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The Imperal Succession. Expansion and Westernization.

© Alexander Batyukov

The Imperial Succession

Peter's impetuousness did not allow the new structure and patterns to congeal, and after his death (1725) instability plagued the new institutional setup. Having had his son, Alexis, tortured to death for alleged treason, Peter abolished the traditional practice of succession, declaring (1722) that the emperor could choose his successor. For the next half-century the throne was exposed to a series of palace coups instigated by cliques of favorites and dignitaries with the support of the Guards regiments. After the reign (1725-27) of Peter's widow, CATHERINE I, Peter II (r. 1727-30), ANNA (r. 1730-40), Ivan VI (r. 1740-41), ELIZABETH (r. 1741-62), and CATHERINE II (r. 1762-96), who supplanted her husband, PETER III, all came to the throne in this manner. The only serious attempt at limiting the power of the throne (1730), however, failed because of divisions among the nobility and their continued dependence on state service. The autocracy managed to keep the nobility in subordination by promoting the economic status of that class through salaries, gifts, and the extension of its legal rights over the serfs, particularly following the traumatic experience of the great peasant uprising (1773-75) under Yemelian PUGACHEV.

The government proved unable to regularize its structure and practices through a code of laws because it was feared that such a code would delegate power to impersonal institutions. Personalized authority was favored by most subjects, however, as a protection against abuses of officials and as a source of rewards.

The tension between a rational and automatic rule of law and a personalized authority was never resolved in imperial Russia.

Expansion and Westernization

Two important processes dominated the 18th century. The first was imperial expansion southward and westward. The southern steppe lands were gradually settled by Russians, and the autonomous local social groupings--especially the Cossacks (whose hetmanate in the Ukraine was abolished in 1764)--lost their status and were assimilated into Russian serf society. The process was formally completed by the Treaty of Kucuk Kainarji (1774), ending the first major RUSSO-TURKISH WAR, by which Russia secured the northern shore of the Black Sea, and by the annexation (1783) of the Crimea, which put an end to the nomadic threats from the southeast. By extending (1783) serfdom to the Ukraine the economic integration of that area with Russia was achieved, and its large, prosperous estates were soon able to feed a growing urban population and to export grain abroad.

The empire's expansion westward was the result of the Partitions of Poland (1772, 1792, 1795; ), which awarded Russia most of the eastern and central regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This expansion enhanced Russia's economic potential and brought it closer to western Europe, but it also burdened the empire with unsolvable national and religious problems and saddled it with onerous diplomatic, military, and police tasks.

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