recognized as a stage genius by Peter the Third. The latter, as follows from the research of historians, is the most likely murderer of the emperor.
The Russian throne goes back to Catherine II, the Catherine’s epoch, the Golden Age of the Nobility begins. Yes, the Empress is a German woman, a representative of the Gottorp House of the Oldenburg dynasty, who took the throne through a palace coup. But, it is the precariousness of the situation that forces Catherine II to observe the interests of many parties, find balance and harmony, and scrupulously study the processes taking place in society. She, by the way, is not a regent with the son of Paul, but, contrary to the established rules, «at the request of all our loyal subjects, explicit and unfeigned,» a full-fledged empress.
One of the innovations is the secularization of the monastic lands. Previously, the collection of taxes, the management of villages belonging to the church, engaged in church ministers. Farmers worked off the corvee, performed a lot of inputs simply, «in friendship», natural duties, fell into debt bondage. Now the peasants, numbering a million, and this is only a male, are exempt from church feudal lords, acquire, neither much nor little, personal freedom, many legal rights are called «economic», and they pay one and a half rubles per capita tax per year. Their villages are under the supervision of retired officers. Monasteries, whose number has now been reduced by a factor of three, left small gardens, vegetable gardens, paid for maintenance from the state treasury.
In addition, the new government is pursuing an active foreign policy. The influence of Russia in Poland is growing. Polish and Lithuanian magnates – the Confederates openly oppose the legally elected (1764) monarch Stanislav Poniatowski, but his side is taken by Russia, and, at the invitation of the king, introduces his military contingent to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Suffering defeat for the defeat of the troops of A. Suvorov, as well as his own, humiliated and generalized «claps», the Confederates find nothing better than to address the Ottoman Empire, promising her help for Volhynia and Podillya.
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1. Catherine the First (Marta Samuilovna Skavronska, in the first marriage – Kruze, after the adoption of Orthodoxy – Ekaterina Alekseevna Mikhailova), 1684 – 1727. Mother of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. She was born in Latvia or Lithuania, perhaps in the family of serfs. For correct actions and women’s wisdom, first of all (now you can safely say – not for model appearance) was received first by Field Marshal Sheremetev, then Alexei Menshikov. In 1703, during a visit to his friend, Peter the First notices the friendly Martha, and takes with him. In 1725 he died on her hands.
2. Peter the Second, grandson of Peter the Great, the son of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the German princess Sophia-Charlotte (1715 – 1730). Entered the throne in 1727, at the age of eleven. Tended to wine literally from infancy (nannies used this remedy as soothing), did not show interest in public affairs, died of smallpox at fourteen.
3. Anna Ioannovna, Empress, the fourth daughter of Ivan the Fifth and Queen Praskovia Fedorovna (1693 – 1740).
4. Elizabeth (First) Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the Great, born two years before they entered into marriage (1709 – 1761). It gave rise to gallomania: dreaming of becoming related with the Bourbons, studied diligently the French language, and the entire imperial court soon passed to communication. It is believed that Elizabeth was in a secret church marriage with her lover, the Dnieper Cossack, a good singer, Alexei Razumovsky. For the child born in this marriage, Princess Tarakanova (self-name – Elizabeth of Vladimir) gave herself out (or even appeared to them).
5. Peter Third Fedorovich (1728 – 1762), Duke of Holstein, the Russian Emperor. Father – Carl Friedrich Holstein-Gottorp, nephew of the Swedish king, mother – Anna Petrovna, the second daughter of Peter the First and Catherine the First.
6. Catherine II Alexeevna the Great, nee Sofi Augusta Frederika Anhalt-Zerbstskaya (1729—1796). Place of birth – Prussian Stettin (now Polish Szczecin). Father – Christian Augustus, a branch of the Angals House, Governor of Stettin, mother – Johanna Elizabeth, from the Gottorp House.
7. Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, general-feldtsehmeister, favorite of Catherine II, native of the village of Lyutkino, Tver province (1734 – 1783). The unfortunate husband of the empress, the father of her illegitimate child Alexei, the ancestor of the Bobrinsky family.
8. Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky, native of the village of Chizhovo in the Smolensk Province, general-field marshal, founder of a number of cities in Ukraine and Crimea (Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Sevastopol), favorite of Catherine II (1739 – 1791). The developer, in particular, of the «Greek project», according to which the Ottoman Empire should be abolished, and its territory divided between Russia, the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic. The emperor of the revived Byzantine state was to become one of the grandchildren of Catherine, who was supposed to give the name of the founder of the capital (Constantinople) – Constantine.
Gregory Alexandrovich, the richest man in Europe, died during negotiations in Moldova, intermittent fever, at 52 years. «That’s all… nowhere to go, I’m dying! Take me out of the stroller: I want to die on the field!».
…Between wars, Catherine is also interested in non-open, still completely uninhabited territories. In May 1764, the tsarina, consulting with the famous scientist M. Lomonosov, detach the expedition to the North Pole. The commander of the six, equipped with the most advanced equipment of the time ships – Captain first rank V. Chichagov. The expedition stops northwest of Spitsbergen (Grumant Island in the designation of Pomors), reaching a latitude of 80 degrees and five minutes, in front of insurmountable ice. The second campaign, carried out in a year, wins only one geographical minute from the North. Thus, the hope of the ambitious Lomonosov that «the ice will disperse» and by sea the Russian ships will reach the shores of North America is not justified.
Taking advantage of a pretext, the Turkish authorities conclude Russian Ambassador Obreskov in the so-called. Seven-tower castle, which, according to Ottoman custom, means the beginning of the war. In response, November 29, 1768, the war declares and Catherine II. The Russian fleet is sent to the Mediterranean Sea, under the control of the Orlov brothers; the main goal is the incitement of anti-Turkish uprisings in the midst of the conquered Christian nations by the Ottomans. Crimean Tatars cross the border of Russia and attack Novorossia – the wheel of war is crippled. The Russian detachment occupies Azov and Taganrog, begins the re-creation of the Azov flotilla. On the other flank, Golitsyn provokes the Turks, departs for two months and waits, waiting for the extraction to come to him. Indeed, the Turks come, but, because of the corruption now reigning in the Ottoman society, they are hungry,
