ABSTRACT
In Catherine's II entire reign, not one physician received a scholarly diploma that is, passed the examination. Lectures were given in French or Latin. The upper nobility was unwilling to attend the university. One contemporary says that, not only was it impossible to learn anything there, but one might even lose the respectable manners acquired at home. Noble self-government, in Catherine's II reign, managed to lose any serious significance and became a caricature mocked by the other classes of society and in literature. Noble elections became an arena for intrigues among relatives and friends, and noble assemblies, a school for idle talk and rhetoric. Under Catherine II, neither form of instruction was required neither navigational science nor drilling in etiquette because compulsory service itself was not required. Only people of Catherine's II time could have begun with Voltaire and ended with a pet rat. The Voltairean of Catherine's II day was cheerful, and that was all.
