Power Without A Nations Confidence Is

This line comes from Catherine the Great's Nakaz (Instruction to the Legislative Commission), Article 15, published in 1767. The Nakaz was an ambitious document of over 600 articles, drawing on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and other Enlightenment sources, intended to guide the reform of Russian law. The claim that power depends on the nation's confidence reflects Catherine's Enlightenment-influenced theory of legitimate authority — though critics observed that Russia's political reality, including the suppression of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773–75, showed autocratic power operating with or without popular consent.