the time to be a despot. Scherbatov's father was a governor-general of Moscow and a Rurikid prince. His belonging to the oldest of Russian families may explain Scherbatov's lifelong interest in the national history. In a series of articles published in 1759-61 he defended serfdom and upheld ancient privileges of nobility which had been repealed by Peter the Great. When elected by the nobility of Yaroslavl to represent their interests at the Legislative Assembly of 1767, Shcherbatov virulently slammed the existing institutions of the Russian Empire. He caught the attention of the Empress and was appointed imperial historian in 1768 and president of a ministry in 1778. He worked in the Senate from 1779 to 1786. Scherbatov's History of Russia from the Earliest Times, of which seven volumes appeared between 1771 and 1791, is imbued with rationalistic ideals of the Age of Reason. He thought that inequality was inherent to human nature and illustrated this tenet in the first Russian utopia, entitled Journey to the Land of Ophyr (1783). Scherbatov's final and probably most lasting work was a scathing attack on the contemporary social customs in the treatise On the Corruption of Morals in Russia, published in 1797. Shcherbatov as a historian and publicist In one of his most famous works "On the corruption of morals in Russia" Shcherbatov criticized the mass abuses committed by the authorities, such as bribery, embezzlement of public funds, servility, etc. There was also criticism of the methods of Peter the Great by which he promoted "obscure people" and in turn led to a state crisis. Yet, Shcherbatov tried to be unbiased and to show both the positive and negative sides of Peter's modernization. He wrote about changes made in Russia by Peter's reforms, drawing his attention not only to changes in political and military areas, but also in the field of culture, specifying that due to Europeanization, "in the matter of personal and certain other matters, one can say we truly enjoyed remarkable success and moved forward with giant steps to correcting how we appear to others". After the accession of Catherine II (who reigned as an Empress of Russia from 28 June 1762 until 1796), Shcherbatov participated in the Established Commission (1767–1771). He supported the elimination of cards on the Table of Ranks and the expansion of the rights of the Russian nobility. However, he was not a pure "court" ideologist, caring only