Editing Denis Diderot (section)

===Back in France===
When returning, Diderot asked the Empress for 1,500 rubles as reimbursement for his trip. She gave him 3,000 rubles, an expensive ring, and an officer to escort him back to Paris. He wrote a eulogy in her honor upon reaching Paris.<ref name=RaR />{{rp|449}}

In 1766, when Catherine heard that Diderot had not received his annual fee for editing the ''Encyclopédie'' (an important source of income for the philosopher), she arranged for him to receive a massive sum of 50,000 livres as an advance for his services as her librarian.<ref name=":0" />

In July 1784, upon hearing that Diderot was in poor health, Catherine arranged for him to move into a luxurious suite in the ''Rue de Richelieu''. Diderot died two weeks after moving there—on 31 July 1784.<ref name=RaR />{{rp|893}}

Among Diderot's last works were notes "On the Instructions of her Imperial Majesty...for the Drawing up of Laws". This commentary on Russia included replies to some arguments Catherine had made in the [[Nakaz]].<ref name=RaR />{{rp|449}}<ref name="Furbank 1992 393"/> Diderot wrote that Catherine was certainly despotic, due to circumstances and training, but was not inherently tyrannical. Thus, if she wished to destroy despotism in Russia, she should abdicate her throne and destroy anyone who tries to revive the monarchy.<ref name="Furbank 1992 393">{{cite book|title=Diderot: A Critical Biography|author=P.N. Furbank|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|page=393|year=1992}}</ref> She should publicly declare that "there is no true sovereign other than the nation, and there can be no true legislator other than the people."<ref name="Furbank 1992 394">{{cite book|title=Diderot: A Critical Biography|author=P.N. Furbank|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|page=394|year=1992}}</ref> She should create a new Russian legal code establishing an independent legal framework and starting with the text: "We the people, and we the sovereign of this people, swear conjointly these laws, by which we are judged equally."<ref name="Furbank 1992 394"/> In the ''Nakaz'', Catherine had written: "It is for legislation to follow the spirit of the nation."<ref name="Furbank 1992 394"/> Diderot's rebuttal stated that it is for legislation to ''make'' the spirit of the nation. For instance, he argued, it is not appropriate to make public executions unnecessarily horrific.<ref name="Furbank 1992 394-5">{{cite book|title=Diderot: A Critical Biography|author=P.N. Furbank|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|pages=394–395|year=1992}}</ref>

Ultimately, Diderot decided not to send these notes to Catherine; however, they were delivered to her with his other papers after he died. When she read them, she was furious and commented that they were an incoherent gibberish devoid of prudence, insight, and verisimilitude.<ref name=RaR />{{rp|449}}<ref name="Furbank 1992 395">{{cite book|title=Diderot: A Critical Biography|author=P.N. Furbank|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|page=395|year=1992}}</ref>