The death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great on 17 November 1796 led to a change in Russia's policies toward Poland. On 28 November, Tsar Paul I, who had hated Catherine, pardoned Kościuszko and set him free after he had tendered an oath of loyalty. Paul promised to free all Polish political prisoners held in Russian prisons and forcibly settled in Siberia. The Tsar gave Kościuszko 12,000 rubles, which the Pole later, in 1798, attempted to return, when also renouncing the oath.