Editing Catherine the Great (section)

=== Serfs ===
{{see also|Serfdom in Russia}}
According to a census taken from 1754 to 1762, Catherine owned 500,000 serfs. A further 2.8&nbsp;million belonged to the Russian state.{{sfn|Massie|2011|p=302}}

==== Rights and conditions ====
[[File:Supplice du Grand Knout.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Punishment with a [[knout]]]]
At the time of Catherine's reign, the landowning noble class owned the serfs, who were bound to the land they tilled. Children of serfs were born into serfdom and worked the same land their parents had. Even before the rule of Catherine, serfs had very limited rights, but they were not exactly slaves. While the state did not technically allow them to own possessions, some serfs were able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for their freedom.{{sfn|Wirtschafter|1998|p=564}} The understanding of law in [[Imperial Russia]] by all sections of society was often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most serfs lived. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as to accumulate wealth. To become serfs, people conceded their freedoms to a landowner in exchange for their protection and support in times of hardship. In addition, they received land to till, but were taxed a certain percentage of their crops to give to their landowners. These were the privileges a serf was entitled to and that nobles were bound to carry out. All of this was true before Catherine's reign, and this is the system she inherited.

Catherine did initiate some changes to serfdom. If a noble did not live up to his side of the deal, the serfs could file complaints against him by following the proper channels of law.{{sfn|de Madariaga|1974|pp=48–51}} Catherine gave them this new right, but in exchange they could no longer appeal directly to her. She did this because she did not want to be bothered by the peasantry, but did not want to give them reason to revolt. In this act, she gave the serfs a legitimate bureaucratic status they had lacked before.{{sfn|Wirtschafter|1998|pp=563–564}} Some serfs were able to use their new status to their advantage. For example, serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs.{{sfn|Wirtschafter|1998|pp=565–567}} Some serfs did apply for freedom and were successful. In addition, some governors listened to the complaints of serfs and punished nobles, but this was by no means universal.

Other than these, the rights of a serf were very limited. A landowner could punish his serfs at his discretion, and under Catherine the Great gained the ability to sentence his serfs to hard labour in Siberia, a punishment normally reserved for convicted criminals.{{sfn|de Madariaga|1974|pp=42–46}} The only thing a noble could not do to his serfs was to kill them. The life of a serf belonged to the state. Historically, when the serfs faced problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters), they often appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine's reign, but she signed legislation prohibiting it.{{sfn|de Madariaga|1974|pp=48–51}} Although she did not want to communicate directly with the serfs, she did create some measures to improve their conditions as a class and reduce the size of the institution of serfdom. For example, she took action to limit the number of new serfs; she eliminated many ways for people to become serfs, culminating in the manifesto of 17 March 1775, which prohibited a serf who had once been freed from becoming a serf again.{{sfn|de Madariaga|1974|p=35}}

While the majority of serfs were farmers bound to the land, a noble could have his serfs sent away to learn a trade or be educated at a school as well as employ them at businesses that paid wages.{{sfn|Wirtschafter|1998|p=567}} This happened more often during Catherine's reign because of the new schools she established. Only in this way—apart from conscription to the army—could a serf leave the farm for which he was responsible, but this was used for selling serfs to people who could not own them legally because of absence of nobility abroad.[[File:Перов Суд Пугачева (ГИМ).jpg|thumb|Captured Russian officials and aristocrats being tried by [[Yemelyan Pugachev|Pugachev]]]]

==== Attitudes towards Catherine ====
[[File:An Imperial stride! (BM 1868,0808.6035).jpg|thumb|A [[satire]] on Catherine's morals and on the [[#Russo-Turkish Wars|Russo-Turkish war]], from 1791]]
The attitude of the serfs toward their autocrat had historically been a positive one.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Field|first1=Daniel|title=Rebels in the Name of the Tsar|date=1976|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-395-21986-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNhoAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
However, if the empress' policies were too extreme or too disliked, she was not considered the true empress. In these cases, it was necessary to replace this "fake" empress with the "true" empress, whoever she may be. Because the serfs had no political power, they rioted to convey their message. However, usually, if the serfs did not like the policies of the empress, they saw the nobles as corrupt and evil, preventing the people of Russia from communicating with the well-intentioned empress and misinterpreting her decrees.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mamonova|first1=Natalia|title=Naive Monarchism and Rural Resistance In Contemporary Russia|journal=Rural Sociology|volume=81|issue=3|date=2016|pages=316–342|doi=10.1111/ruso.12097|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297408651|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref> However, they were already suspicious of Catherine upon her accession because she had annulled an act by Peter III that essentially freed the serfs belonging to the Orthodox Church.{{sfn|Raeff|1972b|p=170}} Naturally, the serfs did not like it when Catherine tried to take away their right to petition her because they felt as though she had severed their connection to the autocrat, and their power to appeal to her. Far away from the capital, they were confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the throne.<ref>{{harvnb|Madariaga|1981|pp=239–255}}</ref>

The peasants were discontented because of many other factors as well, including crop failure, and epidemics, especially a major [[Plague Riot|epidemic in 1771]]. The nobles were imposing a stricter rule than ever, reducing the land of each serf and restricting their freedoms further beginning around 1767.{{sfn|Raeff|1972b|pp=166–169}} Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during [[Pugachev's Rebellion]] of 1774. The serfs probably followed someone who was pretending to be the true empress because of their feelings of disconnection to Catherine and her policies empowering the nobles, but this was not the first time they followed a pretender under Catherine's reign.{{sfn|Raeff|1972b|p=171}}

Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real emperor should, helping the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very conservative values, to his cause.{{sfn|Raeff|1972b|pp=171–172}} With all this discontent in mind, Catherine did rule for 10 years before the anger of the serfs boiled over into a rebellion as extensive as Pugachev's. The rebellion ultimately failed and in fact backfired as Catherine was pushed away from the idea of serf liberation following the violent uprising. Under Catherine's rule, despite her enlightened ideals, the serfs were generally unhappy and discontented.