1. THE ROMANOV DYNASTY (Some Tsars are not named. Don't worry, they weren't important)
1. Peter The Great (ruled 1682-1725)
1. Early 1690's, undertook military campaign in the south against Ottoman Turks
1. Intent was to get access to Black Sea
2. In July 1696, Russians captured fortress Azov
2. 1697-98, Peter travels to western Europe (Great Embassy).
1. Learned to build ships in Holland and London
2. Became a dentist
3. Forced Russian nobles to wear trousers
4. All were required to shave beards (beard tax on clergy)
3. 1700-1721, Northern War with Sweden
1. In 1708, Swedish King Charles XII ventures into the vastness of Russia in pursuit
of Peter's army. On June 27 (July 8) 1708, Peter's army routes the Swedes at the
Battle of Poltava.
4. May 1703, Peter establishes city of St. Petersburg.
1. Capital was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1712.
2. Modeled after Versailles Palace of Louis XIV
5. Reorganized government
1. 1715, founded Naval Academy
2. 1721, abolished Patriarchate and replaced it with the Synod.
3. 1722, introduced Table of Ranks.
4. 1725, opened Russian Academy of Sciences.
5. Introduced many taxes, and by his death, the state did not owe a kopek.
2. Elizabeth (1741-61)
1. Beautiful and unmarried
2. November 1741, Elizabeth entered the Winter Palace in a bloodless coup and overthrew
her cousin Anna and Ivan VI. She woke up her sister by saying “Get up sister!”
3. 1755, Established first university in Moscow
4. December 1741, ordered all laws issued after the death of her father in 1725 to be
removed. She decreed that all laws passed under Anna void.
5. Both her and her father paid foreigners more than Russians.
3. Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
1. Real name: Sophia Augusta Fredericka, also known as Fike
2. Married to Peter (not the great).
3. February 1762, the Manifesto of the freedom of the Nobility was issued.
1. Abolished obligatory length of service to state decreed by Peter
2. (April 21, 1785) Eventually materialized into the Charter of Rights, Freedom, and
Privileges of the Noble Russian Dvorianstvo (Gentry)
4. Hired Italian Artist Falconet to create a statue in honor of Peter the Great.
1. “Petro Primo Catharina Secunda”
4. Tsar Alexander I (1801-1825)
1. Considered giving a constitution to the Russian people.
1. After Napoleonic Wars, Alexander backed away from project.
5. Nicholas I (1825-1855)
1. Alexander's unexpected death in December 1825 brought a succession crisis. Nicholas'
brother Constantine had renounced his rights.
2. Nicholas' ascension caused the Decembrist Revolt.
1. Military officers demanded a constitution for Russia.
3. Firmly believed that he was responsible to God for keeping Russia
1. Russian
2. Orthodox
3. Autocractic
4. 1826, created the Third Department (secret police)
5. 1854-56, the Crimean War exposed Russia's military and economic weaknesses.
6. Alexander II (1855-1881)
1. Major reformer
1. February 1861, Emancipated the Serfs.
2. 1863, Educational reforms
3. 1864, Administrative reforms in self-government
4. 1864, Judicial reforms (trial by jury)
5. 1865, Censorship rules
6. 1876, Military reforms
1. Reduced service from 20-25 years to 6
2. Reforms were half-hearted, and fell short of reaching objectives.
3. March 1, 1881, Underground radicals assassinate Alexander II
7. Alexander III (1881-1894)
1. Became reactionary after his father's assassination.
1. Reversed reforms of his father.
2. Underground was severely persecuted, leading some to believe that the
revolutionary underground was eradicated in 1880's
8. Nicholas II (1894-1917)
1. Modest, but inept, clumsy, lacked resolve, ability.
2. Wife, German Princess Alexandra, was reactionary, supersticious, capricious,
whimsical, hysterical.
3. Had four daughters and one son, Alexis, a hemophiliac.
4. Alexandra believed that Rasputin was sent by God to guide the royal family, and that he
may heal Alexis from hemophilia.
1. Rasputin was killed by noblemen in December 1916