Catherine divided the country into governments for better administration of justice, each country being subdivided into districts. She also took away from the monasteries their lands and their serfs, and allotted to them proportionate payments from the public revenues. The plans of Peter the Great in this respect were thus fully carried out, and the Church became entirely dependent upon the State.
A second war with Turkey broke out in 1787, the Ottoman government being aroused by suspicions of Catherine's intention toward it by a tour of inspection through the southern provinces of Russia, and especially by a series of interviews with the Emperor Joseph II.
To increase her embarrassment Sweden declared war at the same time, requiring from Russia the cession of the southern part of Finland, which had been taken from her previously. The Empress, however, met with good fortune, both in the contest with the Swedes and with the Turks, and, after a sanguinary battle with the Mussulmans, in 1790, took Ismail, and by the treaty of 1792 gained new territory.
Finally, in 1796, Catherine died without a moment's warning, and the vast empire, whose aggrandizement had been the one dream of her life, passed to her son Paul, the son whom from his birth she had hated and persecuted.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
