Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

[cahn]

We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!

Comments

Re: The Pugachev Rebellion

[cahn]

Pugachev promised to free the peasants and exterminate the nobles. It was basically the Russian Revolution or French Revolution avant la lettre.

Wow! Although it seems like it never really got all that far...

The empress then wrote to Voltaire attributing “this freakish event” to the fact that the Orenburg region “is inhabited by all the good-for-nothings of whom Russia has thought fit to rid herself over the past forty years, rather in the same spirit that the American colonies have been populated.”

I laughed!

“Why does he call himself Tsar Peter?” the Don Cossacks asked. “He is Emelyan Pugachev, the farmer, who deserted his wife Sophia and his children.”

Well then!

Fritz faced this same problem when trying to end feudalism and by and large came to the same "keep myself in power by supporting the nobles" conclusion; Joseph made opposite choices and had to claw back most of his reforms. Leopold died too soon.

Hm. Was there anyone who didn't come to this conclusion (besides Leopold)?