numbers of serfs and army deserters, who prompted the government to instigate change by "tightening serfdom and strengthening—or even just creating—administrative and estate institutions, and knitting all three into a seamless web of social control." The increasing population created more waste that needed to be dealt with, and no real solution for getting rid of it. There was human waste, horse waste, and waste from tanneries, slaughterhouses and other slatternly industries, all of which was piling up on each other. Catherine II inherited the throne in 1762 and recognized the social concerns her empire was facing, such as the drastic increase in pollution and decrease in living standards. In 1767, her government decreed that the polluting factories, slaughterhouses, fish markets, and cemeteries be removed from the city, that it was illegal to pollute the waterways, and that dumps be established. Her goal in this was to westernize Moscow as well as St. Petersburg. She contended that by eliminating the foul smells associated with the city, the health of the inhabitants would improve; during the 18th century, the miasma theory (that disease came from bad smells) was prevalent. By moving the factories out of the city proper, Catherine also ensured a dispersal of the peasants and serfs, whom the city considered to be the source of the putrefaction, and therefore bring the source of the disease outside the city as well. As her memoires indicate, Catherine herself saw the stench and filth of the city as evidence of its being rooted in the past, before Russia became westernized. She hated Moscow, and before the plague outbreak, Moscow had no formal boundaries, there was no population count, and no real city planning. This lack of planning was also evidenced by the fact that the city was mostly still built from wood, despite the government urging change to stone structures in this department. While there were some stone buildings, they tended to be located in the center of the city, and the use of stone showed no real sign of spreading. There were fires, there was a high crime rate, the filth was unimaginable; the state of the city was a set up for disaster. Catherine attempted to fix these problems through pardons, case reviews, creating jobs for the unemployed and homeless, and strengthening the local government. Despite her efforts to change the city, Catherine found herself facing an outbreak of the bubonic