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The Westernization of Russia during and after Peter’s reign created a fierce backlash. Dissatisfaction with the growing power of the state led to uprisings, the most serious of which was the Pugachev Rebellion (1773) during the reign of Catherine the Great. Such uprisings were often based on a search for the “true” tsar. In addition, exposure to Western philosophy and questions about the role of government led a segment of the nobility to look more critically at its own society. The new intellectuals were inclined toward sweeping reform and were the forerunners of the revolutionaries of the nineteenth century.
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