Editing Catherine the Great (section)

=== Religious affairs ===
[[File:Katharina II., die Große.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Catherine II in the Russian national costume]]

Catherine's apparent embrace of all things Russian (including Orthodoxy) may have prompted her personal indifference to religion. She nationalised all of the church lands to help pay for her wars, largely emptied the monasteries, and forced most of the remaining clergymen to survive as farmers or from fees for baptisms and other services. Very few members of the nobility entered the church, which became even less important than it had been. She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution.<ref name="madariaga111">{{harvnb|Madariaga|1981|pp=111–122}}</ref>

However, in accord with her anti-Ottoman policy, Catherine promoted the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule. She placed strictures on Catholics (''[[Ukase|ukaz]]'' of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland.<ref name=newadvent>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13253a.htm|title=The Religion of Russia|access-date=24 March 2007|archive-date=6 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206202239/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13253a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, although Catholic parishes were allowed to retain their property and worship, Papal oversight of parishes was restricted to only theology. In its stead, Catherine appointed a Catholic bishop (later raising the position to archbishop) of Mohylev to administer all Catholic churches in her territory.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kollmann |first1=Nancy Shields |authorlink=Nancy Shields Kollmann |title=The Russian Empire 1450-1801 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199280513 |page=404}}</ref> Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for regrouping to the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] following the [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus|suppression of the Jesuits]] in most of Europe in 1773.<ref name=newadvent />

==== Islam ====
{{See also|Islam in Russia}}
[[File:Башкирские казаки в Европе.jpg|thumb|[[Bashkirs|Bashkir]] riders from the Ural steppes]]
Catherine took many different approaches to Islam during her reign. She avoided force and tried persuasion (and money) to integrate Muslim areas into her empire.{{sfn|Fisher|1968}} Between 1762 and 1773, Muslims were prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs. They were pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives. Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts, if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy. However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith. This commission promised to protect their religious rights, but did not do so. Many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure.

Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it when public outcry became too disruptive. After the "Toleration of All Faiths" Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build [[mosque]]s and practise all of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to [[Mecca]], which previously had been denied. Catherine created the [[Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly]] to help regulate Muslim-populated regions as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government as a way of regulating religious affairs.{{sfn|Fisher|1968|pp=546–548}}
[[File:Russian Empire 1792 Map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Russian Empire in 1792]]
In 1785, Catherine approved the subsidising of new mosques and new town settlements for Muslims. This was another attempt to organise and passively control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people who wandered through southern Russia. In 1786, she assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school system under government regulation. The plan was another attempt to force nomadic people to settle. This allowed the Russian government to control more people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of Russian law.{{sfnm|Madariaga|1981|1pp=508–511|Fisher|1968|2p=549}}

==== Judaism ====
{{See also|History of the Jews in Russia}}
Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Although the government knew that Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of what a Jew is because the term meant many things during her reign.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|p=505}}</ref> Judaism was a small, if not non-existent, religion in Russia until 1772. When Catherine agreed to the [[First Partition of Poland]], the large new Jewish element was treated as a separate people, defined by their religion. Catherine separated the Jews from Orthodox society, restricting them to the [[Pale of Settlement]]. She levied additional taxes on the followers of Judaism; if a family converted to the Orthodox faith, that additional tax was lifted.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|pp=506–507}}</ref> Jewish members of society were required to pay double the tax of their Orthodox neighbours. Converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and farm as free peasants under Russian rule.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|p=507}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Madariaga|1981|pp=504–508}}</ref>

In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia's economy, Catherine included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|p=511}}</ref> Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for economic reasons. Catherine tried to keep the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even under the guise of equality; in 1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow's middle class.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|p=512}}</ref>

In 1785, Catherine declared Jews to be officially foreigners, with foreigners' rights.<ref>{{harvnb|Klier|1976|p=515}}</ref> This re-established the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia throughout the Jewish [[Haskalah]]. Catherine's decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. Taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

==== Russian Orthodoxy ====
{{See also|Christianity in Russia}}
[[File:Kingsobor.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|St. Catherine Cathedral in [[Kingisepp]], an example of Late Baroque architecture]]
In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started. The church's lands were expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the [[Collegium of Accounting]].{{sfn|Raeff|1972a|p=293}} Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. The endowments were often much less than the original intended amount.<ref name="Hosking 231">{{harvnb|Hosking|1997|p=231}}</ref> She closed 569 of 954 monasteries, of which only 161 received government money. Only 400,000 roubles of church wealth were paid back.<ref>Richard Pipes, ''Russia under the old regime'', p. 242.</ref> While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat.<ref name="Hosking 231" /> Their place in government was restricted severely during the years of Catherine's reign.<ref name="madariaga111" />

In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that called themselves the [[Old Believers]], Catherine passed an act that allowed Old Believers to practice their faith openly without interference.{{sfn|Raeff|1972a|p=294}} While claiming religious tolerance, she intended to recall the Old Believers into the official church. They refused to comply, and in 1764, she deported over 20,000 Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith.{{sfn|Raeff|1972a|p=294}} In later years, Catherine amended her thoughts. Old Believers were allowed to hold elected municipal positions after the Urban Charter of 1785, and she promised religious freedom to those who wished to settle in Russia.<ref>{{harvnb|Hosking|1997|p=237}}</ref>{{sfn|Raeff|1972a|p=296}}

Religious education was reviewed strictly. At first, she attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786, Catherine excluded all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education.{{sfn|Raeff|1972a|p=298}} By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia. She transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation.<ref name="Hosking 231" />