Katharina die Grosse.

by Isabel de Madriaga

An eminent scholar of Russian history here presents the most informative, balanced, and up-to-date short study of Catherine the Great and her reign. This edition includes a new preface dealing with recently discovered sources and revised interpretations of the period.

Genres: History, Biography, Russia, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography Memoir, European History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

I never met Isabel de Madariaga but I saw her once as she was escorted to her seat at a lecture. I hesitate to say that she was no longer young, the age of a woman being no fit subject for public speculation, but she was by then already Professor emeritus and she lent on a solid looking crook. If she was more likely to use it to discipline unread undergraduates or to dub her students in honour of their diligence in the libraries and at the round of seminars sacred to their noble calling was something I couldn't decide.

This is a late work of hers and is rather elegantly concise with sixteen short chapters, a mix of the thematic and chronological. Catherine herself is a slightly distant figure in the book since de Madariaga wrote it in deliberate contrast to the blockbuster, or indeed in Catherine's case, the bonkbuster, style biography. There is no mention here of Catherine getting sexually excited while riding horses or of Peter III playing with toy soldiers (not a euphemism) in bed.

At times the study didn't feel to me to be critical enough of Catherine as a ruler. The distance and reserve in the style seems to remove her from her direct responsibility for the actions of her government, although one of the reoccurring themes of the study is that the impact of some of her reforming legislation on the ground has been so little studied that overall conclusions can't be reasonably reached.

A strict division between a chronological overview and a thematic exploration might have worked better both in giving a sense of the context of events in which Catherine was making decisions and having to cope with developing situations followed by the analysis. The arrangement as it is means that there is some duplication of material.

The book is relatively free standing. The Russian historical background is dealt with efficiently and well, but the weakness is in the lack of comparison with Catherine's European contemporaries. Generally, and curiously, de Madariaga seems to be assuming a readership who are relatively familiar with British history during the age of the Enlightenment, but probably unfamiliar with eighteenth century European history.

One of the interesting things that emerges is how low the level of development was in Russia at the time. Catherine was keen to establish schools, but lacking teachers she realised she had to set up a teacher training programme first, recruiting via Joseph II of Austria a Serbian who came to Russia to start training teachers for her. I've always found it easy to think of Catherine's era as something of a lost opportunity, remembering the limited human resources she had available helps put things in perspective.

At times the study touches on more interesting points, for example Catherine established the Pale of Settlement which limited the areas in which Jews could legally live. This was in reaction to the partition of Poland which brought a substantial Jewish population into the Russian empire. Up to that point the Jewish population of Russia had been negligible. If establishing the Pale was in anticipation of anti-Semitism among her Russian ruling elite then it is an interesting practical limitation to her theoretically unlimited absolutism. But it isn't an area that de Madariaga explores. Perhaps I will have to blow the dust off my copy of Absolutism and Ruling Class sooner rather than later evidently later.

Overall a good introduction, but younger readers may be disturbed by the cynical consumption of Poland in three bites.

[Andres Eguiguren · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a bibliographical note after the final chapter, de Madariaga says that the fact that this book has no footnotes was a deliberate choice as she meant it to be an introductory survey rather than an academic history. While I have not read some of the many other biographies of Catherine the Great that are available and which are much longer (by Massie, Dixon, Troyat, and Alexander, among others), this was at a level that was suitable for my IB Diploma high school history students. Most chapters are around 12 to 18 pages in length, so quite manageable, although footnotes would have given them a truer picture of how a historian presents her work. Nonetheless, I appreciated her clear writing and the way the chapters, while primarily chronological, are also thematic in the way they are titled and arranged. Thus it was easy to skip certain chapters while at the same time being able to focus on the political, economic or social aspects of her reign. Also, while de Madariaga does not shy away from discussing her many lovers, she is more interested in looking at Catherine's accomplishments and providing a balanced account of her years in power.

[Hanna (lapetiteboleyn) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good lord, for a short history there is an awful lot packed in here. It's fascinating, but very dry and sometimes quite hard to parse. I found the organisation of chapters a bit confusing, separated as it is by quite loose themes rather than in any kind of chronology. Probably not the best for an introductory read, but an interesting one nonetheless.

[Alix Stoddart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe paints Catherine in a positive light too recklessly but regardless is an interesting book. Makes me appreciate Cath II and her influences, definitely an important character in Russian history

[N. Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to preface this by saying I did not read this book by choice, I read it as one of the books to review for an undergraduate course in pre-modern Russian history. I was far from impressed by this book though it provided me with the relevant information for my course I found it to be disorganized, overly dense for its length and the fact that it is billed as a shorter more accessible version of the author'a magnum opus and not focused on the subject but focusing on everything happening surrounding it. If you want actual information on Catherine, admittedly a fascinating character, read a biography of her, I urge you not to waste your time with this.

[Cee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is rather misleading, as it's less about Catherine the Great and more about Russia during Catherine's reign. The book is actually somewhat of a summary of de Madariaga's 1981 book, meant to be accessible to a non-academic reading public.

In general, I enjoyed the book for what it was, though some of the contents were very dry. I'm personally most interested in cultural history, and Madariaga spends a large part of this book's 200-ish pages on the various administrative bodies Catherine set up during her reign. There is incredibly little biographical detail in this book, only showing Catherine in glimpses through the policies she set.

If I'm honest, I'm not sure I ever understood the administrative legislation of Britain or even my native Netherlands in such a granular way. More positively, I do feel like the book gave me a decent overview of Russia's development at the time, its relationship to the Western powers such as Britain and France, and its imperialist conquests of Ukraine and parts of Poland. I now feel better prepared to tackle a book on the subject I was actually interested in: Catherine the Great herself.

Some interesting bits I learned:
- Catherine tried to introduce a system of education for most of society (except for serfs owned by nobles) but its implementation was haphazard and many people didn't consider it necessary
- Everything was made much more difficult because of how big Russia is: "The vast size of Russia and the difficulties of transport and communication rendered its administration slow and cumbersome. (...) It could take eighteen months for an imperial order to reach distant Kamchatka, and another eighteen months for the reply to be received in the capital." (p. 132)
- The fight over Ukraine has a long history: "The birth of the modern Ukrainian nationalist movement can be dated from Catherine's ruthless crushing of Ukrainian aspirations to autonomy in the eighteenth century." (p. 137)
- A Russian who travelled in France was shocked by the state of the beggars he came across. "The French might be free, he commented, but they seemed free to starve rather than to live." (p. 154)
- However, being a serf was a state close to slavery:

Unlike the French, the Irish or the English peasant, the Russian peasant had a safety net. He was entitled to land, and the possibility therefore of making an income. If he died, his widow and young children would become the responsibility of the commune and ultimately of the landowner if he was a serf, and would not be cast out on the world, though they might suffer great poverty. In the event of famine the landowner was bound in law to supply his peasants. The real hardship of the peasant serf lay not in his poverty but in his vulnerability. One bad season could bring famine with all its attendant horrors. And always there hovered above him and his family the threat implicit to his servile status, of being taken off the land, sold, sent into the army, or to settlement in Siberia, brutally punished, whether innocent or guilty, abused, beaten or even killed. With a good landlord, life might be quite bearable. But even a good landlord could be unjust, and a change of owner could lead to the introduction of new customs, new demands, fear and distrust. (p. 155)

- Serfs weren't allowed to leave their villages without permission of the landlord. Serfs couldn't purchase their freedom, and there were only very few cases of a serf being able to become free. The way serfs were treated and could just be uprooted if their "owner" needed them shows that many considered the serfs as less than human - perhaps more akin to a horse or an ox. Interesting about serfdom is that there doesn't seem to be a racial dimension (while certain types of nobility are hereditary, many nobles of the lands Russia conquered were integrated into Russia's own system of nobility).
- Russia struggled more with lack of labour than lack of land, and Catherine instated many policies to try to develop Russia's economy.

The primacy accorded to agriculture is reflected in one of the earliest policies systematically followed by Catherine, namely the promotion of immigration into hitherto uninhabited lands. (...) Catherine herself had from the beginning of her reign been aware that Russia was underpopulated. This was the reason why she had no objection to polygamy in Moslem [sic] or pagan areas. Soon after her accession she had taken steps to attract foreign settlers. (p. 177)

- Catherine seems to have been very uninterested in religion, and reduced the power of the Orthodox Church. Russia under her reign was relatively tolerant towards most Christian denominations (though not necessarily towards those of Jewish or Muslim faiths).

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and concise, even though the title is a bit misleading. This book isn’t fully about Catherine the Great personally but about Russia under her reign. Madariaga’s essay is clear and straightforward as she focused on major points of Catherine’s policies throughout her reign.

There were no doubts of Catherine’s greatness, she’s intelligent and sensible, a hard-working ruler who strives to elevate the livelihood of the majority of Russians while at the same time still guarding her absolute power on the throne. Catherine also seems to be quite charming as whoever basked in her presence admired her and became loyal to her. Yet, of all the admiring qualities that she possessed, her policies and ambitions were also the cause of the partition of Poland. And the root of this was her initial plan to seize Constantinople back from Ottoman Turkey. The project was called the Greek Plan. It is this newfound ambition that led Catherine to alter her diplomatic alliances which eventually led to the dissatisfaction in Poland and its partition.

Russia under Catherine’s reign was considerably aggressive and expansionist, much similar to Peter the Great’s rule. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Catherine also admired Peter the Great to the point that she sponsored a statue dedicated to him. The difference was, while Peter the Great looked north and west, Catherine’s main focus was on the Black Sea, Ottoman Turkey, and Poland.

“She was also responsible for one of the landmarks of the capital, namely the great statue of Peter the Great, the bronze horseman of Push kin's poem. A French sculptor, Falconet, was recommended to her, and worked on it for a number of years. The huge granite pedestal was brought from Finland, and finally in 1781 the statue was unveiled with its austere dedication: 'To Peter I from Catherine II’.” ~Chapter 8: Catherine’s Influence on Russian Cultural Life, page 102.

The Bronze Horseman statue (An equestrian statue of Peter the Great) commissioned by Catherine the Great and sculpted by Étienne Maurice Falconet. The inscription (both Latin and Russian) imbibed on the stone is “Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782”.

This is a great complementary book to learn more about the impact of Catherine’s policies but can’t be treated as standalone Catherine’s biography.

[John Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of this book. I like the themed approach to the subject: there are other books I will read which are more biographic than this: Robert Massie And Sebag-Montefiore come to mind. I got a pretty good view of what mattered in her reign, and I felt the author distilled her decades of work and modern scholarship as it was at the time (1990) rather well. I have many more books to read on the period, but this was a good introduction for me. I am reading very slowly at present: the books arriving rate hasn't changed, and oddly even comfort reading has slowed. And now it's just too hot!

[David Szatkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the author states, this is an introductory book to Catherine, not a historical-academic work. It should be noted as well it was originally published in 1990, so prior to the fall of the USSR and the subsequent archives being available to scholars. What I enjoyed was the thematic treatment of Catherine as ruler and person. If you've never read anything about Catherine the Great, this is an OK starting point.

[Альберто Лорэдо · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a bit misleading since this is an account of Catherine's reign and Russia during that time as opposed as your usual biography. Nevertheless, this is a really good introduction to that exciting period of Russia and its relation with Europe.

[Roberto Golović · Rating 4 out of 5]

If someone read nothing about Catherine I would recommend this book as it is informative as it is well written. For academic research, however, I would not as it has no footnotes. I believe the author, but I would still have liked to see where the information came from.

[Iida Mielikainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most long and boring reads of my life and I love Catherine the great.

[Özgür Aydemir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katerina ile ilgili bilgilendirici bir kitap. Fakat bir hikayeden ziyade art arda bilgi veriliyor. Lise tarih kitaplarımı anımsattı.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started skimming after a few chapters. Too many multiple-page descriptions of each legislative council or act. Not enough Catherine.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is presented by the author as a biography of Catherine the Great that is meant for the reader that desires more information than the average history reader yet does not wish to read an academic history with voluminous notes and a long bibliography. While it does give a textured analysis of life during Catherine's reign, it falls short in several dimensions as a biography. First, it gives almost no information about Catherine's life prior to becoming empress. Thus, Madariaga does not really make the reader understand why the empress was so impressed by the French philosophers or what experiences and influences in her prior life affected her unique views on governance. I commend de Madariaga for writing a more positive view of Catherine the Great's reign, but I feel that some reference to her childhood and a better structure would have made the book more enjoyable for her intended audience.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure I've ever given a book only one star before. I was very disappointed in this book, obviously. I dislike books where the title has very little to do with the information presented in the book. I noticed in the bibliography notes that this was a summary of a longer book titled "Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great". That is a much more apt title since this book gives very little information on Catherine herself. There is discussion on what her policies were but no real discussion or information on why she did the things she did or what made her the person she was. Any decent biography should include that kind of information or it's not a biography and shouldn't be marketed as such. Besides this, the writing was extremely dry which made the book that much more uninteresting. It's only saving grace was that it was short!

[TJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is ok. Assumes some basic knowledge about Russia and the historical situation of the time.
My complaint was that it was more of a history of the time and situation than Catherine herself. I would have liked to learn more about Catherine and what made her her and her impact the situation had on her, instead of the impact she had on the situation.

[Brittany]

A fantastic introductory book to not only the life of Catherine the Great, but also details Russia during her reign. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in Catherine the Great as it helps the reader understand all the positive changes she made to Russia, and the powerful ruler she really was.

[Dianna LeFevre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, solid information, if a bit dry. Although it looks like a biography, it is really about different aspects in the life of Russia during her reign--in other words, how she influenced social, political, judicial, and economic life in that country. A special emphasis on foreign policy.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and straightforward, a good book to read for knowledge on reforms and customs of the 18th century Russian Empire. I wanted a tad more personal history, that is what makes great rulers and royalty human to me.

[Kissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating woman, that Catherine. I admittedly skipped some chapters almost entirely (war and such) but loved all the info on her alliances, day-to-day work, and her takes on philosophy and human rights.

[Alda Delicado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muito legível, uma boa introdução à Rússia de Catarina a Grande.

[Iqra Tasmiae]

Pg 260, part 1, chapter 10. Mention of Catherine the Great for her establishment of fondling homes and maternity clinics to receive the children of illegitimate pregnancies.