SOURCE: Haslip, Joan. “‘Les Philosophes.’” In Catherine the Great, pp. 160-69. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977.

In the following excerpt, Haslip focuses on Catherine's relationship with Voltaire, noting that Catherine's correspondence with him and other French philosophers demonstrates the challenges she faced in negotiating between her Western-influenced ideals and the traditions of Russia.

Catherine's correspondence with Voltaire, a man thirty-five years her senior, the doyen of the philosophes and the most widely read writer in Europe, was inspired by a mixture of hero-worship, expediency and a passionate desire for fame. Voltaire was a name to conjure with. One mention from his pen placed one among the immortals; even his criticism was preferable to being ignored. In order to curry favour with the patriarch of Ferney, the Autocrat of all the Russias, the head of the Orthodox church, proclaimed herself in her letters as Voltairian in philosophy and a sceptic...