The Icon and the Axe

Vfll^ffi^QiLbecanie-aie official historian of the Russian Empire and a kindoLpatron. saint for the secuErlaristocracy. The many-sided French Enlightenment was thought to be all of a piece, with Voltaire at its center. Friend and foe alike spoke of Vol'ter'ianstvo ("Voltairianism") as the ruling force in Western culture, just as they had spoken of Latinstvo ("Latinism") in the fifteenth century. With Catherine's active encouragement, much of the Russian aristocracy became enamored with Voltairianism, which had the general meaning of rationalism, scepticism, and a vague passion for reform. In the first year of her reign, at the age of 34, she opened a correspondence with Voltaire, who was nearly 70. Almost all of the sixty-odd separate works of Voltaire translated into Russian in the last third of the eighteenth century appeared during Catherine's reign. At least 140 printed

translations of Voltaire's works were published in the course of the aristocratic century; numerous abstracts and handwritten copies were made; and no aristocratic library was thought complete if it did not contain a substantial collection of his works in the original French. The name of Voltaire was enthroned literally as well as figuratively; for the new high-backed, thin-armed easy chair in which Russian aristocrats seated themselves for after-dinner conversation was modeled on that on which Voltaire was often depicted sitting, and is known even today as a Vol'terovskoe kreslo or "Voltaire chair."22

If Voltaire was the symbol, the Gallicized German Friedrich Grimm was the major source of information for Catherine's court. He supplemented his famed literary newsletter on the intellectuaT Efe of the salons with a voluminous correspondence with the Empress, who showered him with many favors, including eventual appointment as her minister in Hamburg. Grimm became a kind of public relations man for Catherine, and was probably only partly jesting when he rephrased the Lord's prayer to read "Our mother, who art in Russia . . ."; changed the Creed into "I believe in one Catherine . . ."; and set ? "?? Catherinam Laudamus" to the music of Paisiello.23 Voltaire avoided distinctively Christian terminology, addressing Catherine as "ajmest in your temple," confessing that "there is no God but Allah, and Catherine is the prophet of Allah."24 Only a more systematic materialist like Helvetius was able to refrain from theistic references altogether, dedicating his last great work, On Man, His Intellectual Faculties and His Education, to her as a "bulwark against 'Asiatic despotism,' worthy by her intelligence of judging old nations as she is worthy of governing her own."25

On this all-important question of government, Catherine was most indebted to Montesquieu. His mighty Spirit of the Laws was both the final product of a lifetime of urbane reflection and the opening salvo in the "war of ideas" against the old order in France.26 Within eighteen months of its first appearance in 1748, Montesquieu's work had gone through twenty-two editions, and infected previously untouched segments of society with its ranging curiosity about politics, its descriptive and comparative approach, and its underlying determination to prevent arbitrary and despotic rule.

All these features of Montesquieu's work appealed to the young empress as she sought to fortify herself for combat against the political chaos and religious mystique of Old Russia. Her attitude upon assuming power was that of one of her generals, who satirically remarked that the government of Russia must indeed be directed "by God himself-otherwise it is impossible to explain how it is even able to exist."27 Her Nakaz sought to introduce rational order into the political life of the Empire, and Montes-

quieu was her major source of inspiration. She set aside three hours each day for reading the master, referred to his Spirit oj the Laws as her "prayer book,"28 and derived nearly half of the articles in the Nakaz from his works.29

To be sure, Catherine's entire effort went against Montesquieu's own assumption that Russia was foredoomed by its size and heritage to despotic rule; and she distorted or neglected some of his most celebrated ideas. Montesquieu's aristocratic "intermediary bodies" between the monarch and his subjects served not, in Catherine's proposal, to separate power between executive, legislative, and judicial functions but rather to consolidate government functions and create new lines of transmission for imperial authority.