On 18 August 1795, Catherine grants approximately 100,000 serfs to favored nobles in a single day, illustrating the scale of serfdom under her reign.
On 18 August 1795, Catherine II granted approximately 100,000 serfs to favored courtiers, generals, and officials in a single day, as part of her longstanding practice of rewarding loyal service with grants of populated land. This single event exemplifies the vast scale on which serfs—essentially treated as property tied to land—were redistributed among the Russian nobility during her reign.
Throughout her 34-year rule, Catherine granted an estimated 800,000 to one million state peasants into private serfdom, dramatically expanding the institution even as she engaged with Enlightenment philosophers who questioned the morality of such systems. This contradiction between her professed Enlightenment ideals and the realities of her domestic policy has been a central focus of historical scholarship on her reign.
The scale of grants like this one in August 1795 underscores how central serfdom remained to the Russian economic and social order, and how thoroughly Catherine relied on the nobility's loyalty, which she secured partly through such grants, to maintain her rule. While she considered and even drafted proposals for ameliorating the condition of serfs early in her reign, political realities and her dependence on noble support meant serfdom not only persisted but expanded significantly under her governance. This event stands as a stark reminder of the human cost underlying the grandeur and modernization often associated with her reign.