1771, Moscow residents revolted against the authorities. The mob perceived any emergency measures of the state as a conspiracy to spread the disease. In particular, archbishop Amvrosy, who removed a revered icon from the public to curtail transmission of the disease by worshippers, was accused of conspiracy, hunted down and killed as an "enemy of the people". Active rioting continued for three days. The remaining unrest was finally subdued by Grigory Orlov in the end of September. Emergency measures post infection out-break When the riot was still unwinding, empress Catherine dispatched Grigory Orlov to take control of Moscow; it is not clear whether her choice was an assignment in good faith or an attempt to get rid of a former lover and a leader of an influential political clan. Orlov, accompanied by Gustav Orreus and four regiments of troops, arrived in Moscow on September 26, immediately calling an emergency council with local doctors. They confirmed presence of both bubonic and septicemic forms of plague. Orlov established and supervised an executive medical commission charged with developing the ways to check the epidemic. More important, he succeeded in changing public opinion in favor of the state's emergency measures, at the same improving the efficiency and quality of medical quarantine (in particular, varying quarantine duration for different groups of exposed but yet healthy people, and paying them for the quarantine stay). The epidemic in Moscow, although still rampant in October, gradually reduced through the year. November 15 Catherine declared that it was officially over, but deaths continued into 1772. Estimates of total death toll in Moscow range from 52 to 100 thousand out of total 300 thousand. Consequences The plague stimulated local research in disease prevention, which was boosted by discovering indigenous plague in newly conquered territories of the Caucasus. The epidemic was professionally exposed to Western European academia through An account of plague which raged in Moscow 1771, published in 1798 in Latin by Belgian physician Charles de Mertens; an English translation was released in 1799. Immediate political effect Devastation caused by the plague forced the government to reduce taxes and military conscription quotas in the affected provinces; both measures decreased the military capabilities of the state and pushed Catherine to seek truce. The statesmen divided between supporters of further pressing into Moldova and Walachia and those who sided with Frederick II's proposal to quit the war and take Polish territories as