William Tyler
Three Female Czars: Anna, Elizabeth, and Catherine
Summary
Peter the Great died in 1725. Russia ceased to build on Peter’s reforms until the reign of Catherine II (Catherine the Great) in 1762. There were 6 Tsars between Peter and Catherine, including three female rulers: Catherine I (Peter’s widow) 1725–1727, Anna (Peter’s niece) 1730–40, and Elizabeth (Peter’s own daughter) 1741–1762. Here we will look at their lives and Russia as a whole during their reigns.
William Tyler
William Tyler has spent his entire professional life in adult education, beginning at Kingsgate College in 1969. He has lectured widely for many public bodies, including the University of Cambridge and the WEA, in addition to speaking to many clubs and societies. In 2009, William was awarded the MBE for services to adult education, and he has previously been a scholar in residence at the London Jewish Cultural Centre.
Because Peter laid down that she would. It wasn’t a strict inheritance on primogeniture, as in England. It wasn’t the eldest son. In England, the eldest child, whether male or female, succeeds and you go down the list. But it wasn’t like that in Russia. It later becomes like that. But in this period, it wasn’t.
Serfs can’t leave their land, peasants can. Peasants can walk away, they’re free. Serfs are not free, they’re tied to the land. Worse than that. In Russia, many of the serfs from Catherine’s reign onwards become little better, frankly, than slaves. She owned a million and a half serfs. The difference between a serf and a slave, a slave is like an object. You can treat a slave like you would treat, I don’t know, an apple or a book or a carpet. You can kill them, you can rape them, you can do whatever you like. Serfs are tied to land. And if you sell the land, the serfs go with the land. The serfs have some rights. Slaves had no rights.
Her own reading. Her own meetings with the West and with Western ideas.