ABSTRACT
Catherine's II domestic policy was no simpler as far as its tasks were concerned than her foreign policy. The latter had to display the power of the empire and satisfy national feeling; the former had to display the brilliance of the government, consolidate the position of its proprietor, and reconcile antagonistic social interests. The Instruction taught that what must restrain people from crime is innate shame, not the lash of the government, and that if people are not ashamed of punishment and are restrained from vice only by brutal retributions, then a brutal government, which brutalizes people by inuring them to violence, is to blame. In the manifesto of July 6, a general reform of the government had been promised, and state institutions had been announced that would operate undeviatingly within the confines of the law. According to Catherine's II thinking, the purpose of law was to guide the subordinate organs of government.
