1794 portrait of Catherine, age approximately 65, with the Chesme Column in the background by Vladimir Borovikovsky (Tretyakov Gallery) (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)
In my last post, credits for the image above were left incomplete. I tried to add the name of the artist, but could not access the post. The artist is Vladimir Borovikovsky. The portrait is housed in the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.
Britannica’s Video
Moreover, the link to Britannica’s video on Catherine the Great was moved.
Wiki2.org (2nd part) provides a concise and fascinating discussion of Catherine’s life, times and accomplishments. (See Catherine the Great, Wiki2.org.)
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Mussorgsky was one of The Five (composers) (the Mighty Handful) who attempted to give the music of Russia a typically Russian idiom. Remember the bells.
Among the despots named above, Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, is our most prominent figure. He belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty. But we must step back to Peter I (the Great) (9 June 1662, Moscow – 8 February 1725, Saint Petersburg) who defeated the Swedish Empire, and Catherine II (the Great) (21 April 1729, Prussia – 6 November 1796, Russia) who did not allow a disastrous marriage to rob her of her “profession” as an aristocrat. Both Peter I and Catherine II were despots, but they expanded and developed Russia in every way. They are as Britannica defines enlightened despots. In this regard, both looked to Europe as a model and, in the case of Catherine II, mainly France. In the 18th century, French became the language of the Russian court and courtiers dressed as did Europeans. But soon Catherine dazzled Europe.
Posthumous Portrait of Peter the Great by Paul Delaroche, 1838 (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)
The Neva flows into the Gulf of Finland, thereby providing access to European countries and facilitating the westernization of Russia which, to a large extent, characterizes Russian enlightenment. Peter I (the Great) was ordained Emperor of “all the Russias” after defeating the Swedish Empire, in 1721, three years after King Carl XII of Sweden was killed at the Siege of Fredriksten, in 1718.
Peter I, the son of tsar Alexis of Russia, had been exiled from the Kremlin during the regency of his half-sister Sophia (1782 – 1789), by his half-brother Fyodor III (1676 – 1782). Contrary to his siblings, Peter was very healthy and played at war, organizing battles, with boys of lesser birth. (See Peter the Great, Britannica.) He also mingled with Moscow’s intellectually freer European citizens who “kindled” his interest in navigation and the mechanical arts. He shared his mother Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina‘s progressive ideas. Peter founded the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1724.
He was extremely neurotic, rebellious, obstinate, perhaps impotent, nearly alcoholic, and, most seriously, a fanatical worshipper of Frederick II of Prussia, the foe of the empress Elizabeth [Peter I’s successor].
Catherine therefore resolved to become Empress of Russia. She relinquished her name, Sophie, and learned Russian. By marriage, she belonged to the House of Romanov, the ruling house of Russia, but her mother was Princess Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Although Catherine had lovers before she became Empress, it seems that she bore Peter III at least one child, a Romanov, who would reign as Paul I of Russia (1796 – 1801).
Catherine II was charming.
It was easy for Catherine, with the help of the senators, high officials, and officers of the guard regiments (led by her lover Grigory Orlov and his brothers), to overthrow Peter on June 28 (July 9, New Style), 1762. Thus began the long and important reign of Catherine II, whom her admiring contemporaries named ‘the Great.’
This was a coup d’état. Peter III had to abdicate and was assassinated eight days later. We cannot ascertain that Catherine played a role in Peter III’s assassination. At any rate, Peter III had blemished his image by disengaging a victorious Russia from the Seven Years War against Prussia. However, before Peter III‘s death on 17 July 1762, he and Catherine II issued a Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, which “freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service.” (See Catherine II the Great, Wiki2.org.) As noted in an earlier post, in 1774, twelve years after Peter III’s assassination, Catherine may have married Grigory Potemkin, who also played a public role during the reign of Catherine II. (See Catherine II (the Great), Britannica.)
Would that Catherine II had abolished serfdom. She planned to do so, but didn’t. Catherine owned serfs and gave serfs to former lovers. But it should be noted that during most, nearly all, of Catherine the Great’s reign (1729 – 1796), slavery had not been abolished. Nor had serfdom been repressed in France and other European countries. (See History of Serfdom, Wiki2.org.) Scandinavian countries were an exception. They had no serfs, but several European monarchs profited from the slave-trade. In Russia, serfdom was abolished in 1861, under Tsar Alexander II (29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881).
Catherine did not frame a constitution, but Catherine’s Instruction could be considered a draft of this constitution, or its white paper.
Catherine admired Montesquieu and Rousseau. As we have seen, she bought Denis Diderot‘s library, making him its custodian for the rest of his life. Moreover, she and Voltaire shared letters. Despots, however, fear the people they control, and their fear leads them to control even more. After the terror Yemelyan Pugachov‘s Cossack troops inspired in 1774, Catherine was afraid.
Catherine now realized that for her the people were more to be feared than pitied, and that, rather than freeing them, she must tighten their bonds.
Catherine, like all the crowned heads of Europe, felt seriously threatened by the French Revolution. The divine right of royalty and the aristocracy was being questioned, and Catherine, although a ‘friend of the Enlightenment,’ had no intention of relinquishing her own privileges: ‘I am an aristocrat, it is my profession.’
But Catherine was born, rather than elected, to privilege.
Conclusion
Despots they were. But Peter the Great and Catherine II (the Great), Peter in particular, enlarged Russia considerably, as the third map above indicates (See Digital Collection). They also organized Russia. Catherine II created several towns and promoted intellectual and cultural growth. As noted above, Peter’s model had been Europe, but France was Catherine’s chief model. However, the execution, by guillotine, of French King Louis XVI dampened Catherine’s admiration for France. Louis XVI was a fellow aristocrat by profession, as Catherine saw aristocrats. She was then approaching her own sudden death.
France and Europe may have been Peter I and Catherine II’s models. But our two enlightened despots’ leadership may also be considered a model.
An Arab and his Dogs by Jean-Léon Gérôme(Photo credit: WikiArt.org)
My lost post resurfaced. I added missing links to the published post, but did not change its contents. However, one of my links led to more information. It seems Isis is offending Russia. It appears a Russian has been beheaded.
The trading of white women is something French and French Canadian women have known about. But I have never heard anyone speak about the capture and enslavement of white women outside Quebec or France.
9/11
It is quite true that the wars of the 2000s triggered many of the acts of terrorism we are witnessing. But the attacks of 9/11 were acts of terrorism perpetrated against the United States. It was retaliation. So there is more to that story.
King regards to everyone. ♥
On the Desert by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: The Walters Art Museum)
Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann (5 May 1834, St Petersburg – 4 August 1873, Kireyevo near Moscow) was a Russian architect and painter who lived during a period in European and Russian history when nationalism flourished. The quest for a national identity included a search for a national esthetics that had been expressed in some Golden Age, and would again be expressed in music, art, design, and other art forms. Hartmann’s plan was for a city gate in Kiev is an attempt to capture an inherently Russian and Ukrainian esthetics.
The Search for a National Identity
For instance, as I may have mentioned elsewhere, in what would become a unified Germany, the brothers Grimm scoured the German-language states collecting its German-language states collecting its folklore and planting the seeds of what would become a discipline: ethnology. But Russia was an exceptional case in that the country stretched for thousands of kilometers. Esthetically and otherwise, it was therefore rooted in more than one culture.
Viktor Hartmann was therefore associated with the Abramtsevo Colony. The Abramtsevo Colony had been purchased in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, a patron of the arts who promoted a Russian Revival. Abramtsevo was the hub of revivalism.
Viktor Hartman’s foremost contribution to the Russian Revival was his Plan for the Gates to Kiev (Ukraine), a design rooted in what he perceived as inherently Russian (and Ukrainan).
Hartmann was Mussorgsky’s closest friend, but the two were forever separated when Viktor Hartmann died from an aneurysm at the early age of 39. An exhibition of Hartmann’s paintings was organized which inspired Modest Mussorgsky‘s Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), a suite for the piano that painted musically and therefore constitutes a union of music and painting suggesting synesthesia. It is Abramtsevo.
I have inserted a tiny segment of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, played on the piano, as it was composed by Mussorgsky. However, French composer Maurice Ravel transformed the work for piano into an orchestral work of music. To hear it, please click on the following link: Mussorgsky/Ravel and enjoy yourselves. In this post, Mussorgsky’s piano suite is played by Sviatoslav Richter. By the way, listen for the sound of bells.
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[i] This portrait was painted in 1881, a short time before Mussorgsky’s death from alcoholism. Mussorgsky’s wealthy family was impoverished when serfdom was abolished in 1861. Mussorgsky did not recover.
composer: Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881)
pianist: Sviatoslav Richter (20 March 1915 – 1 August 1997)
