Russian Ruling in the Overseas Territories: the Archipelago Principality of Catherine the Great
During the reign of Catherine the Great Russia gained a chance to become a part of the Mediterranean world. In 1771-1774 inhabitants of more then 30 Aegean islands declared themselves to be “subjects” of the Russian empress. Russian naval commandment in Archipelago had an incomparable opportunity to create an administration, a system of taxation, even a Synod and a civil school, but their activity was marked by the Russian specific understanding of a “proper” European state.