Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Russian Enlightenment began in 1703 with the founding of St. Petersburg as Russia's window to Europe. This new capital became the stage for Peter I's intellectual revolution that transformed Russian society from within.
Ivan Shuvalov emerged as an ideal enlightened courtier who championed state-sponsored learning by establishing Moscow University in 1755. He also founded the Imperial Academy of Arts shortly thereafter which launched the careers of most intellectuals active during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Catherine arranged for her Genevan secretary François-Pierre Pictet to send Voltaire a letter praising her at great length in the autumn of 1763. This correspondence continued until Voltaire's death fifteen years later because she needed to gain his approval to strengthen her claim to power after taking the throne from her husband in a coup d'état.
The appropriation of Church lands brought substantial money land and peasants under Catherine's control while generating an annual income of 1,370,000 rubles. Less than 463,000 rubles were returned to the Church each year between 1764 and 1768.
In early 1770s Ivan Yelagin succeeded in reorganizing Russian Freemasonry into a far-reaching system uniting some 14 lodges and about 400 government officials. Most Russian lodges attracted to Swedish Rite while Russia was recognized as eighth province of Rite of Strict Observance at Wilhelmsbad conference in 1782.