In 1743, the Basilian Order reorganized the Commonwealth, electing a central board headed by a general (protoarchimandrite). Thirty years later, the Order had 147 monasteries and chaplaincies with 1,258 monks; as a result of the partitions (1772-1795), 99 monasteries and 870 Basilian monks came under Russian rule. Despite previous guarantees for Catholics of both rites, Empress Catherine II and her successors pursued a systematic policy aimed at dissolving the Basilian Order, considered the moral and intellectual stronghold of the Uniates. After the abolition of the dignity of protoarchimandrite in 1803, the provincial structures of the Order were dissolved in 1828. The monks were placed under the jurisdiction of local bishops. Candidates of Latin origin were not allowed to enter the novitiate. The Orthodox Church strengthened its dominant position, which was accompanied by various punitive measures after the failure of the November Uprising (1831). These included the gradual dissolution of those monasteries that were intended to oppose the final liquidation of the Uniate Church (which occurred in 1839). As a result, in 1839 there were only 251 Basilian monks left. Almost 70% of them refused to convert to Orthodoxy, over 20% were deported. Since most of the Basilian monasteries had been closed by 1839, nothing seemed to stand in the way of the complete Russification of the Uniate Church.