Secularization (the conversion of church property into secular property) of church lands in Russia. Peter III decided to confiscate church estates for the treasury, and his intention was carried out by Catherine II.
21 November — a Decree was issued abolishing the office of Hetman, putting an end to the existence of the Hetmanate within the Russian Empire. In its place, by order of Catherine II, the Little Russian Governorate was formed. Reflecting on the fate of Little Russia, as well as Livonia and Finland, the Empress noted: "These provinces, and also Smolensk, must by the easiest means be brought to the point that they become Russified and would stop looking, like wolves in the forest." "And when there is no Hetman in Little Russia, one must strive that even the name of Hetman should disappear, not merely that no person be appointed."
The creation in St. Petersburg of one of the largest museums in the world — the Hermitage.
In the summer, Second Lieutenant Mirovich conceived a plan to raise to the throne Ivan Antonovich, the son of Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich of Brunswick, who was being held in the Shlisselburg Fortress. The plan failed: Ivan Antonovich, during the attempt to free him, was shot by one of the guard soldiers; Mirovich was executed by sentence of the court.
Prince Vyazemsky, sent to pacify peasants assigned to factories, was ordered to investigate the question of the advantage of free labor over wage labor. The same question was also put to the newly established Economic Society.
The Siberian Governorate was renamed the "Siberian Tsardom", subdivided into the Tobolsk and Irkutsk General-Governorates.