shouting “hurrah!” and making other appropriate noises [1]. Enthusiasm was definitely stimulated by the fact that the gold and silver coins had been thrown into the crowd [2]. After finishing this part of a ceremony Catherine returned to the palace and the “interesting part” began.

The awards.
In the audience hall, the empress declared favors mainly to the persons who showed their devotion to her when ascending the throne, as well as to those who distinguished themselves by bravery during the former Prussian War. This was followed by a gala dinner in the Faceted Chamber in honor of the Holy Coronation of Empress Catherine II.

“Award in Literature”.
A person who at the time was passing for the Russian leading literater, A. Sumarokov, wrote a panegyric dedicated to Catherine’s accession, predicting that from this day a golden age of the Russian history will begin and explaining why the Neva is more blessed than a Nile: the Nile is bringing prosperity to Egypt only when it is flooding and not even always at that time while the Neva, and with it the whole empire are benefitting around the clock because due to the wisdom of the Empress the happiness is being spread all over the empire on a daily basis. How did he knew that, taking into an account that Catherine did not start ruling yet, nobody could tell for sure but how can you argue against “This day is foundation of our happiness. This day Catherine the Wise accessed the throne raising with her the truth and all virtues; and with them our happiness… This day is great because Catherine is great by her virtues and deeds [3] … our empress is famous not by having some specific virtue but by having all of them. Human abilities are simply inadequate for giving an adequate praise to her …. “

Catherine was definitely pleased: Sumarokov’s debts had been paid off, he got a permission to publish all his works at the expense of Her Majesty’s Cabinet and was promoted to the rank of state councilor.

Intermission. Getting ahead of time (not sure that I’ll mention him in a future), the received honors got into his head. He tried to get into the politics and some of his works had been forbidden. In 1764, he planned to make a great European trip to Italy, France and Holland, mainly to get acquainted with the theatrical life of these countries; but he never received permission to leave. One of the most important reasons was the inconsistent amount for the trip - 12,000 rubles, which he requested from the treasury, with his inherent self-esteem stating that they would fully pay off after the publication of his travel notes.
In 1767, Sumarokov received the "Nakaz of Catherine II" for the review, and the comments he made caused the following reaction of the Empress:

"Mr. Sumarokov is a good poet, but too soon thinks to be a good legislator; he has no connection in his thoughts, to criticize the whole chain, and for that he is tied to the appearance of the links that make up the chain, and finds that there are mistakes here or there, which vices he would have left if he understood the connection."​

From this point his fortunes slowly but steadily were going down. He died in 1777 in extreme poverty. The morale, if any is needed, if you started kissing the butt, keep doing it because stopping may be unhealthy.

Prussian War.

• Fieldmarshal Saltykov - victor at Palzig and Kunersdorf; got sword with the diamonds, made a Senator, adjutant-general and appointed commander-in-chief (governor-general) of Moscow.
• Fieldmarshal Buturlin - the last Russian commander in the 7YW; his only contribution to the war was an adamant refusal to participate in it: held his army in the PLC ignoring all orders of Elizabeth; got an official document listing his services and awards (very valuable award) and sword with the diamonds.
• General Prince Golitsyn - the main achievements were (a) being present at the battle of Zorndorf in retinue of general Fermor (Russian commander later accused of a lousy leadership in that battle; otherwise very good and generally liked subordinate commander), (b) at Kunersdorf commanded Russian left flank, which was smashed by the Prussians (somewhere in a process Golitsyn was wounded and left the battlefield). Got Order of St. Andrew, appointed adjutant-general and a member of the Imperial Council, allowed free access to the imperial residence.

Out of the list above, Saltykov was too old and ill for an active military service, Buturlin was known for absence of any military interests and Golitsyn an amicable person with quite modest military skills, which he did not even had a chance to demonstrate. However, all three of them belonged to the top level of the Russian aristocracy.

And Rumyantsev got …. big fat nothing (of course, he already the highest Russian reward, order of St. Andrew, from Peter III). Catherine could not forgive him that he swore loyalty to her only after receiving reliable news of Peter’s death. He asked for a retirement but Catherine sent him a flattering letter in which she refused to accept his resignation. Liking him or not, she understood his potential usefulness. However, for realization of his potential some serious administrative actions had to be taken and she had to place her imperial posteriors on the throne more comfortably to conduct them.

[Treatment of the “eagles” of the coup deserve a separate a separate chapter.]

At midnight, Catherine incognito went down to Red Square to admire the illumination, and, according to her letter to Count von Keyserling, "the people recognized her and greeted her with a loud "hurrah" until she left for the inner rooms." This time the holiday for the people was arranged not only on Cathedral Square, but also on Red Square. The coronation celebrations lasted seven days. On the first day, fountains of white and red wine beat for three hours, the people were treated to fried meat for free, and the coins were thrown at the crowd. The same thing happened on the seventh day of the celebrations, then replacing the official celebration with a "private celebration" in the houses of the Moscow nobility.

____________
[1] This is all nice and fine in an official report but I wonder if there was some “filtration” procedure for letting people into the Kremlin? To start with, the area on which the whole performance took place is not too big, especially if you allocate space for the troops and passage of the procession so there had to be some control of the numbers. Then, the crowd had, of course, represent all classes of the happy subjects but these subjects, even from the lower classes, had to be decently dressed (no rags, dirt, etc.). Third, there had to be some control of the behavior - shouting “hurrah!” was OK but the attempts to deliver a petition and other untoward activities had to be stopped before they even happen. Who were doing all these things? I’m not sure that the effective police in a modern meaning even existed in Moscow of that time. Were the Guards in charge of these functions?
[2] We are back to [1] and even more so. The main coin at that time were coppers and the coins mentioned were most probably special “coronation money” minted for the occasion. Try to figure out behavior of a crowd into which the gold and silver had been thrown. Without a strong crowd control there would be a bloody (literary) mess.
[3] Of course, somebody with a cynical mindset could object that in the virtues area she already had one (by some sources more) children out of a wedlock and that so far the only deed in her credit was participation in a plot against her own husband, which (at least at the time in question) did not produce any practical results. But such a cynical person had no place in the new blessed and flourishing Russia because one of her first actions was to restore certain state institution which her husband foolishly abolished (you know, the dedicated public servants who were working around the clock ensuring happiness of the citizens by all necessary means and instruments).

 

[alexmilman]

4. Payoffs

“Everyone will be rewarded according to his deeds.”
Unknown author
“After invention of money all other forms of appreciation became unnecessary.”
Andrzej Brycht, ‘DANCING W KWATERZE HITLERA’
“The material reward can be more than any praise. “
E. Sevrus
“The reward for high feats lies in themselves.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Jr.
“Insult is an usual award for the job well done.
M. А. Bulgakov
“The virtue serves itself as a reward; a person surpasses virtue when he serves and does not receive a reward.”
“The official dies, but his orders remain on the face of the earth.”
Kozma Prutkov
“If everyone gets what they deserve, some should have orders not in front, but in the back.”
Boris Krutier
"In large meetings at court, it is curious to observe the hard care with which the empress tries to please everyone, freedom and annoyance, with which everyone presses her about her affairs and her opinions... So, she strongly feels her dependence to endure it."
Breteil, The French ambassador​

Trivia. At that time Russian Empire had only three state awards: St. Andrew (the highest), St. Alexander Nevsky and St. Catherine (awarded exclusively to the females). All three were the high level orders which could be given only to the high-ranking personages.

As a result, at the start of her reign Catherine had very limited options in the terms of rewarding the ordinary scumbags … oops, the heroes of the coup for their services: money or their equivalent (estates with the serfs) or promotions. Or both.

Shortly before the coronation, one of the old courtiers who served both Anna Ioannovna, the Infant Tsar John Antonovich, Elizabeth Petrovna, and Peter III, who was deposed by his wife who was preparing to become Catherine II, told her: "What a pity that you are not surrounded by more honest people," hinting that her inner circle is made up of famous treasury thiefs. "I know," the Empress replied, "but I need them."

Catherine II, with the scarcity of the treasury she had after Peter III, had to get out and look for opportunities to encourage the loyalty of the people around her. First of all, it was necessary to award those who participated in the coup and helped to get the crown. After all, the desire of the rest of the nobility to serve the new sovereign depended on how generous the awards would be to the putschists.

The new Empress paid off the Guards soldiers without delay in the days of the coup that began on June 28, 1762. The regiments of the Guards then took to the streets of St. Petersburg in order to stop any attempts by Peter III's supporters to support the deposed emperor. But in fact, the capital was put at their full disposal for three days. Soldiers broke into wine and edible shops, robbed wealthy passers-by, especially foreigners. Eyewitnesses recalled that the best pass to travel around the city in those days was silver and gold coins. And if the soldiers were satisfied with the fee for the passage through the picket, they let the carriage even without the usual swearing at the passengers. The Guards also earned a good job on the protection of houses, the owners of which quickly understood that in order to preserve the property, it was best to agree with an officer or sergeant, to contribute to their well-being and to get a couple of sober soldiers to protect themselves from their comrades in arms who were enjoying their short-term power.

Much more was required to pay for the services of high-ranking participants in the conspiracy - land, peasants and a lot of money. Catherine II could not go the way used by the former monarchs - to take away lands and estates from some and reward them to others - Catherine II could not: the family ties in the Russian noble class were painfully complex and diverse. If you touch one family, dozens or even hundreds of others will be offended. And even during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, the nobility was not accustomed to confiscation.

Therefore, the new empress had no choice but to go all-in and distribute state lands that were owned by the Grand Dukes, and then the Moscow tsars from time immemorial, with peasants who had not previously known the power of the landlord. The risk was huge, because the income from these lands replenished the personal treasury of monarchs and the storehouses of royal palaces. However, was it worth thinking about the distant future when the blackest day for her - another coup - could happen literally at any moment. [2] Catherine had to act fast.

The high ranking personages, including Hetman of Little Russia Kirill Razumovsky, due to an acute shortage of cash, were awarded not with monetary awards, but with an increase to the annual salary by 5 thousand.

Initially it was supposed to give estates to only 19 people and give almost everyone 1000 souls [1] (a total of 17,029 souls), and the rest to be awarded with money and rinks, but then many, instead of money, probably at their own request, received the estate. Instead of 19 people were awarded with inhabited estates in the hereditary possession total of 30 persons, and the total number of granted peasants has changed little: namely, 18,277 souls were distributed, so that each person received less than expected before - from 250 to 1,027 souls. Out of that number 12,177 souls were given from palace estates, 4,700 from sovereign-owned estates, and from which estates the two persons (1,400 souls) were granted, it is unknown. The main personages, including Grigory and Alexey Orlov, got 800 souls each or, if they wanted money, 24,000 rubles. Active participants of the conspiracy, who were not among its leaders, received 600 souls, that is, 18 thousand rubles each. And the tertiary putschists had to be content themselves with four hundred souls. So, at the first glance, the awards were rather moderate and distributed justly. But only at the first glance.

The sources.
The biggest source of the gifts were palace estates. The peasants belonged to the territories handled by the court administration and used to maintain the imperial palaces and properties.

By the time of Catherine II's accession to the throne, 62,052 souls of the sovereign’s peasants remained undistributed, and out of that pool most of the awards were made. Thus, from these estates, the Orlov brothers received 2,929 souls in 1762, and in 1764. As a result, within three years the number of sovereign’s peasants decreased by 10,265 souls. This was a noticeable hit to Catherine’s personal income but, sitting on the bayonets had its obvious disadvantages.

Another, rather limited pool were the estates confiscated by the state for the debts to the state bank or, in the earlier reigns, taken from the persons who fell into a disfavor.

In some cases the government had to buy the properties to use them as the gifts.

The brothers.

Formally, the main figure was Grigory, Catherine’s lover with whom she had a bastard child, Alexey Bobrinsky.[3] He was handsome, personally brave and rather good natured but this is pretty much a complete a list of his good qualities. After the coup he was promoted to major-general. On the same day, he was awarded the title of active chamberlain, the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky and a sword decorated with diamonds.

On the day of her coronation, September 22 (October 3), 1762, Empress Catherine II promoted Major General Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov to lieutenant general and appointed her adjutant-general. In addition, by the decree of September 22 (October 3), 1762, Chamberlain Ivan, Lieutenant General Grigory, Guards Major Alexei, Chamber Junkers Fyodor and Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov were elevated, with their descending offsprings, to the count's dignity of the Russian Empire.

The problems started immediately after the coup and kept getting more serious after the coronation when the brothers started treating the state Treasure as their own purse. Almost every week they asked the Empress and received 5-10 thousand rubles each. And despite the fact that their position and influence differed quite significantly, all the money received by the brothers at first were divided equally, preserving in the relationship and other elements of the Russian patriarchal life they were used to since childhood. It was said, for example, that the older brother could beat any of the younger ones for the guilt without looking at the ranks.

The Empress gave Grigory the favorite estate of her predecessor Elizabeth Petrovna - Ropsha near St. Petersburg. In addition to the magnificent palace, the estate included a luxurious garden, and most importantly, it numbered 12,000 acres of land and 1,100 peasant souls. During trips to Moscow, Orlov could live in any of the royal palaces and use the palace storehouses and carriages without any restrictions. Moreover, the Empress collected for Orlov in a special collection of all kinds of precious things and trinkets, and so that the favorite did not suffer from lack of funds (although he received a very significant amount from his estates annually - 200,000 rubles), Catherine also assigned him a state pension of 150,000 rubles annually.

This avalanche of the gifts could continue but:

• No matter how hard Catherine tried to make him a statesman, Grigory was hopeless and his participation in the Imperial Council was both confusing and embarrassing because when he was opening his mouth, none of the Council members knew for sure if he is repeating what the Empress ordered him to say or retelling ideas of his brother Alexey (brain of the family) or expressing his own thoughts (well, this option could be figured out 😂) and react accordingly. The same applied to the numerous commissions to which Catherine assigned him.
• One of the main Grigory’s free time occupations were dedicated efforts to screw all Catherine’s ladies and maids in waiting, with few exceptions based upon the age or excessively ugly appearance [4]. For a while Catherine tolerated this but her tolerance had been wearing quite thin.
• The brothers had been pushing a very unpopular idea of Grigory’s marriage to Catherine. “Hitrovo plot” was just a tiny reflection of a general negative attitude but they (or rather Grigory, with his usual absence of tact) kept pressing the issue until Count Panin officially declared in the Senate: “Her Majesty can do whatever she wants but Missis Orlov will not be the Russian Empress!” Catherine got it but Grigory did not and soon enough, probably not being quite sober, quarreled with Catherine in public ending up saying: “I put it on the throne and within a month I can dethrone you!” To which, Hetman Razumovsky, who was present at the scene, commented: “This is true but we’ll have you hanged in two weeks!”

Shaping up the decision.
Obviously, Grigory became a liability rather than an asset but for Catherine there were two major considerations:

• She still could not firmly decide which part of her anatomy is prevailing in the decision making.
• She still feared Orlov’s popularity among the Guards who were forming garrison of the capital.

On the first issue the decision had to be completely her own but on the second she got an advice from Fieldmarshal Munnich. Regardless his more than advanced age [5] he was still quite energetic and in a full control of his mental faculties and his recommendation was clear: garrison the towns around St. Petersburg, from Viborg to Narva with 40 - 50,000 army troops and keep a decisive, loyal and popular general readily available.

The first part of advise was not a problem: the former Rumyantsev’s army had been marching out for Prussia and placing these troops as Munnich proposed made sense because it would mean a reasonably short march and, at least Viborg would provide an extra security against Sweden. Of course, it will take time and money to build the proper barracks but for a while the troops could be billeted in the private houses. There was no reason for anybody to consider the whole thing as a threat.

The second part was not that easy for Catherine. Of course, Prince Golitsyn was awarded and promoted and had been a charming aristocrat but could he act with an iron fist if push comes to shove? This was a big “IF”. The obvious candidate was Rumyantsev but Catherine did not trust him: he swore loyalty to her only after learning about Peter’s death, did not pretend to be her admirer and after being bypassed with the awards may be angry with her. Well, as was written by the (ill)famous poet Trediakovsky, “способов не нет и некоторыми таковыми и я владею” [6]. Тhe most obvious “method” in Catherine’s disposal was her friend Countess Praskovia Bruce “She was beautiful, smart, kind, very dexterous, but she was not distinguished by the severity of her morals”. Well, her morals were neither here nor there, what was important was the fact that she was a sister of Peter Rumyantsev and could be conveniently used to remedy the situation.

Alexey Orlov was both a problem and an asset. Unlike his brother, he was very intelligent and could be useful to the state but his strong attachment to his brother could be a problem. Out of two of them, he was the most popular one among the Guards but elevation of the brothers produced resentment among many of his former comrades and it was rather questionable if Orlovs are still controlling the Guards. However, testing this could be a risky exercise and Catherine was not, yet, feeling herself quite comfortable on the throne. She needed to implement some reforms which would endear her to the broader circles of Russian nobility. And to execute advice of Fieldmarshal Munnich.
_________
[1] “soul” was a grownup male, a “taxable unit”. In practical term - a family
[2] So-called “Khitrovo plot”. Fyodor Khitrovo was a young officer and an active participant of the coup. Catherine knew and liked him and he got a court rank of kamer-junker and 800 souls but he got envious of the awards granted to Orlov family and the rumors about Catherine's planned marriage to Grigory Orlov. He conspired with two fellow officers to talk Catherine out of her plan and, if necessary, to kill Orlov. Investigation found that this was much ado about nothing and definitely not a plot against Catherine. Three plotters had been fired from the service and sent … to their estates.
[3] Do not get carried away imagining touchy & feely family reunion. He got an estate, a million in a bank and was sent abroad for education. It seems that in the brains area he went after his father.
[4] There were probably some other exceptions. Not sure if, say, Praskovia Bruce, Catherine’s close friend, was on the list because the obvious question would be “who screwed whom?”
[5] Note to the certain disrespectful youngsters: he was over 78 years old and, regardless his physical and mental shape, his age can be defined as “advanced”. 😜
[6] “the methods are not absent and I know some of them”

 

[alexmilman]

5. Smartening up

“There are thieves who are used to stealing so much that stealing no longer seems shameful to them.”
“If I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years and I'm asked what's going on in Russia now, I'll answer: they drink and steal...”
“I wanted something: maybe the constitution, maybe sturgeon with horseradish, maybe to rob someone.”
“The severity of Russian laws is mitigated by the non-bindingness of their implementation.”
“Introduce enlightenment with moderation, avoiding bloodshed as much as possible.”
Saltykov-Schedrin
“You can give a thief a million and he will still keep stealing.”
I.A.Krylov
“Theft on earth is invincible, because a person's sense of profit is higher than the instinct of self-preservation.”
K. Balukhta
“I [in Russia] am robbed in the same way as others, but this is a good sign, and shows that there is something to steal.”
Private correspondence of Catherine II, 1775
“You need to act slowly, with caution and with reason.”
“When issuing a law, put yourself in the place of the one who should obey it.”
“About the art of government: the first rule is to make people think they want it themselves.”
Catherine II​

OTL numbers (to get a perspective).
Just a small part of the list of the beneficiaries in “unproductive” and “questionably productive” categories (the favorites, and not all of them):

• The coup participants (without Orlov brothers) got 850,000 rubles.
• Orlov brothers in 20 years got 17,000,000 and 45,000 souls. Presumably, Alexey Orlov appropriated a considerable share of the 20 million rubles allocated by the Empress for the Mediterranean campaign. In addition, he took most of the trophies captured by the Russian fleet from the Turks.
• Korsakov for 15 months of being a favorite got 1,000,000.
• Lanskoi got 7,000,000 in lands, palaces, jewels and money.
• Mamonov got 3,000 souls and 100,000.
• P. Zubov got 36 (paid) administrative positions, huge estates (confiscated in Poland) with 13,000 souls - cost 2,500,000 and annual income 100,000 - and princely title.
• Potemkin - hard to tell. He got (officially) 37,000 souls and 9,000,000 rubles, Anichkov Palace, Tavric Palace (600,000). “Loaned” from the Treasury 3,500,000 (never returned), and unknown amounts from the private persons. Out of 55,000,000 assigned to the 2nd Ottoman War only 50,000,000 had at least some paper trail (mostly quite dubious) and the rest was “forgiven” [1].
• Zorich - 50,000 rubles and estates which included town Schklov and 7,000 peasants [2]

Some of the “related expenses”: The heirs of the Chamber Frau of Empress Marya Savishna Perekusikhina [3] got only diamonds and pearls for 500 thousand rubles. And the valet of Empress Sakharov bought extensive estates from 2,000 peasants.
ITTL Catherine is going to lower expenses in this category but this does not mean that she is going to try to abolish the whole “stimulus” system: the loyalty had to be bought, service rewarded and the people of that time had been quite materialistic. 😉

State Affairs.
Obviously, it was advisable to start reign with something non-controversial and popular and there was (is and will be) just such a subject, namely corruption. Three weeks after the beginning of her reign, Catherine released the "Manifesto of Corruption," in which she declared war on corruption. Which was quite cool and in line with what Peter I was doing, which was a big bonus ideologically. Well, the problem was in the fact that in this area Peter failed in a rather spectacular way: his own Prosecutor General of the Senate told him in the Senate “If you start hanging the thieves, you’ll find yourself without the subjects because we all are stealing”. And, where Peter failed with knout and gallows, Catherine with her “civilized methods” was doomed to fail as well: the honest people were a great rarity and she characterized Prosecutor General, Glebov, as “a rogue and a fraudster”.

Intermission. A.I. Glebov made his reputation on, as General-Krieg Commissioner, arranging a descent supply system during the 7YW. Peter III, with whom he was friendly, appointed him Attorney General and in this capacity he participated in writing “Decree of the Freedom of Nobility” and abolishing “Secret Chancellory” [4]. During the coup went on Catherine’s side, retained his position and, together with Count Panin, was assigned to the leadership of “Secret Expedition” [5]. Unfortunately, he got involved in, to put it mildly, “questionable commercial activities” and to keep him in his position was embarrassing. And here we have typical Catherine: she dismissed him from position of Prosecutor General with the order “not to assign him to any position” and …. left him in his position of General-Krieg Commissioner. Dishonest person in charge of the army supplies was obviously OK because this position was much less visible.

At that point Catherine became unbelievably lucky finding a rarest bird in the administrative zoo of the Russian Empire, a honest and capable person, Prince A.A. Vyazemsky. Traditionally, function of the Prosecutor General was verification of compliance of Senate decisions with applicable laws, as well as supervision of the Senators’ behavior during meetings. Taking into an account a general functionality of the Senate, the position also implied oversight of all administrative institutions. The Prosecutor General was also a mediator in cases between the Senate and the sovereign. Supervision helped to put the proceedings in order both in the very meetings of the Senate and in its offices.

And here Catherine faced a major problem. Traditional financial control system created by Peter I included three independent collegiums (ministries):

• Kamer collegium
• Stats-control collegium
• Revision collegium

After accession to the throne Catherine found that Stats-control collegium is recording all types of the expenses while two other are doing nothing. Collecting of all types of sate income had been handled by various non-financial collegiums and numerous state institutions. Control, not to mention, management of such distributed process was plain impossible and something should be done and fast because the Russian finances were in a very bad shape. At the moment the Senate was unable to calculate neither income nor expenses, while at the same time uncontrollably giving factories and manufactures to private individuals. It turned out that the customs duty throughout the country was given as “tax-farming” for only 2 million, while only the St. Petersburg customs, when Catherine put things in order there, gave 3 million income per year. Catherine noted that "the Senate assigned the voivodes, but did not know the number of cities in the Empire. The Senate, from its foundation, did not have a map of the entire empire. I, having been in the Senate, sent five rubles to the Academy of Sciences across the river from the Senate, and I gave the Kirillovsky printed atlas bought there at the same hour to the government Senate.”

These and many other issues had been, of course, very important but most of them would require a long and tedious work while the top priority task required fast and immediate action. And the task was to show who is the boss.

Soon after the coronation N.I. Panin proposed to restore the Imperial Council, according to which the monarch would rule the country by sharing power with several officials. The Council was created by Peter III month before the coup and had the right to issue decrees signed by the emperor, and on some cases - to make decisions without his participation (signed by the members of the Council on behalf of the sovereign). It existed for a short while after the the coup and then was abolished. Panin’s proposal was to “choose five or six people who will, with the ranks of state secretaries, manage the collegiums; they will gather in the office of the Empress, reporting to her each on their field and receive orders from her.” This, however, was not the whole project: the Senate was going to be deprived of its law-making right and divided into the departments.

Catherine rejected idea of a permanent council of the highest officials of the empire stating that “The Council established by law will eventually rise to the value of co-ruler, bring the subject too close to the sovereign and may give rise to a desire to share power with him.” Power-sharing was, of course, what Panin had in mind when designing his project and what Catherine definitely did not want. But she found the Senate-related part quite useful. Until now, the Senate has been the highest authority that combines legislative, judicial and administrative functions. By the Decree of December 26, 1763 the Senate was reorganized:

• The Senate lost its legislative initiative - all power over legislative activities was transferred to Catherine II and her state secretaries. The main functions remained judicial and supervisory.
• There was a division into 6 departments, each of which was responsible for its part of the state apparatus. The head of the five departments was the Chief Prosecutors, the head of the Senate and the first department - the Prosecutor General, who personally reported on the situation to the Empress.
• The order of consideration of cases provided for the need for a unanimous decision on the issue under consideration within the department. If the decision was controversial, it was considered at the general meeting of the Senate.

There was not a pipsqueak, which meant that now she is sitting on the throne reasonably comfortable and can proceed with the other ideas. Most probably, placement of the army troops around the capital was an useful addition to the general peace and tranquility.
With the issue of who is the boss being successfully resolved on the highest administrative level, it was time to do the same domestically, which was perhaps a little bit more complicated. To start with, her former boyfriend, Stanislaw Poniatovski, after learning about the coup got an idea of returning to Russia expecting a rich reward for the services granted in the past. Catherine, through the Russian Ambassador, informed him that he should not come but neither this nor the next message produced a desired effect and only a warning that if he comes to Russia the Orlov brothers will kill him cooled him down.

Reference to the Orlovs was, of course, useful but really Catherine's patience with Grigori already had been worn quite thin and as the first step avalanche of the free money to the family almost completely stopped. Grigori was getting more and more irritated but there already were occasions when Catherine refused to see him and she almost stopped inviting him to the discussions of the state affairs. He concentrated on his love affairs with the ladies of the court, which was not improving their relations. The final step was obviously a matter of a very short time.

Alexey, was a different issue. So far, he (just as other three brothers) kept himself on a background but on a few occasions he (unlike other four) shown himself capable of giving a good advice and Catherine was welcoming him at court even if his rough manners were often shocking the ladies. And, among other considerations, Alexei had at least one useful interest, a horse breeding. Strange as it may sound, Russian Empire had been suffering from a shortage of the horses suitable for a military use and in the carriages. The local breeds had been small and when Fieldmarshal Munnich created the cuirassiers regiments the horses had to be bought abroad. Similarly Duke Biron, who during the reign of Empress Anna in charge of the horses of imperial court, was routinely buying the horses abroad. Domestic breeding of the bigger horses by the private breeders only started and Orlov, with his considerable financial resources, could become a valuable addition to this much needed business.


But, strictly speaking, the Orlovs had been just small potatoes and could wait: Catherine had a couple of much bigger and unsuspecting targets for her activities in the immediate future….

_______
[1] The troops did not have the most necessary things, and the soldiers, eating hardtack alone, were dying from diarrhea in almost greater numbers than from the enemy.
[2] In Schklov he founded a school for the children of poor nobles on which he was spending 2,000 annually, plus 8,000 on its library and other related expenses.
[3] Very close friend of Catherine. Among other things, responsible for the 1st step of the approval of new favorites. It usually went like this. When Ekaterina had another candidate for the place of the favorite, she invited him to dinner in her room. Perekusikhina was also present at dinner. After dinner, the friends exchanged impressions, and if the young man passed the "selection", then Perekusikhina controlled the process preceding reaching Ekaterina's bed: he was examined by doctors and checked for "professional suitability" - this was usually done by Praskovya Bruce or Ekaterina Torsunkova. Only after that did the applicant find himself in the Empress's bedchamber.
[4] One of the successive institutions looking for internal well-being of the Russian State(s). 😉
[5] See [4]. Peter III naively thought that the state’s well-being can be based just on the good intentions. The rest is a history.

 

[alexmilman]

6. Foreign affairs #1

“I will not enter into the negotiation with the Danish king until all his troops have been withdrawn from Holstein.”
Catherine II
“Reinforce a party opposed to the dominant.”
Catherine II, instruction to the ambassador in Sweden
“Count Bruhl is promiscuous as a cat and cowardly as a hare.”
Catherine II about PM of Saxony
“It is all jealousy, the time will show that we are not attached to anybody’s policy.”
Catherine II on Austrian reaction to the Russian rapprochement with Prussia
“Fear to lose the nation’s love makes her shy.”
Prussian Ambassador to Frederich II
“The partition of Poland is a wide field on which different idle dreamers can walk, but on which wise politicians should not risk getting lost.”
Ministerial report to Louis XV
​

Domestic affairs aside, Catherine found itself in a really messy situation internationally. The traditional Austria-oriented policy lost its popularity during the 7YW of which the nation got tired and Peter’s break with Austria would not cause strong objections if it was not followed by unconditional siding with Prussia, which was keeping Russia at war, even if on a different side. [1] Domestically, there were two schools of thought:

• Traditional - pro-Austrian “Peter’s system”, with the main figure being the former Chancellor Bestuzev, dismissed by Elizabeth but now rehabilitated and, while not restored to his former position, used by Catherine as something of a private advisor on the foreign affairs. The weak part of this party’s position was that, as the previous decades demonstrated, it was keeping Russia dependent upon the Austrian policies. An objectively strong part of their platform was Russian-Austrian alliance against the Ottomans.
• Party of the “Northern Accord”. Theoretically, alliance of Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Poland, which would (with the British financial help) stand up to the French-Austrian hegemony in Europe caused by the “diplomatic revolution”. The main ideologist was Nikita Pepnin whom Catherine considered the main Russian expert in the European affairs.

Formally, the head of the Russian diplomacy was Chancellor M. I. Vorontsov whom Catherine did not trust too much because she “inherited” him from Peter who inherited him from Elizabeth, which meant a great flexibility of his personal political views. To be fair, he demonstrated loyalty to Peter (who planned to marry his niece), was put under arrest during the coup and swore loyalty to Catherine only after Peter’s death. But he was an experienced and hard-working diplomat with a lot of connections abroad and, as such an useful tool. Which did not prevent her from writing the following: “Unbelievable hypocrite, ready to be sold to the first buyer; there was no [foreign] court that didn't keep him on salary."

Anyway, at the moment the international situation looked as following: there were easy or relatively easy “items” and the difficult ones.

The Easy Items

Denmark
The Danish king announced that under the treaty between him and the Swedish king, as prince of the Holstein House, the latter refused to custody in his favor in the event of the age of the Duke of Holstein. Now, according to the Danish king, this case came from the young age of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, and he, the King of Denmark, must enter into the guardianship, therefore, the administration of the duchy.
Small wonder that Catherine refused to share the guardianship rights with anybody and demanded to remove the Danish troops from Holstein. Of course, Denmark backed off and its Minister of Foreign Affairs pleaded the best intentions of his king who “wanted only for his part to really prove his participation in the interest, in the increase of the German possessions of the Grand Duke, therefore, to get more cases to the expression of his highness the experiences of his sincerity, in order to acquire the future friendship of this sovereign, which the king and his lands need very much” but, seeing that the empress has a different opinion regarding the guardianship, will immediately denounce his rights to show sincerity of his friendship….

Sweden. The king expressed sorrow about the death of his close relative but characterized the whole thing as “self-inflicted adventure” and expressed a complete understanding of the motives which forced Catherine to take “motherly care” of her subjects, a pleasure of the news about her fortunate accession to the throne and intention to maintain friendship with Sweden. To show his own friendship, King Adolph-Frederick completely rejected any participation in the Danish attempt to establish administration in Holstein, thus depriving the King of Denmark of any legal justification.
Russian ambassador in Sweden, Osterman, got confirmation of the Peter’s instruction to support the royal party. Osterman, for his part, reported to the Empress about the sad state of Sweden, lack of money, terrible high prices, general murmuring against the government, about the idea of convening an extraordinary Sejm. However, nothing practical could be done without money. Head of the “royalist” party said to Osterman that “If he could only get a third of what the French court in Sweden is taking, he could achieve great results” but without the funds the only course of actions is to wait until the people will start thinking about saving themselves.

Courland.

Situation was rather silly. Empress Anne established Ernst Biron as the Duke. Empress Elizabeth (or rather Munnich during the “reign” of Ivan VI) sent him into an exile. The estates of Courland and the King of Poland (Elector of Saxony) were informed that the Duke will never return and a new Duke, Elector’s son, was appointed. Peter III returned him from the exile but, as with many other issues, did not have either time or interest for the future actions. Now, Catherine had to face the music and the Polish side (Courland being PLC vassal) was informed that the old Duke is going to return to his duchy and the new one must leave. It was hinted that maybe he is going to be compensated by some German territory, somewhere, somehow, sooner or later.

The Poles were seemingly not giving the blip but the PM of Saxony, Count Bruhl, tried to protect interests of his master by a devious paperwork starting from the request that Duke Ernst must send a written explanation of his requests. Russian Ambassador got the instruction: “There is no need to consider here whether it is true or not His Majesty's desire and whether Duke Ernest-John is obliged to ask for what no one and under any rights could take away from him.” The King wanted to call a Sejm but failed because the Russian clients blocked election of Sejm’s Marshal. Then the King requested from the Senate to protect interests of Prince Karl. The Primate called up to forty senators to the conference and with the royal name proposed that they consult on the means to prevent Biron from entering the Duchy of Courland, to liberate Courland as a Polish region from Russian troops, and to complain about the actions of the Russian minister in Mitava [2]. Rather unsurprisingly, these proposals did not generate an uniform enthusiasm and the meeting “happily ended without any result”.
Austrian Ambassador in Warsaw and count von Bruhl kept telling to the Russian representative that the European courts will defend interests of Prince Karl but these threats did not produce any impression in St.Petersburg and Bestuzev’s attempts to back them up also failed: Panin’s party was firmly supporting Catherine’s idea regarding the future King of Poland and Prince Karl as a Duke of Courland did not fit into the schema.
The 7YW was not, yet, formally concluded and Catherine ordered to inform count von Bruhl that if he makes a single step contrary to her interests in Courland then she will abandon all attempts to negotiate with Frederich some benefits for Saxony and take care that he will be thrown out of Poland.
The permanent Russian Ambassador, Kaiserling, finally arrived to Warsaw. His instructions (many pages ling)amounted to two main items:

• Support and promote by all means members of the Russian party.
• Don’t make any peace with Bruhl.

Russian resident in Courland got confirmation of the course: “Mr. Simolin, has to strengthen Duke Biron's party because of the fairness of his rights.” Prince Karl was in Warsaw but his supporters in the duchy had been actively working on his behalf. However, this did not work out. When Prince Karl returned to Mitava, its commandant (his main supporter) ordered illumination of the city declaring that those who do not obey will be considered the enemy. Nonetheless, most of the residents ignored his order. Prince Karl declared that the Russian resident is not legitimate and forbade members of his court to visit him. Action was stupid and result predictable: a battalion of the Russian troops marched from Riga to Mitava “to deal with the possible disturbances”.
Prince Charles ordered to distribute ammunition with bullets to his army (which amounted to 180 people) and to make few cannonballs, threatening to deal as with the rebels, with those who would find a penchant for the Duke of Biron; the guard was doubled in the palace.

Biron arrived to Riga and numerous members of Courland’s nobility travelled there to met him. In a meantime the Russian regiments returning from Prussia reached Courland and Karl was trying to create problems with their supplies. That was it. Representatives of the local nobility had been assembled and expressed opinion that Prince Karl is an obstacle. Biron wrote a letter to the resident expressing a strong opinion that the talks will achieve nothing. The report had been sent to St-Petersburg stating the population’s desire to restore the old duke. The response was to put sequester upon income of Prince Karl as a punishment for his hostile behavior and to inform the prince that the Empress intended to restore the old duke so he has to leave Mitava and Her Majesty will take care of him. Otherwise, there could be unpleasant consequences even for him personally. Karl prudently left Mitava and Biron arrived into his loyal capital.

_________
[1] Just as on many domestic issues (about which later), Peter had the right ideas of what has to be done but not about how to do it. Catherine got credit for implementing how part of some of his ideas while modestly attributing what to herself. 😉
[2] Complain to St.Petersburg about actions of the Russian official executing orders of his government …. what a great idea!

 

[alexmilman]

7. Foreign affairs #2​

“If you are chasing two hares, you’ll catch none.”
Russian proverb
“A real politician, having reached the fork of roads, walks on both roads at once.”
Unknown author
“The smaller are the citizens, the bigger the empire seems.”
“Love for the homeland knows no other countries’ boundaries.”
Stanislav Jerzy Lec.
“Most politicians, alas, are bastards not from birth, but by vocation.”
C. Whitehorn.
“Politics is not a precise science.”
“Politics is an art of possible.”
Bismarck
“A border is an imaginary line between two states that separates the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.”
Ambrose Beers.
“A statesman is a politician who died 10 or 15 years ago.”
Harry Truman.
“Politics is too serious business to trust it to politicians.”
Charles de Gaulle.
“Great powers have always behaved like bandits, and small ones have always behaved like prostitutes.”
Stanley Kubrick.
“Women and statesmen like to put us in front of a fait accompli - often by stupidity, even more often out of cunning.”
Karol Izhikovsky.​

“Catherine’s System”
Being forced to choose between the two political systems, Catherine selected the third one of her own of her own invention, which sounded quite reasonable: without getting into any binding alliances, influence the European events and flexibly chose the temporary partners depending upon the task in hand. In the practical terms (meaning “how Catherine was trying to implement it”), the system looked as following (it was 1763 and the 7YW was still going on):

• Prussia:
  • Russia recalls an army corps which Peter III sent to help Frederick.
  • Russia is friendly to Prussia while refusing to sign any mutual defense alliance.
  • Russia expects Prussian cooperation on the “dissidents” issue in the PLC.
  • Russia insist that Saxony must be compensated by Prussia for the material losses cased by the Prussian occupation.
• Saxony:
  • Russia is kicking Saxon prince out of Courland.
  • Russia is going to block a Saxon candidate to the PLC throne.
  • Russia is trying to squeeze from Frederick some compensation for Saxony.
• Poland:
  • Russia wants Polish help against the Ottomans.
  • Russia wants its candidate on the Polish throne.
  • Russia wants a weak Poland with no changes in the current system.
  • Russian candidates (either Czartoryski or Poniatovski) are known to be the reformers.
  • Russia wants a friendly Poland.
  • Russia wants to have “dissident” issue resolved, knowing that it will cause the violent protests.
  • Russia wants recognition of the imperial title by the PLC.
• Austria:
  • Russia is friendly to Austria.
  • Russia does not want any formal alliance.
  • Russia does not want the Austrian candidate on the Polish throne.
  • Russia wants Austrian cooperation against the Ottomans.

On the top of all of the above, Russia would like to mediate a peace conference between Prussia, Austria and Saxony.

It does not require too big effort to figure out that within the new system the Russian policy included some mutually contradicting items and at least Prussia and Austria were at least somewhat confused or rather pretended to be. But, at least in the short term, all of the above, including Catherine’s geopolitical ambitions, were not as important as her firm intention to keep Russia out of a war in which it did not have any clear interest and which already exhausted its treasury. She was asking for five years of peace to show results of her rule so the question was how will she use the peace time.

Probably the best reception Catherine’s peace schemas met in Britain: by 1763 most of the enthusiasm regarding the European theater of war had been gone and even the former Frederick’s supporters had been irritated by his unwillingness to start peace talks. In post-war Europe Russia was considered as a potential balance to Frederick who, it was suspected, could eventually make alliance with France thus disrupting, again, a power balance in Europe.

However, the British government already had a record of failed attempts to convince Frederick to make a peace and it looked like that even stopping the British subsidies would not be a powerful tool. Catherine, initially, had a chance but two early acts of her reign deprived her of the influence:

• The Rumyantsev’s troops assembled for a war with Denmark had been recalled to Russia.
• Tsernichov corps, which Peter III sent to Frederick, also had been recalled.

As a result, Catherine did not have the military means to pressure Frederick. However, the British government expected that a joined firm British-Russian position may persuade Frederick to stop a war.

During his meeting with the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor the British Ambassador, Count of Buckinghamshire , formulated the British position along the following lines:

His king wants to know the opinion of the Empress regarding the King of Prussia in order to agree with him his own opinions and unanimous effort to achieve the desired restoration of common peace by both courts. The natural interests of the Russian, London and Vienna courts require a close connection between them, and the benefits of France are associated with the preservation of the King of Prussia. Within a short time relations between the courts of Vienna and Versailles will cool down and it is necessary to make Vienna the attractive proposal regarding return to the old and natural system.

In other words, back to the old system. The Russian side responded by the generalities because Chancellor got the following instruction from Catherine:
“In the current unclear condition of the European affairs cautiousness in the new alliances and domestic tranquility must be our political principles. There is no political situation, which would prohibit the commercial arrangements useful for the empire and such an agreement with England must be negotiated expediently. However, a care must be taken that such an agreement will not prevent an ability to make similar agreements with other states both for the competition and for increasing export of our products. So that our behavior would be firm and open, the English court must be assured that we consider alliance with it as useful but just postponing it because at the present we got away from our old obligations with the court of Vienna and are satisfied by maintaining with it a good agreement and friendship based upon the common natural interests until it becomes clear what will be its political system after conclusion of peace.”
At the same time the court of Versailles was trying to convince the Russian court that the best way to force Frederick to accept peace was to leave the Russian troops in the Prussian territories. Answer to this was that Russia already signed a peace with Prussia and the Empress, in the interests of the Russian Empire, decided that it will be better to preserve it and do not participate in the ongoing war unless it will be forced to.

Of course, there was (as always) a nuance. No matter what his diplomats were seemingly trying to achieve, Louis XV was quite open about his policies in the instruction given to his ambassador to Russia: “You know, and I will repeat here in the clearest possible way that the purpose of my policy towards Russia is to remove it from European affairs as much as possible…. Only under the domination of internal turmoil will Russia have less means to go into the views that other powers can inspire it. Our influence at the moment can be useful in that it will give a favorable turn to all Polish affairs … Future influence should prevent Russia from taking part in the war against me, against my allies and especially against my species in the event of royal elections in Poland. You know that Poland is the main subject of my secret correspondence, and therefore you should pay attention to everything related to this country.”

The French ambassador Breteuil was very well received by Catherine, she could not deny herself the pleasure of talking to a French diplomat who shone among representatives of other powers, as a resident of the capital shines among rude provincials; but everything was limited to talking.

An idea of the Russian military presence on the Prussian territory as a good way to achieve a peace was also brought up in Vienna and the mediation proposal was politely rejected. The Russian Ambassador reported: “At the court of Vienna, Chancellor Kaunitz, expressed his sincere gratitude for the mediation, however, he believes that he has the right to be careful, seeing, unfortunately, that Russia wants to act together with Austria only in matters related to the Ottoman Porte.” Catherine and Maria-Theresa exchanged letters with the assurances of the mutual good feelings and that was it.

Frederick, while rejecting any peace discussions after removal of the Russian auxiliary corps, still had the mutual interests with Catherine and they were related to Poland. Just as Catherine, he had the dissidents (Protestants) problem in Poland and did not want a Saxon king there. In an absence of his own candidate and, with his military and financial resources being exhausted by the war, he was leaving the decision and its implementation (with the associated costs and troubles) to Catherine, expecting that the solution of the Orthodox issue will automatically resolve one of the German Protestants and he’ll get credit without doing anything besides exchanging the numerous personal letters with Catherine in which he was outrageously flattering her. To think about it, doing the same with Elizabeth could prevent Russian participation in the 7YW, to start with. Of course, nothing could prevent him from doing some mischief, even if quite foolish one: his ambassador in Constantinople had been spreading rumors about new Russian-Prussian alliance, thus causing a short living panic among the local diplomatic corps.

Anyway, while all these complicated schemas had been discussed, after protracted negotiations between the war-weary powers, peace was made among Prussia, Austria and Saxony at Hubertusburg.

 

[alexmilman]

7. Rude awakening

“Да будет целью солдатской амбиции
Точная пригонка амуниции” [1]
Prutkov, ‘Military aphorisms’
“Navy service can't be taken seriously, otherwise you'll get insane.”
A. Pokrovsky
“The whole point is in the uniform, only in the uniform. Take away the military uniform - and there will be no one who wants to become a soldier.”
E.M.Remarque
“People who do not want to feed their army will soon be forced to feed someone else's.”
“You can start everything with courage, but not everything can be done.”
Napoleon
“Every ruler is obliged to avoid war in the same way that the captain of the ship avoids a shipwreck.”
Guy de Maupassant
“Until there is no proper order in the kingdom, where will military bravery come from?”
Ivan IV
“Since the ancient Romans, I do not know a single people who would get rich as a result of victory.”
Voltaire​

The complicated political system, which Catherine was trying to implement, so far did not produce the results Catherine expected. Of course, it could be argued that things worked out just fine: the 7YW ended without Russia being entangled in any unnecessary alliances and relations with both potential future partners remained good enough to expect the future cooperation. However, Catherine’s ambition to became an arbiter of the European affairs was a complete failure: both Austria and Prussia rejected Russian diplomatic help.
Obviously, Russian Empire, while finally being recognized as a major European power, was not scary enough to dictate its will to other powers. This was strange because President of the Military Collegium, Prince Trubetskoy, kept assuring her that everything just fine with the Russian army. After all, it was consuming well over 40% of the Russian budget.

But in 1763 Russian Ambassador in Sweden, Osterman, managed to get and send to St. Petersburg the report of the Swedish envoy to the Russian court of Poss about the state of the Russian Empire. Posse began with the closest business to him - Russia's relations with Sweden, about which he wrote that it would be desirable if they would forever remain the same as they are now. Then Posse passed to the military force of Russia: “… the regular army stretched up to 304,953 people, the irregular - up to 32,000; but from this number no more than 100,000 people can be sent to the field; the regiments are never complete: for example, there should be 2,637 people in the infantry regiment, but it constantly lacks from 600 to 700 people, because the Military Collegium tries to have as many empty positions as possible in order to enrich its treasury with the remaining salary. In addition, many people disappear from the incessant transitions of army regiments through such a vast state from one province to another; the natural hatred of Russians for military service and the difficulty in recruiting and sending recruits to the regiments should be added here. The people in the regiments include officers, non-commissioned officers, corporals, doctors, priests, clerks, musicians, carpenters, blacksmiths, batmen, drivers, which is from 600 to 700 people in each regiment. A Russian soldier eats bad food, is constantly in hard work, deprived of good healers and medicines; for these reasons, the fourth part of the regiment lies in the hospital, and a sick soldier can be considered lost for bad care, so that only from 800 to 900 people remain in each regiment. Russians are not capable of soldiering and do not have skillful generals, except for some foreigners. During the real war, foreigners and Livonians in the Russian service were bypassed and neglected, and in recent years several thousand capable and skillful foreign officers were forced to ask for dismissal and received it without any difficulty...”

While the part about soldiering and absence of the skilled commanders could be, after the 7YW, treated as silly, most of the rest deserved a close attention and, after a number of the war participants had been interviewed, Prince Trubetskoy found himself in a big trouble.

Prince Trubetskoy, who never held any military command besides being intendant of Munnich’s army in 1736-39, rose to the rank of fieldmarshal by always following the direction in which the wind was blowing. Actually, most of the time he was holding the civilian positions. For two decades he was serving as a Prosecutor-General in which capacity he presided, among many other cases, in a trial of his former commander Fieldmarshal Munnich. Peter III liked him (just as all previous rulers) but his love had repercussions: he demanded that all honorary commanders (Trubetskoy was lieutenant-colonel of Izmailovsky Guards regiment) learned parade-ground exercises: “Nothing struck me as much as a low and fat old man walking in of the first platoon with his espanton and in a uniform decorated with gold patches with a star on his chest and a blue ribbon under a caftan”.

If anything, the Swedish report about condition of the Russian army was an understatement, not an exaggeration. At least since the reign of Empress Anne, the recruits had been held in prisons until their party was ready to be sent to their future unit and on the route they had been chained to prevent the escape. At best, 50% of the recruits had been arriving to their destinations and when they did, their life had been quite difficult. To start with, thanks to the infinite wisdom of Peter the Great, they had to get used to a completely different clothes, which were very ill suited for the Russian climate. In a time of peace the food would not be too bad, probably better than at home, but during the war intendancies were routinely “under perform” to put it mildly and quite often the troops had been suffering from the food shortages or a bad quality of what they were getting. During Munnich’s Crimean campaign much more soldiers died from the diseases then in the military actions and in the 7YW the record was not good either. On the top of everything else, the officers quite often used the soldiers for their own household needs and discipline among the officers also was not too high, taking into an account an opportunity to get a prolonged leave of absence from a regimental commander (usually, not for free).

Situation with the navy also was anything but cheerful:
“The fleet consists of 31 ships of the line, and with ships of other names the number of warships is 42, galleys - 99. The older ships are in poor condition and so rotten that they can hardly be repaired; in general, the fleet is in bad condition, because the ships are built unskillfully: the 99-gun ship "Elisaveta", built in 1745, could not be used at sea, because it falls on its side; the Kazan oak and Arkhangelsk pine forest, used for shipbuilding, are soft and loose; Kronstadt harbor has no salt water; the seven-month-long surrounding of the ship with snow and ice harms them a lot. The Russian fleet will always be in a mediocre state for lack of skillful sailors; this shortcoming will exist until Russia uses its own seagoing vessels for its trade.”

Unfortunately, all that was true plus the Baltic fleet was practically never leaving the coastal waters and a big part of it never sailed beyond the Gulf of Finland even if the seven months part was a gross exaggeration. The navy was there just because Peter I created it. Which means that at least the appearances had to be maintained (approximately 5% of the budget). Most of the practical naval warfare was conducted by the galleys and other small ships capable of operating in the coastal waters and acting as the troops landing ships.

Trubetskoy was forced to retire to be replaced by Count Chernyshev, who almost became a lover of the Grand Duchess Catherine but was sent to the army by Empress Elizabeth. Unlike his predecessor, he had a good military record - in September 29, 1760 his troops entered Berlin.

“Chernyshev sent immediately to demand the surrender of the city, but his messenger met on the way with an officer sent from Totleben to announce that the city was surrendering and he, Totleben, was engaged in drawing up the conditions for surrender. The conditions were that all the military in Berlin were given free leave with all the property; the royal castle and other public buildings remained intact. Berlin had to pay one and a half million thalers of indemnity and 200,000 thalers per army. For two days (on the 29th and 30th) the winners were engaged in collecting indemnity, taking the royal treasury and cleaning up arsenals and shops; what could not be taken away, everything was destroyed; all the gunpowder mills near Berlin, foundry cannon yards, Potsdam and near Spandau rifle and sword factories were devastated to the ground.”

Funny enough, Peter III sent his corps to help Frederick who in Berlin bestowed the Order of the Black Eagle on his recent enemy. From the letter of Peter III to Frederick of Prussia: "The Alliance Treaty will be ready in a few days, and so that its delay could not prevent your Majesty against your enemies, who are also mine, I ordered General Chernyshev to do everything possible to come at least in early June to your army with 15,000 regular troops and a thousand Cossacks. He was ordered to be at the disposal of Your Majesty, Chernyshev is the best general after Rumyanev, whom I can't recall: he is against the Danes. But if Chernyshev didn't understand anything, he couldn't act badly under the command of such a great general as Your Majesty”.

In July, a decree of Catherine II was sent to Chernyshev: "... the quietness and well-being of our throne require that you immediately return with your entire corps to Russia. If the King of Prussia begins to prevent you, then you have to join with your entire corps with the army and the nearest corps of the Empress-Tsesare of Rome..."

He ended up being a descent minister who contributed to the better administrative and economic management of the Russian army. He managed to achieve a number of measures that strengthened the centralism in the military administration: new staff of the Military Collegium, the main office of artillery and fortification, the management of commissariat institutions were adopted; a printing house was established under the Military Collegium. Regulations, instructions were issued and headquarters for regiments were established. The most important event was the formation of the General Staff.


_________________
[1] Let it be the goal of the soldier's ambition
Precise fit of uniform

 

[alexmilman]

8. Domestic business and not only…

“Cadres are all important. If they are chosen properly”
Joseph Stalin
"Being chronically honest is like participating in a bicycle race in sandpaper pants"
Terry Pratchett.
“You constantly have to pay for faith in human honesty"
Sergei Lukyanenko.
“Our official doesn't take bribes! He demands them. “
Alexander Minchenkov
“It's impossible to prohibit yatki. How to solve the case for nothing, for one salary?”
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin
“The bribe is a monetary sign of attention.”
Leonid S. Sukhorukov
“Don't laugh at me that I jumped up from the chair when I received the news of the death of the King of Poland; the King of Prussia jumped up from the table when he heard.”
Catherine to the Russian Ambassador in the PLC​

Campaign for popularity.
Practically immediately after the coup Catherine started looking for the ways to increase a base of her popularity. Not that she really had «матерные» [1] feelings to the low classes but to keep them quiet was a good idea. And, of course, the same applied to the army and civilian officials.

“For the people” it was decided to lower tax on the salt by 10 kopecks per poud with the additional cuts for the fisheries. It was widely announced with the expected results.

However, the loss of a revenue had to be covered somehow and in its infinite wisdom the Senate, without too much of a fanfare, raised excise taxes on alcohol, which was expected to bring 635,122 rubles per year [2] with a beautiful explanation that “That purchase is voluntary , and does not put additional burden on the people”. In addition there was a long list of the new excise taxes on pretty much every activity remotely related to the state.
As a result, structure of the state income switched from the direct (head-based) tax being the main item to the steadily growing role of the indirect taxes.

Going back to the salt, paying off the arrears to the military and increasing salaries to the officials in a rather optimistic expectation that they’ll be stealing less, consumed all expected economy forcing to return (quietly) to the old salt price. However, something was done to keep it lower. It was found that the salt supplied by the private producers is more that two times cheaper to the state [3] (8.1 vs. 17 kopecks) and of a higher quality than one extracted by the state enterprises in Elston and Iletz. It was decided to increase purchase price for the private entrepreneurs to 10 kopecks and remove all restrictions on the volumes of their production.

Another big problem was physical shortage of coin. In an absence of the paper money, well-developed system the promissory notes and other similar documents, and absence of the banks (one created by Elizabeth went belly up), and a shortage of gold and silver, an overwhelming volume of operations was done with the copper money of a small denomination. Actually, making them was a very profitable business for the state (one of the sources of a cheap material were old cannons). There was a heated discussion in the Senate with Prince Shakhovskoy being vocally against issuing additional coinage. Catherine had a much more progressive view pointing out that as of now amount of coins per capita is less than five roubles.
“And it's not a great trouble, if from city to city, private people would stop carrying money by carts, and would transfer through bills, for which large state banks are needed in different places, banks can not be established without a large amount of money, and the bank is nothing more than a true store of money.”
Actually, Peter III already planned such state bank but why give any credit to a drunken imbecile? The people may come to a wrong conclusion that he was not such an imbecile after all. While being on the subject, Catherine issued a degree in which her subjects were instructed not to discuss the issues which do not belong to their competence, or else….

The next big problem were all types of the unrests, especially on the former state manufactures which during Elizabeth’s reign had been presented to the influential people. Unlike “professionals” like Demidovs and Stroganovs, these people considered freebees as the cash cows. The manufactures had been run by the managers whose only care was to squeeze as much as possible as soon as possible. The state peasants assigned to these manufactures had been turned into the private serfs and influence of the owners at the court allowed to play all kinds of the games with these arrangements. The existing regulations had been ignored with the workers forced to work well over the time permitted by the law not getting a compensation and not having an opportunity to tend to their own households from which they were supposed to live. Small wonder that there were regular unrests and military force was routinely used to deal with them. Strange as it may sound, in this case Catherine’s alleged «матерные» feeling coincided with her interests as a head of the state. Most of the grants in question were mines with the metallurgical plants and, since the reign of Anne, their changing owners (current VIPs) had been routinely managing to destroy the plants operating even on the richest iron mines. The pattern was the same: a profitable state enterprise granted to a person currently in favor, in few years it accumulates debts, state takes it back covering the debt, few years later it is granted to other VIP, etc. A commission had been sent to investigate situation and found huge amounts of violations. Some of the managers had been put on trial, the regulations had been enforced (at least for now) and most of the plants were turned back to the state with the workers having their social status restored.

The next problematic area were … “outskirts of the empire”. Not necessarily in a purely geographic meaning. The areas populated by the Tatars, Votyaks, Kalmuks, Kirgiz-Kaisaks [4], Bashkirs, etc. all the way to Kamchatka, belonged to the “yasak” category, which meant that they were paying not a head tax but tribute in the natural goods (furs, were possible, some other local products, and money). Size of the yasak was defined by the local administrators quite arbitrary and, using legal ignorance of these people, the administrators were introducing their own “taxes” which were going directly into their pockets. The government in 1763 recognized the need to regulate the "yasak taxation". To this end, Major Shcherbachev of the Life Guards of the Semyonovsky Regiment [5] was sent to Siberia in the same year to to draw up a general census.

Catherine II instructed Shcherbachev to go to Siberia, punish all those responsible for the ruin of "the voiceless and irresistent yas" and return to the capital with considerations to improve their fate and increase the income from fur. His instruction, written by Catherine personally, was all about …er… motherly [6] feelings. “We cannot without our motherly condolences and on the thought of such a disorder and national burden that is happening in remote parts of Our Empire, which Our faithful subjects are forced to bear with extreme insult, only from violence, robbery and oppression of yasak collectors and their assistants.” The business part was assumed by a default. The Shcherbachev Commission carried out a new census of yaschach souls in Siberia, which went down in history as the 1st yasak reform. The special commissions formed by Shcherbachev on the ground have developed the following grounds for yasak taxation. Each ulus was covered with either a certain kind of beast, once and for all valued, or money, or both together. In case of "under catch" of the so-called "tax animals", it was allowed to replace them with other fur or money at reference prices.

With the Tatars, Votyaks, etc. the furs were not in the picture and the issue was mostly illegal extortions of the local administrators. The old ones had been punished and replaced with the new ones in an optimistic hope that they will be better. There were also additional “political” issues like what Catherine considered excessively close involvement of the Sultan of one of Kirgiz-Kaisak hordes with the domestic affairs of the Yaik Cossaks or unwanted activities of a widow of the last Kalmyk Taisha, etc. but in general situation was more or less under control.

Changes on the top.
Whatever lip service Catherine had been paying to the late Empress, she did not trust the top echelon people inherited from her:

• Chancellor Golitsin was OK for a while because he was seemingly lacking any convictions and had a considerable experience in routine paper work. However, soon enough he was permitted to travel abroad for indefinite time “to improve his health”.
• Bestuzhev was retained in his capacity of unofficial advisor and out of respect to his past but now, more often than not, his opinions were contradicting to Catherine’s plans causing irritation [7].
• Nikita Panin was useful because his geopolitical views (Northern alliance) so far were in synch with Catherine’s own but domestically he was an enemy betting on Paul. Of course, he unlike his brother general, knew how to control his tongue but nonetheless he had to be watched closely.

Now, there was an embarrassing case of Ivan Shuvalov, which could seriously damage Catherine’s reputation in the eyes of highly respected “enlightenment” crowd abroad. This specific Shuvalov (unlike his cousins, he did not have a title) was not just a honest person (a very rare bird) but also a person who did a lot to promote science, educations and arts in Russia.

Under his patronage, Moscow University was founded in 1755 (Shuvalov became its first curator), and in 1757 the Academy of Arts was established (Shuvalov was its president until 1763). He was in active letters exchange with Voltaire and well-known abroad.

Catherine did not like him and appointed co-curator, Adadurov, of the University who, to gain her favor, accused Shuvalov in financial improprieties on a ground that many of the expenses ha been made without authorization from Elizabeth and requested that all unauthorized money should be returned as well as the university’s property in Shuvalov’s possession.

This was plain stupid: Shuvalov produced Elizabeth’s instruction authorizing him to act at his discretion in the expenses needed for university simply because this was a brand-new thing and nobody knew in advance what these expenses should be. Shuvalov explained to what perfection the university is brought by him, how sufficiently equipped with everything necessary; has a library consisting of almost 5,000 volumes, not counting those books that are used annually for distribution to classes to students, and in addition to those that are annually distributed to diligent students in the award: such books are considered for almost 12,000 rubles; he created a mineral cabinet Worth at least 20,000 rubles, a laboratory, a sufficient number of necessary and best mathematical tools; a printing house, which costs at least 25,000 rubles. But the greatest benefit is that since the foundation of the university, 1,800 students have come out of it, of which only 300 are different, the rest are all nobles, and most of them are released with good certificates. And this not counting newly opened gymnasium in Kazan. He proved that university is financially solvent (he produced the numbers for expenses, income and secure loans). In conclusion, Shuvalov complained that Adadurov, with his claim, inflicted resentment and grief at him, trying only to hurt him. The Senate passed to buck to Catherine but refused to act on Shuvalov’s complaint stating that Adadurov was just trying to restore the proper order. Catherine answered with the personal Ukaz:
“By the decree of Empress Elizabeth, the university was given to Lieutenant General Ivan Shuvalov, who, as everyone knows, can be looked at as the founder of this place, and, apparently, he has produced more good than bad that one can found in such a newly-established place…” Adadurov was ordered to produce and present a financial plan for the university. Shuvalov went on a trip abroad, remaining curator of the university.

With all these exciting reshuffling of the cadres going on, Catherine finally found time to address the issue of someone she herself acknowledged as #1 in the Russian military establishment, general Rumyantsev. Being left in a limbo, he asked for a retirement but Catherine responded with a personal letter:
“Mr. General Rumyantsev! I received your letter in which you write and ask for resignation. I reasoned that it was necessary for me to come to explain with you and reveal to you my thoughts, of which I see that you are completely unaware . You judge me by old behaviors, when personality has always exceeded the qualities and merits of every person, and you think that your former favor [8] will now serve against you, and your enemies will strengthen themselves. But let me say: you don't know me much, come here, if your health allows you, you will be accepted with the excellence that your fatherland's services and your rank require ... If earlier, as another was sent to replace you, the circumstances seemed and were really confusing, which, maybe the reason for you to suspect my mistrust to you, it should be attributed to the case of those times that have already passed and which are not left in my thoughts…”

Rumyantsev remained in the service but Catherine’s #2, Chernishov, in his position of the President of the Military Collegium [9], tried to keep #1, and not only him, off the limelight. Well, not quite successfully, but let’s not get ahead of the schedule. 😜 Enough to say that the alternative candidates for a military glory were not up to their tasks. Actually, neither was Chernishov when he was trying to play grand strategist.

Things not quite domestic.
Circus in Courland
Getting a little bit back, the Courland affair caused a serious rift between the Russian and Saxon courts but definitely had a great entertainment value (even if it was not fully appreciated by those involved):

• To start with, there was a matter of diplomatic communications. Russian government was not in the direct communications with the PLC government (whatever passed for it in any specific moment) because the PLC with a stubbornness deserving a better application remained (probably) the last European state which did not recognize the Russian imperial title. OTOH, with Courland being the PLC vassal, Russia was refusing to communicate on the subject with any Saxon officials. So all communications had been happening on a “ground level” between the sides’s representatives in Courland.
• Then, there was a legality issue. The Duke Ernst Biron was, as had been required by protocol, confirmed by the PLC Sejm and Catherine’s position was that his protracted vacations in Pelym and then Yaroslavl are absolutely irrelevant to his legitimacy. OTOH, the Saxon side kept insisting that appointment appointment by the King August III of Prince Charles of Saxony, without Sejm’s confirmation, is legitimate because of the assurance tht Biron will never return to the Duchy. So, as far as the demagoguery was involved, Catherine claimed herself a defender of the PLC constitution and freedoms while August III was trying to play card “I’m the king”.

• The nobility of Courland, or at least its overwhelming majority, figured out quite fast from which direction a stronger wind is blowing and was visiting, en mass, the Duke Ernst who was comfortably sitting in Riga waiting for the Ducal palace in Mitava being vacated by Prince Charles.

• Couple Polish representatives had been sent by August to support Charles and negotiate with the Russian representative in the Duchy. While the legal basis of their argument was somewhat murky (referencing to the King of Poland as some kind of an authority in the PLC was, indeed, silly), the Russian side had impeccable legal platform which consisted of two main items:
  • Ernst was confirmed by the Sejm and Charles was not so we are defending the Polish constitution and you violating it.
  • We have an infantry battalion in Mitava and permission to use it, if needed. How about you?

Being crushed by the force of this legal argumentation, the Saxon/Polish side left the Duchy and the local Estates wholeheartedly cheered return of their old good Duke Ernst.

After Prince Charles was expelled, the Senatus-Consilium of the PLC by the vote of 48 to 12 announced Prince Charles to be a legitimate duke of Courland and decided to start the criminal proceedings against Biron and his supporters. Catherine sent a message that she is going to defend both duke Ernst and the Polish freedoms “with everything God has blessed me with.”

Polish Affairs
This, of course, had been fun but brought a serious question about the actions after the anticipated death of King August III. Bestuzhev, true to his pro-Austrian orientation, tried to advocate a Saxon candidate but was rebuked in the strong terms. Saxon candidate meant the the PLC will stick with the Austrian-French alliance, which, as far as France (and now Austria as well) was concerned, had been anti-Russian and pro-Ottoman. Which meant that Russia needed to install its own candidate and for this close association with Old Fritz had been necessary.

In the PLC the Czartoryskis insisted on the need for confederation to defend the king … against Saxon bad influence. They asked 5,000 ducats, weapons warehouses on the other side of the border from their estates, 100 Russian artillerymen and 400 hussars. Catherine did not want confederation, yet, but ordered Russian ambassador to make it known that if August “Will dare to capture and take one of Russia's friends to Kenigstein, then I will populate Siberia with my enemies and bring into the PLC the Zaporozhye Cossacks who want to send me a deputation with a request to allow them to avenge the insults inflicted on me by the Polish king.”
However, in a secret instruction she ordered ambassador to keep “our friends” in check preventing any rash actions without her agreement but at the same time assure them that they’ll be supported in the reasonable activities until the king’s death, after which she’ll act decisively in their favor. The preferred Russian candidate was Count Stanislaw Poniatovski or, if this is impossible, his cousin prince Adam Czartoryski. This has to be kept in secret and in a meantime she ordered to keep 30,000 at the border and 50,000 more nearby.
In the lengthy instruction to the ambassador she went into a detailed explanation that because there is no suitable (for the Russian interests) German prince (the Saxon princes had been discussed in some details) the Piast is going to be the best option. In a meantime the ambassador was instructed to promise her protection and financial encouragement to the Primate and influential aristocrats. However, the whole thing was not supposed to be a free cheese: a successful candidate would have to compensate for the expenses with delivering on Catherine’s wish list:

• Establishing precise borders between two states and return by the Poles lands they captured from the Russian owners.
• Return of the Russian subjects who fled to Poland and in the future do not accept them.
• Stop repressions against the Polish Orthodox subjects.

In a secret instruction it was ordered, after the king’s death, to explain to all Poles that, due to the sincere friendship, the empress cares deeply about their well-being and wants, for their own good, that they would elect as a king a patriot with the suitable talent and dignity, either Count Poniatovski or Prince Adam Czartoryski.
“The republic itself must recognize what serious interest and concern we have in the election of the King of Poland, and for this it would not expose its homeland to the disasters, which will inevitably follow if our recommendation for proper respect is not accepted.”
For a short while there was a concern that King August III may recuperate but on October 6 Catherine got information about his death. (See above her own description of her reaction).


_________
[1] At the time in question it meant “motherly”. In the modern (at least since mid-XIX) it means “obscene”. What if CII was a century ahead of her time linguistically and wrote what she really meant? 😂
[2] To be believable, calculations always have to contain “precise” instead of rounded up numbers even if in both cases they are BS.
[3] Just as with alcohol, selling salt was a state monopoly.
[4] Kazakhs
[5] Major of the second most prestigious Guards regiment sent with the personal imperial rescript was not just VIP, he was Extremely Important Person. Probably more important than any local governor, even if he had a higher rank.
[6] See [1]
[7] His apologetic letters after each rebuke raise the obvious question about him having at least some self-respect but probably I’m being anachronistic.
[8] With Peter III
[9] In OTL he remained VP of this Collegium for few more years but his activities were the same.

 

[alexmilman]

9. Much ado about Poland

“I think that Russia deserves attention. I have the best army in the world, I have money, and in a few years I will have a lot of them.”
Catherine II to the French Ambassador
“Now there is no more question about the partition of Poland… I talked about this with the Vice-Chancellor, and he announced that Russia's interest requires maintaining Polish possessions in their entirety and not allowing any power to strengthen on its account.”
French charge’d affairs in St.Petersburg after death of August III
“And Poland? What will become of it?”
‘Marisya and Napoleon’
“You are the only SOB there who knows what he wants.”
General G. S. Patton
“A crown sits solidly even on a weak head.”
Kálmán Mikszáth de Kiscsoltó, ‘The Magic coat’
​

Europe 1763.
In the terms of European popularity, the death was probably the best thing that ever happened to August III of Poland/Frederick August II of Saxony. Actually, his popularity skyrocketed even at the expectation of his coming demise. Probably, if he was not such a nincompoop, he would extend that “I’m going to die soon” period thus keeping himself a center of the active discussions among the Great Powers. Well, being what he was, he could not even decently play a dying person and died just in a midst of the discussions about what to do after he finally leaves this world.

Of course, the general interest was not about Saxony but about the PLC throne which will become vacant and, from almost everyone’s perspective, the timing was quite inconvenient because the 7YW was just over and all its continental participants run out of money and were not ready for a new major “entertainment of the kings”. As a result, the European courts had to reduce themselves to the second most popular activity, diplomatic intrigues, each of them (with one exception) expecting that the situation will resolve itself in a satisfactory way just by talking.

Catherine was the only participant of this charade who not only knew what she wanted (which does not mean that she understood implications correctly) but was ready to apply some meaningful effort to turn her wishes into a reality: 80,000 troops surely were “meaningful”. However, being a newcomer on a political arena and not, yet, having enough money to be completely free in her actions, she used her diplomats to test the European political waters. The process started even before August’s death and she was pleasantly surprised with the. presented reports.

France.

Due to the links to the Saxon family and following a venerable French political tradition, Louis XV was expected to became a major obstacle. The French always wanted their candidates on the Polish throne and were long time allies with the Ottoman Empire. So support of either Saxon or French prince was more or less expected. But, contrary to the expectations, Louis sounded as a voice of reason:
"No one knows better than me that we have made an unprofitable and inglorious peace, but under our unfortunate circumstances it was impossible to conclude the best, and I answer that if we had continued the war, we would have made a worse peace next year. As long as I am alive, I will not break up with the empress (Maria Theresia) and will never enter into close relations with this Prussian king. We will improve with our own means, we will prepare so that our real enemies will not absorb us. To do this, the war should not be resumed. It's a pity that the Polish throne becomes idle at this moment…. We will promote as much as possible a new choice, but with as little money as we have left, I will not start a war over the Polish throne."

His pacifist feelings had been echoed by the written opinion of his ministers:
“It is necessary to investigate, if France has a political interest in interfering in Polish affairs. Poland's distance from France is already enough to solve the issue negatively at all times...
It is to stick to the simple, true and probable, and it seems to be sufficiently proven that the Polish revolutions do not concern France, that it can neither benefit from them or suffer more than very distant harm. Therefore, it is right to conclude that there is no direct relationship between France and Poland... It should not be hidden that if the king decides to deliver the Polish throne to any candidate, it is necessary to sacrifice significant sums for this. The costs will not be limited to elections alone: it will still be time to support the elected king. So, there will be a danger in vain to sacrifice the dignity of the king and money for a case in which, even with the use of the strongest means, success is at least very questionable….
The king cannot promote the election of the Piast with the exclusion of foreign candidates, because such an election will no longer be free; responding to the trust of the Empress, the king does not hide that his desire was and is for the Saxon elector to be elected or one of his brothers, but the king promises that he will not use any violent measures to this, but will act with exhortations and good services, unless other powers force him to act otherwise with their violence.”

In other words, the declared bottom line was “free elections” but the important part was that as of now, France had neither money nor intention to get directly involved as happened during the War of Polish Succession. It was more or less expected that a joined French-Hapsburg diplomatic weight is going to be enough to prevent enforcement of any candidate and, quite reasonably, assumed that in the future there will be plenty of opportunities to bribe any elected king and his entourage.

Austria.

The Vienna court first of all wanted free choice; if the Austrian candidate, Elector of Saxony, was not preferred to another candidate in a completely free election, the Empress-Queen agreed that the king should be chosen from the Piasts, but only one who would give undoubted hope that he would not have thought about the division of Poland.

When Golitsyn reported that Kaunitz insisted on the same need for both imperial courts to preserve the rights and advantages of Poland, Panin made the following note: "Mr. Kaunitz vainly puts his interests on an equal footing with ours in Poland's reasoning. There is no politician who does not know the big difference: we will lose a third of our strengths and benefits if Poland is not dependent on us.”

The Austrian rather weak complaints about the Russian forces on the Polish border were shrugged off with a vague explanation that Empress Catherine just wants to prevent any untoward activities and the subject was dropped. Of course, Maria-Theresa was assured that everything will be just fine with the elections and that Catherine is a staunch supporter of the PLC territorial integrity and its constitution and blahblahblah…

In the practical terms, the Hapsburgs could not afford a new war and there was a distinct fear of the Russian-Prussian alliance, which could turn such a war into a disaster. OTOH, the hints about a possibility of the joint operations against the Ottomans were the welcomed news, both because they would exclude a permanent Russian-Prussian alignment and because they’d greatly strengthen Austrian position against the Turks. Poland, of course, was important, but mostly as a buffer state, and the issue of its territorial integrity was a somewhat grey area because there was small but profitable (salt mines) border area, which at some time in the past belonged to Hungary… But, of course, the words “free elections”, “republic” and “constitution” were near and dear to every Hapsburg and Maria-Theresa was stressing their importance to the Russian ambassador who wholeheartedly agreed.

Prussia was completely on board.

“The Empress writes," said the king, "that she does not want to elect someone from the Bourbon family to the Polish throne; in my opinion, neither the Vienna nor Versailles court should be helped in this, but, however, as I have already written to the Empress, I agree to everything, I only think that it will be better a natural Pole. In this case, it is important to have great caution and try not to open the intention of the Empress.”

As soon as Augustus III “let his spirit go”, his daughter-in-law, wife of the new Elector of Saxony sent a letter to Frederick II asking to help her husband achieve the Polish throne and to be a mediator between him and Russia, offering to make all kinds of satisfaction for the latter. Friedrich, sending a copy of this letter to St. Petersburg, wrote to Catherine: "If you now strengthen your party in Poland, no state will have the right to be offended by this. If a contrary party is formed, then only order Czartoryski to ask for your patronage, this formality will deliver an excuse, if necessary, to send an army to Poland.”

Catherine to Frederick:
“Since we agree about the election of Piast, we should now explain ourselves, and without further delay, I propose to your Majesty between the Piasts one that will owe more than others to your Majesty and me for what we will do for him. If the Majesty agrees, then this is the Stolnik of Lithuania Count Stanislav Ponyatovsky, and here are my reasons. Of all the applicants for the crown, he has the least means to get it, therefore, he will owe the most to those from whose hands he will receive it..”

“For my part," wrote Friedrich, "I will not spare anything that could calm the minds, I will make every effort to make everything go smoothly and without bloodshed, and I congratulate in advance Your Imperial Majesty with the king you will give to Poland.”

Of course, why would he bother with the personalities. The important thing for him was to keep the Austrian and/or French candidates out.

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman’s declared position was not to allow an Austrian candidate to the Polish throne and support Poland on that base.

In Constantinople, a diplomatic struggle began: the French envoy presented to Porte the need for her to intervene in Polish affairs and not to allow Russia to dominate Poland; the Prussian envoy made the agreement between Russia and Prussia on Polish affairs the most useful for Poland and demanded that Porta not allow herself to be caught by French and other suppressions inclined to deliver the Polish crown for the third time to the Saxon house and thus make it hereditary. With the promise of a good gift, Russian envoy persuaded Porta's translator to make a statement that he had learned about agreement between France and Austria: if it is not possible to raise the Saxon prince to the Polish throne, then try to raise the Duke of Parma, the father-in-law of Archduke Joseph, a close relative of the French king.

The Sultan’s government informed the Prussian envoy that it was pleased with Prussia's agreement with Russia to give the Poles the freedom to choose a king from their own. For a new bribe Russian envoy managed to prompt Porta to give the French envoy an answer in the same sense and to send decrees to the Crimean Khan, the rulers of Moldova and Walachia, so that they would comply with the decision of the Porta, because at the courts of these rulers there were all sorts of intrigues against Russia.

Sweden

France offered Sweden subsidies for which Sweden would loan France six ships of the line and six frigates, to be returned or compensated when the treaty expires. Swedish domestic affairs were in a state of turmoil with the fraction of “well-meaning patriots” asking for 300,000 rubles (or less 😉) to convince the nation to take Russian side instead of suffering under the “new French yoke”. However, the Russian Ambassador, Ostermann, recommended to remain neutral because the current situation may develop in any direction. Panin’s comment on this was “It is difficult to expect the Swedish nation to turn its love and trust to the Russian side, having to feel forever and to attribute to the Russian Empire the loss of its reputation and influence in European affairs, and especially its very exhausting state. All this, however, does not prevent Sweden from feeling the weight of the French yoke and, as a result, trying to get rid of it, to follow the Russian course.”

Louis XV informed Swedish government that he wants election of the Elector of Saxony to the Polish throne but leaves decision to the free elections and will not oppose whoever is chosen; but if somebody will try to partition Polish Republic then he is going to oppose this with all his resources and ask cooperation of all his allies and therefore wants to know what the Swedish government thinks about it, the government of such a power whose own interest requires the preservation of the Polish Republic in the whole. Swedish government replied that the Swedish king's views were quite consistent with those of the French.

Catherine informed the Swedish court that she intended to support election of a Piast to which the Swedish king replied that the question of royal election in Poland arose so recently that it is difficult to make any decision about it; the royal elections are, in fact, the business of the Polish people, who should decide who is better for him - his own or someone else's.

Denmark.

Regarding Denmark's participation in the Polish issue, Russian Ambassador wrote that this state will not help anyone with an army, no matter what large subsidies are offered. Finance is in a sad situation. Swedish affairs were much closer…. In the Danish opinion, there is nothing more harmful to the tranquility of Europe than autocracy in Sweden. There was a fear that taking sides may result in the Swedish hostility toward Denmark. An offer of the secret discussion of the securities guarantees had been made and the king ordered his minister in Warsaw to act in agreement with the Russian ministers regarding the royal elections.

Britain.

The British Ambassador, Count Buckinghamshire, was working hard pushing the alliance and commercial treaties but Catherine stuck to her cautiousness regarding the alliances. In her instruction to the Chancellor issued before the death of August III she wrote that before any alliance it is desirable to come to an agreement regarding the actions following the death of the King of Poland “… And if he says that they agree to all of the actions that I will take on this business then you can answer that these general terms are not satisfied, if they are not in the instructions of the British Minister in Warsaw, so that he must to cooperate with my ambassador.” Such an instruction was issued but Catherine still was procrastinating until the Count sent a very strong-worded message about the desired alliance.

Such a strong message prompted the drafting of the union treaty. If they demand an alliance with such unobtrusiveness, if they directly say that an alliance with Russia is considered the first and best basis for politics in England, they should not be stingy on meeting Russian demands. Finances of the Russian Empire are not very good [1], the elections in Poland are going to be expensive and the rich England can help. Even more so in the case of the Russian affairs in Sweden because this will be a struggle against France, which is always important to Britain. This was reflected in two secret articles of the Russian proposal regarding an alliance treaty.

In the Polish affairs both sides will act in concert, each of them being ready to spend considerable amounts of money but if the empress will be forced to support interests of both countries with a force, the King of England will send 500,000 rubles as soon as the Russian troops enter Poland. In Sweden ambassadors of both countries must act in an agreement. There was also the third article about the British help to Russia in the case of it being attacked by the Ottomans. The British side found these articles unacceptable and the bargaining kept going on without producing any results and situation was aggravated by the fact that, with the Chancellor Worontsov being on leave, the foreign affairs were now in the hands of Panin who openly despised Chancellor’s nephew who was Ambassador in London. The Russian side did not agree on a commercial treaty without an alliance and upon the British objections related to anti-Ottoman provisions countered with a statement that then Russia should be excluded from anti-French provision.

By November it became clear that the current British government is not, in a near future, actively intervene in any European affairs, especially as far as the subsidies are involved. The British resident in Warsaw got instructions to watch for two things: free elections and territorial integrity. Upon receiving this announcement from Count Sandwich, Ambassador Vorontsov answered that the notice regarding the territorial integrity is unnecessary because Russia declared its intention to preserve it. And if the Empress decided to take some part of Poland, how exactly the British resident in Warsaw could prevent this from happening? Catherine’s reaction was: “This answer is praiseworthy, it was impossible to say better.”

Catherine.
Well, of course nothing was really simple with the Old Fritz and he was actively tried to link this issue to the Prussian-Russian military alliance. The truth was that, first of all, commitment to such an alliance could prevent alliance with Austria in the case of a war with the Ottomans, and then it would strongly smell of a return to the denounced policy of the late Peter III.

So Fritz kept bringing up the issue but, when she did not want to do something, Catherine could be slippery as an eel. OTOH, when she did want something, she could demonstrate a dedication of a steamroller going down the hill. And she did want her former lover on the Polish throne both because he was the least suitable person and because this looked as a cheap way to award him for the services granted in the past. Rather optimistically, Catherine expected that Czartoryski family will be financially support their poor relative throughout his reign regardless the fact that Prince Adam may (and was) feel himself offended by being bypassed (Catherine expected that his wealth may make him too independent). This would somewhat against the well-established tradition of the Polish aristocrats, no matter how rich they were, to ask for the pensions, money grants and other tokens of appreciation for their services to the foreign rulers. So, instead of being self-sustainable, her schema would require, sooner rather than later, regular contributions not only to the King Stanislav but to Czartoryski family as well.
However, there was a really big problem with her choice which both she and Frederick overlooked. Or perhaps Catherine overlooked and Old Fritz decided not to bring out by his own reasons. Both Russia and Prussia had been interested in keeping the PLC as weak and calm as possible. So, objectively, they needed a candidate who was not going to make waves. The Saxons, so far, were quite good in that area but they became too closely associated with France and the Hapsburgs and there was a serious support among the Polish nobility for an idea to make the royal position hereditary. With the French prince, like Conti, being out of the question and no reliable German prince, this was leaving one of the Polish aristocrats so the Czartoryski and Poniatovski superficially looked as an ideal pool to choose from, especially taking into an account the great influence of Czartoryski family and they close contacts with the Russian court. However, there was one consideration, which Catherine overlooked and which should have them the least desirable candidates to support: they were vocal advocates of the reforms. In other words, their plan was to destroy the main item of the Russian and Prussian policy toward the PLC: to keep it weak. Somebody like Franciszek Ksawery Branicki or some other aristocrat with more “traditional values” would be a more prudent choice but she did what she did.

___________
[1] ITTL Catherine seriously scaled down the coup-related awards with in OTL left her pretty much without the money at the critical moment. So, she is much more free in her actions. The same goes for the future times: her lovers are getting free cheese but in much more modest amounts. In OTL, during this Polish election period she kept complaining about empty treasury while already spending over a million on Grigory Orlov alone. However, why not try to get free money?

 

[alexmilman]

10. The Big Items or Show of Ingratitude #1

“It would be crazy to base all our political actions on the weak hope that we will be able to find excellent or at least competent rulers.“
Karl Raymond Popper
“The ruling of the state is a cruel occupation. A mild temper in such a case is just a hindrance.”
Jean Racine
“The ruler does not need to have all the virtues, but there is a direct need to look like he possesses them.”
Nicollo di Bernardo Machiavelli
“The experiennce has long taught the people to be grateful to their rulers for not doing him all the harm they could do to them, and to adore their rulers when the people are not hated by them. “
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“It's better to have lazy rulers than restless. “
Aesop
“I felt a sense of gratitude. It's not mine. I feel it's not mine.”
“Worse than ingratitude is a demand for gratitude.”
“She knew how to be grateful, but didn't abuse it.”
“My gratitude will have no boundaries within reason.”
Unknown authors​

Russian Empire 1763. The Big Items
With the Guards being reasonably happy, general population satisfied with Catherine lowering some taxes, and the Polish plans proceeding smoothly, Catherine finally had to address two Big Issues:

#1 the Orthodox Church - secularization
#2 the Ukrainian Hetmanate - abolishing

Theoretically, Catherine owned some debt of a gratitude both the the Orthodox Church and to Hetman Razumovsky for their support during the coup but, in a reality, in both cases the really big money, and not only money, had been involved so the notions like “moral obligations” and “gratitude” did not really apply.

Show of ingratitude #1. Secularization

The Orthodox Church (“black clergy” and its institutions ) of the Russian Empire owned over 900,000 “souls” and was completely free from taxation. Besides peasants and land, the Church owned various types of the businesses (fisheries, horse breeding farms, salt extraction, etc.), the monasteries were often engaged in a profitable trade and, for a government that was routinely short of money there was a clear interest to conduct a little bit of expropriation …oops… secularization.

• Peter I made the first step by “downgrading” position of the Church by replacing Patriarch with a Synod, which already became more or less a part of the state apparatus.
• Elizabeth was considering secularization but did nothing.
• Peter III, as was his unfortunate habit, tried to do the right thing in a wrong way by just declaring secularization and sending the Guards officers to confiscate the valuable property (especially the horses) and tell peasants that from now on they are on their own. These actions resulted in a huge mess “at the bottom” and a great anger “at the top”:
  • The peasants, surprise, surprise, started with devastating fisheries and everything else they could safely appropriate and the officers were destroying the farms by taking horses and cattle and moving them somewhere (nobody could say where exactly because there were no arrangements for founding state-owned farms).
  • The bishops had been bitterly complaining to the court because the resulting mess made it absolutely unclear how they and the monasteries in their jurisdiction are supposed to maintain themselves.

Secularization activities of Peter III began only couple months prior to the coup so the real harm to the property was not as big as its most vocal opponents claimed. However, it was enough for the bishops to voice a wholeheartedly support to the coup. Which, of course, was very nice of them but it did not mean that Catherine abandoned the idea. She just decided to make it “systematically” and in such a way that the action will be approved by the Church itself. Of course, this did not mean to conduct a democratic vote among the black clergy, just getting majority of the bishops on board would be enough. As a result, even before the coronation a joined secular-spiritual commission had been created to discuss a need of the reform and, in the case of a positive decision, its specifics. Perhaps not too surprisingly, it became clear that the majority of the bishops are ready to support secularization, if their interests are protected. A vocal minority objected out of the principal considerations.

A famous opponent of the reform was Arseny Matsievich, Metropolitan of Siberia, member of the Holy Synod, who actively defended the autonomy of the Russian Orthodox Church from state power, threatening the government with anathema. But his problem was inability to figure out where to stop and soon enough his speeches became so radical that he ended up being minority of one: talking about the Church property was one thing but getting from there to criticism of a government was a completely different issue. As the first step, in respect to his age and previous services, he was just demoted to a simple monk and sent to a remote monastery.

But the monastery’s leadership did not prevent him for wagging his tongue on the issues amounting to a plain and obvious high treason: he was “predicting” an overthrowing of Catherine and replacing her with Ivan IV and/or Paul. Of course, these activities had been duly reported and the issue was brought again to the Synod.

This time was defrocked, delivered to the state authorities and sent to spend the rest of his live as a prisoner of the Revel fortress under the name “Andrew the Liar”.

With a consensus regarding the reform thus being happily achieved, it was possible to proceed to the specifics.

Monastic peasants were counted to 911,000 “souls”, excluding Little Russia and the provinces: Kharkiv, Ekaterinoslav, Kursk and Voronezh, where the calculation was made later; each peasant was taxed with 1 ruble 50 kopecks per year, which brought the amount of 1,366,299 rubles.

The Bishops. Since the bishop's houses had peasants and were to receive remuneration for them in a permanent salary. All dioceses were divided into three classes: in the first only three dioceses were included - Novgorod, Moscow and St. Petersburg; in the second - 8 and in the third - 15; for all bishops' houses, 149,586 rubles were allocated per year. Each bishop's house had to have an almshouse with a certain number of residents defined by classes of dioceses and amounting to 765 total, males and females; each receiving 5 rubles a year, therefore, the entire amount assigned to them from the Economy Board extended to 3,825 rubles. In general, the bishops ended up being at least even and perhaps with some gain.

The monasteries. There were 947 monasteries, of them men - 728, women's - 219, but most of them did not have populated lands, while some of them had a lot of peasants (for example, Chudov Monastery in Moscow had 18,600), and some very few. The monasteries that had peasants and, therefore, were entitled to receive remuneration for them in a permanent salary, were included into the “staff” [1] and were divided into the classes.

According to the states of 1764, full-time (receiving support from the state) monasteries, except for the lavras (few the most distinguished monasteries subordinated directly to the Synod; at that time there were two of them: Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in Zagorsk and Pechersk Lavra in Kiev, the eldest one), were divided into three classes "in accordance with wealth and dignity":
1st class: 15 men's, 4 women's
2nd class: 41 men’s, 18 woman’s
3rd class: 100 men's, 45 women's
In total, the male monasteries had been assigned 17,750 rubles per year and women's monasteries 33,000 rubles.
In 1764 “beyond-staff” monasteries also had been divided into 3 classes:
1st class - 20 monasteries
2nd - 56
3rd - 85

Total “population” of all officially recognized monasteries amounted tp 1247 monastics. The remaining monasteries were abolished. The remaining “beyond-staff” monasteries had to exist either for voluntary offerings or off the land located near the abodes, cultivated by the monks on their own.

Monasteries that did not have peasants were left on their former means of subsistence, while the rest were abolished or converted to parish churches. Even some of the “staff” monasteries ended up losing income and having to rely, to one degree or another, upon the voluntary donations.

At the first stage secularization applied only to the Great Russia. Kiev, Chernigov, Novgorod-Severskaya, Kursk, Ekaterinoslav, Kharkiv and Voronezh gubernias were temporarily excluded.

As a bonus, the maintenance of retired military personnel at bishop's houses and monasteries, which was practiced so far, was recognized as inconvenient taking into an account that the habits of the military people tended to be not quite monastic and that many of them had families. Therefore, it was decided to send retired military personnel not to monasteries, but to the designated cities number 31 cities, where they were assigned apartments from the inhabitants for the first time, and to give a salary defined by their rank. The number of such retired military was defined 4,353 people, and the amount released on them should have to extend to 80,600 rubles. There were additional provisions for the widows and underage orphans.

The peasants. Peasants who used to cultivate the land for the benefit of the church received this land for personal use paying a poll tax. Thus, these peasants became “economic peasants”, that is, freed from serfdom-related dues to the owners. Taxes, collected exclusively in cash, from such peasants were sent to the Economy Board under the Senate.

Aftermath. In general, the state was left with a considerable income surplus and got over 900,000 taxpayers and approximately 9,000,000 hectares of land. Small wonder that there was a line of the …er… “deserving people” expecting to get their fair share of the goodies but there was a HUGE disappointment: Catherine was working on increasing her (state) income [2]. Very few of the immediately involved people got some token bonuses and as for the rest, they had to be satisfied with the recent increase of the salaries which consumed most of the profits from increased tax on alcohol. Well, besides this, they could re-read Catherine’s manifest about the descent servants of the state and the moral satisfaction they should get from their service. Or what could become of them if they fall short of the Empress’ expectations….



_______
[1] General terms for everybody and everything receiving state salaries.
[2] This is ATL bordering with ASB 😉 but, OTOH, Catherine hardly had to fear anything but her own fear. The real force, militaries, had been generally happy, majority of the bureaucratic apparatus could not expect anything anyway and those on the upper level were not exactly paupers and could be replaced quite easily.

 

[alexmilman]

11. The Big Items or Show of Ingratitude #2

“Manage to make people proud. And pride will make them stupid. And then you'll take them.”
Genghis Khan
“Each and every Hetman is a traitor”
Peter I
“Little Russia, Livonia and Finland are the provinces that rule by the privileges that had been confirmed: it would be very obscene to violate them at suddenly, but to call them foreign, and to treat them on the same basis is more than a mistake, but can be called with certainty stupidity. These provinces, as well as Smolensk province, should be led in the easiest ways to make them russified and stop looking like wolves to the forest... when there is no hetman in Little Russia, we should try to make the name of the hetmans disappear forever.”
“You need to act slowly, with caution and with reason.”
“About the art of government: the first rule is to make people think they want it themselves.”
Catherine II
«Души прекрасные порывы» [1]
A.S. Pushkin​

In 1750, at the age of 22, on the Cossack council in Glukhov K. Razumovsky was elected hetman of Ukraine. Especially for this purpose, Elizabeth Petrovna lifted the ban on the election of Ukrainian hetmans, which had been in force since the death of D. Apostle.

Being an active participant of the coup of 1762, Razumovsky fully expected Catherine’s support of his ambitious plan to make hetmanship hereditary and to turn Hetmanate in a de facto vassal state of the Russian Empire. Part of the Hetmanate’s administrative elite (those with the IQ low enough not to see the obvious results of their action) signed petition to this effect but the rest (those with more brains) either abstained or simply reused. Even if prior to receiving that document Catherine may entertain an idea of preserving status quo in the “Little Russia” or at least delaying an action, now the hesitations were gone.

Of course, Hetman Razumovsky, officially, “Her Imperial Majesty Hetman of All Little Russia, both sides of the Dnieper and the Zaporozhye troops, a real chamberlain, President of the Academy of Sciences, the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel”, was a well-educated and quite pleasant person who spent most of his time at the court (being married to Naryshkina, he was linked to the Romanov family and this type of relations was important) but he was working too hard on turning his residence, first in Glukhov and then in Baturin, into something of a real capital with a palace in which he kept an extensive staff.

Of course, the letter was just the last straw because the problems (at least from the imperial perspective) with the Hetmanate kept growing:

• Being, in theory, “Cossak state”, Hetmanate was expected to provide considerable numbers of the irregular troops to protect the Southern border against the Tatar raids and to participate in the Empire’s wars. For this service the Cossacks had been tax free but had to come to the service with their own horses and weapons and, potentially, remain on active duty for a considerable time. By the mid-XVIII this arrangement became a serious financial burden and quite often the poorest Cossacks preferred to change voluntarily their social status to one of somebody’s peasants (being taxable by the state and working part time for the owner still was a lesser burden and definitely a lesser risk). Which, of course, made them unfree but OTOH improved their financial situation. Quite often they were turned into the peasant due to inability to repay debts to a local landlord. As a result, the real number of the Cossack troops kept shrinking [2] with no clear accounting because the regimental leadership, being the biggest landowners in the area, were the most interested party in the schema. As a result, the Empire was losing the troops while not receiving the taxes.
• Unlike Russia proper where the peasants’ migration had been forbidden in the late XVI, in Ukraine there was a big and growing class of the agricultural workers migrating from one landowner to another. Their numbers were not known and, as a result, they could not be taxed.
• The military-administrative elite, “starshina”, kept a tight control over the the big and small cities and while in theory many cities were subjects to the Magdeburg Law (inherited from the PLC times), in a reality these rights were too often ignored. As was formulated by one of the “starshina” members, “The interests of the burghers are completely contrary to the interests of the military people.” Initially autonomous in administrative affairs, elected magistrates now were dependent on Cossack regimental offices. In some cases, even the heads of city self-government ceased to be elected, and were appointed by starshina. In addition, contrary to the principles of Magdeburg Law, the starshina and Cossacks actively conducted business activities on the territory of urban communes without paying the fees required by the burghers. An increasing amount of land previously owned by urban municipalities passed into the hands of the serving nobility. The situation of burghers was also negatively affected by the loss of the judicial monopoly of magistrates in urban communities. The Starshina and the Cossacks were under a different judicial jurisdiction, which negatively affected the state of justice in the cities.
• “Significant confusion and disorder among the people comes from the fact that the Cossacks, who have special privileges from men and carry special work, namely: they send the Sovereign's service from their lands on campaigns, have their settlement throughout Little Russia in the villages, belonging to both spiritual and secular landlords” and are mixed with the peasants. “The damage of Your Imperial Majesty of Interest is the main one that the Cossacks live in a great disorder, as scattered in different places from their Sotnik [3], and in the hands of different landlords, as peasants; while the Sotnik, having their settlements scattered at a great distance, cannot maintain them; for, although to every landlord in the universals of the Hetman's, when granting the village, it was written before and now, that the landlords and his peasants have no business to the Cossacks and their lands located in that village; however, how is possible, that the poor and helpless Cossack would resist the Sotnik, and the strong landlord in that village, or people of the village where he's in the Cossacks? When Sotnik, comes to live in his hundred, then the Cossacks are the first builders of the house, the first haymakers for his cattle and the first liners, without mentioning other burdens.”
• Then, there was an endemic problem with a moonshining, massive drinking and resulting poverty “For the cossack, having become drunk, does not think much about the farm, and sows, and reaps bread no more than it would become for him for the winter with the children.”
• Borders of the lands belonging to the cities, villages, suburbs and farms are not clearly defined and the estate owners are mostly busy raiding each other over the territorial disputes while the litigations are dragging out for the decades enriching the judges and financially destroying the litigating sides.
• “Starshina” was, in theory, elective but in practice became pretty much ancestral and mostly out of the imperial control, which could and did provide ground for the dangerous ideas like one regarding the Hetmanship. Taking into an account its geographic position, Hetmanate area was too important strategically to take any risks.

The bottom line was simple: while in the past decades population of the Hetmanate almost doubled, amount of the taxes collected by the central government remained the same or even decreased, the local elite formed a closed corporation and was not controlled by the central government and quality and numbers of the troops raised from the Hetmanate decreased. Hetman Razumovsky had been contemplating reforms but did little or nothing while displaying the unhealthy ambitions.

Situation could not be allowed to keep deteriorating and the first step was obvious: the Hetman must be removed but, this being the civilized time, he must ask for it. Razumovsky was hinted but pretended to be dumb. This forced Catherine to be more explicit: he was banned from the court. Playing dumb any longer would be idiotic and he had also to think about the future of his big family so he wrote Catherine a letter begging her to relieve him of the heavy duties which he can’t carry anymore due to ill health….

He was immediately forgiven, allowed to get back to the court, made fieldmarhal, got some cookies allowing him to maintain his palaces in St.Petersburg and Baturin and old life style.

The second step was to appoint a replacement (without Hetman’s title) capable of put the affairs into a proper order. Collegium of the Little Russia was restored and Catherine appointed as its chairman and supreme commander of the Ukrainian Cossack regiments and Ukrainian Division a disliked but nonetheless appreciated Peter Rumyantsev.

He was provided with a long and detailed instruction regarding expected activities from a need to provide a thorough map of the territory and all the way to launch an effective campaign against the drunkenness [4]. At first, it was not quite clear to Rumyantsev if this appointment is an award or a honorable exile but then he got into the taste of it and conducted his mission with an efficient combination of the stick and carrot.

• Starshina had to accept loss of its autonomy with an award being official conversion into the hereditary serf-owners fully incorporated into the Russian Empire with the resulting career opportunities.
• Peasants migration had been clamped upon (it took many years). Of course, there were unrests some of which had to be suppressed by a military force but the process kept going on.
• The census was conducted to separate cossacks from a taxable population and increase state income. The officials recorded not only people, but also property - down to the pigs. The inventory contained information about diseases, the spread of crafts, fire safety, and beggars.
• Very serious attention had been paid to improving the fighting abilities of the Cossack units. Unlike the adherents of the “classic” military system, Rumyantsev well understood potential usefulness of the light troops, especially when and if it will come to the wars with the opponents like PLC or the Ottoman Empire. He understood quite well that turning the Cossacks into a regular army is pretty much impossible and that existing military-administrative structure will not be practical for the strictly military purposes (who would be left to conduct the administrative duties at home?) but, with the proper war-time appointments, the Cossacks could be quite useful for the scouting and patrolling duties. He also (later) insisted on providing them with a regular salary, as the Cossacks of Don.

____________
[1] A popular joke in the Soviet Union. The full text is
«Отчизне посвятим/Души прекрасные порывы» - “Let’s dedicate the good intentions of our souls to the Motherland”. When quoted as above the noun «души» turns into a completely unrelated verb and the meaning is “strangle the good intentions”. 😜
[2] The regiments had been raised from the assigned territories ruled by the military-administrative hierarchy (colonel, commanders of hundreds, regimental scribes, treasurers, etc.).
[3] “Commander of the hundred”, one more military-administrative position.
[4] The reason for this was purely practical: Catherine wanted increase productivity of the region both for the domestic market and export.

 

[alexmilman]

12. Polish Circus

“Internal turmoils are very boring, but, if not supported by any state, they will certainly stop by themselves.”
Prince Repnin, Russian ambassador in the PLC, about elections of 1764
“You can make any promises you think necessary. I’m not going to honor them, anyway.”
‘The Tudors’
“In fact, I will not be upset if the dissident case fails. You don't find it in front of the Russians, pretend that I'm very angry that all the work used for the success of this case is wasted.”
Frederick II to his ambassador in Warsaw
“You are already too deeply in…”
‘Operation “Petticoat”’
«Пускай погибну безвозвратно
Навѣкъ, друзья, навѣкъ, друзья,
Но всё жъ покамѣсть аккуратно
Пить буду я, пить буду я!»
Застольная песня 5го Александрийского гусарского полка [1]​

The Saxon candidate, Frederick Christian, older son of August III, dying month after his father and the second son, Frederick August, being only 13 years old and, as a result, not considered eligible for the 1764 election, the realistic field of the candidates was narrowed to two: Poniatowski and Branicki. Actually, at some moment Prince Lubomirski, one of the richest and more powerful magnates, also considered a run but drooped off fast enough. At the news about his candidacy Catherine commented “saddle does not suit a cow”.

The Great Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki, was one of the wealthiest Polish magnates in the 18th century, owner of 12 towns (including Białystok [2]) , 257 villages and 17 palaces. Leader of the conservative magnates party and political opponent of the “Familia” (Czartoryski). Speaking of the families, his wife, Countess Izabella Poniatowska, was sister of Stanislav Poniatowski so one can say that the rivalry was just a family (not to be confused with “Familia” 😉 ) affair.

If by that time Catherine’s actions were already fully controlled by her head, she would be probably support old and rich Hetman rather than his young and penniless brother-in-law. Of course, she was right in an assumption that Count Stanislaw is going to be financially dependent upon her but this was more than “compensated” by his and Czartoryski’s ideas regarding reforms, which were going against her (and Old Fritz) idea of keeping the PLC weak. And his financial and military dependency may easily turn from an asset to liability getting Russia entangled in something it should keep away from. OTOH, Branicki, besides his huge wealth and popularity had under his command a Crown Army, which on paper amounted to 12,000. Its real size and battle-worthiness were another issue but it is reasonable to assume that these troops were bigger and better than the magnates’ “private armies”.

He also had as an ally Prince Karol Stanisław, “Panie Kochanku” Radziwiłł, reputedly, the wealthiest magnate in Poland-Lithuania, who had a personal army of at least 3 - 4,000. Carol owned many cities, towns and villages, and his income was equal to the annual revenues to the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Well, actually, nobody could tell this for sure because the estimates varied from 40,000,000 to 200,000,000 zloty. By all accounts, he was more than a little bit eccentric, especially when drunk, which meant, shall we say, quite often. While he, of course, never was Russian hussar, the song of Aeksandriisky regiment (written in the XIX century after his death) would fit him well:

“Когда я пьянъ, а пьянъ всегда я,
Ничто меня не устрашитъ.” [3]​

Estimates of his personality varied from a “staunch patriot” to “drunken imbecile” with “Belorussian Munchausen” somewhere in between. To make a long story short, he was a mighty ally and, in an absence of the external intervention, the two of them were probably possessing an overwhelming military force within the PLC. For a while the competing sides were on their own and Branicki with Radziwill were actively using their troops to intimidate the local sejms appointing the candidates for the royal election. The results were somewhat mixed because intervention into the “sacrosanct procedure” had been causing a considerable resentment on all levels, including the magnates who felt better a direction in which the political wind was blowing.

For Catherine this was her first major international affair so it would be rather unrealistic to expect that she was going to handle it without making grave mistakes, especially taking into an account that, instead of clearly formulating what exactly she wants and then choosing a candidate best fitting her political platform, she started with choosing a candidate based exclusively upon the emotions and then convinced herself, contrary to the available evidence, that he fits her platform. Even worse, she was not getting a proper advice from the available experienced diplomats. Bestuzev kept blabbing about the Austria-backed candidate and Panin was so obsessed with the idea of Prussian alliance that he would advocate anyone acceptable to Frederick fully ignoring the growing evidence that the Old Fritz was playing his own game and that game is not to the Russian advantage. Catherine was listening to Panin because he was saying what she was to hear about Poniatowski candidacy thus getting herself into a mess.

The first “alarm bell” sounded when Poniatowski sent a list of conditions on which he is ready to became a candidate to the throne. Who was doing favor to whom? The list was anything but innocent:

• Annual money subsidies to him.
• Guarantee of him remaining on the throne. Which will put Russia under obligation to unconditionally support him militarily causing alienation of the Polish nobility.
• Transfer command of the Guards and light troops from Hetman to the King. Which will strengthen the royal power thus going against the Russian interests.
• King’s unrestricted right of assignments and awards. Which would further strengthen the royal power and violate the existing rule by which many types of appointments and royal grants had to be approved by the Sejm.

In other words, he and the “Familia” wanted Russian backup to the reforms which were going against the Russian interests.

To Catherine’s credit, her instruction to the Russian ambassador in Warsaw, Prince N. Repnin, were to stress on the need to get Stanislav elected avoiding the definite commitments. However, at that point she felt herself too deeply involved to change her course abruptly, especially taking into an account that there was a continued flow of a flattery coming both from Prussia and Poland. Well, as far as Prussia was concerned, flattery from the Old Fritz amounted to delegating all activities to her: he was providing “a moral support” while refusing any financial or military involvement. Flattery coming from the “Familia” soon enough became mixed with the requests for money and military intervention. Of course, intervention part was done cleverly in the form of request to save Poland from the illegal activities of Branicki and Radziwill.

Count Panin supported this idea in a long-winded “remark” to Catherine in which he did not just advocated a military intervention but was recommending to let the “Familia” to take charge of these troops and define their number. In this “remark” he was still clinging to a notion of a joined action with the King of Prussia even if Frederick was already quite open that, as far as he is concerned, “the whole thing will be defined in St.-Petersburg”.

Rather unfortunately, Prince Repnin was a person, both by the character and military background, prone to recommending and executing the “iron fist” measures rather than being engaged in the diplomatic games and, after arrival to Poland in 1763 and getting familiar with the local customs, he came to a conclusion that this is the only method applicable there. As a result, he also backed up the requests coming from the “Russian party” even if he was rather skeptical regarding the needed vs. requested numbers.

Catherine, so to speak, went with a flow and sanctioned the intervention. However, she demonstrated a better understanding of the situation than Panin and rejected request to send 1,000 Cossacks: while the military result of the Cossacks activities was unclear, the political impact of their appearance was going to be strictly negative, taking into an account their reputation for the looting and general dislike of the Polish nobility. [4]

Fortunately, surprise, surprise, there still was Russian contingent in the Polish Prussia guarding the warehouses left from the 7YW.

Intermission: Why these warehouses and the troops still were there is anybody’s guess. I’d bet on a general ineptitude of the Military Collegium which could easily “forget” about their existence. An option that they were still there due to a brilliant strategic foresight that anticipated the PLC domestic problems couple years in advance is, of course, a non-zero probability so you can chose whatever explanation you want or invent one of your own and let it be known. 😉

This contingent, commanded by general Khomutov, was small but there was something of a consensus, shared both by the Poles and Russians, that even small Russian regular force would defeat any Polish resistance: “True," Repnin wrote to Panin, "that this unit is not big, but it is enough for Poland; I am sure that five or six thousand Poles not only cannot master Khomutov's detachment, but they will not dare to think about it.” Khomutov was ordered to march toward Warsaw at stop in Zakrochim, 50 miles from it.

Encouraged by this action 26 Polish magnates wrote a collective letter to Catherine in which they denounced protests of the “false patriots” and thanked her for sending the troops to support their liberties:
“…We see with sorrow that the laws of our fatherland are not enough to keep these false patriots within the proper limits. With danger to us, we experienced the oppression of our freedom on their part, namely at the last Sejms, where military force constrained the supply of votes in many places. We were threatened with the same abuse of force at the future Sejms, convocation and electoral, where we would not have troops to oppose it to the state army…”
To increase Poniatowski’s (so far negligible) prestige among the Poles, Catherine sent him Order of St. Andrew and convinced Frederick to sent him Order of the Black Eagle.

In the end of April the senators, delegates and everybody else who wanted to be there, started arriving to Warsaw for the convocation Sejm and each of them had been bringing his armed supporters. Radziwill brought 3,000 troops, Branicki also brought a big army contingent and so did Czartoryski family. Opening of the sejm was scheduled for May 7 and Warsaw looked as a potential battlefield but the Branicki party did not appear at the sejm opening. Instead they sent a written protest against violation of the rules due to the presence of the Russian troops. However, the sejm was not broken. An idea to declare a confederation in Warsaw also failed: Branicki declared that Warsaw is too dangerous and retreated to look for a safer place followed by the Russian contingent. There was a small rearguard skirmish about which Repnin, present at it, wrote “The enemy's flight was so fast, that is was impossible to catch up with him.”
Convocation sejm closed in June with the established ritual: A general confederation was established, which was united with the Lithuanian confederation, and Prince Czartoryski was elected marshal of the crown confederation, it was decided that only a Pole on both father’s and mother’s side can be elected, and were established two Commissions - military and financial; these commissions reduced the power of hetmans and chief financial managers who became just their chairmen. This would allow the future king to establish a better order in both areas and the military commission was ordered to start implementing the decision of 1717 regarding increasing real size of the regiments to a prescribed by the regulations.
As a token of its gratitude, the sejm finally acknowledged the imperial title of the Russian rulers so at least on one item from her wish list Catherine got what she wanted.

In a meantime, Radziwill separated from Branicki and went to Lithuania but was caught by the Russians at Slonim and defeated. With 1,200 cavalry he crossed the Dniester and reached Moldavia but infantry and artillery was captured. From Moldavia he went to Hungary and then to Dresden. Branicki also went to Hungary.

Everything was going just fine but at this cheerful moment Repnin informed Panin that now Poniatowski has a new rival, his uncle Prince Augustus Czartoryski, who, started working actively upon his own election camppaign using money he got for promoting his nephew. Catherine was reluctant to openly insist on Poniatowski, stating that she wants free elections, but Repnin did not suffer from her scruples and told the Primate and assembly of the Polish magnates that Poniatowski is Empress’ choice whom he is going to “recommend” on the election sejm. This ended the whole circus.

The election sejm started on August 16, went smoothly and was closed on 26th with a quite democratic election from a pool of one candidate.
Catherine wrote to Panin: “Congratulation with the king we made.”

She was excessively optimistic.
________________
[1]
Drinking Song of the 5th Aleksandriisky Hussar regiment

Let me die irretrievably
Forever, friends, forever, friends,
But in a meantime
I will drink, I will drink!
(photo above is incorrect: the regimental horses were black) 😂

[2] For the geographically challenged but otherwise advanced, it is NOT “Bialystock and Bloom” from “The Producers”

[3] “When I’m drunk, and I’m always drunk,/Nothing will scare me.”
[4] At that point TL deviates from OTL where Catherine did sent the Cossacks and then more troops which had been marching from Lithuania to Warsaw.

 

[alexmilman]

13. The Big Mistake

“Ah, I know well what I should do, but it's terrible! Patience, caution, courage! And one more thing: patience and caution! Here's my motto.”
King Stanislaw August to Mme Geoffrin soon after election
“How! These are our friends, our allies and they will prevent us from getting out of our stagnation!”
King Stanislaw August to Pepnin, slightly later
“Let all your dreams come true.”
Chinese curse
“Boy, now you are on your own!”
‘Blazing saddles’
“Smart I like, smart aleck I don’t.”
‘Rough deal’ ​

Immediately after Stanislaw’s election, Catherine wrote to Panin: “I congratulate you on the king we made. This case most multiplies my power of attorney to you, I see how unmistakable all the measures you took were.” The “achievement” was indeed great because not everybody manages to make to big blunders by a single action. The first, blunder was that for a while Catherine was considering as her greatest asset in the foreign affairs [1] and the second was Poniatowski’s election, which she wanted so much. The only excuse on both accounts was her total inexperience in the foreign affairs. Well, and an urge to look good in the eyes of the “enlightened society”: the greedy French “philosophers” and, in general, a crowd of the fashionable salons in Paris.

At this point one of the main figures in that crowd was Madame [3] Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin whom King Stanislaw August was addressing as his “maman” and with whom Catherine was in the letters exchange for no practical reason. The election generated exchange of a gushing correspondence.

Poniatowski to Mme. Geoffrin:
“The calm and quiet in this huge gathering was so great that all the noble ladies of the kingdom were present on the field of election without the slightest inconvenience, and I had the pleasure of being proclaimed both by all the men and all the women of my people who were present at the election.”

Mme. Geoffrin to Poniatowski:
“The future passes before my eyes, as in epic poems, I see Poland reborn from its ashes, I see it in radiant brilliance, like the new Jerusalem! Oh my dear son, my adored king! With what delight I will see you as a subject of surprise for the whole of Europe!”

Catherine to Mme. Geoffrin (the text is really amazing in her pretending to be a complete idiot):
“I congratulate you on the rise of your son; I do not know how he became king, but, of course, it was the will of providence, and most of all it is necessary to congratulate his kingdom on it; the Poles did not have a person who would make them happier in a human way; they say that your son behaves perfectly, and I am very happy about it; to guide him on the true path in case of need, I give your motherly tenderness.”

Well, putting aside pretense of a complete ignorance, in this occasion Catherine did prove to be an idiot because immediately after his election King Stanislaw August started separating his interests from those of Catherine looking for a friendship of the court most hostile to Russia, the French court. In the same letter to Geoffrin in which he described his election he wrote: “I really need your advice on the case I wish for more and, of course, more than you think: this is the friendship of the French king. If only in France they want to be on good terms with me, I promise you that I will gladly meet and make half the way.”
In the domestic policies it was even worse because his ideas of the reforms were in a direct contradiction with the Russian interests and the main Russian interest was producing a national hysteria in the PLC. Small surprise that soon enough Catherine started having serious doubts about the wisdom of her … oops …. “providence” will and began changing her course accordingly [4] and the new king started complaining to his “maman” about Catherine having brain but no heart.

Of course, the “heart” issue was quite tangible. To fulfill the pre-election promises Russia (through Repnin) was paying in «червонцы»[5]:

• 3,000 monthly to Voywevoda of Ruthenia
• 300 monthly to Oginski’s troops
• 1,200 monthly to Stanislaw until the end of coronation sejm.
• 17,000 to Primate (part of the promised 80,000 rubles)
• 4,000 to Primate’s chancellor

After election a poor gigolo, oops, King Stanislaw was expected to provide for himself [6]. Of course, he could reasonably expect certain compensation for the services granted but granting them was problematic: choice of a person with no influence had its downside and Catherine started having her first doubts. Not about her own wisdom but about one of Count Panin whom she now considered the main moving force behind Stanislaw’s election.

The first trial balloon was proposal of a new Russian-Polish treaty by which Russia would guarantee the present state of the Republic. With a good reason the Poles objected that under the right of the guarantee Russia will interfere in all their domestic affairs.

On a bright side, the sejm confirmed treaty of 1868 regarding commission to start negotiations regarding the border. Of course, in the PLC this did not mean any immediate action but now the Russian side had a legitimate reason to push the subject.

However, the most pressing issue was dissidents question. Due to the numerous complaints from Belorussian clergy about oppression by the Catholics, the Synod presented Catherine a petition in which she was asked to protect interests of the Orthodox Church on the PLC territories. Catherine sent to Repnin instruction to try to deal with the problem and request restoration of the Orthodox Church properties and guarantees of a personal security of its clergy. Another important issue was definition of the precise borders between two states.

Repnin, who understood situation on a ground honestly answered: “I consider it impossible to bring them (dissidents) to full equality with Catholics without violence.” Panin answered with a long-winded meaningless message remarkable both by the convoluted page-long sentences and the idiotic advices to talk with King and magnates about the great services Catherine already done to the Republic, a honor of the Republic, equality of its citizens, etc. Only at the very end and in a very convoluted way mentioned the Russian troops still present present on the PLC territory but without saying anything about their active deployment.

All these issues Stanislaw August and “Familia” considered as rather unwelcome distraction from their reforms program and main of these reforms was abolition of liberum veto and its replacement by a majority vote. But for this agreement of the foreign courts, and first of all Russian, was required and Stanislav-August decided to assure Catherine that the transformation is necessary for the success of the dissident case “…To succeed in this matter, as everywhere else, it takes more order at the Sejm, and this cannot be achieved without correcting our Sejmiks. Your Majesty's own interest is involved here.” But this did not work out and Stanislaw got an answer that time of the reforms did not come, yet, and he had to backpedal. He honestly tried to bring up the dissident issue and response was “fantastic outcry”: “The bitterness in the Senate went to the point that they wanted to sacrifice the primate himself, as he dared to make an easy mention of this case.” Repnin also reported: “I have little hope and the enthusiasm is so great that neither reasons nor fear are making any impact. ”

The Prussian and Austrian courts also were not the idle watchers. Russia and Prussia finally started a treaty that was, formally, about the mutual defense but also contained the “secret” articles about using all measures necessary to prevent any constitutional reforms in the PLC. “Secret” are in quotes because contents of these articles had been disclosed to Britain and Austria. Anyway, in Vienna the main concern was not the Russian-Prussian Treaty but a fact that so far Russia was, contrary to the article of that treaty was seemingly taking easy the reforming activities of Warsaw. The same concern was expressed by Prussia: truly, the Republic was surrounded by the sincere friends. 😉

Frederick to Catherine:
“Many of the Polish nobles want to destroy the liberum veto and replace it with a majority of votes. This intention is very important for all of Poland's neighbors. I agree that we have nothing to worry about under King Stanislav, but after him? If Your Majesty agrees to this change, you can repent and Poland can become a state dangerous to its neighbor.”
Panin kept blabbing generalities along the lines that it would be cruel not to let the Poles to get out of their barbaric state but Frederick’s letter made a deep impression upon Catherine and she rejected Panin’s request to support PLC reforms. As was reported by the Prussian ambassador, Solms, “Panin frowned, but hid his annoyance: he wanted to gain fame as a restorer of Poland.”

Actually, the court of Vienna, due to a much greater experience of its diplomats, had a better grasp on the situation and, as soon as it became clear that only a Piast would be permitted for the election, advocated candidacy of the Hetman Branicki as a less troublesome figure than Poniatowski and supporting him “Familia”. When Branicki and Radziwill were forced to flee Poland, the court of Vienna tried to advocate in their favor.

In the case of Branicki, there was no need for any advocacy: he and Stanislaw were brothers-in-law and, as Stanislaw put it, “Branicki was a rich man and knew how to use his wealth in such a way as to be a real Polish lord, whose house at that time was a brilliant model of splendor and taste". Soon enough he returned to his palace in Byalostok where he was regularly visited by the King Stanislaw-August who during the visits stayed in the special royal chambers.

Radziwill, OTOH, had to spend 2 years abroad before he was allowed to return to his Nesvizh castle/palace.

In a meantime, to protect the warehouses left from the 7YW, Russia maintained on the PLC territory nine infantry, two carabinier regiments, a hussar squadron, one grenadier, two cuirassier regiments, and 200 Don Cossacks. To all noises coming from the PLC and outside “concerned parties” a standard answer was that Russian troops are not entering the Polish territory, they are remaining in it. In an absence of any realistic counter-arguments, this one had been accepted by everybody.
________
[1] In OTL he proved to be a really great ass.
[2] Definition: “The French Salon was a gathering of selected people to learn from an expert about a subject (historian, philosopher, composer), discuss ideas and events of the time, and connect with people in society.” Something like the Wild West saloon but without fistfights and with less competent “experts”: to discuss the horses and cows you need a solid knowledge of a subject but for discussing “philosophy” (IMO, a fundamental difference between German and French philosophies is that while German is talking about everything in a way, which impossible to understand, the French is using easy to understand language talking about nothing) you just need a freely wagging tongue. I’d abstain from the comments on what one needs to discuss a history (we are all in the same boat). 😂😂
[3] In this case, indication of a marital status, not a profession.
[4] In OTL she did not until her nose was pushed into a pile of a manure which she helped to produce.
[5] gold coin worth of 2.2 - 2.3 rubles.
[6] In OTL Catherine, who was complaining about an empty treasury, sent him 100,000 червонцы as a gift.

 

[alexmilman]

13a. OTL intermission

By whatever reason “AI” handling my ipad three times screwed up the text by committing on its own initiative and removing a piece related to Radziwill and his castle. I’m trying it as a separate “subchater”. This is all OTL but interesting one.

In June 1764, after Radziwill and Branicki had been defeated, the Russian troops occupied Radziwill’s Slutsk, and then under the command of M. Bzhostovsky (Lithuanian official - it was all for saving the PLC, in case you forgot) approached Nesvizh and began to demand the surrender of the guns. By this time, the Radziwill militia had already been defeated by Russian troops near Slonim on June 26, 1764, and the city had nowhere to wait for support. Nesvizh, having been left without a defender, nevertheless, did not immediately surrender to the Russian troops. At first, Russian parliamentarians were not even allowed into the city gates. Then Bzhostovsky gave the order to shell the castle, which he did until the evening from the New Place. Only after that the gates of the castle were opened, but the Radziwiłł garrison was left in the castle. The production of Russian troops was 30 large, 34 small guns on lafts, 13 barrels of gunpowder, 1000 cannonballs and 200 buckshot shells. Officers of the Nesvizh garrison were sworn in, and soldiers and non-commissioned officers from peasants were disbanded and sent home.

In 1767-1768, when Karol Stanisław Radziwill Pane Kohanku returned to Nesvizh for a short period of time, he tried to revive the cadet corps founded by his father in his possessions. This corps of artillery and engineering was commanded by the Saxon F. K Frelih. The Castellans of Nesvizh Castle received an order to allocate premises for the director and officers on the top floor of a stone building, and in total there were 48 cadets in the school. There were no general education subjects in her course, since the Corps accepted only young men "already trained in schools", and the corps was understood as a special school to prepare for the military profession. Therefore, they studied only German and French, mathematics, logic, artillery, architecture, drawing. By order of Karol Stanislav, a separate project was to be drawn up for the premises of the corps, but this was never carried out. The corps existed until 1776, from its walls mainly good officers who valiantly served in the artillery and infantry regiments of the GDL.

Karol Stanisław Radziwill was again forced to leave the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in July 1769, at which time the Russian possession of Nesvizh came, which lasted from 1768 to 1775 and was accompanied by the removal of the property of the Radziwills, the destruction of the castle and the city. In 1772, General Chernyshev confiscated and took the princely library with 20,000 books from Nesvizh Castle to St. Petersburg. It remained forever in the fund of the library of the Academy of Sciences, first of the Russian Empire, and then of the USSR.

In 1780, Radziwill Pane Kohanku retired from the political struggle and returned to Nesvizh. Despite the fact that the castle remained without a master for a long time, there were 16 guns on the ramparts of the nesvizh fortress back in 1779, as well as a large number of them were in the arsenal, some had names and were decorated with the coats of arms of Zholkevsky and Sobiesky. As combat, they were no longer valuable and were used exclusively as ceremonial and salute tools. The loss of the castle was evidenced by the compiled inventory: for example, out of 984 paintings that were in the castle in 1770, about 500 remained.

Karol Stanislav begins work on the revival of the castle with all his inherent fervor and passion. The luxury that Prince Karol Stanisław Radziwill to Pane Kochanka tried to revive in the family nest was especially well remembered by contemporaries during a reception organized by Karol Stanisław in September 1784 for King Stanislav August Poniatowski, who visited the Nesvizh Castle on his way to Grodno. Radziwill Pane Kohanku, organizing a luxurious reception, aimed to belittle the greatness of the king. During his visit to the castle, Stanislav August was shown the treasury of nesvizh, which occupied three large halls, stuffed with all sorts of things - from a significant number of paintings, tapestries - even to twelve wooden horses, decorated with saddles and a harness of unprecedented beauty. The wealth of the owner was represented by precious stones, hats, cufflinks, rings, watches, collars, rings. In addition - Marshal's wands, hetman's clubs, buzdygans, valuable quivers and shields, sabers in gold scabbards, gold and gilded weapons, swords sprinkled with holy water, sewing, lace, finally Egyptian mummies, weapons of wild Indians - all this was enough to pleasantly and usefully take several hours of time. The King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth looked "poor" in comparison with Karol Radziwill.

.

 

[alexmilman]

14. Diplomatic games

“Those who guard their tongues keep themselves from calamity”
Proverbs 21:23
“A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul. The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts” Proverbs 18:7-8
“Don't believe the rumors until you repeat it yourself.”
Gennady Malkin
“People will believe anything if you tell them it's gossip.”
A. Kumor
“Don't repeat gossip like a parrot. Add something from yourself.”
Wieslaw Brudziński
“Rumors being spread that I'm interested in the moral side of politics. God forbid! Am I a mystic?”
S. J. Letz

​

International gossip

Elections in Poland produced quite a stir and gave ground to some wild speculations based upon the well-known earlier relations between Catherine and Stanislav. All of them, in a remarkable absence of any supporting facts, involved the marriage.

The least harmless one was a rumor that Catherine is planning to marry Stanislav, move to Poland and pass rule of Russia to Paul. This one was too fantastic to believe. But the more seemingly serious one was about of a marriage in which she remains on the throne of Russia helping Stanislaw to reform Poland by strengthening the royal power and then uses the union as a replacement of the Russian-Austrian alliance against the Ottomans. The second one was spreading throughout Europe (or at least throughout the interested courts) producing a wave of the negative reactions everywhere including both Russia and Poland.

In Russia and idea of Catherine’s marriage to the Catholic king of Poland was considered monstrous, both religiously and politically, but these rumors were killed with a relative ease with Catherine expressing a shock to the very idea that she may even contemplate such a marriage and mocking those with the over-developed imgination.

In Poland the idea was so horrifying that the Sejm issued a decision by which Stanislaw may marry only a Polish woman. To which Stanislaw declared that he is not planning to marry at all.

To calm down the French public opinion worried by a potential Russian-Polish union Stanislaw had to wrote a letter to his “maman” in Paris denying any intention to marry anybody and asking to spread this piece of news.

In Constantinople, where the rumor was, with a high probability, spread by the Prussian ambassador, it was taken very seriously and it took an intensive diplomatic exchange (and some tangible “arguments”) between the Porta and Russian ambassador to reassure the Ottomans that Catherine can’t even think about such a “sacrilegious” marriage.

Surprisingly or perhaps not, most noise had been coming from the Khan who was advocating the military measures more or less as a matter of principle. Fortunately, the Russian diplomatic mission was recently established in Bakhchysarai and when Khan started demanding a gift of a hunting falcon he was explained that the presents can be given only for a good behavior. After weighting the priorities, the Khan shut up.

But, marriage or not, there was a serious component which did require the separate explanations, the reforms in Poland. None of the rulers involved, including Catherine, wanted to have strong PLC. However, Catherine was still under Panin’s influence and Panin was a person much more concerned with his reputation and implementation of his ideas than with the practical interests of the Russian Empire. And his idea was to “restore Poland” and to be acclaimed as great statesman by the Enlightenment crowd. Catherine, as far as he was concerned, had no experience and did not know what is good for her. And, of course, the best thing for her and Russian Empire was to spread Enlightenment both inside and outside of its borders. So he kept sending to the Russian ambassador in the PLC instructions to support King Stanislaw in his reform efforts and keep pushing through the dissidents issue.

These widely advertised activities did not produce any serious practical results but raised quite a few questions because none of the neighbors wanted to see a strong PLC. Catherine finally got wind of the potential trouble and the ambassadors got the instructions to assure the host governments that the reforms are just the minor improvements in the financial and administrative apparatus and that the liberum veto, which Russia is 100% supporting, is a guarantee of the preservation of a general status quo.

In the PLC Stanislaw already was told that the time for changes did not come, yet. Which left the dissidents issue. Panin kept recommending to stay in the course but Catherine decided that she’ll follow Frederick’s example: request for the equal rights had been made, the Polish “nation” did reject it in the most clear and hysterical way and at least for a while she may wash her hands; after all, even if the Sejm would be forced to guarantee the Orthodox equal rights, the nobility will not honor this decision and Russia can’t keep forever enough troops in the PLC to protect all its Orthodox population. [1] Repnin, who was actually arguing against pushing the dissident issue, got instructions not to push it with any seriousness. Panin was clearly on a wrong side of an issue but in Catherine’s entourage he was still a person with the greatest experience in the foreign affairs and Catherine decided to keep him until suitable replacement is found but do not give him a free hand in his activities.

Sweden in the midst of the Age of Liberty

Unrelated to this rumor but in a direct connection to the Polish affairs, king Louis XV and his ministers came to a conclusion that, at least for a while, it does not make sense to waste money and efforts on Poland and instead started reorienting its effort toward Sweden where it was, so far, supporting the anti-royal party. Now, there should be a 180 degrees turn. Choisel's instructions to Breteil said: "France was misled by circumstances, too favored by the weakening of royal power in Sweden, from which a metaphysical, impossible rule arose. They wasted money on weak parties, and Sweden became weaker and insignificant. Therefore, it is must to give the king more power."

In his communications with the Russian ambassador in Sweden, Osterman, Panin was, as usually, long-winded and not helpful because he was much more driven by his ideas than facts on the ground. The ambassador was instructed to tell the Russian sympathizers that the French are unreliable and the Queen should not trust them. Ambassador responded that the Queen does not have options because influence of the French party is greatly strengthened: the French ambassador promises a million livres for the future Sejm, and if the Sejm is not extraordinary, postponed until the usual period, the French court will send another three million livres. OTOH, neither Russia nor Britain did not, so far, explained to what their help would amount. To which Panin answered that this is all nonsense and that Osterman should keep maintaining the friendly relations with the “good patriots” without any specific obligations and to Catherine he recommended to do nothing in Sweden until there is a complete clarity with the Polish affairs.

While France was interested in reestablishing absolutism in Sweden (with the pro-French court members as a power behind the throne), Russia, Britain and Prussia were interested in reestablishing of a constitutional monarchy as defined by the Constitution of 1720 with a proper balance between the three powers and liquidation of the disorder caused by the existing “false interpretation of the forms of a government”, specifically the acts published by the sejm of 1756 (after a failed coup led by Queen Louisa Ulrika with the intention to restore the absolute monarchy) which among other things contained the following: “State officials grant themselves the right to interpret and correct the established form of government at the General Sejm, if it is no longer necessary.” This would have to be changed to the statement that the state officials may present proposals to the sejm, which must be published and only after its approval by the next sejm becomes a law.

As in 1756, the Queen was a main mover on the Swedish side with France on one side and Russia with Britain on another trying to get her on their sides while she was trying to maneuver between the two sides and preferably get funds from both while not exposing herself too much because after 1756 she and her husband had been threatened with an expulsion if they try anything of the kind again.

The care about the Swedish constitution demonstrated by Britain and Russia was, of course, very touchy but the last part of a last item in a very long list of the detailed “tactical” instructions sent by Catherine to Osterman contained “strategic” goal of the whole exercise: take care that the Swedish government would not enter into any international agreements which could change Sweden’s neutral status in the case of a war.

Britain. On that platform [2] the British and Russian governments agreed to work together. The Brits were ready to commit 40,000 pounds and Osterman received 50,000 rubles for support of the Swedish “patriots”. However, they refused to “compensate” part of the Russian expenses on the Polish elections or to make any similar commitment regarding potential contribution in the case of the Russian-Ottoman war even if the Russian side claimed that these two items are the main part of a military treaty and that Russia is willing to make a similar commitment in the case of he Bitish war with Spain or France. Panin, rather optimistically, assumed that the Brits will not keep bargaining so hard when they will be informed of the new alliance between the Bourbon Houses to which Austria will join. With a complete absence of understanding, Panin kept calling the British objections regarding financial side of the Russian proposal as “merchant excuses” writing that the British government does not have any need to inform the Parliament about expenses until the crisis comes and when this happens “Then for 500,000 rubles the nation will not rebel against the government. All this is only about how shopkeepers can bargain, as long as there is time, and how much it is possible to bargain.”

Anyway, cooperation in Sweden was not a step toward creation of the Panin’s system because two of the intended participants did not have any intention to be the parts of it:

• Frederick wanted just a military alliance with Russia as a protection against Franco-Austrian alliance, got it thanks to the Polish business and did not want any additional obligations.
• Britain was even less interested in any system that would not provide trade advantages while involving obligations and expenses on the subjects of no national interests. As far as the bilateral treaties were involved, both sides were interested in trade but the Russian side wanted a package of the military and commercial treaties while Britain would not agree to help Russia against the Ottomans due to the existing trade interests and is not going to subsidize Russian activities in Poland because Parliament is not going to approve these expenses.

Far East. The vastness of Russia forced the government at the same time to negotiate an alliance with the extreme state in western Europe and take precautions regarding the Chinese borders. Lieutenant General Springer reported in July from the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress that a lot of Chinese troops were on the borders. The military “conference” (Vilboa, Peter Panin, Chernyshev, Count Ernst Minich, kn. Alexander Golitsyn, Weimarn and Olsufiev) proposed the following measures: 1) provide instructions to the Siberian governors and other official on improving situation in the region; 2) to decree the rules on Chinese trade and customs affairs; 3) to make new orders to protect the borders so that they are not subjected to sudden attacks; 4) to start talks with the Chinese about resolving the existing situation while fortifying the border.
In practical terms this mean splitting Siberian gubernia into two, Tobolsk and Irkutsk, starting attempts to settle more people in the southern regions along the border, modify the rules of Kjakhta trade, to keep in Siberia 11 regiments, send there field artillery, add more officers of a general rank and to keep the regiments together, not spreading them along the border.

Note: Kjakhta was an agreed upon trading point between Qing and Russian Empires with a Chinese settlement directly across the border. At that point the main Russian merchandise were furs in exchange for the Chinese silk, porcelain, tea, rhubarb. Chinese tried to move this point to Urga (Mongolia) to give their merchants a better bargaining position but this did not work out. The main Russian concern was to minimize losses of the state revenue by tightening control over the illegal trade outside Kjakhta.

___________
[1] In OTL she stuck with the idea producing a great alienation of the Poles with the resulting “Repnin Sejm”, Bar Confederacy and Ottoman War to which Russia was not fully prepared. Panin remained a top figure in the foreign politics causing more than one terrible decision.
[2] It was already mentioned that the French proposal included a lease of few Swedish warships but, of course, support of the other countries’ constitutions always was on the top of the list of both British and Russian governments. 😉

 

[alexmilman]

15. “…from the ashes, grow the roses of success!”

“Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!”
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’
“He will die if he ever hurries.”
Catherine II about Panin
“Good nature, great vanity and extraordinary immobility.”
British Ambassador about Panin
“Don't let the Poles scare yourself; believe that without showing them your teeth, you can't achieve anything.”
von Solms to Panin
“We have an excess of ships and people, but we have neither a fleet nor sailors”
Catherine II, 1764​

“Each abysmal failure makes a point!” [1]

The ongoing situation in Poland, of which Panin was rather jealously in charge, was, rather predictably, moving from bad to worse. While Catherine was already ready to backpedal on the most touchy dissidents’ issue, which the Poles considered as a matter of a national survival, Panin still was for a full support of the Stanislaw’s unpopular reforms which he considered a key to pushing the dissidents issue down a collective throat of the Polish nobility. Of course, strictly objectively, practical effect of giving the equal rights to the Orthodox PLC subjects would be minimal because due to the decades of the active polonization an Orthodox nobility was pretty much extinct. The peasants did not count and the whole thing boiled down to few Orthodox bishops getting the seats in the Senate thus becoming equal to their Catholic counterparts. However, the very thought of the equality of these lowly creatures with the Catholic bishops was producing a national hysteria even without an assumption that they would constitute a powerful pro-Russian lobby. Such a lobby always existed, consisting of the bona fide good Catholics, and it did not even cost too much. But the logic or reason had been irrelevant and even the Russian partisans like “Familia” had been asking to drop the subject because it was killing everything else. But Panin knew better what should be done for everybody’s good and kept moving in a chosen direction with a slowness and determination of a self-respected glacier. Repnin’s warnings had been ignored but he did not get permission to apply military force either. The Russian troops remained in the PLC to no obvious purpose irritating everybody and generating a lot of guesses. Were they staying to protect the King and his reforms? Were they staying to prevent these reforms? Were they staying to protect the dissidents? Were they a part of a Russian plan to grab a piece of the PLC territory? The only thing that happened in this area was the troops slow relocation into the Duchy were supplies had been cheeper but wasn’t this also because there was a big number of the Orthodox people there?

Then, the crisis came. The Poles, with their usual wisdom and timing. raised the custom dues on the Prussian goods. Soon afterwards the news came that workers were gathered in Marienwerder by the Prussian government to erect fortifications on the bank of the Vistula and that they were carrying artillery there: they want to arrange a new customs here and force all passing Polish ships to pay ten percent of all their goods. By the interesting fit of logic King Stanislaw declared to Repnin, “It is obvious that he Prussian king is trying to quarrel me with Russia“, while Prussian Resident was complaining to Repnin that the Polish court, especially Chancellor of Lithuania, shows hostility to Prussia and getting closer to the court of Vienna. Repnin, caught between two “allies”, was assuring the Prussian resident that Poland was not looking for an alliance with the Vienna court at all, that all the suggestions about it were false, malicious attempt to quarrel with Poland with Prussia; and to Stanislav-August he was telling that it would be better to deal with the Prussian king, who would not make hard demands.

Meanwhile, the Marienwerder Customs has already begun its activities. One river bank was Prussian and the other was Polish; the Prussians by force pulled the ships that sailed off the Polish coast and forced them to pay the toll, even took the tenth log from the firewood. Repnin has never caught Stanislav-August in such a grief close to despair. With tears in his eyes, the king said: "If I were given the choice to give up the throne or tolerate the Marienwerder customs, which would keep the whole of Poland under the yoke, I would not hesitate to leave the throne; I now consider myself more unhappy than the last of my subjects…. The Prussian king will extract from his customs about 3,600,000 Prussian guilders, i.e. about 900,000 rubles, which is equal to income from the entire Brandenburg Prussia. I believe that all my hope is only for the mediation of the Empress.”
Panin’s reaction was “…The sovereigns no longer cause each other to fight: so is the need for the powerless to revere the strong more.” The problem was that by “respecting” the most powerful the king was expecting a protection against the less powerful and Catherine had neither realistic tool nor a desire to get into confrontation with Frederick. To make things worse, Stanislaw wrote a very hostile letter to Frederick. After reading the copy Catherine reacted: “I confess that I was frightened by the heat with which the first paragraph of this letter was written. It's, of course, full of intelligence, but not decent at all. Oh! How would you take me away if I wrote such a brilliant and harmful letter to my business.” Eventually, after a personal letter from Catherine, Frederick agreed to stop activities of the custom until the issue is settled but she was forced to waste her influence on the issues of no relevance to the Russian interests. The funny part in all that commotion was that, when the dust settled, the Prussian ambassador to Warsaw acknowledged that the new Polish custom system is actually beneficial for the Prussian merchants but he has to follow his king’s orders. To get his way, Frederick offered bribe to Stanislaw and ordered Solms to distribute some money in Russia but the issue was postponed until the next Sejm.

An extra problem was growing within PLC: the Czartoryski brothers, who used the funds supplied by Russia to increase their clientele, were getting more and more ambitious and started getting ideas of their own while still expecting the Russian subsidies.

In Sweden there was nothing to brag about either: Panin ordered not to make any moves in support of the constitutional party until situation becomes clear.

Negotiations with Britain also were not moving anywhere both because a proposed military alliance was against the British interests and because Panin’s style of procrastination was driving the Brits crazy.

A false premise upon which the whole Panin’s “system” had been built made that system a purely cabinet fantasy, of which Catherine was getting more and more aware. An assumption that Prussia would be putting the Polish interests above its own was just as laughable as an idea that Russia would respect the Saxon (one more member of the non-existent “system”) interests in the Courland case.

“Roses of success”. With the Polish affair looking as a very questionable international engagement and probably even a complete disaster, Catherine was eager to score a clear international success, preferably something that could be linked to the policies of Peter I, confirming her as a true successor of the Great One and thus adding at least some legitimacy to her rule. Such an opportunity was right there and the issue was just how to handle it properly. Peter I was, at the peak of his success, planning to turn the Baltic Sea into the Russian lake (which was a rather fanciful idea, all things considering). He failed miserably, thanks to the resistance of his Prussian and Danish allies and his own feeling of being an underdog, but the Mecklenburg and Holstein marriages were there and the Grand Duke Paul was a lucky heir of what was referenced as “Gottorp Question”. During the Great Northern War Denmark seized the territory of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp in Schleswig and ended Sweden's patronage of Holstein-Gottorp with the 1720 Treaty of Frederiksborg. In 1762 Duke of Holstein ascended the throne as Peter III of Russia.

With the resources of Russia now backing his claims, Peter III dispatched his Holsteinian minister Caspar von Saldern to the Danish court to demand the recovery of his former ducal territory in Schleswig, as well as the concession of the royal portion of Holstein, under threat of war.

The Danish government under Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff refused to relinquish Schleswig, and Russian and Danish troops came face to face in Mecklenburg; but, on 9 July 1762, before fighting began or any agreement could be reached, Peter was overthrown by his wife, who took control of Russia as Empress Catherine II. Catherine rather hastily withdrew the Russian troops from Pomerania but instructed her representative, von Saldern, to negotiate on behalf of the Duke of Holstein (Grand Duke Paul) a peaceful solution to the Schleswig-Holstein conflict with his Danish counterpart, Foreign Minister Andreas Peter Bernstorff.

Of course, removal of the troops from Pomerania was foolish because it deprived the Russian side of a powerful bargaining tool but, OTOH, recently signed Russian-Prussian military alliance fully compensated for it: it was obvious to both sides that Frederick II would be just happy to get involved and, whatever the Danish-Russian result of this process could be, a chance for Denmark to lose its Oldenburg possessions to Prussia would be quite high, either by a mediation process or by Russia-Prussia vs. Demark war, which the Old Fritz would be happy to trigger. So, neither side wanted his “help” and both sides were ready to be practical. The negotiations were conducted in Tsarskoe Selo and ended up with a treaty named after it [2]:

• Disputed Duchy of Schleswig was split with its northern part (“Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Glückstadt”) remaining with Denmark while the Southern part (“the Duchy of Schleswig”) became fully independent from Denmark and was in a personal union with the Duchy of Holstein.
• The “fruit salad” of Holstein (the Danish territories, the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp, “jointly administered territories”, possessions of the imperial entities) had been sorted out with some exchanges as a result of which each side consolidated (within the “reasonable limits”) its possessions, loosing something and getting something but generally gaining in the terms of an easier management.
• Russia and Denmark signed an alliance treaty.

Maps below reflect possessions before and after the treaty.

Color schema for post-agreement map on the right (courtesy of @Jürgen) :
Light orange shows Kingdom of Denmark
Dark Orange shows the Danish possesions in Germany
Purple is the Duchy of Schleswig
Light purple is the Duchy of Holstein
Light yellow is the Duchy of Plön (Oldenburg sideline)
Green is the County of Rantzau (sovereign county under a Holsteinian knightly house)

Holstein territory still included numerous estates of the Reichsritter’s and other small imperial entities, but this was not considered to be a major problem: with the duchy now being firmly linked to the Russian Imperial House, the old games of playing independence or being excessively vocal regarding the “imperial rights and liberties” and appealing to the imperial courts did not make too much sense on two accounts.

• First, the noisy ones would be deprived of a great market of the employment opportunities for their family members;
• Second, administration of the Duchy would feel itself pretty much free to ignore the fact that formally these entities were the direct subjects of the HRE because the Hapsburgs would be very, very, very reluctant to challenge the Russian Empire on behalf of an obscure Reichsritter and the Russian record with the dukes of Courland was not very encouraging for the lesser figures.

As a result, everyone, including the “imperial entities”, wisely preferred to be vocally joyful and loyal to the Duke Paul.

Administrator was easy to choose, Friedrich August von Oldenburg, a prince-bishop of Lubeck, brother of Adolf Fredrik, the King of Sweden and Catherine’s uncle (brother of her mother) was pretty much an ideal figure by the family connections and geography of his own territory. He was awarded Order of St. Andrew (on the portrait above) and put in charge for an unidentified period: it was up to Paul, when he becomes an adult, to reconfirm or replace him or up to Catherine to replace him at her whim.

Now, Catherine could brag a considerable success of her own (Panin was pretty much kept out being busy with other issues):

• There was a sizable pool of the people competent in various areas who, notwithstanding a sad fate of the Holstein regiment of Peter III, had been quite eager to serve in Russia;
• Russian Empire got, what Peter I failed to get, a secured naval base in Kiel.

• While under Peter III awarding Order of St. Anna to the Russian subjects was a rare occasion, now it became a common place. But, it being a Holsteinian award, Catherine could not award it so she was “recommending” recipients to the Duke (Paul) who had to sign the papers. Being herself (aka, incurable bitch) she quite often was “recommending” the people whom Paul personally disliked.

And there was a BIG problem related to a naval base. To make use of a naval base one has to have a functional navy and the Baltic Fleet, which had 24 ships of the line and 7 frigates, was in absolutely pathetic condition. Catherine was writing after the fleet’s review:
“The minute I raised the standard and the ships began to pass and salute, two of them were killed by the mistake of their captains, one of whom got the stern into the equipment of the other, and this is in the stack, maybe, of the tuaz from my yacht; a good hour they were tinkering to free their sides, which they finally succeeded, to the great damage of their masts and equipment. Then the admiral wanted them to line up; but no ship could do it, although the weather was excellent. Finally, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we approached the shore to bomb the so-called city. One bomber boat was placed in front and when they wanted to put another one near it, they had a hard time to find one, because no one stayed in line. Until 9 p.m., they fired bombs and balls that did not hit the target. The admiral himself was extremely upset by such insignificance and admits that everything put up for review was bad. I have to confess that the ships looked like a fleet coming out of Holland every year to catch herring, not a military one."

Being a complete profane in the subject, Catherine made a wrong conclusion about “excess” of the ships: most of the available ships had been built badly and in a very bad condition so actually she had too few ships as well and building the new ships along the same lines was not a solution. One of the fundamental problems was an absence of the leadership. After rather messy period of Elizabeth I, Catherine restored organization of Admiralteistv-Collegium but starting from 1740 it did not have a chairman. In 1764 Catherine appointed a new one, who was also Admiral-General of the Russian Navy. The problem was that the appointee was only 10 years old (Grand Duke Paul) and by any stretch of imagination did not have a needed administrative or naval experience.

Which meant that an efficient Vice-Chairman was required and, by somewhat peculiar logic, Catherine made as her pick I.G.Chernyshov who so far was engaged mostly in diplomatic and, a little bit, military service and had nothing to do with the navy. His most important exercise in other areas was acquisition in 1757 the state-owned Copper smelters on the Ural. He built higher melting furnaces and significantly increased production. In the early 1760s, Chernyshev illegally seized about 500 thousand poods of copper ore harvested by private industrialists, which led to failures in ore supplies. By the time in question he was in a classic situation of the Elizabethan aristocrats who bought the state enterprises: run them into a nearly catastrophic condition, got in debt and was planning to sell them back to the state. What was moving Catherine is an enigma [3] and even a greater enigma is how he ended up being quite good in his position. Of course, it was physically impossible to fix all the problems overnight and even within few years but at least some visible progress was achieved.

Another important development was a review of the situation with the Russian Baltic ports with a resulting decision to stop wasting money on the failing (since the time of Peter I) attempt to build a port in Rågervik (Estonia) and instead concentrate on Kronstadt and Revel.

________
[1] Yes, it does. The point is that you are incompetent and, perhaps, an idiot.
[2] In OTL this happened in 1773 and CII forced Paul to cede territory to Denmark in exchange to County of Oldenburg and other hereditary Oldenburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire which he had to give to Friedrich August von Oldenburg.
[3] Well, not too much of enigma because his brother was favored by Catherine and made Vice-Chairman and then Chairman of the Military collegium.

 

[alexmilman]

16. Problems big and small

“He suddenly discovered that so far he was moving too fast and in a completely wrong direction.”
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘History of one city’
“Productivity is not directly related to what to do, but to what not to do.”
Katerina Lengold
“In order to achieve a lot, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” [1]
Anatole France
“Everything went according to a pre-broken plan.”
“The more detailed the plan, the more the devil is in detail...”
“Traditionally, plans will begin to collapse even before moving from words to deeds.”
“Grand plans are not based on momentary desires.”
“You shouldn't make grand plans - you can die under their ruins.”
“To plan a route to the goal, you must first know where you are.”
unknown authors​

The first diplomatic success was, of course, encouraging but hardly helpful in dealing with the countless domestic issues. Especially, taking into an account that many Catherine’s ideas had been shaped by combination of two factors: influence of the French “philosophers” and a blissful ignorance of a country she was ruling. The third contributing component was “heritage of Peter the Great”: decades of a dedicated propaganda resulted in a somewhat distorted image of a person always acting with a great success purely upon inspiration. A long list of the failed projects was ignored, as well as the shameful fact that, at least from time to time, he was doing research and planning before acting.

Intermission. Personally, I mostly recall situations along the lines “got inspired -> ordered -> failed -> made preparations -> had it done” (definition of success being “implemented as intended”, not the practical benefits of a project) but, just due to a sheer numbers of his activities, there had to be better examples; IIRC, some of the canal projects started with a thorough planning and the fact that the planning proved to be lousy and the canal required re-implementation within few years, as in the case of Ladoga canal, or the idea was not very good, as in the case of the first “Volga-Don” canal, are irrelevant to the fact that the projects did start with a proper research.

OTOH, these examples could be taken as a proof that in the XVIII century Russia planning stage was rather irrelevant to a success or failure of a project and that perhaps an early failure was even needed to indicate the potential problems and, with some luck, deal with them later. If we accept this point of view, then everything was going just as it was supposed. After all, as was remarked by Munnich Jr., “Russian Empire is being supervised directly by the God because otherwise it is impossible to figure out how such a state exists.”

Invitation of the German settlers.

At the very start of her reign Catherine issued a decree inviting the Germans to come and settle on the unoccupied territories of the European Russia promising them help with a relocation and considerable benefits afterwards including a tax free status for the next 30 years and percent free 10 years loan for building houses, buying food, cattle, etc. The idea was seemingly sound. What could be wrong with inviting the hard-working, competent farmers to settle on the empty lands? Absolutely nothing except for few trifles.
The first allocated area was Saratov region around which there was a lot of the territory lacking a population. Only when the settlers started to arrive it was suddenly discovered that a considerable part of the empty lands had been already populated by the Russian squatters (including those of a noble rank who settled there with their serfs) who, so to speak, went under the administrative radar [2], avoiding being counted and taxed. Which brought to a forefront two classic questions of the Russian reality [3], “who is to blame?” and “what to do?”. The first question was dropped quite fast because, these places being officially empty, lacked any low-level, easy to punish, administration and the high-level had been quite reasonably referencing to the absence of the reports from the “ground level”. “What to do?” was trickier and deserved attention of the Senate and Catherine herself because it contained a set of the sub-questions:

• Should the squatters be punished? On one hand, they settled on the state-owned land without permission and in the Russian Empire doing such things without a permission could easily be a crime [4]. It took a prolonged discussion to agree that, because cultivation of the empty lands is useful, these people should not be punished or expelled.
• Which brought up a question “who owns what?”. A special commission had been created and sent to the area to define the borders of already cultivated lands and territories allocated to the arriving Germans.
• “Who is entitled to what?” The Germans had been promised a tax free status for the next few years but were the squatters, who were performing the same task, illegible for the same benefit. Initial Senate decision was positive but then Prince Shakhovskoy pointed out that this is going to create a dangerous precedent for the future land grabbers and, after the second round of discussion, it was decided that they should pay some tax (10 kopecks per hectare) for using the state-owned land.

While all these questions were under discussion, one more question popped up. The Germans were promised ready dwellings (or at least help on that account) and, to implement a rosy picture presented on the painting above, somebody had to built them. Which meant a need of the laborers, materials, which should be carried from somewhere, and a general organization. To start with, predictably, the “laborers” were in a short supply in the “empty” area and had to be hired somewhere, transported, provided with a shelter and food, etc. Add to this supply of the construction materials and you have a serious logistical task for the area lacking infrastructure. The same goes for the necessary purchases: the region did not have too much of a surplus of anything, Amazon was not, yet, around and the settlers had a communication problem. So the commission handling them had to work quite hard.

Intermission: The obvious question is how did the squatters managed to solve all these problems? The answer is simple: this was an illustration of a difference between private initiative and state-run <whatever>.

Being pushed to see a reality, Catherine ordered to stop a further immigration until the things are sorted out and the first wave (23 - 26,00) is fully settled. The experience was definitely acquired and the whole thing triggered a process going all the way to the XIX century.

The Big Item was, as always, the PLC or rather the self-imposed “dissidents issue”. Catherine was convinced to make it a top item of her PLC agenda both by the petitions of the local Orthodox bishops and by the reports of von Kayserling who was the Russian Ambassador in the PLC. Now, with this position, after Kayserling’s death, being held by Prince Repnin, she, being supported by Panin, kept moving in a chosen direction by inertia making the subject a matter of her prestige overshadowing other issues. Repnin kept sending reports warning that not just an initial plan (placing Orthodox bishops into the PLC Senate and complete equality of a non-Catholic nobility in all administrative appointments) but even a much more request to allow the non-Catholic nobles to held the low-level local positions is causing an absolutely berserk reaction both from szlachta and from the Polish clergy.

“Fanaticism," Repnin reported, "is intensified to such an extent that they begin to avoid me as the excommunicated once avoided; at the table they drink for the health of the defenders of the Catholic religion, and the heated heads swear to die rather than to allow any improvement in the situation of dissidents”.

OTOH, the instructions he kept receiving from St. Petersburg, were completely ignoring situation on a ground:
“The orders given on the dissident case are terrible," he wrote to Panin, "truly my hair is on end when I think about it, having almost no little hope, except for the only strength, to fulfill the will of the most all-merciful sovereign regarding civil dissident advantages.”

Catherine, either because she did not want to understand what is going on, or just pretended to be idiotic, had been instructing Repnin to tell Stanislaw-August that she absolutely does not understand how dissidents admitted to legislative activity will therefore be more hostile to the Polish state and government than they are now and if the king has a different point of view than she can only regret about being so wrong about his friendship and thoughts. This was all an empty rhetoric which did not make slightest impression upon the Polish side. Moreover, both the king and Czartoryski had been using what they considered a smart tactics of the empty assurances to get Catherine’s support on what they wanted. Stanislaw-August sent his representative to St. Petersburg to discuss a possible acceptable scenario for resolution of the dissidents issue while preparing a project for the Sejm, in which they were denied all rights besides vaguely mentioned personal security, and declaring that Repnin agreed to it, which Repnin, of course, denied. Czartoryski kept insisting that Catherine should support their reforms but adamantly refused to even bring the dissident issue to the Sejm. Panin kept sending Czartoryski the letters appealing to their good feelings and making very vague hints about the negative consequences of their refusal to push the dissidents issue through.

All that time the most vocal opponent to any concessions to the non-Catholics, Kajetan Ignacy Sołtyk, the Bishop of Krakow, was actively, and with a great success, preaching against any attempts to give any rights to the non-Catholics.
“We must start with the foundation on which our rights, liberties, well-being are based only; this foundation is the holy Roman Catholic faith… Catholic, I learn jealousy from the dissidents themselves by the faith of my ancestors: if they dare to spread only tolerant sects, how will I be ashamed or afraid to defend the dominant religion in a free state? As a bishop, I feel the duty to protect Christ's sheep from the infection of heretical teachings: as a senator, I keep the oath to advise the republic and the king one useful thing, to avert the harmful.”

Being hard pressed from St. Petersburg to enforce Catherine’s wish, Repnin proposed to place the Russian troops stationed in Poland in the estates of the most vocal opponents and keep them there at the owners’ expense to which Prince Czartoryski answered that it would be much better to remove the Russian troops from the Polish territory altogether, at least during the Sejm’s session.

Anyway, a legitimate way to do anything in the PLC was to create a confederation, which could make the legitimate protests. Repnin proceeded to arrange for it and …. found that practically all more or less prominent “dissidents” are Protestants. The Orthodox faction was represented by a single bishop because over the decades the Orthodox nobility was destroyed politically and financially to such a degree that these “nobles” had been forced to plough their fields as simple peasants. If, before getting engaged into this mess, the late Keyserling and Panin made at least some effort to find out a real situation on the ground, it would be quite clear that the only person who is going to benefit was Frederick of Prussia who did not spent either money or diplomatic effort, waiting for the suckers from Russia to do the whole work for him. If the prevailing political climate was researched with some degree of a seriousness instead of a complete reliance upon few people who’d promise anything to push through their own agenda, the issue would be most probably not even raised because it did not worth a full-scale military intervention. But Keyserling was dead, Repnin relied too much upon his judgement and Panin was too full of his own …. schemas. So “whom to blame?” was of no practical value and the real question was “what to do?” To continue for the sake of prestige or to be practical? Upon receiving Repnin’s report, Catherine understood that she was quite successfully played for an idiot and decided that the real question is how to abandon the subject without losing a face [5]. The most obvious way was to shift the priorities letting the dissident issue to die “by omission”.

Fortunately, changing priorities was easy because Stanislaw and Czartoryski presented at the Sejm a project regarding the procedure for deciding at the Sejm of financial affairs. The draft said that all financial matters should always be resolved by a majority vote, not excluding from financial affairs and the imposition of new taxes. This was a great opportunity to put Russia back at the position of a defender of the Polish “traditional values”. Repnin declared that the matters in question must include exclusively better handling of the money received from the existing taxes but not imposition of the new taxes because the new taxes is a state affair that can be decided only by the unilateral voice of the whole Sejm (“hey, guys, we are guarding your rights and liberties, so we are the good ones!”). Czartoryski objected that even introduction of the new taxes is a purely financial affair within competition of the Treasury Commission. Repnin replied that Russia and Prussia could not agree to such an interpretation. The dispute began, and the Lithuanian Chancellor, heatedly, said that the Poles have the right to make such decisions in their country as they please. "You have right," Repnin answered, "to do whatever you want: and we have the power to accept only what we want; you can sign your project and add it to the constitution of the current Sejm; but in the execution, of course, you will meet resistance from our side, because we in the neighborhood must observe that the form of government here is not changed."

Then he proceed with the subject: on the pre-election Sejm it was also decided that the issues of the military commission also have to be decided by a majority vote so does that mean that a majority may decide to increase size of the Polish army?

"Of course, so," Czartorysky answered. "No, not so," Repnin said, "this interpretation is contrary to your main freedom, which is liberum veto, the destruction of which we cannot allow; the increase in income and troops are the main points in public affairs." From Czartoryski Repnin went to the King who confirmed position of his uncles. This made Repnin let the party opposing court to know that Russia and Prussia do not agree on the royal project and want the unanimity and liberum veto to remain in full force.

Catherine noticed on Repnin's report: "They’re looking to deceive us, but this behavior will not win." Now, when it finally became clear that Czartorysky were trying to use the Russian resources for achieving their own goal, change of the Polish constitution, irritation against them had no limits. Now the ongoing task was to destroy political influence of the “Familia” (the King had to be spared for a time being) by relying upon the “true patriots” and emphasizing the Russian dedication to preserve their liberties and rights, of which the liberum veto was the most important one, against the evil plotters. Dissidents? What are you talking about?

Catherine to Repnin: “We repeat to you our previous command of the speedy rupture of the General Confederation and the entire Sejm, so that both the nephew and uncle can tangibly see that we do not give in to their deception.” Stanislaw-August, with the “perfect” timing asking from Repnin to deliver 50,000 rubles of the subsidy assigned to him and got a predictable answer that this is not going to happen until the new instructions from the Russian court are received. Catherine, besides approving Repnin’s behavior, instructed him to explain in clear terms to the King and “Familia” consequences of their behavior.

___________
[1] Outside literature this adice proved to be quite disastrous more than once.
[2] Which was quite easy, taking into an account that the radars and satellites were not invented yet, thus taking the regional administration off the hook.
[3] Surprisingly, they were not formulated until XIX century.
[4] What is or is not a crime was still a partially grey area because a full set of the laws was not codified until the reign of Nicholas I and, with Google search being quite lousy even in the XXI century, you can imagine how did it work in mid-XVIII.
[5] In OTL she decided to get her way no matter what. Which was, of course, the most obvious way to show who is the boss but not necessarily the smartest one.

 

[alexmilman]

17. Quiet times

“Pride is a child of ignorance, and therefore it is not surprising if the actions of the local court sometimes result of arrogance and vanity.”
Report of the British Ambassador after a failed attempt to push through a British version of the trade agreement
“The British are crap! (Les Angliais sont des miserables!)”
“Ambition and glory are the hidden springs that set the sovereigns in motion.”
Frederick II
“It is necessary to imagine in your mind exactly and clearly: what is freedom? Freedom is the right to do everything that the laws allow”
“The majority does not establish the truth, but only shows the desire of the majority.”
Catherine II
“Civilization is a science explaining how citizen of the Russian Empire must be strong in the midst of disasters.”
Saltykov-Schedrin, ‘History of a city’
​

Russia-Britain.
The Russian-British negotiations kept going on without moving anywhere. The Brits were still reluctant to agree to a military alliance that potentially may get them involved in the Russian conflict with the Ottomans while the Russians were not eager to provide the Brits with the trade advantages they wanted.

Regarding the military treaty, which was a part of the Panin’s pipe-dream “system”, the Russian ambassador reported that with a present government it would be of a little use, anyway, because that government is extremely unpopular and may fall at any moment.

On the trade agreement, which was a purely practical issue, Panin was on a much more sound ground both in assessing the situation and in negotiations. British ambassador, Lord Macartney, assured his government that the trade treaty is already agreed upon but this was not the case. The discussion stumbled on one article: the Russian version regarding the new trade regulations said that English merchants would receive the same benefits from these new regulations as the Empress's subjects. The British demanded that this article be expressed as follows: "The new agreement will not in any way constrain or limit the trade of English merchants in Russia, will not change its direction and nature." The imperial cabinet did not agree to this change. Panin listened carefully to Macartney’s speeches, and all his arguments and replied: "I see that we will never have a trade treaty."

Macartney answered with a long message that contained a rather confused mixture of a flattery and smokescreen intending to obscure the real issue in a clear expectation that his counterpart is a complete idiot. “…The constant goal of English politics is to please the empress…. Will you really want because of a single absolutely insignificant item to miss the opportunity to subordinate Britain to your ideas, make it join your allies and act under your leadership?” If it was so insignificant, why so much effort to push it through?

To which Panin answered that the main Russian goal is establish principle of a mutual equality. The British Navigation Act puts limits to the foreign participation in the British trade and this is why the Russian government wants an item that will allow in a future to issue an internal regulation encouraging Russian naval trade. “What will happen to an independent government if it is deprived of the power to do whatever it pleases within the state?” He than pointed out that while the trade is a foundation of the British politics, it is not going away due to an absence of a trade treaty, which has nothing to do with the relations between the two countries. The British merchants are and will be treated as friends in Russia.

To justify his failure to cheat, Macartney wrote a report explaining that the Russians are too barbaric and uneducated to understand the difference of the political systems and that the international law is not working in a country, which does not have an university (actually, Russia did have one) and which ministers do not know Latin. The logical conclusion was: “Their perseverance in the present case comes purely from arrogance, and it is much more difficult to break the Russian in the matter of pride than in the matter of interest. In my extreme opinion, it is absolutely impossible to persuade them to concede to our demand, and therefore I think that it is necessary to ratify the treaty, otherwise we can lose a lot.” Which was done in a form requested by Panin.

Russia-Prussia.
After the Russian-Prussian treaty had been signed, the differences of the views became obvious. While Frederick was purely pragmatic about usefulness of the bilateral agreement and did not see any reason for anything else, Panin considered it just the first step toward the utopian Northern Accord and sent von Saldern to teach the Old Fritz what’s good for him. Conversation started with the Polish affairs on which both sides had been singing in a perfect unison:
- Are you still considering the Poles to eliminate liberum veto?
- Your Majesty, we never thought about this. If our government ever mentioned this subject in secret to your minister it was done exclusively with a purpose to know your opinion on the issue.
- Ah, then it is fine.
But then discussion went to a touchy issue of the alliance vs. the “system”. Frederick stated that Russia and Prussia do not need any other union but their own, and that it does not want to be in an alliance with anyone other than Russia. Saldern expressed the opposite opinion that Russia and Prussia need to add to their alliance other powers to establish the Northern system, completely independent, that this is the only way to ensure themselves from alien strife and provide a service to the other states, which, of course, should be afraid of the terrible alliance of Austrian and Bourbon houses.

Frederick remarked that there is no reason to be worried about that “terrible alliance” alliance because its participants are paupers without money “(се sont des gueux)”. Saldern got into Panin’s favorite spiel about necessity of the system that will guarantee a power balance in Europe by including both active and passive states. The active states being Russia, Prussia and Britain. Frederick’s reaction was that Britain can’t be relied upon because its king changes his ministers, how he changes his shirts. When it came to the German states and, specifically, Saxony, Frederick stated that Saxony is his business into which Russia should not interfere. About potential usefulness of the minor German states, Denmark and Sweden he was quite skeptical, to put it mildly.

During the second meeting the differences became even more clear with Frederick being quite pragmatic and explaining that he does not fear the Austrian-Bourbon alliance and that the best thing for Russia and Prussia is to keep together and laugh at everybody else and Saldern talking in the general terms about potential future friends and enemies, a subject in which Frederick was not interested at all, except that such alliances, while being absolutely useless, may involve inconvenient obligations.

Both sides ended up being unhappy and Frederick got an impression that the Russian court is trying to manipulate him: “I'm starting to get bored with the yoke they want to put on me; I'll be happy to be in alliance with the Russians, but until my eyes close, I won't be their slave.”
The only cheerful part was Panin’s assurance (as quote from Catherine) that if Austria decides to make any aggressive move in the PLC, it will be sorry.

“Ambition and glory”
For quite a while Catherine was starting her day with two hours of writing a document dedicated to the well-being of her loyal subjects. Of course, the well-being could be achieved by implementing ideas of some of the great French authorities on the subject but, being a practical person with a well-developed instinct of self-preservation, Catherine was trying to combine the French wisdom with the Russian realities.

“The sovereign is autocratic, because no other power, once united in his person, can act similarly to the space of a great state. It is necessary that the speed in solving cases, from distant countries sent, rewards the delay, the remoteness of the places caused. Any other rule would not only be harmful to Russia, but also completely ruinous.. The intention and end of autocratic rules are the glory of citizens, the state and the sovereign…. In the state, freedom can consist of nothing but the ability to do what everyone must want, and not to be forced to do what they should not want…. State freedom in a citizen is peace of mind, which comes from the opinion that each of them enjoys safety on their own, and for people to have this freedom, it must be such a law that one citizen cannot be afraid of the other, but would be afraid of all of the same laws…”
This was followed by the prolonged and quite progressive discussions regarding the death penalty, lesse majeste, torture, etc. The manuscript had been given for review to a chosen group of people who removed half of the text (including proposals regarding the serfs’ right to buy their freedom and limiting owner’s right to punish the serfs) and the rest was published. Translation of even that abridged version was forbidden in France.

In 1766 this work, “Instruction” (Наказ), was completed and and officially made a basis for writing a new “Code” (Уложение) by which the Russian Empire is going to live. As the first step, “Instruction” was sent to the Senate which immediately reacted with the proposal to erect a monument to Catherine and even presented its design. After this first step was done, the Senate appointed Commission which had to draft the rules for election of the deputies who are going to assemble in Moscow for discussing and writing the Code. The deputies, while the Code Commission was working would be getting salary according to their social status and will be forever free from the death penalty, torture and property confiscation. They were elected by the majority votes in seemingly clearly defined groups defined by location and social status. What could get wrong? Pretty much everything.

From Estonia governor-general fieldmarshal Prince Peter August Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck reported that elections had been conducted not according to the instruction and requested clarification. To which the Senate responded that instructions are quite clear and had been translated to a number of languages. Probably as a hint to the fact that during more than 30 on the Russian service the prince did not bother to learn Russian.

The Governor-General of Livonia, Brown, let the Senate know that the Livonian nobles are not allowing to vote the nobles who have their villages in Livonia but are not in the books of Livonian nobility. The Senate kicked issue upstairs and Catherine ordered to follow the instruction “Any nobleman who really owns his estate in that county can choose a noble deputy.”

But this was all peanuts comparing to situation in Little Russia. Rumyantsev’s 1st report informed Catherine that many locals from the ruling class consider any imperial law or decree as a violation of their liberties, don’t want any changes and, if there is a need to send the deputies, then the only task of these deputies should be confirmation of the existing privileges and liberties.
To which Catherine responded “…I hope that you will use such measures that do not know their own and social benefits will finally lead to the knowledge of it…” and recommended not to waste too much energy on getting a prescribed number of the deputies, at least some appearance will be enough. The local nobility and leadership persisted in being pains in a butt and finally Rumyantsev lost patience and ordered them to shut up and provide the required number of the deputies, as every other province. But when it was coming to the instructions for the elected deputies, it was the same song: confirmation of the rights, liberties and habits, the troops removed, removal of the state taxes and, from the former hetmanship territories, restoration of the Hetmanate. An additional problem was in a difficulty to find out who belongs to which social group because, unlike Russia and the Baltic provinces, there were no proper books and the local leadership was “making” nobles at its whim or demoting them into the Cossacks and peasants. In the towns the relations between nobility, burghers and the Cossacks always were tens and this this made situation even more complicated.

In Chernigov the deputy instruction written by certain Bezborodko contained, among other meaningful items, request to compile the official list of the local noble families to be then joined with the Russian nobility. “So that no one, except those included in the gentry list, is allowed to buy villages, mills, lands and all kinds of land from us, until the buyer from the leader and all the nobility is accepted into our community.”, etc. all the way to establish in Little Russia a state bank. But he failed to push through the item about restriction of the nobility power over the peasants. Rumyantsev reported that Bezborodko and his son were hated for this instruction but he did not forget their service.

While all that election process kept going, the empress decided, for a better familiarity with her subjects, “to travel to Asia”. To avoid misunderstandings, this meant sailing down the Volga.

 

[alexmilman]

17a Trade treaty - background

It looks like the trade treaty issue may be of some interest so here is a general background.

In 1734 Britain and Russia signed a treaty by which Britain got an exclusive right of trade with Persia via the Russian territory, low custom tariffs, free of pay use of the warehouses, etc. It looks like the treaty was mutually beneficial because to the Russians it provided profits from selling goods to the Brits and to the Brits profits from reselling the Russian and Persian goods. The Brits declared it “British triumph” even if the trade balance was in the Russian favor (in 1763 it was 555,000 rubles in Russian favor) 😉. After CII accession the Brits wanted its prolongation while the Russian side wanted a new trade treaty and military treaty, which Britain did not want because it may spoil they trade relations with the OE and require subsidies for the Russian activities in the PLC (which were of no interest to Britain).
Actually, instruction of King George to Count Buckinghamshire, ambassador to Russia, talked not only about preservation of status quo but also about obtaining all possible new privileges and help in dealings with the local administration. To be fair, the King recommended ambassador not to accept any complaints unless they are backed up by a very solid documentation.
The big issue for Britain was Persian trade and proposal was the same rights in Astrakhan as in Petersburg, Archangelsk, etc., a free trade in Astrakhan with 3% custom dues only for the goods to be sold through Petersburg. CII was much more interested in the military treaty so the whole thing was put on hold until conclusion of the Russian-Prussian military alliance in 1764.
New ambassador, Macartney, kept complaining to his bosses that the process is slow because the whole business is conducted “by some shops called ‘collegiums’ and the minor merchants whom they call commission members.” What’s wrong in inviting the merchants to discuss the trade treaty? And this was from an ambassador stressing the fact that he represents a “merchant nation”. Also Macartney was complaining about an absence of the “methodical approach to the affairs”, whatever this may mean, and finally coming to the statement that the treaty does not provide any benefit to Russia (of course, because the trade was going on without it).

Eventually, he started advocating in favor of signing the Russian version because it provides conditions better than the British merchants were expecting and the merchants like it.

But he got a reprimand from the government, which considered treaty bad for the trade and as such not to be ratified by the king. The government sent an additional Declaration saying that the British subjects will have a right to participate in all enterprises and receive the same benefits as the Russian subjects and that these measures will not result in any diminishing or restriction of the trade which the British subjects conduct now. Chapter above starts from that point.

Panin angrily rejected the Declaration and attempts to influence him through the “mutual friends” failed. Macartney tried to appeal directly to CII approaching her at the masquerade but “her steadfastness exceeded even usual female stubbornness”.

At that point Macartney (but not the cabinet) started getting grasp of a changed geopolitical situation and reported to London that after making alliances with Prussia and Denmark, achieving political success in Sweden and putting its candidate on the PLC throne the Russian court feels an increasing self respect and a decreasing respect to other countries (I’m skipping the epithets 😉). So it is advisable to ratify treaty ASAP because any new demand “may subject us to the answers … incompatible with the dignity of His Majesty and contradicting to the interests of his subjects conducting trade in this empire.”

CII, in her official answer gave an ultimatum: either the treaty is ratified in its present form or not at all.

King George tried to insist by linking the trade and military treaties, not understanding that after military treaty with Prussia the British one is not really necessary. Hence Panin’s remark about not having trade treaty at all. He did not stop there: “when the Russian trade will be free to other nations, don’t expect that we’ll restrict it in your favor”. After which he proposed to proceed immediately to removal of the signatures on trade treaty.

Macartney begged him to postpone this act for few days and on his next meeting asked Panin if he truly intended to cancel the old trade treaty, to which Panin answered affirmatively adding that it is impossible to conduct negotiations with the British on equal terms and that he decided to abolish the old treaty right now to give the local British merchants time to warn their friends in Britain before the navigation season starts so that can rearrange their plans and avoid the losses. Macartney appealed once more to the Secretary of State but also proposed to send annually 5 - 10 British ships to the Baltic Sea to protect the British trade interests.

On the other side of the equation CII ordered to prepare a decree about cancellation of the old trade treaty. Macartney reported that there are two options: either to lose all benefits or to agree to ratify the new contract on Russian terms, if it is still possible. Finally, the King agreed, even if he was still unhappy. It is assumed that at least partially the deal was done because government of Pitt Sr. came to power and he was advocating a pro-Russian policy.

Treaty was beneficial for both sides because the Brits got access to the materials needed by the RN at the low prices while the Russians got a guaranteed access to the British goods due to the low tariffs.

Basically, the whole process was indication of the growing international strength of the RE, which finally allowed negotiations with Britain on equal terms.

Британские дипломаты в борьбе за преференции в торговом договоре 1766 года (по материалам переписки английских послов)

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