While I was teaching class one day, one of my students unexpectedly blurted out and asked, "Mrs. White, why are we learning this? We are never going to need it." I did not know how to respond to the caustic response from the student, so I was relieved when the bell rang. The teenagers happily rose up from their chairs and exited the classroom. I remained at my desk while I tried to answer the question asked by the student before class had ended. As usual, I taught the rest of my classed and then went home to grade papers.
I enjoy working as a teacher because I am able to share my knowledge about history, but every morning before I leave for work, the same thoughts enter my mind. My life is boring and none of my students appreciate all of the work I do that is intended for their benefit. A similar routine comes to pass every day when I wake up: I take a shower, get ready, dress myself, drive to work, and sit alone in my vacuous classroom until the students arrive.
That day in my history class, we were studying Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia who reigned from 1762 until her death in 1796. She was ranked second in Russia during her rein because she learned to speak Russian (Dixon), converted to the Russian Orthodox religion in 1744 after being born a protestant (McGuire 79), and made various medical advances in Russia (Kallen 176). Catherine lead the way in Russia for vaccinations to control the smallpox epidemic, the most deadly disease in children at the time (Coughlan 199). Although she was an effective empress, the conditions of peasants in Russia did not improve. In fact, they became worse when about 200,000 peasants began working in dangerous mines. Many people throughout Russia complained about corruption because these peasants, working in terrible conditions, were being tortured and punished for even the minor offences (McGuire 72). Although I worked sedulously to make history as interesting to my students as possible, I repeatedly observed indifferent expressions on their faces in class.
As I was graded, I was taken aback when I saw how little the students had absorbed from the lessons in class. The papers written by my students were incorrigible. They could not name the rulers of the time; let alone what they did and how they affected Russia. I wished that I could go back in time to Russia to view firsthand what life was like for Catherine the Great during the time she was ruling. I attempted to keep my eyes open paper after paper, but almost immediately fell asleep with a stack of un-graded papers remaining on my lap.
When I awoke, the surroundings were different from my bedroom. I looked around and was surprised when I saw a picture of Catherine the Great on the wall directly above the bed where I had woken up. The room was large and prodigally decorated (Torchinsky 90), but still, it gave no more clues as to my whereabouts. I had to do some more exploring.
Outside my bedroom was a long hallway with more rooms that were similar to mine. The gold painted ceilings were high, and statues were located around nearly every corner (90). Unexpectedly, I ran into a young girl who was equally surprised to see me.
She asked, "Where are you going doctor?" I did not know how to respond, so I forced myself to cough avoiding the question. I walked away pretending not to hear the girl and did not look back.
When I walked outside, I began to recognize where I was. I had shown my students pictures of this marvelous palace last week in class. I was at the winter Palace where Catherine stayed in St. Petersburg, Russia. Catherine had lived there and made it into the remarkable capital city it was (Halsall). Bartolomeo Rastelli, a prominent Italian architect that had come to Russia when he was a boy, built this palace. (Torchinsky 90). Now I understood why so much artwork was placed inside the palace. Catherine the Great collected art in her later years, including paintings done by the all the greatest artists like Fyodor Rokotov. She did not collect the art out of personal desire, but instead to show and gain respect for Russia. She built the imperial art collection up from about a dozen pieces to almost four thousand (Coughlan 204). What I did not understand was why the women were dressed in loose, bell-shaped dresses with flowing sleeves of silk (King 244), and the men were dressed in cotton shirts, leather boots, and black felt hats. As they walked past me, I wondered why they were dressed as if they were from the 1700s (246).
A woman turned around in front of me, and suddenly, I understood why people were dressed the way they were. The woman facing me was Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia (Dixon). When I caught the glimpse of her, my jaw dropped in amazement. I must have gone back in time when I fell asleep. I approached her slowly and she spoke.
"Hello doctor. How are you?"
I responded, "Good madam, may I ask what year it is?"
She laughed and answered, "The year is 1789, you did not know? The French Revolution began months ago (Chubarov 202)." When she said this, my heart dropped. Catherine had already built many schools (Kallen 176), and introduced religious tolerance to Russia (Raeff 130). She had also persuaded many people to move to Russia using advertisements in foreign newspapers offering exceptionally appealing conditions (Kallen 171), and had expanded Russia to the shores of the Black Sea, gaining portions of Poland and Ukraine at the same time. (Wren 208). I smiled when I thanked her and began to walk back to my room.
In the palace, I saw many young men and women that must have been Catherine's serfs. She had many of them, and gave even more away to nobility as gifts (McGuire 71). On the way back to my room, I spotted the girl I had avoided earlier, and stopped to talk to her. I apologized about our earlier encounter and then asked her if she could answer some questions for me. She told me about how Catherine had become a stricter ruler, and had reversed some of her ideas of enlightenment after the start of the French Revolution. One aspect she had become especially stern with was serfdom (Dixon). She had granted landowners more power than they already had over their serfs (Halsall).
She was married at the age of sixteen to Peter the third who was the heir to Russia's throne (Coughlan 63). Her husband died years later on July 9, 1762 soon after Catherine took part in overthrowing him as emperor (Coughlan 99) so she could take his place as Empress of Russia (McGuire 23). She believed that one person should possess all power, and she thought that she should be the individual to have it (Halsall). I thanked the girl for the information and asked for her name. She told me her name was Anna, and that she must return back to work so that she would not be punished for speaking with me (Torchinsky 84).
I changed into a clean dress and went into town in one of the palace's many carriages. The carriage was uncomfortable because of its lack of ventilation and cushions (King 269). The main street was filled with peasants and separated into two large squares (Raeff 107). One square was devoted to administrative buildings, and the second square was comprised of shops (Kallen 144) that sold cotton, silk, tobacco, silver, and tea, among other goods that were imported from China (Dixon). Russia exported linen, leather, furs, and timber to other parts of the world (Dixon). After incorporating these new goods into Russia's trade, the deficit left by Elizabeth was soon paid off (Kallen 173).
The enormous churches I saw had large extravagant columns, and were built for beauty over function (Dixon). Catherine's husband Peter chose to seize all of the churches property and declare it as state property. He did this because hated the lavish and ritualistic aspects of the Russian Orthodox religion, but his wife highly disapproved (McGuire 14). In this religion, God was portrayed as a part of the household instead of being an all-powerful individual. A small religious painting called an icon was always hung in the best room of the house. Family portraits were then hung around the icon (McGuire 35). Christianity came to Russia during the 10th Century, and then divided into two denominations: Catholic and Orthodox. In the Greek language, the word "orthodox" means "doctrines that are held as right or true (Torchinsky 73)."
I also saw elementary and secondary private schools that Catherine had built (Kallen 176), but the children exiting were not peasants, but children from wealthy families. Because of the low economic level (Raeff 90) due to the population increase (89), poor children could not afford to pay the tuition, making it impossible for them to attend school (Kallen 176). Wealthy Russian families also hired French tutors for their children, brought in by Catherine to improve their education (Grey 203).
Off in the distance, I could see fields of cotton, tobacco, and tea. Catherine brought in experts from all over the world to study the soil and suggest crops fitting to the location. The techniques aided the growing of crops, but many farmers could not afford the changes, so Catherine issued grants to landowners to increase crop production. In nearby fields, sheep, horses, and cattle grazed as they matured for breeding (Kallen 170).
I did not want to stay out late, so I returned to the carriage so I could be taken back to the palace. As I entered, I heard a muffled argument through a closed door near my room. The altercation was distorted and was challenging to understand as it traveled through the walls of the palace. Catherine was yelling at a member of her court because he had questioned her policies (Dixon). She stormed out of the room and plowed through a group of serfs standing in the hall. I absconded to my room when I heard her roaring Russian obscenities once more (Halsall). This time she was talking to Anna, the girl I spoke to earlier.
The French Revolution made Catherine rethink the liberal ideas from philosophers like Voltaire (Coughlan 316). She now believed that these ideas, the same ones she was previously devoted to, had contributed to the revolution, and the death and violence that had arisen from it (McGuire 98). She had turned into a bitter, dogmatic, and conservative ruler, and she punished anyone who went against her (Dixon).
Her bitterness and rejection of ideas regarding enlightenment were hurting Russia as a whole, and she needed something to help her relax. If Catherine was more relaxed, she would not be as influenced by the effects of the French Revolution on Russia, which would prevent her from reversing her liberal ideas. As her doctor, I would be able to give her prescription medication and have her feel safe taking it.
During the night, I awoke in my own bed. It was not yet morning and I was certainly confused. I slowly rolled out of bed and shuffled to my bathroom to splash some water on my face. The water did not mitigate my confusion. Unexpectedly, something fell off the bathroom counter and landed on my foot. When I turned on the light, I saw that my bottle of Valium had fallen onto the ground. Right then, I knew what I could give Catherine to relax her.
Valium is a drug that relieves anxiety with the active ingredient of diazepam, and Leo Sternbach, a well-known chemist, invented it in 1963 (Herper). It works by acting on GABA receptors in the brain, releasing the neurotransmitter also called GABA. Diazepam increases the production of GABA in the brain, causing a calming or drowsy effect.
I have been taking Valium for years because of my epilepsy, but I knew that the drug was also used to alleviate depression and severe anxiety (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists). I reached into the cabinet, grabbed about a six-month supply of Valium, and moved the bottles to the nightstand beside my bed. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep again. When I opened my eyes, I once again saw the gold painted room in Catherine's palace (Torchinsky 90). The bottles of Valium lined the table alongside the bed I laid in.
Little light was coming through the opaque windows in my room as I dressed. I picked up the pill bottles and emptied their contents into a cloth bag that I had found in a drawer in my room, and then set off to speak with Catherine. Hearing her voice was easy as she spoke loudly and forcefully at a servant in a nearby room (McGuire 10). When I knocked on the large door, I heard shuffling of feet to the door, and when it opened, Catherine's face appeared in front of me. With a dominant tone of voice, she asked to speak in a different room, and she closed the door behind her. We entered a room with a great deal of artwork, and even higher ceilings than those in my room.
I asked her how she was feeling, and she replied, "Doctor, I could be doing better, but at my age, I guess that I am doing well. The Revolution is certainly making many aspects of my duties more difficult because of the criticism from the people of my country (Dixon)."
After hearing what Catherine had said, I replied, "Madam, I have brought medicine that will lessen the stress that has been troubling you."
Catherine looked relieved at the thought of such a drug, and she extended her arm, palm-up, for me to hand it to her. After examining the tablets for a moment, she slipped away from the room. She soon returned with a glass of water, and took one of the pills. I explicitly explained to her that she was to take one pill twice a day, and that they could be taken with or without food. I also advised her not to skip any doses, and to not double up if one was missed (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists). I left the bag of pills with her, and she thanked me for my help.
That day, the palace was empty, so once more, I took a carriage into town. Many roads and bridges lined the city. St. Petersburg did not possess an accurate map until Catherine sent a clerk to the Academy of Science to buy the latest map of Russia (Kallen 170). In 1764, Catherine issued a decree to all governors and generals in Russia that commanded them to map their provinces, and accurately count the citizens who lived there, and ensure the safety of everyone. This also meant fighting fires, and road and bridge repairs were the responsibility of the governors and generals (Dixon). That night, I saw something that I had not seen before; factories were blended into the other buildings in the far distance. They produced textile and steel. During Catherine's reign, the number of factories increased from about one thousand to three thousand in number. This happened because of the decree she issued in 1762, declaring that any person could build a new factory, except in the two capitals because they were already overcrowded (Raeff 101).
Soon after, I returned to the palace. I was tired from the lack of sleep the night before, and from my time-consuming talk with Catherine. Though it was not late, I crawled into bed and promptly fell asleep. I was not surprised when I woke up in my own bed the next day, but I was surprised when I awoke there two mornings in a row. It was a Sunday, the last day to grade the papers, and as I graded, I noticed something peculiar. The papers turned in by the students corroborated with one another, but had incorrect information.
Immediately, I grabbed my laptop and pulled my lesson plans up on the screen. When I saw that the information on the student's papers was correct, I was astonished. The lesson plan told of the many accomplishments Catherine had made, but added to the list was the abolishment of serfdom, and the improvement of conditions for peasants in Russia. Serfs gained back their freedom, and landowners no longer had the right to buy and sell them like property. The French Revolution had affected her considerably less, and because of that, Catherine reintroduced ideas of enlightenment that she had once rejected after believing that those ideas contributed to the bloody revolution.
The explanation of her newfound calm demeanor was credited to the medication that her doctor had given her to relieve her anxiety. The type of medication was never identified, for Catherine's doctor died days after giving it to her. The medication rarefied Catherine's stress level substantially; however, the withdrawal from the medication caused her to feel drowsy, but this side effect did not last long.
I returned to grading papers. Since the assignments were accurate, I modified my grading to the new information that I had learned hours before. I had changed history in a positive way, and I was pleased to have done so. I returned to my class on Monday, and the students seemed more interested in the history of Russia because of the change that had been made by me.