Nakaz, or
Instruction, of Catherine the Great was a statement of legal principles written by
Catherine II of Russia, and permeated with the ideas of the French
Enlightenment. It was compiled as a guide for the All-Russian Legislative Commission convened in 1767 for the purpose of replacing the mid-17th-century
Muscovite code of laws with a modern law code. Catherine believed that to strengthen law and institutions was above all else to strengthen the monarchy.