I often hear people making fun of Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” publicity stunt.

Today I was reminded that this certainly was not the first time a leader has made a great stroke of irony.

The self-proclaimed reformist of Russia, Catherine II, put forward an edict of “tolerance” that actually did a great deal to incite and build intolerance. DW World explains the situation back then:

Catherine’s reign was full of contradictions. The tolerance edict of June 17, 1773 expressly forbade all forms of religious persecution and serves as proof of her modern and liberal attitude. This law was of great benefit to the Old Believers, the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church which had been excommunicated following the Schism of 1666. In diametric contrast to this were the restrictions placed on the Jewish population. They were limited to designated areas of the western Czardom, which covered large parts of annexed Poland. From 1791 onwards, Jews there were ghettoized. Their social and religious activities could only be carried out in the designated zones.

The 1773 timing is important because the annexation of Poland by Russia began in 1772. Thus, her “tolerance” policies were apparently a means to push those who were not considered for tolerance into a less noticeable place.

You might say this is similar to removing signs of failure when reporting on a mission accomplished story. The space Catherine II was using for those she could not tolerate just so happened to be already full of forces motivated to fight and expand the influence of Catholicism. Twenty years later, or about 1791, those behind this Catholic movement had been subdued (despite assistance from France) and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned into foreign control zones (Russian as well as Austrian and Prussian).

The organization of ghettos and restrictions on social and religious freedom was thus the result of the Tolerance Edict for many Europeans. This set the stage for increased tension and ongoing intolerance.

The Whitehouse later tried to explain Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech really was in reference to the one ship he was standing on; it had accomplished its particular mission of hanging a large banner that said mission accomplished.

Perhaps if we could speak with Catherine II today she might argue something similar; that her idea of forbidding all forms of religious intolerance really meant only religions she approved of at the time, or even the few she thought tolerable, would be tolerated.