Lectures for students on Russian history (Методика освоения содержания предметного образования (История)). Учебное пособие

dominions stretched from Poland to Alaska. She ruled nearly 30 million nobles, commoners and serves with the formed hand and formed face with progress and reform. Catherine introduced public participation in government in a way that had never occurred before in Russian history and thereby laid the foundations for what is called today a civil society.

monarchs of all time. But the Empress was powerless to affect history a continent away. In 1793 revolutionary terror claimed the life of Louis XVI King of France. For Catherine his execution was a crime against God's will. She saw Louis XVI beheaded and she started doubting that the enlightenment ideals may have resulted in all of this, so she became panicked by the French revolution. In 1796 the revolution flooded out of France as the army of the French Republic, marched into Italy led by a brilliant young commander Napoleon Bonaparte and made his entrance of the grand stage of history.

67 years old Catherine knew her own exit from history was not far off. She was adamant that her Empire would continue to be led by her heir. By law Catherine could choose who would be her heir on the throne. Tsarevitch Paul, her son, was born from her murdered husband Peter, was not necessarily first choice. Catherine was afraid of Paul. She saw dangerous qualities in him. He was a cruel, unstable, dangerous person and he asked a lot of questions about what had happened with his father and why his mother on the throne was and that made him dangerous to Catherine. Tsarevich was unwelcomed and uncomfortable in his mother's court, he devoted his life to drilling his Prussian style battalions. In Catherine's eyes the best thing which Paul did was to breed children particularly his firstborn the Grand Duke Alexander.

Alexander was a favorite grandson of Catherine. Alexander had a difficult interesting childhood and adolescence. He was in a sense stock between his grandmother the Empress Catherine and his father. Alexander had to be pretending to both of them that he sympathized with both sides and that bread in him a certain caution a certain tendency

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always to be charming to everyone, to make everybody believe that he agreed with them. Catherine had the finest of liberal scholar’s tutor for Alexander whom taught him enlightenment ideals. His father Paul taught him to be a military drill master.

As Catherine faced mortality the question of her successor – her son or her grandson – became actual. In 1796 (November the 5) the Empress was paralyzed by a stroke. The following night the German princess who ruled the Russian empire for 34 years was dead. Some historians claim that her son Paul search Catherine's chambers before the body was cold and burned any papers that threatened his right to be crowned. Tsar Paul the first wasted no time taking revenge on his mother. He dug out the corpse of his father Peter III, put him in a coffin and placed him right next to her at the funeral, so that they would be eternally together which he just thought with a divine joke.

Part II

Catherine used to say that she arrived in Russia without a dowry. That is not quite true. She did bring a dowry: her German sense of time.

“In the immensity of Russia, a year is no more than a day”, – Catherine once wrote. For Catherine a day became the equivalent of a Russian gentleman’s week, so thoroughly did she fill it. Not a moment was lost. Up at seven every morning, she consistently worked a ten-hour day and sixday week. It was no affectation that made her choose as her emblem the bee, and the motto “Utility”– to Russia, of course.

The second element in Catherine’s success was the ability to choose able men. “Search for true merit”, she wrote in a memo to herself, “be it at the other end of the world, for usually it is modest and rearing”. By true merit Catherine meant an honest man who worked as hard as she did. Catherine, who was young when she came to the throne, chose young helpers such as brothers Orlovs, Nikita Panin, Prince Repnin. This element of youth helps to explain the energy of her reign.

How did Catherine treat her helpers? Giovanni Casanova, who had 4 conversations with the Empress in 1765 and was something of a connoisseur of women, noticed that Catherine was sweet and affable

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and held back her knowledge:” she seemed to know less than she did. With these qualities and her undemanding manner, she could demand more than Frederick of Prussia and obtain this”. Catherine put the same thing slightly differently: “My first principle in dealing with men is to make them believe that they want to do what I tell them to do”. Catherine kept her chosen men: “When I have given someone a post unless he commits a crime he is sure of keeping it. Should he prove incompetent, I work with one of his deputies, but I will not disgrace him, for the initial fault would have been mine, not his”.

Under Elizabeth, imperial orders were so slowly carried out that the expression “they are waiting for the third ukase” had almost come to be a proverb, because the first and the second were never complied with. Catherine facilitated her helpers’ task by restoring respect for the imperial ukase.

Empress Catherine got up at seven, but if she had a lot to do, at five thirty. Catherine’s breakfast consisted of a cup of black coffee without anything to eat. She said her morning prayers and than sat at her desk to begin works. Some rulers, such as Napoleon, feel the need to speak their thoughts to secretaries; others prefer to write their thoughts down by themselves, to this category Catherine belonged. In the early morning she drafted ukases, directives, projects, and memorandum: these she passed to a secretary who corrected misspellings. She wrote letters in her own hand to provincial governors, ambassadors, generals, admirals. She conducted much of her foreign policy by letters, writing to her fellow sovereigns, especially Frederick of Prussia, who over a period of 24 years received 180 letters from Catherine. Always her pen was busy, if she had no one special to write to she would write little memorandum to herself.

In mid-morning Catherine began to receive the men who helped her to govern. Each came on a specified day, made his report and presented problems. Catherine discussed the difficulties and usually asked for his advice.

Catherine had dinner at 2 usually with a number of invited guests, in the company of her son Paul and G. Orlov. The food in St. Petersburg

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was accounted very well, though expensive, by foreign residents: there was caviar, oysters, a variety of fish, woodcock, duck, hare, plentiful fruit, and sour cream with everything. Only cheese was lacking. Catherine ate little and was not especially fond of delicacies. She liked best of all a dish from her girlhood: salt pork and pickled cabbage and for dessert sour milk flavored with nutmeg. She drunk moderately: sometimes a glass of wine diluted with water, sometimes water and red current juice.

Catherine’s health improved when she became Empress and continued good during the first half of her reign. But she did suffer from severe headaches of 2 kinds: one accompanied by spasms and vomiting – which she attributed to wind; the other followed by a deep lethargy.

In the afternoon Catherine either returned to her desk or undertook a public engagement, such as visiting the State porcelain works or initiating a new project (a school, a canal and so on). “It seems to me closely linked with creation, and creation has always appealed to me”. She liked Russia and said: “Only in Russia I’m good for something”.

Catherine disliked the military parade which had so thrilled her husband and when she drove out her carriage had no military guard, only the footmen behind. She positively hated wigs, so that the wig went out of fashion at court. Cosmetics she rarely wore, so that among the Court ladies, their cheeks painted red in Russian style, she stood out by her paleness.

Catherine usually went for a walk in the garden. Then supper came, a light meal which she sometimes skipped. After supper Empress relaxed with a few close friends. She could amuse friends with her imitations of animals and of a cat’s concert. She liked whist and often gave evening whist parties. Empress was very particular about getting full nights sleep, and unless there was some important celebration the light went out in the palace soon after 10 o’clock.

On Sundays Empress attended Mass. Like an ordinary worshipper, she stood during the 2-hour ceremony. She was moving towards a typically XVIII th-century belief in progress, in particular progress for Russia, and she saw herself as being helped by Providence to forward the well-

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being of the Russian people. On Sundays Catherine had time for her pleasures. Reading was her favorite. She read books on Russian history, agricultural books, geological reports, the latest journals of navigators and explorers, and even a code of Danish laws. One of Empress’s few outdoor activities in winter was going for ride on the Toboggan Hills constructed by Elizabeth midway between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. When she went for her Sunday walk, Catherine took with her Sir Tom, an English whippet whose correct name was Tom Anderson. She was devoted to Sir Tom, knitted him a woolen blanket and allowed him to sleep in her bedroom.

Tasks 1. Answer the following questions:

1.What was German dowry of Catherine II?

2.Could she choose able men for her policy?

3.Why was Catherine able to get power?

4.Why did she become as great as Peter I?

5.Was she devoted mother for her son Paul?

6.Why was her life-style simple but working day – hard? What hobbies did she have?

2.Watch video “History of Russian Empire” (Matteo Zilli, part 12-13 of 20) and summarize new information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4Re_ZMWDI.

3.Topics for writing essay.

1.Relations of Catherine with her son Paul.

2.Catherine's contribution to the development of Russia.

3.Russia accepted Catherine II as its Empress.

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Lecture 7. SUCCESSORS OF CATHERINE THE GREAT:

PAUL AND ALEXANDER

After Catherine’s death in 1796 Paul rushed out a decree that only the males of the Romanov’s line were fit to were the Russian crown. Paul had been eager to have power for more than 20 years and it was the reason that he made such a mess of things, because he was a man in a hurry, always felt that he didn't have much time left so he had to do everything overnight.

Paul reversed policy without reason. New Emperor directed every element of Russian life: from the way how people dressed to what they were allowed to do at funeral or wedding. Rumors of a coup to put Alexander on the throne began after Paul's coronation. Alexander was approached by many members of Russian elite about the need to get rid of his father and Alexander himself recognized that his father was proving to be quite erratic, quite capricious. Paul became convinced he was a target for assassination. He built a palace like a fortress with a moat in St. Petersburg. He moved in before the plaster was dry and placed his son Alexander under home arrest. Within days the crew plotters were on the move. At night of March 11, 1801 influential man from the inner circle of court swept the guards at Paul’s palace-fortress. The conspirators found a tsar hiding in his bedroom, scuffle turned into a deadly roll.

Plotters told Alexander that Paul would simply be pushed aside and Alexander persuaded himself. But you couldn't have a retired tsar sitting in some palace of Petersburg waiting for the next coup against. Alexander had no part in the plot but he did nothing to stop it.

Under Alexander I it was difficult to know in what direction Russia would go: he couldn't make that decision. As Alexander wavered about the future of Russia a continent away a bold declared himself Emperor of France with plans to remake all of Europe was Napoleon Bonaparte. You could not find two more different men than Napoleon and Alexander.

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Napoleon was completely filled with self-confidence, he felt called upon to be the master of the Universe, never doubting his genius and never doubting his flair, never doubting of strategy. Alexander had been confused and not knowing exactly what direction he wanted to take and so he went off in all these various directions. In 1807 Napoleon would force Alexander to sign a treaty of friendship, but the tsar of Russia and the self-made Emperor of France were fated to wind up bitter enemies in a struggle for the fate of Europe. As the French destroy the two great intermediary powers Prussia, Austria, Russia was faced with a big dilemma. Obviously if Napoleon dominated the whole of Europe from the Atlantic to the Russian border he controlled such immense resources that he's basically going to be able to get make Russia to do whatever he wanted.

In 1811 Alexander finally took a stand, defying Napoleon's grand ambitions, he declared alliance with England and prepared for all-out war with France. Napoleon answered in force. In the face of overwhelming forces, the tsar’s commanders turned to the strategy that had served

Russia for centuries. For over a decade Napoleon Bonaparte had seemed invincible as he marched across Europe. Tsar Alexander and Russian armies were the last obstacle to continental dominance. Napoleon had to destroy the Russian army to win in the war of 1812, because otherwise they would just go on retreating in front of him and at the end his own line of supply would become so immense that his army would disintegrate.

On 24 July 1812 at Kovno Napoleon watched the leading regiments of the Great Army cross the River Niemen, where 5 years before on a tented raft he had first embraced Alexander. For 8 days his troops, breaking step, marched across 3 pontoon bridges. There were Italians, many Poles, 2 Portuguese regiments and so on. Altogether there were 20 nations, 530,000 men. Frenchmen composed one-third of the whole. Napoleon could see each regiment preceded by the standard he had given it. Beneath a bronze eagle with spread wings floated a square flag on the white satin. Napoleon’s Imperial Guard formed a self-contained elite of 45,000 men divided into the Old Guard, who were veterans and

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The Young Guard, who were the cream of the conscripts. Each division was followed by six-mile column of food supplies. The morale of this huge force was extremely high. Napoleon travelled in a green 4 wheeled covered carriage drawn by 6 Limousine horses. As he neared the Russians, Napoleon travelled with the Guard, astride his black horse Marengo.

The main Russian army, some 120,000 men with 600 guns, was

on orders from the Tsar who had decided to avoid a direct engagement. Napoleon pursued Barclay to Vitebsk, but Barclay slipped away and joined Prince Bagration’s Second Army on the Dnieper. Marching down the Dnieper valley, Napoleon hoped to attack the 2 Russian armies separately at Smolensk. That was on 17 August.

For 7 weeks Napoleon had been on the march and all he conquered was empty space. The father he penetrated into Russia, the more aware he and his men became of empty space and silence: when they reached what on the map was a village, they found it burned, and its food buried, the inhabitants had all fled, nothing remained but space, even the Russian sky was empty of birds. Confronted by the emptiness, Napoleon in midAugust had a choice: he could strike, as he put it at the head, at the feet, or at the heart. The head was St. Petersburg, where the Tsar ruled. The feet were Kiev, the great city of the south. The heart was Moscow, the old capital, the largest city and strategically the best situated. Moscow was a long way off, 12 marches from Smolensk, 1,600 miles in a straight line from Paris. For a week Napoleon waited, assessing the situation, trying to read Alexander’s mind. Then he gave an order to march on Moscow.

Alexander, meanwhile, had been forced by Ministers and opinion at court to stop the retreat. At all costs, they said, he must fight to save Moscow. So, the tsar replaced Barclay by General Kutuzov, a nobleman of 68, who had lost his right eye in a Turkish war, was extremely fat, unable to ride a horse. He drew up Russian army south of the village of Borodino.

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Napoleon marched deeper and deeper into Russia. He looked for a decisive battle and found only an empty and an unwelcoming land. On the morning of September 6, 1812 one day's ride from Moscow Napoleon finally found what he was looking – 120,000 Russian soldiers. Alexander's imperial army was ready to fight to the death on the fields of Borodino. Napoleon was feeling unwell, he took up a position in front of the Guard on high ground a mile from the southern Russian redoubts. From here he could see the central third of the battlefield, immediately in front of him were the main French batteries.

At 5:30 a.m. Napoleon ordered to open fire, so the Battle of Borodino was started. At Borodino the losses from both sides were enormous: Russian losses indeed and the wounded were 44,000, French losses were

to Napoleon. The road to Moscow lay open. It was very clear to the French soldiers and generals that the Russian army could fight by no means exhausted. It was, Napoleon considered, the most terrible battle he had ever fought. Napoleon usually visited the battlefield immediately in order to see that all wounded were brought in. But after Borodino, exhausted physically by his feverish cold and mentally by the strength of Russian resistance, he threw himself on his camp-bed. At dawn of the next day, Napoleon rode across the battlefield in silence.

Napoleon continued to advance. He found no resistance. Napoleon entered Moscow on 15 September 1812. He was disappointed that no Russian bowed forward, offering the city keys on a velvet cushion, no crowds lined the streets to cheer him. It soon became plain that most Muscovites had been ordered by the governor, Rastopchin, to leave. Out of 250,000 only 15,000 remained, chiefly foreigners, criminals released from the city prisons. In Moscow too, there was space and silence. Napoleon took up lodgings in an Italian style palace in the Kremlin, its elaborate white marble staircase on the outside. He hangs the portrait of his infant son and settled down to work – preparing to open peace talks with Alexander, he felt sure that the Tsar would make peace after his defeat at Borodino, just as he had done after Austerlitz and Friedland.

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At night of 16 September sporadic fires broke out in Moscow. The French could find no horses or pumps and had to fight them with buckets of water. More than half of Moscow was burned to the ground. After this the city was a depressing sight, blackened, and charred, but the fifth remaining part provided shelter for his troops and plenty of food was found in the cellars, so Napoleon tried to open peace talks and wrote a letter to the Tsar. The Tsar was in St. Petersburg, so his reply arrived in 2 weeks. For weeks Napoleon waited for Alexander to concede defeat and the Russians set fire to his prize. For Napoleon it was a disaster.

The main impression was horror that having marched all this way and saw Moscow he was actually no closer to achieving his goal, because sitting in Moscow through the winter even if the city hadn't been destroyed was impossible. He didn’t know what to do and began to read Voltaire’s “History of Charles XII”, in which the Swedish king cut off from Poland and surrounded by the enemies, resolved to ignore the severe Russian winter. Napoleon's order to retreat came too late. Russian winter came early and hard. The French were 15000 miles from home with little to eat and no shelter from the storm.

The Emperor Alexander gave promise his people not to make peace while a single enemy soldier remained on Russian soil, he would rather let his beard grow and eat potatoes with the serfs. So, Alexander called on the Russian people to annihilate the enemy. Russians of every class rose in fury and fell on the invaders.

Napoleon’s first idea was to march to St. Petersburg but at last he proposed a retreat to the west: “We shall repeat Charles XII’s mistake, while the weather is still temperate, we shall return via Smolensk to winter in Lithuania and Poland”. All the discussion centered on what route should be taken: Napoleon wanted to follow the milder, southern road through Kiev, but learning that the Dnieper in October sometimes flooded, he changed his plan. Napoleon consulted Russian almanacs for the past 25 years and found that severe frosts came to the latitude of Moscow usually at the end of November. On 15 October 3 inches of snow fell on the black ruins of Moscow. At 2 in the afternoon

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