further the right to transfer serfs from one estate to another and, by one of Elizabeth's laws, even to exile delinquent serfs to Siberia and to fetch them back, while the government included these exiles in the number of recruits required from a given estate. The criminal code of 1754 listed serfs only under the heading of property of the gentry. Russian serfdom, although never quite the same as slavery and in the Russian case not concerned with race or ethnicity, came to approximate it closely, as demonstrated in the works of Kolchin and other scholars.
Russian foreign policy from Peter the Great to Catherine the Great followed certain clearly established lines. The first emperor, as we know, brought Russia forcefully into the community of European nations as a major power that was concerned with the affairs of the continent at large, not, as formerly, merely with the activities of its neighbors, such as Turkey, Poland, and Sweden. From the time of Peter the Great, permanent -
rather than only occasional - representatives were exchanged between Russia and other leading European states. Ostermann in the years immediately following the death of Peter the Great, and Bestuzhev-Riumin in the time of Elizabeth, together with lesser officials and diplomats, followed generally in the steps of Peter.
As Karpovich, to mention one historian, has pointed out, Russian foreign policy from 1726 to 1762, and immediately before and after that period, approached what has been called the checkerboard system: Russia was to a considerable degree an enemy of its neighbors and a friend of its neighbors' neighbors, with other relations affected by this basic pattern. France, for example, consistently remained an antagonist of Russia, because in its struggle for the mastery of the continent it relied on Turkey, Poland, and Sweden to envelop and weaken its arch- enemy, the Hapsburgs. France had maintained an alliance with Turkey from 1526, in the days of Suleiman the Magnificent; with Poland from 1573, when Henry of Valois was elected to the Polish throne; and with Sweden from the time of the Thirty Years' War in the early seventeenth century. Russia, of course, had repeatedly fought against the three eastern European allies of France.
Austria, ruled by the Hapsburgs, stood out, by contrast, as the most reliable Russian ally. The two states shared hostility toward France, and, more importantly for Russia, also toward Turkey and Sweden, which, beginning with its major intervention in the Thirty Years' War, acted repeatedly in Germany against the interests of the Hapsburgs. In Poland also both Russia and Austria found themselves opposed to the French party. The first formal alliance between the two eastern European monarchies was signed in 1726, and it remained, with certain exceptions, a cornerstone of Russian foreign policy until the Crimean War in mid-nineteenth century.
Prussia, the other leading German power, represented a threat to Russia rather than a potential ally. Prussia's rise to great power rank under Frederick the Great after 1740, together with Russia's rise under Peter the Great which had just preceded it, upset the political equilibrium in Europe. Bestuzhev-Riumin was one of the first continental statesmen to point to the Prussian menace. He worried especially about the Russian position on the Baltic, called Frederick the Great 'the sudden prince,' and spoke in a typically eighteenth-century doctrinaire manner of Russia's 'natural friends,' Austria and Great Britain, and its 'natural enemies,' France and Prussia. The hostile Russian attitude toward Prussia lasted, with some interruptions, until the time of Catherine the Great and the partitions of Poland which satisfied both monarchies and brought them together.
In the period under consideration, Great Britain could well be called a 'natural friend' of Russia. After the scare occasioned by the achievements of Peter the Great and his navy, no serious conflicts arose between the two until the last part of the century. On the contrary, Great Britain
valued Russia both as a counterweight to France and as a trade partner from which it obtained raw materials, including naval stores, in exchange for manufactured goods. Thus it is no surprise that Russia concluded its first modern commercial treaty with Great Britain.
In line with its interests and alliances, Russia participated in five wars between 1725 and 1762. In 1733-35 Russia and Austria fought against France in the War of the Polish Succession, which resulted in the defeat of the French candidate Stanislaw Leszczynski and the coronation of Augustus II's son as Augustus III of Poland. In 1736 -39 Russia, again allied to Austria, waged a war against Turkey who was supported by France. Munnich and other Russian commanders scored remarkable victories over the Ottoman forces. However, because of Austrian defeats and French mediation, Russia, after losing approximately 100,000 men, gained very little according to the provisions of the Treaty of Belgrade: a section of the steppe between the Donets and the Bug, and the right to retain Azov, captured during the war, on condition of razing its fortifications and promising not to build a fleet on the Black Sea. In 1741-43, Russia, supported by Austria, fought Sweden, who was supported by France. Sweden started the war to seek revenge, but was defeated, and by the Treaty of Abo ceded some additional Finnish territory to Russia.
In its new role as a great power Russia became involved also in wars fought away from its borders over issues not immediately related to Russian interests. Thus in 1746-48 she participated in the last stages of the War of the Austrian Succession, begun in 1740 when Frederick the Great seized Silesia from Austria. That conflict saw Bestuzhev-Riumin's theory of alliances come true: Russia joined Austria and Great Britain against Prussia and France. The Russian part in this war proved to be, however, entirely inconsequential.
A much greater importance must be attached to the Russian intervention in the Seven Years' War, 1756-63, fought again largely over Silesia. The conflict was preceded by the celebrated diplomatic revolution of 1756 which saw France ally itself with its traditional enemy Austria, while Prussia turned for support to Great Britain. In the war Russia joined Austria, France, Sweden, and Saxony against Prussia, Great Britain, and Hanover. Yet it should be noted that Russia never declared war on Great Britain and that she found it natural to aid Austria against Prussia, so that in the case of the empire of the tsars the diplomatic revolution had a rather narrow meaning. Russian armies participated in great battles, such as those of Zorndorf and Kunersdorf, and in 1760 Russian troops even briefly held Berlin. Moreover, Russia and its allies managed to drive Prussia to the brink of collapse. Only the death of Empress Elizabeth early in 1762, and the accession to the throne of Peter III, who admired Frederick the Great, saved the Prussian king. Russia withdrew without any compensation from
the war and made an alliance with Prussia, which in turn was discontinued when Catherine the Great replaced Peter III.
Although Russian foreign policy between 1725 and 1762 has been severely criticized for its cost in men and money, its meddling in European affairs which had no immediate bearing on Russia, and its alleged sacrifice of national interests to those either of Austria or of the 'German party' at home, these criticisms on the whole are not convincing. In its new role Russia could hardly disengage itself from major European affairs and conflicts. In general Russian diplomats successfully pursued the interests of their country, and the wars themselves brought notable gains, for example, the strengthening of the Russian position in Poland and the defeat of the Swedish challenge, even though Peter III did write off in a fantastic manner the opportunities produced by the Seven Years' War. Catherine the Great would continue the basic policies of her predecessors. Militarily the Russians acquitted themselves well. The Russian army, reorganized, improved, and tempered in the wars, scored its first major victories against Turkey in 1736-39, and played its first major part in the heart of Europe in the course of the Seven Years' War. Such famous commanders as Peter Rumiantsev and Alexander Suvorov began their careers in this interim period between two celebrated reigns.
XXII
THE REIGNS OF CATHERINE THE GREAT, 1762-96, AND PAUL, 1796-1801
Long live the adorable Catherine!
What interest, therefore, could the young German princess take in that
