ABSTRACT
Believers in the theory of enlightened despotism thought that Russia was the ideal country in which to apply their ideas. For a discussion of the use of the terms autocracy and absolutism, it is necessary to see Isabel de Madariaga's, 'Autocracy and sovereignty' and Canadian-American Slavic Studies. There were no institutional limitations on the power of the ruler, who was even entitled to name his, or more often her, successor. Catherine set out her political theory in the famous Nakaz or Instruction, which she wrote for the Legislative Commission, summoned in 1767 to draft a Code of Laws for Russia. The clearest evidence of the influence of both Enlightenment and cameralist thought on Catherine is provided by the Instruction she wrote in 1765-68 to guide the Commission in its labours. Catherine II has on the whole been harshly treated by historians, particularly in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
