This is a rare case where the apple falls quite far from the tree. These varying viewpoints lead him to have both liberal and radical ideas. However, out of these viewpoints, Catherine plays a paramount role. .
Catherine the Great had a brilliant vision for Russia to bring prosperity, order, and justice to her vast empire, seeking to develop a national culture to rival Europe's great capitals. Ruling from 1762 to 1796, Catherine had made plans to free the millions of indentured serfs controlled by corrupt Russian nobleman, while also expanding Russian borders into Poland and the Ottoman Empire. Abolishing serfdom is an extreme change in Russian domestic affairs. Although it was never set in stone, the thought and plans to abolish it, was of paramount importance to move Russia out of their older regime. Catherine was attracted to the French Enlightenment, keeping herself connected with great French minds like Voltaire and Montesquieu. Voltaire summed Catherine up in two words calling her a "benevolent despot," meaning an absolutist monarch molded by the philosophies of the Enlightenment. Rightfully named, she expanded culture and art, by building new schools, hospitals, founded the Hermit-Age (a famous art museum in St, Petersburg), granting the people freedom of speech and press, the right to private property, and the freedom of religion. Catherine had imitated a French society in the 19th century. Her "Instructions for the Legislative Commission" in 1767 seemed to mirror the works of French thinker Montesquieu. She and the Russian people closely watched the events in of the French Revolution and celebrated when news was heard of the fall of the Bastille. Catherine had a great European mindset, however, never really followed through with her goals. Nonetheless, these progressive and new ideas that shifted away from medieval Russia is the lifestyle that shaped and taught Alexander.
