ABSTRACT
Under Tsar Alexis, the bifurcated policy persisted Muscovy again waged war against Poland. After a series of victories, it annexed the left bank of Ukraine and the right bank city of Kiev and eventually Smolensk, which was agreed to in the Peace of Andrusovo in 1667 and confirmed in the Eternal Peace of 1686. The Orthodox leadership and its supporters among the Russian boyars and gentry, who resented the increase of Western influence in Muscovy, believed that the departure of Regent Sophia and Basil Golitsyn would end or, at least, curtail the Russian government's interest in the West and Westerners. There was no change in the Russian government's policy toward the Catholic Church when Catherine II or the Great (1762-96) took power in 1762. Alexander I seemed to understand that the problem for Russia was religion, and he tried a policy of interreligious tolerance and sought to utilize the positive forces of the religious bodies for raisi.
