• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.37
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• pp.131-156
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• 2014

This article attempts to explore the literature of Catherine the second, focusing on her comedies in the light of anti-freemasonry in the late 18th-centuryof Russia. Her main idea towards social morals was consistently expressed from in her early comedies during 1770s, such as 'Oh! times!'(1772), to her late counterparts during 1880s, such as so called 'anti-freemason trilogy,' which includes 'the deceiver'(1785), 'the deceived one'(1785) and 'Siberian shaman'(1786). By depicting antagonists-freemasons in her own trilogy, only as alchemists, shamans, fallacious chemists, hypocritical medical doctors, and so on, Caterine the second intended to undermine the mason influence against Russian Empire, which had ideationally attracted Russian nobles and intellectuals and furthermore to reinforce her political control over the intellectuals as well as the public. The above literacy attempts by Catherine can be said to aim to found morals of her own era through the utilization of social discourse, rather than through the political or governmental control.