Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
In order to ensure the essential continued support from the nobility, Catherine was obliged to strengthen their authority and power at the expense of the serfs and other lower classes. Nevertheless, Catherine realized that serfdom must be ended, going so far in her "Nakaz" ("Instruction") to say that serfs were "just as good as we are" – a comment received with disgust by the nobility. Catherine advanced Russia's southern and western frontiers, successfully waging war against the Ottoman Empire for territory near the Black Sea, and incorporating territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Partitions of Poland alongside Austria and Prussia. As part of the Treaty of Georgievsk signed with the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and her own political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they had invaded eastern Georgia. Upon victory, she established Russian rule over it and expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus.