Noble estates under Catherine II. Domestic policy of Catherine II. The golden age of the Russian nobility

On April 21, 1785, on her birthday, Catherine II signs the "Charter of the nobility" ("The Charter on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble Russian nobility").

The letter confirmed the main provisions of the Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility of 1762. The estate was exempted from compulsory service, payment of taxes, from corporal punishment. A special noble court was established. It was possible to deprive the nobility only in court for serious criminal offenses - robbery, theft, treason, etc.

The property rights of the class were clarified. The estates were declared to be the full property of the landlords: the nobles could sell them, donate, divide and transfer them by inheritance. Only the nobles had the right to buy land from the peasants. Special article they were allowed to "have factories and plants in the villages", that is, to engage in entrepreneurship. Landowner houses in the countryside were freed from standing troops.

The letter of commendation introduced noble self-government in Russia. In addition to the already existing county assemblies, provincial noble assemblies were created. Once every three years, the nobles gathered at county and provincial meetings, elected county and provincial leaders, local administration, and judges. material from the site

Thus, the Letter of Complaint brought together all the privileges of the nobility granted to him until that time, and legally consolidated his dominant position in politics and economy.

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Like Peter I, Catherine II went down in history under the name of Catherine the Great. Her reign became a new era in the history of Russia.

The beginning of the reign for Catherine II was difficult, especially in moral terms. No matter how unpopular Peter III was in Russia, he was a legitimate (by God's grace) sovereign, besides, the grandson of Peter the Great, albeit insufficient. Catherine was a purebred German who, in the eyes of society, had usurped the ancient throne of Moscow tsars. The role of Catherine II in the murder of her husband was also unclear.

First of all, Catherine II hurried with the coronation, which was supposed to legitimize her accession to the throne. The solemn ceremony took place on September 22, 1762 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Catherine generously rewarded everyone who contributed to her victory. The main participants in the coup (40 people) received ranks, land holdings with serfs and large sums of money. The Empress ordered the return from exile of those who "innocently" suffered, including the former Grand Chancellor Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the former Prosecutor General Prince Shakhovsky.

Wanting to win over the influential Orthodox clergy in Russia, Catherine II canceled the decree of Peter III on the seizure of land property and peasants from monasteries. True, having strengthened her position, the empress already in 1764 nevertheless took away 990 thousand peasants from the monasteries in favor of the state. Former monastic peasants (there were about 1 million male souls) began to be called economic, since the College of Economy was created to manage them. The number of monasteries in Russia decreased from 881 to 385.

Acting cautiously, avoiding dangerous conflicts, Catherine II from the very beginning firmly made it clear that she did not intend to give up autocratic power. She rejected the Count's idea N.I. Panina on the establishment of the Permanent Imperial Council, consisting of four secretaries of state, who were to decide all the most important state affairs. In this case, Catherine would have only the right to approve the decisions being made. Panin's project is reflected oligarchic hopes of the aristocracy to limit autocratic power, which did not suit Catherine II at all.

At the same time, Panin proposed dividing the ruling Senate into six departments, which led to a weakening of the role of this highest institution in favor of the Permanent Imperial Council. Catherine II skillfully took advantage of Panin's proposal. In December 1763, the empress carried out Senate reform, dividing it into six departments, two of which were supposed to be in Moscow, and four in St. Petersburg. So the ruling Senate lost its former political role, turning into a bureaucratic-clerical superstructure over the central institutions of the empire. As a result of the reform, the autocratic power was strengthened. “But Catherine II,” wrote S.M. Solovyov, “it took many years of skillful, firm and happy rule to acquire that authority, that charm that she produced in Russia and in Europe as a whole, in order to force her to recognize the legitimacy of her power.”

"Manifesto on Liberty to the Nobility" (1762) and "Charter to the Nobility"(1785) Catherine II finally secured the privileges of the nobility. The nobles were exempted from taxes and duties. Noble landownership increased markedly. The landowners were given state and palace peasants, as well as uninhabited lands. The reign of Catherine II in historical science is called the golden age of the Russian nobility.

By the time of her accession to the throne, Catherine II was well acquainted with the liberal ideas of European philosophical, political and economic thought. Even in her youth, she read the works of the French enlighteners - Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, D'Alembert- and considered myself their student. In 1763, Catherine began a correspondence with Voltaire, which continued until 1777, that is, almost until the death of the famous French enlightener. In letters to Voltaire, Catherine told the “teacher” about activities for the benefit of her subjects and about military events, and Voltaire showered the “student” with flattery and compliments. Catherine II emphasized that the book of the French educator Montesquieu became her guide in politics. In countries Western Europe they started talking about the "great Semiramis of the north."

Based on the ideas of European enlighteners, Catherine had a certain idea of ​​what needs to be done for the prosperity of the state. In conjunction with the knowledge of Russian reality, these ideas influenced the formation political program empresses. How Catherine imagined the tasks of an enlightened monarch, which she sincerely considered herself, can be seen from her draft note: “1. It is necessary to educate the nation, which must govern. 2. It is necessary to introduce good order in the state, to support society and force it to comply with the laws. 3. It is necessary to establish a good and accurate police in the state. 4. It is necessary to promote the flowering of the state and make it abundant. 5. It is necessary to make the state formidable in itself and inspire respect for its neighbors ”(“ Notes ”).

Since ideologically this program, and consequently Catherine’s internal policy, was based on the principles of the Enlightenment, this period of Russian history itself was called “enlightened absolutism” in the literature (E.V. Anisimov, A.B. Kamensky).

This policy was typical for countries with a relatively slow development of capitalist relations, where the nobility retained their political rights and economic privileges. by time enlightened absolutism usually called several decades European history before the French Revolution of 1789

In the Big encyclopedic dictionary we read the following definition: Enlightened absolutism- the policy of absolutism in a number of European countries in the 2nd half of the 18th century, it was expressed in the destruction "from above" and in the transformation of the most obsolete feudal institutions (the abolition of some estate privileges, the subordination of the church to the state, reforms - peasant, judicial, school education, mitigation of censorship, etc.). Representatives of enlightened absolutism - Joseph II in Austria, Frederick II in Prussia, Catherine II in Russia (until the beginning of the 70s of the XVIII century), etc., using the popularity of the ideas of the French Enlightenment, portrayed their activities as a "union of philosophers and sovereigns" . Enlightened absolutism was aimed at asserting the dominance of the nobility, although some reforms contributed to the development of the capitalist way of life.

So, enlightened absolutism is characterized by such events in which the nobles and the state itself were interested, but which at the same time contributed to the development of a new capitalist order. An important feature of the policy of enlightened absolutism was the desire of the monarchs to ease the sharpness of social contradictions by improving the political superstructure.

The largest event of enlightened absolutism was the convocation in 1767 of commission on the drafting of a new code (Laid Commission). It should be noted that the convening of the Legislative Commission was preceded by study trips of Catherine II across Russia. “After Peter the Great, Catherine was the first empress who undertook travels in Russia for government purposes” (S.M. Solovyov).

Catherine II decided to give Russia a legislative code based on the principles of the new philosophy and science, discovered modern era Enlightenment.

As the guiding document of the commission, the empress prepared the "Instruction", which consisted of 22 chapters and was divided into 655 articles. Almost a quarter of the text of the "Instruction" were quotations from the writings of the Enlightenment (Beccaria, Bielfeld, Montesquieu, Justi). These quotations were carefully selected, and the "Order", thus, was an integral work, which proved the need for a strong autocratic power in Russia and the estate structure of Russian society. Catherine's commission failed to draw up a new code of laws, since it was difficult to bring the old legislation into agreement, on the one hand, with the liberal "Order" of Catherine (built on book theories, without taking into account real facts Russian life), and on the other hand, with conflicting needs, wishes and many separate orders from different groups of the population.

Yet the work of the Commission has not been in vain. The content of local mandates and the opinions of the deputies gave the government rich material for getting acquainted with the needs and wishes of different groups of the population, and it could use these materials in the future in its reform activities.

Those historians who see the convocation of the Legislative Commission as a demagogic farce played out by Catherine II are hardly right. One cannot call the Legislative Commission the beginning of Russian parliamentarism. In the specific conditions of Russia in the second half of the XVIII century. Catherine II made an attempt to modernize the country, create a legitimate autocratic monarchy (A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgiev, I.G. Georgieva).

Two events of the 18th century influenced the curtailment of the policy of enlightened absolutism: the peasant war led by E. Pugachev in Russia and the Great French Revolution in Europe. In Russia, the last attempt to implement the ideas of the European Enlightenment was the work of Alexander I (I.G. Kislitsyn).

Assessing the reign of Catherine II, it must be borne in mind that the empress had to act not according to a pre-planned and planned reform program, but to consistently take on the solution of the tasks that life put forward. Hence the impression of a certain chaotic nature of her reign. Even if this is true, it is not the whims of frequently changing favorites that are the reason. The lists of official favorites compiled by various historians include from 12 to 15 people. Some of them, primarily G.A. Potemkin, became outstanding statesmen, others were in her chambers in the position of beloved dogs. Undoubtedly, such people influenced the policy of the state, but only to the extent that the empress herself allowed it, who never gave up even a particle of her autocratic power.

The results of the reign of Catherine II.

1. Imperial measures in foreign and domestic policy.
2. Strengthening absolutism by reforming government institutions and a new administrative structure of the state, protecting the monarchy from any encroachment.
3. Socio-economic measures for the further "Europeanization" of the country and the final design and strengthening of the nobility.
4. Liberal educational initiatives, care of education, literature and arts.
5. unpreparedness Russian society not only to the abolition of serfdom, but even to more moderate reforms.

According to S.V. Bushuev, in the reign of Catherine II there was "... a discrepancy between the "external forms and internal conditions" introduced from above," the "soul" and "body" of Russia, and hence all the contradictions of the 18th century: the split of the nation, the split of the people and power, power and the intelligentsia created by it , the split of culture into folk and "official", Pushkin's insoluble dilemma about "enlightenment" and "slavery". All this is relevant to Catherine, because it explains the underlying causes of her impressive successes when she acted like a Petrine “from above”, and her amazing impotence, as soon as she tried to get support “from below” in a European way (Laid Commission).

If Peter did not think about all these contradictions or, rather, simply did not notice them, then Catherine was already beginning to understand, but unable to resolve them, she was forced to pretend and hypocrite: an enlightened empress - and the first landowner, Voltaire's correspondent - and an unlimited sovereign, a supporter of humanity - and a restorer of the death penalty ... In a word, according to Pushkin's definition, "Tartuffe in a skirt and a crown." But the lie here is most likely not for deception as such, but for self-defense, not so much for others, but for herself, who wants to combine "enlightenment" and "slavery".

1. Highlight the causes and consequences of each of the reforms of Catherine II. What symbolic meaning did Catherine put into the construction of the monument to Peter I? Do you think she had the moral right to do so?

The provincial reform was carried out because in too large administrative units local authorities did their job poorly. As a result of the reform, management did improve; this was also facilitated by the introduction of new positions of police officers, bailiffs, etc.

The enlightened empress counted Russian courts not civilized enough, so a judicial reform was carried out. As a result, the legal proceedings were streamlined, the inquiry began to be carried out without the use of torture. However trials were still confusing and gave officials a wide field for taking bribes.

The education system established by Peter I was not, in the strict sense of the word, a system, because the programs different levels did not continue one another. Besides, educational institutions there were still few. According to the education reform, it was precisely the system that was created, according to which a person began to study at home or in a public school, continued in a gymnasium, and higher education received at Moscow University (but few people passed all three steps, the majority did not even strive for this).

Catherine believed that she was continuing the work of Peter the Great, reforming Russia and turning it into a European power. It is not for nothing that the monument to the founder of St. Petersburg says “To Peter I Catherine II”, as if a continuity is being established between them, which does not include all the emperors who ruled between them. Indeed, Catherine had a moral right to this, because under her Russia was reformed no less than under Peter I and incomparably more than under other emperors and empresses of the era of palace coups.

2. With the help of specific facts, prove that the nobles under Catherine II became a free estate. Imagine that you are the son (daughter) of a nobleman from the time of Catherine II. How will your life differ from the life of your great-grandfather from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich? Compare the rights and obligations of the townspeople of the era of Peter I and the townspeople according to the Letter of Complaint. Imagine that you are the son (daughter) of a merchant or craftsman from the time of Catherine II. How could your fate be? Describe how holidays and weekdays could pass in the family of a merchant and in the family of a nobleman at the end of the 18th century.

The nobles under Catherine were exempted from compulsory service and all taxes (but they had to pay peasant taxes to the treasury), they could not be arrested without trial and deprived of their property even for a crime. The nobles were exempted from corporal punishment, therefore, “unwhacked generations”, as A.S. Pushkin called them, entered the historical stage. Despite absolutism in Russia, the nobles had their own noble assemblies. All this made the nobles a truly free estate, perhaps the only truly free class in Russia. An ordinary day of a nobleman, especially one who did not serve or had already retired, could consist of household chores on the estate, which alternated with reading books and doing arts. His life was very different from the life of a nobleman of the times of Alexei Mikhailovich.

The townspeople, according to the charter granted, had more rights than under Peter I. First of all, they could move freely. They were also given the right to trade. Men from among them participated in the elections to the city duma. But they still supplied recruits, for certain crimes they could be subjected to corporal punishment. The ordinary day of a tradesman strongly depended on his profession. Most the day was occupied by work, after which he could go to a tavern (where he could not get drunk, but communicate with neighbors), or devote time to his family.

3. Prove with the help of specific facts that a free-thinking society has emerged in Russia. Compare the goals and personal qualities of two publishers - Nikolai Novikov and Catherine II. What do you think is the main difference between them? Which of them and why are you ready to support in their correspondence dispute on the pages of magazines about how they completed it?

After the Decree on the freedom to open printing houses, printing flourished in Russia. The fact that she was free can be seen from the dissatisfaction that some publications aroused in the Empress. True, the press was not completely free, because the journals of Nikolai Novikov, nevertheless, were closed, which could not happen with real freedom of speech.

In the dispute between Novikov and Catherine II, I would rather support the former, because healthy criticism is useful, even if it offends specific people who deserve it.

4. Why was the reign of Catherine II called the "golden age of the nobility"? Do you think that thanks to the reforms of Catherine II, the main features of the agrarian society in Russia have been strengthened or collapsed? Analyze each reform and, using the facts you know, support your answer. Continue to fill in the table "Russia in the XVI-XVIII centuries" (p. 32).

During the reign of Catherine II, the nobility received more rights than they ever had before, it was they who constituted not only the backbone of the officers and bureaucracy, but also its highest echelons. The nobles felt themselves a free estate, the first of the "unwhipped generations" appeared. But the flourishing of the nobility inevitably meant the most fierce forms of serfdom, which hampered the development of capitalist relations and prevented society from transforming from an agrarian into an industrial one.

Realizing the difficulties of her position, avoiding clashes with the nobles who gave her the throne and crown, wanting to smooth the impression of seizing power and become popular in a foreign country, the empress devoted herself and her policy to serving the interests of this class. The desire of the government to help the nobility to adapt their economy to the developing commodity-money relations and overcome the negative impact of the emerging capitalist system on the serfdom was the most important direction internal policy of Catherine II in the second half of the 18th century. Started by her predecessors, this domestic policy of Catherine II gained even wider scope during her reign.

Grants were the source of the growth of noble land ownership and soul ownership. The generosity of the Empress surpassed everything that was familiar to the history of the previous time. She granted 18,000 serfs and 86,000 rubles to the participants in the coup, who secured her the throne. premium. During her reign, she distributed 800 thousand peasants of both sexes to the nobles.

In order to strengthen the monopoly rights of the nobles to land, a decree was subordinated to the prohibition of industrialists to buy serfs for their enterprises. As long as the nobles did not engage in entrepreneurship, industrialists widely used the right to buy peasants for factories. As soon as the landlords built cloth and linen manufactories in their estates, the government deprived the merchants of this privilege.

New privileges for the nobility

Catherine, enthroned by the noble guards, knew that the nobility was not content with the law on the freedom of the nobles, but demanded the expansion and strengthening of their rights as the ruling class. The nobles acquired a new privilege in the manifesto "On the granting of liberties and freedom to all Russian nobility." The decree promulgated by Peter III in 1762 was confirmed by Catherine II. From now on, a nobleman could retire at any time, he could not serve anywhere at all.

It was assumed that the nobles, freed from service in the barracks and offices, would rush to the village in order to manage the estates themselves, and not through clerks and introduce economic improvements. Since a huge amount of land, the most productive force in the then national economy, was concentrated in the hands of the nobility, he was to become the leader of everything. National economy having been released from service. But the presence of serfs in the noble economy - the ability to get everything for free, by order - explains the lack of enterprise, indifference to technical knowledge and improvement of management techniques of many nobles on their estates. Each new economic need of the landowner was usually satisfied by establishing a new tax on serf souls.

At the same time, we must not forget that it was in the era of Catherine that such original landowners-owners appeared as A. T. Bolotov, who became one of the founders of Russian agronomic science, the author of many articles on agronomy, botany, and the organization of landlord economy.

Under the patronage of Catherine, her closest associates in 1765 in St. Petersburg established the Free economic society seeking to rationalize Agriculture and increase the productivity of serf labor.

General survey in 1765 Serfdom.

In 1765, a general survey was launched by the manifesto of the government. An attempt to implement it in 1754 was unsuccessful. Caused by the desire to streamline land holdings in connection with the general revival of the economy and to expand noble land ownership by eliminating free peasant borrowings and legalizing landlord seizures of state land, the general land survey established that actual ownership in 1765 should serve as the basis for securing the right to the future. This process was accompanied by the sale from the treasury to the landowners at a cheap price of steppe lands that had no "legal" owners.

The main feature of the domestic policy of Catherine II was expressed in full and frank support ruling class nobles. Such an internal policy of Catherine II, as under no other of the rulers, strengthened serfdom in Russia.

The decrees of the 1960s crown the feudal legislation, which turned the serfs into people completely defenseless against the arbitrariness of the landowners. The decree, issued on the sixth day after Catherine's accession, encouraged the landlords in their "inviolable possession" of estates and peasants. Another decree, published in 1763, laid the maintenance of military teams sent to suppress peasant uprisings on the peasants themselves. The decree pursued edifying goals - "so that others, fearing him, would not pester those disobedient." According to the decree of January 17, 1765, the landowner could send the peasant not only into exile, but also to hard labor, and the period of hard labor was set by him; he was also given the right to return the exiled from hard labor at any time. Another decree of 1767 forbade peasants to complain about their master. Any petition of a serf was equated with a false denunciation of the landowner; the measure of punishment for the disobedient was also determined - exile to Nerchinsk.

In 1762 on the a short time Peter III, who lingered on the throne, abolished by a special decree not only the obligation to educate the nobles, but also the obligation to serve the nobility. After the decree of 1762, which exempted the nobles from compulsory service, the officers received the right to resign at any time, and the voluntary resignation of Fedosov I.A. became the main reason for the loss of the officer corps. Enlightened absolutism in Russia // Questions of history. - 1970. - No. 9. - S. 34 .. The time of service in the lower ranks became completely dependent on the origin, and the difference was very large - from 3 to 12 years. "Diploma on the rights and advantages of the Russian nobility" Catherine II 1785. finally turned the nobility into a "noble" estate.

The manifesto of November 7, 1775, which accompanied the promulgation of the "Institution", pointed out the following shortcomings of the existing regional administration: firstly, the provinces were too extensive administrative districts; secondly, these districts were supplied with too few institutions with meager personnel; thirdly, various departments were mixed in this department: the same place was in charge of the administration itself, and finance, and the court, criminal and civil Troitsky S.M. Russian absolutism and the nobility in the 18th century. The formation of a bureaucracy. - M., 1974. - S. 31 ..

The new provincial institutions were designed to eliminate these shortcomings. Provincial institutions approved by Catherine II on November 7, 1775 with small changes acted until the zemstvo and judicial reforms of 1864, and some even until the beginning of the twentieth century. They made up a rather complex system of administrative and judicial "places of common and class" Legislation of Catherine the Great. Collection of documents. - M., 2000. - S. 92 ..

Russia was divided into 50 provinces under the control of a governor, sometimes a governor-general or governor with extensive powers was placed at the head of 2-3 provinces. Becoming a privileged and isolated class, the nobility did not yet have a class organization, and with the abolition of compulsory service, it could lose service organization. The institutions of 1775, giving the nobility self-government, thereby gave it internal organization. To elect officials, the nobles had to come together from the whole county every three years and chose their own county marshal, police captain and assessors in various institutions. The nobility of each county became a whole cohesive society and through its representatives managed all the affairs of the county; both the police and the administration were in the hands of a noble institution (the lower zemstvo court).

According to their class position, the nobles became from 1775. not only by the landowners of the county, but also by its administrators. At the same time, in those institutions in 1775, the composition of which was bureaucratic, or half, or completely, a huge number of officials belonged to the nobility; therefore, it can be said that not only the county, but also the provincial administration was generally concentrated in the hands of the nobility. The nobility, from its ranks, has long been supplying the main figures to the central institutions. With the decline of the old aristocracy, the nobles became the closest assistants to the supreme power in the matter of government and filled everything higher institutions as crown officials.

Thus, since 1775. all of Russia from the highest to the lowest levels of government (except perhaps the city magistrates) began to be controlled by the nobility: at the top they acted in the form of a bureaucracy, at the bottom - as representatives of noble self-governing societies. The reforms of 1775 had such significance for the nobility, they gave it a class organization and a leading administrative role in the country.

In the "Institutions for the management of the provinces", however, both the organization given to the nobility and its influence on local government regarded as facts created in the interests of government controlled, not estates. Later, Catherine set forth the same facts that she had established, as well as the former rights and advantages of the nobles, in a special “Charter to the nobility” in 1785. Here, the beginnings of class self-government are already considered as class privileges, along with all the rights and benefits that the nobles had before.

The "Letter of Letters" was, therefore, not essentially a new law on the nobility, but a systematic presentation of the rights and privileges of the nobles that existed before, with some, however, additions. These additions were further development what already existed. Breaking news was the recognition of the nobility of not just one county, but of the whole province for a separate society with a character legal entity. The charter of 1785 completed the process of formation and elevation of the nobility, which was observed throughout the entire 18th century.

The nobles wanted to consolidate, to stand apart from the rest of the estates. The idea of ​​the "Noble Corps" as something isolated has already fully matured and penetrated into the consciousness of the noble masses. “So that the rights and advantages of the autocratic power be granted to the corps of the nobility,” the Volokamensk nobles demanded. Corps of the nobility, separate "from others different kind and titles of people,” the Bolkhov nobles demanded. Simbirsk and Kazan nobles asked “about drawing up the right of the nobility”, “so that they have advantages and differ in that from vile people” Legislation of Catherine the Great. Collection of documents. - S. 65 ..

But the orders of the nobility were not limited to general requirements, they also determined the composition of the noble corps, and the rights and advantages by which they wished to separate themselves from the rest of the vile people. In an effort to isolate the nobles, they had to be hostile to the "Table of Ranks" of Peter I, which brought the idea of ​​​​the advantage of service over the clan. Many orders of the nobility are busy so that the nobility is given only through an award by the sovereign himself; moreover, some orders ask to exclude from the number of nobles those who fell into it by rank. But most of the orders did not go so far: the majority asked only to exclude from the nobility those persons who, without having noble diplomas and without presenting any evidence of their noble origin, continued to be among the nobles. In the old days, and under Peter, there were several lower ranks of the service class, which remained in some kind of intermediate position; some of them fell into the capitation salary, some did not, but they were not included in the ranks of the noble gentry, although, according to old memory, they continued to be called nobles. So now their older brothers did not want to have them in their midst. Some mandates suggested establishing a special category of veteran nobles, the category of landlords.

The Yaroslavl nobility, whose representative was the famous Prince M.M. Shcherbatov Butromeev V.P. The World History in faces. - M: OLMA PRESS, 1994. - S. 156., asked “that the nobles be sorted according to the degree of nobility into 6 registers: princes, counts, barons, nobles of foreign origin, granted nobles and officials” Druzhinin N.M. Enlightened absolutism in Russia. / Absolutism in Russia. XVII-XVIII centuries. M., 1964. - S. 81.; in addition, the Yaroslavl nobles asked "to paint all the nobles in the cities, establish annual meetings of the nobles and start noble books" Troitsky S.M. Russian absolutism and the nobility in the 18th century. The formation of a bureaucracy. - P. 53 .. Highly appreciating their nobility, the nobles sought to have it taken away only by court for unseemly acts for the nobles.

The Noble Rights Project proposed to deprive the nobility for treason, theft, forgery, breaking an oath, etc. Then, from the point of view of their nobility, the nobles sought exemption from corporal punishment, torture and the death penalty; some orders added to this the confiscation of property.

In the field of property rights, the nobles sought the exclusive right to own populated estates. I must say that this right of theirs was confirmed even under the empresses Anna and Elizabeth, but in practice it was poorly implemented; life was stronger than noble tendencies; now the nobles asked for a categorical ban on all non-nobles from owning lands with a serf population. The nobles are petitioning for the repeal of Peter the Great's embarrassing decree on ore, asking to be allowed to purchase houses in cities, to smoke duty-free wine for home consumption, to take farms and contracts, and to sell the products of their lands. Then the nobles fuss about the destruction of small, but annoying fees from baths, mills, apiaries, ask for the release of their houses from military quarters, etc.

All the estate harassment of the nobles was accepted by Catherine and found almost complete satisfaction in the charter granted to the nobility in 1785. In one thing, Catherine did not fulfill the wishes of the nobles - she did not close the noble class, she remained on the point of view of Peter's legislation that the nobility is acquired by service and labor, to the throne Russian useful. Nevertheless, Catherine also recognized the principle of prescription, which was put forward in orders.

The first article of the granted Charter read: “The title of nobility is a consequence of the qualities and virtues acquired by ancient men, from the merits that turn the family into dignity and acquire the title of noble for their offspring” The letter on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble Russian nobility. // Russian legislation X-XX centuries: in 9 vols. T.5. Legislation of the heyday of absolutism. / Rev. ed. E.I. Indova. - M.: Legal literature, 1987. - S. 22 ..

As a logical consequence of this general position, a charter, said that a nobleman, marrying a non-noblewoman, communicates his rank to her and her children, and that noble dignity is inalienable - that a nobleman loses it only in court for those crimes for which corporal punishment and deprivation of honor follow, and not otherwise than with the confirmation of the sovereign. Since the title of nobility in this sense is inalienable, the “Chartered Letter” recognizes that a noblewoman, having married a non-nobleman, does not lose her title, but does not communicate it to her husband or children. A nobleman, while he remains a nobleman, cannot be subjected to corporal punishment or deprivation of honor without trial, must be judged by equals and personally must be released from all taxes. Such are the rights of the nobility, arising from the very concept of nobility.

Catherine also approved for the nobles all the rights and benefits that were granted to them by her predecessors. The nobles are free to serve and are free to ask for resignation, they have the right to enter the service of friendly foreign sovereigns, but if the state needs it, every nobleman, at the first request of the autocratic power, must serve, sparing nothing, even his stomach.

Then Catherine confirmed the right of the nobles to freely dispose of acquired estates and established that hereditary estates are not subject to confiscation, but are inherited by the heirs. Then the nobles were granted the right to wholesale the fruits of their land without paying those taxes that fell on the merchants; to open factories, fairs and be subject to city law, if they wished to use it. Fulfilling the desires of the nobles, the Diploma confirmed their rights to the bowels of the earth. In addition, a number of restrictions were removed from the noble forests, which lay on them under the decrees of Peter I, who forbade cutting oaks and pines of a certain size in order to save the mast forest. Landowner houses in the villages were freed from lodging.

Heeding the desire of the nobles to form a special "corps", the "Charter Letter" provided the nobles to gather in the province where they have residence, and form noble societies. The nobles were convened by the governor-general every 3 years for the election of various officials and for listening to the proposals and demands of the governor-general and the governor. To the proposals of the governor-general, the nobles have the right to make decent answers about the good and the good of the public. But, in addition to this passive right, the nobles, through deputies, have the right to file complaints with the Senate and directly to the sovereign, to make representations about general state needs. The nobility of each province has the right to have its own house, archive, its own seal, its own secretary and, with its voluntary contributions, to form a special treasury.

Wanting, if not to close, then to separate the nobility from the other classes with a clear line, Catherine allowed the nobles to have their own genealogical book in each county and elect one deputy for its maintenance. This deputy, together with the marshal of the nobility, must take care of compiling and replenishing the noble genealogy book. It should record the nobles who have real estate in the county and can prove their right to a noble title. The genealogical book was supposed to consist of 6 parts.

The first part includes actual nobles, that is, those who have been granted nobles thanks to the coat of arms, seal, and whose family has existed for more than 100 years.

The second part includes those nobles and their descendants who in France were called the "nobility of the sword" (noblesse d "epole), that is, the descendants of the chief officers elevated to the nobles according to the "Table of Ranks" of Peter I.

The third part contains those surnames that in France were called nobless de robe, that is, the offspring of officials who fell into the nobility according to the "Table of Ranks" of Peter the Great.

The fourth part recorded foreign noble families who moved to serve in Russia.

The fifth part embraced titled noble families - princes, counts, barons.

The sixth part, the most honorable, included the ancient, most noble noble families, who led their genealogical tree from the 17th and even XVI century. So Catherine satisfied the desire of the nobility to have a certain differentiation in their midst.

All those entered in the genealogical book received the right to attend meetings of the nobility, and only those who had reached the age of 25, had their own village and rose to the rank of chief officer had the right to vote. Anyone who did not meet these conditions could only be present, but did not use either active or passive suffrage. Those who had less than 100 rubles of income from their villages enjoyed passive suffrage.

"Charter to the nobility" 1785 was the climax that completed the consolidation and socio-political rise of the nobility. The nobility has now become a free social class, a privileged class, which is furnished with a number of guarantees in relation to the supreme power and its representatives.

In the history of civil development, the "Letter of Letters to the Nobility" was the first step towards the emancipation of the individual enslaved by the state, the recognition of human rights, the right to self-determination, regardless of the orders and discretion of the state power. From this point of view, the meaning of the "Charter to the Nobility" is much broader than its direct purpose. It was an indicator of the new direction of the Russian public, awakened the hope that after the granting of rights to one class, rights would be given to other classes of Russian society.

In the course of the work, it is important to note the achievements of the nobility by the end of the 18th century, the legally enshrined rights and advantages of the nobility:

1. Personal rights: the right to noble dignity, the right to protect honor, personality and life, exemption from taxes, duties and corporal punishment, from compulsory public service, etc.

2. Property rights: full and unlimited ownership of the acquisition, use and inheritance of any kind of property. The exclusive right of the nobles to buy villages and own land and peasants was established, the nobles had the right to open industrial enterprises(build factories and factories) on their estates, develop minerals on their land, trade in the products of their lands in bulk, acquire houses in cities and conduct maritime trade. Special judicial rights: the personal and property rights of the nobility could be limited or liquidated only by a court decision: a nobleman could only be judged by a class court equal to him, the decisions of other courts did not matter to him.

3. Since 1771, the exclusive right to serve in a civil department, in the bureaucracy (after the ban on recruiting persons from taxable estates), and since 1798, to form an officer corps in the army.

4. Political corporate rights: the right to convene and participate in provincial congresses, to form special noble societies, to elect their own representative bodies, their own court of estates, to have the title of "nobility", which could only be taken away by the court of "equals" or by decision of the king.

Belonging to a noble class gave the right to a coat of arms, a uniform, riding in carriages drawn by four, dressing lackeys in special liveries, etc.

So, the main sources of the nobility in the XVIII century. were - birth and length of service. The length of service included the acquisition of the nobility through an award and an indigenat for foreigners (according to the "Table of Ranks"), through receiving an order (according to the "Charter of Honor" of Catherine II). In the 19th century to them will be added higher education and academic degree Estate system and economy of Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Collection of documents and materials. / Ed. G.V. Mozhaeva. - Tomsk: Siberia, 1999. - S. 116 ..

Having examined the process of development of the privileges of the nobility in the 18th century, it was found that under Peter I the nobleman was determined by the duty of indefinite service and the right of personal land ownership, and this right belonged to him not exclusively and not completely. Under Empress Anna, the nobleman lightened his public service and increased land ownership. Under Elizabeth, he achieved the first estate privileges in the sphere of property rights and laid the foundation for estate isolation; at Petre III resigned from his official duties and received some exclusive personal rights. Finally, under Catherine II, the nobleman became a member of the provincial noble corporation, which was privileged and held local self-government in its hands.