Frasi di Caterina II di Russia

Caterina II di Russia , conosciuta come Caterina la Grande, fu imperatrice di Russia dal 1762 alla morte. Fu uno dei più significativi esempi di dispotismo illuminato.

Nata a Stettino, Sofia Federica Augusta di Anhalt-Zerbst venne data in sposa, sedicenne, all'erede al trono dell'Impero russo, il granduca Pietro Fëdorovič, futuro Pietro III di Russia. Con un colpo di Stato detronizzò il marito alla fine della Guerra dei sette anni. Sotto il suo regno, l'Impero russo accrebbe la sua potenza e visse uno dei periodi di maggior riconoscimento a livello europeo.

Volendo applicare al suo metodo di governo i principi illuministi, di cui era seguace, Caterina incominciò con la redazione di un nuovo codice ispirato alle idee degli enciclopedisti. Affidandosi ai suoi favoriti, in particolare a Grigorij Orlov e a Grigorij Potëmkin, ma anche assistita dal grande successo dei generali, come Pëtr Rumjancev e Aleksandr Suvorov, e ammiragli, come Fëdor Ušakov, espanse rapidamente l'egemonia russa: a ovest vi fu l'annessione del territorio maggiore, ottenuto dallo smembramento della Confederazione Polacco-Lituana; in seguito alle guerre russo-turche occupò la Crimea; all'estremo est incominciò la colonizzazione dell'Alaska.

Ammiratrice di Pietro il Grande, Caterina continuò a modernizzare la Russia occidentale, secondo le idee dell'assolutismo illuminato: s'interessò ai problemi dell'istruzione, fondando il primo istituto d'istruzione superiore femminile in Europa, delle finanze e della creazione di nuove cittadine fondate su suo ordine. Tuttavia la sua politica comportò un aumento del numero dei servi della gleba, con conseguente malcontento popolare e lo scoppio di numerose rivolte, represse violentemente, come quella guidata dal cosacco Pugačëv.

Nonostante queste ambiguità politiche, a causa dei suoi rapporti epistolari con vari filosofi illuministi, che ne elogiarono il governo, il periodo della dominazione di Caterina la Grande è considerato l'età d'oro dell'Impero russo.

Fu sepolta nella Cattedrale di San Pietro e Paolo a San Pietroburgo. Wikipedia  

✵ 21. Aprile 1729 – 17. Novembre 1796   •   Altri nomi Kateřina II. Ruská, Екатерина II Великая, Katharina II., die Große
Caterina II di Russia photo
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Caterina II di Russia Frasi e Citazioni

“Più l'uomo sa e più perdona.”

Origine: Citato in Selezione dal Reader's Digest, febbraio 1976.

Caterina II di Russia: Frasi in inglese

“A great wind is blowing and that either gives you imagination… or a headache.”

As quoted in Daughters of Eve (1930) by Gamaliel Bradford, p. 192
Variante: A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

“Equality requires Institutions so well adapted, as to prevent the Rich from oppressing those who are not so wealthy as themselves”

Proposals for a New Law Code (1768)
Contesto: The Equality of the Citizens consists in this; that they should all be subject to the same Laws.
This Equality requires Institutions so well adapted, as to prevent the Rich from oppressing those who are not so wealthy as themselves, and converting all the Charges and Employments intrusted to them as Magistrates only, to their own private Emolument.... <!-- Items 34 - 35

“You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.”

Letter to Denis Diderot, as quoted in The Affairs of Women : A Modern Miscellany (2006) by Colin Bingham

“The Grand Duke appeared to rejoice at the arrival of my mother and myself. I was in my fifteenth year. During the first ten days he paid me much attention. Even then and in that short time, I saw and understood that he did not care much for the nation that he was destined to rule, and that he clung to Lutheranism, did not like his entourage, and was very childish.”

Memoirs
Contesto: The Grand Duke appeared to rejoice at the arrival of my mother and myself. I was in my fifteenth year. During the first ten days he paid me much attention. Even then and in that short time, I saw and understood that he did not care much for the nation that he was destined to rule, and that he clung to Lutheranism, did not like his entourage, and was very childish. I remained silent and listened, and this gained me his trust. I remember him telling me that among other things, what pleased him most about me was that I was his second cousin, and that because I was related to him, he could speak to me with an open heart. Then he told me that he was in love with one of the Empress’s maids of honor, who had been dismissed from court because of the misfortune of her mother, one Madame Lopukhina, who had been exiled to Siberia, that he would have liked to marry her, but that he was resigned to marry me because his aunt desired it. I listened with a blush to these family confidences, thanking him for his ready trust, but deep in my heart I was astonished by his imprudence and lack of judgment in many matters.

“To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied”

Memoirs
Contesto: To tempt, and to be tempted, are things very nearly allied, and, in spite of the finest maxims of morality impressed upon the mind, whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of, and I have yet to learn how it is possible to prevent its being excited.
Flight alone is, perhaps, the only remedy; but there are cases and circumstances in which flight becomes impossible, for how is it possible to fly, shun, or turn one's back in the midst of a court? The very attempt would give rise to remarks. Now, if you do not fly, there is nothing, it seems to me, so difficult as to escape from that which is essentially agreeable. All that can be said in opposition to it will appear but a prudery quite out of harmony with the natural instincts of the human heart; besides, no one holds his heart in his hand, tightening or relaxing his grasp of it at pleasure. <!-- Appleton &Co., 1850 p. 280

“The Governing Senate... has deemed it necessary to make known… that the landlords' serfs and peasants... owe their landlords proper submission and absolute obedience in all matters, according to the laws that have been enacted from time immemorial by the autocratic forefathers of Her Imperial Majesty and which have not been repealed, and which provide that all persons who dare to incite serfs and peasants to disobey their landlords shall be arrested and taken to the nearest government office, there to be punished forthwith as disturbers of the public tranquillity, according to the laws and without leniency. And should it so happen that even after the publication of the present decree of Her Imperial Majesty any serfs and peasants should cease to give the proper obedience to their landlords... and should make bold to submit unlawful petitions complaining of their landlords, and especially to petition Her Imperial Majesty personally, then both those who make the complaints and those who write up the petitions shall be punished by the knout and forthwith deported to Nerchinsk to penal servitude for life and shall be counted as part of the quota of recruits which their landlords must furnish to the army. And in order that people everywhere may know of the present decree, it shall be read in all the churches on Sundays and holy days for one month after it is received and therafter once every year during the great church festivals, lest anyone pretend ignorance.”

Decree on Serfs (1767) as quoted in A Source Book for Russian History Vol. 2 (1972) by George Vernadsky

“I will live to make myself not feared.”

As quoted in The Historians' History of the World (1904) by Henry Smith Williams, p. 423

“Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.”

As quoted in And I Quote : The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker (1992) by Ashton Applewhite, Tripp Evans, and Andrew Frothingham, p. 278

“Your wit makes others witty.”

Letter to Voltaire, as quoted in Short Sayings of Great Men : With Historical and Explanatory Notes (1882) by Samuel Arthur Bent, and Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922) revised and enlarged by Kate Loise Roberts

“The more a man knows, the more he forgives.”

Widely attributed to Catherine II online, this has been attributed to Confucius in published books, but no print sources attribute this to Catherine.
Misattributed

“I like to praise and reward loudly, to blame quietly.”

As quoted in The Historians' History of the World (1904) by Henry Smith Williams, p. 423
As quoted in The Affairs of Women: A Modern Miscellany (2006) by Colin Bingham, p. 367
Variante: I praise loudly. I blame softly.

“A Society of Citizens, as well as every Thing else, requires a certain fixed Order: There ought to be some to govern, and others to obey.”

And this is the Origin of every Kind of Subjection; which feels itself more or less alleviated, in Proportion to the Situation of the Subjects.And, consequently, as the Law of Nature commands Us to take as much Care, as lies in Our Power, of the Prosperity of all the People; we are obliged to alleviate the Situation of the Subjects, as much as sound Reason will permit. And therefore, to shun all Occasions of reducing People to a State of Slavery, except the utmost Necessity should inevitably oblige us to do it; in that Case, it ought not to be done for our own Benefit; but for the Interest of the State: Yet even that Case is extremely uncommon. Of whatever Kind Subjection may be, the civil Laws ought to guard, on the one Hand, against the Abuse of Slavery, and, on the other, against the Dangers which may arise from it.
Proposals for a New Law Code (1768)

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