1785 in Russia

Incumbents

• Monarch – Catherine II

Events

• Babolovo Palace completed
• Battle of the Sunja - Russian defeat in Chechen uprising led by Sheikh Mansur
• Billings Expedition authorized to search for the Northeast Passage
• Caucasus Viceroyalty (1785–96) established
• Charter to the Gentry codified rights of nobility
• City Dumas established in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other cities by imperial decree
• Great Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade opened in Saint Petersburg
• Hermitage Theatre opened
• Odigitrievsky Cathedral completed
• Trinity Church, Pervitino founded

Births

• Stepan Nikitich Begichev - soldier and memoirist
• Dmitry Bludov - government official and writer
• Nikolai Islenev - general
• Stepan Khilkov - general
• Dorothea Lieven - noblewoman, socialite
• Elena Aleksandrovna Naryshkina - noblewoman
• Lev Naryshkin - general
• Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya - noblewoman, philanthropist
• Konstantin von Benckendorff - diplomat and general
• Hans Karl von Diebitsch - general

Deaths

• Praskovya Bruce - lady-in-waiting and confidant of Catherine the Great
• Ivan Firsov - painter
• Ivan Grigorovich-Barsky - architect