Catherine 2 came to power as a result of the unsuccessful reign of her husband Peter 3. Thanks to his short-sightedness, he ruled Russia for less than a year and fell victim to a palace coup. Catherine, who took his place, was many times smarter and more cunning. As for her reforms, she was originally going to give Russia completely new, progressive laws. However, her activities were limited to the nobility, who placed the empress in power. But still, some ideas of Catherine the Great were reflected in her reforms.
So, Catherine II began her reforms with the transformation of the Senate. The fact is that it was from this side that the danger came, undermining her power. Based on this, on December 15, 1763, a manifesto was issued on the transformation of the Senate. From that moment on, the senate lost all legislative power. But at the same time, his judicial powers remained. His executive power also remained.
With this role of the Senate, the importance of the Prosecutor General has risen significantly. Catherine appointed Vyazemsky to this position, who was her confidant. At that time, Vyazemsky was famous for hishonesty and incorruptibility. Thanks to this, he was entrusted with the affairs of the treasury, finance, justice, control and supervision. All provincial prosecutors were subordinate to him. But only the prosecutor general played such a significant role. The Senate itself was divided into six parts. Each was headed by its own Chief Prosecutor. The first department de alt with external and internal political affairs. However, this was only a legislative aspect - nothing more. The second was engaged in court cases in such an aspect as an appeal. Under the jurisdiction of the third were the western outskirts of the empire, education and the police. The fourth was in charge of maritime and military affairs. The fifth department, along with the sixth, were placed in Moscow. One handled court cases, the other was the Senate office.
It should be noted that Empress Catherine 2 began to carry out reforms exactly from what she should have done - she curbed the only legislative body that could significantly interfere with her rule.
Next comes the judicial reform of Catherine II and the provincial reform. All this can be safely attributed to the continuation of the undertakings of Peter 1. To begin with, instead of a three-member division of the empire into counties, provinces and provinces, a two-member division was introduced - into a county and a province. This was necessary for a significant improvement in judicial, supervisory and financial activities. At the same time, the provinces were enlarged.
First of all, Catherine 2 directed the reforms to improve the economic and political situation in the country. She was well aware thatin any other variant, what happened to her predecessor Peter 3 can happen to her.
However, due to her dependence on the nobility, she could not afford to improve the situation of the peasants. And from that they eventually began to raise uprisings. The most famous of them is the Pugachev uprising, which, by the way, showed that Empress Catherine II did not carry out reforms in the most proper way. First of all, this affected the provincial reform. After all, the country, divided into huge provinces, was very, very weakly controlled by the center. So after the uprising, a number of measures were taken to solve this problem.
