SOURCE: Jones, W. Gareth. “The Spirit of the Nakaz: Catherine II's Literary Debt to Montesquieu.” Slavonic and East European Review 76, No. 4 (1998): 655-71.

In this essay, Jones considers the influence of Montesquieu's L'Esprit des lois on Catherine's instructions to the legislature, the Nakaz. Jones notes Catherine's direct appropriations from the French philosopher's writings as well as similarities in prose style. More broadly, Jones argues that the widely read Nakaz was part of a long-term Enlightenment trend distinguishing true “literature” from other forms of writing.

On 14 December 1766 Catherine the Great issued a manifesto summoning deputies representing all communities within her Empire to meet in order to air their problems and to participate in the drafting of a new code of laws. Following elections in the spring of 1767, the proposed Legislative Commission held its inaugural meeting on 30 July 1767. Once it had elected Aleksandr Bibikov as its presiding Marshal, the Commission devoted...