Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation

by Serhii Plokhy

The empress who had defended the Orthodox of the Commonwealth in the name of religious toleration and had been acclaimed for that by Voltaire suddenly turned into the persecutor of another religion. How to explain this? Although the reference in the pastoral letter to Uniates as people of the same tribe can elucidate the background to her thinking about the connection between religion and ethnicity, the immediate reason should be sought elsewhere. By 1794, in response to the French Revolution and to what she saw as a French-style attack on the authoritarian order coming from Poland and its new constitution, Catherine had abandoned many elements of her earlier beliefs. The decree ordering the eradication of the Uniate faith was issued at the time of the Kościuszko Uprising, whose leaders sought support among the Uniate peasantry. The eradication of the Uniate Church under such circumstances could be regarded as an anti-insurgency measure. Catherine could count on the loyalty of Orthodox priests in the former Commonwealth, but she could hardly trust the Uniate ones.